Research done by Shaker Consulting Group shows that all candidates despite their potential to hire have the same expectations in terms of information received about their application process. The key questions rated as critical need to know (by 80% or more of the survey respondents) include:
1. Do you receive my application?
2. When will I hear back from you?
3. Have I been knocked out of the process?
4. What is the time frame for filling the job?
5. What is the next step in the process?
6. Has anyone actually looked at my application?
7. Where am I in the process?
Human resource departments can extend some common courtesy by meeting the timeline expectations of the candidates.
A good way to do so is informing the candidates electronically
* when the company will be in contact with the selected candidates
* when the interviews will be held, or
* when it is planned to fill the job.
The information can be placed in the job ad or email correspondence to the candidate (with help of auto-response functionality) or in application process overview when utilizing online application tools.
A standardized note suffices
* We reserve the right to contact selected candidates no later than DATE.
* Interviews for candidates advancing in our process will be conducted by DATE.
* This position will be filled by DATE.
Leaving an applicant without any sort of response is a no go.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Who are German HR Professionals?
Accordingly to Human Resources Manager, a German trade magazine for HR pros, one HR professional serves on average 100 employees in German companies.
By analysing data on a salary benchmarking site gehaltsvergleich.de we can understand better who German HR professionals are.
In March 2011, 308 HR professionals shared demographic information, information on their educational background and experience, as well as the employment details. Some 121 of them were male, 187 female. The average age of males was 41, of females 37.
Female are the majority of workers in HR departments in the age group younger then 44, male dominate in the age group 45+.
Males in HR department have on average higher level of education. In contrast, females attend further training and development workshops more frequently. At the same time, females completed their studies rather recently, while males are out of school for several years.
HR Professionals who have maximal five years of professional experience are mostly female (85 percent). The share of male and female among the professionals with 10+ years of experience is about the same.
Female HR professionals work more often part-time then their male counterparts. Among workers working more then 40 hours a week (most frequently 42 hour week) the share of male HR professionals is twice as large as the share of females.
Females usually work in companies with less then 500 employees. In companies employing between 501 and 999 employees, males prevail. About the same share of female and male HR professionals work at companies with 1000+ employees.
Some 70 percent of HR professionals work in small HR departments, staffed with 1 to 5 HR employees.
By analysing data on a salary benchmarking site gehaltsvergleich.de we can understand better who German HR professionals are.
In March 2011, 308 HR professionals shared demographic information, information on their educational background and experience, as well as the employment details. Some 121 of them were male, 187 female. The average age of males was 41, of females 37.
Female are the majority of workers in HR departments in the age group younger then 44, male dominate in the age group 45+.
Males in HR department have on average higher level of education. In contrast, females attend further training and development workshops more frequently. At the same time, females completed their studies rather recently, while males are out of school for several years.
HR Professionals who have maximal five years of professional experience are mostly female (85 percent). The share of male and female among the professionals with 10+ years of experience is about the same.
Female HR professionals work more often part-time then their male counterparts. Among workers working more then 40 hours a week (most frequently 42 hour week) the share of male HR professionals is twice as large as the share of females.
Females usually work in companies with less then 500 employees. In companies employing between 501 and 999 employees, males prevail. About the same share of female and male HR professionals work at companies with 1000+ employees.
Some 70 percent of HR professionals work in small HR departments, staffed with 1 to 5 HR employees.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
You can call me Jack
When speaking with someone formally or informally in English, the “you” is used and there is no other alternative. The only difference is how the person can be addressed, for example, "Mr. Smith" or "Dr. Smith" or “Jack”.
German language differentiates between the formal (duzen) and informal (siezen) communication. Traditionally, the formal way was reserved for professional and business settings. Nowadays however, colleagues increasingly tend to be on a first-name basis even as communication with the customers remains formal at all times. Businesses often go about it without any policy while human resource departments swing back and forth between formal and informal communication. Hence even with a single company, an employee can experience the following throughout the employee life cycle:
* Formal (intending to exhibit professionalism) and informal (trying to attract youngsters) job ads
* Formal candidate communication
* Informal communication from the moment of contract signing to voluntary departure
* Formal communication in warning and dismissal letters
So, deliberately or not, the choice of communication mode depends on the message. As consistent communication fosters development of trust and creates a level of loyalty to the employer, companies should align the way to address their people, i.e. have guts to address informally any candidate (a stranger at first) despite how senior they are in their careers or any employee to be dismissed. It is just too ridiculous to call an employee by name when they are good employees, but go over to communicating with them formally once problems occur.
Failure to instill a consistent communication has a detrimental impact on the business as a whole, and makes very difficult to retain and nurture employees.
German language differentiates between the formal (duzen) and informal (siezen) communication. Traditionally, the formal way was reserved for professional and business settings. Nowadays however, colleagues increasingly tend to be on a first-name basis even as communication with the customers remains formal at all times. Businesses often go about it without any policy while human resource departments swing back and forth between formal and informal communication. Hence even with a single company, an employee can experience the following throughout the employee life cycle:
* Formal (intending to exhibit professionalism) and informal (trying to attract youngsters) job ads
* Formal candidate communication
* Informal communication from the moment of contract signing to voluntary departure
* Formal communication in warning and dismissal letters
So, deliberately or not, the choice of communication mode depends on the message. As consistent communication fosters development of trust and creates a level of loyalty to the employer, companies should align the way to address their people, i.e. have guts to address informally any candidate (a stranger at first) despite how senior they are in their careers or any employee to be dismissed. It is just too ridiculous to call an employee by name when they are good employees, but go over to communicating with them formally once problems occur.
