Recruiting For The Future—4 Takeaways From HireUp 2019

WayUp’s second-annual HireUp conference took place on Monday, April 29. As changemakers from organizations all over the country gathered to discuss what’s happening in early-career recruiting, there were four key takeaways from the event that stood out.

The Key To A Positive Candidate Experience Is High Tech And High Touch

Before sites like Glassdoor existed, companies held all the power. They were free to provide a negative candidate experience, with little perceived repercussions. Not anymore.

There’s parity now between employers and candidates, which has prompted a shift in accountability. And it has proven how costly a negative candidate experience is for companies, as Virgin Media discovered when it found that it was losing at least $5 million annually because of its negative candidate experience.

Which is why companies are going to such great lengths—and rightfully so—to ensure candidates are treated well throughout all aspects of the interview process. But because of this newfound prioritization, people in HR may be tempted to incorporate too much AI and automation throughout the interview process.

That would be a big mistake.

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Although Gen Z is comfortable with technology, they’re not as comfortable as you think. WayUp recently conducted a survey of 363 students currently enrolled at U.S. universities between the ages of 18 and 25. Out of this group, only two percent—TWO PERCENT!—said they were very comfortable with AI being the sole determiner of their job application. And it’d be impossible to ignore that 87 percent of them would prefer a phone interview over a pre-recorded video interview with no human interaction.  

Ultimately, if you want to have a candidate experience that’s fast yet full of human interaction, it’s important to create a process that’s high tech and high touch. Fortunately, we wrote an article that tells you how to do that.

Diversity Is More Important Than Ever Before

Obviously, revenue propels companies into the future, but it’s only earned because of your company’s biggest asset: your workforce. And guess what? Gen Z doesn’t want to work for companies that don’t have diverse teams.

And here’s something that you may not have thought about: There are a lot of untapped diverse talent groups. Considering how tight the U.S. labor market is, with unemployment at 3.8%, the war for top talent is fiercer than ever before.

So don’t just look at inherent diversity to fulfill hiring needs, though that should be a priority too. Among other groups, people with disabilities and veterans are both untapped talent pools for qualified candidates, and extremely loyal workers.  

One Of The Best Recruiting Tools Is Employer Branding

Employer branding is the secret tool that not every company knows it needs. It helps you with so many aspects of early-career recruiting besides driving applications and reducing cost-per-hire, as if that’s not enough. For instance, not wasting a candidate’s time is such a vital part of a positive candidate experience. And strong employer branding lets candidates know before they apply for a job whether or not they want to work for your company.

Also, it helps attract diverse candidates. By highlighting company culture, employer branding shows that your company cares about diversity and inclusiveness. But remember: Applicants only become future employees if they can see their growth opportunities. This means highlighting diverse mid- and senior-level executives is critical.

Getting Organizational Buy-In Requires Being A Personality Whisperer

Unfortunately, people in HR aren’t always given the respect they deserve. Often your suggestions are met with reticence and reluctance. So it’s important to understand how you can best institute organizational change.

The biggest key to enacting major changes within your company is understanding personality. You need to be able to know how to address each person’s idiosyncrasies while also speaking to their job’s concerns.

Once you do that, you can begin to work with the rest of your company to include them on buying in to the change. Fortunately, we also have an article that helps you learn how to do that.      

The good news is, you don’t have to wait until next year’s HireUp to become a changemaker within early-career recruiting. You can do it by addressing these four takeaways at your company today.

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