recruitment Archives - SapienHR® Blog

Pros and Cons of Working for a Startup Company

Salary and benefits, job security, and work-life balance are top of the list for most job seekers. Career growth and strong leadership matter too. Generational trends reveal different priorities. Career performance is paramount for Gen X workers. Company culture, growth potential, and work-life balance are important for Millennials/Gen Y. They also thrive at startups.

If you’re entering the job market or making a career change, the startup field can be intimidating, even foreign. Here’s why you may or may not want to work for them.

The Good

It’s a unique experience: It’s not always gaming rooms and skateboarding in the hallways, but startups know how to pull off a favourable work environment. Creativity and innovation grow the business, so a stimulating workspace is crucial.

You learn a lot: Startups place loads of responsibility for their employees. They’ll hire you because of your skills, but founders expect much more. You help with everything at a startup. Often, it’s work outside your job description, so opportunities for learning and growth abound. Founders and employees work together; there’s no middle management, so you learn from the best.

Employees work without supervision: They make smart decisions and take responsibility for the consequences. The chance to steer progress motivates them to perform well.

You can innovate: Startups need to grow fast. If they can’t keep up in the fast lane, they’ll crash out. Employees have the license to show off their brilliance. They deliver results with fresh designs and new concepts that capture consumer interest.

There’s pressure to break new ground, but dynamic energy drives progress at startups. Pride in growing the company and sharing in its ups and downs creates a tight-knit team.

The perks: Money isn’t one, but plenty of other perks keep employees happy:

flexible working hours
working from home
shorter work weeks
a casual atmosphere
gym and other health facilities
employee discounts and free services
free food (and sometimes drinks!)

The Not-So-Good

The workload is heavy: Expect to work long hours, with few holidays and vacations. Startups must capitalize on trends quickly, and early growth is vital. Employees work around the clock to make this happen, so stress and burnout are possible.

Job stability/security: You’ll love your job, but you may not keep it long. Research suggests that over 90% of startups fail within their first three years! Tech startups, in particular, face the threat of technological advancements and new inventions wiping out their business.

Startup founders have a brilliant idea and secure enough seed money to start a venture. But that doesn’t make them experienced leaders. A lack of strong mentors affects job stability.

You don’t earn much: Investors don’t dangle a huge salary in front of aspiring entrepreneurs. They pump funds into operating costs, product development, and growing a customer base. In most cases, salaries are lower with startups than with traditional companies.

What social life?: You might have fun at the office, but you work hard too. Employees work under extreme pressure to avoid losses, so don’t count on having much of social life. Work-life balance is tough, and exhaustive hours at the office can take a toll.

Startups fight to survive even when they reach great heights and are more established. Technology changes fast, competition is fierce, and small missteps can have big repercussions. That’s why many startups struggle after going public.

Ask questions in an interview that clarify expectations. You can find a job with a startup through SapienHR. Call us for a free consultation.

Original Source: Thebalancecareers

Persistence Pays Off

Recruitment can get a bad rep, but it also has many redeeming qualities that keep someone there. You work with so many exciting organizations to find amazing talent and would also be helping people to find jobs — so why would you ever get a bad rep, since you’re doing an amazing work! You will have many memorable stories involving people who have been struggling with their job search, or companies that desperately need someone quickly. That’s where you guys come in.

Of course, there is always room for improvement

How can you ensure that you get the right candidates answering you? You need to be persistent. You need to push back. But there’s a fine line between being tough in defense of what’s right and being too harsh, which is something you’d struggle with constantly. Finding the line between helpful and pushy is the key to success; you need to know when to push candidates to take risks and when to back down. In order to do this, you need to truly know your candidates — and your clients.

You will sometime find it difficult to be persistent with people and will find a way to get over that feeling, but still question, how many times are you allowed to reach out to someone? Some ways that you could overcome these concerns are by doing extensive research on each person’s background to ensure you’re bringing something valuable to the table. You should also realize that in those 10 + calls a day from different recruiters, you have done the best job finding something relevant and appealing to them. You have taken the time to research their backgrounds, interests, and projects they have done. In the end, they appreciate your call (even if they are not looking!) and that’s how you build a relationship. While it’s not an easy job, it is rewarding. As said, why would you ever get a bad rep, you’re doing amazing work!

