In today’s competitive job market, many companies are looking beyond salary and benefits to stand out to top candidates. Top-tier companies like Google and Apple have revolutionized the perks that employees enjoy in order to attract and retain their elite workforce — offering employees everything from unlimited time off to free automotive maintenance. One company even offers free scuba lessons ! But what perks really matter to employees? Here are a few suggestions: Healthy Living. Encouraging healthy lifestyles among employees makes great business sense. Click To Tweet. Compassion and Respect.

Did you know only 32.6% of workers are engaged with their company and the work they’re doing? Most HR professionals agree that employee engagement is the key to a happy workplace, better retention, and a whole slew of other performance metrics. What’s not so clear is what, exactly, is the key to employee engagement. We’d like to argue that it’s pretty simple — communication. In our hyper-connected world, we have a slew of tools at our disposal — email, social media, chat — that have changed and, in many ways, improved the way we communicate on a daily basis.

“Though she is but little, she is fierce.” ” Shakespeare may not have been talking about startups, but he might as well have been. Startup culture has come a long way since the infamous Internet Boom, but it continues to lure the best and the brightest away from more established mega-corporations. According to Forbes, currently 47% of millennials work in companies with less than 100 employees. The fact is, millennials are flocking to startups. Startups are exciting. They’re a chance to create something totally new and, hopefully, get rich off of it. Download Now. Stay Nimble.

Author of the famous 7 Habits of Highly Effective People , Stephen R. Covey once said, “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.”. This maxim is especially true in the workplace. According to a 2015 McKinsey study , diverse companies perform at least 35% better than their homogeneous counterparts. Not only is a beneficial for your bottom line to recruit a diverse team, it’s common sense in our growingly diverse nation. Research has predicted that by 2050 , Caucasians will no longer be the majority in America. Wondering how to increase diversity at your workplace? Still not convinced?

As a professional living in the age of the internet, chances are good that you have a messaging app installed on your phone. Chances are even better that you use your smartphone’s native text messaging feature to communicate with friends and family throughout the day. And if you’re reading this from an office, you probably also have some sort of internal messaging platform open — Slack, HipChat, or even good ol’ Gchat. The evolution of human language is a truly fascinating phenomenon. Download our Recruiter’s Guide to Chat Recruiting here: Download Now. The Rise of Chat. Today , about 2.5

Wouldn’t it be great if recruiting were like baking? A few cups of experience, a tablespoon or two of technical know-how, a dash of just the right certifications. How easy it would be to fill positions if you could Weird Science your way to the perfect candidate. Unfortunately, as many of us know, finding someone whose life experience and education are crafted just for the position you’re filling is often a pipe dream. Don’t be too quick to blame the candidate pool though — all too often, the real reason for your struggles lies with the man (or woman) in the mirror. Like this?

You post a job opening with bated breath and wait for the applications to start rolling in. You’re hopeful that you’ll find the perfect candidate soon. But days, weeks, and months go by — the position is still open. You’ve chalked it up to a lack of talent, but there’s more going on. Your recruiting process is wasting time, and it’s costing you money. Research from Bersin by Deloitte found that companies spent close to $4,000 per hire in 2014. And if there are bottlenecks in your process, it could cost even more. Here are four common time wasters and how to avoid them: 1. No Talent Pipeline.

It’s no secret that during Q1, many companies are focusing on attracting top talent. The 2016 LinkedIn Global Recruiting Trends survey of more than 3,800 recruiters found that 62% of respondents expect an increase in their hiring volume in 2016. 62% of companies expect to hire more in 2016 than they did in 2015. Click To Tweet. Unfortunately, recruiting is a highly competitive game right now. There are a lot of challenges when it comes to finding, hiring, and retaining the best employees. And yet some organizations make it look so easy. Each year Glassdoor releases its Best Places to Work list.

“First impressions are everything.”. It’s a pretty common adage, but the truth is that first impressions can also be deceiving. If you’ve ever been dazzled by a smooth-talking candidate only to discover his low work ethic two weeks into the job, you know what we’re talking about. Even worse, first impressions and the power of “gut feelings” about people can be masking unconscious biases, which can wreak havoc on even the most genuine attempts to hire fairly. Could your unconscious bias be ruining your hiring process? Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process. Identify & Understand Your Bias.

Millennials. They’re lazy, entitled job-hoppers with one foot out the door, always looking for the next best thing.  Or so the internet would have you believe. Millennial stereotypes have been fed to us by the media for years, but in reality, these stereotypes are often far from the truth. For instance, millennials don’t necessarily need their hands held during projects; what they want is feedback. 80% of millennials stated that they would like constant feedback from their managers. And by the year 2025, they will make up the majority.

The best employer brands have one clear thing in common — they are boldly transparent about who they are and what it’s like to work there. Bold transparency is the key to driving employee engagement through the sharing of employer brand stories,” said Brand Amper co-founder Jason Seiden in a session at the 2015 HR Technology Conference. Turns out, these transparent stories can have a hugely positive effect on your recruiting efforts. Bold transparency is the key to driving employee engagement through the sharing of employer brand stories. Click To Tweet. Why Transparency in Recruitment Matters.

