Talent Acquisition Excellence - April 2023

(ISSN 2564-1964)

On the Cover

Articles

09 DEI: Job Seekers Seek Action, Not Promises Overcoming barriers to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment

- Amy Byrnes, Thought Leadership Content Strategist, iCIMS

17 The Need For A Talent Acquisition Strategy In Today’s World Leaders who overlook diversity and inclusion miss out on attracting and retaining top talent

- Lisa Milani, Global Vice President, Beamery

25 The Top Recruiting Trends For The Rest Of 2023

Ongoing hiring challenges amid national-level economic data and talent supply and demand

- Alicia Little, Director, Appcast Inc.

The ROI Of Recruitment Advertising: How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck

Are you tracking where you spend your recruitment budget?

- Matt Parkin, Business Development Lead, FindWRK

30 Implementing ChatGPT In Recruiting: Key Considerations And Best Practices

The benefits of AI for recruiters and job seekers

- Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga, Chief Data Scientist, HireVue

37 Prioritizing Retention: Solving Labor Problems With What You Already Have

Solving labor problems in the modern landscape calls for a cultural shift

- Sam Smith, President, EMEA and Global Client Delivery, Magnit

40 Solving The Labor Shortage: Tapping Into Global Talent

The role of HR-centric technological tools in solving the labor shortage

Recruitment Advertising Landscape Will Be More Data-Driven, TechEnabled, And Candidate-Centric

- Exclusive interview with Alisa Lagovska, Recruitment Team Leader, Jooble

Top Picks 12 19

Recruitment Advertising: How To Get A Leg Up In The War For Talent

- Exclusive interview with Kyle Mitchin, Chief People Officer, Forward Air

28

Navigating Labor Shortages And Recruitment Technology In 2023

- Exclusive interview with Lisa Niesen, Head of Talent Management, SHL

34

Candidate Recognition: Acknowledging Job Seekers Matters Today

- Exclusive interview with Travis Dommert, Senior Vice President of Talent, OneDigital

Editorial Purpose

Our mission is to promote personal and professional development based on constructive values, sound ethics, and timeless principles.

Excellence Publications

Debbie McGrath CEO, HR.com - Publisher

Dawn Jeffers VP, Sales

Sue Kelley Director (Product, Marketing, and Research)

Matt Charney Editor-in-Chief, Talent Acquisition Excellence

Recruitment Advertising: Now, and in Future

Youcan’t argue that recruitment advertising has evolved over the past couple of decades, and there’s been significant innovation and disruption in this category.

Babitha

Balakrishnan and Deepa Damodaran Excellence Publications Managers and Editors

Talent Acquisition Excellence Team

Matt Charney Editor-in-Chief

Deepa Damodaran Editor

Koushik

Bharadhwaj Junior Editor

Chinnavel

Design and Layout (Digital Magazine)

Chandra Shekar Magazine (Online Version)

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For example, there used to essentially be a duopoly on recruitment ad spend, with CareerBuilder and Monster (after the latter’s acquisition of HotJobs! from Yahoo!) dominating TA budget and bandwidth; today, there’s essentially a duopoly on recruitment ad spend, with Indeed and LinkedIn dominating TA budget and bandwidth.

Now, that’s the kind of progress most other industries would envy.

Another example that comes to mind is the evolution of recruitment advertising from a “post and pray” model to programmatic advertising, showing the significant strides we’ve made towards a data driven, analytical approach to talent acquisition, which is why we have no idea which paid source our candidates are coming from.

This is a big change from the days of candidate self-reporting, because now there’s an algorithm automating last touch attribution, a paradigm shift in how people find companies, and companies find people.

By being able to target job ads to the right candidate at the right time, instead of simply passive posting, recruiters can ensure that the resumes they don’t look at are significantly better than before.

As part of a strategic, omnichannel campaign, strategic recruitment advertising can be an indispensable tool in building engaged pipelines of top talent that’s just a job alert away.

Leveraging employer branding as part of a holistic recruitment advertising approach also lets candidates – and employers – know that they’re not just the right fit for the job, but also, for the company and its current employees, allowing you to ignore the latter (and their referrals) the minute you open a req.

After all, internal recruiting is everyone’s responsibility except for, you know, internal recruiters. The only talent community that really matters is the one that’s allowed to see and apply for those billions of dollars

companies spend on recruitment advertising every year, not the one behind the corporate firewall or employee monitoring software.

Alright. Maybe recruitment advertising has come a long way (just today, Indeed sent me a press release touting their shift from a flat rate to a performance based digital advertising model – mind blown), but as they say, the more things change, the more they remain the same. The economy and the job market might be cyclical, but recruitment advertising will remain a convenient scapegoat for producing either too many or too few candidates, depending on whether we’re in a boom or a

bust. And there’s really something comforting about that.

This month’s edition of Talent Acquisition Magazine is dedicated to exploring what’s new and what’s next in recruitment advertising (a good rule of thumb: anything that’s already considered passe by consumer advertising).

We’ll be taking a close look what recruiting and people leaders need to know in order to make every dollar of the estimated $300 billion we spend every year in North America alone count. Because giving everyone of the 165 million workers in that market a check for the over $1800 we average on job ads to reach every single one of them just wouldn’t work as well as a talent CRM or a content management system just for your career site.

If there’s one thing that we understand here at Talent Acquisition Excellence magazine, after all, it’s advertising. That’s why there’s so much of it between the articles in every edition.

April fools and happy hiring.

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Talent Acquisition Excellence - Monthly Interactive Learning Journal

This monthly interactive learning experience captures key metrics, actionable items and keeps you focused on developing yourself and corporation as top leaders in the Talent Acquisition space.

Talent Acquisition Virtual Events

Talent Acquisition Virtual Events offer webcasts and demos on topics in any of the staffing related programs: Contract Workforce and Talent Exchanges, Online Staffing and Sourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, or Quality of Hire. Learn how to bring the right staffing and recruiting programs into your organization and make them impactful. Listen to the world’s top thought leaders in the staffing industry as they help companies make decisions in all areas of staffing and recruiting. Each Virtual Event consists of up to 10 credit webcasts.

Talent Acquisition Webcasts for Credit

HR.com webcasts deliver the latest Talent Acquisition industry news, research trends, best practices and case studies directly to your desktop. Webcasts are available live online with a downloadable podcast and a copy of the slides (PDF) available before and after each webcast. Earn all of the required recertification credits for aPHR, PHR, SPHR, GPHR, and SHRM Certifications. HR.com’s one-hour webcasts, in every HR specialty including Talent Acquisition, are pre-approved for HRCI and SHRM credit (excluding Demo webcasts).

Talent Acquisition Community

Join almost 55,000 HR.com members with a similar interest and focus on staffing and recruiting topics with one of the four staffing related online communities: Contract Workforce and Talent Exchanges, Online Staffing and Sourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, or Quality of Hire. Share content and download research reports, blogs, and articles, network, and “follow” peers and have them “follow” you in a social network platform to communicate regularly and stay on top of the latest updates. This well established Community is an invaluable resource for any HR professional or manager.

The ROI Of Recruitment Advertising: How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck

Are you tracking where you spend your recruitment budget?

By Matt Parkin, FindWRK

Recruitment advertising is a crucial aspect of the hiring process for any organization. It helps attract top talent to your company and can give you a competitive edge in the job market. However, with so many different options for recruitment advertising, it can be difficult to know which strategies will give you the best return on investment (ROI).

This article explores the ROI of recruitment advertising and provides tips on how to get the most bang for your buck.

What Is ROI?

First, let us define what we mean by ROI. ROI is a measure of the efficiency of an investment. In the context of recruitment advertising, it refers to the amount of money you spend on

advertising divided by the number of hires you make as a result of that advertising. A high ROI means that you are getting a lot of hires for the money you spend, while a low ROI means that you are not getting as many hires as you would like for the money you are spending.

So how do you maximize the ROI of your recruitment advertising efforts? Here are some tips to consider:

1. Identify your target audience

Before you start advertising, it is important to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is. Are you looking for entry-level candidates, experienced professionals, or a mix of both? Some channels like TikTok might be better suited for

younger, entry-level candidates, whereas LinkedIn might yield better results for experienced hires. Knowing your target audience will help you choose the most effective recruitment advertising channels and tailor your messaging to appeal to the right candidates.

