by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 10, 2020 | Blog, Recruitment Technology
We live in a connected world and with the advancement of technology in terms of social media it will more connected tomorrow. Social media is a valuable platform for any recruiter that acts as a wide source of information. Over the last few years social media recruiting has taken epic leaps. On an everyday basis recruiters are connecting to more and more people to find talent via social media. Social media allows companies to extend their reach to both active and passive candidates, meanwhile also build a community of followers.
Social media come handy when you want to find talent with niche skills. There is a scarcity of such talent in the market along with tough competition. So, to hire the right fit got to be real quick and Innovative and dynamic. But with all the positives recruiting on social is a time-consuming process which requires continuous dedication and patience.
But to help your search on social media and cut down time and efforts you have certain tools that will boost your hiring process. In this article we will unveil few such social media sourcing free tools and discuss how they can come handy.
ContactOut
Finding all the contact information and getting them to respond back to your connection invites is one of the most time-consuming aspects of recruiting. ContactOut is an application that asserts to be able to find double the number of contact details and email addresses as of LinkedIn. It also claims to unearth email addresses for three-fourth of the western world. ContactOut is a tool that can help you with the process of finding contact info of candidates in easy and quick way.
Connectifier
It is a tool built by a team from Google and Microsoft that develops machine learning-based searching to help recruiters and hiring managers. It comes with credentials and have partnered with LinkedIn. Connectifier integrate browser extension with a considerable database of candidates to provide recruiters with a large candidate research tool. It also has a ‘Auto-Search’ sidebar option which helps recruiters to find more information about candidates, including email addresses and phone numbers, thus making it easier to reach out.
TalentBin
TalentBin is a tool developed by Monster in known for aggregating all the relevant candidate info into one rich profile. Their algorithm gathers a range of social data thus giving you a complete backdrop on every candidate. With the help of TalentBin the whole process of candidate sourcing and outreaching becomes more effective and seamless.
It has the ability to source potential talent just by simply parsing a job description and it also highlights the mentioned skill set on the candidate’s profile. After you have found the right fit candidates, you can reach out to them by using any of the media mentioned on their profile like Email, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. It also helps you craft a customized message template to fit according to the medium you have chosen to contact the candidate and also highlight the skills of your choice.
Gild
Gild accumulate information from around the Web to design a detailed candidate profiles for each of your job openings. It is dedicated on find talent through candidate search and scoring. Gild’s platform is built using on elements of predictive intelligence to help hiring managers find the right candidates for their company and make smarter hiring decisions.
Gild rates the candidates depending on their activity on social media, resume, personal website information and also by their published work. All the information is updated in the system automatically and is available to the users in no time. Recruiters can add or delete their notes and if the profile is already saved in the system a message will pop up summarizing the skills set, experience and also the previous notes.
Recruit’em
Google Search is a powerful tool to spot social profiles you’re looking for. But writing a query with more than five keywords can actually become messy which seems like a nightmare to type plus making type errors is so obvious which might not give you accurate results. Recruit’em can be your rescuer if you face the same problem. It allows users to input the skills and criteria they’re looking for and then creates the search query automatically. All you have to do is type your criteria including location, education, skills and keywords to exclude. It also allows you to pick the desired network for search like GitHub, Facebook, LI, Xing, Twitter etc. and Recruit’em handles the rest. You can even also save your searches to run again later. To add on as bonus, Recruit’em is completely free.
Final Thoughts
Social media sourcing is a time and resource-consuming process and lack of available candidates adds on to the frustration and struggle to fill open positions for employers. But happily, availability of bunch of candidate sourcing tools can make the whole process simpler by proactively identifying and assessing potential workers on social media.
Social media platforms can provide insights to a person life. But don’t forget an algorithm can make mistakes, recruiters should analyze the results before reaching out to candidates and not overly rely on insights from these tools.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 7, 2020 | Blog, Company Insights
Most of the small business and start-ups don’t have time to focus their time and energy on employer branding. It is one of the most ignored and challenged that small businesses and start up face, as their journey of growth become competitive when they look out for high quality employees. Many of these small businesses and start-ups are struggling and competing to find same talent as much larger and well established organizations.
