AI and Applicant Tracking Systems

📢 ATTENTION JOB SEEKERS:

I have never worked for an organization that has used AI or "a bot" to review resumes in my almost 20 years of HR experience. People kept saying it so much that it made me think the companies I worked for didn't have the up-to-date tools that they spoke of...but I haven’t even seen a software that does that. I’m not saying one doesn’t exist, but I have also seen other Recruiters and Recruiting Managers say the same, so it’s clearly not used as much as anyone seems to think.

HOWEVER...keeping in mind that Recruiters (actual humans) review your resume in 5-7 seconds...I can see how people think it's AI or a bot reviewing the resumes.

As a job seeker, your task is to show them what they are looking for in those few seconds!

This is where I DO recommend YOU using AI to HELP your resume stand out!

I still believe in a human being creating the resume, BUT AI can be helpful with getting the right info onto your resume to give you the best chance at landing that job or at least a 2nd look past those 5-7 seconds!!

Here's How:
🔍 Find the job postings (at least 3) you ARE qualified for and want to apply to, add them into whatever AI you use. Ask AI to search for the common industry-specific words used in those job postings. Then, make sure you include those words in your resume to showcase your experience in those areas!

🚫 NOT because AI is reviewing your resume…BUT because your resume gets a 5-7 second first glance and if someone is filling those roles, those are the words they are quickly searching for among the hundreds (or even thousands) of resumes they are reviewing.

#jobseekers #applying #resume #beatingthebots #ATS #applications #applyingforjobs

Strong Leadership

I was once hired as an HR Manager for a small company that was being acquired and I wasn't given access to the employee files for the first 6 months. Apparently, I was hired without the Controller's consent and she was the one doing the HR prior to me. After repeated failed attempts to let her know I wasn't trying to step on any toes, we got through it. I toughed it out and things got much better once the purchase went through (I received access to the files) and I happened upon the best mentor of my career.

I was close to leaving that organization in the beginning, but ultimately, I stayed for over 6 years, in 2 different locations. My leadership made all the difference. Had I had the same leadership as when I started, I wouldn't have lasted 6 months.

My favorite lesson that I learned from John was something I repeated today when asked what advice I have for a new college graduate who wants to enter HR. "If it's immoral, unethical, illegal or unsafe, you have a duty to report it."

I have used this advice to build trust with employees throughout my career. If employees want to come to me to vent or get advice on something, I've always had an open door policy. Just because they talk to me about something, as long as it isn't immoral, unethical, unsafe or illegal, I can coach them on the best way to handle the situation themselves or I can offer to step in as HR. They usually choose to handle it on their own or decide they were just upset and have cooled down, but they would always come back to me to thank me for the advice or for just listening.

Since integrity is one of my core principles, I really value the relationships I have built and the trust that was instilled with these employees.

Thanks, John, for giving me one of the main pillars I have used throughout my career! (You gave me others, but that's the one I keep repeating over and over again!)

#leadership #mentor #buildingtrust #coaching

Experiencing Turnover?

Is your organization experiencing high turnover? Do you know why?

The most common reasons for turnover are:

🗣 Poor Leadership - Have you recently made leadership changes that aren't going so well? Did you hire a new leader? Do your leaders care more about the bottom line than their employees? Do the leaders support their employees? Do your leaders need training?
📈 Lack of growth opportunities - Are you providing growth opportunities to your employees? Growth doesn't always have to be vertical, as you move up, the opportunities get to be less and less, but if you can provide lateral opportunities for employees to learn new skills, the challenge of learning something new can help them stay motivated and engaged.
💰 Pay and Benefits - Do you keep your finger on the pulse of what the market is paying? What about benefits? Do you offer competitive benefits to your employees? Are you still only giving your employees 2 weeks off a year?
⚖ Lack of the ability to maintain work/life balance - Are your employees able to take off when they need to? Are they expected to stay late at a moment's notice? Are your employees working 12-hour days, regularly?
➕ Better Opportunities - Did you know a new business moved in down the street and they are offering 4 10-hour work days instead of 5 8-hour work days that your company offers? Can your company do this? What does your company offer that your neighbors down the street don't? On-site child care? An extra week of PTO? What sets you apart?