2. Use a variety of recruitment advertising channels

There are many different channels you can use to advertise your job openings, including job boards, social media, and targeted online ads. It is important to use a mix of channels to reach as many potential candidates as possible. This is especially true when you are hiring for several different roles. If you are looking for a chief financial officer (CFO), LinkedIn

will likely bring you the best results. If you are hiring a cashier or bartender, however, those candidates will not be as active on LinkedIn, so a platform that is focused on hourly roles will likely bring better results. A variety of recruitment advertising channels will give you the results you are looking for with specificity for the role type, seniority, location and more.

3. Measure the effectiveness of your recruitment advertising

To determine the ROI of your recruitment advertising efforts, you need to be able to track the results of your campaigns. This might include the number of applicants you receive, the number of hires you make, the cost per hire, the average retention of the hires, and the candidate’s response time. By measuring these metrics across each channel, you can determine which recruitment advertising channels are the most effective

and allocate your budget accordingly.

4. Optimize your job postings

The language you use in your job postings can have a big impact on the number of applicants you receive. For example, there are currently over 8,000 retail jobs in Toronto listed on Indeed –most candidates will likely only look at a small fraction of those. Instead of listing the same bullet point responsibilities as every other employer, consider making the messaging at the top of your posting candidate-centric. Focusing on exciting growth opportunities and flexibility will draw candidates in and bring you a better ROI than listing boring job responsibilities.

In conclusion, maximizing the ROI of your recruitment advertising efforts requires careful planning and strategy. By identifying your target audience, using a variety of recruitment advertising channels,

measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns and optimizing your job postings, you can ensure that you are getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to attracting top talent to your organization.

Recommended Resources:

https://www.findwrk.com/ resources/5-metrics-for-evaluating-your-talent-attraction-strategy

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Matt Parkin is the Business Development Lead at FindWRK

DEI: Job Seekers Seek Action, Not Promises

Overcoming barriers to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment

By Amy Byrnes, iCIMS

Google “importance of belonging,” and you will quickly discover how critical it is for humans to feel connected to others. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow — whose hierarchy of needs maps out five levels of human essentials, starting with the most basic — belonging is not far above food and shelter and on the same plane as love.

However, in the modern world of work, creating environments that foster that feeling of belonging and inclusion is often paid a lot of lip service, but never

put into action. Instead, a company might say it has a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy and is committed to nurturing an inclusive workplace but fails to source more diverse candidates for leadership positions.

“It is one thing to have representation at the entry-level positions, or to say that 20% of your intern class is from historically excluded groups (HEGs),” said Chinor Lee, Director of DEI at iCIMS. “But it is another when diversity higher up the hierarchy — like

front-line managers or the people, who are setting and executing the strategy of the organization — completely falls off the cliff.”

Lee went on to say that candidates will see the depth of an organization’s commitment to creating a diverse workforce when they show up for an interview, and nobody looks like them. The goal is to build strong, trusting relationships with candidates from HEGs with actions, not just words and promises. Candidates can see right through inauthentic messages that are not backed up by concrete action.

Are Diversity Efforts Making an Impact?

In our 2023 Workforce Report, nearly two-thirds (59%) of people ranked their company’s DEI initiatives as effective, yet most respondents do not see DEI practices in place at work (such as pronouns, celebrations of different cultures, unconscious bias training or allyship programs). While belonging is fundamental at work, more than half of our survey’s respondents said they do not feel either, with only 43% feeling a sense of belonging at work and 52% feeling valued by their primary employer.

The absence of these practices — perhaps perceived as critical indicators of true inclusion — may be keeping some organizations from doing anything more than just scratching the DEI surface.

Do not get us wrong: there has been progress in workplace diversity in the last few years. In fact, diversity efforts may be helping to make recent gains at the top levels, according to a recent iCIMS survey, with incremental increases in women and HEG candidates hired into top executive roles. Notably, the share of women and black professionals has seen an uptick, with 4% and 3% YoY increases, respectively.

Explore the iCIMS February Workforce Report to get a snapshot of monthly key indicators and see who is looking and what is on their minds.

The Case for Delivering on Diversity

Today’s millennial and Gen Z workforce consider diverse and equitable hiring practices to be the bare minimum. In a hypercompetitive landscape, corporations realize that DEI is not just good ethics or even good PR. It is simply good business. Research has shown that companies are 21% more likely to outperform their goals with more profitability when they have greater gender diversity on their teams

DEI is also a clear path to the engagement and retention necessary to build a strong, productive workforce, especially in an uncertain labor market. Studies have shown that organizations with diverse, inclusive workforces win. According to Deloitte, diverse organizations are 3.1 times more likely to adapt to change effectively and 2.6 times more likely to engage and retain their employees.

DEI should be regarded not as just one more task on recruiters’ plates but as a tool to help them navigate the challenging new hiring landscape. Let us dig into how it is done.

Going Beyond the DEI Baseline at Work

Okay, so we have made a compelling argument that DEI is not only a critical ingredient in your overall hiring strategy, but also needs to be baked into your company culture. So, what now? How can you improve our efforts?

We looked at how some of our customers are creating inclusive workplaces at different stages of the talent lifecycle.

To level the interviewing playing field, the talent team at Celanese sends out a welcome video explaining

what to expect during the process. Understanding how stressful the interview process can be will not only helps minimize anxiety for HEG candidates but also provides more opportunities for diverse talent to succeed and advance their careers.

Spectrum, a broadband and cable operator, is committed to getting military veterans back into the civilian workforce. The talent team uses employee-generated videos to let members of its veteran workforce talk about their experiences transitioning to civilian life. Those videos personalize the talent experience and provide transparency into what it is like for a veteran to work for the company.

Leaders understand that the future of their business depends on creating a diverse workforce and that they must build more DEI-focused talent journeys as a result.

Take a Pulse Check

Setting aside all the numbers, how do you know if your efforts to create an inclusive environment are working? How do you quantify whether an employee feels like they belong with their team at your company?

“The challenging thing about belonging is that it can vary — by day, project and moment,” Lee said. Rather than relying on annual or semiannual engagement surveys, which capture where employees are at one particular moment and might change the next day, some companies are turning to pulse surveys for a quick check-in.

British retailer Marks and Spencer performs three pulse surveys each year that help managers and their teams measure employee engagement and adjust based on feedback. Tech giant, Microsoft, reported that the company conducts daily surveys of a random sampling of employees about the company’s return-to-office plans to hear firsthand from employees what is and is not working.

No matter the approach, think of your DEI initiatives as a combined holistic process that ensures human resources (HR) can source talent from a diverse pool of candidates, foster an environment for them to succeed, and then support them through prolonged tenure at the organization. To do that, you need to get out of the DEI kiddie pool and jump into the deep end.

Amy Byrnes is a Thought Leadership

Content Strategist at iCIMS. In her role, she crafts a wide variety of compelling content that gives deep insight into today’s labor market and talent trends. With two decades of experience as an editor and journalist, Amy is passionate about telling stories that inspire action and build communities.

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“Recruitment advertising is expected to continue to evolve in the coming years, with an increasing emphasis on leveraging technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process. Additionally, there may be a greater focus on personalized and targeted recruitment messaging and using chatbots and other automated tools to provide candidates with a more seamless and engaging experience. Overall, the recruitment advertising landscape will likely become more data-driven, tech-enabled, and candidate-centric in the coming years,” said Alisa Lagovska, Recruitment Team Leader, Jooble

Alisa is a recruitment specialist with 11 years of practical experience in hiring and launching recruiting processes in industries, such as outsourcing, retail, logistics and IT. In an exclusive interview with HR.com, she shares insights on what factors make a company an ‘employer of choice’, advertising strategies that can help build a steady pipeline of talent, and the role that technology will play in recruitment advertising, among other topics.

Recruitment Advertising Landscape Will Be More Data-Driven, Tech-Enabled, And Candidate-Centric

Q.What do candidates seek from employers today?

Alisa: In 2022, we saw the gradual return of companies to work after the pandemic, as well as a series of layoffs at many technology companies

Consequently, job seekers are reassessing their preferences and expectations from potential employers while searching for new job opportunities in 2023.

