This is the second installment of Common Perceptions in Talent Acquisition That Must Change. Part I addresses the false notion that Talent Acquisition (TA) is an unnecessary source of overhead costs for businesses. The following is another commonly held, but inaccurate belief in the industry.

Hiring (Well) Means “Letting Go”

Relinquishing control and trusting that those around you will do the right thing is not always easy. There are tons of HR executives and TA professionals out there who think that the only people who can execute a TA strategy are recruiters and recruitment leaders.  As business needs are constantly changing and evolving, the concept of forecasting accurate hiring numbers (forget layering in the complexity of attrition) is as nebulous as the flying purple squirrel candidates.

Targets, priorities, and profiles change, and both inbound and outbound sourcing methods take time and energy – which leads to inevitable resource constraints. While it would be nice to say that all of this can be solved with a good CRM strategy, the reality is: there will always be certain roles that we are filling ‘”just in time.”

This means that a completely centralized recruiting function needs to be built for worst case scenario hiring numbers – they need to be prepared for the inevitable “urgent hiring push” that in some businesses is cyclical and in others seems to be completely random. The most amazing thing that TA leaders need to realize is that they have an entire workforce of recruiters – inside their own companies. 

As an industry, we’ve spent too much time making the recruiting process complex and bringing all control and ownership into the department, that we are missing out on using our best asset to our advantage: our people. TA leaders who decentralize their hiring processes (i.e., give both power AND responsibility back to the hiring team – managers, brand ambassadors, executives, department coordinators) have access to a huge pool of resources who are both experienced in interviewing and invested in making a great hire.

Giving access to these resources does come at a price: your ability to control every tiny part of the hiring process. If you want these people to be REALLY invested in hiring, they need to have some semblance of control.  This may mean letting them post their own jobs (gasp!) moving their candidates through the recruitment process, or even making a hiring decision without input from a recruiter.

There are of course certain parts of the process that need controls (you still need a sound approval chain for postings and for offers) and most hiring managers will still want the opinion of someone from your TA team before going to offer on a candidate.

BUT, instead of them having to have your approval or wait for your team to push a button, you become an advisor that they look to for advice, assistance, and support (or sometimes a differing opinion). Ultimately, the hire is theirs to onboard and manage, so why not let them feel that the hiring process is theirs to own too?

Next week we will dive into the last topic of our three part series, which is how delivering true digital transformation within TA is not a lipstick on a pig exercise.

Four-time world record holder, and first to cross Antarctica solo, joins SmartRecruiters at Hiring Success 19 – Americas. This is his story.

We are excited to welcome Colin O’Brady to Hiring Success 19 – Americas, February 26-27 in San Francisco (register now to hear Colin live), where he will share the details of his record-breaking trip across the 932-mile continent in just 54 days – solo and unaided.

Even more humbling than this amazing feat of endurance is how this explorer encourages all of us to erase the line in our minds between the few who can achieve and the many who cannot. Rather, he hopes his journey demonstrates that we can all draw on our “inner reservoir of strength” to summit the peaks of our own ambitions.

“I don’t think everyone wants to go walk across Antarctica, but I know that people certainly have challenges in their life,” O’Brady told Business Insider. “Everyone has reservoirs of untapped potential inside of themselves and can achieve really incredible things.”

But how to start? For Colin, it started in a small hospital in Thailand. He lay heavely bandaged from head to toe. Twenty-five percent of his body covered in severe burns.  Alone and fearful, he pondered the news his doctors had given him: he may never again walk normally.

Just a few months prior, Colin was a recent Yale grad with his whole life ahead of him. The 22-year-old felt invincible, and—after withdrawing his savings—set out to find adventure with nothing more than a backpack and a surfboard. He found himself on a remote Thai beach one night, watching fire dancers jump with flaming ropes, he decided to join in.

A moment later his leg caught in the flaming cord and ignited his whole body. Colin’s instincts kicked in long enough for him to dive into the nearby ocean… then darkness, then silence.

Colin awoke in a rural hospital, alone save for a cat who would run through the clinic and jump on his bed. He realized the situation was dire. Recovery would be a miracle in the best case scenario but, in these unsanitary conditions, it seemed impossible.

“The searing pain was unimaginable, and the morphine made it feel like there were insects crawling all over my skin, I don’t know which was worse. I was downward spiraling, ready to give up.”

Colin’s mother arrived 5 days later and began encouraging him to make goals. “Ok Colin, what do you want to do after this?” she would ask. At first, Colin couldn’t give an answer, he was too depressed to consider a future. But his mother’s relentless positivity inspired him, and a dream took shape. “Mom, I’m going to compete in a triathlon.”

Colin’s mother didn’t let him forget those words. The first day home, she put a chair infront of him saying, “Today you have to figure out how you are going to get out of your wheelchair and into this chair.” It took three hours, but he finally did it. The next day, the chair was five steps away; the day after that 10.