Taking the time to build a solid employer branding and recruitment strategy can play a significant role in a start-up’s success. Did you know that 23% of start-ups fail due to not having the right team? With strong employer brand it will be much easier to attract and hire the best candidates, which substantially improve your business outcomes. Below are some of the reasons why you should build out your employer brand.
Define a clear mission
Before you’ll build an employer brand, you would like to understand what your company represents. This indicates that what you would like to convey to people looking for job and the stakeholders.
Creating a mission statement will connect your team and working toward one common goal also to attract job seekers who believe in your objective or purpose. The core values of the company facilitate your team, understand the way to prioritize efforts and accomplish your mission. They’ll also additionally assist your team vet prospective candidates to envision if their values align with those of your team.
Both mission and core values are going to be guiding forces for your employer brand, thus it’s necessary to determine them early. Collect feedback from each one of your employee to make sure you’ve gained a majority agreement on how each is defined. Share your finalized versions together with your entire team so they’re on board and well prepared to support your efforts.
Define Your Company Culture
Company culture may be a bit harder to outline than your mission and values because there are many elements that make up culture. According to study, 46% of candidates say that a company’s culture plays a very crucial role in their decision to even apply for a position; it’s in employer interest to refine and communicate culture in branding efforts.
Additionally, startup culture in and of itself is completely different from that of larger organizations. There are only a few hurdles between the C-suite and individual contributors, as a result of many of us are juggling multiple roles. Together everybody plays an important role in creating the kind of company culture. For loads of job seekers, the conventional startup mentality of work hard, play hard is what attracts them to younger, unsystematic companies.
There’s no right or wrong culture, however take the time to outline and define it. This might strengthen your company in the long term and assist you in creating an employer brand that draws precisely the sorts of people you would like to on board.
By communicating your company culture through your employer branding efforts, leads to attract candidates which will increase your company culture.
Promote Your Vision
People wish to be a part of next great success of the company; but when you’re in the early stages, brand awareness will be an issue. It’s up to you to convey who you’re and how do you inspire job seekers to apply for open roles.
Roll out your short term and long-term goals in your employer branding and make candidates to get thrilled joining the company and keep candidates in the loop once your team hits milestones and as new candidates are part of.
Remain Transparent
For many of people stepping into startup is a daunting task. Because there may not be a guarantee of job security, also there could be expectations to spend long hours or the requirement to handle multiple projects.
Be honest and showcase this in branding materials and job descriptions on specifically what you would like and expect from the future staff. In this way, new hires won’t experience culture shock because of miscommunication during hiring process and eventually you’ll retain the good candidates that you put great efforts to attract.
Bring a light on the fun and wacky side of your culture and value proposition of employees by showcasing through photos of your team outings, workplace area and celebrations. Get folks excited once you reach milestones that bring you closer to achieving your mission.
Establish Your Employer Value Proposition
The employer value proposition (EVP), is analogous to the distinctive value proposition you utilize while pitching to customers and investors. The difference is that with an EVP you’re in fact that you concentrate on the employee experience, instead of the value of the product or service. Some startups will overpromise, which ends up in new hires leaving or quitting early, therefore try to avoid that.
Your value proposition could be different and that’s totally fine, just confirm that you’ve got one that’s well aligned together with your company.
Create a Strong Career Page
Potential candidates can review the web site to make their decisions/choices; therefore startup has to make sure that it includes a solid career page. For example if we look at Slack’s career page is so great, however there are other examples from smaller, less popular firms you must look into it.
Building a better employer brand for startup takes time, however if you focus to work on it.
At the beginning stage and when the cash flow starts the company will be in a better position to attract right candidates who will help you to take your company to new heights.
These entire recommendations and suggestions are just the beginning as you begin to establish your employer branding. Creating a better environment that has potential to attract high level talent is an ongoing process, that needs a commitment throughout the organization.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement
We are in the amidst of a pandemic, and the effect of the Covid-19 is increasingly being felt across the world. It is uncommon time of change and uncertainty. As more and more people are getting infected, employees are experiencing high levels of anxiety around the potential impact of the virus. The fear of falling sick and the anxiety concerning the social and economic impact of corona is inevitable. Some amount of stress is considered good for us, it helps us boost our responses and also allows to perform under pressure.