Here are the main criteria that candidates seek from employers today:

1. Stability: The massive layoffs among tech companies in recent months have made job seekers prioritize stability and security. Many employees would consider leaving their current job if they sense an impending layoff. Organizations prioritizing job security and promoting stability are more likely to attract and retain talented employees. Such employees are likely to speak positively about their employers, potentially making recruiting top talent through referrals easier.

Q&A with Alisa Lagovska, Recruitment Team Leader, Jooble

2. Payment: Candidates in today’s job market prioritize knowing the salary information before applying for a job. Various data sources from 2022 show that increased pay is the top priority for job seekers. With the cost of living crisis, candidates leave their jobs for better-paying positions. Therefore, it is crucial to include a clear salary in job advertisements to attract strong candidates.

3. Flexibility: With the rise of remote work and flexible schedules, candidates may increasingly seek employers who offer more flexibility in their work arrangements. This can include the ability to work from home, flexible hours, and other accommodations that allow for a better work-life balance.

4. Purpose and Meaning: As younger generations enter the workforce, they may seek employers aligned with their values and provide opportunities for purposeful work. Candidates may be drawn to companies that have a vital mission and make a positive impact in the world.

5. Professional Development: In an era of rapid technological change, candidates may seek employers, who provide continuous learning and development opportunities. Employers that invest in training, mentorship, and upskilling opportunities will likely be more attractive to candidates.

Alisa:

1. Company culture: A positive company culture that promotes collaboration, inclusivity, and employee satisfaction can significantly draw job seekers. Companies that foster a sense of belonging and invest in their employees’ well-being are more likely to attract and retain top talent.

2. Career growth and development opportunities: Employees want to know that there are

opportunities for advancement and that their employers are invested in their professional growth. Companies that provide training, mentorship, and career development opportunities will likely be more attractive to job seekers.

3. Compensation and benefits: Competitive pay and benefits packages are essential for attracting and retaining employees. Employers that offer flexible work arrangements, generous paid time off, and comprehensive health insurance are likely to be more attractive to candidates.

4. Purpose and impact: Employees want to feel that their work has meaning and contributes to a greater purpose. Companies that prioritize social responsibility, sustainability, and positively impacting society are more likely to attract job seekers motivated by a sense of purpose.

5. Reputation and brand image: A company’s reputation and brand image can significantly attract top talent. Companies with a positive public image and a strong reputation for excellence will likely be more attractive to candidates.

6. Work-life balance: Employees value work-life balance in today’s fast-paced and demanding work environment. Companies that offer flexible schedules, remote work options, and other accommodations for better work-life balance will likely be more attractive to appliers.

Q.What are the factors that play a key role in making a company an ‘employer of choice’? Please elaborate.

Q.Whatare the advertising strategies you adopt to build a steady pipeline of talent? Which is the most effective mode and why?

Alisa:

1. Recruitment marketing. The ongoing year, 2023, is expected to change recruitment processes significantly. It will be imperative for talent teams to shift away from traditional human resources (HR) practices to stay competitive. To attract and retain top talent, successful recruitment teams have started using marketing strategies to engage with potential applicants actively.

Recruitment marketing involves conveying an appropriate message to the appropriate audience at the right time and place, while ensuring consistency in presenting your employer brand across all channels. Although

it significantly differs from traditional hiring techniques, it is proven effective.

2. Social media. Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can help reach a wider audience. These platforms can help target specific demographics and industries to attract the right talent. LinkedIn revealed that around half of all professionals follow other social media companies to stay up-to-date with employment possibilities.

3. Referral programs. According to TalentLyft, approximately 50% of companies still highly value employee referrals as their primary means of hiring new employees. These referrals are viewed by 88% of companies as the most effective way to secure top-quality candidates. Additionally, referred positions are filled 55% faster than those filled through other methods. In Jooble, this method is second in terms of the number of closed vacancies in 2023.

Q.What role will technology play in recruitment advertising? Please elaborate.

Alisa:

1. Artificial Intelligence. The recruitment industry is expected to face a technological disruption in 2023, with the growing utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the hiring process being one of the main trends. AI and machine learning can automate and simplify many of the repetitive and time-consuming tasks related to recruitment, including resume screening and interview scheduling.

With the increasing use of AI and ML, recruiters can create targeted and personalized job advertisements that match potential candidates’ specific skills and experience. This will help reduce the time and resources required to sift through applications and identify the most qualified candidates.

2. Moreover, social media platforms will continue to be essential tools for recruitment advertising. Recruiters can also use these platforms to build relationships with potential candidates by engaging with them and sharing valuable content that positions the company as an employer of choice.

These platforms can help attract a more diverse pool of candidates and create a more personalized and meaningful interaction with them. Additionally, these platforms can offer helpful information on a candidate’s skills, interests, and experiences, simplifying the recruiter’s job in identifying the most suitable candidates for a particular job.

3. Besides, chatbots and other automated tools are becoming more popular for engaging with candidates and improving their experience. Such tools can manage various tasks, including answering common queries about the company

and job qualifications, booking interviews, and even conducting initial screening interviews. By leveraging technology in this manner, recruiters can reduce time and expenses while offering candidates a more comfortable and practical experience.

Q.How will recruitment advertising evolve in the coming years?

Alisa: Recruitment advertising is expected to continue to evolve in the coming years, with an increasing emphasis on leveraging technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process. This could include the continued use of AI and ML to automate and streamline recruiting tasks, such as resume screening and candidate matching, as well as social media and other online platforms to reach a broader and more diverse pool of candidates. Additionally, there may be a greater focus on personalized and targeted recruitment messaging and using chatbots and other automated tools to provide candidates with a more seamless and engaging experience. Overall, the recruitment advertising landscape will likely become more data-driven, tech-enabled, and candidate-centric in the coming years.

Q.What are the challenges you face with traditional recruitment advertising methods? How do you overcome

them?

Alisa:

1. The biggest recruitment challenge for us is getting a talented candidate’s attention. To solve this problem, we are working on improving the employer brand. We are working on the recognition of our company for technical specialists. We aim to make candidates understand that we are a high-tech company and can offer them exciting tasks and development in this direction.

2. Inefficiency. Traditional recruitment advertising methods can also be ineffective, as recruiters

spend much time manually reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. To overcome this, we use automation tools, such as AI-powered interviews, scheduling and initial assessment automation software. This helps streamline the hiring process and free up recruiters’ time to focus on more valuable activities.

Q.What are the new forms of recruitment advertising that will make an impact in the future?

Alisa:

1. Targeted recruiting advertising. Targeting is a marketing strategy that helps reach more relevant consumers by showing them ads based on their interests and behaviors. This process also applies to recruitment advertising, where targeted ads help job seekers find relevant career opportunities by using keywords, job descriptions, and details.

2. Video Job Descriptions. Video job descriptions are becoming increasingly popular as they provide a more engaging and interactive way to showcase a company’s culture and job

requirements. To reach your ideal candidates, you should consider which websites they would spend time on, such as social media platforms for a social media manager or coding and web-design forums for a web developer.

3. Gamification. Gamification is being used to create interactive and engaging recruitment experiences. This involves creating games or simulations that test candidates’ skills and abilities, providing them a more immersive and memorable experience. Gamification is an effective way to attract Gen Z and millennials, who have grown up playing video games. This technique can help companies provide a sense of belonging to candidates and create employer branding opportunities. Using game elements, design, or theory, gamification can engage candidates and help companies stand out in the upcoming global talent shortage.

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The Need For A Talent Acquisition Strategy In Today’s World

Leaders who overlook diversity and inclusion miss out on attracting and retaining top talent

By Lisa Milani, Beamery

Theglobal economy has been hit by several macro-environmental factors that have affected the labor market. The Covid-19 pandemic-induced recession, demographic changes, and technological advancements have led to a significant labor shortage in various industries. As the economy recovers, employers are struggling to find skilled and qualified workers to fill open positions. This has necessitated the need for a talent acquisition strategy that is tailored to the current market conditions.

A talent acquisition strategy is a long-term plan that outlines how an organization will attract, engage, and retain top talent. It is an essential aspect of human resources management that enables organizations to identify and hire the right candidates for the job. With the current labor shortage, a talent acquisition strategy is critical for businesses to succeed in today’s competitive market.

The importance of having a talent acquisition strategy cannot be overstated. A well-crafted strategy en-

ables organizations to identify their talent needs and determine the best approach to attract and retain top talent. A talent acquisition strategy should consider the current labor market conditions, demographic trends, and the organization’s overall business strategy. This approach ensures that the organization is equipped to meet its short and long-term workforce needs.

