Category: Talent Technology

How to Leverage Workforce Analytics and HR Data in Workforce Planning

Posted on by epadmin

According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 15 percent of respondents said they use “predictive analytics based on HR data and data from other sources within or outside the organization,” while 48 percent predicted they would be doing so in two years.

While organizations are increasingly incorporating data into the HR mix, there are still areas for improvement and to further adopt workforce analytics. Below, we outline some of the best practices for building an analytics-oriented workforce planning program along with some of the analytics processes essential for success.

Building an Analytics-Oriented HR Data Team

Organizations need to solicit input from a variety of stakeholders like talent acquisition program managers, human resource leaders, data specialists, budget and finance leaders and IT specialists to create a multidisciplinary team. When building your team, considering the following:

  • Does your organization have an individual with experience and expertise in data analysis with the leadership skills to manage a workforce analytics team?
  • Does the team you have assembled include analysts with data management, statistics and data visualization skills?
  • Do you have your IT department’s support to choose the right tools to integrate HR data with other data sources in the organization?
  • Can your team confidently present data-oriented solutions to senior leadership even if the solutions are counter to past workforce plans?

Collecting the Right Data

Collecting essential data points is a key step in a data-driven HR program. The data needed for analysis may come from multiple divisions within an organization. Organizations need to communicate the importance of sharing data with leaders organization-wide. Evaluating current internal HR data can help organizations identify future needs and draft a workforce strategy around them. Below is a list of data needed for workforce analytics.

Internal HR data:

  • What are the demographics of the current workforce? (Gender, ethnicity, disabilities, full/part-time, etc.)
  • How many people work in each position?
  • Where are positions located?
  • What is the employee to supervisor ratio?
  • What are the pay rates of current employees?
  • What is the likelihood of attrition through retirement?
  • What recruitment activities have been completed in the last two to three years?
  • What recruitment activities and resources were used?
  • How many qualified applicants were found?
  • Where did the most qualified applicants come from?
  • What do new employees think of your recruitment practices?
  • How many employees are needed to fill each position?
  • What knowledge, skills, competencies and abilities are needed to perform anticipated job functions?
  • What processes could be done more efficiently or effectively?
  • What are the organization’s strategic objectives?
  • What are the organization’s diversity objectives?

External Data Sources

Many organizations have inward-focused approach to workforce analytics and HR data and do not take into account what is going on outside the organization. The labor market is rapidly changing. Labor market data can inform organizations about talent supply in different locations and provide critical market intelligence on issues like competitiveness and salary range.

Data and job projection reports from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, can lead to a better understanding of the supply and demand for essential occupations and the competitiveness of the job market.

Putting HR Data in Action  

Organizations should take the insights gained through workforce analytics initiatives and develop a workforce plan to fill the gaps between current and future hiring needs. Some strategies and considerations when drafting a data-oriented workforce plan include:

  • Plan for employees to receive skills training when needed to prepare for changing roles within the company.
  • Hire and retain employees with skills that are critical to the success of the business.
  • Create programs focused on employee retention.
  • Increase efficiencies in recruitment and hiring processes by proactively identifying vacancies through succession planning and forecasting future business requirements.
  • Identify training needs, classification and compensation issues, organizational or position changes that may affect employee retention.
  • Create workplace diversity strategies to reach organizational diversity goals.

Managing a Workforce Analytics Program and HR Data

Workforce analytics is a continuous process that is highly susceptible to changes in the economy and labor market. To stay on top of new developments, organizations need to ensure their workforce analytics process is managed properly. Below, we share advice on how to best manage a workforce analytics program.

Prioritize Business Goals

For workforce analytics to drive real value, it has to be aligned with an organization’s business goals. Everyone contributing to workforce analytics process needs to be briefed on the overarching business strategies, so they can understand how their analysis contributes.

Common workforce goals include:

  • Reduce turnover on a particular team or organization-wide
  • Retain high-performing individuals
  • Improve staffing and recruiting efficiency
  • Lower the cost of operations
  • Ensure the organization has talent aligned to expansion plans or planned new product offerings

Stakeholder Management

Because workforce analytics involve stakeholders from HR, finance, IT and others within an organization, clear and open communication should be emphasized early in the process. This will help stakeholders and their teams understand expectations up front and establish relationships between teams for success.

Data Quality

At the start of a workforce analytics initiative, it makes sense for organizations to conduct basic data hygiene practices like assessing the quality of data, gauging the need for data clean-up and documenting data-gathering and reporting processes.

Data Governance

Because employee data is personal, privacy rules must be respected. Proper data governance should be the responsibility of everyone involved in workforce analytics. However, someone should be assigned ownership to ensure that data and HR teams are following the processes established for data security.

Flexibility

Economic and business climates are not static; even the best workforce analytics program may miss emerging talent shortages or inadequately take certain contingencies into account. To make sure workforce analytics program reflect the latest internal and external developments, organizations should regularly re-calibrate and revise assumptions made from previous HR data analysis.

RPO Providers Can Assist Organizations with Workforce Planning, HR Data and Analytics

There is no one-size-fits-all workforce planning program, even for global organizations that have similar needs. What’s right for one organization may not be what another organization needs.

However, workforce planning does not have to be mysterious or complex. Organizations more than likely have a lot of the data they need, it is just a matter of creating the right management and reporting practices to interpret the data in meaningful ways.

The right RPO partner can help organizations make sense of their workforce analytics with their experience and deep understanding of labor market data and trends. An RPO partner can also work with an organization to create methodologies adapted to suit their needs. Click here to learn more about PeopleScout’s RPO solutions.

Virtual Reality: Enhancing the Candidate Experience

Posted on by epadmin

While virtual reality (VR) is not new, it is gaining popularity in talent acquisition as a powerful tool for elevating the candidate experience. If used correctly, VR can help companies win talent by standing out from the content companies send to candidates. VR is also a strong tool to promote an employer’s brand.

VR allows users to experience their surroundings in an imaginary immersive environment. From flying on a broomstick at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios to entering a haunted house simulation, virtual reality is a first-person, other-world experience. In recruiting, virtual reality gives candidates a look into real-world activities, virtually experiencing a day-in-the-life of a potential job while helping employers promote their brands in an uninterrupted way.

VR is usually a blanket term for any immersive virtual experience. However, other concepts related to VR add to the landscape of tools in production or now available. These technologies include 360-degree videos (e.g., home tours), computer-generated VR, augmented reality (e.g., wearing Google glass) and the further-out-there mixed reality technology (e.g., the real world and virtual world interact with one another). Mobile AR is also emerging; think the popularity of Pokemon Go. Mobile AR is predicted to one day potentially drive the majority of the growth of VR/AR. However, the 2014 VR market revenue was $62.1B and is expected to balloon to $310B by 2025.

Virtual Reality Applications in Talent Acquisition

VR is used in many different formats in talent acquisition. Career fairs are a popular example. Candidates use VR headsets to experience a first-hand look at what a day-in-the-life might look like before they pursue a position. The British Army used this tactic successfully, allowing candidates to virtually ride tanks in a simulated drill; as a result, the British Army saw its recruitment applications rise by 66 percent. Similarly, the U.S. Navy is also experimenting with virtual reality at career forums, where recruits can immerse themselves in virtual reality combat situations by acting as Navy Seals.

Deutsche Bahn also demonstrates different job roles using VR. Various simulation videos show candidates what it would be like to be a construction worker, a train conductor or work in various other roles. Deutsche Bahn reports that having candidates experience VR has increased the focus and volume of candidates applying.