So how many times IS too many to follow up? If you can connect with someone, being persistent is easy. You consistently follow up with people 4–5 times, in an effort to make that connection. Persistence, not pushy. There is a fine, but very important, line between the two.

Being in recruitment, being persistent, following up, and pushing back is a vital part of being a good salesperson — as long as you’re doing it in the right way.

Qualities that Make a Great Recruiter

You are already a recruiter but would like to know if you meet all the requirements to be a great Recruiter?

Here are a handful of the top qualities that make a great recruiter.

Target-driven

The recruitment industry is particularly competitive and target-driven, therefore, it is essential that the recruiter can handle pressure very well, is target-oriented, ambitious and hungry for results. If you are not a target driven person you should seriously reconsider whether this is the right job for you.

Marketing Skills

Knowing how to market and promote your services, expertise and knowledge effectively to clients and candidates is of utmost importance. If you have lots of candidates in your database but are not able to convince a company to hire any of them you will not close any deals. Your convincing, negotiation and selling skills are therefore crucial. No clients, no business – as simple as that.

Listening Skills

For a recruitment consultant, it is important to be a great listener. Only if you listen carefully and thoroughly to both, the job seeker and the client, you will be able to understand what their needs are. The more you listen to them, the more you will find out. The more you ask them, the more you will know. So, the better you know what the client and jobseeker are looking for, the easier it will be to find the perfect match. This will allow you to make better decisions and find the perfect match over and over again.

Communication Skills

Working in the “human resource” business requires from a recruiter to be a great communicator, no matter whether on the phone or via email. If things don’t turn out positively for a job seeker than being straightforward is not always the right strategy in this case. You can’t tell a job seeker “Your background and experiences don’t match our needs right now” or “You are a great candidate but unfortunately you just came at the wrong time.” There are situations in which a recruiter needs to prove that s/he is tactful, considerate and gracious in order to maintain a good corporate as well as personal reputation.

Multitasking Skills

Since you deal with companies and candidates on a daily basis you will need to juggle multiple projects and tasks simultaneously. Keeping in mind the details of various jobs, companies and candidates is important in order to work efficiently as well as effectively.

Relationship Building Skills

A recruiter works in the “people business” and deals with a variety of different people on a daily basis. This person has to be a good connector, who loves to connect with new people and knows how to use every opportunity to network and to turn it into business results. Having great relationship building skills with all people involved in the process is therefore crucial. It will allow you to build trust and attract clients as well as jobseekers more easily. Once you gained their trust and they notice that you work professionally, effectively and reliably, they will come back again and again without looking any further. It will also save you time because you can focus on your existing clients rather than having to chase constantly new ones. Also, don’t underestimate the good relationship you have built with your job seekers. If they are happy with the job you were able to find for them, they will recommend you to their friends and family too, should they ever need a job in the future.

Time Management Skills

Having great time management skills is essential because certain positions need to be filled urgently and getting your priorities right is paramount.

Problem Solving Skills

You need to be a good problem solver because you might face situations which you never thought would come along the way. For example, people not turning up to their interviews, companies telling you that they already found another candidate, not finding any candidates for a certain position for a long time, etc.

Paying Attention to Detail

Remember that none of the parties involved has to work with you as a recruiter. They should want to work with you because you make the process easier, faster, and more successful. This is only true if you take a detail-oriented approach to providing quality service.

Confidence

You need to be confident not just about yourself but also about the services you offer to your clients as well as job seekers.

Patience

Sometimes you will need to be very flexible and patient because candidates or clients might want to reschedule their interview dates at the last minute.

Speed

Companies and job seekers don’t just rely on one source for filling their positions or finding a job but multiple sources. Who acts quickly will, therefore, win in the end. The worst that can happen is that at the last minute a company might tell you that they already found a candidate or the candidate already found a job in another organisation. Thus, it’s not the size that nowadays matters but speed.

Reliability

If you want to be perceived as a trustworthy professional you need to be reliable when it comes to punctuality, offering the services you promised within a certain timeframe etc. If you can’t keep up with small things nobody will trust you and offer you bigger challenges in the future.

