There were several stand out themes in 2017 that have affected both the recruiting industry and hiring in general. One of the most notable trends was the push for the removal of salary history from employment applications. Another common theme was that there are now four (or five depending on who’s commenting) generations in the workforce competing for available jobs which generated a glut of articles about hiring millennials. New to the recruiting space is Google for Jobs which massively impacts the traffic on sites like Indeed and Monster. Lack of skilled workers is a perpetually recurring theme for anyone who is hiring, this year the conversation turned back towards education and how it’s not preparing college graduates for the workforce. These are just a few of the reports and posts that got our attention this year:
Facebook Job Ads Raise Concerns About Age Discrimination (Read @ NY Times)
A few weeks ago, Verizon placed an ad on Facebook to recruit applicants for a unit focused on financial planning and analysis. The ad showed a smiling, millennial-aged woman seated at a computer and promised that new hires could look forward to a rewarding career in which they would be “more than just a number.”
Salary History Questions Banned in California: How to Make the New Laws Work for You (Read @ Verified First)
After careful review, Assembly Bill 168 (AB 168) was recently signed by California Governor Jerry Brown. This bill impacts the hiring process for all employers, including state, local government employers, and the Legislature.
How to Make Smart Salary Offers When You Can’t Legally Ask About Prior Pay (Read @ Inc.)
At Life Is Good, the Boston-based apparel company, asking candidates about their prior salaries was a crucial part of the hiring process, especially for senior positions. When the company hired a president about a year ago, “we relied on candidate salary expectations to educate us about the market, particularly incentive structures,” says co-founder Bert Jacobs. “The conversations were informative and helped us shape our compensation strategy for the role.”
Proposals Aim To Combat Discrimination Based On Salary History
This year, 25 states and the District of Columbia are considering measures that would bar employers from asking job candidates about their prior salary. Last year, two states — California and Massachusetts — adopted similar policies, aimed at trying to narrow the pay gap for women and minorities.
How to Recruit for Difficult to Fill Positions (iRecruit Blog)
As an employer, sometimes a position or role comes along that is especially difficult to find good quality candidates for. The issue may be that the job itself is difficult, or the combination of skills needed to fill the job are so unique that it presents a challenge.
Best Practice: How To Write A Powerful Job Posting (Read @ CareerBuilder)
A job posting can make or break a job seeker’s view of your company, so you’ve got to make sure you get it right the first time, every time. There are numerous features that go into the creation of a winning job posting. So before you hastily dash off that next one, read up on how to make your job postings stand out from the competition.
4 Ways Data Can Improve the Candidate Journey (Read @ Glassdoor)
Data has the opportunity to either prove our assumptions, or show us where our assumptions are off. Either way, a good look at some of the statistics shared by Chamberlain in his talk at Recruit shed some light on common issues facing talent acquisition and human resources today. Here’s a summary with links to the research.
The peculiar psychoanalysis of Job Hiring (Read @ BBC)
In Argentina, it’s common for job candidates to see a psychologist as part of the hiring process. Sam Harrison explains.
Harvard study: Employers making it harder to hire (Read @ CNN Money)
Imagine applying for a job that requires a college degree, even though the employee currently doing the same work doesn’t have one. But that’s exactly the situation many job seekers find themselves in — and companies may be shooting themselves in the foot in the process.
Signs a Candidate Will Be an Engaged Employee (Read @ Recruiter.com)
What signs do you look for in candidates to determine whether or not they will be engaged on the job? They Ask Questions That Show They’ve Imagined Themselves in the Role…
5 Benefits of Paperless Electronic Onboarding (iRecruit)
Electronic Onboarding with iConnect allows you to take control of the mountain of new hire paperwork and manage it online in your secure iRecruit database. Automate Communication with new hires. Improve Response Time and stay on top of onboarding tasks with iConnect’s reporting – always know which documents have been completed and which are still pending.
Opioid Crisis Looms Over Job Market, Worrying Employers And Economists (Read and Listen @ NPR)
Driving down the main commercial artery in Muncie, Ind., it seems the job market is doing well. The local unemployment rate stands at 3.8 percent, and there are hiring signs posted outside the McDonald’s, a pizza joint and at stop lights.
Generation Z Is Breaking Into the Job Market – But What Do They Want? (Read @ Recruiter.com)
When it comes to the multigenerational workplace, millennials get all the attention – but that’s about to change. As Gen. Y settles into middle management positions and employers finally get a hang of what this crop of talent wants from a job, Generation Z is on the rise; soon, it’ll shake everything up all over again.
Avoiding Becoming a Resume “Black Hole” 5 Key Touch Points in Candidate Communications (Read @ iRecruit Blog)
Research has shown again, and again that there’s almost nothing a good candidate likes than feeling like their resume has fallen into a “black hole”. It’s true, no one likes to be ignored. Candidates should be treated as if they are important customers according to Indeed’s Senior Vice President for Marketing Paul D’Arcy.
There are 7 million unemployed and 6.2 million job openings. What’s the problem? (Read @ Washington Post)
The United States has a record 6.2 million job openings. It’s the highest number since the Labor Department began tracking job postings in 2000. At the same time, there are 7 million unemployed Americans. That’s almost one job for every person searching for a role. This should be a no-brainer, right? Get the jobless onto the doorsteps of these employers.
These 56 Words Can Keep Job Reqs From Getting Stuck in the Slow Lane (Read @ ERE)
Slow drivers are frustrating. Especially when they hang out in the left-hand passing lane. They backup traffic and create unnecessary delays. This same issue is happening in organizations. Hiring managers are taking their foot off the gas of the selection process. Talent acquisition professionals end up getting stuck behind them, unable to move things forward efficiently.
What the Hell Does Indeed.com Do Now That Google for Jobs is a Reality? (Via ERE)
After much speculation, Google for Jobs was officially announced last week. As rumored, Google will start serving job listings within the organic results of its popular search engine. Although it’s early, millions of job seekers who start their search at Google will find comfort staying there, just like they do for images and news, and as a result put vertical search engines like Indeed in a potentially fatal sleeper hold.
The Workforce’s Billion Dollar Problem: Unskilled Workers
We’ve all heard of the skills gap by now: Companies have lots of open positions but can’t find enough workers with the skills they need. But did you know these unfilled positions come at a high cost? According to a new CareerBuilder survey, nearly 60 percent of U.S. employers (56 percent) have job openings that stay vacant for 12 weeks or longer. The average cost HR managers say they incur for having extended job vacancies is more than $800,000 annually.
Do You Really Need a College Degree for That Entry-Level Job? (Read @ Yahoo!)
When the job market was flooded with desperate applicants, many employers required college degrees for entry-level jobs. There was a certain cruel logic to it: Hey, might as well get the best. The job market is much tighter now, but it appears that employers haven’t relaxed their hiring criteria. That could explain why 43 percent say finding enough candidates is a top challenge in filling entry-level jobs. It’s a classic example of shooting yourself in the foot, but of course it’s also bad for the young people without college degrees who can’t get onto the bottom rung of the career ladder.
There Are Differences In What the Generations Want From Work (Read @ TLNT)
I was doing some research for a client and came across this report from Monster: Monster Multi-Generational Survey, published in 2016. The underlying survey was concluded in January 2016 and surveyed more than 2,000 across the Boomer, X, Y and Z generations.
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