Anxiety acts just like a contagious virus. It transfers from one human to other. However, chronic and prolonged stress produces negative effect on our mind, body and soul. Workplace anxiety is even worse as it affects the productivity of the team. Along with circulating basic notices on what precautions to take and how to stop the spread of germs and viruses in the workplace or even at home, employers can follow below tips to combat employee fears and reduce symptoms of coronavirus anxiety.
Provide Information
Not having enough information about things is the main source of anxiety. Knowledge is key factor to resolve this, use information from WHO (World Health Organization) and other authorities to spread awareness about Covid-19 among employees. Detailed explanation on how it spreads, what it effects, who is most at risk and who is not, what are precautionary steps, methods to break the transmission chain etc. Also, someone who has recovered and has been released from isolation is not carrier of the virus and does not pose a risk of infection to other people, which will mollify fears of being around such people.
Communicate Frequently
Interacting periodically with employees to give updates lets them know that their employer is up to date and putting efforts to stay on top of things. Lack of communication can make some employees suspicious and feel that the employer is trying to hide things or just ignoring the situation. Let employees know what plans you have made, any new committees being formed, new budget allotted and any other significant actions.
Remind Employees about Company’s Health Benefits
Employer needs to make sure company’s health protocols are clear and accessible to all employees. Many companies offer assistance programs, this could be providing counseling over call to help understand the situation and reduce anxiety pertaining virus. Tele-health programs also help to clear doubts regrading normal flu, cold or fever by communicating with doctor over phone instead of going to their office.
Remote Working
Remote working is the best way to social distancing and putting unnecessary travel on hold. This is even more essential if known cases are positive in your company. Successful remote working requires proper planning. Supporting employees in setting up a working environment at home and providing all other basic amenities needed for work is one of the important steps. Also remember people working remote are prone to face psychological hazards related to loneliness and isolation. For well being of employees and resilience ensure connectivity. This could be achieved by weekly or daily calls. Online activities to socialize can be conducted to ensure employees well-being and involvement of everyone.
Reassurance and Additional Support
Irrespective of all these efforts some employees might still experience symptoms of distress and anxiety as the Coronavirus reaches its peak. This could be due to per-existing or other emotional struggles. To deal with this guide them towards additional emotional support, confidential interaction with counselors or mental health experts. Also organizing expert company talk on general coping mechanisms for anxiety will help those employees who are do not open up to managers or employers about their anxiety.
Nobody will feel better if their concerns are ignored. Let employees know that their concerns are normal and you as employer wants to hear them. Listen to them openly and do not react immediately to prove them wrong. Usage of reassuring language can help relive their stress
Conclusion
The series of incidence and experiences resulting in fear and anxiety pertaining to such significant challenge is understandable. Loss of lives, sudden changes to way of life, work and social distancing might result in stress and anxiety. It is important to realize the seriousness of situation but instead of panicking about the situation and spreading the same employees just need to be mindful and remember that fear is unhelpful. Others can support emotionally and in many other ways but it’s the individual who needs to look for its well being and stay calm in the middle of this global crisis. Spreading more and more awareness and standing together to fight this pandemic is the only way to overcome this positively.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 6, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement
With the spread of the coronavirus, it has affected everything to any extent, from travel to the even the availability of masks and hand sanitizer. Fan out of COVID-19 has shaken the whole world and has become a growing concern for all. To cope up with the present situation many companies are working remotely until the virus can be slowed.
Many people wish to work from the comfort of their own home. Whether you do it by choice or by necessity, working from home has its own benefits, like foregoing commute to save time in favor of few extra minutes of sleep, family time or even exercise. But working remotely also has its own challenges.
It is like a double-edged sword; you have to self-motivate yourself and get going to make as much out of your time as you would in your actual office. Staying productive at home requires constant extra efforts to be focused on actual working.