Some great recruiters are born, but others can be made—and we all have opportunities for improvement. If you focus on these thirteen skills, you’ll continue to move up in your recruiting career.

Daily Planner for Recruitment Consultants

About 95% of the recruiters miss one of the most fundamental elements of correctly attacking their desks in this environment. They are not properly planning their work. So whether you’re new to recruitment or a veteran recruiter, let’s talk about your recruiter daily planner for a minute. Below is a recruiter daily planning template that recruiters MUST do for proper daily planning:

Plan each segment the night before: It is highly recommended to plan for 15-30 mins, the night before on what the action plan should be for the next day.
Note down your plan: Have a physical plan in front of you so you can cross things off.
Perform the closest activity to a placement first: What could be simpler than this? When planning your day simply prioritize what’s closest to revenue.
Have your list together before you call: There is no way you will get these calls made if you’re taking the approach of “Dial the phone, then think about who to call next, then dial the phone, then think about who to call next, etc.” You will never get the right number of calls made if you don’t pre-plan these calls.
Force your number of daily OUTBOUND calls: You have zero chance of talking to the right people and the right number of people if those people don’t know you want to talk with them. You absolutely can’t be waiting; you’ve got to be driving. So you have to set a goal for outbound dials each day and then hit that goal! The goal should be no less than 75 calls in this market environment.
Ask yourself, “What’s the fastest way to a sendout (interview)?” In real estate, there are three things you must keep in mind when buying a home: location, location, location. In recruiting, there are three things that lead to placements: sendouts, sendouts, and sendouts. Sendouts lead to placements and placements lead to money. A strong minimum is five first time sendouts per week. Why five? The average new recruiter’s sendout out to placement ratio is 10:1. With five sendouts per week, the law of averages says that will translate into two placements per month. If the quality is great – it may lead to three, if the quality is poor, however – it may just be one.
Work in segments (co-ordination segment, sourcing segment etc.): This is something that all recruiters know but few consistently execute. It’s a hallmark of high production.
Do not take incoming calls during a calling segment: This takes discipline but will produce big results for you. Return calls after you finish your sourcing/calling segment.

Start with this simple template, and you’ll start to notice results within the first couple of weeks. Don’t let things happen . . . make things happen!

A Look Back at Some of the Biggest Recruiting Trends of 2016

During 2016 there was a continued shift in the balance of power from employer to the candidate. It has also seen a ‘war of talent’ in key sectors. Employers from most sectors reported a worrying lack of quality candidates for current vacancies and 2016 was a challenging year from a candidate attraction and recruitment point of view.

This article outlines key recruitment trends which we’ve seen happening in 2016 – and suggests key actions that companies can take to ensure they win the battle for talent to keep their businesses alive in the coming years.

1. It’s all about being Digital and Mobile

Today an increasing percentage of the candidate pool are ‘net natives’ who are wedded to mobile technology and social media; 90% of them checking their smartphones before they even get out of bed in the morning. According to a research, 86% of job hunters use a mobile device as their primary search tool and it is estimated that 70% of candidates want to apply for jobs using their mobiles; with 55% wanting to be able to submit their CV via their mobile devices. Résumés are now be displaced by constantly evolving representations of individual experiences, skills, and aptitudes that exist purely in the digital realm. Innovative tools that use social media, big data and other technologies have given tremendous insight into individual job seekers as their primary screening method. To keep up with these trends, companies have now moved towards a digital hiring model.

2. Employer Branding as a Key Selling Point

Candidates’ are acquiring more knowledge about employers because information is increasingly more readily available and accessible. The new environment has created an information avalanche, whereby candidates are empowered to consider many more employers than ever before. Savvy candidates will evaluate company brands before applying to or accepting a job, much in the same way they evaluate consumer brands when shopping. Here, identifying and broadcasting the employer’s differentiating factor is very crucial, and conveying the employer’s culture beyond the office is critical to employer brand fulfillment.

