Why Its Time for Your Recruiting Process to GO LEAN

Why Its Time for Your Recruiting Process to GO LEAN Recruitment marketing has reached an apex of sorts. More than one person has mentioned the shift from search to predictive sourcing in the last few months and I happen to think they are right on the money. Today large companies are focusing their talent acquisition budgets in content marketing, and candidate research and nurturing. That may mean that some of the long-held concepts about being a social recruiter are changing and traditional methods of convince and convert (candidates) are coming back into vogue (not that they every REALLY left). This is mirrored in consumer marketing as inbound marketing something coined by the folks over at Hubspot and a term coming increasingly important for recruitment marketers and recruiters themselves to consider. As we apply this to the enterprise, we need to consider the goals of larger corporations. SMBs may not have to form a global reach (although that too, is changing rapidly) and focus on brand awareness and simply being found. Large enterprises, on the other hand have a significant marketing base from which to pull and often are focused more on brand differentiation since the large company with no competitors is a rare animal indeed. As most big corps are, the enterprise is focused on return on investment and attempting to reach more peoplefaster. This is less to optimize their budget and more to support a large talent acquisition team. One of the reasons we celebrate large companies that have lean processes built into their marketing and talent acquisition efforts is because its so rare a thing. Its a tough nut to crack to change the approval process, particularly when multiple people are involved. So in order to really take advantage of the precepts of content and inbound marketing in the recruiting process, companies NEED to implement lean processes in order to quickly move their initiatives through multiple levels. How do you do THAT? As recruiters, weve all seen lean processes applied in departments all around us, but rarely has the concept of moving candidates and hiring managers more efficiently through the sourcing, recruiting and hiring process been more important. While we wont get into all the reasons the way we work is changing, the simple fact is, it IS changing and our processes must be altered to change with it. If your average employee is predicted to stay on the job 2 years, its flat out inefficient to take 45-90 to hire and take that person onboard. Before the last few years and the consumerization of enterprise tools took hold (think Box.net, Dropbox, Skype, Google Docs, Evernote etc.) recruiting teams faced serious barriers to going lean: The tools we had for finding candidates were pretty inefficient themselves. If you werent of the generation of ringing phones and 35 index cards, you were drowning in a deluge of unqualified spray and pray resumes. From job fairs to newspaper ads and cluttered job boards and resume databases, everything started off useful and was quickly overrun by misuse. The seclusion from marketing and sales (two departments FAR more aligned with recruiting than the typical dance partner HR) made it so many developments in these areas took a while to resonate in talent acquisition. However, recruiters and sourcers no longer have these issues. The tools available to help marketers are cheap or free and intuitive to boot! Not to mention the flurry of innovation that has taken place around sourcing and recruiting tools over the last 3-4 years. While many are waiting on the sidelines to see which of the new products will last the decade, smarter enterprise recruiters are jumping in with both feet, quickly testing and discarding or keeping the tools that work for their organization. So we have the tools, what we need is a process. Lean process management is the same whether you apply it in programming, engineering, marketing or recruiting. Develop a repeatable process. Creating a simple process that is available and doable for every member of your TA team is paramount. Why? Because the process will be turned on its head if it cant be repeated and implemented like a mantra. The steps should include: planning, execution, adjustment, and alignment. By creating a plan for the beginning of campaigns (as opposed to requirements or searches) you shift the focus from search something that many tools do for you now, to attract a proactive way of reaching out specifically to qualified candidates in a timely, efficient manner. Gradually improving this process over time, allow you to optimize the tools you use and free your people up to handle the convince and convert process, something recruiters are great at. How will this improve your recruitment function? Automating sourcing and search (either with technology or a solid process) will avoid wasted time. New tools that specifically analyze the bottlenecks and breakdowns within your tools or processes can be used to quickly identify and fix issues. Candidates that go through your process will enjoy it, whether they are hired or not. People naturally seek out boundaries and parameters. Once your process is solid, there is no reason not to use it to enhance candidate communications and your career site. Instant ability to solve problems when they arise rather than waste valuable time trying to pinpoint the issue. Any recruiting team that decided to implement lean processes in their recruitment marketing and recruitment function will benefits not only from the process itself but from the resulting impact on additional processes, outsourced services (think RPO) and technology within their talent acquisition function moving forward. Image: Shutterstock

