All posts by Morgan Hennessy

For a lot of people in HR, the worst part of recruiting is reference checks.

Reference checks are essential in verifying the qualifications of a potential hire. However, it is tedious to sit and dial multiple phone numbers and spend hours trying to reach references.

Our new Reference Portal automates the collection and confirmation of candidate reference information!

The portal works in three simple steps:

1. Candidates receive an email from the portal in which they enter or confirm their professional references.
2. An email is then sent to each reference asking for feedback.
3. Finally, the reference is asked to endorse or reject the candidate.

This feedback is displayed under the candidate profile for review.

With hundreds of job boards on the market, it can be overwhelming for HR Directors to choose the best place to look for candidates. An Applicant Tracking System such as Pereless Systems streamlines the recruitment process from job postings to onboarding.

Pereless partners with leading job boards and search engines to ensure our clients have the most exposure to the applicants they are looking for. Clients across all industries find success working with Pereless, including non-profit organizations, retail, and healthcare to name a few. However, some interesting statistics can be drawn from our retail sector as our partners have continued to provide a large quantity of high quality candidates.

A key part of the retail sector is the fact that successful hires come from a variety of experience levels.

Contrary to popular belief, the retail sector does not only consist of only entry level sales associate positions, our clients have found success filling higher-level positions such as Store Manager and Assistant Manager positions.

Within the past 5 years, Indeed has remained the leading source of candidates for Pereless retail clients. Looking at the data from Pereless source tracking, in total, Indeed has expanded client candidate traffic reach to more than double what a company’s own career site organically brings in. Indeed brought in 115,000 applicants while other job boards brought in 10,000 applicants. Therefore, in 2016, Indeed brought in 11.5x more applicants than all other job boards combined.

Through Pereless’ partnership with Indeed, when employers create a job inside the ATS, the job is shared to Indeed automatically and includes Indeed Apply.

When employers use Indeed Apply, their job listings stand out in search results on Indeed marked as “Easily Apply.” Jobseekers can use their Indeed resume to apply from any device including mobile devices. Indeed Apply also supports screening questions and can be configured for most custom application processes, providing an easy, consistent application process wherever job seekers are.

For one specific retail client, Indeed accounts for 67% of applicants. Indeed Apply was the key to expanding their quantity and quality of applicants. Full page applications directly from a company career portal only accounted for 19% of applicants for their current open jobs.

Another client example shows a combination of Indeed Apply and redirects from Indeed made up 37% of applicant traffic, double the amount of traffic the company received through their company website alone.

Through these examples, it is clear that the retail segment greatly benefits from posting jobs on Indeed.

However, it is not only the quantity of job candidates that are important to our retail clients.  Our clients were able to find over 6,000 hires through Indeed. This high correlation of applicant numbers and hires also suggests that the highest quality candidate for over 6,000 job openings came to our clients from Indeed, backing their promise for quality.

Modern advances in technology constantly disrupt a range of industries, and human resources and recruitment is no exception. HR technology has become an integral tool to distribute job postings internationally and match companies with quality job candidates around the world.

Pereless Systems, an applicant tracking system (ATS) for enterprise recruitment management, provides access to hundreds of job boards through partnerships with third party integrations. The ATS provides one centralized platform for a variety of recruitment and hiring processes, from job distribution to onboarding.

5 years ago, Pereless partnered with ZipRecruiter, an easy-to-use marketplace with 100+ job board partners that is used by millions of job seekers every month.

This partnership was more than just an integration. The two companies built innovative tools for ATS clients aimed at producing greater exposure for job postings and improving candidate flow and hire rates.

The integration also gives Pereless clients free access to the ZipRecruiter platform. Once a Pereless job post is created, clients can select to upload the job listing directly to ZipRecruiter.

The free organic feed provided by ZipRecruiter is priceless for Pereless clients. Access to the ZipRecruiter organic feed brings all active jobs from the Pereless’ ATS over to ZipRecruiter, exposing every job posting to more qualified candidates and increasing overall traffic to clients’ websites.

With increased visibility comes greater exposure to quality candidates. Opt in to the free ZipRecruiter traffic feed to find your perfect hire.

There are many hiring strategies for attracting potential employees to your company. You can draw in candidates with tools other than social media and online postings.

1. Search outside of the US

Once your company is big enough, do not limit your job hires to only people in the US. Look into international hires. Many international candidates have the skills that you need and a foreign perspective can bring new ideas to the company.

2. Billboards

Although most people will search online for a job, a billboard in a more populated area is likely to gain quite a bit of attention, especially if you are looking to hire within a certain radius. Billboards will not only get your brand more visibility but it is also a unique way to display “Now Hiring.”