You’ve hired someone whom you believed would be a great fit for your organization, but they’ve turned out to be an absolute disaster! What went wrong? And how can you avoid it in the future? The answer might be as easy as doing a little social media screening. In 2015, 52% of employers  researched potential employees’ social media profiles before calling them in for an interview, and that number is likely to continue rising. 52% of employers screen candidates on social media. Should you? Click To Tweet. If you aren’t screening candidates using social media, it may be time to start.

You already know the scoop on millennial workers, right? They’re “entitled. ” They’re tech-savvy. They expect constant feedback. They want to change the world, and want to work from home doing it. They expect their careers to revolve around flexibility, meaningful work, and high salaries. At least, that’s what the internet will have you believe. Whatever you might personally believe about millennial workers , the success of American companies lies in the effective engagement of the this generation. By the end of 2016, over 3.5 Where do I find the best millennial talent

What does marketing have to do with talent acquisition? Plenty, if you consider what hiring managers can learn from content marketers. Content marketers are professionals that, according to a definition by the Content Marketing Association , are responsible for “creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience.” Seems like a similar definition could apply to the work of hiring managers. Download our free guide to attracting and engaging top talent in a candidate-driven market here. Download Now. Define Your Unique Voice.

Does this sound familiar? You rush into the office for an early meeting. You have an important project deadline in two days, but you’ve barely started the project. You get distracted by urgent emails and small fire drills all day. You even forget to eat lunch. And for the rest of the day, you just can’t seem to focus. Ironically, you leave the office not one step closer to meeting your project deadline — you are frustrated, tired, stressed and annoyed. You are not alone in this struggle to stay focused, engaged and productive. HR managers want the best for their employees. Mindfulness.

One of the most important tools you have as a hiring manager is writing job posts that communicate your company culture. If done well, you can appeal to your tribe while weeding out the rest. You sit in the driver’s seat; use these expert tips when writing job posts and watch as you build a tribe that changes the world. Wait, why do I want to hire a tribe? What is a tribe? tribe is any group of people that are connected to each other, an idea and a leader. Think about the tribes you belong to: your family, your group of friends, your co-ed softball team — and of course your place of work.

In theory, human resources is about humans. People. You and me. But in practice, that’s not always the case. There are paperwork, budgets, business priorities, and other factors that sometimes get in the way of the direct concerns and needs of employees. But today’s HR leaders want to get back to putting employees front and center. In a recent survey of 500,000 business leaders and HR professionals, 70.6% called “influencing the company culture to have more authentic, people-oriented managers” their top HR priority in 2016. Paperwork is inevitable in HR. Facilitate Constant Feedback.

With the unemployment rate at the lowest since 2008, today’s job seekers have more choice — and more power — than ever before. According to CareerBuilder , one in five employees plan to change jobs in 2016, so the job seekers are out there. The real question is, how do you make sure your company is what they’re searching for? What matters to job seekers ? Believe it or not, it’s not salary. Or at least, it’s not salary at the expense of everything else. Here are three things that today’s job seekers demand (and how to give it to them): 1. Job Stability. Good Company Culture.

An exciting new vacancy with unlimited growth opportunity has opened at your organization, so naturally you’re hoping to attract lots of high – quality candidates in a bid to find a superstar. So you craft what you consider to be an attractive and compelling job posting and wait for the high-caliber resumes to start rolling in. But all too often they don’t. Turn your ho-hum job posting into a candidate-hiring magnet with these 6 tips. Click To Tweet. So how do you avoid this mediocre tradition and attract the right candidates? Don’t Skimp on the Detail. Specify Compensation.

You have what you believe to be a top-notch employer brand and an awesome open position that job seekers will surely flock to. Unfortunately, your employer branding efforts and creative job posts aren’t having the effect you thought (and hoped) they would. So what’s keeping job seekers from applying to your seemingly great opportunity? Employer brand plays a huge role in attracting top talent — but it can play an equally huge role in driving that talent away from your company. Is your employer brand in jeopardy? See if these 4 things are highjacking your hard work. Click To Tweet.

Effective leaders have become unicorns in the workplace, and job seekers are on the hunt to find them. But they’re coming up empty. According to a recent survey of health IT professionals , 51.3% rated their supervisor’s ability to lead and engage as decisively subpar. One of the only ways a job seeker can judge your leadership skills during the hiring process is by the way you communicate, and it’s more important than you think. An overwhelming 81% of employees would rather join a company that values open communication than trendy perks like free food and gym memberships.

At this very moment, there are upwards of 5.7 million job posts competing with yours for job seekers’ attention. It’s true. According to data from The Conference Board , there were 5.7 million job postings this past November, the highest total since counting began in 2005. And that number continues to climb daily. With so many job postings online, you need to send a clear message to attract quality candidates. You may think your job post describes the job and organization, but what do job seekers actually see? How do they read your job post? Take a look through your job seekers’ eyes.