Some VR applications have merged with gamification techniques. One example of this has been successfully measured by Jaguar. Jaguar developed a skills-based mixed-reality game to attract electronic and software engineers. Available as a mobile app, users engage willingly in a skills test when in-game. Those with interest in Jaguar and who exhibit high aptitude on these tests are green-lighted through the recruitment process.

When new workers join an organization, onboarding and training play a critical role in helping them assimilate faster and reduce turnover. Being trained in a more immersive environment using VR increases learning retention in a more present, focused state. It can also be fun. Kentucky Fried Chicken recently rolled out a program where new cooks are taught the Colonel’s famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe through a VR game.

Using Virtual Reality to Attract Candidates

Candidates have a blind spot when they apply to companies they do not know professionally. Part of the true picture of how an organization operates remains unknown, even after reading employer branding materials, social media posts and company-review websites like Glassdoor or Yelp!.

VR helps candidates feel more confident about accepting a role because they know more about how an employer operates. With VR, there is a deeper level of personalization and engagement that gives candidates a real-world look into their potential employer’s world. Similar to video, but in a more immersive way, VR creates an emotional connection.

Candidates who do not feel attached to a company’s mission, vision or brand also have the opportunity of self-selecting out of the process. If a candidate makes that decision, then possible costs associated with an in-person interview can be avoided.

One item to keep in mind when attracting candidates is that younger audiences are more closely drawn to VR than older audiences. Younger candidates are potentially more familiar with modern technologies than their older peers. If a company is looking to attract an older workforce, VR may not be the right path. Or, it should be supplemented with other tools, so more senior candidates are not discouraged from applying.

Getting Started with Virtual Reality

Today, most examples of talent acquisition applications of VR are organizations with the scale to run enterprise-wide programs or those with an RPO partner experienced in deploying new technology.

If you’re thinking about adding virtual reality efforts to your recruiting program, we recommend taking the following steps before getting started.

  • Confirm your existing talent acquisition program is complete. Are your processes and candidate flow aligned? Do you have the right ecosystem in place for your entire talent acquisition process? Adding VR will help you measure if it differentiates your organization to new candidates. An optimized program will be flexible, allowing you to add VR where it is needed.
  • Understand your target audience. The content you design needs to target a particular audience. You should already have persona-specific content related to your candidate journey. This targeting needs to come to life with VR too.
  • Use VR in conjunction with other tools in the technology ecosystem. VR is a great way to promote your employer brand and attract candidates. Once interested, candidates still need to be assessed before moving on in the process. Consider doing this through on-line assessments, video interviewing or a combination of related strategies.
  • Monitor the talent acquisition technology ecosystem market. VR is mature in the consumer world, but still in its infancy in the B2B world. As VR matures in talent acquisition, monitor similar and complementary technologies that may also be used in the future, such as augmented reality or mobile applications.

Virtual reality should be geared to the right audience as part of an overall recruitment program. Organizations should consider VR and track the growth of associated technologies to stay ahead of the competition.

Strategies for Building an Effective Talent Community

Posted on by epadmin

Competition for talent is increasing across the globe, and employers are looking for innovative strategies to stay ahead of the competition. To gain a competitive advantage, employers are deploying a variety of methods. Wages are on the rise after years of slow growth. New graduates face strong prospects for employment. Even retirement is starting to look different for older workers with important skills. Finding new ways to source and attract workers with the skills of the future is a growing need.

In the U.S., years of job growth have led to the lowest unemployment rate in decades. Around the world, favorable job conditions are making it more difficult for employers to hire the talent they need. Adding to the challenge, employers are facing a skills shortage as they look to hire candidates who have the training, education and experience to bring their workforce into the future. This pressure is even greater in industries that are currently adapting to disruptive technology, like the auto industry. While reskilling and future degree programs can help increase the size of the talent pipeline in the future, employers still need to find and hire talent today. Building a talent community is a promising solution.

What is a Talent Community?

A talent community is a sourcing strategy that is an ongoing, multifaceted approach to candidate engagement that creates employment brand ambassadors and a talent pool that begins to feed itself. It is a process rather than an event and takes continual effort to maintain.

Traditional sourcing starts with a job opening. From there, a job description is written and disseminated. A sourcing specialist may search their contacts and social media to find a candidate with skills that match, but the process largely involves posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to find you.

In a talent community, the process is cyclical. It starts before a job requisition is created, and it doesn’t stop when a candidate is hired. Employers consistently build profiles of the types of candidates they would like for roles they may need to fill in the future. Then, employers need to build pipelines through technology, partnerships and employer branding initiatives to connect with those people, whether the employer currently has a job opening for that candidate or not. Finally, when a candidate gets to the point of applying, the experience throughout that process needs to be so strong that even candidates who do not make it through the process will become ambassadors for that brand and continue to apply for open positions in the future.

Building a talent community sourcing strategy has a host of benefits for employers. A community is sustainable. It can feed itself. This means decreased time-to-fill and cost-of-vacancy because candidates who are interested in working for an organization are waiting for a job to be posted rather than a recruiter posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to apply. It also leads to increased quality of hire because the employer has already determined the ideal candidate persona and has built a pipeline to find those people. When more qualified candidates are in that pipeline, the likelihood of making a strong hire goes up.

Why Talent Communities Alone Aren’t Enough

  • They have to be combined with great employer branding.
  • Your content has to be engaging and of value to the audience.
  • You have to have the right mix of viable candidates with the skills and experience that your company values, and ambassadors for your employer brand.
  • It is what you put into it, not what you take out–you have to cultivate the community or it will stagnate.

Using Employer Branding to Build a Talent Community

As employers work to create a talent community they need to build an employer brand that stands out from other organizations they compete with for talent. Organizations with a strong employer brand can stand out in a crowded landscape and draw in more candidates. There are several strategies employers can use to build their brands.

Online Talent Communities

An online talent community is a way to continue to communicate with candidates who may be interested in working for you in the future but can’t find a job opening that meets their skills and needs right now. It is also a way to engage with candidates who apply to jobs they aren’t qualified for yet but still have potential. An online community allows candidates to provide their contact information, resume and job interests. Then, the organization can search those resumes when a position opens, and it can send matching job openings to the candidate. This keeps the employer at the front of a candidate’s mind and provides recruiters with a slate of candidates every time a requisition opens.

Recruitment Email Marketing

Many organizations use email marketing as a part of their traditional marketing strategy, but it is also important in employment branding. Email marketing can be used in partnership with an online talent community. Organizations can send recruitment marketing emails to share job openings, as well as information about their culture. One caveat to using email marketing as a part of an employer branding strategy is that the emails should be as personalized as possible. A candidate who has provided their resume should only receive job openings that correspond with their skillsets. Data about candidates can also be used to personalize how often candidate receive emails or at what time of the day they are sent. Regulations like CAN-SPAM in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU regulate email marketing, and we discuss those later in this post.

Social Media

Every organization should have a strategy for sharing its employment brand on social media, though that strategy may look different for different companies. One option is to create a separate “careers” social media page where the organization can post job openings and information about the workplace, culture and current employees. At PeopleScout, we recommend this strategy to our clients and work with them to optimize their existing pages to showcase their employer brand. This strategy works well for employers with a strong brand presence and large volume of hires. Another option, especially for smaller organizations, is to include some employer branding on their traditional social media accounts. In this approach, employer branding related posts that share information about the workplace and culture should be interspersed between standard social media posts.