Eighteen months later, Colin was at the starting line of the Chicago Triathlon, where he swam, biked, and ran a combined 31.93 miles, beating out 4,000 contestants to take first place.

Colin set more goals for himself in a steady progression until he found himself tackling one of the most brutal ventures of strength and endurance, summiting the highest peak in the world: Mt Everest.

Under normal circumstances, this feat would be hard enough, but Colin planned to climb this daunting peak as part of the Explorers Grand Slam, where adventurers summit the highest peak of all seven continents and travel to the North and South poles. Colin had already climbed five of those peaks and reached both poles in the last 100 days. Now, only Mt. Everest and Mt. Denali lay before him.

His eyes bulged, his face was swollen – Colin had reached what is known as the ‘death zone’, 26,000 feet above sea level – the same altitude that a commercial airline flies. At this altitude, the human body begins dying—every breath is a struggle and every step feels like a mile.

The trek was hard. He left his tent at midnight with encouraging words from his wife (and expedition coordinator) via satellite phone. The rising sun illuminated the two-mile drop on either side of his path. Colin began to question whether or not he would reach the summit—that’s when he saw the chair.

He knew if he could take those first steps after his accident, he could finish now.

Exhausted after reaching the top of the world Colin dropped into his tent and phoned his wife to let her know he made it.

“Honey, put on your boots,” she said.

“What!?” he asked, assuming she was joking.

“If you climb Denali within the next week you will set two world records. We have a chopper waiting for you at base camp.”

So, he laced up his boots and set out for the next challenge, taking with him a rock from Everest to remind him even this mighty mountain can be broken down to its smallest part, and any journey is possible one step at a time.

Colin went on to summit Denali that same week. Completing the Explorer’s Grand Slam in 139 days. The previous record was 192 days. Now speaking about his accomplishments, Colin travels around the country to inspire athletes, students, and businesses to achieve their goals, both big and small.

SmartRecruiters is now excited to welcome Colin to our fourth annual Hiring Success Conference where he will ask recruiters and TA leaders his biggest question: “What’s your Everest?”

They know the ins and outs of recruiting great candidates, but does your organization know the best processes for hiring a full-time talent acquisition professional?

Business growth starts and ends with hiring the right people, and as your organization continues to add employees, issues around people management, workflow processes, and legal regulations become more complex. A solid HR foundation is critical to business success, and the bricklayers of people operations are Human Resources professionals. You know this, and so do the candidates applying to your organization’s nascent, or nonexistent, TA team.

Hiring for these roles is difficult for startups that are busy focusing on developing product and honing business objectives, but beware waiting too long. According to renowned Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen, “The number of companies in the Valley that put HR off to the side and decided it wasn’t important and are now dealing with some level of catastrophe—either a public catastrophe or one that’s in the making … and it’s totally unnecessary. If they had taken HR seriously at an earlier point, they probably would have been able to fight a lot of their issues.”

Establishing an effective HR department is critical to growing your business, building company culture, and managing employees. Here’s how to hire a top-quality HR professional at the right time for your company, from crafting a solid job description to what to ask during an interview.

At What Stage Does Your Business Need a Full-Time HR Hire?

The short answer is: the earlier the better. From a legal perspective, organizations with 50 or more employee begin encountering state and federal regulations like the Family and Medical Leave Act. Hiring a HR professional is an absolute must after crossing this threshold.

For smaller startups, tight finances may be the biggest hurdle when launching a Human Resources department, but the greatest success happens when HR is considered early in the process, even before the recognized need for an HR function. For startups with limited financial resources, hiring a full-time HR professional may not be an option, which is why outsourcing the job to a consultant can be a cost-saving alternative. Seasoned advisors bring value and impact to organizations by leveraging strategic TA to drive business growth at any company size.

“It’s about asking what would you like to achieve from the business side—what are the business objectives,” said Anna Brandt, HR Advisor at Backbase and N26. “Then, it’s about asking how do we make sure that the recruitment plan or TA strategy will support the delivery of those objectives?”

Business objectives should also be a consideration when developing a profile for what kind of HR professional your organization needs. For example, if data privacy and compliance are important to your industry, then it’s crucial your HR hire is knowledgeable and experienced in the legal regulations affecting your organization.

Likewise, fast-moving startups will need someone who can multi-task, has high-energy, and is able to switch gears quickly. The ideal candidate for an e-commerce corporation might look very different, so aligning your organization’s HR goals with the ideal candidate profile can help refine the search when it’s time to hire.

