JazzHR is one of the best stand-alone applicant tracking systems (ATS) on the market today. The software updates antiquated hiring processes with an easy-to-use interface, centralized candidate dashboards, and white-label branding options.

However, JazzHR may not be the best fit for recruiters with either low or high-volume hiring needs. It also lacks additional human resource capabilities beyond just the ATS. If you’re a JazzHR customer looking to upgrade your ATS, we’ve rounded up the best JazzHR alternatives to guide your search.

Keep your business’s unique recruiting needs in mind as you compare the top JazzHR alternatives. If none of the options seem like a good fit, explore our ATS Software Guide to find the right solution.

JazzHR alternatives

Breezy HR is the best ATS for small businesses with small teams.

Workable is the best all-around ATS that will work for businesses of any company size.

Greenhouse is the best ATS for fast-growing businesses that are hiring staff quickly.

BambooHR is the best choice for recruiters who need human resources (HR) software in addition to an ATS.

Zoho Recruit is the best pick for businesses that want a fully integrated software stack.

Breezy HR: Best ATS for small businesses

If you’re specifically in the marketing for a recruiting and hiring tool, Breezy HR’s applicant tracking system features an easy-to-navigate drag-and-drop interface plus dozens of integrations that cover the major HR software. This stand-alone ATS offers a forever-free version of its recruiting software for small businesses, which sets it apart as a JazzHR competitor. If you need to upgrade, the transparent pricing schedule has tiers that make sense for small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

Custom questionnaires

Overwhelmed with candidates that don’t match your recruiting needs? Find the right talent and identify qualified candidates faster with Breezy HR’s custom questionnaires. The questionnaire features eight question types, including video responses. JazzHR does offer a questionnaire option as well, but Breezy HR’s capabilities are more robust.

HR and recruitment templates

Most hiring tools, including JazzHR, offer a few native recruiting templates that companies can tweak. However, Breezy HR goes above and beyond by offering more than 800 templates that make it easy for employees to generate offer letters, ask for employee references, and more. This is especially helpful for small teams who don’t have time to write every document from scratch.

Reasons to choose Breezy HR over JazzHR

• Forever-free version for small businesses
• Easy scheduling
• Drag-and-drop interface
• Dozens of integrations

Workable: Best all-around ATS

Workable is one of the best-reviewed applicant tracking systems on the market, and it’s the one that will satisfy most businesses’ recruitment needs. Workable offers a great balance of features for various pricing tiers as well as a pay-per-job pricing plan that allows for flexibility if you don’t necessarily need a full monthly subscription. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is also built into the recruitment tools to assist companies with meeting DEI hiring goals.

Internal job board

Promote from within and fill open positions more quickly with Workable’s specially designed internal job board. This internal job board makes it easy to centralize all of your open positions and make them visible to the entire company. While JazzHR does offer the option to post a job internally, it doesn’t have a central job board as Workable does; you have to promote the link to the individual job post via other company messaging channels.

AI functionality

Tired of your recruiting team wasting their time on manual, repetitive tasks instead of doing actual talent acquisition? Workable offers a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) functionality that optimizes recruiting processes, such as auto-sourcing passive candidates who fit your job criteria. JazzHr does offer the ability to automate certain workflows within the tool, but currently Workable provides more powerful AI features.

Reasons to choose Workable over JazzHR

• Pay-per-job pricing plan option
• DEI resources
• Internal job board
• Proprietary AI functionality

Greenhouse: Best ATS for growing businesses

Greenhouse is another ATS that is probably the closest direct competitor to JazzHR. When compared directly, Greenhouse’s features tend to be a touch more comprehensive and sophisticated than JazzHR, and it offers significantly more built-in integrations.

The system has a well-designed user interface (UI), and the candidate-facing portal makes a great impression on potential hires. It’s also GDPR-compliant, which is a plus for international companies hiring in Europe. However, the pricing isn’t transparent, and there is no free trial offered, which is a big change from JazzHR.

Job board access

Greenhouse provides access to over 1,000 job boards, which is a lot more than many competitors and will greatly increase job posting visibility. This contrasts with JazzHR’s more limited job board offering; combined, it allows users to post to less than 60 free and paid job boards, which is a significant decrease.

Scorecard ratings

Greenhouse has developed a unique rating system that uses symbols and colors to quickly gather impressions of candidates and help eliminate biases in the assessment process. JazzHR did recently implement candidate scorecards after many years of not offering them, but its scorecards just use a basic star rating system, and the design isn’t as visually appealing as Greenhouse’s is.

Reasons to choose Greenhouse over JazzHR

• More integrations with third-party apps
• Access to 1,000 job boards
• Visual scorecard rating system
• GDPR-compliant

BambooHR: Best HR software suite

Sometimes, you don’t just need an ATS but also an entire HR software suite, and that’s where providers such as BambooHR come in. BambooHR is a highly-rated HR solution that also includes ATS, so you don’t need a separate HR software stack. Its features cover the entire employee life cycle, from recruiting and hiring to payroll and benefits to performance management and offboarding. BambooHR is specifically designed for SMBs, so it’s a great option if your company is growing fast but doesn’t need enterprise-level HR tech yet.