Video

Many employers are familiar with video interviewing, but video can enhance employer branding in several additional ways and doesn’t always need high production quality. One example is video job descriptions. A job posting could include a short video of a hiring manager talking about the job and what they are looking for. A video like this gives a candidate a better understanding of the job and gives them a glimpse into the culture of the organization. Additionally, organizations can use video to show workplace tours, so job seekers get an idea of what working for an organization might look like. If an organization is hiring for a lot of entry-level roles but frequently promotes within the company, a video that shows an employee’s career path from entry-level to a leadership role can also motivate candidates to apply for hard-to-fill entry-level jobs.

Chatting and Text

Another method of building a strong employer brand is communicating with candidates in the ways candidates want to communicate. Chat and text are growing in popularity. Some employers are deploying chatbots throughout their recruitment process. For others, a chat window with limited hours but access to a live recruiter can be successful. While many employers may be cautious to start a system to text messages candidates, several PeopleScout clients have found success and higher rates of candidate engagement.

Using Innovative Technology to Power a Talent Community

While a compelling employer brand is important for attracting strong candidates, it’s not enough to stay ahead in the current competitive landscape. Innovative technology solutions can help employers source top talent faster than the competition.

Geofencing

Geofencing can be used in a few different ways during the sourcing process. Much like targeted ads for restaurants or stores can be delivered to a person’s cell phone or computer based on where that person is located, job ads can be targeted to candidates in a specific geographical area as well. This can be valuable to employers that have a variety of locations spread across a large geographical area. Geofencing can be used to target job ads at candidates near specific branches. It can also be used for industry events or expos where a large number of potential candidates could be in one location at the same time.

AI Sourcing

Artificial intelligence sourcing can provide recruiters with a solid slate of candidates as soon as a requisition is opened, giving the recruiter a strong head start to fill the role. An AI sourcing solution that uses predictive analytics modeling can also provide the recruiter with information about how well the candidate matches the job opening and how likely the candidate is to leave their current role. With this information, recruiters are able to work more quickly and efficiently, filling the role with the best talent in less time. In the end, it saves companies time and money. At PeopleScout, AI sourcing is built into AffinixTM, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology solution.

AI Data Tracking

AI data tracking can be used to make other sourcing and employer branding strategies more effective. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can understand and predict candidate behaviors. By tracking what time of day candidates apply, open emails or use social media, employers can schedule email marketing and social media posts to maximize the number of candidates who will see and click on job postings. Employers can also use this data to optimize their ad spend on job boards, so the ads appear when the best candidates are most likely to be online. One PeopleScout client had data that showed most of its applicants applied after lunch on Wednesdays. By posting jobs just before that timeframe, the employer saw a 15 percent increase in applications.

Finding a Partner

As employers work to build their own talent communities, an RPO provider can be a valuable partner. The right RPO partner will have a wealth of knowledge gleaned from experience solving a wide variety of problems and successfully sourcing and recruiting in a number of markets and industries. Employers can benefit from that collective knowledge.

Additionally, working with an RPO partner provides compliance benefits. Many of the sourcing strategies addressed in this article are impacted by GDPR, CAN-SPAM and other regulations, as well as regulations by the OFCCP. RPO providers have years of experience with these regulations and strong checks in place to ensure all sourcing strategies are compliant. This can provide peace of mind for employers.

Employers working with RPO partners will also see financial benefits, including reducing or eliminating agency spend. At PeopleScout, some clients have gone from agency usage as high as 25 percent or more to zero. To accomplish that, employers need to be committed from the top down to building the sourcing infrastructure to implement a talent community.

To find an RPO partner who is a good fit, employers should look for providers who possess customizable offerings that can be adapted to meet every need. A one-size-fits-all approach ignores the specific needs of employers in different industries and the unique challenges that can arise in recruiting in different markets. To build a strong talent community, employers should look for an RPO partner who can successfully deploy and manage these innovative sourcing strategies.

Workforce Planning: Leveraging Workforce Analytics for Deeper Insights

Posted on by epadmin

Workforce analytics are changing the game. To stay competitive in the modern and complex business landscape, organizations need to leverage technology to make more strategic decisions. Many are using big data and analytics to achieve these aims. In fact, 80 percent of executives say their big data investments have been successful, and almost half say their organizations can measure the benefits from their projects.

What’s more, according to Harvard Business Review, organizations that excel in data-driven decision-making are more productive and more profitable than their competitors on average.

Workforce analytics combines statistical analysis and predictive modeling to help organizations make fact-based talent acquisition and management decisions. In this post, we outline how to leverage analytics as part of the workforce planning process.

What is Workforce Planning and What Role do Analytics Play in the Process?

workforce analytics

Traditionally, workforce planning has been a reactive way of assessing workforce needs. Organizations typically make annual talent forecasts for how many hires are needed in a role, and those estimates happen before the end of a fiscal year as part of the budget-planning process. This approach to workforce planning lacks the flexibility needed to remain agile and competitive in an evolving and dynamic labor market.

Modern, data-driven workforce planning focuses on the future by assessing current hiring needs and modeling how those needs will evolve. Workforce analytics is the cornerstone of modern workforce planning.

Workforce analytics gathers and analyzes data to better inform decisions made in of the process of workforce planning, resulting in the formation of a strategic plan to address workforce challenges. This data-focused approach can assist organizations to match talent forecasts with analysis of the talent pool to create a realistic view of the labor market.

When workforce planning is combined with workforce analytics, organizations are better able to predict future leaders within the organization, craft succession plans for critical positions and recruit the right talent.

Types of Workforce Analytics

Data analytics has become common across many business functions, from logistics to finance. As organizations look to overcome the skills gap, full-employment and record retirement, they need to develop a systematic process for identifying workforce needs, develop strategies to meet those requirements and implementing them effectively. Below we list three data analytics techniques essential to workforce planning that can help organizations meet changing demands now and in the future.

Predictive Analytics 

Predictive analytics leverages historical data to create predictive models that anticipate what is likely to happen in areas such as employee turnover, skills shortages and shifts in the labor market. By incorporating predictive analytics into workforce planning, techniques such as regression analysis, forecasting, multivariate statistics and pattern matching enable an organization’s leadership to understand likely talent outcomes and needs of the future.

Diagnostic Analytics

Diagnostic analytics helps contextualize past performance by evaluating performance-based metrics in an attempt to discover the reasons behind past workforce successes or failures. Diagnostic analytics is essential in workforce planning because it can provide organizations with a clearer picture of key workforce performance metrics and trends. The data can then be leveraged to identify unseen workforce performance issues. Armed with insights gleaned from diagnostic analytics organizations can better optimize their workforce plan to align with performance goals.

Prescriptive Analytics 

Similar to predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics uses the same sets of historical workforce data to anticipate the likelihood of specific results or events. What makes prescriptive analytics different is that the data is then leveraged to plan the best next actions based on those predictions. Prescriptive analytics is extremely valuable in workforce planning because it uses available data to recommend measures that could increase the likelihood of desired business and staffing outcomes occurring.

These techniques can provide organizations with concrete and actionable insights on workforce data and help drive better talent strategies. Talent technology solutions such as PeopleScout’s propriety technology, Affinixtm, can help organizations better leverage these techniques and deliver additional value to workforce planning.

Benefits of Workforce Analytics

While the most obvious benefits are related to time savings, dollars saved and earned, percentage changes, and proof of ROI, there are less tangible benefits of workforce analytics that HR leaders often discover after they have started with their solution. These are benefits related to organizational alignment, team cohesion and company culture. While these benefits are more difficult to measure in concrete terms, they are definitely connected to business outcomes. In the following section, we outline two ways workforce analytics can improve and organizations talent management and recruiting programs.

