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The creative liberty that comes with online job posting also comes with a candidate avalanche

Posted on 7th December 201819th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

With more than 92% success rate working with African companies, The African Talent Company rolls up your sourcing into a tested template that provides a sync between your goals and your talent expectation with a balance of the right candidate with just the right number of alternatives. Send us an email at hello@tatcafrica.com to engage us.

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When you don’t have the time to sift through upwards of 3000 applications for your job posting for a new Account Executive, the last thing you want to do is post that opportunity on the internet. Yet, it’s what 85% of HR professionals would do. As at March 2017, 3 out of 4 professionals claim to use social networks to look for potential candidates.

Posting online comes with a certain creative liberty. Companies with a good grasp of employer branding go as far as post bold ads online like this one:

And this one:

These ads command admiration from the online multitude, we have to admit. But they come with a rash of applications that don’t fit the expectations of the company.

There are traces of relevance to online job posting (including posting on job boards and serious social media websites like LinkedIn), but HR professionals can save everyone a lot of time and hassle when they deploy a targeted approach to recruitment.

“Getting executive talent on board requires an intentional sniper-type approach to the sourcing strategy”

As a company recruiting executive talent for the top percentile of companies in Africa, we’ve come to understand that while online job posting can buff up employer branding, getting executive talent on board requires an intentional sniper-type approach to the sourcing strategy.

An avalanche of applications is the last thing HR wants to worry about when the company has a gaping talent hole at the center of the ship.

But that’s not the only challenge with recruiting online.

Recruiting online demands that the company hold a tight reign on the sourcing value chain including but not limited to the first posting online, onto the offer’s landing page, the company’s website and the technology of the application process.

All these delicate elements, when not properly managed, provide opportunities for top talent to leak out of your sourcing pipeline. When a top talent, for instance, is confronted with an unattractive company website, he is likely to reconsider his desire to work for the brand. A targeted approach working with a specialized recruitment agency, on the other hand, will have a vastly different result. Such agency would manage talent expectations setting the right tone for the talent to see beyond the scruffy exterior of a brand into the valuable core of the business.

Today, most companies are only ready (or capable) to handle posting openings to job sites and on social media, but not the hard work of maintaining the interest of top talent through the sourcing funnel. And rightly so, unlike a data-powered specialized recruitment agency, they are not built for the task.

In a business landscape that is moving faster than ever, HR professionals need to move even faster with targeted and managed recruiting.

What should you include in your candidate post-interview feedback?

Posted on 20th November 201819th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

Explore leadership options, increase employee engagement and increase your organization’s earnings with our HR Data Analytics insights. The African Talent Company works with top African brands to consult and place executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com

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In a previous article, we covered why post-interview feedback is key to presenting an enhanced candidate experience. The bulk of the treatise boils down to three things:

A candidate will resent your company if you didn’t bother telling them why they were rejected for a position.
When you give feedback, candidates are unlikely to smear your employer brand on social media and they might be inclined to recommend you to other top talent.
Keeping an open line of communication arms you with a veritable pool of candidate you can reach out in the future.

Giving post-interview feedback is non-negotiable. So what exactly goes into the post-interview feedback emails or calls?

We’ll get to that shortly.

First, the golden rule of post-interview feedback; when you are sending these email or making the calls, be as personal as possible.

Instead of addressing the email with “Dear Applicants” try “Dear Paul” (Paul, being the name of a made-up candidate). The latter gives a more intentional and personalized sentiment to the call or email. The applicant will feel like an individual and more favorably disposed to the company.

On to the elements of your feedback.

1: Appreciation:

Thank them. Each candidate has forgone some time and economic resource to be available for the interview. They’ve also invested some emotion in the process. Make sure to thank them, allowing them to know that all the resources they invested are recognized and appreciated.

2: The truth

Why did your company appoint someone other than them for the role? Candidates deserve the truth. Tell them. The caveat here is to ensure the feedback is limited to the job requirement. Give feedback based on how candidates check out on job-related criteria. To give feedback outside of this is to risk being discriminatory or unduly negative.

Why did your company appoint someone other than them for the role? Candidates deserve the truth.

Based on this a feedback like; “We enjoyed speaking with you, but we were hoping to get someone with at least 5 years of experience in the industry. This is why we won’t be moving forward with the process” will be a better response than “We didn’t like that you sat on the edge of your seat. You don’t look like a confident person.”