Job Descriptions for HR Managers and Recruiters

As with any job posting, you will want to outline the core functions of the role. Key responsibilities for an HR professional may include:

• Organizing departmental planning, including hiring and termination policies
• Overseeing employment and compliance with federal and state regulations
• Implementing performance management and improvement systems
• Managing employee salary, bonus incentives, and other compensation programs
• Managing employee safety, welfare, wellness, and health
• Organizing employee training programs
• Managing employee relations, including fielding complaints, concerns, and feedback
• Offering employee services and counseling

Depending on the size of your organization, it may be important to emphasize how the role could evolve over time as the HR department expands, bringing changes to the role and its responsibilities. But, be careful to avoid clichés like “ad hoc responsibilities”, which can deter great candidates.

Tech Proficiency Matters

Technological innovation like artificial intelligence is advancing exponentially, and the HR industry invests billions of dollars in new tools for recruitment, performance management, engagement, training, inclusion, and analytics. “Recruiting has really been transformed these past years,” said Hessam Lavi, Director of Product at SmartRecruiters. “We’ve seen a shift from HR and recruiting coming from an admin function, or merely a cost center, to much more of a strategic function.”

Today’s HR professionals need a strong understanding of modern HR technology, like automated sourcing tools, talent acquisition suites, and candidate relationship management integrations. That’s why strong HR candidates know how to implement technology to reduce the amount of time spent on administrative tasks, improve data quality, and free up more time for value-added tasks. This requires an understanding of the HR tech tools available in the market and an ability to pitch business leaders and stakeholders on investments that will yield a high potential return.

Interview Questions for HR Professionals

HR managers and recruiters are expected to be on the front lines of hiring new talent for your organization, which means you need to understand their ability to assess and interview potential candidates. Sample questions for HR professionals may include:

• How will you drive results in your role?
• How do you conduct job terminations?
• What kinds of interview questions do you typically ask?
• Describe a difficult encounter with an employer/manager/colleague and how you handled it.
• Describe a time when you didn’t follow policy or had to deviate from policy.
• How would you deal with an unethical situation? Any examples?
• What kinds of trends do you think will shape the future of HR departments in the coming years?

As with any strong candidate, responses should drive positive conversations, demonstrate thorough research of the company, and reinforce the importance of HR’s role in the company’s overall business growth strategy.

The End Goal

At the end of the day, hiring a HR professional will allow your company to develop better employees and hit your company growth goals. According to Marjorie Adams, President and CEO of Fourlane, “An internal HR person will improve internal processes and development, including tracking vacation time, improving performance review process, helping employees set goals and managing benefits. After all, a business owner doesn’t have the time or talent to take these tasks on, let alone do a good job administering them.”

We’ve cringed over some of the most gut-wrenching depictions of interviews gone wrong. Now we’re tackling the best-case scenario, and addressing four things recruiters can do to create the smoothest possible interview process.

Interviews are a recruiter’s bread and butter, but conduct enough of them and the shine wears away to expose a mundane and repetitive process. And that has a direct effect on a recruiter’s ability to fill positions. A recent survey found that 83 percent of candidates felt a poorly conducted interview can change their opinion of a role. Conversely, 87 percent of candidates said a positive interview experience could sway their opinion towards accepting a job.

To place the best candidate in the right role, recruiters rely on insights and information gained from the interview process, so a positive experience should be top priority. Here are four ways that recruiters can conduct a more efficient interview.

1. Do the Homework

It’s no secret that recruiters manage extremely busy schedules, but preparing for an interview should be the recruiter’s main focus, especially with the expectation that candidates will conduct their own research before coming in. Proper interview preparation includes:

• Having a clear understanding of the position, its responsibilities, and where the role fits in the larger team structure.
• Gathering a set of open-ended interview questions.
• Reviewing the candidate’s documents and credentials—resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letter, application.
• Preparing for candidate questions about the role—financial compensation, metrics for success, and expectations.
• Providing an assignment, assessment, or task for after the interview (if applicable).
• Knowing the next steps to advance the candidate to the next stage of the hiring process.

2. Ask the Right Questions

Questions asked during an interview should reveal information about the candidate’s experience, their motivation for applying, and what skills they offer. Open-ended enquiries that allow for creative responses are the best way to discover what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. Examples of good open-ended questions are:

• What made you decide to apply for this job?
• Where have you interviewed recently? What opportunities have you had?
• Why did you leave your last job?
• Can you describe your most significant career accomplishment?
• What duties or responsibilities do you want more of in your next role?

The role may also influence the types of questions being asked. When hiring for entry-level jobs, hiring managers often have to read between the lines and evaluate a candidate’s potential based on limited work experience and how they present themselves in the interview process.

3. Have a Positive Attitude and Be Engaged

For many candidates, a recruiter may be their first interaction with a company, so it’s crucial to foster a positive experience for the candidate. Recruiters should be passionate about their company, the role they are hiring for, and the interview process. Demonstrating a professional and enthusiastic attitude will calm nervous candidates and allow for a more meaningful exchange.