Improving Retention and Employee Performance

Detailed analytics can help organizations identify top performers, foster successful employee retention and talent recruitment programs and ensure the proper workforce is in place to accomplish business goals and objectives.

Furthermore, an employee’s performance data could be used by hiring managers to identify what motivates an organization’s top talents. This data not only provides more insights about the employees but also shape the strategies to boost the employee morale, retention and engagement.

Improved Hiring Decision With

Workforce analytics make predictive analysis easier and helps HR to make a better choice based on historical data. A great HR analytics tool can make the difference by making the HR easily derive the best candidate to hire from the historical data.

For example, if an organization hired 20 candidates and 10 out of them are from a particular background failed at it, organizations can avoid hiring candidates from a similar background. Moreover, workforce analytics also allows recruiters to learn more about candidates through an online resume database, applications, social media profiles to learn which traits and attributes are associated with top performers in a certain role.

Conclusion

Today, HR leaders make use of analytics solutions to realize deeper insight into the workforce in order to fuel evidence-based decisions and improve business outcomes. An experienced RPO partner with a consultative approach can help organizations better understand their workforce and tailor talent acquisition strategies to match the client’s goals and objectives and which metrics can best determine the desired impact.

How Robotic Process Automation is Reshaping Recruiting

Posted on by epadmin

Automation is one of the most popular emerging technologies currently being deployed in business. According to the Global Future of Work Survey, conducted by Willis Towers Watson, employers expect that 17 percent of all work will be automated by 2020. What’s more, 94 percent of U.S. organizations currently utilizing AI and robotics will increase their use of automation in the next three years.

The increased focus on automation is shifting the way organizations think about business processes such as IT support, data entry, scheduling, workflow and resource management. Beyond these functions, business leaders realize the value of automating HR and recruiting processes. According to research conducted by PwC, 40 percent of the HR functions of international companies are currently using AI-applications. One form of AI — robotic process automation – uses AI to automate business processes to human-like efficiency and effectiveness, making workers more productive. In this post, we outline what robotic process automation technology is, how it can benefit recruiting and how to successfully implement a robotic process automation solution.

What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) refers to technology that utilizes bots to replicate human actions for time-consuming but straightforward back-office administrative tasks. RPA software allows users to configure bots to collect data, trigger responses and communicate with other business systems. RPA software integrates with existing tools, so it does not require a complete update of a legacy system; rather, RPA acts as a supplemental enhancement. RPA applications can handle automations that range from a simple task such as automated email responses to managing thousands of bots that complete individual tasks.

According to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation, the top five business departments deploying RPA software are:

  1. Financial operations
  2. Human resources
  3. Information technology
  4. Procurement
  5. Data and analytics

The Recruiting Case for RPA Adoption

Automation and AI technology have been gaining traction in HR and talent acquisition. In fact, according to a LinkedIn survey on talent trends, 35 percent of talent professionals and hiring managers say that AI is the top trend impacting how they hire.

For organizations looking to optimize their recruiting, RPA software can provide time savings, increase recruiting accuracy and help reduce bias in the recruiting process. RPA technology can also be utilized for high-level repetitive tasks such as candidate and resume screening. RPA systems can work every hour of every day to source, screen and organize candidates. This gives recruiters more time to establish a more consultative relationship with clients and better engage candidates in a personal one-on-one relationship.

An RPA software solution can help optimize an organization’s HR department and recruitment initiatives through the automation of tasks such as the following:

  • Sending automated communications such as auto reply emails and texts to candidates.
  • Collecting, processing and organizing candidate information and storing it in an organizations ATS system.
  • Recruiting process such as candidate sourcing and screening.
  • Answering simple questions from candidates and providing automated application instructions.

HR and Recruiting Applications for Robotic Process Automation Technology

Learning and understanding the value of RPA and HR automation provides forward-thinking organizations and talent acquisition professionals additional tools to improve recruiting efforts. Below, we list several HR applications of RPA technology and how they can improve HR and recruiting functions.

Sourcing Candidates

According to a LinkedIn report, 90 percent of global professionals want to hear from recruiters to talk and learn more about opportunities. With so many candidates willing to entertain prospective job opportunities, it can be nearly impossible for recruiters to engage with every qualified candidate. RPA technology can automate the online sourcing process by canvassing hundreds of talent pools and databases for quality candidates.

With bots sourcing candidates on the web, recruiters can spend more time consulting clients on talent acquisition strategies such as improving employment offers and bolstering recruitment marketing campaigns. With bots sourcing candidates and expert talent acquisition professionals offering guidance, organizations will be better positioned to extend attractive employment offers to top talent.

Chatbots

RPA technology can deploy chatbots that leverage sentiment analysis and computational linguistics to interpret a candidate’s communication and to formulate an appropriate response. Chatbots enable organizations to offer a more responsive and engaging candidate experience by eliminating the downtime between a candidate submitting an application and receiving a response from a recruiter.

Chatbots can also perform the following tasks:

  • Ask candidates for their resume, cover letter and contact information
  • Ask pre-screening questions regarding a candidate’s education, experience and skills
  • Answer candidates’ FAQs about advertised jobs and the application and hiring process
  • Schedule an interview with a recruiter or hiring manager

Enhancing Recruitment Marketing Campaigns

RPAs can help organizations by reliably engaging and communicating with candidates. Recruiters can design attractive email campaigns that can be sequenced and programmed to “drip” messages to both passive and active candidates, creating a higher level of engagement. Automating recruitment marketing campaigns ensures regular correspondence and delivers relevant job postings and content to multiple candidates. This builds more robust talent pipelines and strengthens an employer’s brand.

Interview Scheduling

RPA technology can also assist both an organization’s HR team and candidates with the interview scheduling process. RPA bots can provide candidates with real-time access to a recruiter or hiring manager’s calendar and suggest specific time slots based on availability. After a candidate selects an interview time, an automated invite is sent to both interviewers and interviewees and the scheduled time becomes unavailable for other candidates. What’s more, if an organization utilizes a video interviewing platform, bots can send automated emails containing links and instructions on how to complete the video interview. Hiring managers can then review interviews and select the best candidates for in-person follow-ups.

Enhanced Candidate Experience

With RPA tools, organizations can better manage their candidate experience. Bots can be used to collect real-time data throughout the candidate experience and monitor candidate satisfaction in each stage of the hiring process. Recruiters can program bots to generate emails soliciting feedback or short surveys as candidates progress through the process.

While automation can help improve and monitor candidate experience that does not mean every component in the process should be turned over to technology. Talent acquisition leaders need to remember that humans make a difference when it comes to engaging candidates.

Affinix

Affinix®, PeopleScout’s proprietary total talent suite, utilizes many of the automated functions made available through RPA software like AI-enabled software, automated email drip campaigns and chatbots. Click here to learn more about Affinix and its automation capabilities.

Best Practices for Integrating Robotic Process Automation Technology into the Recruiting Process

While RPA technology can make HR and recruiting functions more efficient, organizations need to be aware of how to successfully implement the technology into their current systems. Below, we outline a three-step process to successfully implementing an RPA tool into your recruiting and hiring process.

Best Practices for RPA Process Selection

The RPA implementation process begins with identifying the recruiting processes that would most benefit from automation. To begin, HR leaders should conduct a high-level assessment of potential recruiting processes for automation and document the efficiencies and cost-savings that could result from automating each process. This step helps HR leaders, IT and an organization’s leadership decide which recruiting functions will benefit the most from automation. Not all HR and recruiting function are a good fit for RPA, so identifying the right ones depends on the unique needs of an organization.