To solve the labor shortage problem, organizations must prioritize talent acquisition. This means investing in recruitment efforts, employee training, and development programs. Employers should focus on building a strong employer brand that attracts top talent. The employer brand should showcase the organization’s values, culture, and commitment to employee development.

One effective way to attract and retain top talent is to offer competitive compensation packages. Organizations should review their compensation and benefits packages to ensure that they are aligned with industry standards. Additionally, offering flexible work arrangements, such as remote work options and flexible schedules can attract a wider pool of candidates.

Organizations should also focus on developing their internal talent pipeline. This means investing in employee development programs and providing opportunities for career growth and advancement. This approach not only enables organizations to fill open positions, but also boosts employee morale and retention rates.

The labor shortage is a significant challenge facing organizations today. To solve this problem, employers must prioritize talent acquisition and develop a robust talent acquisition strategy that aligns with their overall business strategy. This strategy should focus on attracting and retaining top talent, building a strong employer brand, offering competitive compensation packages, and investing in employee development programs. With a well-crafted talent acquisition strategy in place, organizations can navigate the current labor market conditions and thrive in today’s competitive business environment.

While recruiting and talent acquisition are often used interchangeably, they are distinct approaches to fill-

ing open positions within an organization. Recruiting is a more short-term, reactive process focused on filling specific vacancies. It typically involves advertising job openings, reviewing resumes, and conducting interviews to find the most suitable candidate for the job.

In contrast, talent acquisition is a more strategic, long-term approach that seeks to attract, engage, and retain top talent. Talent acquisition is proactive, meaning that it focuses on building a pipeline of skilled and qualified candidates, who may not be actively seeking new job opportunities. This approach involves identifying the organization’s future workforce needs and developing a plan to attract the right talent to fill those positions.

The key difference between recruiting and talent acquisition lies in their focus and scope. Recruiting is geared toward finding the best candidate for a specific role, while talent acquisition is focused on building a strong talent pipeline to meet the organization’s current and future needs.

Talent acquisition strategies are more holistic and consider the organization’s overall business strategy, as well as its talent needs. Talent acquisition strategies may include a variety of initiatives, such as building an employer brand, offering career development opportunities, and implementing employee referral programs.

In summary, while recruiting and talent acquisition are related processes, talent acquisition is a more proactive, strategic approach that is focused on building a strong talent pipeline to meet the organization’s long-term needs.

Lisa Milani is the Global Vice President, Strategic Alliances and Ecosystems, at Beamery. She is experienced in human capital and talent management and strives to validate, optimize, and accelerate candidate talent slate.

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“The Covid-19 pandemic taught us that you cannot predict the future. You can, however, be built to last and equipped to adapt. Recruitment is not a one-way road, rather, it is a complex conversation. An employer that is not regularly assessing candidate and employee needs is already falling behind. By listening to candidates, meeting their needs, and diversifying how you advertise the benefits and offerings of your company, your recruitment team can get a leg up in the war for talent,” said Kyle Mitchin,

Chief People Officer, Forward Air

Kyle provides his insights on several important topics related to employer-candidate dynamics in an exclusive interview with HR.com. Among the issues he addresses are the factors that influence a company’s status as an “employer of choice” and what job candidates are looking for from their employers in today’s job market. Additionally, he explores the impact of technology on recruitment advertising and predicts how this field may evolve in the years to come.

Recruitment Advertising: How To Get A Leg Up In The War For Talent

Q.What do candidates seek from employers today? What are the factors that play a key role in making a company an ‘employer of choice’? Please elaborate.

Kyle: In the U.S., there are currently 10 million job openings and approximately 6 million unemployed people to fill those jobs! With millions of roles unfilled, the war for talent is real – it is critical for employers, and recruiters, to focus on attracting and retaining the right talent. These labor shortages have a huge impact on companies across industries, and have particularly affected the trucking industry, which is estimated to need more than 160,000 drivers in 2023.

Top candidates across industries are looking for companies offering fair compensation and total rewards, opportunities for growth, positive company culture, work-life balance, and supportive leadership. As Chief People Officer of Forward, I have witnessed the first-hand result of prioritizing empathetic and proactive leadership in making Forward Air a great place for current and future teammates. These efforts have resulted in a low driver turnover rate of only 30-40%

Q&A with Kyle Mitchin, Chief People Officer, Forward Air

- which is considerably lower than the industry standard of 90%!

Even if a company checks every box for what candidates are searching for in an employer, those factors are not helpful if the company is not effectively broadcasting its offerings. To ensure they are attracting the highest level of talent, companies must consider the following:

1. Ensure competitive compensation: Top candidates often look for employers who offer competitive salaries and benefits packages. At Forward, we benchmark our positions on an annual basis to ensure we remain market competitive, or better, on pay. Over the past two years, we have increased compensation by 20% or more for many of our positions – especially on the hourly workforce side – to remain competitive in key markets. Though pay is an important catalyst for attracting and retaining top talent, it is only one of the many factors employees are measuring when considering joining or leaving an organization.

2. Offer great benefits and total rewards: Essentially, when pay is equalized, these benefits attract and keep top talent. Forward continues to make substantial investments in this area. We fight to keep our employees’ share of benefits premium expense extremely low, while offering premium benefits coverage. Forward covers up to 90% of the insurance premium expense for our teammates. Additionally, we made significant enhancements to our paid time off (PTO) packages in 2022, awarding most of our people an additional 5+ days of paid time off per year.

3. Provide career growth opportunities: Candidates want to work for companies that provide opportunities for professional development, advancement, and learning. We do all we can to develop our teammates to be all they can be in their current role and best prepare them to grow into their next role.

4. Live your company culture: A positive company culture is important to top candidates, and embodying that culture is even more critical.

People want to work in an environment that fosters collaboration, creativity, and inclusivity. Our culture is everything to us at Forward. Creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, where employees feel valued and respected, can make us an employer of choice. In all areas, but especially this one, it is important to ‘walk the walk,’ and not just ‘talk the talk’.

5. Champion work-life balance: Candidates seek employers who support work-life balance and offer flexible work arrangements. The Covid-19 pandemic taught us a lot about the effectiveness of people in a remote fashion. It also taught us about the importance and impact of face-to-face interactions on the culture and engagement of our people. There is no one-sizefits-all solution here for employers. For us, a balanced hybrid approach was the right answer. We provide our teammates with maximum flexibility when possible and require our teams to be in person for critical engagements.

6. Meaningful work: Many top candidates want to work for companies that have a strong mission and make a positive impact in the world. We strive to ensure our people understand our strategy and mission and know the important role they play in achieving them. We have reinforced this behavior by using our human resources information system (HRIS) to cascade our management by objectives (MBOs) from top to bottom, properly aligning goals to incentives. Additionally, we have a strong commitment to social responsibility and making a positive impact in the world through our environmental, social and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) efforts.

7. Supportive leadership: Candidates look for leaders who are approachable, supportive, and invested in the success of their teammates as well as the success of the company. Having effective and supportive leadership that supports collaboration and encourages employee feedback can make a company a much more attractive place to work. We strive to be all we can be as leaders at Forward and

conduct bi-annual upward feedback surveys to ensure accountability in leading the right way. At Forward, we are focused on tapping into 100% of the talent pool. Attracting a diverse workforce can be challenging for any employer, but having a robust advertising strategy will help employers attract and build a diverse pipeline of talent.

Q.What are the advertising strategies you adopt to build a steady pipeline of talent? Which is the most effective mode and why?

Kyle: It is important for companies to stay up to date with the latest recruiting technology and use it effectively to attract top talent. Here are some talent advertising strategies to consider:

1. Employer branding: Developing a strong employer brand can attract top talent by communicating the company’s values, culture, and mission. Companies can showcase their employer brand through their website, social media, job postings, and other marketing materials.

2. Job postings: Creating job postings that are clear, concise, and appealing to candidates can help attract top talent. Companies should focus on highlighting the key responsibilities, qualifications, and benefits of the position.