Actively listening to a candidate’s responses and asking thoughtful follow-up questions demonstrate a recruiter’s attentiveness, and reflect positively on the company. As an ambassador, it falls on the recruiter to convey the company’s principles, employer brand, Employee Value Proposition, and other unique values.

4. Follow Up and Provide Feedback

Candidates value transparency in the hiring process, so creating a feedback loop that informs them of their status after the interview greatly contributes to the candidate experience. If possible, recruiters should offer candidates feedback on their interview, regardless of whether they will advance to the next stage. Maintaining communication means that when it comes time to extend a job offer, the candidate is more likely to accept, and faster, because of this rapport.

After a decade in the industry, SmartRecruiters’ Head of People, Sarah Wilson, shares why she still never misses a conference.

Sometimes I walk away from an event and think, “That was pretty good, I am glad I went,” and sometimes I skip out of the room thinking, “Holy shit I love my industry!” Our Toronto Hiring Success breakfast definitely fell into the “holy shit” camp. It was an early morning, a time of day that pairs poorly with jet lag and Toronto humidity. The struggle was real getting out of bed. Though the hotel was moments away from the venue, by the time I reached the slightly muggy room, I was already thinking, “This is going to be a long one.”

“HR is the coolest job, you get to impact everyone in the company.” Sarah Wilson @SmartRecruiters #RecruitingAutomation pic.twitter.com/ObMc8rKgmu

— RAS (@RAS_SF) June 14, 2018

Moments later, a few of my favorite Torontonians walked in – equally blurry-eyed – and that amazing thing happened when you remember why you love something. HR has always been about the people for me. The people we serve, but also our peers, our exhausted fellow practitioners who can make an early morning conference session fly by with insight and enthusiasm, and I wanted to share some of the top takeaways that sent me back to San Francisco still skipping, even after 10 years of doing this whole HR thing – and in ascending order:

5. Think of marketing and recruiting like peanut butter and jelly.

We’ve been talking about Marketing and Recruiting intersecting for several years, but now it’s really happening. The consensus from the room was that marketing (for now anyway) belongs inside the Talent function (ask us again in a year or two and see whether we change our minds), but we have a lot to learn from our marketing counterparts. At the top of the list is how to be data driven when we think about reach, response, and investment. The key to having a business case for marketing spend is built upon solid data. If you aren’t sure how to do that, don’t be shy about asking your friends in marketing.

4. Just tell the truth.

Not every candidate is going to get hired. In reality, 99 percent of the candidates you meet may never work for your company.  What’s important to them is that you keep them in the loop. Let them know if you aren’t going to hire them – gently of course – because all they really want is the truth from you. One of our panelists talked about rejecting a candidate over the phone because there wasn’t an open opportunity, but offering to chat casually with a few colleagues so the candidate would be top-of-mind when a position comes up. Taking accountability:   Making the candidate feel special:

3. Help hiring managers more.

Listen to their needs, learn from them, and lend them your expertise so they can pick the best candidates.

2. Never feel alone!

Every story prompted a chorus of nods. When we opened to questions from the floor, there was continuity in the flow of ideas. My a-ha moment that morning wasn’t so much a tactic I could take away and implement tomorrow,  it was that I felt a sense of community. Which leads me to my final takeaway…

1. Get together more often.

Talent Acquisition is a team sport. It’s an industry that gets better by sharing. Yes, the war for talent is real, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together to win it for the industry as a whole. Of course we are a competitive bunch, but we are also a group of “people people” who gather energy from everyone around us. The people I meet at conferences inspire me, and push me to be better – and I know I can do the same for them. Who’s with me?

Join SmartRecruiters for Hiring Success 18: European Edition, being hosted September 19-20th in Berlin!

The surest way to earn 3x revenue and 3x profit as your peers? Invest in recruiting.

The current global marketplace is highly dependent on technology, but when it comes to finding and hiring the best candidates, much of the tech deployed to do so is out of date. With power shifting from hiring teams to candidates themselves, coupled with forecasted talent shortages in the coming years, companies need to assure they have the best systems in place for candidates to apply quickly, easily, and on the go.

Recruitment systems, usually integrated into blanket enterprise resource planning (ERP) models are notoriously clunky. Tech reminiscent of the dot-com boom has no place in a world run from smartphones and social media. Management often misidentifies talent acquisition as weeding through resumes, and chooses an ERP with back-office HR functions in mind. That’s because most ERP models specialize in managing specific aspects of HR like payroll, benefits, and performance management. While settling for an ERP with a “good enough” Applicant Tracking System can seem like a simple solution, the Boston Consultant Group found that companies who make the investment to assure they’re recruiting the best talent earn three times the revenue and two times the profit of their peers.

With the world is moving at an ever-faster pace, candidates aren’t compelled to fill out long applications. With one-step-apply features on sites like LinkedIn, many expect to send their CV with the press of a button. A recent CareerBuilder study found “the more in-demand a skill set, the less likely a job seeker with that skill set will jump through hoops.”

