Tag: RECRUITMENT

Employment trends in time of Mass Lay-offs

While we were busy talking about the importance of recruiting talent that stays, and how to ensure a good experience for the candidate, the world was hit by the news of mass lay-offs by big multinational tech companies. Through these events of layoffs, we can only reiterate more on the point that the job market is likely to see certain changes in the nature of candidates and their expectations. Continuing on the tangents of our previous two articles, let us quickly take a look at what are the implications of looking for jobs and recruiting amidst the layoffs.

Stability over fancy offers:

One look at many of the reels full of self-deprecating humour being shared on social media, and we will realise that many of the big companies that laid off their employees had quite ‘fancy’ packages. Lounging facilities with luxurious options, company merchandise, perks about flexibility and other present-day buzzwords, and the stamp of working for a major company- all of this worked well as long as one was working there.

It is likely that many of the now former employees of these companies would have learnt their lesson the hard way, and would be looking for things that actually matter as they search for a new job. In other words, these candidates would now be looking for stability over perks. They would be looking for companies that treat them respectfully and don’t just use expressions like ‘our company is like a big family’ for the sake of it. They would be looking for companies that actually give them a sense of job security. It might not be too far-fetched to assume that days of wanting to join a big name because they are a big name are numbered.

This takes us to the next point.

Doesn’t matter how big the name is:

As mentioned in our earlier article, gone are the days of the 70s Hindi film imagery of candidates crowding over one position at a big company. But perhaps gone also are the days of the decade of 2010s of candidates looking to join a big name.

This is an opportunity for start-ups, small and medium scale companies to show they are no less, or are perhaps even better than a big name. The ‘stamp’ may not be there yet, but the company -no matter how big or small- can offer things like:

  • Showing value to the candidate’s skills and competence
  • A sense of meaning to the candidate/employee in the job, by the nature of the service or product the company has to offer
  • A strong set of ethical and professional values

When it comes tech layoffs, it is crucial to know that these candidates would be aware of the value they bring to table. Tech jobs, as volatile as they are, are also always in demand. This brings us to the next point.

Different candidates, similar experiences:

Many of the laid off candidates, it is said, were not even a week into the job and they got the news. On the other hand, there were many candidates who had served the company for decades. The point is companies looking to hire might find candidates of varying experience and skill level even more than usual, and it would be necessary to find a way to assess them fairly.

As an article by Recruit CRM mentions, sticking rigidly to conventional benchmarks like those of experience, or having a degree from a top college may or may not always be fair to the candidate. The diverse background of candidates in general, and not just those of the laid off pool must be considered.

Keeping this in mind during selection and interview rounds would ensure that a team full of individuals with diverse competence- skill- and experience-levels would be created, with different strengths, instead of a homogenous mix.

And as mentioned earlier, it’s no longer just a matter of perks, stamps and big salaries.

Many of the big tech companies offer great salaries, and it is likely that many of the laid off employees had it going really well. A candidate might not be swayed by a big salary, great perks or a fancy designation anymore. Showing that companies value a candidate’s skills, competence, time and commitment is necessary and job postings, descriptions and the company itself must reflect this all.

Keys to Retaining Talent

Global trends  say ,when it comes to talent and hiring point that there is a shortage of talent. Correction: there is a shortage of talent that stays. As discussed in one of our earlier articles about candidate experience, the new generation of employees and job-seekers have their expectations set, and are not afraid to walk away from an offer they do not like. Companies and organisations are facing challenges in retaining talent.

One part of the challenge is to find skilful talent. Often ignored, the next part faced by employers, and by extension recruiters is to find talent that stays, as we already mentioned in the earlier article(link).

Let us quickly take a look at what one can do as employer, or ‘talent-finder’ to retain talent.

Combat Quiet-Quitting:

Late in 2022, this buzzword came about. It is a phenomenon where employees are becoming increasingly disengaged with their jobs, and are doing just the bare minimum.  The term thus refers to how employees are so disengaged that it feels like they are quietly drifting away, quietly quitting. Burnout, stress, low levels of motivation are often been attributed to it.