Automatic alerts

Never miss out on a potential job application with automatic recruiting alerts from BambooHR. Not only does the system give you a notification when a candidate is ready to advance, it’s also available across the HR software instead of just being confined to the ATS. While JazzHR does offer email alerts as well, you won’t get notifications for other HR processes.

Communication tools

If you constantly have to track down messages and email threads in other apps, BambooHR will help you centralize all recruiting communication thanks to its in-app messaging. JazzHR does not offer native messaging tools, so you will need to rely on third-party apps to communicate with the rest of your talent acquisition team.

Reasons to choose BambooHR over JazzHR

• Full HR capabilities
• No need for separate HR software
• Automatic alerts and reminders
• In-app communication tools

Zoho Recruit: Best business software stack

In other cases, you’re looking for even more than HR tech: You need an entire business software stack that works together seamlessly. While you can subscribe to the Zoho Recruit ATS à la carte, it really shines when used in conjunction with not just Zoho’s HR suite but the entire Zoho software stack.

If you are looking not just for an ATS but for an entire suite of software that works together, then Zoho is definitely worth considering. While it’s not as complex as enterprise solutions like SAP or Oracle, Zoho’s products are much easier to navigate, making it a great option for small to large companies looking for a comprehensive software solution without a prohibitive learning curve.

Assessment templates

Standardize candidate assessments and make final hiring decisions easier with assessment templates from Zoho. Zoho Recruit offers multiple types of assessment types that come pre-populated with questions you can then customize. JazzHR does offer the option to create assessments, but it has fewer types and templates than Zoho does.

Personalized portals

Zoho Recruit offers customizable portals for job candidates, vendors, and clients, making it a flexible solution for both a staffing agency and an in-house HR team. JazzHR is actually one of the few ATS that offer white label capabilities too, so if that’s the feature that was tilting your decision towards JazzHR, then it’s definitely worth looking into Zoho’s personalization options as well.

Reasons to choose Zoho over JazzHr

• Full-stack software solution
• Integration with other Zoho products
• Assessment templates
• Personalized portals

JazzHR Limitations

JazzHR has a lot going for it, which is why we included it on our list of best ATS software for 2023. For starters, all plans include unlimited users. The software has an easy-to-use interface, and the candidate profiles centralize all information in one place. Customizable recruiting workflows and automation features optimize recruitment processes such as document management. The white-label capabilities help set it apart from other ATS systems.

But, JazzHR also has its own drawbacks. It has an unusual pricing scheme that features a 6x jump in pricing from the base tier to the middle tier. The base plan only offers limited functionality and job listings, which means you need to be willing to pay for at least the middle-tier plan to make the most of this ATS. In other words, JazzHR is not the most cost-effective option on the market and may be too expensive for small businesses. 

Cost isn’t the only disadvantage of using JazzHR:

• It offers fewer integrations than some competitors; this may be a deal breaker since it’s only an ATS and not a full HR software suite.
• It posts to fewer job boards than some competitors — it syncs to about 15 free job boards and less than 40 paid job boards — which may limit the reach of a job posting and slow down the hiring process.
• There is no dedicated mobile app, which is something that is offered by most competitors.

In short, JazzHR is the best choice for midsize businesses looking primarily for an ATS as opposed to HR tech with ATS functionality. If you are a small business, there are other ATS systems out there that offer a more enticing entry-level plan. And if you are a large business or enterprise, you’ll likely want a more robust ATS that can keep up with your high-volume hiring activities.

Choosing the right alternative to JazzHR

JazzHR is one of the most recommended stand-alone ATS systems, but it’s not the right fit for every business. If you’re specifically looking for an ATS, there are several great JazzHR alternatives on the market that may meet your needs better.

If you’re a small business looking to get started with your first ATS, check out BreezyHR’s forever-free plan. If you want the best ATS overall, consider Workable’s excellent balance of features and prices. And if you’re a rapidly growing business, Greenhouse’s unique functionality can help you take your staffing to the next level.

If you’re not just looking for an ATS but also an HR software, BambooHR offers basically every core HR function in one easy-to-navigate package. And Zoho offers ATS and HR tools alongside an entire stack of business software that integrates seamlessly with each other.

Choosing an ATS system is a complex decision. If none of these vendors meet your needs, check out our ATS Software Guide to browse other solutions.

The post Top JazzHR Competitors & Alternatives for 2023 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Researching which vendor is right for you can be both challenging and time-consuming. Whether you are considering switching from one vendor to the other or have narrowed down your options to either Lever or Greenhouse software, use our detailed comparison below to help make your decision.

Also read: Best Applicant Tracking System for Small Business

Lever vs. Greenhouse: Which ATS is Right For You?

Lever: Best for growing companies aiming to streamline hiring processes

Where many human resource management (HRM) solutions have expanded their software to cover other core HR functions such as payroll and onboarding, Lever remains dedicated to optimizing its recruiting platform to remain accessible to businesses in multiple industries.