Weather its household chores or a quick binge of your favorite Netflix show which is more appealing than your to-do list or even the people around who aren’t working, you will find distractions in every corner at home. Also, for some people isolation or sudden cut to socializing at work makes them downer or feel emotionally low thus reducing their productivity.
So before discussing more in detail sit up straight, pull up your work pants and fill your stomach with healthy breakfast. Here are few tips to make yourself productive and accountable while staying focused and mentally healthy.
Find Yourself a Comfortable and Dedicated Work Spot
A comfortable workspace is the key. Find yourself a dedicated spot in the house (definitely not your bed or the couch in the living room) which is distraction free and gives you office vibes like something more structured that you can associate your job to and leave the place when you’re off the clock.
The daily drill of getting ready and going to office preps your brain for the day. Working remotely cuts off the drill part from your schedule, so to help your mind get work ready create few triggers, following the same routine works before leaving for office like making your coffee or breakfast, reading newspaper, exercising etc.
Also, to keep your brain in the working mode, avoid working on anything non work-related during office hours. Don’t do laundry and finish work presentation at the same time.
Prepare a To-Do List
A day planned properly can help keep yourself organized, increase motivation resulting in enhanced productivity. Prepare a to-do thinking about both short-term and long-term goals allocating specific time limits to all the tasks. Write or type the list instead of preparing it in your mind.
You shouldn’t waste your time and energy constantly recalling ad remembering the next task. Tick off the tasks as soon as you finish them, this lets you know that you making progress.
Break down bigger tasks into smaller ones, smaller tasks feel more doable instead of a giant one. And crossing smaller tasks one by one off your list gives you the pleasure and satisfaction of achieving something and being productive also boosts you up with positive energy.
Stay Connected with Your Team
Not everyone is used to working remotely on a regular basis for longer period of time. This might make you feel socially disconnected and lonely effecting your mental and emotional well-being. Try and find innovative methods to stay connected with your colleagues. Video conferencing is one such way help bridge the gap and talking face to face can build collaboration.
Technology has made our lives easy in many ways and so why not utilize it during this pandemic period. A recent survey tells that many professionals have shifted from telephonic conversations or meetings to video conferencing to increase virtual human touch feel.
Remember to ring every now and then to stay connected and it doesn’t have to be work related always. Sometimes hosting a fun meeting or a virtual coffee or pizza date discussing everything except work can help lighten up everyone’s mood.
Prioritize Your Health
Invest time in your health and wellness as it is crucial and important to happiness and a certain way to steer clear of cabin fever. Be clear and specific about your work timings, decide when your work timings begin and ends. Make some time to stretch in between and take breaks to refresh ad recharge.
Be kind to yourself and understand it takes time to adjust to the new work environment. Don’t over work, switch off completely after working hours to avoid unnecessary straining or burnout. Reach out for healthy juices, water and nuts and ditch regular drinking of soda, cold drinks and chips.
Communicate Effectively
Speaking face to face gives you better understanding of emotions while communicating. Remote conversing is difficult due to removal of a lot of extra information like emotions and visuals. Electronic communications can be misinterpreted easily. So be mindful about the words you choose and your tone while drafting emails or having conversation on instant messaging apps.
Put efforts to make yourself extra clear and concise. If not clear about anything ask questions to understand better before your reply. You can always opt for screen-sharing to get people on the same page and make them understand during meeting calls.
There are tools available to help you communicate effectively like Zoom, Slack can used for videoconferencing and chatting, Confluence for internal wiki, Google Suite for sharing spreadsheets, simple docs etc.
Conclusion
Working remotely is the need of the hour during coronavirus outbreak, it the only way to social distancing and breaking the infection chain. Working from home gives you the opportunity and liberty to develop healthier habits and make extra time for family while continue being productive during work hours.
Keep a check on your energy, don’t strain yourself or take things too hard on yourself. Limit your working only during the work hours. After work leave your cell and laptop outside your bedroom to get peaceful sleep and recharge yourself for the next day.
Managers should also understand that everyone needs different time span to adapt to the new work environment, communicate every now and then give as much information as possible to ease the burden caused by the disruption and help employees struggling with the change.