At some point, burnout and low motivation are bound to make the employee finally quit. At some point, the talent might walk away. Or a new talent hired might drift into these patterns. Low motivation doesn’t just mean a lack of motivation to work, it also means a lack of motivation to find ways to prevent stress and burnout.

To prevent this, the organisation and the employee need a little realignment to ensure the motivation levels remain optimal.

It is important companies take necessary steps. As an article by People Matters puts it:

‘…employers must shift with it and understand that if their employees’ goals align with company objectives, engagement and productivity will follow. If this isn’t accomplished, companies will have to get used to facing a low return on their investment when it comes to hiring staff. Retention levels will plateau or continue to fall, and collaboration and engagement will become something to strive for rather than a cultural baseline.’

So, what concrete steps can be taken to ensure these motivation levels remain high?

Make them feel heard:

The same article by People Matters continues how companies can be more ‘listening’ in their approach. Sometimes, employees might be going through events in their lives that demand that the company extends some flexibility to them. Having company policies is necessary but if a little tweaking can improve someone’s productivity, maybe it’s not a bad idea to consider it without changing entire policies.

 In other words, companies can make sure that the individual needs of employees are being met so that family situations, life emergencies etc do not become the reason that an employee becomes demotivated, or can only manage to do the bare minimum.

So many times, good candidates might get away due to location issues, or/and employees might quit because of aforementioned reasons. So many women and new mothers might quit the jobs they loved because of lack of flexibility and options. Truly, a little flexibility can go a long way in retaining talent.

One-on-one meetings, time-to-time company-wide surveys, and just general wellness check-ins are some steps to gauge individual situations pertaining to company policies.

Of course, there’s only so much a company do about flexibility. What are some other ways companies can ensure motivation levels remain high and talent stays?

Combat stagnation, provide opportunities:

One of the major reasons companies are unable to retain talent is because at some point an employee can feel stagnated in their career. They might be looking for new challenges.

New candidates might be hesitant to apply if they think there won’t be much professional growth in future.

To combat both these scenarios, organisations can offer various upskilling and reskilling opportunities so their employees don’t have to look elsewhere unnecessarily. Options galore, based on the scale and capacity of the organisations. Right from sponsoring further education, to offering certificate courses, organising seminars, and other L&D workshops. Many large companies like have set up initiatives to sponsor college fees, and many apprenticeships have also been set up.

On a similar tangent, companies can also offer more opportunities for internal mobility.

As mentioned earlier, top talent sometimes cannot be retained for the simple reason that they jump ships for ‘better opportunities.’ It is the fear of stagnation. This fear can be combated when the employees know that there will be opportunities within the organisation to grow. Opportunities within the organisation means instead of jumping ships, the employee can continue to climb the ladder within. Isn’t that a great source of motivation?

In this era of the Great Resignation and Quiet-Quitting, companies and organisations need to look beyond the hiring process and think long-term. Thinking long-term means companies think how they can retain the talent they hire. Talent will be retained when their levels of motivation continue to remain as high as they were when they first joined. Long-term thinking ensuring opportunities for growth and a sense of being heard could be major leaps into retaining talent.

AI and We: Is Recruitment Losing its Human Touch?

It has been years since AI (artificial intelligence) has been the buzzword in the recruitment industry. From companies, to recruitment professionals, to candidates themselves wonder about the role of AI in recruitment. Many also wonder whether recruitment is losing its human touch. Without further ado, let us take a look at the role of AI in recruitment, the concerns regarding its use, as well as how we can have the best of both worlds of using AI and the wisdom of a specialising HR/recruitment professional.

The Advantages of Using AI in recruitment:

AI is often used for a quicker processing of information.

According to an article on BrixRecruiting, it is used for sourcing candidates, scanning keywords in the resume. Moreover, certain more advanced softwares are also used for the analysis of speech, facial expressions, and behaviour. In an age of talent crunch and competitive hiring, AI can take away the burden from the hiring department of a company as all these preliminary processes can be performed by the AI itself, increasing the speed of the larger process.

The Issues within AI recruitment:

With all its speed and efficiency, AI can lose out on the nuance and specialisation that conventional human recruitment offers by default. There’s just a different quality to face to face interactions, and first impressions gathered by non-verbal cues and experienced eye.   