More process selection tips include:

  • Research RPA capabilities to learn what’s possible through automation.
  • Outline project team members and their roles and responsibilities during the preliminary assessment process (i.e., stakeholders, recruiters, SMEs, technology evaluators).
  • Research the compliance risks associated with each recruiting process, for example, CAN-SPAM rules governing commercial emails.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders for guidance and strategic direction regarding establishing automated processes.

Best Practices for Implementing an RPA Solution

HR leaders need to make sure that HR, IT and talent acquisition personnel are trained and prepared to execute the implementation plan. Moreover, each implementation activity should be documented, tracked and completed per the plan.

During this step, those responsible for implementation need to thoroughly go over the end-to-end automation of selected recruiting functions to learn the full scope of the RPA solution. If errors and missteps occur in an automated process, organizations need to work with their RPA partners to refine and make final modifications before implementing the new processes. No matter how well an organization implements an RPA solution, it is still important to monitor and periodically amend the RPA program to ensure long-term success.

Conclusion

Robotic process automation is a valuable tool for streamlining the recruiting and hiring process. Leveraging automation in recruiting empowers talent acquisition and HR professionals to make the right hiring decisions faster by increasing efficiency across recruitment functions. However, for RPA technology to have a positive impact on an organization, it is important to remember that human interaction with candidates is paramount. Organizations need to find the right balance between talent technology and human interaction.

Predictive Analytics: A Powerful Talent Acquisition Tool

Posted on by epadmin

In this tightening talent market with unemployment rates at record lows, predictive analytics is emerging as an essential AI tool for employers looking to stay ahead of the competition. Applications of artificial intelligence are transforming the talent acquisition process. As an AI tool, predictive analytics allows employers to use the power of data to make predictions about candidates and drive efficiencies throughout the entire talent acquisition process.

What is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive analytics is a type of data analytics that uses data to find patterns and then uses those models to attempt to predict the future. Predictive analytics can’t tell you what will happen, but it shows what is likely to happen based on past trends. It’s as close as employers can get to predicting the future.

The ability to make these predictions helps shorten the entire recruiting process while making stronger hires. In a competitive talent market, this allows employers to identify the top talent for a particular role and make an offer to the best candidates faster than the competition. For employers, this results in improvements in time-to-hire and quality-of-hire, and for candidates, it builds a better experience, leaving a positive impression that will factor into their decision to accept an offer.

Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Sourcing

During the sourcing process, predictive analytics models can identify stronger candidates more quickly and accurately than traditional methods. AI sourcing that uses predictive models can provide recruiters with a solid slate of candidates as soon as a requisition is opened, giving the recruiter a strong head start to fill the role. An AI sourcing solution that uses predictive analytics modeling can also provide the recruiter with information about how well the candidate matches the job opening and how likely the candidate is to leave their current role. With this information, recruiters are able to work more quickly and efficiently, filling the role with the best talent in less time. In the end, it saves companies time and money.

To roll out a predictive analytics sourcing tool, employers first need to establish what makes a good hire. This requires looking back into data from previous hires that demonstrates how well those hires performed. This step is critical because employers may find that the factors that predict success are not what they thought. For instance, when filling certain roles, employers may prioritize candidates with advanced degrees. However, data may show that an advanced degree is not a reliable predictor of success. Instead, industry experience or high scores on a pre-employment assessment may better predict the success of a candidate.

Once an employer has the data to identify qualities that predict success, the predictive analytics technology that’s part of an AI sourcing tool can use that information to identify candidates who match that criteria. The technology can scour social media sites, job boards, talent communities and networking and career sites to find the best talent. Using available data, the tool will make predictions about the candidate, and the recruiter can use those predictions to determine which candidates to target for more personalized communication.

As recruiters use the predictive analytics tool, they constantly feed more data into the system. This means that over time, the technology is able to learn more and make even more accurate predictions about candidate success. At PeopleScout, AI sourcing using predictive analytics is a key component of AffinixTM, our proprietary talent technology.

When implementing a predictive analytics sourcing tool, there are a few important considerations to ensure success. The first is making sure that data you use is good, accurate data. You need accurate information about previous hires, including pre- and post-hire information. Since an RPO is only engaged through the hiring and onboarding process, if you’re using an RPO to manage your talent acquisition, it’s important to share post-hire data that demonstrates whether the candidate made a strong employee. Knowing about performance or employee tenure will make predictive analytics tools more powerful. To make that data work for you, it is key that you share that post-hire data with your RPO partner.

Using Predictive Analytics to Make Your Recruitment Funnel More Efficient

In addition to sourcing, predictive analytics can be used throughout the entire recruitment process to drive efficiencies in an employer’s recruitment funnel. A recruitment funnel encompasses all of the steps between when a candidate applies for a position until that candidate is hired. At different steps in the recruitment funnel, candidates will either be eliminated from consideration or move along in the process.

For instance, in a recruitment funnel, an employer may receive 100 applications. During the initial resume screen, a portion of those candidates will be eliminated. After a phone screen, more candidates will be eliminated. The process continues until there is one candidate left and the employer makes the hire.

By analyzing the recruitment funnel, you can work backward to learn how many applicants are necessary to make one hire. To accomplish this, you need multiple data points from a large number of hires. The more data you have, the better and more accurate a prediction will be. That data will give you an understanding of what your recruitment funnel looks like now, and from there, predictive analytics technology can make the process more efficient, which means you would need fewer applicants to hire the right candidate. That turns into decreased time-to-fill and cost-per-hire, while increasing the quality-of-hire.

As in the souring process addressed above, you need to start by evaluating and analyzing existing data. Again, this is a process where the quality of the data will determine the outcome. By analyzing data about factors that can predict successful hires, the predictive analytics tool will learn what qualities make for a strong hire. Like in the sourcing process, the data may tell a story that you don’t expect about what makes a good employee. For instance, you may expect your strongest hires to come from a specific degree program at a nearby university, so you spend significant time and money recruiting those graduates. A predictive analytics tool could help identify other university programs that produce candidates who also match your hiring needs.

With the data about candidate success, you can tailor the entire application process. If the best candidates come from certain sources – job boards, employee referral programs, etc. – you can target your recruitment marketing spend to connect with those candidates and decrease or eliminate advertising that doesn’t yield strong results. When you start with stronger candidates, you need fewer applicants to make a quality hire.

Predictive Analytics Considerations

You should also ensure that your RPO partner uses a technology that is programmed to prevent discrimination and has external checks in place to be sure that isn’t taking place. The technology cannot take factors like gender, race or disability into account as it combs the web for candidates, as this could violate anti-discrimination laws. Additionally, you must take care that the technology does not learn biases from the people who use it. When used correctly, predictive analytics technology can help eliminate discrimination from the recruiting process. It is important to look at variables like race and gender to measure potential bias, but the technology should not use that information to target or exclude candidates. To help prevent discrimination, combining the technology with the intelligence of the recruiter is the differentiator.

Finding a Partner

When looking for a predictive analytics technology solution, it is important to work with a partner with deep expertise of not only the technology but the entire talent landscape. You should look for an RPO provider that can respond to the unique challenges of your industry and that has an end-to-end technology solution that can be customized to your needs.

In an industry-leading technology solution, predictive analytics should be integrated throughout the entire process so that you’re able to harness the full power of the data. If your data analytics tool in the sourcing process operates independently of the data analytics tool that operates later in your recruiting funnel, you risk losing valuable insights. PeopleScout’s Affinix combines the best recruitment technology in the industry, and fully integrates the entire process. With Affinix, our clients get the most out of their data.