Don’t force people to add another level of stress. Hope all the above discussed tips help you navigate better in the new remote working environment.
by Raghu Nandhan | Apr 1, 2020 | Blog, Employee Engagement, Talent Acquisition
Hiring the right talent can be game changing for company. It will either make or break your business. Employee recruitment is all about stress management, as your hires will constantly be judged. Hiring highly talented people that match the expected skillset, expertise and personal qualities that align with your company’s goals and values is definitely not an easy task. And job growth and low unemployment across industries have boosted the competition for qualified candidates.
These five Tactics could help an organization entice, identify and secure ideal candidates with the right skills and best culture fit.
Be the Brand Personified
In today’s recruitment market brand is everything. A positive brand image can help a company compel top talent. It’s one of your most valuable assets and one of the main pulling powers that will entice top candidates. You need to think about this in the hiring process. Many candidates would consider leaving their current job if they received an offer from a different company with an excellent reputation.
You need to live up to the candidate’s expectations when working to entice talent. An organization’s brand is its representation to the public,be clear on who you are, consistent with regards to the brand message, and most importantly, be personally representative of the brand values.
Re-Evaluate Job Descriptions
It is essentially important to create unique job descriptions for each open role that reflects all the qualities you seek for in a candidate. Do not rely on standardized job descriptions that could be out-of-date or obsolete. Be clear about what you’re looking for from the very beginning. Include all your values and beliefs in the position description so every candidate has a clear idea of what you value as a company.
Few tips to consider:
- Make titles as specific as possible
- Write a captivating summary
- Include the core responsibilities
- Keep descriptions succinct
Attend events in addition to job fairs
Job fairs are often industry-based. While job fairs are helpful for finding industry specific candidates,non-recruitment events also provide excellent chances to meet highly motivated and inspiring industry professionals who are always eager to explore, network and advance in their field. To find such group events that are well-attended by professionals’ search forums like Meet up, Facebook, LinkedIn can be utilized. You can interact with qualified people and get them interested in your open position. You can also ask for referrals in other cases.
Get Social with the Candidates
Asking personal questions while interviewing candidates might seem right to few recruiters. But personal questions can often result in awkward and uncomfortable situations. To analyze a candidate better it is always better to spend time on candidate’s social media handles. This will definitely help while screening their answers during interview. Also, spending some time with candidates outside the office will get you a better understanding of how they act in social situations. You’ll be amazed to discover minute things about a candidate by researching their social presence. This can be a great strategy to implement.
Hire Potential Future Leaders
It’s not an easy task to figure out leadership qualities while interviewing candidates. But creating a flexible work staff is the way to creating a strong foundation for your company. Promoting people within organization is a quality of successful company. So, skip any random candidate and look for strong motivation for leadership. These are the ones which you need to get on board first.
Hiring a wrong person does more harm rather than an empty position. Recruitment has its own risks and pressure. But compromising is not the right way to cope up. Smart people working in a company results in outstanding business and to hire exceptional talent your recruitment strategy should be flawless and progressive. Utilizing above discussed tactics would definitely result in improved hiring rates both in terms of time and money, employee retention and workforce working at maximum speed, thus boosting organization’s bottom line.
by Raghu Nandhan | Mar 31, 2020 | Blog, Industry Trends
The World Health Organisation has declared the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, and lots of firms are taking strict measures against the impact and unfold of the virus.
The corona outbreak is first and foremost a human disaster, affecting thousands of people across the world. It is additionally resulting in a growing impact on the global economy.
With all businesses and industries across the world in huge chaos, there has been the grave economic impact of coronavirus across various sectors from tourism to airline; from entertainment to education; from finance to healthcare; from retail to hospitality; from cruises to cars; from food to fashion; Luxury industry; staffing and recruitment and so on. Marketers across industries are attempting to revamp their business models.
a) Travel and Tourism
The travel & tourism industry is worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak. With COVID-19 being a pandemic, people are avoiding travelling to different countries and cities, which has created a negative impact on the travel business industry and has affected the tourism welfare of the affected countries.