Lever boasts a simple user interface (UI) that does not require hours of training to implement in an organization. With 24/7 customer support, professional service teams, and prebuilt email templates and offer letters, smaller or growing businesses aiming for quick implementation and simplified recruitment processes may find more success with Lever than Greenhouse. However, Lever lacks a mobile application for on-the-go teams, upfront pricing, or a free trial.

Greenhouse: Best for larger companies focused on optimizing user experience

Compared to Lever, Greenhouse focuses on providing a positive user experience to both applicants and recruiters alike. Larger companies needing to coordinate among multiple teams may appreciate Greenhouse’s collaboration tools and detailed recruitment workflows.

Additionally, Greenhouse includes a variety of DE&I initiatives in every stage of its recruiting process, such as candidate name pronunciation recordings. Companies aiming for candidates to feel more invested and involved in the hiring process may value these features in Greenhouse over Lever. However, because of Greenhouse’s conscientious approach to hiring, it may not be the best solution for companies hoping to source and hire quickly.

Lever vs. Greenhouse: A Detailed Comparison

Candidate sourcing

Lever and Greenhouse offer solutions to obtain a robust applicant pool for any position. Like most ATS solutions, Lever and Greenhouse take advantage of candidate sourcing opportunities through options like career pages and online job board distribution. However, where Lever focuses on simple tools to gather candidate information quickly, Greenhouse provides recruiters with multiple methods of sourcing candidates, including a mobile application to source candidates on the go.

Lever

Lever focuses on simplistic processes to start sourcing candidates as soon as possible. Recruiters can create a new job opening through Lever’s application and choose to post it either internally, externally, or both. Once users make a job opening, they can post the opening to their career site, online job boards, or through social media referral links.

Career page

Users can post their job openings on a custom career page through Lever’s server. Lever will generate a URL for the company to add to its website or to share with potential candidates. Applicants can then apply through the career site and sync their LinkedIn accounts.

Lever’s career pages cater to small businesses with limited resources or no IT staff. With minimal technical knowledge, users can customize their internal and external career pages with open postings, company logos, and colors to match their brand. Meanwhile, businesses with web developers can use Lever’s API to connect with their organization’s custom job site or modify Lever’s hosted job site to suit their company’s needs better. Lever even allows more advanced users with third-party tracking cookies to embed tracking pixels on their career page to record candidate conversion rates.

Job board integrations

Lever offers over 30 job board integrations, including native solutions with Indeed and LinkedIn. If a job board integration is unavailable through Lever, users can manually post their job on another job site and then record the posting on Lever for tracking purposes.

For example, suppose a business wants to post an opening on a university’s job site. In that case, they can post their job opening manually on the university’s website, copy the job opening link, and paste it for tracking in Lever. Thus, businesses looking to post their jobs in more niche areas can still collect valuable recruitment metrics to determine the quality of candidates from varying job boards.

Manual sourcing methods

Lever allows users to manually add prospects through direct input or internal employee referrals. Lever also includes a Google Chrome extension that parses candidate information from sites like LinkedIn, Gmail, Facebook, GitHub, and Wellfound (formerly AngelList).

Suppose the prospect does not have a candidate profile created for them in Lever. Lever’s Chrome extension will parse information from their profiles and attach them to a specified job opportunity. This feature is handy for companies looking to save time from manually inputting prospects they discover by happenstance.

Greenhouse

Compared to Lever, Greenhouse offers a much more extensive array of both native and third-party job board ATS integrations for candidate sourcing. Additionally, Greenhouse takes a more accessible approach to its candidate sourcing by offering creative ways to gather prospects’ data, including an in-person option. Greenhouse’s goal is to provide multiple, customizable avenues to source candidates instead of the quick, out-of-the-box features valued by Lever.

Career page

Like Lever, users can create external company job boards hosted by Greenhouse. Alongside the job opening, employers can customize job boards with videos, images, or company logos. However, companies must purchase the Greenhouse Recruiting Advanced package to access additional career page features, such as internal-only job boards and support for integration with an API-driven company career page. In contrast, all of these come standard in Lever’s starter tier.

Greenhouse also integrates with LinkedIn, Indeed, and SEEK right from their company career page. So instead of prospects manually entering their information to apply, they can sync their data from these sites to simplify the application process.

Job board integrations

Native integration with traditional job boards, such as LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, and Arbeitnow, comes standard with Greenhouse. But while users can make job posts for free on these platforms, posting to additional or more niche boards comes with an extra cost. Nevertheless, Greenhouse boasts a job ad market with over 1,000 job boards. Therefore, businesses looking for talent in highly specialized roles, like coding or engineering, or hoping to diversify their workforce, may find this feature especially useful.

Manual sourcing methods

Like Lever, Greenhouse users can manually input prospect data or use a Google Chrome extension for parsing candidate data from Wellfound, GitHub, Indeed, and LinkedIn. In addition, recruiters can manually upload or drag and drop résumés into the extension for data retrieval. Unlike Lever’s extension, however, Greenhouse’s extension maintains overwhelmingly negative user reviews in the Chrome Web Store from users, arguing its lack of functionality and poor navigation.