3. Employee referrals: Encouraging current employees to refer to their network can be a cost-effective way to attract top talent. Companies can offer incentives to employees who refer successful candidates. At Forward, this is the most effective form of advertising –especially with the driver community. Nothing against our internal talent team (they are awesome!), but some of our best recruiters are our drivers. They receive our benefits firsthand and are the best spokespeople for sharing our competitive offerings to similar candidates.

4. Social media: Leveraging social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, can help companies reach a wider audience of potential candidates. Companies can create engaging content, participate in

industry discussions, and connect with potential candidates.

5. Career fairs and events: Attending career fairs and hosting events can help companies connect with potential candidates and promote their employer brand. In-person opportunities offer a more candid dialogue – we can learn more about what candidates want and tailor our offerings to their needs.

6. Recruitment advertising: Companies can use online job boards, recruitment agencies, and other advertising platforms to reach a wider audience of potential candidates. It is important to target the right audience and use engaging visuals and messaging.

7. Employer review websites: Candidates often use employer review websites, such as Glassdoor, to research companies before applying. Companies should actively monitor and respond to reviews to promote a positive image.

Employers and recruiters have access to a range of tools and platforms that can help them reach a wider audience of potential candidates and streamline the recruitment process. Mobile accessibility for candidates is the lynchpin to maximizing engagement. People want to search for jobs, research the company, apply and onboard all in the palm of their hand. Make it easy for candidates to engage with you, and you will see a great boost to your candidate pool.

Q.What role will technology play in recruitment advertising?

Please elaborate. How will recruitment advertising evolve in the coming years?

Kyle: While internal employee referrals are still effective, thanks to technology most traditional methods have been replaced with newer, more effective, processes. Here are some great ways that technology is used in recruiting advertising:

1. Job boards: Online job boards, such as Indeed and LinkedIn, allow companies to post job openings and reach a large audience of potential candidates.

2. Applicant tracking systems: Applicant tracking systems (ATS) allow companies to manage the recruitment process, from posting job openings to screening resumes and scheduling interviews. This technology can help streamline the recruitment process, increasing efficiency and efficacy.

3. Social media: Social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, can be used to promote job openings, connect with potential candidates, and build a strong employer brand. A standalone Facebook post about a job opening is a light attempt at recruiting. Now imagine that same Facebook post, among a backlog of content sharing insight into company culture, benefits, leadership and benefits. That post suddenly has supporting evidence – active, meaningful, and engaging content builds upon itself and elevates critical posts.

4. Video interviewing and virtual career fairs: Video interviewing platforms, such as Zoom and Skype, allow companies to conduct remote interviews with candidates, which can save time and reduce travel costs. Virtual career fairs allow companies to connect with potential candidates online and showcase their employer brand, without the need for physical events. In a nationwide corporation, these tools help bridge the gap between recruiters and candidates.

5. Artificial intelligence (AI): AI-powered tools, such as chatbots and screening algorithms, can help automate certain aspects of the recruitment process, such as initial screening and scheduling interviews.

From our perspective, traditional recruitment advertising methods are on life support. Print ads, state/local employment agencies and temp staffing are a thing of the past for us. The only traditional method that we still employ, and do so strongly, is internal employee referrals.

Q.What are the challenges you face with traditional recruitment advertising methods? How do you overcome them?

Kyle: Some additional challenges with traditional recruitment advertising may include:

1. Limited reach and diversity of candidates: Traditional recruitment advertising methods, such as newspaper ads, job fairs, and flyers, have limited reach and may not reach a wide pool of potential candidates.

2. Costly: Traditional recruitment advertising methods can be expensive, especially for small businesses with limited resources. Advertising costs can quickly add up, making it difficult for smaller organizations to compete with larger companies.

3. Time-consuming: Traditional recruitment methods can be time-consuming, especially when it comes to reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. This can lead to delays in the hiring process, causing frustration for both the hiring manager and potential candidates.

4. Lack of targeting: Traditional recruitment methods often lack the ability to target specific demographics or job seekers with certain skills or qualifications, resulting in a pool of applicants that may not be the right fit for the job.

5. Limited candidate Interaction: Traditional recruitment methods may not provide candidates with a clear understanding of the company culture, job expectations, or growth opportunities, leading to lower job satisfaction and higher turnover rates.

In the new norm of modern recruitment advertising, our biggest challenge is social media saturation. I do not know about you, but my LinkedIn mailbox is overflowing with InMail requests. For years, LinkedIn has been the most reliable and cost-effective source to find salaried talent. We have seen a significant drop-off in candidate engagement recently and believe this is due to marketplace saturation.

A few suggestions to overcome this challenge from my point of view:

1. Think outside the box: People are receiving hundreds of InMail requests, so your message needs to stand out from the crowd.

2. Follow up: Most people are terrible at following up, yet most engagements happen after several follow up attempts.

3. Get old school: I hate to age myself, but very few people pick up the phone and call a prospective candidate. You will surprise yourself with how effective this can be.

Recruitment advertising will continue evolving in the coming years, driven by advancements in technology, changes in the job market, and shifting candidate expectations.

Q.What are the new forms of recruitment advertising that will make an impact in the future?

Kyle: Want to stay ahead of the trends and diversify your efforts to attract the industry’s top talent?

Consider the following areas that may help recruitment advertising evolve in the near future:

1. Increased focus on diversity and inclusion: With the growing importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, recruitment advertising is likely to place a greater emphasis on attracting a diverse pool of candidates.

2. Greater use of AI: As AI technology continues to improve, recruitment advertising may increasingly rely on AI-powered tools, such as chatbots and screening algorithms, to automate certain aspects of the recruitment process.

3. Greater use of social media and online platforms: As more candidates turn to social media and online platforms to research companies and job opportunities, recruitment advertising is likely to place a greater emphasis on these channels.

4. More targeted advertising: As advertising technology continues to improve, recruitment advertising may become more targeted and personalized, based on candidate data and preferences. (Think geo-fencing on steroids.)

5. Increased use of virtual recruiting tools: With the shift towards remote work and virtual events, recruitment advertising is likely to increasingly rely on virtual recruiting tools, such as video interviews and virtual career fairs.

As the pandemic so directly taught us, you cannot predict the future. You can, however, be built to last and equipped to adapt. Recruitment is not a one-way road, rather, it is a complex conversation. An employer that is not regularly assessing candidate and employee needs is already falling behind. By listening to candidates, meeting their needs, and diversifying how you advertise the benefits and offerings of your company, your recruitment team can get a leg up in the war for talent.

Align your brand with this year’s State of the Industry hot HR topics and showcase your expertise

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The Top Recruiting Trends For The Rest Of 2023

Ongoing hiring challenges amid national-level economic data and talent supply and demand

By Alicia Little, Appcast Inc.

The U.S. economy is caught in a strange place. The most intense banking crisis since 2008 has upended an already-unstable environment. Inflation is high but it is also down from the four-decade peak it hit in June of 2022. Job growth is slowing but demand for workers is strong. Some say we are in a recession, while others say we are not. If you are looking for certainty, you are not going to find it. The only possible certainty is change.

How do you forecast recruitment trends in such a confusing environment? While there is no surefire solution, here are five top trends that will shape recruiting in 2023.

1. Despite Economic Uncertainty, There Will Be No Major Pullback in Hiring

When you see the stock market having its worst first half in 50 years, stubbornly high inflation,

and news that the world’s biggest technology companies are cutting headcount, you might assume that a hiring slowdown is on the horizon. However, for most employers, there is still a lot of recruiting that needs to be done.

Needless to say, when candidates are in short supply, any intervention that brings job openings down will be good news for recruiters, who are struggling to find talent.

At the local level, some sectors are facing a recruiting environment that is more akin to the boom times of an economy than the bust times. Hiring freezes are big talking points in big tech, while sectors like airlines and hospitality cannot hire fast enough.

Talent acquisition professionals will be under increasing pressure

to explain the dichotomy between national-level economic data and talent supply and demand in their own organizations.

Barring further twists and turns, organizations should expect ongoing hiring challenges similar to what they have today, at least into the third quarter of 2023.

2. Pay Transparency Laws Will Continue to Change the Rules of the Game

Pay transparency laws, which require employers to show wage or salary ranges in job postings, are passing in states across the country. Colorado was the first state out of the gate, but similar laws were quickly proposed in other states, notably California and New York.