3. Some praise

If there is nothing to praise, don’t bother with this. But it’s hardly possible that there won’t anything to like about an interviewee. For those things you liked about the candidate, mention them. In fact, it’s a good tact to start off with the praise. It softens the impact of rejection and can encourage them to keep going in their job search.

4. Very specific feedback

Those cliche HR phrases. We all know them. Remove them from your vocabulary. Don’t just say “we wanted a more flexible team member” or “we wanted more relevant experience,” provide meaningful feedback that the candidate can deploy to improve themselves. Think to specific things they can improve about themselves or ideas on how they can interview better and share these with them in a truly helpful tone.

5. An opening for future communication

Chances are this is not the last role your company will recruit for. Keep the line of communication open by letting them know you would reach out if there are openings for which you think they would be a good. Of course, if you promise this, be sure to come through on it.

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Post interview feedback doesn’t have to be a laundry list of all that you didn’t like about a candidate. There are many sides to it that when properly combined will help your company earn goodwill with candidates and boost your employer brand.

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The African Talent Company works with top African brands to source and recruits executive talent. Call or send us an email; hello@tatcafrica.com

If you answer “yes” to these questions, your employer brand is surely not attractive

Posted on 27th October 201819th March 2019 by The African Talent Company

he recruitment landscape is a buyer’s market.

The talent has all the power. At any point in time, great talent have a plethora of job options locally and internationally.

This reality is why more employers are exploring employer recruitment branding.

The idea is simple; build a reputation as a choice destination to work and top talent will beg to have a seat at the table. The top 100 lists from our sister companies; Jobberman and Brightermonday feature the best of the companies in Africa that have had recruitment branding down to a science.

Employer recruitment branding is a crockpot of your values, existing quality of your talent, their level of satisfaction, reputation with past candidates and more.

At the bleeding edge of recruitment branding are companies like Heineken who have premium ads out for new talent.

Whether you know it or not, your brand has a recruitment brand? The question is; what is it? The type that repels talent or one that pulls them in?

A bad employer recruitment brand could cost your company as much as 10% more per hire.

In the checklist that will follow, to have any of the ideas apply to your company will require you to take a fresh look at your recruitment brand and burnish it:

1. Is your online presence weak?

Seventy six percent of professionals research a company online before considering a job opportunity. Chances are if you are reading this, your company has some sort of online presence. But what does your online presence say about you?

Is your landing page a sad copy of Yahoo’s homepage from 1999? Is there enough about your business online for talent to weight your company’s values?

You can continue the list from here. It comes down to this; if you are ugly and vague online, talent will step back and away.

2. Do your current employees “hate” working for you?

Employees are your ambassadors – the voice of your company and its brand. They embody what you stand for and what you want to say.

As you know, top talent often reach out to existing employees at a company to find out the lay of the land before they sign the dotted lines.

What are your current employees feeling and saying about your company and its culture?

You don’t need to ask. Chances are they won’t tell you honestly. But if you slow down to observe, you can feel it in the air.

3. Do you find it difficult to attract top talent?

Nothing more needs to be said here, really. It’s the ultimate voice from heaven. If top talent are not coming – even when you throw wads of cash at them – then your recruitment brand needs a makeover.

4. Do you tell more than you show?

The key goal of building a recruitment brand is to show what it’s like to work in your organization and what makes it great.

Are you doing this? Do you have a culture blog?

If not, pull in photos, videos and graphics that tell your brand story. Reach out to industry magazines with your story and watch as the talent court you.

5. Are your core values or vision vague?

For millennials, it’s often “mission over money.”

If you cannot articulate your mission and what defines your company, and in as short a sentence as possible, great talent will always pass you over.

6. Do you have a sour reputation with applicants?

How do you treat applicants? How quick do you give feedback? Do you offer any at all? Do you seek feedback? Is your recruitment process well-thought out and friendly enough to leave a good impression on candidates?

The experience of candidates – from initial application to actual interview – affects your recruitment brand. Be excellent to candidates, even when you won’t have them on your team.

If you are wondering, as a hiring manager reading; “shouldn’t I be talking to marketing about this?” then you’ve already done 80% of the job.

In the final analysis, recruitment brand is all about perception. Work hand in hand with the masters of perception to get your employer recruitment brand up to speed.

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The power to pinpoint talents, explore leadership options, increase employee engagement and increase your organization’s earnings reside in HR Data analytics. Know your human resource and know how to make the best of them. We can help. Call or drop us an email.