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As the global pandemic continues to cause rapid changes in work environments around the world, it’s important for recruiters and employers to stay informed of the latest updates. Here are some recent recruitment news headlines worth reading:

People Analytics Are More Important than Ever During Pandemic — Data-driven decision-making is critical for both recruitment and retention. Companies need to understand how a candidate’s past performance – and how they respond to stressful environments – impacts their success and overall fit within an organization. Performance metrics may need to include soft skills that are sometimes difficult to measure. The right analytics can help you reduce implicit bias in your hiring process – key to building a diverse workforce AND attracting candidates who want to work for organizations that are committed to diversity and inclusion.

5 Ways to Decrease Hiring Costs When the Economy Reopens — Many companies will be faced with smaller budgets when they are finally given the green light to resume hiring activity. Some key ways to decrease hiring costs while maintaining high-quality applicants include promoting from within and establishing employee referral programs. Promoting from within allows you to reduce costs associated with posting jobs, vetting candidates, and running background checks. You already know the employee, and they already know your organization, so the risk of turnover is also lower. Good referral programs can reduce the time you spend on screening interviews and vetting. Look for other hiring-related tasks that can be automated or otherwise streamlined to keep costs in check.

5 Lessons Managers Can Learn from Casinos About Reopening Their Business — As businesses begin to re-open, there is some wisdom to be gained from policies and protocols used by casinos. A good first step is to ensure that clear safety procedures are in place and highly visible. For customers who want to return to your business, they need to feel confident that you are committed to their health and safety. This can include signage, sanitation stations, and extra communication. It is OK to limit activities within your business where social distancing and other guidelines are difficult to meet. For example, many casinos in Las Vegas do not have their poker rooms available yet.

Do you have a recruitment news source that you’re finding especially helpful or valuable right now? Please share it in the comments below!

Today’s guest blogger is Paulette Steele with Real Resumes located in Queensland, Australia. Real Resumes is educating people from beginning to end on getting a job.  Short videos cover all aspects including: where to look for a job, writing effective resumes, researching and preparing for the interview, and most importantly, mastering the interview itself. Paulette has 15 years of recruitment experience and a vast career in various industries. Below, she discusses important traits for remote workers to possess.

“My mama always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’”-Forrest Gump. So, you must be adaptable in all aspects of life, including recruiting.

One thing we are bound to see more of in the future is people working remotely as employers are realizing it actually works. People are often more productive working from home and technology has been there for years allowing this to occur.

Also, technology now allows people to be able to work a long way from where the project is taking place, e.g. mining industry.

Not everyone has the right skills to work remotely though. So, what are the traits recruiters need to look for in candidates applying for remote work jobs?

The following skills are necessary:

• Self-motivation
• Growth mindset
• Amazing communication skills
• Initiative
• Emotional intelligence
• Self awareness
• Sense of purpose
• Independent decision making
• Leadership skills

Most of these attributes seem obvious but leadership skills. Sure, if someone is overseeing a project, this is super important, particularly for remote workers.

With communication skills, the candidates need to be adept across various methods as you’re not face-to-face. So, email, text, phone and video meeting are all forms of communication that are vital to know which one is best to utilize for different situations.

Growth mindset requires a person to possess flexibility, perseverance and adaptability. And when remote workers are at home or in an office that is a distance from the project they are managing, then the right candidate will be able to think on their feet and be perceptive.

So, if you have a remote role you are trying to fill, ensure you ask interview questions that will ensure that candidates have the ability to display these skills.

Manpower Group recently released the results of its Employment Outlook Survey for the third quarter. The survey was administered during the peak of the global coronavirus pandemic. There has been a rapid change in global hiring conditions, and the survey data reflects these extraordinary conditions. Manpower surveyed more than 30,000 employers in 43 countries. All participants were asked to answer “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of September 2020 as compared to the current quarter?”

Payroll reductions are expected in 35 of the 43 countries surveyed. Seven countries expect headcount growth, while one expects a flat landscape. Every country in the survey expressed a weaker hiring sentiment on a year-over-year basis. Survey highlights follow below.