3. Creative business cards

Your business card can be a lot more than just a name and contact information. When spreading the word of your open job position, hand out some well-designed business cards. This shows that both you and the company that you are a part of are innovative and different. You can see some business card ideas here.

4. Use videos

You can have some typical social media postings to show that you’re hiring, but a creative or funny video may be more likely to attract candidates. You can find out more about creating a social media campaign here. This also sets your company apart from the competition. You can relate to your audience on a deeper level.

The job market is extensive and competitive, attracting the perfect hire is a process, but these small steps can at least bring your company some positive attention. After you have brought in several candidates through your creative hiring strategies, make sure that you have the best ATS to handle it.

You may have your ups and downs amongst employees, but there are ways to have a collaborative company culture. This will result in a very efficient and motivated team.

Make sure that everyone has the same goal.

Although having a goal seems simple enough, not everyone may grasp what exactly your company is working towards. Whether it is to increase sales, broaden your brand name, or to send a message, everyone must be on the same page. This creates a much better understanding amongst all employees. Also, be sure to prioritize and organize if your company has multiple different goals.

Don’t be afraid to make changes.

If your current team of employees is just not collaborating effectively, don’t be afraid to take a leap. This could mean letting someone go or hiring new people. Branch out a bit and look for millennials or other unique personalities to add to your work environment.

Team-building exercises

Some team-building games may seem a bit silly to partake in, but they help to create communication and trust. Additionally, team-building exercises are great ways to break the ice if employees do not interact often. A good team-building method is random lunches with employees. Have employees sit with different people that they do not normally sit with for lunch. Soon enough employees will hopefully feel more comfortable around each other and it will allow for more ideas to flow.

Ensure that your employees stand behind your company.

Employees may enjoy working and the environment which they are working in, but a solid team of employees truly believes in the product or service that they are working for.

Establish definitive roles.

This somewhat stems from the first point, “make sure that everyone has the same goal.” Each employee should have a detailed understanding of their responsibilities in the office. This way there will not be a clash as to who does what. You do not want employees to have either far too much or far too little work to do.

Having a strong, defined, and collaborative team in your workspace is a sure way to help your company succeed.

Millennials make up a massive portion of the workforce, and there are several benefits to hiring them. However, recruiters may find challenges with both hiring and integrating millennials into a company. Here are some of the biggest challenges.

Job market perspective

71% of recruiters say that it’s a candidate-driven market while 53% of millennials say that it’s an employer-driven market. With this mostly split view of the market there may be discrepancies between what recruiters are searching for and what millennial candidates are searching for.

Career expectations

With the high cost and years of effort that it takes to obtain a degree, millennials are typically unsatisfied with low-paying jobs with little responsibility. Millennials are ambitious, so that entry-level position in their field that makes under $50,000 a year just simply is not as fulfilling. Many millennials become frustrated with the amount of time it takes to work their way up the ladder to achieve higher pay and greater responsibilities. There are many capable millennials out there that are more than prepared for whatever their field of work may be.

Technology

A company should be tech-savvy in all areas whether it is hiring, social media, or e-commerce. Technology becomes a challenge when hiring millennials if a company is out-of-date with their digital services or online presence. Not only will it be more difficult for both millennials and other candidates to find your company, millennials will especially feel underwhelmed without any sort of technology usage in a company.

When scouting out candidates for a job, carefully consider these challenges but do not be afraid to take a chance on millennials. All of the above challenges are easy to overcome with the right company culture, fair salary, updated technologies, and an open mind.

There are several resources and readings out there with details on how to make your business grow. It is important to consider what will help a company expand, but it is also equally important to understand what may be hindering your growth. Once you get past these growth-halting factors, your business can thrive.

1.     No social media or website

2.     Not analyzing properly

You should be analyzing and tracking every aspect of your company. This includes sales, social media activity, and hiring activity if you are trying to expand. As you track the numbers in these areas, you will start to see what makes your business tick.

3.     You haven’t built up a positive image yet

This factor also ties into having a strong social media presence. You want the best reviews possible for your business. It is important to remember that customers are much more likely to share a negative experience rather than a positive experience with your service or product, so try your best to prevent any negativity!

4.     You haven’t found the right audience

It is essential to target your service or product at the right group. Make sure that you are advertising correctly and in the right places.

5.     You need more referrals

Sometimes simply encouraging customers to spread the word may help you gain referrals, but also consider implementing a reward system for referrals. An example of this is $5 off your product or service if a customer refers a friend. Although this may not apply to all companies, referrals help you grow!