The U.S. airlines proposed for over $50 billion in federal help due to the dramatic decrease in range of airline passengers.
b) Entertainment
Disney and Universal Studios have planned to close down their theme parks as large gatherings may cause the spread of coronavirus.
The NBA has suspended its season temporarily after a player was tested positive for coronavirus.
The entertainment industry is severely affected and suffering from the coronavirus outbreak. However, as more people stay at home, in self-isolation, and take quarantine measures, there is increased use of alternate entertainment services such as games, videos, etc. According to the Financial Times, the number of app downloads rises in China after the nationwide isolation measures were taken. Video streaming firms like Netflix, Amazon, Disney are expected to have a rise in the number of subscribers in the impact of COVID-19.
c) Retail & E-Commerce
Malls, shopping centers are temporarily shut down in effect to COVID-19. Also, since people distance themselves from social gatherings and crowded spaces, they choose to order their needs or necessities online. Similar is the case with the retail business.
On the contrary, digital commerce businesses are trying to make the most of this situation. Regardless, thriving in such an epidemic continues to be a difficult task for e-commerce businesses.
d) Recruitment
Recruitment in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak is a very tough and challenging process.
HR managers are scrambling to regulate recruitment strategies within the wake of this outbreak. Fortunately, technology is out there to assist minimize exposure while still producing quality hires. The time is now to shift to a virtual recruitment — one that protects both employees and candidates and erase risk while continuing to drive hiring efforts.
e) Luxury Shopping Malls
People are staying more at their homes and buying products online instead of going physically to crowded locations. In the long term, this may lead to a permanent change in the behaviour of consumers and online luxury buying may become usual.
Therefore, retailers must provide more meaningful online experiences in order to build a good relationship with consumers.
NOTE: Buying luxury things online will become more attractive in the future. This slowdown is the right time for luxury brands to facilitate themselves to digitize the processes and upgrade their systems and technology. This will allow them to develop operational efficiencies and provide personalized experiences to the end consumers.
The various ways to deal with it and how we can overcome:
The Covid-19 crisis has currently reached a critical stage where public health systems got to act decisively to control the growth in new places.
Clearly, the most importance is and should be on suppressing and diminish the disease itself. However the economic impacts are vital and plenty of companies are feeling their way towards understanding, reacting to, and learning lessons from rapidly unfolding events. Unforeseen twists and turns are going to be revealed with each news cycle, and that we will only have a complete picture in retrospect.
Yet, given the very different degrees of preparedness across companies, the further potential for disruption, and the value of being better prepared for future crises, it’s worth trying to pull out what we have learned so far. Being supported on our ongoing analysis and help for our clients around the world, we have refined the subsequent lessons for responding to unfolding events, communicating, extracting and implementing learnings.
- Update intelligence on each day.
- Use specialists and gauge carefully.
- Flexible principles in developing policies.
- Prepare now for the next crisis.
- Reflect on what you’ve learned.
- Prepare for a changing world.
The Covid-19 crisis can take time to be solved by medical science. The economic crisis can try to be solved now.
To fix this, the government could offer every American business, large and small, and every self-employed worker with a no-interest “bridge loan” guaranteed for the duration of the crisis to be paid back over five years. The sole condition of the loan to businesses would be that companies still employ a minimum of 90 percent of their manpower at the same wage that they did before the crisis. And it might be retroactive, so any workers who have been laid off in the past two weeks because of the crisis would be reinstated.
The system keeps virtually everyone employed and keeps firms, across different industries from restaurants to airlines in business without picking winners and losers.
Instantly, it would create a sense of confidence and relief during these turbulent times that once the scourge of the coronavirus was contained, life would come back to some semblance of normal. It would additionally help, encourage people to stay home and practice social distancing without feeling that they would risk losing their job — the only way to slow this disease.
Pragna solutions is taking a balanced approach to handle the situation and our first preference is the well being and safety of our clients and employees across the country. We remain committed and believe that our long term vision of business is strong.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to discuss your hiring needs and challenges. We are here to provide recruitment solutions and help to all your interim and long term requirements.
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