Yet, a rather unique feature of Greenhouse is its Mobile Events Application for iOS devices. The app is designed for HR teams sourcing in-person candidates from recruitment events. For example, if an employer participates in a job fair or hosts a company event, prospects can input their own data in the app to be added for consideration. The applicant can also take a photo of their résumé to include with their application. From there, hiring teams can add additional feedback or notes to the candidate’s application for follow-up later.

Which to choose for candidate sourcing

Greenhouse. Here’s why: Although Lever features a more user-friendly career page builder and stable Google Chrome extension, Greenhouse offers more varied methods to source candidates from diverse environments. Moreover, HR teams focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives can utilize Greenhouse’s job ad market by posting their openings to job boards targeting underrepresented groups without manually searching and posting to these sites themselves.

Customers wishing to stick to posting openings on traditional job boards will also appreciate Greenhouse’s free native integration with LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, ZipRecruiter, and Arbeitnow compared to Lever’s LinkedIn and Indeed. Thus, Greenhouse customers have more opportunities to streamline job posts across multiple platforms compared to Lever.

Candidate management

Lever and Greenhouse take similar approaches to candidate tracking, preferring unified pipelines that favor a holistic view of the company’s overall hiring efforts. Users must utilize filtering and tagging to categorize candidates by job, origin, or source. During the interview process, users can advance applicants to the next stage directly from their profiles. Alternatively, users can leverage bulk actions to reject or move candidates through the hiring process en masse.

However, where Lever focuses on targeting and moving the candidates through the hiring process at speed, Greenhouse takes a more leveled and thoughtful approach to candidate management. Determining which approach works depends on what is more valuable to the hiring team: automation or customization.

Lever

Lever’s candidate management is structured to give everyone in the organization an overarching view of the company’s recruitment efforts. Its goal is to provide users with similar user interfaces, so recruitment teams can navigate incoming candidate applications with minimal training.

Candidate pipeline

All candidate applications for all positions are located in Lever’s dashboard. Users can organize their candidates in multiple ways through tabs and filters, such as by interview stages, job postings, origins, or sources. To progress or reject candidates in the hiring process, recruiters must enter the candidate’s profile through the particular opportunity they applied for and move them to the appropriate stage.

All users can automatically progress candidates to different stages of the interview process based on when they communicate with the applicant. With Lever’s additional automation add-on, users can create more customized automated workflows to free up time from repetitive pipeline tasks.

For example, recruiters can create a conditional formatting rule to archive or progress candidates in the hiring process based on answers to application questions, such as years of experience in a field. As a result, HR teams with a high volume of candidates can save countless hours by manually moving candidates from one stage to the next.

Application review

Although users can review candidate applications and résumés manually through a candidate’s profile or applied opportunity, Lever’s Fast Resume Review can speed up the process significantly. Users can review all applications sprint-style by selecting an open job opportunity and advancing, archiving, or skipping applicants in one module. At the end of the sprint, Lever records the length of time and the number of applicants screened for businesses needing to make decisions on efficiency.

Greenhouse

Greenhouse users have more customization over their pipelines, offering both list and visual views for candidate stage progression. Despite this, Greenhouse offers few automated features in its starter package, with more options available with its automation add-on.

Candidate pipeline

Candidates move through the hiring funnel in Greenhouse much the way they do in Lever. Recruiters can access a candidate’s application through a specific job and choose to progress or reject the candidate to the next stage. Similar to Lever, there are options for users to select several candidates to move forward or reject in bulk.

What stands out in Greenhouse is its Visual Pipeline, which provides companies with a summary view of the active candidates in a particular job’s hiring funnel. Within this view, users can drag and drop candidates to different stages without accessing their profiles. Likewise, users can quickly see how many candidates are in each funnel section to decide where to focus most of their recruitment efforts.

Although Greenhouse includes automations to remind internal teams to take specific actions, such as completing an interview scorecard, Greenhouse Recruiting Essentials does not come with any other workflow automations. As a result, HR teams looking for auto-advance or -reject capabilities based on particular job application criteria must purchase either Greenhouse Recruiting Advanced or Greenhouse Recruiting Expert tiers.

Application review

Like Lever, Greenhouse users can select applicants one at a time to review and progress or reject to the next stage of the hiring process. To review several applications at once, users have a process similar to Lever’s Fast Resume Review known as their Application Review stage. Greenhouse users can also add a subset of candidates to review by employing their bulk application review option. Users can progress or reject a specific set of candidates within Application Review, outside of the total number of applicants for that particular job opening.

Which to choose for candidate management

It’s a tie. Here’s why: For teams needing to hire quickly, Lever users can take advantage of its prebuilt candidate stage automations and Fast Resume Review to get as many qualified candidates as possible into the interview phase. Meanwhile, Greenhouse offers several methods to view and advance or reject candidates, which is ideal for users requiring more diversified workflows.

Interview management

Lever and Greenhouse take a structured interview approach to hiring. This involves hiring managers creating interview rubrics for a position, so that every candidate for a particular role is judged by the same set of criteria. The goal of structured interviewing is to promote consistency among all interviewers for a position and reduce bias.