6.     You aren’t hiring the right people

An efficient ATS is one of the most important parts of hiring, but in addition to that you should also take the time to research the steps of successful hiring. Your employees what make your company!  

If you can get past some of these hindrances you will start to see some growth in your company. Just remember to analyze everything along the way!  

Virtual Reality in recruiting is starting to prove useful when it comes to finding the right candidates.

Virtual reality has gone from being a gimmicky form of technology to a developed and useful tool used in many different fields.  Companies like PwC and General Mills were some of the first to incorporate VR into their recruiting process.  They are finding that strapping a VR headset on a potential hire to give them tours of facilities, and explain benefits/company procedures while on the tour.  Even the Navy is using VR to bring possible recruits into realistic naval simulations to give them a look at what it really is like to be in the Navy.  

As technology advances, it is important to advance with it.  It strengthens your company’s image and makes you company more attractive to candidates.  VR can really be the wow factor your recruiting team needs to really enhance your hiring process and impress quality candidates.  

Many times, there is a lot of uncertainty on what new hires should expect on their first day of a new job.

Incorporating virtual reality in recruiting washes away all of that uncertainty because people know exactly where they are working and procedures they are expected to follow before they even step into the office or facility.

If you are looking to get a leg up on competitors, virtual reality in recruiting could be just that.  It is something that not many companies are using, but is increasing in popularity.  If you hop onboard early, it shows that your company is cutting edge and a pioneer as opposed to joining the fad after it becomes industry standard a few years down the road.  

Time to take advantage of the amazing technology that is available to make your recruiting process the best it can possibly be.    

A successful business sets itself apart from the rest. In order for a business to show exponential growth, it must have defining features unlike those of competitors. Here are some tips for creative a unique business position.

Keep it catchy

A short and simple name or slogan is easier for people to remember and catch on to. This also includes an eye-catching logo for your company or a well-designed and easy to use website. Some of the biggest name brands share short and catchy names such as “Google”, “Spotify”, or “Twitter”. This is just one small feature to differentiate your company!

Social media

Having social media established for your company does not mean simply setting up a Facebook and Twitter page that you post on once a month. A unique company has exciting and engaging social media. Creating a viral social media campaign will excel your company.

Superior customer service

No one likes talking to an automated voice on the phone. Try your best to personally respond to your customers’ needs. This shows a certain level of care and dedication that many businesses lack.

Have the best offers

Research your competitors and see what they offer for their product or service. From there, think creatively about how to set yourself apart from what your competitors are selling or doing. Take the time to highlight features of your product or service that you feel are defining. This also means truly believing in your product or service.

Have a defined purpose

Having some sort of inspiration or backstory along with your business is the ultimate form of uniqueness. The most important question is: For what reason did you start your business? Not every backstory or purpose behind starting a company has to be emotional or comedic, but your intent and goals should still be clear.

Employees

You want employees that match the uniqueness of your company. Hiring the right people can be tricky, but not if you use social media and/or an ATS. Your employees represent your company, so using software to carefully sort through your applicants is essential.

Every successful business differentiates itself with these features. So how is your company unique?

You finally found the perfect person for that job you’ve been looking to fill.  Their resume is full of accolades and qualities that you, the recruiter have been searching for.  They are starting next week; how do you ensure successful onboarding?  Here are a few tips on the matter.

Comfortability

There is always nervousness both from the new employee and the current staff when there is a new addition to the team.  It’s important to make the new hire feel at home, as cliche as that sounds.  Doing things like getting lunch as a team or just going up to them and having an introductory conversation could quickly ease the tension of having someone new in the office.  If the new staff member is comfortable and can embrace the company culture right from the start, there is a higher chance you will see success and positive results of the hire quickly.  

Train, Train, Train  

Another important aspect to ensure success of a new hire is training.  You cannot expect the new hire to understand everything from the start and putting a thick training manual on their desk isn’t an effective way of teaching.  Creating a training itinerary that is divided into parts that can be easily consumed by the trainee.

Also, get different team members to train, this is effective in two ways: it helps the employees to get to know the new staff member and it gives the new hire different perspectives on how to get things done.  Paper training is a thing of the past, if you want the new employee to catch on fast, fact-to-face training is the way to go.

Mentorship

Assign someone who the new hire can go to when they need help, have questions or may confide in if any problems arise.  Many times, new employees may have questions but are scared or nervous to ask anyone, so they try to figure it out themselves.  

This can lead to confusion and wasted time on something that could possibly be answered by a team member. New hires don’t want to seem unknowledgeable, so it is a good idea to assign a team member to help them from the start.  This will help make the new hire be an effective employee right away.