Thus Recruiting has had to turn itself inside out, and put effort not only on intake, but acting more like a marketing department, attracting potential candidates to their organization before the usual process is underway. In a survey of SmartRecruiters’ Marketplace partners, 30 percent said recruiting marketing tools were what they were most likely to invest in this year.

While slow, some organizations are waking up to the problem more quickly than others. According to a recent IDC survey, 23 percent changed ATS solutions in the past 18 months —and another 22 percent plan to make a change in the next 18 months. But this doesn’t necessarily mean going for a complete overhaul.

Many still turn to a Recruiting Point Solution (RPS), specialized software that supplements the shortfalls of an organization’s blanket ATS. Many companies look to RPS to “plug holes” in their aging ERP package, and though this might seem like a quick fix, the problems associated with having an RPS and an ERP can be numerous. Instead of addressing fundamental problems in their HR software, companies end up doubling-up on recruiting programs, and overpaying. Additionally, many ERP’s operate as individual entities, making transferring data between a company’s ERP and its band-aid RPS an IT nightmare.

For companies willing to leave ERP behind, there’s best of breed (BoB) – systems organized like a digital lunch buffet. Companies pick and choose relevant software across all fields of HR – talent acquisition, talent management, and workforce management. This allows companies to ditch their expensive and overly configured ERPs for a conglomeration of sleek, targeted systems. Some BoBs, like SmartRecruiters, also offer a marketplace, an integrated collection of third-party technology that provides an easy platform for companies to continue to integrate into modern systems. Beginning with the SmartRecruiters Talent Acquisition Suite, an engine that gives hiring teams the newest tools for recruitment marketing, applicant tracking, and onboarding, companies can continue to acquire top-of-the-line HR software that encompasses functions like payroll and onboarding. The benefits of BoB don’t stop there.

The SmartRecruiters Marketplace is fully integrated within a single system, allowing data to be transferred seamlessly between programs as if it was a single ERP platform, with a range of third-party services organizations need to keep ahead of the curve in today’s war for talent. In the SmartRecruiters Marketplace survey of where this year’s big spends will occur, tools to address self-scheduling, onboarding, and analytics were only outranked by methods to address diversity hiring – essential to be seen as forward-thinking and inclusionary in 2018.

Additionally, the pick-and-choose aspect allows companies to slim down their HR systems to only what they need, saving resources that would have previously been wasted on an overpriced ERP.

BoB systems are a multi-faceted solution to a multi-faceted problem, providing a platform for companies to choose specialized HR software from industry leaders, all integrated into a single BoB system.

Recruiting Tech Options — ERP or BoB?

• ERP models are all-inclusive Human Resources packages, a blanket software aimed at integrating all of a company’s HR needs onto a single platform. Unfortunately, many of these behemoths base their programs on outdated technology; and, due to the production of all HR software being delegated to a single team, many features of ERP’s, especially those based around recruitment, lack the features present in a more specialized Talent Acquisition Suite.
• ERP models often specialize in managing specific aspects of HR like payroll, benefits, and performance management, while other features, mainly those centered around recruitment, feel tacked-on, in order to present a complete HR package to the market.
• Many companies look to Recruiting Point Solutions (RPS), in order to “plug holes” in their aging ERP package. The problems associated with this can be numerous. Instead of addressing fundamental problems in their HR software, companies end up doubling-up on recruiting programs, and subsequently overpaying. Additionally, many ERP’s operate as individual entities, making transferring data between a company’s ERP and its band-aid RPS difficult and time-consuming, creating a disconnect between the candidate and hiring team.
• Talent Acquisition Suites bring the integration of all-inclusive ERP’s and the modernity of RPS’ into a single package. Designed to target one specific aspect of the hiring process, TAS’ are at the forefront of technological innovation. TAS’ track job candidates from the moment they show interest in a position, through to the end of the hiring process.
• Due to its modernity, a TAS will be able to integrate with job-posting sites like Monster and LinkedIn, allowing a company to advertise positions, review applications, schedule interviews, and make hiring decisions seamlessly, all from a single platform.
• SmartRecruiters is constantly updating their software in order to stay cutting edge. “When you buy an off-the-shelf ATS, it’s out of date as soon as you buy it.” (Tracey Allison)
• Although ATS systems have become the industry standard for Talent Acquisition, Aptitude Research found that 51 percent of companies are employing multiple ATS systems, and only 20 percent of companies are satisfied with their current ATS.
• The SmartRecruiters Marketplace allows companies to pick-and-choose their HR software from industry leaders, all of which is fully integrated into the same same system.

For a lean recruiting team to find the most entrepreneurial engineers in the US, only the slickest TA suite will do.  