Lever and Greenhouse employ interview kits and candidate scorecards to put structured interviewing into practice. Additional candidate feedback can be left within the scorecards or notes for the team to review. Hiring teams can also use mentions to ping other team members for further input or thoughts on candidate progression.

Where Lever and Greenhouse differ in interview management is in their approach to interview scheduling and email outreach programs.

Lever

Lever continues prioritizing automation in every aspect of its interview management, from interview scheduling to calendar synchronization and email outreach campaigns.

Interview scheduling

Users schedule interviews entirely within Lever without having to email candidates individually. Although users can manually schedule interviews and set up interview panels within one window, HR teams can economize their time by utilizing Lever’s Easy Book feature. Through Easy Book, users sync their Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 accounts to Lever to integrate calendars. Interviewers then email candidates a Lever-created URL, wherein candidates can select an open timeslot in the recruiter’s schedule that works best for them.

Once the interviewee selects the time that works best for them, Lever automatically emails both the recruiter and interviewee of the desired interview, including any necessary video call links to Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet. Easy Book also allows users to add multiple interviewers to the event, select the timeframe the interview event is open for, and set an expiration date.

Email outreach

A standout feature of Lever’s interview management is its Nurture automated email campaigns. The goal of a nurture campaign is multifold: companies can entice passive candidates into applying for an open position or keep applicants engaged during the interview process.

For example, HR teams can customize their Nurture campaigns by sending one to three “touchpoint” emails to candidates at specific points in time regarding details of open positions or interview updates. This ensures a steady supply of potential candidates in evergreen positions, and an applicant does not go cold in case an interview does not work out.

Greenhouse

Unlike Lever, Greenhouse emphasizes a positive candidate experience during the interview phase of the recruitment process by having employers cater to candidate availability. However, this results in HR teams spending significantly more time in back-and-forth communication with candidates before the interview.

Likewise, with a shortage of interview-related automations in the Greenhouse Recruiting Essentials tier, users are forced to spend more time on administrative tasks related to applicant engagement instead of creating insightful interview plans.

Interview scheduling

Like Lever, Greenhouse integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook 365, along with the added integration of Calendly. To schedule an interview, recruiters must access a prospect’s profile and manually schedule the interview itinerary based on the candidates’ and other interviewers’ availability.

Greenhouse does offer candidates the ability to self-schedule their interviews in much the same way as Lever’s Easy Book feature. However, candidate self-scheduling is exclusive to Greenhouse Recruiting’s higher-paying Advanced or Expert subscription tiers compared to Lever’s Easy Book.

Email outreach

With Greenhouse’s Sourcing Automation add-on, users can create custom email campaigns to both source and engage candidates in much the same way as Lever’s Nurture feature. Users can create a series of emails to target prospects after a series of predetermined triggers—for example, not hearing from a candidate after a certain amount of time. In addition, users can customize the number of steps to take within each email campaign to ensure a steady stream of candidates between interviews.

Which to choose for interview management

Lever. Here’s why: Big and small HR teams can take advantage of the time savings associated with Lever’s interview management automations. Because of Greenhouse’s candidate-focused recruitment approach, employers have to spend more time during the recruitment process on communications with candidates. However, with Lever, users do not have to sacrifice cost for basic time-saving automated features compared to the required add-ons or higher paying tiers for similar functions in Greenhouse.

Recruitment analytics

Recruitment analytics are integral to understanding where bottlenecks occur in the recruiting funnel, so employers can take appropriate action to rectify any inefficiencies in their processes. Lever and Greenhouse include basic reporting metrics in their lowest subscription tiers, such as time to hire and source quality, with more customizable functions that can be added with their subscription tiers and add-ons.

Lever

In August 2022, Lever moved from its legacy reports system to its Visual Insights dashboards. In doing so, Lever aimed to make quality recruitment metrics more accessible to everyone in an organization, including employees with little experience with data analytics. Customers have several different dashboards where they can select from preassembled reports and charts highlighting particular metrics.

For example, users can navigate to their Pipeline Dashboard in Visual Insights to view analytics related to a candidate’s movement through the recruitment pipeline, such as time to hire or the average time spent in any one particular stage. Users can configure the available charts further by manipulating filter parameters.

Lever also includes basic DE&I analytics, including an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Diversity Dashboard featuring anonymized reports outlining the diversity of a company’s current talent pipeline. Users can receive even more dashboards, including candidate surveys, requisition, and nurturing as well as the time to fill metrics with Lever’s Enterprise subscription. With Lever’s Advanced Analytics add-on, users can also access a predictive analytics tool and Lever’s Data Explorer to build custom reports and visualizations.

Greenhouse

Like Lever, companies can access recruitment analytics by accessing multiple dashboards in Greenhouse’s Reports tab. Dashboards include Offers and hiring, Recruiting efficiency, Sourcing, and Pipeline health. Clicking on a particular dashboard brings users to a summary page with widgets outlining major recruitment statistics. For example, Recruiting efficiency includes quick stats like average time to fill and average time to hire upfront without having to run a report manually.

Users can configure their dashboards with select widgets and filters for a quick view of particular metrics. For more in-depth reports, all Greenhouse users can access the Essential reports section for other reports like pipeline demographics and candidate surveys.