Analysis by Appcast showed that two noteworthy things happened after the Colorado law went into effect. First, there was a 1.5% increase in job seeker activity in

Colorado compared to neighboring Utah, where pay transparency is not required. This suggests that workers may have been more eager to take up work in a jurisdiction that mandated pay ranges.

Going forward, it is going to become harder for employers to avoid pay disclosure. As of this year, Indeed is encouraging employers to add wage or salary information to their jobs ads; if employers do not provide this information, Indeed may add its own estimate based on a range of factors including job title, location and qualifications.

There is likely to be a collective action toward greater pay transparency even in states that do

not mandate it. Employers, who are willing to incur the additional friction of pay disclosures, will likely see more job seekers.

3. The Pendulum Is Swinging Back to Center on Work Location, but Remote Work Is Here to Stay

Remote flexibility is going to be the most lasting organizational legacy of the pandemic, but we are not seeing the sea change toward wholly off-site work that many predicted.

Over the past 18 months, studies have repeatedly shown that employers prefer on-site or hybrid (remote plus on-site) arrangements where possible. According to research from Gallup, employees now largely agree; 60% of

employees say they would prefer a long-term hybrid working model, compared to 34% who prefer an exclusively remote position.

From a recruiting perspective, flexibility is the name of the game. From the same Gallup study, nine out of 10 workers (89%) are “extremely likely” to start job hunting if they cannot work flexibly with their current employers. Recruiters who offer job flexibility and include this information in their job ads would gain a material competitive advantage when seeking to attract talent.

4. Moving Beyond Job Boards to an Automated Multi-channel Approach Will Be Critical

“Do not put all your eggs in one basket” is a good advice when

selecting recruiting channels. Casting a wide net is critical to meeting your candidate volume needs.

However, even after casting the widest net, job boards may not have all the candidates you need. Other quality candidates – and certainly passive candidates – can be found through other channels, such as social networks, Google search and targeted email.

We are seeing multi-channel sourcing done in a more strategic way this year, via recruiting tech that seamlessly activates the channel that has access to the most efficient group of candidates. Savvy recruitment marketers, who actively diversify channels, will recognize the benefits of improved time-to-fill rates, even if cost-per-hire (CPH) rates are marginally higher than that of other providers with lower CPH.

5. Hiring Oganizations Will Focus Less on Spend and More on Metrics that Matter Most

If there is a bottom-line message, it is this: optimization in 2023 will be less about getting applications in on budget and more about getting jobs filled faster. A large majority of our clients, who are recruiting professionals, say they are accountable for fill rate as one of their key recruiting metrics.

No single metric tells the whole story of your recruiting operations, but if your hiring strategy does not align with the velocity and quality of the application or

hire, you will always be measuring clicks and applications – and you cannot hire clicks.

The financial reality is this: costper-click has the potential to drain your budget fast. Appcast data shows that 96 out of 100 sponsored clicks on jobs are pure waste. The impact? On a $100,000 budget at $1.00 costper-click, that is $96,000 wasted each month.

Fill rates, on the other hand, provide a better frame for contextualizing the opportunity costs of failing to make a hire for an open position. Consider the company revenue being lost for each day that a critical vacancy remains unfilled, plus the cost and disruption to operations. Calculating that is simple: divide your annual revenue by your total number of employees and then divide that by 365. What remains is the cost to your organization for each day that job remains unfilled.

For example, if your annual revenue is $400 million and you have 400 employees, then the per-day opportunity cost of a job not being filled is about $2,740. If the job in the example remains unfilled for 30 days, the opportunity cost to the organization then becomes $82,200. As a practical aside, this is an effective metric for positioning any increase or maintenance of your recruiting budget as an investment rather than simply a cost. That is, you cannot afford to not fill these roles as quickly as possible.

In an economy that is struggling

with talent shortages, employers must transition toward a new definition of source quality – one that factors in the time it takes to fill a job and the true cost of leaving a position open, as an essential recruiting metric. When more hires are made and made faster, the organization becomes more productive and profitable.

2023: Difficult but Not Impossible

While 2023 is already proving to be another tough year for recruiting and hiring, there are strategies and tactics you can use to hit hiring goals. Simple acts like disclosing salary ranges, allowing flexible work-fromhome policies and exploring new channels to reach candidates will put recruiters ahead of the game and in the position to attract the talent they need this year.

Alicia Little is Director, Brand & Content Marketing, at Appcast Inc

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Navigating Labor Shortages And Recruitment Technology In 2023

Q&A with Lisa Niesen, Head of Talent Management, SHL

“The best way to deal with the current worker shortage is to create an environment where your people do not leave. We are overly focused on the labor shortage and the war for talent. If we put that effort into engaging our people, effective leadership and encouraging and upskilling for mobility, the labor shortage will be less of an issue for your organization. Your people are your best marketing tool,” said Lisa Niesen, Head of Talent Management, SHL

With more than two decades of experience in corporate strategy, leadership development, and intellectual property (IP)/product development, Lisa Niesen worked as VP and General Manager of Korn Ferry’s Talent Acquisition and Talent Management Digital Solutions for a decade before joining SHL. In an interview with HR.com, Lisa discusses the steps companies should take to address labor shortages and the adjustments required in their talent acquisition strategies, among others.

Excerpts from the interview:

Amidst low unemployment and skilled labor shortages, how should companies fix labor shortage problems?

Lisa: The best way to deal with the current worker shortage is to create an environment where your people do not leave. We are overly focused on the labor shortage and the war for talent. If we put that effort into engaging our people, effective leadership and encouraging and upskilling for mobility, the labor shortage will be less of an issue for your organization. Your people are your best marketing tool. If your employees are happy, they become the most potent weapon in your toolbox for recruiting. Your current employees are your most valuable investment.

Q. Q.

What changes are required in the current approach to talent acquisition (TA) and sourcing to solve the talent crunch?

Lisa: Companies spend a ridiculous amount of money courting potential employees. If that amount of attention and money were invested in their employees, the problem of sourcing talent would be significantly less.

For companies that have to hire high volumes of people, I still believe in quality over quantity. In the last few years,

we have seen companies lower their hiring criteria to get “butts in seats.” These companies are paying the price for that approach, and many are reverting to more stringent requirements. Ensuring your hires are a good fit for the role will cost companies less in the long run, so organizations should invest time in interviewing and assessing for the right skills/criteria

To what extent will new TA/ recruitment technology help HR alleviate labor shortage challenges?

Please elaborate.

Lisa: There are incredible advances in recruitment technology to minimize HR’s manual efforts and improve candidates’ experience. These two can, however, work against each other. From sourcing to interviewing, many technology-enabled processes exist to implement scalable options. The danger is that it may reduce the human experience during recruitment. It is a delicate balancing act to address efficiencies, but still provide candidates with a meaningful experience. The seniority of the role and the critical nature of the job should help inform the level of automation versus personal interaction necessary.

What has been your strategy to ease the labor shortage issues?

Lisa: Along with what I mentioned earlier, I would also add that being a leader today is different from what it was 5-10 years ago. On the heels of Covid-19, companies will have a difficult time if they do not embrace a hybrid work model. That model, in combination with the mobile job market, has created new challenges. It is much harder for people to feel that they belong. Without a sense of belonging, people become less engaged in their work. With the availability of so many jobs, it becomes easy to move on to a new company.

Before Covid, employees often got their sense of belonging from their colleagues. Now that sense of belonging must come from their leader/boss. The harsher, more direct/assertive leadership styles seen as successful before the pandemic are not well received today. We need to care much more about a nurturing, psychologically safe environment for our people than we ever had to. Leaders that provide that safe environment will have the most success and will not be impacted much by the labor shortage.

Q.How should the U.S. immigration laws and rules ease to help companies meet their labor demand in 2023 and beyond?

Lisa: This is a complex issue, with several industries impacted by the immigration process. Allowing more legal immigration would help solve that, but it is a complicated problem. If I could solve this one, I would probably be in a different role (maybe in a big White House).

Implementing ChatGPT In Recruiting: Key Considerations And Best Practices

The benefits of AI for recruiters and job seekers

By Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga, HireVue

Oneof the benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) is that it can be used in conjunction with humans to automate mundane tasks so that humans can focus on the things we are uniquely good at. It is still early, however, I expect to see interesting results for those, including candidates and recruiters, who use ChatGPT.