5 Pieces of Professional Advice From Women in Digital Marketing Careers - Classy Career Girl

5 Pieces of Professional Advice From Women in Digital Marketing Careers These women have successfully navigated the tricky waters of career progression in the traditionally male-dominated industry of digital marketing. We are brought up to believe that you must work hard to reach your goals. “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, right?” Correct, but for some women, it can be downright impossible and that’s where the problem lies. For women in marketing, the road to success is a bumpy one, with only 24% of executive management positions held by women for creative marketing sectors. Offering some clarity is the leading SEO agency in London, Bigfoot Digital, who employ a strong female workforce. These women make up over 90% of their company, with a leadership team split between genders. We asked what advice they would give to other women in digital marketing. Here’s what they had to say. 5 Pieces of Professional Advice From Women in Digital Marketing Careers 1. Earn Your Seat at The Table Jodie Ingle, Senior Account Manager, at Bigfoot Digital said: “Continue to grow your network. This can seem daunting at first and may fill you with fear as you approach new people, but you need to network to ensure you make an impression on the right people and earn your seat at the table. People will only take you seriously as a businesswoman if you actively challenge others and stand up for yourself.” 2. Believe in Your Ability to Succeed Emily Cocker, Digital Marketing Executive, at Bigfoot Digital said: “My advice to women in digital marketing is to be yourself and never apologize for it. This industry changes all the time and you need to be confident in your abilities. Do your research, step up and speak out when necessary. There’s nothing wrong with taking the position of an authoritative businesswoman.” 3. Stamp Out Sexism Camille Brouard, Content Executive at Bigfoot Digital said: “Sexism at work is something you should never tolerate. This is often accepted as a part of everyday life, but there’s a fine line between a fleeting joke and a harmful comment. Make sure you stamp this out early on with comments that correct ignorance. This will demonstrate that you have the confidence to defend your position at the company.” [RELATED: How to Get Into the Tech Industry] 4. Knowledge is Power Steph Briody, Account Manager at Bigfoot Digital said: “Put yourself forward for every opportunity that comes your way. Read up on industry news, hold meetings, meet prospects and, above all, be proactive. Working in a male-dominated industry is never easy, but with knowledge and determination to succeed you’ll become a valuable team member and your boss won’t want to see you go.” 5. Find Your Support Network Lindsey Watson, Head of Social Media Marketing at Bigfoot Digital said: “If opportunities excite you but you buckle at putting yourself forward, find a network of work buddies and coach one another. Form a close group of people you can trust to train you up, help you write powerful emails and deliver important presentations. Find opportunities to promote one another.” So, here you have five incredibly skilled women all working at the same digital marketing agency, with great potential and prospects for the future. I love hearing advice like this as it reminds me how far I can go to achieve my goals. My advice? Go for it, and never look back.

The Right Questions to Ensure Training Gets An ROI - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Right Questions to Ensure Training Gets An ROI - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Last summer I received this email inquiry: Hi Skip My boss would like to train our entire IT department (36 people) on Communication. We are trying to improve the way we manage projects and we are finding that communication is our biggest weakness.   We would like to have training that would focus on the following: How we communicate when dealing with others DISC assessment or something similar How to create an effective communication plan for a project We would like pricing on training 12 people on 3 different days or 18 people on two different days.  We cannot have our entire staff out at once. Thanks, Sandy Training is an arbitrary, random solution to a specific problem. Organizational leaders know something is amiss and they need to do something. The default strategy is training. Personnel problems?  Let’s train our personnel on communication skills. Sales down?  No problem, our employees must need sales training. Inter-office problems, productivity down?  Let’s train people on teamwork or do some offsite team building activities. Low morale and negative attitudes in our workplace?  Let’s train people on how to be happier and have positive attitudes. The problem with throwing training at a workplace problem is that often there are significant issues underlying the problem that require something more specific and in depth than training. Offering training will make the problems worse. Training is usually never the answer to a companys problems. One very specific question to ask is… Is it a skills problem or an attitude/emotions problem? If it can be identified as an actual skills deficit then training is the solution. If it’s an attitude or emotion problem (which most workplace teamwork, cooperation and silo issues are), training will only make the issue worse. A classic example is communication, as was requested of me in the above email. I was hired to work in that organization and offered training only after facilitating focus group sessions with all 36 staff members to identify the core, underlying issues. I ended up limiting the training to the senior leadership team and those with management responsibilities. The buyer at this company, who has since become a very trusted client decided to also do the communication personality assessment training. It backfired. The feedback I received during my focus groups was that it was a waste of time and no one understood how or why they should be applying it. Even the training I delivered for the leaders and managers isnt being used as it should. It was well received but I left four months ago and I’ve already learned that two of the participants in the program are not applying what they learned interacting with each other. What’s the chance they’re using it with those they lead and manage? Zero! The thing that has worked for this group is the output from the focus groups and the decisions my client was able to make after evaluating the contributions from all employees. So, the next time you think you need training for your organization ask these questions â€" What problem are we trying to solve? Is this a skill deficit problem or an attitude/emotion problem? If it’s the former training is the answer. If it’s the latter, an initiative that includes deeper facilitation with individual and group/team coaching is more likely the answer.

