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You did it! You found the purple squirrel candidate that can do it all. They have the skills, background, experience, and appear to be a great fit for your culture. You welcome them with open arms on day one and are excited about the future. Days, maybe weeks, go by…and then…you uncover that: They embellished a particular skill No one asked a critical question or dug deep enough into a certain area of experience to truly understand their capabilities Everything they do, think, say is counterculture Their expectations of the job and yours aren’t aligned This happens all too often and everyone loses in this scenario. Smart companies will determine if the deficiencies can be coached, and work to get the individual to an acceptable performance level. In situations where the deficiencies are not coachable, they separate the employee as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, most companies keep the individual, spending countless […]

Over the last few years we’ve heard about the customer experience, the patient experience, and more recently, the candidate experience.  This term developed in the talent community over the last several years and is gaining speed as a business imperative.  In fact, the candidate experience made Fast Company’s list of top 3 factors that will make or break your recruiting in 2017. Simply put, creating a great candidate experience is just good business.  In our post “Creating a Great Candidate Experience is Good Business” we discussed some staggering facts and figures that demonstrate how a candidate’s experience impacts their view of a company as well as their buying behaviors. We dug further into research from the Talent Board where several themes were identified by gathering direct feedback from candidates that were summarized in the post “5 Things You Are Doing to Kill Your Candidate Experience.”  This post pointed to the top areas […]

Treating people the way you wish to be treated. It’s such a simple concept, yet it seems to fall by the wayside when companies are working with prospective employees. When candidates rate their experience as poor, it generally points to challenges in the interview process as opposed to clunky technology or the resume black hole (although those are offenders too!). Here are three simple changes you can make immediately that will improve your candidate experience…and that will cost you absolutely nothing! Create an interview process. It’s all about the process. Candidates want to understand your interview process and what they can expect at each stage throughout it. Create an interview process that outlines the goals of each step, the expectations of each individual, and realistic timelines. Train your interviewers on the process and reinforce the importance of follow through. This buy-in will create efficiencies which will improve your time-to-fill, and provide […]

The candidate experience might be dubbed the next “big thing” you’ll hear the talent community talking about. While there are some organizations that are ahead of the curve on this topic, the way candidates are treated throughout the recruitment phase of the talent continuum is something that shouldn’t be overlooked. Focusing on creating or enhancing your candidate experience has a much wider impact than it may appear on the surface. Any negative experience a candidate has with your company will likely have a ripple effect and impact your bottom line. Not sure you agree with that? In research performed by the Talent Board, data shows that on average 41% of candidates who feel they have had a negative experience will take their alliance, product purchases, and relationship elsewhere. That’s a staggering number. Here are the 5 leading indicators of a bad candidate experience: Your application process is cumbersome. Candidates have […]

Companies know who their customers are. They understand their buying behavior and solicit their feedback after a purchase or when conceptualizing new products or services. They have dedicated customer service channels to answer questions and resolve complaints. Companies understand that the interactions and experiences customers have with them leave either a favorable or unfavorable impression, which impacts future buying behavior. And not just one individual’s buying behavior. In the world of Facebook and Twitter, consumers have access to hundreds of friends at their finger tips, and they won’t hesitate to let them know about a good or bad experience. But this isn’t a post on consumer marketing and behavior or customer experience. We want to talk about the importance of creating the candidate experience. The candidate experience begins during the attraction phase of the talent continuum. This is when candidates begin to interact with your brand on a more personal level […]

A prospective employee’s experience throughout the talent attraction lifecycle has a direct relationship to and impact on your brand, sales, and future talent acquisition efforts. The third pillar of the Talent Continuum focuses on the “recruit” phase. While the candidate experience starts long before formal recruiting begins, throughout the attract phase, it’s during recruiting where the frequency of touch points increases and the candidate experience becomes far more tangible and easier to measure. Over the next few weeks, we’ll examine the business impact of the candidate experience and share several simple ways to create memorable experiences that leave candidates with a positive impression of your company, regardless of the hiring outcome. Subscribe to the Talent Point Consulting blog to be the first to receive updates when new posts are published and receive access to ebooks, templates, and worksheets. [gravityform id=”2″ title=”false” description=”false”]

Talent attraction. It’s one of the leading concerns for most CEOs. Given that your business strategy is intrinsically tied to your talent strategy, it’s surprising many companies don’t have an intimate understanding of their prospective talent. You must “crack the code” in order to attract the best talent and differentiate yourself from your competitors. We created the Talent Magnet Blueprint to help companies look at their talent attraction strategy differently. By borrowing strategies and tactics from marketing and leveraging those practices across the talent attraction lifecycle, you will be able to find the right people, with the rights skills, at the right time, all while ensuring they fit your culture. The 3-step talent magnet process helps you define who your ideal candidate is, uncover where to find them, and engage with them in a personal and meaningful ways. For those who are looking for the Reader’s Digest version of how […]

Post and pray. This is the methodology far too many companies still rely on, with the belief that if you post a job description “they will come.” This simply does not work. We must think about attracting talent differently in today’s world, particularly as research shows a developing trend suggesting that candidates are starting to behave like consumers in their evaluation of potential employers. If you want to attract the right people, with the right skills, at the right time, and ensure they fit your culture, it’s time to think like a marketer. On the surface, job descriptions and advertisements may seem like one in the same. Let us assure you they are not. Just as your marketing team wouldn’t post a detailed list of your product specifications as a hook to generate sales, you shouldn’t post an old, stale job description with a laundry list of responsibilities and requirements […]

The Talent Attraction Lifecycle outlines the stages prospective candidates go through in their ongoing relationship with a company.   The stages of the lifecycle are: Introduce – individual gains awareness of your company.  They are extremely passive about making a career change, but are curious about the work and culture of the organization. Attract – individual begins to gather information and conduct research on your company.  While still not actively seeking employment, they believe their values, motivations, and career interests align to that of the organization. Nurture – individual begins to interact with your company to satisfy a desire to gather firsthand information about the employee experience.  Candidate has turned from passive to active. Engage – individual is proactively pursuing a specific role with your company and has entered the talent acquisition process. For more information on attracting top talent, complete the form below to download our Talent Magnet Blueprint. [gravityform id=”7″ title=”false” description=”false”]

A company’s ability to attract top talent remains a key concern among CEOs of most businesses, regardless of their size, industry, and market position. While there are many strategies and tactics that should be deployed to solve this problem, our research has shown that most organizations suffer from a poorly defined Employee Value Proposition (EVP). What is an EVP? An EVP is the promise you make to future and current employees of what is available to them if they lend their time and talents to your company. It should be a single, simple, and compelling statement that summarizes the experience someone will have when working for you. The EVP will be supported by specific messaging articulating your company’s philosophies around issues such as: total rewards management and corporate culture people management and developmental opportunities job impact and career paths community involvement and wellbeing Your EVP must be unique, authentic, and […]