For recruiters, first drafts of offer letters and job descriptions come to mind as areas where ChatGPT could save time. And candidates could use generative AI to help them improve cover letters and resumes. I am particularly interested in how ChatGPT could be used to help job seekers transition industries by

helping them better understand how their skills are applicable across different roles.

Most of us have interacted with AI in some way, whether it is returning clothes to an online retailer, making a dinner reservation, or asking about the status of a job application. Interactions of this kind are the typical, benign chatbot use cases, however, ChatGPT and other generative AI tools are raising well-deserved concerns.

The primary concern I see is the proliferation of disinformation Frankly, innovation has outpaced safeguards, and it is critical that researchers and technologists ask critical questions and try to build safeguards.

Key Considerations and Best Practices

Any powerful tool requires constant and rigorous oversight and generative AI is no exception. Vendors must not integrate ChatGPT into existing tools until they have conducted rigorous testing to substantiate its benefits.

New AI regulations are being proposed and passed regularly, such as the new European Union’s (EU) AI Act, New York City’s (NYC) Local Law 144, etc.

Generative AI should be held to the same, if not greater, standards as other AI technologies.

First and foremost, vendors should be able to explain how their AI systems were trained and how they should be used by people with any level of technical expertise.Vendors must demonstrate that such models work and audit them for bias. I believe creators of these tools should prioritize creating an ‘AI Explainability Statement,’ which is a valuable third party process that documents to the public, customers, and users how a given technology is developed and tested.

Rigorous testing is the bedrock of any product strategy, and every powerful tool should undergo testing before it is deployed, as well as after. The details of that testing will vary by product.

Would you like to comment?

Dr. Lindsey Zuloaga is the Chief Data Scientist at HireVue

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“Candidates want to be seen. Whether unemployed or feeling the stressors of an employment situation that is causing them to look elsewhere, candidates want respect and attention. What candidates do not want is to be pushed into a nameless, faceless process that offers little or no hope of ever being seen, which is unfortunately what many companies offer during this process. We struggle with this too. The more success OneDigital has had in the market with building a reputable brand and best place to work culture, the worse it gets. We have had requisitions in the last year and had received over 1,000 candidates… too many to respond to personally,” said Travis

Dommert, Senior Vice President of Talent, OneDigital

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Travis discusses the current expectations of job candidates from their potential employers. He also highlights the essential factors that companies need to consider to become an employer of choice, as well as advertising strategies that can aid in developing a strong talent pipeline, among others.

Candidate Recognition: Acknowledging Job Seekers Matters Today

Q.What do candidates seek from employers today?

Travis: Most data suggests that people are, first and foremost, looking for opportunities to learn and grow, and that is true here. But my gut tells me that candidates want something even more: to be seen. Whether unemployed or feeling the stressors of an employment situation that is causing them to look elsewhere, candidates want respect and attention.

I love the work that Delta Air Lines did recently to address the fact that they turn away vast numbers of applicants every year, many of whom have put time and effort into applying for a position, never to make it to the interview stage. Delta realized that this left many people feeling shortchanged and unseen. As a token of gratitude, they simplified the application experience to make it easier. Then they began sharing the results of their talent assessment with every candidate, using a Talent Card.

Q&A with Travis Dommert, Senior Vice President of Talent, OneDigital

This gesture showed that they cared about their candidates as people and gave them something extraordinarily valuable in return for the time invested, a window into their strengths and the value they bring to the world. I recall receiving a Talent Card when I was a leader at a staffing company based in Michigan called Workforce Strategies Inc. I felt affirmed and valued.

What candidates do not want is to be pushed into a nameless, faceless process that offers little or no hope of ever being seen, which is unfortunately what many companies offer during this process. We struggle with this too. The more success OneDigital has had in the market with building a reputable brand and best place to work culture, the worse it gets. We have had requisitions in the last year and had received over 1,000 candidates… too many to respond to personally.

Instead, we are looking for solutions as Delta did, to provide value, be it helpful suggestions for polishing their personal brand, interviewing tips, or guidance on how to do their best work and live their best lives.

Q.What are the factors that play a key role in becoming an 'employer of choice?'

Travis: Building an intentional culture has become table stakes in the war for talent. Still, there is so much room for improvement, even among the best places to work companies. Ask any of them. Once you set your sights on becoming a destination employer and seek to continuously improve… the opportunities seem endless.

At a minimum, it is critical that employers establish a cadence of soliciting and acting upon the feedback of their people. Most people share common needs and motives around feeling cared for and set up to succeed. They want to belong and feel safe to be their fullest and truest selves. They want to do work that matters and be part of something larger than themselves. They want leaders who are worth following and who know how to lead themselves. They want their experience to be increasingly

effortless, so they spend less of their days and nights waiting or navigating administrivia. How you do all of that, however, depends.

We routinely talk about the research findings and motivation theory from Frederick Herzberg, who studied the drivers of extreme satisfaction and dissatisfaction at work for decades. We realize we have to constantly ask about what is frustrating people and holding them back, “The gravel in their shoe.“ And we must accept that fixing those things still will not make them happy; it will only make them “not mad.”

Extreme satisfaction comes from achievement and recognition, doing work that matters and growing. This, too, requires continual improvement. If people never receive feedback or guidance on their performance, they grow frustrated and leave. If the process for gathering and administering feedback on performance is too onerous, they grow frustrated and leave. Refinement comes from making things simple, actionable, and sustainable.

Q.What are the advertising strategies you adopt to develop a talent pipeline?

Travis: There are several components of our recruitment marketing efforts. At the top of the funnel, we are seeking to build our employer brand among high-performing professionals nationwide. We know that they are engaged employees, highly valued, and at least likely to be looking or responding to recruiters.

For them, we merely want them to know that OneDigital is a place that values, supports, and challenges people to do their best work and live their best lives. To do this, we do not talk to them about job opportunities (they already have a job). We talk to them about strategies and tactics for doing their best work and living their best lives. We share tips and articles on topics like elevating performance, building a great culture, elevating the relationship with your boss, and doing work that matters to you.

For those who are actively searching for a job, we leverage platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed, and Glassdoor to help people understand what it would be like to work here. We want them to see, hear and feel our culture.

The greatest recruiting tool in the world, however, is someone who loves their job. Our culture, total wellbeing programs, and people and culture strategy, as well as a huge part of our value proposition to clients, come to life when they see someone talk about what it means to them personally, not the company making promises.

No one on the planet can out-recruit a leader who is authentically sharing how her life has improved or how they have improved the lives of others through their job. If you spend a few minutes on LinkedIn and search OneDigital, I believe you will find exponentially more content shared by our people than our marketing team. That is no slight to our amazing marketing team, which is excellent and prolific. You just cannot compete with people who are truly happy and want to share it.

Q.What technologies play a role in your recruiting advertising?

Travis: Technology undoubtedly plays an increasingly important role in reaching people who would benefit from employment opportunities at our company. We use one system for our applicant tracking system. We use another system for our OneDigital Professional Network. We use another system for candidate assessments. Having all those systems talk, which is beginning to happen this year, will take us leaps forward in reaching the right people at the right time with the right message.

That said, I am grateful for companies like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, who are continually investing in the intelligence of their platforms. For example, Glassdoor awarded us a best place to work designation based solely on the analysis of employee comments. Not only did that not require effort to apply for such an award, but it also carried more credibility because it was organically derived rather than the result of a paid or submission process.

Other innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) may speed the creation and curation of content and candidates. Still, no amount of technology or marketing will outperform happy employees talking to their families and friends about the gratitude they feel toward their teammates and companies.

Employee engagement is the gold standard there, so we would be remiss if we did not talk about technology in that context. Technology helps us listen and act at scale. Our engagement pulses are simple, but the analysis is sophisticated in its ability to help us identify pain points and differentiate our culture.

Q.How will recruitment advertising evolve in the coming years?

Travis: The advances in AI are spooky. I suspect our technology will allow us to increasingly understand the high performers among our ranks and identify people with similar strengths and desires. I also suspect it will better understand and respond to the behaviors that suggest someone is frustrated in their current role and open to change. Finally, I hope our tech will allow us to continue to personalize the candidate experience so they get the attention and guidance they deserve.

Q.What are the challenges you face with traditional recruitment advertising methods? How do you overcome them?