When working with an RPO provider, employers will also benefit from the data that the RPO has across its entire client base and in your industry. You can use that data to benchmark and improve your own programs. To get the most out of the partnership, it is important to work out an agreement where you share post-hire data with your RPO provider. Data is valuable, and good data is what makes a predictive analytics program successful. Sharing data with your partner ensures you have the strongest possible souring and recruitment solution.

Predictive analytics should be a part of an overall talent acquisition program and a complete technology solution. To stay ahead in a tight talent market, employers should use the power of data to make better hires, faster.

Healthcare HR Technology To-Do List

Posted on by epadmin

Marc Miller, president and founder of Marc S. Miller Associates HR Technology Consulting, gave the presentation “HR’s Strategic Shift: How to leverage HR technology to drive results for your Healthcare organization” at the Healthcare Talent Acquisition and Management Summit held in New Orleans earlier this year. Miller’s presentation covered a wide range of topics related to HR technology and its impact on healthcare HR professionals. Below, we take three items from Miller’s HR technology “to-do” list and explore the ways in which emerging healthcare HR technology is helping achieve success in these areas.

Leverage Healthcare HR Technology to Reduce Time Spent on Administrative Tasks

Administrative tasks are the backbone of a well-run healthcare organization’s HR department. They put into action the ideas and concepts developed during HR strategic planning and include educating employees on benefits, keeping employment records and processing essential paperwork, from job applications to time sheets and travel per diems.

Dig Deeper

How RPO Can Solve The Top Challenges In Healthcare Talent Acquisition

Download Free Ebook Or Contact an Expert Today

Keeping up with administrative tasks can be daunting for healthcare HR professionals. This may be why more and more HR professionals are turning to HR technology to alleviate some of the burdens. A robust HR technology platform can help manage many basic HR functions — including payroll, benefits, employee onboarding and time off tracking. An HR technology platform will also organize these tasks into categories so users can easily navigate information from a single platform. With multiple HR functions organized in one space, healthcare HR departments can be more efficient and productive in handling administrative tasks.

Before sitting down with potential vendors, healthcare staffing teams should outline a list of questions including:

  • Will the platform integrate with current systems?
  • How secure is employee data inside the platform?
  • Will the vendor or a third party be involved in training staff on the technology?
  • What proprietary features does this platform offer?
  • Is the interface easy to navigate?
  • How customizable is the platform?
  • What ongoing support can be expected of the vendor?

Outsource Important HR Functions to Tech-Capable Partners

While HR professionals are adept at managing a wide variety of critical HR functions, there are only so many hours in a day to get things done. Outsourcing HR functions to companies who possess the know-how and technology to manage them efficiently can help maximize productivity. In fact, according to a SHRM survey, 18 percent of companies surveyed outsource HR functions to take advantage of technological advances.

For instance, in the healthcare industry, attracting and retaining qualified talent can be challenging. Competition is fierce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics believes the total healthcare labor market will grow to 22 million jobs, or a 29 percent increase in overall employment, in the next decade. What’s more, according to a SHRM survey, 46 percent of HR professionals reported it was “very difficult” to fill full-time roles for high-skilled medical positions such as nurses, doctors and specialists.

To brace for the looming surge in demand for healthcare talent, HR professionals should look to recruitment outsourcing as a viable and necessary solution. Talent acquisition experts at recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) companies can manage healthcare recruitment. A healthcare RPO provider can deliver a comprehensive assessment of the whole talent spectrum and can source and hire clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers.

The right RPO provider can employ cutting-edge talent acquisition technology to help manage all aspects of the recruiting process, from identifying talent to creating a more efficient applicant experience. For example, AffinixTM, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology platform, combines AI, predictive analytics and machine learning to deliver speed and scalability to a user’s recruitment process. Affinix can also improve candidate experience with a mobile-first application process, digital assessments and video interviews. If you would like to learn more about Affinix, please download our fact sheet here.

Use Healthcare HR Technology to Organize and Track Metrics

Tracking HR metrics is important for healthcare HR professionals and leadership teams looking to better understand the health and vitality of their organization and its workforce. However, according to research conducted by XpertHR, 95.5 percent of HR professionals have experienced problems gathering and analyzing HR metrics data.

HR technology can make tracking, measuring and analyzing the value of employees easier. Advances in technology such as HR dashboards allow organizations to gather data better. An HR dashboard can be used to analyze performance and identify areas for improvement in an organization. Executives and HR leaders can work together to review the data they need in order to make fact-based decisions when it comes to the development and management of HR and personnel resources. We have outlined some measurement best practices:

Keep HR metrics focused

Even though technology has made it easier to gather and report HR metrics, it is still important to be discerning and careful about what metrics are measured and reported on. Healthcare HR professionals should focus on tracking metrics that directly impact key performance indicators. This can be achieved by determining the key factors impacting an organization’s staff from turnover to employee satisfaction to tell the story of what is happening with employees.

Align reports with the organization’s strategic goals

Healthcare HR professionals need to be deliberate about aligning metric analysis with overall organizational goals. This is important to show how HR programs are driving progress and helping the organization reach its strategic goals as well as illustrating the value and impact employees make every day.

Use metrics to drive executive action

One of the main objectives of reporting key metrics is to compel the executive team to take action on HR-related issues that may need attention and improvement. Healthcare HR professionals need to be sure to illustrate where employees are struggling as well as the progress of HR programs to give leadership a clear picture of where to allocate resources.

Conclusion

The world is rapidly evolving with apps, big data, real-time communication and increasing use of artificial intelligence, chatbots and predictive analytics playing a larger role in our everyday lives. These technologies are quickly bringing new functionality to the world of HR. The future success of healthcare HR professionals will be directly linked to how well they adapt to new developments to create and design the healthcare workforce and employee experience.

How to Improve Your Candidate Experience

Posted on by epadmin

Candidate experience is becoming a popular topic of discussion in the talent acquisition and recruiting community—with good reason. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 78 percent of candidates say the overall candidate experience they receive is an indicator of how a company values its staff. What’s more, the same survey found that 86 percent of job seekers believe employers should treat candidates with the same respect as current employees.

The results of CareerBuilder’s survey illustrate that the lines between the candidate and employee experience are blurring, making it critical for organizations to strengthen their candidate experience. In this post, we outline the importance of improving the experience of your candidates and how organizations can streamline the hiring process.

What is the Candidate Experience, and Why Does it Matter?

In order to build a strong candidate experience, it is important to understand what is and why it matters.

So, what is the candidate experience?

The candidate experience is the sequence of interactions a job candidate has with an organization throughout the recruiting and hiring process. These interactions can include correspondence that a candidate receives from an organization’s HR department, recruiters and its software systems.

Common candidate experience touch points include:

  • An organization’s career site
  • Job advertisements
  • The online job application process
  • Any communication from an applicant tracking system
  • An organization’s interview process
  • Any correspondence with HR professionals, team members or leadership
  • Notifications about a candidate’s application status
  • Candidate rejection letter or job offer

What is a positive candidate experience?

According to Talent Board’s CandE Research Report, candidates rated “communication” as the number one way to engage talent. So, organizations looking to craft a positive candidate experience should communicate clearly and honestly with job seekers to create the type of candidate experience they value.

A positive candidate experience meets the following standards:

  • Communicates realistic expectations for the job and work environment
  • Clearly communicates an organization’s employee value proposition
  • Outlines all of the employment details to candidates upfront
  • Provides an easy and mobile-friendly application process
  • Respects a candidate’s time at all stages of the application process
  • Provides a pleasant and smooth interview experience
  • Seamlessly transitions selected job applicants into new employees
  • Maintains a kind and respectful process for rejecting job applicants

What are the Benefits of Improving Candidate Experience?