3. Focus on Passive Candidates

Approximately 75% of global candidates are considered passive job seekers. These people are employed, and not actively looking for new opportunities. If the majority of the workforce falls into the passive category, it’s safe to assume the majority of top quality hires are passive, too. Recruiting passive candidates can be hard. Talent acquisition leaders have to make an extra effort not only to identify quality passive candidates but also to reach out to them and establish a connection. If you aren’t doing this already, look for candidates through their social media profiles and anywhere else they have a web presence, since today’s professionals expect employers to search for them and take their online branding and positioning very seriously. If a passive candidate is identified as a quality hire to your company, it’s time to get proactive and treat them like a potential buyer, which means you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time. Plus, recruiters have to be equipped with the skills to convert casual lookers into something more if given the opportunity.

4. Use of Data Analytics

The use of social networks and other digital profiles as candidate search tools has opened up a much wider talent pool for recruiters to draw from, but the time it takes to do that research could end up taking hiring managers away from their most important task: actually hiring. Big data, the hottest addition to the corporate lexicon, has moved across the business spectrum into the world of hiring and talent management. For more and more companies, the hiring boss is an algorithm or a set of analytic tools. Employers must select the right tools to be able to ask better questions when hiring. Choosing the right data tool is like choosing the right social media platform; employers need to know what works best for accomplishing their specific goals. If an analysis of current efforts revealed that a posting wasn’t resulting in enough qualified applicants, the employer could adjust the hiring strategy accordingly, using insights provided by a job board such as choosing a better day to post or different keywords. In the coming years, data analytics may even help recruiters discover which passive candidates are better to approach.

If you think there’s more to this trend, please share how you think about it in the comments below.

5 Talent Metrics You Should Really Care About

Every HR leader wants some talent metrics in place. But how about in real practice?

According to research, 75% of HR leaders acknowledge metrics are important to the success of their organizations. But 51% have no formal talent metrics plan in place. Nearly 40% say they don’t have the resources to conduct sound metrics.

The truth is that there’s a striking gap between the large number of companies that recognize the importance of metrics and talent analytics and the smaller number that actually have the means and expertise to put them to use and are actually getting a lot of useful information out of their data. But data is just information captured by recruiting system or software already in place. It doesn’t tell any story. Compare data against goals or thresholds and it turns into insight. These metrics or KPIs reflect critical factors for success and help a company measure its progress towards strategic goals.

But the question we hear frequently is “We do have metrics in place. But why does it fail?”

The first cause is that the metrics that recruiting team use are mostly tactical or operational and executives outside of recruiting have little interest in seeing these operational results.
Secondly, current recruiting metrics tells you “what happened last year,” which again has little value for executives who want to know what’s going to happen next year.
Thirdly, after the recruiting metrics are calculated, they are reported and read by people who pays little attention to them.

Make sure your metrics are actionable, so when it indicate a problem, they should be accompanied by an action plan on how the data will be used to actually increase the business impacts of recruiting.

Here is a list of 5 metrics that can help you evaluate the success and understand the faults and weaknesses of your recruitment program so that you can correct them. Keeping tabs on these metrics will ensure you are informed as to how your business is doing on the talent management front and when the metrics are headed in the wrong direction, there needs to be an action plan with someone assigned to make sure that the data is applied in order to actually improve recruiting results.

1. Qualified Candidates per Hire

The Number of Candidates who Make it Past the First Stage of your Hiring Process

This relatively simple number tells you how many of the candidates you sourced, or who applied for your job has the skills and experience required to warrant an early conversation. Qualified candidates are similar to ‘qualified lead’ in sales and shows your interview funnel is filling up with relevant job applicants. This KPI gives you a spot check on the health of your sourcing strategies, as well as the effectiveness of your employer brand.

2. Time per Hire

Measured from sourced/applied to the acceptance of the offer by the candidate

The Time per Hire metric is about tracking the speed with which a suitable candidate moves through your hiring process once he/she has already been sourced or have applied. If you’re trying to gain insight into the recruiting team’s process and throughput or efficiency, Time per Hire does this best. You can also average this out across all roles and get a sense of the true average speed of your interview process.