Plus, almost paradoxically, AI recruiting tools are ultimately created by humans, and some biases and prejudices may leak into the software. An automated hiring system at Amazon, according to a Reuters report taught itself that male candidates are preferred over female ones because of certain deductions it made. Amazon’s experimental hiring tool gave scores to candidates from one to five stars by detecting certain commonalities and patterns in older, successful resumes.

It was created with an intention that one could filter out top five resumes from a hundred submitted.  But the issue was the older resumes based on which the pattern of a good resume was detected were mostly submitted by males. As a result, the present system thus filtered out good resumes of females as well because it didn’t detect certain keywords! The male dominance of the industry became a ‘pattern’ which the AI took as an example of a ‘good resume.’

Another example of the use of AI, although much simpler, is the use of chatbots in the initial screening stages. The chatbots schedule interviews, asks certain automated questions to pool the candidates.

But again, in such cases, how would one account for unforeseen events, emergencies, when the candidate has to reschedule something last minute? Or what if the candidate has a question that doesn’t generate an automated response?

Furthermore, many AI-based platform companies provide recruiting but with no specialisation– the recruitment process becomes more generalised which again could result in losing out on candidates who may have been spotted by an experienced eye.

The Road Ahead:

The ideal would be the use of AI in a way that human recruiters still have a total control of the process. For example, an article on Crosschq mentions how pre-hiring checks might be performed by the AI, eliminating some repetitive tasks. The recruiters can then participate in the one-on-one interviews and interactions to gauge the candidate with all their nuances of socio-cultural factors.

From time to time, recruiters should update the various parameters fed to the AI software, so that the changing times and work culture remain up to date and the automation doesn’t filter out the good candidates because of random algorithms.

Further, the recruiters should from time-to-time check who the candidates are that have been filtered out by the AI. The recruiters can rely on their instinct of experience– if a candidate seems to be good, but the AI filters them out, the control should ultimately lie in the hands of the recruiter. It is also a good idea to ensure that the candidates know how and whom to reach out in case they wish to clarify certain things, which the impersonal AI might not be able to ‘understand’.

It is as simple as updating the AI with changing times, and checking on its ‘intelligence’ from time-to-time, because after all, it is artificial intelligence. It is about adding the human touch to that artificial intelligence.

Start-up and Recruitment Firms

Start-ups have been springing up all around since many years now. As we have discussed in one of our earlier articles, it is actually a good idea for start-ups to take the assistance of a recruitment firm when it comes to hiring.

Times have changed a little, and now more candidates might be ready, even enthusiastic, to work for start-ups, especially the millennials and the Gen-z who are (in)famous for jumping jobs, looking for better opportunities. They want purpose and meaning, and not just a stable job.

Let us see how recruitment firms can further help start-ups when it comes to hiring.

Helps in establishing the credibility of the start-up:

Start-ups are generally in the process of creating their ‘brands’ as we have discussed in the earlier article. A ‘reputation’ is still a work-in-progress thing. A recruitment firm, with its proper process, right from the initial job-posting, to the client-network that it taps into, will help the start-up to establish credibility.

Despite the progressive attitudes, it is still tricky for many start-ups to be taken seriously. A start-up is much more likely to be taken seriously when it is backed by the strong hiring process of a recruitment firm, which is well-established and has a client network that trusts its headhunting.

Helps in identifying the start-up’s place in the market:

A start-up is an adventure. It is a product of drive, passion and dedication to be a changemaker. There is the motivation to do whatever it takes. But things can get tricky when one tries to figure out: what exactly does one need to do?

You might work 16 hours a day and still not generate the revenue you want.

You might network with a hundred people, pitch in your brand and perhaps get only one application.

A recruitment firm on the other hand, with its understanding of the market and where your start-up stands within that market, and what kind of talent would be attracted the most to your brand, can get you multiple applications with its one job posting.

Moreover, experienced recruiters have the wisdom of what the competition looks like, and what candidates are looking for, and they can guide the start-ups accordingly in tweaking job profiles and managing their expectations.

Recruitment firms can add the touch of smart work to that hard work.