Olsson Associates is in the business of civil engineering, both consulting and design, for multidisciplinary public and private infrastructure projects. What makes Olsson different is that it’s employee-owned, which means workers are more invested and the stakes are higher. So when Mandy Wehner, the company’s HR specialist, started shopping around for a new TA Suite, it didn’t take long to find, and ultimately choose, SmartRecruiters.

Thanks for chatting with us today, Mandy. Can you give us a brief history of the company?

Olsson Associates was founded in 1956 by John E Olsson, an East-coaster who decided to attend the University of Nebraska – Lincoln for engineering. Our headquarters are in Lincoln, and we have around 1,100 employees in eight states, and over 25 offices.

When did you join, and what attracted you to Olsson?

I became a part of the Olsson family in March 2015. What attracted me the most was how the organization fostered entrepreneurial thoughts, innovation, and encouraged employees to come to the table with new ways to solve problems. I love waking up every day knowing I get to make decisions, take ownership of my actions, and bring in new ideas to drive Olsson forward.

How did you find the hiring set-up when you arrived?

When I started at Olsson, the hiring was a bit different. In 2015, we had maybe 50 positions open at any given time. Since late 2016, we’ve had 90+ open positions to fill continually, and I don’t anticipate that slowing down at all. Our Human Resource team is starting to have some employees specialize in recruiting, so they’re really taking the lead in the ATS, knowing it inside-out and able to take the reins on the candidate experience.  

What were your biggest challenges, and victories, as you settled in and got things going?

Some of our challenges were being creative in trying to fill some challenging positions, creating talent pipelines, and building recruiting plans. Victories would include implementing a new ATS to help us become more efficient at our jobs, and more efficient with recruiting. We’ve been able to maintain better contact with candidates, and thus make their candidate experience enjoyable, with SmartRecruiters.    

How long was it before SmartRecruiters came into the picture?

We’d used a couple of ATS vendors before transitioning. We are still fairly new to SmartRecruiters, only having implemented the system in late September 2017.  

Was there a eureka moment that made the transition to SmartRecruiters a reality?

As we continued to grow, we realized we needed to upgrade our ATS to a system from which we could send emails, offer letters, and other documentation. Our old system just didn’t have that functionality. Our HR team is lean, and they were working too much outside the ATS, and it was taking too much time to complete tasks.

Did you know exactly what you needed to, or did SmartRecruiters come as one option of many?

We knew that we needed a new ATS, that was not a question. I had been doing a lot of research and SmartRecruiters actually was never on my list. It wasn’t until we were looking into onboarding systems (Clickboarding) that SmartRecruiters was mentioned, and when I looked into it, I was interested immediately.

What made you go with SmartRecruiters in the end?

Our HR group enjoyed the demo, because it was personalized for us. We felt the sales team really took the time to use our logo, and personalize the presentation to include our values, mission, etc. The functionality was top-notch compared to what we had before, and we felt SmartRecruiters would go the extra step to be a great vendor and to really work with us to get the most hiring success out of the ATS.

How long did it take to implement, and when was that?

We signed the contract to implement in July 2017, and we were up and running the end of that September. It was a very quick turnaround time for us, so we were really proud of the quick progress we made. The hardest part was getting our data out of our old ATS, but implementing SmartRecruiters was pretty painless.

Did you find any ways to make the software work for you that you hadn’t anticipated?

We have found that SmartRecruiters has new functions we didn’t initially anticipate using, ones around which we continually evaluate whether or not we should change our process. We especially like that SmartRecruiters has regular rollouts of updates – we didn’t have that with our old ATS so that is very promising.

What is the biggest thing SmartRecruiters has allowed you to do that you couldn’t before?

SmartRecruiters has allowed us to take a look at integrating our background check and drug-screen companies into the system. We’ve been able to save time and energy by completing tasks within SmartRecruiters that we couldn’t with our old ATS. We love the functionality of the system and look forward to continued improvements.

After paying their debts to society, thousands of Americans with criminal records struggle to land a job, in large part due to recruiter bias.

Shelley Winner’s dad first got her drunk when she was 11. At 13, she started smoking pot. By 34 she was using and trafficking methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription pills. After a short-lived stint smuggling drugs across state lines, she was arrested, and received a four-year sentence at FCI Dublin, a low-security prison for female inmates, 98 miles from her hometown of Carmichael, California. With her father having been in and out of jail for most of her life to that point, Shelley joined 70 percent of children with incarcerated parents who follow them into the prison system.

“What if…” asks Shelley, now 40, “…you were known for only one thing, and it was the worst thing you’ve ever done?”

The United States represents roughly 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but holds approximately 22 percent of the world’s prisoners, and has one of the highest incarceration rates per-capita worldwide, with 693 inmates for every 100,000 people. After becoming one of the 600,000 released from American prisons each year, Shelley experienced reluctance to hire ex-prisoners firsthand, at a multinational tech firm. A job offer was rescinded once the company discovered she had served time.