Do you know what’s important to your workforce?

#turnover #attrition #talentmanagement #reduceturnover

Building Trust With Your Team

How do you build trust with your employees?

🔒 Do what you say and say what you do - don't get upset with your employees if they aren't on time to your meetings if you are never on time to theirs.
🔒 Communicate openly and honestly - be as transparent as possible and share what you can, no one wants to hear something that isn't true or accurate. If you don't know the answer, say you don't know the answer.
🔒 Demonstrate that you are competent in your role - you don't have to know how to do your employees' jobs. You're the leader, you aren't hired to perform their duties, but you were hired to lead the team. Show you are a competent leader.
🔒 Treat your employees with respect, dignity and empathy - treat them as you would want to be treated.
🔒 Admit when you make a mistake - if you can't admit when you make a mistake, you lose a lot of credibility.
🔒 Maintain confidentiality - when an employee shares something with you, do not gossip or share that information without permission
🔒 Be Consistent - Ensure that you are maintaining consistency in your words, actions and behaviors.

Building trust goes a long way to establishing a high performing team. By creating mutual trust, the sky is the limit for your team!

#teambuilding #buildingtrust #effectiveleadership #leadership

Blue Collar Shortage

In the last 30 years, we pushed college education...

30 years later, we find ourselves with:
👎 a shortage of blue-collar workers
👎 a shortage of skilled tradespeople
👎 High Student Loan Debt
👎 People with degrees that have nothing to do with the work they perform

When I meet parents of students, I encourage them to look at the trades. I have had plenty of parents say, "My son is going to college, maybe they will come to your company after that."

I then talk to them about a few things...
👍 Get a job right after high school and let the employer pay for the education to avoid that student loan debt. A lot of employers have Education Assistance Programs that will cover the costs of education, which you can take at the same time you are getting a paycheck, too.
👍 The trades are making bank. 🤑 Don't discount them. An entry-level tradesperson will most likely start their career at a higher pay than most entry-level salaried roles and will probably make more money over their lifetime than the average salaried employee.
👍 If you don't know what you want to do, get a job. We have to get out of the mindset of doing what everyone else is doing. Don't go to school just because that's what everyone else is doing. Try out what you want to do, if it's not your current job, but it's something you are interested in within the company, ask your manager how you can get exposure to that area of the business. If it's something outside the company, find an opportunity to volunteer to shadow someone doing that job.
👍 Trades aren't as dirty of a job as they used to be, most factories are very clean, air conditioned and are focused on preventative and predictive maintenance, so these employees aren't always just fixing things, they are preventing equipment from breaking down.

Let's turn the ship 180 degrees, instead of a total 360 this time so we have a reasonable number of people for all occupations and don't have to bail people out from debt they probably shouldn't have incurred in the first place.

#trades #technicalroles #education #hiring #bluecollar #highschool #college

How Small Businesses Can Better Attract Employees…

When I look at my LinkedIn feed, it seems every day someone new is “Open to Work” and others are complaining about how many applications they have submitted, how many interviews they have gotten, etc. And then I hear of employers having such a hard time hiring and retaining employees. There is a clear disconnect…the people who are losing their jobs are mostly professionals with that, once, highly sought after (and expensive) college degree. While most of the current openings don’t require those college degrees.

We set ourselves up for this workforce discrepancy as we sent all of our high school graduates off to four-year schools for the last 30 years and ignored the trade programs and manufacturing workforce pipeline. We continue to have a shortage of people in the skilled trades and general laborers. Yet, it seems we continue to create more and more skilled trades, manufacturing and general labor openings. It makes me question if the corporations, equity firms and state governments have truly analyzed our workforce pipeline. The labor shortage is a real thing.