The Americas

• The United States leads the region with the strongest hiring plans – true for the past 11 consecutive quarters. Hiring is anticipated during the upcoming quarter, although at a much slower pace than previous quarters. Nine of 12 sectors plan to increase payroll, with the largest increases coming in education and healthcare.
• Canadian employers report their weakest outlook since 1978. However, modest gains are expected in the services and non-durable manufacturing sectors.
• Hiring in Brazil is expected to be as low as the 2016 recession levels. Slight gains in finance, insurance & real estate are not expected to outpace the slumps in transportation & utilities and wholesale & retail trade.

Asia Pacific

• Payroll growth is expected in all seven sectors in Japan during the upcoming quarter. While gains are expected to be slower than both the prior quarter and prior year, several sectors look quite strong. This includes transportation & utilities, services, and finance, insurance & real estate.
• Indian employers expect the weakest labor market in 15 years BUT are still expecting growth in all seven industry sectors.
• Australia reports especially sluggish employment activity in wholesale & retail trade as well as finance, insurance & real estate.

EMEA

• Only two of the 26 countries surveyed – Croatia and Germany – expect to increase headcount during the third quarter.
• Across the region, sharp declines in the restaurants & hotels sector are reported.
• Payroll reductions are expected in both Spain and Poland in every industry sector.

The full PDF is worth reading to glean more nuance in each locality. Bottom line: while it’s definitely not sunshine and roses, it’s not all doom and gloom either. On a global basis, employers are cautiously optimistic about a return to pre-pandemic levels. More than half expect the recovery to occur by April 2021. Well-connected recruiters will be in the best position to take advantages of the pockets of hiring activity around the world.

There is an old saying, “what gets measured gets done.” I am a believer in this based on watching sales people over more than 25 years. If you can achieve a bonus or grow compensation by hitting a metric, sales people will figure it out and get it done. They hit metrics because there is personal benefit.

As a recruiter or recruitment leader, do you have recruitment metrics that are driving results? What would you like to know about your effort and the impact that tools and resources have on achieving your KPIs or metrics?

One of the big-picture metrics almost every firm needs to be concerned with is the cost of running the business. If you knew which recruitment tools were producing value, then you may be able to produce improved results with investment in some recruitment resources or save cost by eliminating others. So, you need a cost-per-sendouts metric and a cost-per-placement metric. If you manage recruiters, is it obvious that those doing more sendouts are getting more placements? Is it reasonable to see if low-placement-producing resources are extracted from the business and more productive recruitment tools/resources are leveraged, more can be done?

Something I hear is, “we need more quality candidates.” First of all “quality candidates” is too broad of a recruitment metric. Be specific about the type of candidate. Do you need more “passive candidates that are plant managers with lean manufacturing backgrounds and experiences?” Your metric will determine your actions and eventually your results. In this case, you need to advertise where these candidates will see you. You need to go to lean conferences. You need to join LinkedIn and Facebook groups with similar types of candidates. Maybe you need to create a white paper that these candidates would download, or host a speaker/webinar that would attract these candidates? A metric such as “host two events in the next 180 days that will attract my target candidates” is a way to start investing in results. A second metric could be “create a white paper every 90 days that would be specific enough to be downloaded by my target candidates.” And why not “passive plant managers with lean experience added each month” as a metric?

Perhaps all this is great, but if no one applies, you have made little progress. Do you monitor and do A/B testing an your advertisements? If you want more applications, then you need to measure, monitor, test and change your advertisements, which is the point where candidates ultimately engage with the job. Do your adverts include items that will attract the right group and repel those that are clearly not a fit? Tough to do, but testing will help you get there. Have you included:

• What current employees are saying bout the business?
• Full list of benefits?
• An inside look at what the work space looks like?
• Company stories, mission detail?
• Do you have please do not apply if statements…such as non-degreed, work permits for the country of employment, X years of experience, unwilling to relocate, etc…all of these need to be legal requirements of the opening.

Remember, what gets measured gets done. Set some recruitment metrics and see if you can improve your results.