How recruitment can adapt to turbulent times
Historically low rates of unemployment and growing global economic uncertainty are making life harder for recruiters. Candidates can be more selective about the jobs they take but they are also less likely to take any significant risks. Recruitment is rarely a straightforward task. Even filling temporary, unskilled positions requires perusing CVs, holding interviews, assessing attitudes and whittling down […]
The selection process: algorithmic bias or bias against algorithms?
The use of algorithms to select candidates, or indeed any kind of pre-defined criteria, has its limitations in the world of recruitment. So, can there ever be a definitive way to review applicants efficiently and fairly? Amazon Gender-Diversity Fail Shows Limits of Tech read the headline from Reuters on October 10. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? The dangers posed by AI is […]
Recruitment: why age-friendly employment is a win-win for everyone
As numbers of mature employees increase in coming years, businesses will need to up their game when it comes to engaging older workers. By 2025, there will be a million more people over the age of 50 in the workplace, but 300,000 fewer workers under the age of 30. Job vacancies and numbers in work […]
Strengths-based recruitment: are you hiring people for the wrong jobs?
HR departments across the country are faced with the tricky task of sifting through CVs every day. Employers need someone who loves their job and is going to excel; going above and beyond, in addition to having all the right competences. This is even more important when you consider that staff turnover is costing British businesses across a […]
Book review – Mind Flip: Change the Way You Think About Yourself and Reinvent Your Future by Zena Everett
HRZone has a range of books available for review. If you would like to receive one of our business books, free of charge, please contact the editor on editor at hrzone dot com and we can send you a list of what’s available. In return, we ask for a 400-700 word review of the book, […]
Recruitment: why AI and Big Data alone can’t solve bias
Modern technology is transforming the recruitment process, but can bias ever be completely removed? It seems to be a popular school of thought that the introduction of technology into the recruitment process has allowed bias, both conscious and unconscious, to be completely removed. Whilst the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data, along with […]
Recruitment: how to pick out the one-in-a-million candidates
There’s a special alchemy involved with assembling the right team. Here are the key ingredients for success when recruiting those one-in-a-million candidates. “You had me at hello.” I wonder how many directors have wanted to say those words when interviewing a star candidate? When that special someone says yes, the c-suite no longer feels so empty. […]
Recruitment: why ‘cultural fit’ is an essential requirement for assessing candidates
While a candidate might be technically qualified to do a job, if they’re not a good ‘cultural fit’ for the organisation and the team, it can lead to problems further down the line. Here’s how companies can reflect their unique culture in their hiring process. If recent statistics are to be believed, it appears that […]
How AI can make the recruitment process more ‘human’
There’s widespread caution among employers and job seekers when it comes to using artificial intelligence (AI) to aid the recruitment process, but AI can actually help us bring a more human touch to recruiting and HR. With fear-mongering headlines predicting an employment apocalypse and the doom-laden warnings of tech luminaries like Elon Musk, you’d be forgiven […]
How to write job descriptions that attract great candidates
Today two-thirds of hiring managers say that attracting quality candidates is their number one recruiting challenge. Here are the top 5 tips to help every recruiter and hiring manager create job ads that deliver quality candidates. 1. Choose a straightforward job title Search algorithms pick up significant keywords, so keep them relevant; weak or meaningless […]
Brexit update: EU-citizen registration trial and practical steps employers can take to prepare for Brexit
The government is conducting an EU-citizen registration trial ahead of Brexit. Here are practical steps employers can take to prepare for this and the challenges Brexit will pose for HR professionals. At the time of writing, the government is about to roll out a Brexit registration trial, which will enable EU citizens residing in the […]
Recruitment: are first impressions unfairly influencing your hiring process?
Studies have shown that interviewers often make up their minds about candidates within the first few minutes of meeting them – sometimes regardless of how well they perform later on in the interview. It seems that first impressions are indeed powerful – but they don’t tell the whole story. Here’s how to assess whether inaccurate […]
Recruit smart: how employee advocacy can attract talent
Talent acquisition is significantly more effective when you engage your employees in advocating for your brand. Employee advocacy is increasingly being adopted by leading brands to meet the growing recruitment challenge in the UK. With concerns over ‘Brexodus’ (the departure of European workers after Brexit), an ageing population and unemployment at a 40-year low, it […]
The Brexit White Paper: what does it mean for immigration and employment?
Find out what the Brexit White Paper means for your business and how to prepare your teams for the impending changes. The highly anticipated and much delayed Brexit White Paper was finally published by the government this July, over two years since the referendum vote. However, in terms of any concrete details on immigration and employment […]
Recruitment tips: don’t join the war for talent – build your own instead
For too long recruiters have complained of a ‘war for talent’ – but this thinking is wrong. Do your business a favour and look to build an achievement culture instead. You only have to Google ‘companies struggle to find skilled workers‘ to find a string of results showing that an apparent ‘war for talent’ rages […]
Recruitment bias: would you hire the handsome fella first?
Despite good intentions, research has shown that a candidate’s looks can often bias the interview process – sometimes without the interviewer even realising it. So how can HR professionals avoid this situation and ensure their organisation is hiring the best person for the job? In today’s working environment we are increasingly aware of encouraging diversity […]
Find me a job Alexa! Recruitment with cloud-based voice services
Are cloud-based voice services the future of candidate engagement? Voice-based devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home are opening up massive new opportunities for recruitment for corporates, agencies and jobs boards, as well as for candidates themselves. By 2020 it is predicted that the connected home market could be worth almost US$150 billion globally, and […]
Recruitment and retention: How hospitality businesses can stay ahead during post-Brexit anxiety
Brexit will present significant challenges for staff recruitment and retention in the hospitality sector, but despite the uncertainty there are things that employers can do now to prepare for it. The hospitality sector is well known for its high staff turnover, which is on average around 30% a year, and its dependency on EU workers […]
Recruitment tips: Three things you should know about hiring generation Z
If you thought generation Z were just mini-millennials, you were wrong. Recruiting from this talent pool requires a different set of tactics altogether. As the mother of two university students who have been applying for summer jobs and internships, I’ve recently been getting an earful about the recruiting process for entry-level work. My son Jacob, […]
People management: making way for future employees
Automation and artificial intelligence might be changing how we do business, but it’s people who give businesses their edge. People are your greatest asset. This has been a buzzword in business for decades, but with technology displacing people from jobs and the spotlight increasingly on commodities, many business leaders are likely wondering, how much longer […]