3. Cost per Hire

Cost Per Hire = External Costs + Internal Costs / Total Number of Hires

Cost per Hire is consistently ranked as one of the top most helpful HR metrics. It helps you to link your recruitment endeavors to cost savings from an organization point of view and it also helps to ensure these efforts are not only feasible for the business, but on par with your industry and location. Apart from external and internal costs one should also consider the time spent throughout the hiring process of potential employees.

4. Internal vs External Hire

Internal vs External Hire is an important metric to monitor. If the majority of your hiring is external, you might not be attending to the potential of your existing personnel. Organizations should have a leadership and development program that encourages existing employees to learn and grow within the company.

5. High Performer Turnover

Total High Performer Turnover = Total High Performer Terminations/Avg. High Performer Headcount

Most everyone is familiar with overall turnover rate, and there is a lot of information on the web and in various sources and research about the impact of turnover. The real key, in good times or bad, is how many high-performing employees are leaving the company. According to one belief, high performers are more likely to stay at an organization, given that there is a clear line drawn from performance to rewards. On the other hand, high performers are more likely to leave when they feel under-rewarded or when there are greater external opportunities. Not only does turnover of high performers lead to costs due to lost productivity, recruiting, and training, but also to losses of overall organizational knowledge and leadership.

Nurturing Your Super Stars

Nurturing your top performers is critical to the long term success of your business. Don’t believe it? Take a look at these statistics.

Top performers produce as much as 10 times more than the average worker, while they often require less than two times the pay (Sullivan, 2012)
Top performers produce up to 12 times more than the average employee (Corporate Executive Board)
The top performer differential is 2.5 to 10 times that of an average employee (Sullivan, 2008)
The more top performers you have, the greater the organization’s productivity!

Managers give all of their attention to the weak players – those who need to improve. They draw us in again and again, receiving the regular feedback. But, what about top performers? You may feel that by leaving them alone, you’re paying them the greatest compliment. This is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing and what they are expecting. It’s a fact that organization’s top talent can have the easiest time finding other employment.

So, make a fresh commitment to give them the time, the feedback, and the opportunity to grow in your organization and nurture them to contribute to the overall growth of your organization.

“The more you know about your employees, the better coach and leader you can be.”

There are many ways to help you understand your employees, motivate them for long-term satisfaction, and to help them overcome weaknesses and making them even better at their jobs.

Identify your “A” Players

In an organization, “A” players or “top talent” are typically those with the best performance ratings. Defining top talent should go beyond this single measure. Characteristics and behaviours may also help you to identify these talent among your employees. Some common examples include:

Positive energy/attitude
Entrepreneurial spirit
Innovation or creativity
Commitment to your startup’s culture and mission
Effective communication skills
Integrity
Teamwork
Customer focus and empathy
Leadership
Potential for growth
Job expertise and skills
Analytical skills
Commitment to deliver
A strong work ethic
Decision-making skills

Once you have identified the key characteristics or behaviours, measure your employees against these expectations and get a 360° feedback from the managers.

Focus on Motivational Dynamics

Once you’ve identified your organization’s top talent, it’s important to focus on the motivational dynamics. Motivational dynamics have changed dramatically to reflect new work requirements and changed worker expectations.

One of the biggest changes has been the rise in importance of psychic, or intrinsic rewards, and the decline of material or extrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards—usually financial—are the tangible rewards given employees by managers, such as pay raises, bonuses, and benefits. They are called “extrinsic” because they are external to the work itself and other people control their size and whether or not they are granted. In contrast, intrinsic rewards are psychological rewards that employees get from doing meaningful work and performing it well. Because intrinsic rewards are intangible, they usually arise from within the person who is doing the activity or behavior. Some examples of intrinsic reward includes:

Provide meaningful work
Allow workers to make choices through a high level of autonomy
Provide opportunities for employees to show their competence in areas of expertise
Facilitate professional development so that employees can expand on their level of knowledge
Offer frequent opportunities for employees to reward themselves
Allow employees the opportunity to connect with those with whom they serve to obtain valuable feedback
Give them a path to monitor their progress with milestones along the way

Before you can take action to nurture your top talent, you need to take time to get to know them as individuals and discover what motivates and engages them. Once you know this, it can be fairly easy to address their needs.