“That was a very hard moment,” says Shelley. “It would have made a lot of people just give up. But I didn’t.”

Arizona State University polled 50 employers about hypothetical job applicants, including men and women with criminal records, and found that 57 percent of men with a prison record would have been considered for a job interview, but only 30 percent of women with the same prison record would have received a call.

“We need to get rid of these stigmas,” says Shelley, “and give people a fair, second chance to get their lives back in order.”

Contrary to popular perception, not hiring ex-offenders is bad for business. Approximately one in three American adults have criminal records – that’s 70 million people – and excluding them from the workforce reduces Gross National Product between $78 and $87 billion annually. This is on par with the cost of the proposed merger between Time Warner and AT&T, two of the largest telecommunications companies in the world.

Employers can also reap substantial tax credits for hiring ex-offenders, as well as earn fidelity bonds that cover the first six months of employment for “hard to place” candidates. But even with such incentives, nearly 75 percent of formerly incarcerated people are still unemployed a year after their release. With few prospects to cover basic expenses, many ex-offenders return to illicit activities. Unable to make ends meet, 89 percent of ex-offenders are unemployed at the time of their re-arrest. The odds of Shelley starting a legitimate career while staying out of prison were slim, but she was determined to reform after discovering, two weeks after her arrest, that she was going to have a baby.

A judge removed Shelley from jail and placed her in a halfway house, allowing to carry her pregnancy to term before serving her time. There, Shelley enrolled in the faith-based recovery program, Adult & Teen Challenge USA, which, after successful completion, knocked a year off her original four-year sentence.

“It was the most pivotal moment of my life,” she says. “There was no way I was going to be a drug-addicted mom who was in and out of prison. I couldn’t put my child through what I went through.”

Two months after giving birth to a son, Shelley stepped into FCI Dublin, where she found another chance to transform her street hustle into a force for personal change. She gained entrepreneurial and leadership training through Defy Ventures, a nonprofit organization that works with prisons and correctional facilities in cities across the country, offering currently and formerly incarcerated “Entrepreneurs-in-Training” entry into the business world. For Shelley, “it was an amazing, life-changing program.”

The Defy Ventures program at FCI Dublin falls under the jurisdiction of Veronica Ensign, Bay Area executive director. “We focus on this one piece of the system so we can make a greater impact,” says Ensign. “And if we break these cycles we will have forever changed the system.”

Ensign worked with directly with Shelley while she served her sentence and the two speak together at conferences, both to share Shelley’s story, and bring attention to ex-offenders with similar backgrounds who haven’t been as successful reintegrating.

“The odds have been stacked against them before their incarceration,” Ensign says, “and then we make it even harder once they get out.”

Shelley worked with Defy Ventures’ coaching team for 18 months while in prison, culminating in a “Shark Tank”-style investor meeting with CEOs and venture capitalists, where she pitched her strategy for a computer-repair business.
Shelley lived up to her name and won the competition.

The next step was to find a mentor who could help her navigate the tech industry on the outside. Enter DeeDee Towery, CEO at ProActive Business Solutions and one of the Bay Area’s most influential female business figures. She acted as a guide during Shelley’s 10-month stint in a halfway home, spent seeking career opportunities in tech, a field that long held the interest of the self-described “computer geek.” Shelley then enrolled in Code Tenderloin, an intensive program of job readiness, interview techniques, and coding. It was Code Tenderloin that brought Shelley to a major tech company’s Mountain View office, where after a day of introductions, she was encouraged to apply for an open position.

“Code Tenderloin had me doing so many mock interviews,” she says. “I hated it at the time, but, when I went in for the real interview, I nailed it, and was hired right there on the spot.”

And that’s when Shelley’s conviction history raised concerns and her offer was rescinded. This setback crushed her morale, but she remained determined. “If there’s one thing Defy Ventures taught me,” she says, “it was to not give up when faced with fear, to keep pushing forward, and to silence self-limiting thoughts. It’s ok to be afraid, but instead of it being crippling, you embrace it.”

A 2017 survey sponsored by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners found that 86 percent of US employers surveyed conducted background screening checks after the job interview, but 97 percent conducted criminal background screening on candidates regardless of their status in the interview process. With easy access to online databases, employers feel justified in this, but Ensign argues that “most people running background checks are doing them illegally, and not in a comprehensive way.”

Accessing candidate information via social media or other online portals can lead to murky legal waters, where discrimination can affect hiring decisions. Nearly 30 states currently uphold fair chance hiring policies, some of which require private sector and government employers to “ban the box” indicating a candidate’s previous felony or misdemeanor convictions, as well as delay candidate background checks until later in the hiring process.

While Shelley made it all the way to the job offer stage, she easily could have been rejected at the outset, as California did not implement its Fair Chance Act until January 2018. Before then, California’s estimated seven million residents with conviction histories were systematically excluded from countless job opportunities because of this box.