Failure to instill a consistent communication has a detrimental impact on the business as a whole, and makes very difficult to retain and nurture employees.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Informal Job Ad a trend - Informal Application a taboo
There is a trend in Germany to edit job ads in an informal way. Those job ads utilize informal ways of communication (duzen) and hope to attract "young" and cool candidates as well as display company culture.
There is no research showing how these job ads are received by the candidates. I suppose many candidates are at ease with them as they do send in their applications. Maybe some are rather turned off, but this is the risk the company takes.
What's most interesting for me at this point is whether any HR staff hopes to receive job applications utilizing the same code of communication.
Does Mrs. Elke Schneider, an imaginative recruiter at a company X for the purpose of this blog post, look forward to receiving cover letter starting "Dear Elke" (Liebe Elke)?
Does she appreciate to be called Elke by an applicant calling to find out more about the advertised position?
Does an informal cover letter boost one's application or disqualifies an applicant?
There is no research showing how these job ads are received by the candidates. I suppose many candidates are at ease with them as they do send in their applications. Maybe some are rather turned off, but this is the risk the company takes.
What's most interesting for me at this point is whether any HR staff hopes to receive job applications utilizing the same code of communication.
Does Mrs. Elke Schneider, an imaginative recruiter at a company X for the purpose of this blog post, look forward to receiving cover letter starting "Dear Elke" (Liebe Elke)?
Does she appreciate to be called Elke by an applicant calling to find out more about the advertised position?
Does an informal cover letter boost one's application or disqualifies an applicant?
Monday, February 14, 2011
Dating employees
Do you remember the song „All you need is love” by
The Beatles. Love can make a person’s life more fulfilling. But companies, couple
run companies excluded, are seldom proponents of this maxim. On the contrary, companies
are not enthused by staff dating. Restrictions if imposed may refer to bosses
dating direct reports, co-workers in the same department or generally any employees.
Though most will not put a formal policy to govern this issue, very few are
probably really happy about such developments.
Dating employees is a good sign and acknowledgment
of HR. The hiring process accomplishes what it intends to do. It brings on
board people who are alike, are a fit and have some commonalities. And above
all they enjoy working with each other so great that they want to hand out
after work as well.
Given Valentine’s Day, I won’t bring
up the downside of employees’ dating.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Job Titles to attract Career Changers
Talent shortage pushes recruiters to seek talent in other industries then their own. Niche job boards enable them to do it effectively.
With the recent job ads, Enterprise, a car rental company, seeks talent with hospitality background for their management training program. Enterprise looks for qualities associated with hospitality industry such as high service attitude, guest care skills and experience in ensuring customer satisfaction.
What makes the ad different? Well, it is their job title.
A high level of attractiveness of a job title is one rule of thumb when phrasing successful job ads. Candidates are attracted to jobs that have titles they aspire to, present some sort of professional enhancement, possibly are higher in the job hierarchy or simply are associated with a greater status (e.g. personal assistant as opposed to secretary).
Enterprise’s job titles is not a “next role” that candidate might be interested in, but precisely candidate’s “current role” or generally her educational background. Enterprise attracts attention by easy identification among their intended audience (“this is me” instead of “could this be me”). The job ad itself plays on a common note, suggesting a poor satisfaction with the current role, and hopes to motivate the candidate to change their career.
With the recent job ads, Enterprise, a car rental company, seeks talent with hospitality background for their management training program. Enterprise looks for qualities associated with hospitality industry such as high service attitude, guest care skills and experience in ensuring customer satisfaction.
What makes the ad different? Well, it is their job title.
A high level of attractiveness of a job title is one rule of thumb when phrasing successful job ads. Candidates are attracted to jobs that have titles they aspire to, present some sort of professional enhancement, possibly are higher in the job hierarchy or simply are associated with a greater status (e.g. personal assistant as opposed to secretary).
Enterprise’s job titles is not a “next role” that candidate might be interested in, but precisely candidate’s “current role” or generally her educational background. Enterprise attracts attention by easy identification among their intended audience (“this is me” instead of “could this be me”). The job ad itself plays on a common note, suggesting a poor satisfaction with the current role, and hopes to motivate the candidate to change their career.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Candidate Surveys
Does is then make sense to hear what your particular candidates actually have to say? Should you run candidate surveys to gather feedback on your particular hiring process?
When candidates comment on recruitment processes by various companies, they uniformly criticize a lack of communication on the recruiter side. Updates on applications are rare, feedback almost non-existent.
At the same time it seems to be obvious what needs to be done to improve the candidate experience in regards to all human (as opposed to technological) aspects of the recruitment process. Treating candidates well, providing status updates of the application, doing what has been said (“you hear back from us within two weeks”).
Running candidate surveys can be beneficial. With this tool, companies can get candidate feedback on their experience with the company’s career website, their perception on length and complexity of the application and selection process (rounds of interviews), turn-around time of hiring decision and offer making process.
When candidates comment on recruitment processes by various companies, they uniformly criticize a lack of communication on the recruiter side. Updates on applications are rare, feedback almost non-existent.
At the same time it seems to be obvious what needs to be done to improve the candidate experience in regards to all human (as opposed to technological) aspects of the recruitment process. Treating candidates well, providing status updates of the application, doing what has been said (“you hear back from us within two weeks”).
Running candidate surveys can be beneficial. With this tool, companies can get candidate feedback on their experience with the company’s career website, their perception on length and complexity of the application and selection process (rounds of interviews), turn-around time of hiring decision and offer making process.
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