A standout feature of Greenhouse on all subscription tiers is user access to Greenhouse Predicts, which uses machine learning to analyze current pipelines to forecast when a candidate will accept an offer and start with the organization. The predictions can assist recruiters in determining which areas of the recruitment pipeline they need to focus their efforts on while providing estimated turnaround times to hiring managers and executives.

Finally, in Greenhouse Recruiting Advanced or Expert subscription tiers, users can create and save unique reports through Greenhouse’s Report Builder. Through custom columns and filters, recruiters can build reports to answer more specific questions to their organization, such as analyzing recruiting efforts between particular office locations.

Which to choose for interview management

Greenhouse. Here’s why: Greenhouse offers more customizable reporting features and basic predictive analytics across its subscription tiers than Lever. With the combination of dashboards and essential reports, HR teams of all sizes can benefit from robust reporting capabilities without having to purchase more expensive subscription tiers or add-ons.

DE&I and bias eliminators

Lever and Greenhouse each include specific elements, such as report analytics and DE&I dashboards, to assess DE&I strategies during the hiring process. However, where Lever primarily focuses on its reporting and analytics for employers to draw meaningful insights on DE&I initiatives, Greenhouse makes an effort to include DE&I in several ways, from facilitating structured hiring kick-off meetings before a job opening to candidate-focused communications.

Lever

Lever provides HR teams with various reporting options to facilitate organizational DE&I efforts. For example, HR teams can gain insight into bias in their pay practices by accessing Lever’s EEO or Diversity dashboards to compare compensation based on particular demographics.

Lever users can also take advantage of third-party integrations that modify Lever’s programming and aid in making recruitment unbiased. For example, Unbiasify is a third-party application that integrates with Lever and hides candidate names and faces when sourcing them from websites such as LinkedIn or Twitter. This way, hiring teams can ensure a candidate was sourced based on predetermined job criteria while mitigating bias.

Candidates can also select the pronouns they are most comfortable with when they apply to a job opening. However, Lever users must manually enable this question while setting up their job post’s application; Lever does not make this a standard candidate question during the hiring process.

Diversity surveys

Lever’s Diversity Surveys allows users to collect voluntary and anonymized demographic information from applicants after applying for the job. Unlike EEO surveys, diversity surveys are entirely customizable and intended to help with an organization’s DE&I initiatives. For example, users can create multiple diversity surveys to target specific locations to assess diversity within that area.

Companies with remote workers or sourcing a global talent force can use this data to compare the diversity in their domestic and international locations. Moreover, recruiters can determine which groups are over or underrepresented in certain job positions and take action to fix it.

Greenhouse

Like Lever, Greenhouse integrates with third-party applications, like MeVitae, to anonymize protected characteristics within résumés and CVs. Users can also use Greenhouse’s job ad market to distribute their job posting to underrepresented groups and its candidate surveys and reporting tools to identify inequalities between groups in their recruiting pipeline.

However, instead of limiting DE&I functionality to candidate sourcing tools and reporting, Greenhouse intentionally includes such features in every aspect of its software. For example, before recruiters post a job opening or begin sourcing candidates, Greenhouse encourages hiring teams to participate in structured hiring role kick-off meetings. These meetings define the job’s business objective, identify the skills and qualifications of an ideal candidate, and outline the hiring team’s responsibilities. Greenhouse even provides job kickoff forms to facilitate these discussions.

By outlining the qualifications and experience needed for a role before job posting distribution, hiring teams are less likely to base their hiring decision on things prone to bias, such as intuition.

Candidate-focused features

While Lever users must choose to include a pronoun selection question in their job posting questions, in Greenhouse, this feature comes standard during the interview phase. Additionally, Greenhouse allows candidates to record their name pronunciation when they receive their interview calendar invite.

By offering these candidate-focused features, Greenhouse assists companies in making their DE&I efforts explicit to incoming talent. As a result, companies can promote a positive brand while making candidates feel seen and heard.

Unconscious bias nudges

Another unique callout for Greenhouse is their unconscious bias “nudges.” Users can configure these reminders to appear at various points in the hiring process, such as when creating a job post, reviewing candidate applications, or scoring a candidate after an interview. Nudges remind hiring teams to check their personal biases and to focus on qualifications relevant to the job.

Often, candidates from underrepresented backgrounds may be at a disadvantage when it comes to applications or interviews. Nudges can assist hiring teams in recognizing these circumstances, so they can make hiring decisions that promote the diversity of the overall organization.

Which to choose for DE&I initiatives and bias eliminators?

Greenhouse. Here’s why: Unlike Lever, Greenhouse’s software allows employers to be reactive and proactive in their DE&I efforts. For example, Lever leaves the responsibility to employers to enact candidate pronoun recognition or to take action when reporting reveals inequitable hiring practices. In contrast, Greenhouse’s candidate name pronunciation and unconscious bias nudges remind organizations to be objective in their hiring. They also highlight to candidates the ways the company is striving toward inclusivity.

Lever vs. Greenhouse: Ready to Choose?