Provide Continuous Development

Just like all other employees, your top talent need opportunities for development and career growth. If companies are truly serious about retaining, and developing high-quality talent, they need to view themselves as growth platforms where people can develop themselves faster than they could elsewhere. It’s also important to nurture an individual’s development in areas where they are less strong, in order to allow them to make greater use of their strengths. Growth opportunities should occur on the job where employees can learn from coworkers and associates. This on-the-job model of learning can enable people to continually acquire relevant skills and tacit knowledge in their domain.

Make them Feel Truly Valued

Employee recognition isn’t rocket science. One of your most important responsibilities of the management is to make your employees feel truly valued, letting them know that without them, your company, your department—and frankly, you—would be worse off.

To effectively convey this, think about how you approach everyday conversations with your employees. When you assign a new task, for example, go beyond the basic and reiterate why you truly value their work. While it’s important for top performers to know they are valued by their organizations, they also need to know that their contributions are underpinned by many other people. Acknowledging the value and contributions of all employees helps your “A” team understand their place on the team and helps all employees endeavour for better performance.

Attracting & Retaining Tech Talent in India

Building a business in India requires a lot of hard work. Different considerations have to be made ranging from regulations, clients, hiring etc etc. If you are a tech startup, the most important factor that bothers you would be the coders that meet your fast paced business needs.

India’s tech talent pool is plentiful. But the dearth of skilled talent have skyrocketed the wages and has dampened the growth of many companies. Bangalore, for example, which is known for the depth of tech talent and the wider ecosystem looks really impressive from outside. However, it has about 100,000+ jobs available for about 25,000 really skilled tech talent. Does it ring a bell? So, if one of your rockstar employee wants to leave, it’s not too difficult for him to land on a better job.

So, what is really missing and how do you attract & retain top talent in your organization?

Be Honest

The first, critical step in attracting and retaining talent is to make sure that you understand what your company really is and whom it’s likely to hire. Some companies are stiffer, more formal, more professional; others are playful and creative. You have to be honest about how your workplace compares to other options that developers have, and think about the kinds of things that they’re thinking about when they choose a career.

Build a Greater Vision

As a tech company you will need to build a great vision around the people you hire so that they stay and create a competitive edge. During the interview process, take time to explain your vision statement. Once joined, take input and feedback that can help create a collaborative culture. This will ultimately help employees relate their work towards the organizational goal. Vision statements can also be more task oriented so that their daily chores will help employees feel a part of the larger cause. A company’s greater vision means nothing if the top management don’t live by them. Organizational values and behaviors have to be incorporated within their actions.

Go Deep on the Applicant Category

While hiring, understand each category of applicants. For instance, male candidates are shown to be drawn more towards excellent salaries and perks, challenging work and good organizational culture. However, female candidates, on the other hand, prefer a good work-life balance, cordial relationships with peers and flexible work arrangements.

Motivate by Recognition

Research shows that the majority of employees are motivated by recognition, not pay hikes or perks. And, employees say genuine recognition is the best motivator for them to deliver spectacular, groundbreaking differences for your customers and your organization. So make it a resolution to commit to recognition. Start by learning the basics, and read up on the difference that meaningful appreciation can make. Make it a priority and a commitment from your executive team to your individual contributors. You’ll be investing in your employees, your teams, and your company’s bottom line. And you’ll be well on your way to solving your talent crisis, one team at a time.

Look Beyond the “Top Pool”

There is an ample pool of talent beyond the top 25k+ candidates. India spews a whopping 1.5 million engineers annually, every year and there is an incredible amount of smart talent coming out of our system. If you have the capacity to train people, you can groom and nurture them. Unskilled labour can be an incredible opportunity if you know how to handle it. You may also find potential candidates, regardless of their current employment status, with new solutions. Look into recruitment solutions that harness predictive analytics and machine learning to find the most qualified candidates quickly.

Conclusion

Businesses are all about people and India is no different when it comes to the underlying principles of running a good business. The Indian tech market is noticing an epidemic growth and the need of the hour is how you disrupt the finding these talents through proper channels, how you understand the nuances and keep investing in your people and nurture them for the years to come.