The cry for diversity in the workplace has reached a boiling point. Last October, record 12,000 people attended the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), the “world’s largest gathering of women’s technologists” according to the  website. companies are spending millions  annually on diversity programs and initiatives. And you can’t peruse a news website or industry blog without stumbling across a diversity hiring headline. But as good as your intentions might be, you’re running a for-profit business. You might be surprised. Click To Tweet.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before — why do humans have two ears but only one mouth? To listen twice as much as we speak. Okay, it’s not exactly a joke, but it rings pretty true, doesn’t it?). Despite that well-worn adage, we humans still tend to be pretty bad at listening. Companies, it seems, are even worse. Despite the explosion of programs designed to increase employee engagement over the past ten years, only 32.5% of U.S. workers are engaged in their jobs ( Gallup ). What are companies doing wrong? They’re Just. Listening. The Secrets of Highly Engaged Companies, Revealed.

Flash Poll: Who here thinks that human resources has a direct impact on bottom-line company goals? (Me! Pick me!). hope you raised your hand, because it’s 100% true. Hiring , training, and retaining high-achieving employees is arguably the most impactful job there is when it comes to bringing your company closer to hitting its bottom-line goals. company is only as good as its people — and if you’re in HR, you’re in the people business. Investing in employee learning and development is crucial to building a lean, mean, goal-achieving machine. Be Clear. Create Small Steps.

This is not so much a history as it is an our-story. Groan if you want, but it’s kind of true. The history of diversity in the workplace is by definition the story of how the concept of inclusion finally worked its way into our national narrative. When you have equality in the workforce, it creates a domino effect of change across the socioeconomic system. Long story short: the face of the American workforce has changed dramatically over the past century (and there’s still a ways to go). Half the companies under investigation were able to block the release of the data from the U.S.

Efforts to i ncrease diversity in the workplace are nothing new. It’s widely acknowledged that more diverse workforces are better workforces , and most successful organizations have explicit diversity policies in place. Yet, despite decades of efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in corporate America, even the most casual observer of business trends will notice that it remains a much-discussed topic — and not because companies are great at it. So where does the disconnect come from? If leaders know that diversity is good for business, why do they fail to create diverse workforces?

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, and the other gold. If you were in the Girl Scouts, you know that old campfire song by heart. The sentiment may seem trite, but it actually holds a valuable lesson for folks in human resources — appreciating the people you already have is just as important, if not more so, than bringing new people on board. should know. My first job at Clearlink , the Salt Lake City-based company where I’ve worked in human resources for the better part of five years, wasn’t in human resources at all. It was in quality assurance.

In the United States, 53% of workers say they are burned out and overworked. Why so many? You don’t have to look too far to find the cause — in the same study, 41% planned on not using their allotted vacation days. This is bad. Really bad. With nearly four in ten employees naming burnout as their reason for searching for a new job, it’s no wonder so many companies are concerned about their employees not taking enough time off to recharge. 40% of workers name burnout as their chief reason for searching for a new job. Click To Tweet. Create a Supportive Environment. Click To Tweet. Be Proactive.

Do you want to hire people who repeatedly succeed? (Is the sky blue?). Of course you do. But here’s the rub — past success isn’t necessarily the best indicator of future success. Past success isn’t necessarily the best indicator of future success. Click To Tweet. But Larry,” you might say. “If not past success, what should I be looking for?”. “Coachability,” I’d tell you. Easy question; easy answer. So how do I spot it?”. Harder question. How to Hire Coachable Employees. First, let me say that you can’t necessarily rely on skill, experience, or knowledge. Click To Tweet. Improvement.

So you’ve recruited a superstar. Congratulations! Your work here is done…or is it? Hang up your recruiter hat and put on your retention hat. The work has just begun! You know that keeping star employees on your team is critical to your company’s success. But how do you keep top performers from coming down with a case of “the grass is always greener?”. study by BambooHR found that the #1 reason people leave jobs was a lack of advancement. We’d all love to grant our star employees raises and promotions, but we don’t always have the luxury of extra budget or open positions.

If a tree falls in a forest, does it make a sound? If work is done away from the office, does it still count? The answer to both, of course, is yes — and corporate America is taking notice. By 2016, Forrester expects 43% of Americans will work remotely. That’s 63 million people who can work literally anywhere. Like it or not, the face of the workplace is changing. Are your work-from-home policies keeping pace? Despite some managers’ misgivings, research indicates that remote workers are often more productive than those who are stuck in an office. How can remote work do all this?

A long, long time ago, work seemed simple. You clocked in, did your work — probably mostly alone, at your desk or station — and clocked out at the end of the day. On a good day, you caught some good gossip at the water cooler. You didn’t worry about whether or not you had happy, engaged employees on your payroll. You just hoped they turned in their tasks on time. But the way we work has changed, and we’re interacting with our colleagues and coworkers more than perhaps ever before. We’ve got to work seamlessly with the teams we manage, wherever they are. Exchange best practices.

Do you remember what your last onboarding experience was like? Maybe you were thrown head-first into your role after simply being handed an employee handbook or perhaps you took a series of training classes to learn about your position and the new company. Chances are, if you’ve changed jobs at least once in your life, you’ve experienced different types of onboarding. As a hiring manager, it’s important to think strategically about onboarding new employees. That time period can expand or decrease based on how much support they get in the early stages of their job. Onboarding Champion. Buddy.