Choosing which software is best for your business depends on your hiring goals. If you value efficiency, Lever’s lowest-paying tier comes with many standard automations for teams to source and hire a candidate quickly. If you value a positive candidate experience to promote brand awareness and boost sourcing efforts, choose Greenhouse to include in your HR tech stack.

However, if neither software meets your needs, check out our ATS Software and Recruitment Software guides to browse other solutions.

The post Lever vs Greenhouse Comparison 2023 appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Recruiting and applicant tracking go hand in hand. While recruiting software is an all-encompassing solution that supports all stages of the hiring process, an applicant tracking system (ATS) is a tool often nested within recruiting software. An ATS assists with managing applicants’ data and their progression through the hiring process.

Also read: When to Upgrade Your ATS

With so many recruiting vendors, we’ve compiled a list of hand-picked options. If none of these solutions meet your needs, explore our Recruiting Software Guide to browse other products that might be a better fit.

What is the best recruiting software?

Breezy HR: Best recruiting software for candidate evaluation

Breezy HR is a recruiting platform designed to help small businesses attract, qualify, and hire top talent. Companies have the option of creating a branded career site through the platform or embedding the Breezy Widget into an existing careers page to automatically publish job posts from Breezy to the page.

As applications roll in, Breezy HR offers a variety of features that optimize the candidate evaluation phase of the hiring process because all information about a candidate is gathered in one place. AI helps Breezy HR users determine which candidates are the best fit for an open role to expedite the hiring process. From there, a hiring manager can communicate and schedule an interview with the employee. For internal communication, hiring team members can access candidate profiles to complete scorecards or review an assessment. 

Assessment reviews are otherwise handled automatically. Breezy HR grades assessments and either advances or disqualifies the candidate automatically based on their results. For aspects that require the team’s deliberation, users can compare candidate notes all within the interface. And pre-established scorecard criteria ensure objective, equitable application reviews.

One-way video responses may interfere with objectivity, nevertheless, this and video interviewing in general are features available with Breezy HR. One-way video responses provide candidates another way to introduce themselves and answer screening questions. The remarkable feature of Breezy HR’s native video interview tool is that it displays all candidate info on the screen. This eliminates the need to find tabs and switch screens in the middle of an interview with a candidate. Also noteworthy are the real-time interview notes and interview recordings that automatically save to the candidate profile. Users can also opt to integrate with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or Zoom instead if they prefer. 

Also read: Best Applicant Tracking Systems for Small Businesses

Breezy HR pros and cons 

Breezy HR key features

• Rich contextual data in candidate profiles
• AI-powered Candidate Match score
• Resume parsing

iCIMS: Best recruiting software for candidate communication

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iCIMS’ all-in-one hiring platform does everything from social recruiting and applicant tracking to talent pipelining and onboarding to support aggressive recruiting strategies.

iCIMS’ account-based marketing approach to its marketing automation tools nurtures candidates who are most likely to consider or take a job. iCIMS’ Candidate Relationship Management tool identifies applicants who have engaged with the job ad, career site, or another aspect of the company’s externally facing recruiting efforts. Based on engagement scores, the iCIMS platform sends personalized, automated messages to those candidates to encourage them to apply. The messages are tailored to their preferred mode of communication and the type of content they’ve been accessing. This helps companies better communicate with candidates throughout the recruitment process to keep them more engaged and hire for roles faster. 

Also read: 3 of the Most Important Applicant Tracking Automations

iCMS also helps hiring teams tap into often overlooked talent pools. Its platform leverages rediscovery recruiting, meaning it re-engages candidates who have previously applied, even silver-medal candidates who made the shortlist but ultimately didn’t get an offer previously. It even helps manage communication with previous employees to either re-employ them or to continue tapping into their network for referrals.

Customers don’t necessarily need to commit to iCIMS’ comprehensive solution from the start. Instead, they may opt for just iCIMS Recruit without also buying iCIMS Connect and iCIMS Onboard. iCIMS offers add-on services as well, like the Applicant Tracking System, which can be purchased as a part of the iCIMS Talent Cloud to improve onboarding efficiency. 

iCIMS tools integrate into a company’s existing tech stack. For instance, it integrates with other popular HR solutions like Namely, Peoplesoft, and ADP Workforce Now.

iCIMS pros and cons

iCIMS key features

• Candidate contact via AI chatbot, SMS, or email
• Video on career sites and in job descriptions
• Virtual career fairs

JazzHR: Best recruiting software for small, collaborative hiring teams

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JazzHR is a recruiting software solution that assists with candidate sourcing, tracking, and evaluation. It publishes job posts to free and paid job boards as well as popular social media channels, such as LinkedIn. It has just the right amount of functionality for small businesses, but its top tier delivers enhanced features as a company grows.

JazzHR approaches hiring in a highly collaborative manner. JazzHR’s platform also allows HR to customize individual hiring teams based on the job opening. For example, a sales role would include mostly or entirely sales employees. Team members collaborate directly within the platform to give feedback on candidates and record notes in real time during the interview. Interview notes get stored in the candidate’s profile for later review. 

