The recent coronavirus pandemic has flipped the labor market on its head. Some businesses have volunteered to close while others were mandated to close. This action has caused upticks in unemployment. The Department of Labor (DOL) reported that as of the week ending March 14, 2020, it saw an increase in initial jobless claims by 70,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 281,000. According to the DOL, several states specifically said that COVID-19 caused the layoffs. Some companies have frozen hiring efforts until there's more certainty about the economic impact of the virus. However, some businesses are hiring. Amazon is looking to fill 100,000 positions; the supermarket chain Kroger is looking to fill 10,000 jobs. Also, Healthcare providers, biotech, and pharmaceuticals are hiring, and big tech firms are hiring.

For industries that sharply increased their hiring volume because of the coronavirus, speeding the hiring process is vital to meet the sudden increased demand for jobs. In this post, we'll discuss the importance of reducing time-to-hire and show three ways recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) can help with this important recruiting metric.  

Topics: recruitment process outsourcing, hiring

With a candidate-favorable labor market, organizations are facing fierce competition for talent. Talent acquisition practices that worked five or three years ago are no longer effective in hiring the right people, or getting them onboard fast enough.

Joe Marino, Senior Vice President with Hueman RPO, recently interviewed three talent acquisition leaders from different industries, company sizes, and geographical distribution to learn about their talent acquisition strategy. Here's an edited transcript of their conversation on common recruiting challenges and how each leader has positioned their organization to meet hiring needs.

Topics: talent acquisition, hiring, recruiting strategy

Hiring unpredictability - the sudden or unexpected need to make hiring decisions that had not been forecasted prior - is a stressful and often damaging component of talent acquisition. While some organizations bring this unpredictability upon themselves by failing to perform proper forecasting and research, other organizations navigate unpredictability as a natural part of their business.

Topics: talent acquisition, hiring, recruiting best practices

In this RPOA Weekly we shift our attention to hiring managers with articles that examine recruiter-hiring manager relationships, how to hire hiring managers, and avoiding hiring manager pitfalls.

Topics: hiring

Hiring is complicated process on both sides. There are a lot of moving pieces, and no matter how carefully you prepare, neither recruiters nor job hunters have any guarantee of success. However, there are some best practices and suggests that can help both recruiters and job seekers tackle individual pieces and get the results they want. In this week’s RPOA, we take a look at how to nail the hiring process for recruiters and job seekers alike.

Topics: recruitment process outsourcing, hiring

Hiring managers are contineuosly challenged by the task of finding best candidates due to unreasonable demands, short deadlines, and broken or ineffective processes. In a recent webinar entitled “Is Your Recruiting Strategy More Like Go Fish or Minecraft?” hosted by the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Assocaition (RPOA), presenters Beth Miller and Richard Jordan list some of the top challenges that hiring managers currently face. Issues like fewer applicants and a smaller worker pool, tight deadlines due to last-minute recruiting, candidate drop-off, and difficulty finding the best talent available can make a hiring manager’s position a nightmare. Here is a more in-depth view of the top challenges of hiring managers.

Topics: hiring, recruiting issues

In the first two parts of this series, we covered current statistics in hiring and recruiting as well as current trends in hiring and recruiting costs and efficiencies. In the final part of this series, we're presenting five great ideas that employers ought to consider for their talent acquisition initiatives. These ideas are specific recommendations that address the statistics and trends featured in the first two parts. Implementing one or all of these ideas effectively will enable employers to hire more creatively and efficiently, which is necessary in today's talent shortage in the marketplace.

Topics: social recruiting, talent acquisition, hiring, candidate management, recruiting best practices

Summer is one of the busier times of the year for recruiters and hiring managers. There's an influx of young talent with college degrees looking for gainful employment. The summer months are also prime time for internships and temporary employment, where people can fulfill needs to handle additional customers or to try something new for a few months. The year is also halfway over, urging many company's to evaluate their progress toward hiring and recruiting goals. This week's hiring and recruiting news roundup features articles that are appropriate for the needs of the summer months: hiring the best talent, choosing who to hire, and how to improve your current recruiting process.

Topics: recruitment process outsourcing, hiring and recruiting news, hiring, recruiting trends

In the first part of our series on hiring and recruiting statistics, we covered a few of the latest statistics reflecting the state of hiring in the United States. Although three-fourths of organization said they were planning to hire this year, and that more job openings are being advertised online than in 2010, filling those openings effectively and hiring efficiently are still big challenges. In the second part of this three-part series, we have three of the latest trends on hiring costs and recruiting efficiencies. Knowing these trends should help you overcome the challenges of hiring effectively and efficiently by illustrating areas where you can improve your recruiting process.

Topics: recruitment, accolo, hiring, recruiting trends, recruiting metrics, recruiting issues, recruiting best practices

We're almost halfway through the year, and nearly three-fourths of organizations said at the beginning of the year that they were planning to hire this year. Many of those organizations may have already made their hires. Others may still be looking to fill positions, or may not have started hiring those that they planned to hire in 2014. Companies who aren't yet finished hiring for the year need to pay attention, as any recruiting challenges you may be facing might only get tougher to overcome. The following three eye-opening statistics reflect today's hiring and recruiting landscape, and suggest acquiring the best talent isn't going to get any easier.

Statistic #1: The U.S.'s Employment Participation Rate is at 63.2%

The employment participant is defined as anyone between the ages of 16 and 64 who is employed or is currently seeking a job. Typically, the employment participation rate (which is also known as the labor force participation rate) hovers between 67 and 68 percent. With the participation rate, as of March 2014, at 63.2% it means that more than 90 million Americans are no longer employed or looking for work, instead of the normal 70 million. In the last 13 years, an additional 20 million people have taken themselves out of the workforce, for whatever reason.

"It also says we have a lower population to recruit from," said Ray Rike, chief operations officer with Accolo. "So, in those functions where there's a war for talent... it's going to force us to be even more intelligent and smart about the way we're going out and recruiting great employees today."

Topics: accolo, talent acquisition, hiring, candidate management, recruiting best practices