Improving candidate experience not only benefits candidates and job seekers, but it can also have a positive impact on an organization’s workforce. Below, we outline three ways a strong candidate experience improves the overall talent acquisition process.

Improve applicant retention  

According to research conducted by Indeed, applications with 45 or more screener questions lose 88.7 percent of their potential applicants to application abandonment. Improving the candidate experience often begins with refining the application process. A short and streamlined job application process will increase the likelihood of job seekers finishing job applications, thereby increasing an organization’s applicant pool.

Create a better first impression

Research from labor economists Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger suggests a growing interest in joining the gig economy. The number of Americans working these “gigs” has risen from 10.1 percent a decade ago to 15.8 percent in 2015. Nearly 40 percent of workers in these jobs have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This means that organizations are not only in a battle with competitors for skilled talent but also with the candidates who may want to work for themselves.

To win the war for talent, organizations need to see the experience of candidates as more than just a part of the recruiting process; it is also a sales tool that can help win over top talent. A job application is often the first interaction a candidate has with an organization. So, making a great first impression on top talent with a superior candidate experience will help organizations differentiate themselves and stand out as great places to work.

Increase brand awareness

The candidate experience affects more than just job applicants; it also plays a significant role in how consumers view an organization as a whole. If an organization offers an exceptional experience, candidates are more likely to share the experience with colleagues and write about it online. What’s more, a survey conducted by Software Advice found that 71 percent of candidates are more likely to purchase from a company they feel treated them well throughout the recruiting process.

How Technology Can Help Improve the Candidate Experience

Technology continues to shape the way job seekers search for work and how organizations find and hire qualified talent. The rise of social and professional networking sites, mobile devices, job boards and online applicant systems means that creating a meaningful candidate experience often begins with crafting a technology-first approach. Below we list three ways in which organizations can use technology to improve their candidate experience.

Offer a mobile-friendly candidate experience

Research conducted by Indeed found that 78 percent of Millennials, 73 percent of Generation Xers and 57 percent of baby boomers conduct job searches from their mobile devices. This means that organizations looking to improve their candidate experience should look to create a mobile-friendly recruiting environment for job seekers. Organizations should make sure that their career website and other resources candidates may need while applying for job openings are mobile-friendly.

Affinix®, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology, is designed as a mobile-first platform for both candidates and recruiters, ensuring seamless engagement from any mobile device at any time throughout the application, scheduling and screening process.

Quick questions to ask yourself to improve the mobile the experience for candidates:

  • Is career-related text and content easily readable on mobile devices?
  • Are job pages optimized for better visibility in mobile search?
  • Is navigation of the career site and job application simple on mobile devices?
  • Will candidates have to go through trial and error to complete applications on mobile devices?

Clear Communication

Establishing timely and clear communication between candidates and recruiters is essential for developing a positive candidate experience. However, many candidates are left without feedback or status updates on their application. In fact, a Talent Board report found that 47 percent of candidates were still waiting to hear back from employers more than two months after they applied.

The right technology platform can help by sending automated messages to candidates via email or chatbot technology letting them know their application status. You can even craft messages letting a candidate know if they did not get the job. While missing out on a job is never pleasant, receiving prompt feedback communicates to a candidate that their application and time were respected.

Social Recruitment Marketing

Enhancing the candidate experience also means reaching candidates where they are. According to Social Talent’s 2016 Global Recruiting Survey, 37 percent of survey respondents said that social media is the primary source of finding candidates. This shift towards a digital hiring model has seen the traditional résumé be displaced by the online footprint of candidates which showcases their skills and experiences.

PeopleScout’s Affinix platform can help organizations reach digitally native candidates with customized ads, optimized job descriptions, personalized landing pages, career portals and recruitment marketing that elevates job postings with robust content and campaign management.

Conclusion

Learning from past mistakes and successes is essential to improving the experiences of your candidates. While there is no such thing as a perfect hiring process, learning and evolving processes and procedures will improve an organization’s ability to attract great talent and retain the strongest workers.

Healthcare Recruiters: How Technology is Improving Healthcare Recruiting

Posted on by epadmin

According to a recent study conducted by Georgetown, healthcare providers in the U.S. will need 5.6 million more healthcare workers by 2020 to meet the growing demands on the healthcare system. From 2010 to 2020, the healthcare industry will grow by more than 70 percent, from $1.8 trillion to $3.1 trillion. This will require the most dramatic workforce growth of any sector in the U.S. within the next decade. For healthcare organizations looking to keep pace with growth, investing in the right recruiting technology can streamline the recruitment process and help healthcare recruiters keep up with staffing demand. In this post, we outline how recruiting technology helps healthcare organizations stay ahead of the talent curve from the beginning to the end of the hiring process.

Optimized Job Descriptions

A well-written job description is essential for attracting the best candidates for open positions. Accurate and optimized job descriptions not only engages great talent but clearly outlining the scope of the position also ensures that once hired, healthcare workers can fulfill their duties and responsibilities.

Optimized job descriptions also enable healthcare recruiters to match the right candidates with available positions by documenting the specific responsibilities of each role, including the certification and licensing requirements, the physical demands of the job and the location of the facility.

By creating more appealing and inclusive job descriptions, healthcare organizations can also increase the diversity of their candidate pool while attracting better-fitting candidates to open positions.

Tips for creating appealing job descriptions include:

  • Use keywords in job titles and descriptions so applicants can find the postings more easily.
  • Make job descriptions concise and easy to read on mobile devices.
  • Answer the “so what?” question: what makes your healthcare organization a place job seekers should want to work at?

How technology can help optimize job descriptions

Technology can be leveraged to optimize and create more engaging job descriptions for both clinical and non-clinical healthcare positions. For example, some recruiting technology platforms can conduct sentiment analysis on job descriptions to identify the potentially biased language and suggest alternatives and synonyms for more objective and neutral terminology.

Removing biased language is not the only way technology helps healthcare recruiters optimize job descriptions. At PeopleScout, our Affinix® platform can help healthcare organizations improve job descriptions by optimizing career pages and job postings for search engines. One way the tool does this is by offering suggestions for optimized title tags for every job posting.

Examples of optimized title tags are:

  • Nursing Job Opening | XYZ Healthcare
  • RN Jobs Available, Chicago | XYZ Clinic
  • Hospital Food Service Jobs in Chicago | XYZ Hospital

Technology platforms that provide SEO guidance are also powerful tools for adding relevant keywords, which are crucial for job description optimization. Once relevant keywords are identified, recruiters can add them to the job description text, especially in the page title and subtitles, in order to help the page rank higher in search engine results for those specific keywords.

Helping Healthcare Recruiters Source Candidates

For healthcare recruiters, maintaining a steady pipeline of qualified talent is essential. Unfortunately, the tight healthcare labor market can make consistently sourcing qualified candidates difficult. What’s more, it can be difficult for healthcare recruiters to identify and keep track of previous applicants who may be a good fit for new roles.

The unfortunate reality is that many healthcare organizations lack the time and resources to source high-quality candidates consistently. This can add up to a lot of stress for those responsible for maintaining a healthy talent pool for an organization’s open positions.