Ensign emphasizes the importance of background checks that would eliminate certain people from the candidate pool — banks don’t want to hire embezzlers, trucking companies don’t want to hire drunk drivers, etc — but recruiters should “conduct their background checks in a way that considers the person holistically,” she says. “It’s important to do the empathy-building on the front-end of the application process.”

Even with crisp talking points and polished interview skills, no amount of charisma could erase the mark on Shelley’s record. But she decided to plead her case with the hiring manager over email. “I know you’re leery about hiring me,” she wrote. “But I assure you, you’re not going to regret it because I am gonna bust my ass.”

Shelley’s tenacity paid off, and the hiring manager reconsidered. Besides the financial mistake of excluding candidates with conviction histories, they are often branded “untrustworthy”, or “unreliable,” even though it’s been proved that individuals with conviction records maintain a much longer tenure, and are less likely to quit their jobs voluntarily than other workers, likely due to scarcity of opportunities. As for a “lack of social and professional skills”, Ensign stands by Defy Ventures candidates who complete the training program and leverage their skills for success.

“Competition is good,” she says, “and we know that our candidates can compete with others. If hiring managers are going to consider the millions of Americans with conviction histories as part of their TA strategy, they need to do some empathy-building work with their leadership and employees.”

Technology may be the current focus within the HR industry, but the human touch remains its essence. Shelley’s goal in telling her story is more than simply tugging at heartstrings, it’s about the need to give the ex-incarcerated a chance to prove themselves.

“Having empathy in the hiring process brings things down to a human level,” says Shelley. “We all need to look at each other as people instead of data.”

Not every business has the luxury of a fully functioning HR department. But that doesn’t have to be a terminal disadvantage, as fitsmallbusiness.com discovered.

If you’re a small-business owner with no HR department, recruiting and advertising job openings yourself can be a real drain on time. For credibility with small business owners, who may be skeptical of traditional HR advice, fitsmallbusiness.com reached out to a business contact, found other business owners through HARO, and approached their own in-house startup experts, like co-Founder David Waring, who likes to use Indeed to find employees.

In terms of the ordering of the list, ideas that came up time and again found their natural spots near the top. As head compiler, staff writer Laura Handrick explains, “These are simply best practices in HR, but sound so much more doable when a business owner explains the recruiting idea in their own words to a peer.”

However high or low on the list, every small business looking to grow will find something, likely several things, on the list to help them get on their the way.

Top Three:

1. Incentivize Current Employees to Refer New Talent

Barry Maher, Founder, Barry Maher & Associates

2. Contact Mutual Connections

Laura Gross, Founder, Scott Circle

3. Contact Vocational & Trade Schools

Lauren Fairbanks, Owner, My Digital Remedy

So you’re looking to hire a coder. You’ve read their resume, looked over previous projects they’ve worked on and chatted to them in an interview. Everything checks out but there’s still one lingering question. Can they actually code well?

Traditional recruitment concepts are not particularly conducive to figuring out this most important question. Sure, you could assign them a task or have them come in to work for a day, but both of these options are laborious, time consuming and not easy to scale. If only there was some kind of testing level you could build into your hiring process?

Well, now there is, thanks to upcoming Hiring Success 18 speaker Tigran Sloyan, the co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based technology startup, CodeFights.

At its core, CodeFights is a tool which both aspiring and veteran developers can use to build and hone their skills through fun, addictive coding games. However, it is also much more than that. Through completing challenges and games, coders can also be put into contact with jobs which match their skill level. As well acting as a more accurate barometer for coding prowess, a testing process such as this also helps eliminate bias and allow inexperienced, grassroots talent to get a foot in the door of a competitive industry. In an article with CioDive, Sloyan explained the advantages of the CodeFights system:

“It eliminates the need to try to guess who might be interested in a new job and, most importantly for recruiters, to try to avoid assessing people based on pedigree. We’ve pre-assessed their skills and abilities. We’ve helped them get better, and now all [recruiters] have to do is convince those people to join their company. We can become a lot more efficient match maker when we have data and not just self-reported job descriptions or resumes.”

And it seems both developers and companies are taking note. Since its launch in September 2014, CodeFights has attracted over one million developers from 200 countries and over $12.5 million in investments from some of Silicon Valley’s most prominent financiers.

If this concept has piqued your interest, then it’s essential you get down to SmartRecruiters’ Hiring Success 18 to catch Sloyan’s presentation, ‘Measuring Talent’.  As well as defining a nosier, post-resume recruitment world, Sloyan will provide his unique insights into implementing a data-driven, design layer at the top of your hiring process.

So if you want to revolutionize the way you hire developers, join SmartRecruiters and Tigran Sloyan at Hiring Success 18, March 12-14 in San Francisco. Register here, and check out who else you can expect to see on our confirmed speaker round-up.