How is your organization allocating its recruiting resources? Although many organizations may not specifically measure their recruiting resources, they aren't finite. Ensuring that your HR staff has the resources they need to fill positions, to fill them quickly, and to fill them with the best possible candidate, is easier said than done. This week's hiring and recruiting news roundup provides the latest information that will help you to allocate your recruiting resources more effectively.
The Latest Statistics in Hiring and Recruiting (Part 1 of 3) - The RPO Hub - Recruiting is only going to get tougher, so use your recruiting resources wisely. Although the unemployment rate is decreasing, what's also decreased for the past 13 years is the employment participation rate. Since 2000, about 20 million people have dropped out of the workforce, creating a smaller pool from which to pull candidates. The smaller candidate pool means hiring is going to get more competitive, and companies have to work smarter to find and to keep the best talent.
HR Recruiting Resources Hitting a Breaking Point - The Seamless Workforce - A common reason why a company's HR recruiting resources hit a breaking point is that the company doesn't have a good idea of where resources are going, or where they ought to go. Creating a plan that defines the skills your organization needs on an ongoing basis, prioritizes the positions that utilize your most-needed skills, and assess how your resources are currently distributed among your most important skills and positions. When listing resources, make sure to consider both internal and external resources, as well as the hiring volume of each position.
How to Write Effective SLAs for Your RPO - The Staffing Stream - A service level agreement is the final step in forming an RPO partnership. Hopefully, before you sign or start writing an agreement, you've already worked with the RPO provider on a smaller project so that you know that you'll be able to have a long-term partnership with this provider. When writing an SLA, you need to define success and have metrics for success. Defining success and its metrics makes goals measurable, but it's also a way for you to hold the provider accountable, and vice versa. Also remember that SLAs are flexible. If midway through the agreement you realize that the right things aren't being measured, or that you don't have the results you want, then you can reconvene with your RPO provider to write a new agreement.
The Right Way to Schedule Interviews - Accolo - The right way to schedule interviews involves giving candidates advanced notice of the interviews as well as of any schedule changes. Interview scheduling is part of the candidate experience. If candidates are having a hard time getting their interviews scheduled or getting directions to your office, then they aren't going to waste too much time with your organization. Good candidates that fall through the cracks because of a failure to schedule an interview are also likely to dissuade others from applying to any of your open positions.
Recruit Like a Marketer: A/B Test Your Job Descriptions - Fistful of Talent - A/B testing is when you have two different versions of something (in this case a job description), and you run both online to see which of the two performs the best. With a job description, the better performer may have more applicants, or may have more qualified applicants who are ready for an interview. Of course, you need to run your A/B test long enough in order for the results to be statistically significant. A 24-hour A/B test may not be long enough, especially if you only received 10 applications.