How technology can improve sourcing candidates

Recruiting technology can help reduce the amount of time recruiters spend on sourcing candidates by finding more platforms, channels and databases to search for passive candidates. Beyond time savings, one of the more significant developments in recruiting technology is the proliferation of AI-enabled candidate sourcing, which has the following benefits:

  • AI-enabled sourcing tools can discover patterns in resumes, social profiles and other sources of data to find candidates that are ideal matches for a job’s requirements.
  • AI technology can help reduce bias in candidate sourcing by disregarding candidate demographics (e.g., race, gender, age) in its decision making.
  • AI algorithms crawl potential candidates’ online profiles and portfolios to help source passive candidates.
  • AI can be used to source both external and internal candidates by screening the existing resumes in a healthcare organization’s applicant tracking system (ATS) to find strong matches for current open positions.

Screening Candidates

The process of screening candidates, much like candidate sourcing, can be time-consuming for recruiters who are already stretched thin. Recruiters need to analyze workforce data, formulate job descriptions, verify candidate information and check references. To make sure recruiters are able to perform all of these functions, it’s important that the screening process is as efficient as possible.

How technology can help healthcare recruiters screen candidates

One of the most efficient applications of recruiting technology is utilizing AI to automate the resume screening process, especially for high-volume or high-turnover positions. Intelligent screening software that incorporates predictive analytics and machine learning to understand top talent behaviors and predict factors such as cultural fit. Smart screening that analyzes a healthcare organization’s existing ATS or CRM to figure out which candidates became successful and unsuccessful healthcare workers based on their performance and tenure and turnover rates make screening and hiring the top candidates easier than ever.

Digital assessments that test an applicant’s skills and capabilities are also making screening candidates easier. Hiring managers can deploy digital assessments to test aptitude, personality, and skills and use the objective data and results to help make more informed hiring decisions.

Interviewing and Hiring Healthcare Candidates

In the healthcare industry, it is crucial to attract and hire the most qualified candidates because many positions have a direct impact on patient care. Hiring the wrong candidate can be not only dangerous for patients but also costly, as healthcare organizations can face litigation for injuries sustained or maltreatment of patients by staff. The right healthcare recruiting strategies and interviewing techniques can ensure that healthcare facilities hire the best candidates.

How technology can improve the interview process

There are a variety of ways that recruiting tools and technology can improve the interview process, such as:

  • Automated interview scheduling that allows candidates to schedule or reschedule interviews themselves. All recruiters have to do is provide candidates with available time slots.
  • Digital video interviews that can be conducted be pre-recorded and viewed when it’s convenient for recruiters and hiring managers.
  • Chatbots that can help answer candidates’ questions and provide information on next steps in the recruitment process.

Conclusion

Technology streamlines the healthcare recruiting and hiring process by providing an improved experience for both recruiters and candidates. While technology can assist recruiters in improving the functions of the recruiting process, it cannot replace human touch, experience and instincts when it comes to hiring the best talent. Employers should look for a talent partner with comprehensive talent acquisition and workforce management solution, where technology is just one part of the puzzle.

How to Use Chatbots to Improve Recruiting

Posted on by epadmin

The use of artificial intelligence in recruiting is one of the most significant trends in talent acquisition. These solutions are driving candidate management and engagement in many ways, including through chatbot technology.

Chatbots have become much more advanced in the past few years, as natural language processing continues to improve. Much of the evolution is due to the improved technology that can read and respond more naturally to candidates.

Additionally, the growing popularity of products like the Amazon Echo or Google Home shows that people enjoy the convenience of chatbot technology.

Improving the Candidate Experience

As the talent landscape continues to tighten, a competitive candidate experience is essential to attract and engage the best talent. In addition, candidates have come to expect a consumer-like application and hiring experience that is similar to other interactions they’re having online and on their smartphones every day. Chatbots can help improve the candidate experience and address these challenges through their ability to interact with candidates on demand, streamlining and assisting throughout the application process on the channels candidates prefer and when they are available.

Chatbots are effective tools for candidate engagement, and they are continuously evolving to make the application process easier for the candidate. Many candidates need to complete application processes outside of normal business hours. Chatbots allow candidates to receive answers to questions immediately, at any time of day. They can also answer candidate questions on company policies, benefits or culture, and when it gets stumped, a chatbot can contact a human recruiter.

Through chatbot functionality, candidates can contact organizations around the clock.
Chatbots can also take on some tasks throughout the application process that would typically be done by recruiters over the phone or through email. Extended job application forms may feel time-consuming to job candidates. Through a chatbot, candidates can provide that same information in a conversational way that feels less daunting.

Streamlining the Process for Recruiters

Throughout the recruiting process, recruiters often take on tasks that are necessary but don’t add value for candidates. Chatbots can allow recruiters to spend more time with the strongest candidates by taking on some of the administrative tasks.

Chatbots can handle tasks like scheduling interviews. With a strong candidate experience enhanced by chatbot technology, recruiters will have a wider and stronger pool of applicants, which enables them to identify and engage with the best talent more quickly.

Additionally, one of the most significant issues facing us all is time. Chatbots can help recruiters gain more time in their days by taking on some of the time-consuming tasks that recruiters handle, like responding to simple questions, scheduling interviews and gathering basic information from candidates.

In this tight talent market, that extra time that recruiters spend with strong candidates will give employers an edge. The unemployment rate in the United States is around record low levels, so strong candidates will have several options. When a recruiter has more time to spend with those candidates, it increases the likelihood that the candidate will choose that employer.

Implementing Chatbots in your Recruiting

When rolling out chatbots in your recruiting program, it’s important to remember to strike the right balance between automated communication via chatbots and communication from a recruiter. Chatbots should be used for repeatable, automatable interactions, giving organizations the opportunity to enable recruiters to engage with best candidates in more high-value ways.

It’s important to remember that chatbots shouldn’t take on all of the candidate communication. They can automate some of the hiring processes, but candidates still need to interact with a recruiter. Studies show that candidates want an experience that includes a balanced mix of technology and human interaction – not just one or the other.

It is also important to keep in mind that simply launching a chatbot does not ensure success. Organizations need to take steps to continuously make their chatbots more attuned and responsive in order to drive successful engagements. This can take time, as well as the resources needed to understand the technology behind AI-enabled chatbots.

It’s also important to recognize that not all chatbot technology is created equal. Low-quality technology could mean that a chatbot would have a hard time answering common questions or respond inappropriately. That would harm the employer brand even more than relying on slower, more traditional communication. To make sure that the technology can effectively communicate, employers should look for a chatbot that is part of a larger technology solution that works throughout the entire application process.

For example, in Affinix®, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology platform, chatbot assistance is integrated within the technology stack in order to engage with and assist candidates during the application process. Through Affinix, we can integrate chatbot technology on an organization’s career page, during the interview scheduling process and to help candidates and recruiters prep for an interview, among other use cases.

Looking Forward

Chatbots can play an essential role in creating an improved candidate experience, but the talent acquisition industry has moved well beyond using just chatbots for communication. Now, AI and machine learning are transforming the industry. Rules-based onboarding functions, candidate sourcing, interview scheduling and candidate matching are being automated to enable talent acquisition professionals to spend more time with the best candidates and on critical talent acquisition functions that involve creative and strategic thinking. In addition to these evolutions, candidates may soon interact with chatbots primarily through voice, like Siri from Apple or Alexa from Amazon, rather than through text.

While chatbots, automation and AI are fundamentally changing candidate communications, we believe that striking the right balance between personalized technology and human interaction is key to success. PeopleScout uses AI and other emerging technologies that personalize the candidate experience while also enabling our talent professionals to spend more time on critical functions. Employers should look for a talent partner with a comprehensive technology solution, where chatbots are just one piece of the puzzle.