Travis: Our greatest challenges with recruitment lie within. There are already more tools and solutions than we have the time and capacity to implement. Rather, we must continue to focus on how to help our people do more of their best work and live more of their best lives. If people love coming to work, they will not keep those feelings to themselves. I would love to leverage our time, our tech, and our resources there… and then learn to amplify those stories to reach people whose skills, experience, and aspirations align with our culture and growth. Would you like to comment?

Prioritizing Retention: Solving Labor Problems With What You Already Have

Solving labor problems in the modern landscape calls for a cultural shift

By Sam Smith, Magnit

Despite news of layoffs and hiring freezes, many companies still find themselves facing significant talent gaps. Thanks to relatively low unemployment numbers and a dearth of applicants that fit into traditional titles, hiring managers are struggling to keep teams staffed—and that is a big problem.

Chronic understaffing can quickly lead to burnout among employees left to pick up the slack for open positions, affecting morale, productivity, and their likelihood to stick around for the long run.

Hiring managers are well aware of this, and it has led to rising investments in recruitment efforts and new-hire compensation. In theory, the tactic makes some sense. Keeping teams full eases the burden on employees. However, in practice, it only exacerbates the problem, leaving experienced employees feeling undervalued as new hires become the priority. The fact is that pursuing endless onboarding is an outdated solution to a modern problem because what we are facing today is not a labor shortage; it is a cultural shift.

While the changes we are seeing can be attributed to several workplace trends, a lack of talented candidates is not among them. The core of the challenge is employees’ changing views of what it means to work, which means employers must change alongside them. Thankfully, that is an easier obstacle to overcome than the alternative.

Managers looking to adapt their strategies to align with today’s workforce should:

Adopt a Skills-based Approach

Employers looking to onboard new hires and bolster retention should step back to assess the skills—not the titles—their team already has and how they support overall performance. Managers that assess teams in this way often find current employees that are well-suited to filling gaps.

When the time to add new skills comes, recruiters should look below candidates’ titles, weighing their skills and experience above title history or educational achievements. This approach helps recruiters find better fits that complement existing teams while

highlighting new hiring pools comprised of candidates with matching skills that may be omitted from title-based searches.

Prioritize Employee Education and Growth

Upskilling is a natural extension of the above as it can help managers reallocate responsibilities more strategically. By assessing employees’ talents and potential, managers can identify which skills they need to hire for, and which can be fostered internally. The result is more intentional hiring that focuses on longevity rather than immediate solutions.

Offering educational opportunities can also show commitment to supporting tenured employees’ continued growth as most workers jump at the opportunity to learn new skills. In fact, Magnit’s research shows that educational initiatives are among the most compelling benefits employers can offer, helping to boost redeployment and yield long-term business benefits.

Focus on Thoughtful Wage Increases

When hiring pools are shallow, the best thing managers can do is focus on retention—and that often means adjusting compensation. The value of raising tenured employees’ salaries beyond cost-of-living adjustments can easily fall off managers’ radars, but keeping up with current market rates is, ultimately, the best way to keep people engaged.

When determining pay increases, managers can use technology suites that aggregate and evaluate market rates, talent insights, and flight risks for employees with similar responsibilities and workloads across markets to ensure they are paying competitive wages without breaking the bank.

Embrace Flexible Policies and Workers

Many employees are now prioritizing freedom over compensation. As a result, many businesses have already built out robust remote teams and flexible scheduling options. However, the work should not

end there. Increasingly, workers are seeking project-based, (but full-time) contingent positions to support a more flexible lifestyle.

At present, 47.5% of the enterprise workforce is contingent, and that number is growing every year. With so many people going contingent, companies that are not open to offering contract-based roles are missing out on a broad range of qualified candidates—and the business benefits flexible workforces can offer.

Develop a Strong Culture

Each employer must figure out what works for them, but centering company culture on openness, collaboration, growth, and recognition can aid recruitment and retention. It can also empower workers to speak up, fostering innovation and highlighting candidates with untapped potential. When values lead the way, employees feel more connected to their workplaces, coworkers, and projects—and that can be a powerful tool for ongoing success.

Keeping teams staffed and productive in today’s landscape is, indeed, a significant challenge, but a change in approach can help managers overcome it. Success in a changing market will hinge on businesses’ willingness to adapt. These proven strategies can

serve as the first step for businesses, helping them build agile and strategic hiring and retention practices to evolve alongside workers.

Sam Smith is President of EMEA and Global Client Delivery at Magnit. Sam is an accomplished transformation leader and is responsible for helping grow Magnit’s presence in EMEA. She specializes in a range of business functions including program delivery, global sourcing, change management, managed services, and talent supply chain management. Sam possesses deep domain knowledge in high-volume staffing and a first-hand understanding of the challenges facing contingent workers. She has over 25 years of experience in helping the world’s leading brands reimagine their contingent workforce management programs.

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Solving The Labor Shortage: Tapping Into Global Talent

The role of HR-centric technological tools in solving the labor shortage

By Rick Hammell, Atlas

Announcements of massive tech worker layoffs from seemingly too-big-to-fail titans like Meta to Amazon and Eventbrite have dominated the headlines lately. And the sheer scale of the impact is staggering. According to Crunchbase, the tech industry cut 234,000 workers last year and 94,000 since January.

And yet, these high-profile mass workforce reductions do not tell the whole story. Even amongst the news-dominating layoffs, there is a marked need for talent. A recent report from the US Chamber of Commerce confirms what many of us in the human resources (HR) industry already know — despite all the evidence to the contrary, we are experiencing a labor shortage. As of February 2023, the latest data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the U.S.—but only 5.7 million unemployed workers.

It may seem counterintuitive, but although tech layoffs continue to impact a multitude of displaced highly skilled workers, many companies that eliminate wide swaths of positions seek to fill thousands of other roles. And beyond the tech sector, nearly every other industry is facing a talent shortage and aims to fill the void.

Around the world, companies of every size and industry are facing unprecedented hurdles as they search for enough workers to fill open jobs. This complex supply and demand mismatch of global proportions has one very simple solution; companies need to hire with a purpose, even if this means searching for and sourcing talent beyond their own borders. With everyone competing for the same top talent, broadening the geographical scope of recruitment will give savvy prospective employers the edge.

The International Employment Equation

As we capitalize on the opportunities that arise from an increasingly connected world, we must prioritize the human aspect that cultivates as we expand globally.

The best growth strategy is to ensure that, as employers, we are knowledgeable about regional cultures, traditions, and languages, fostering the kind of insights that give organizations a competitive advantage in international markets. This human element guarantees the highest level of cultural sensitivity and provides the innovative, technological, legal, and business support necessary for the success of the global talent infrastructure.

Tech That Breaks Down Barriers

Employing people internationally requires technology that makes work possible for anyone, anywhere. Every organization needs a seamless, end-to-end user experience for learning and development and other regular business operations to go global successfully. Many organizations have bolted together disparate third-party apps for business operations, such as payroll and HR, to bring on board what they believe to be the best of the breed.

However, the issue is that each app has a distinct feel and needs a unique login. The viewer ultimately has a fragmented experience that can be tedious and time-consuming. Companies must build tools that integrate easily with other tools for that seamless, intuitive experience that users expect.

Organizations that are considering making the leap to hiring internationally should turn to employer of record (EOR) technology. EOR is a comprehensive all-in-one platform that allows leadership to think through what markets would best suit their product or service and to be more competitive at a cost that makes sense for the business.

Remote Work Is Still the Secret Sauce

While many employers are anxious to have workers return to the office, work-from-home remains the most efficient and agile option in many industries. Aside from manufacturing and service roles, almost

every role can be performed remotely. While the future of on-site work may not be certain, the general consensus among remote workers certainly is. Recent Gallup research shows that more than half of full-time workers in the U.S.—70 million American adults—say their jobs can be done remotely. Eighty percent —56 million full-time workers—are currently working entirely remotely or on a hybrid schedule. And it is no surprise that a mere 6% of full-time workers whose jobs can be remote prefer total on-site work.

Remote work benefits employees, who enjoy more work-life balance and is a boon to employers who note increased productivity. Add to that the ultimate flexibility of hiring anywhere in the world using resources, such as EOR and other human resources-centric technological tools, to break down barriers. We may be a few clicks away from solving the labor shortage.

Rick Hammell holds the position of Chief Executive Officer at Atlas and aims to enable employers and global talent to connect and compete by creating an equitable global environment.

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