Helps in understanding the smaller details:

Running a start-up comes with its own legalities and technicalities. Recruiting for a start-up too comes with its own legalities and technicalities.

For example, the various labour laws that are governed by particular countries, laws about hiring if you plan to hire international employees, laws about contracts, laws that govern full-time and part-time employees and so on. A recruitment firm can help the start-up in ensuring that these legalities and technicalities are being followed and complied with.

The importance of hiring the right people:

It is important, correction, more important for the start-ups to hire the right people. Bigger brands and companies have the advantage of higher scale operation and more manpower. This means that the company will function fairly well even with a few vacancies if someone decides to leave suddenly. There will not be any major dent on the overall functioning of the company. The workload will also be distributed in a just manner.

A start-up on the other hand, is much more volatile, and chances are, the workload may fall on a few individuals in case someone leaves. The smaller-scaled operations also mean that a few disruptions about roles and functions here and there might leave the start-up in shambles.

With such a glaring contrast, it is definitely important that the start-up hires the right people who will help in driving their mission forward and who would help in running it well. This is why a recruitment firm, that understands their brand, requirements and expectations would help the start-up in saving much time, resources and money that might go in the costly trial-and-errors of hiring the wrong people.

A start-up may decide to hire a recruitment firm, or an individual consultant. In any case, following a structured recruitment process is likely to help save up time, money and resources. It is likely to help the start-up channelise their labour smartly into more useful avenues. The recruiters will do the job of establishing their credibility, understanding their brand and tapping into the relevant market. The start-up can continue to dream and work on that dream.

Prepare yourself for- ‘Do you have Any Questions for Us?’

As a candidate, have you ever wondered what sort of questions to ask the HR or the talent acquisition team at the company you have an interview with? We have talked about something similar in one of our earlier articles, so let us delve a bit deeper into this. These questions will also help you as a candidate to understand where the firm or company that is hiring stands in terms of what it expects from you, and it will also give you an insight how the company functions.

So, what are the kind of questions the candidate can ask, and the HR should be prepared about? What sort of questions can you ask when they say ‘Do you have any questions for us?’ Note that usually, only two or three questions are entertained, so it is a good idea to pick on what matters to you the most, and think about your questions accordingly.

Questions like:

What is the definition of success according to this company?

What could be my trajectory in this company?

What is expected from me in the coming months/next six months/a year from now?

Such questions can help one understand the expectations the company has from you in the long run. It will also help you understand what are the parameters of success here: for example, based on the answer, you can get an idea if the company measures success through sales, or networking, or by the number of hours clocked in, or project by project basis and so on.

Understanding the parameters can also help one understand what the path to future promotions looks like. This leads us to the next point.

Questions like:

In what ways is this role important for the growth of the company?

What are some challenges related to the role?

Asking a very direct question like ‘Why are you hiring for this role?’ might come across as a little rude and blunt. Instead, the questions mentioned here might help you get more detailed answers from the HR. The answers to these questions are likely to help you get an idea about the big picture as well as the day to day to issues surrounding the role. For example, is there a particular reason why this position is open, or if there’s a peculiar challenge that makes the role demanding in a certain way. This can be a great step towards actually getting prepared for the role!

But hey, the job isn’t just about the work. One might also want to get a sense of the work environment and this leads us to the next point. While it might be tempting to ask the questions about work culture and environment, there is something about those questions that could scream as ‘Red Flag!’ to the HR and it is necessary to use your observations instead of directly asking them. Read on.

Red Flag Questions to Not Ask:

What matters to the people who work here?

What do people like about working here?

Instead of asking the HR directly, keep these questions in your mind, and try to see what is it about the place that the people are enjoying. Moving through the office keeping these questions in mind can help you get a hint of the work- ethic company values, and what kind of a work environment does the company offer. A look at the office-workers’ overall mood, any announcement boards, decorations, how welcoming the desks look, and how relaxed or stressed the people are can give you answers to these questions without directly asking.

As articles by SparkHire and SHRM put it, asking certain questions can help the HR understand that you as a candidate are interested in this job, that you are serious about it. The right questions, when asked, the right things when observed, and certain ‘wrong’ questions when not asked, can help you to understand what it truly means to work at this new place that you are planning to be a part of.