Stuck in the middle of this quandary are the small businesses. I’m talking to you: restaurants/bars, contractors, retailers, credit unions, hotels, daycares, nursing homes, landscapers, car washes, etc. I see you. I know you are struggling with staffing. I’ve seen too many public-facing businesses have to close for a day or more or repeatedly limit their services due to staffing issues. If 3 people are absent from work at a large company, there are people to jump in and do their work. If 3 people are absent from work at a small business, there is no one to do the work, because everyone is already wearing multiple hats. They don’t have the ability to greet the customers, take the order, cook the food, deliver the food, refill the drinks, clean the tables, etc. It’s impossible.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the community and are usually sought after by their customers over large corporations, chain restaurants or big box stores. People would rather have their money going back into the community and supporting the owners, their neighbors, of the small business. However, a lot of times, small businesses feel they are at a disadvantage competing against the large corporations for employees because they can’t offer everything the big companies can…such as higher pay, expensive benefits, etc.

This is where it is helpful for small businesses to understand their EVP or their Employee Value Proposition. An EVP is what you offer to your employees in exchange for their skills, experience and commitment to your business. What are your employees getting by working for you besides a paycheck? Basic benefits are great, but what about the intangibles?

Do they get great hours and then have the rest of the day to run their side hustle, hang at the pool or spend time with their kids?

Do they get part-time hours that work better for their schedule and other obligations?

Are your hours friendly for parents who take their kids to and from school?

Do they get to interact with all different types of people?

Do they get to learn different things?

What is the benefit of working for you?

Do you offer discounts?

Free Meals?

Do you partner with others who may offer this to your employees?

Does your company get involved in the non-profit space to give back to the community?

Get creative!

If you think you can’t compete with the larger companies paying more, think again…large companies aren’t for everyone and lately, they are becoming for less and less. I have seen more and more people leaving corporate in search of a lower stress role. Take the Viral Barista on LinkedIn, she was even featured in a recent Buzzfeed article: 'Bridge Jobs' Are Going Viral — Here's Why (buzzfeed.com). (cringe - yes I just referenced a Buzzfeed article)

Large companies have large workforces which removes their ability to be flexible. They have to have strict policies and procedures in place that don’t allow for much leeway for employees to be human. If an employee has extenuating circumstances, they need flexibility. An employee may be late due to a sick child or a flat tire. Being a small business, you are able to provide that flexibility (provided they still show up to work, are a good employee and this isn’t happening everyday). Or maybe someone can’t work on Wednesdays because they have to take their family member to a weekly appointment, but they can work Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. As a small business, you can schedule around that employee’s needs, while large companies are unable to do this.

You have the flexibility to set yourself apart from those corporate conglomerates by showing what you can offer to your employees. You are also able to provide them with a wider range of experience than a large company. Roles at large businesses are very compartmentalized, each individual has 1 role, while you can provide your employees with more diverse roles giving them experience in a lot of areas, at once. For example, an accounting professional at a large corporation may only be responsible for accounts payable. In a small business, you may have an office manager who handles Accounting, HR, Administration and greets the people who come in your door! How much great experience is that individual receiving by holding that role and getting exposure to all the things?!  

Finally, at large companies, employees are left to their own devices, a lot of managers aren’t engaged or involved. They don’t call to check in weekly, they just let their employees do their thing until something goes wrong. While in a small business, you get to interact with your manager or owner daily. People want that interaction to know they are doing the right thing and a good job, as well as mentorship so they can learn from you!

So my advice to small businesses, don’t focus on what you can’t offer, focus on what you can offer, tell people about it and find your people who value those things! Know those your full EVP and scream it from the rooftops!

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I have over 18 years of HR Leadership experience with large companies. I help businesses with their people problems. If you need help establishing your EVP and finding your employees, reach out at danielle.shroyer@engage-hr.com and let’s chat!