How to Deal With a Difficult Coworker [INFOGRAPHIC] - Classy Career Girl

How to Deal With a Difficult Coworker [INFOGRAPHIC] Nobody loves going to work all the time, but if you find that you’re actively dreading the prospect of heading to the office each day then it’s time to do something about it. If there’s someone in the office whose bad attitude is seriously souring the atmosphere, they are unlikely to fix things themselves; instead, you need to take proactive steps towards figuring out just what their problem is â€" and how you’re going to help them fix it. It’s usually the case that a bad attitude like this can be traced back to negative festering away deep down. Perhaps your difficult colleague feels under or over-worked, out of their depth, or underappreciated. There’s nothing quite like insecurity to make someone snappy and uncooperative. For this reason, critiquing their attitude by itself is unlikely to fix things for long â€" you need to get to that root cause and try to deal with it. [RELATED: How to Keep it Classy With Difficult Coworkers] This isn’t easy because, as we’ve already ascertained: this is not a pleasant person to talk to. But if you lay some ground rules about talking to each other with respect, and you use body language and spoken techniques that encourage trust, you should be able to get down to the nitty-gritty facing too much hostility. After all, oftentimes the hostility is just a symptom of being unable to express whatever’s on a person’s mind in the first place. They may just be waiting to be asked if they’re okay. This guide to working with difficult colleagues provides a great roadmap to dealing with such a situation. Take a deep breath before you get involved, because you’re going to need to be the calm one here â€" but with empathy and the to be gently assertive, there’s no reason why you can’t begin to resolve this situation. How to Deal With a Difficult Coworker [INFOGRAPHIC]   SaveSave

3 Jobs That Allow You to Work from Home - CareerMetis.com

3 Jobs That Allow You to Work from Home Traditional employment is beginning to see a downfall as more and more companies discover the benefits of conducting business over the internet or in other words having employees work from home.Photo Credit â€" Pexels.comThis concept appeals to a lot of the working force as well, as many people have traded in their day regular jobs for a chance to work from home. Many times even having the same job, working for home instead of having to go to the office each day makes a whole lot of difference. But not everyone has managed to find something they might be interested in from the portfolio of careers that can be pursued through working from home.Check out the rest of this article to see just what kind of jobs opportunities can be pursued from home. Theseare rewarding careers that makethe entire concept of working from home very attractive.1. BloggerevalOne of the first things that pops to mind when it comes to working from home is blogging. Blogging is a relatively new form of self expr ession that can range from just a personal journal that recollects past adventures for a small gathering of people, to virtually anything that very large followings would be interested in.The bigger the blog, the more income it can produce through donations and partnerships with companies as well as advertisement.2. Content creatorCreating content can be anything you can think of. From written work that can take a variety of forms to music and film, any kind of content you are good at creating can earn you some serious coin through the same means as those featured above.Modern times have seen platforms like YouTube, Vine or Instagram create modern day celebrities out of people that started with nothing more than a camera to record with. Such an opportunity is still available today and it includes the benefits of working from home.3. Administrative FunctionsIf it can be done from an office, it can surely be done from a personal computer, at home. Sure, there have been times in the pa st where office requirements just couldn’t be met by an average person as computers weren’t the commodity they were today, but also didn’t pack in the power they do now, so they wouldn’t have been even half as effective.However, today holds quite a different story. If the job description only includes a computer and maybe a phone, most office jobs can be easily transferred at home for a big boost in comfort and convenience with no negative impact. Those that currently work within the confines of an office are looking at a pretty solid advantage, waiting to be claimed.Keeping these suggestions in mind, it is important to remember that there are solutions which allow you to work comfortably from home and secure an income without having to wake at the crack of dawn in order to get to the office in time.