While Breezy HR and iCIMS deploy AI to score candidates, JazzHR requires hiring team members to cast votes to advance qualified candidates and reject unqualified candidates. Since JazzHR’s candidate evaluation process is collaborative, it won’t be a good fit for high-volume hiring situations. Plus, this collaborative decision-making about who advances could undermine efforts to avoid unconscious bias.

JazzHR pros and cons

JazzHR key features

• Collaborative candidate evaluation
• Document management and storage

Jobvite: Best recruiting software for balancing digital and in-person recruiting

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Jobvite is a feature-rich talent acquisition suite that includes an ATS, built-in video capabilities, and more. Jobvite’s platform enables companies to create branded career sites, manage applicants, and re-engage passive candidates for hard-to-fill positions. Given its AI-powered recruitment marketing tools, Jobvite is comparable to iCIMS. However, Jobvite stands out for its tools that support a hybrid approach to recruiting online as well as in person. 

Jobvite enables recruiters to collect contact information and resumes digitally or in person. Jobvite is not transparent in terms of how it’s able to automate the digital collection of contact information and resumes during an in-person event in particular; its tools therefore still lean heavily on the digital side of recruiting. It also helps recruiters stay proactive and organized via immediate follow-up contact with attendees.

Jobvite dedicates particular attention to recent college graduates and how its tools can help companies attract and engage Gen Z applicants. However, the features to support this approach are rolled into its main recruiting tools explained above. Jobvite is attuned to the needs of Gen Z applicants by emphasizing the timely, targeted, and digital aspects of recruiting. For instance, in advance of an event, Jobvite allows recruiters to reach out to registered attendees and gather more contextual information about them and inform interactions at the upcoming event.

Candidate evaluation and feedback in Jobvite goes through its app, which can be accessed via web browser or a mobile device. Here, hiring team members can submit candidate feedback and evaluation forms and message other team members. As such, Jobvite accommodates hiring teams working on the go or in the office.

Jobvite pros and cons

Jobvite key features

• On-the-go recruiting, digital file tracking for in-person and remote events
• Social recruiting
• Candidate evaluation via web browser or mobile app

Manatal: Best recruiting software for social recruiting

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Manatal is a recruiting software that meets the needs of a company’s HR and recruiting teams but also external hiring partners it may work with.

Manatal’s Vendor Management System facilitates collaboration among a company’s internal recruiters or with a company’s recruiting agency. As such, not only does it target company’s HR teams, but it also addresses recruiting agencies that use Manatal to share recruiting information with their clients.

Manatal helps companies expand their reach and boost visibility to job seekers. Users can share job postings directly from the Manatal-hosted career page to popular social media networks, including Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn. 

Manatal’s integration with social recruiting automatically enriches candidates’ profiles within its system. It scans for publicly available information on social media networks and inserts it into the profile. Manatal even imports a candidate’s LinkedIn profile into the candidate’s profile in Manatal’s database. Both candidate enrichment and the LinkedIn Sourcing Extension are available in all plans. 

Overall Manatal’s recruiting software offers the most value for the money, as many basic and advanced features are included in all plans.

Manatal pros and cons

Manatal key features

• Collaborative hiring portal for companies and their recruiters whether internal or external
• Social recruiting
• Candidate profile enrichment via social media networks

Workable: Best recruiting software for sourcing talent 

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Sourcing talent can be especially difficult for startups and small businesses. These organizations have neither the manpower to put a dedicated recruiter on the job, nor the budgets to hire agencies or purchase expensive recruiting software. Workable helps companies attract, source, evaluate, and hire talent. 

Workable utilities AI to identify, collect, and organize applicants in the pipeline. As with iCIMS, Workable also taps into previous applicants who almost got hired in the past. However, as with JazzHR, it’s on the hiring team to review candidates, assess their fit for the role, and move them forward in the process when using Workable. 

Like Manatal, Workable also pulls information from social media to enrich candidate profiles, but it works through a Chrome extension which still requires the user to find the information in the first place. After sourcing and evaluating candidates, Workable facilitates ongoing communication with candidates via two-way email. With this feature, email correspondence with the candidate are all tracked in Workday and saved to the candidate’s profile. Text communication is available as a premium add-on for an additional way to keep candidates engaged.

Workable’s call-out feature is its user-friendly employee referral portal. Referred candidates cost the company less money, they also speed up the process because they’ve been vetted by current employees, and they’re more likely to stay on board with the company for a longer period than those hired from a job board. 

The employee referral tool is user-friendly for both hiring managers and current employees. The hiring manager just has to send employees the link to the organization’s referrals platform, and Workable takes care of the rest. Employees don’t need special access or to take additional steps. Workable actively includes current employees in the recruiting process by supplying them with easy-to-share, ready-made posts for their professional networks. 

The ability to customize performance rewards in Workable’s referral system gamifies the referral process and incentivizes employee participation in the recruiting process. Employees can track not only their referrals but also monitor and redeem the rewards they accumulate over time, such as money, gift cards, or company swag.

All other solutions enable some kind of employee referral system with varying degrees of analytical oversight. However, they lack the rewards and gamification aspects of Workable’s referral system. 

Workable pros and cons

Workable key features

• Referral management
• AI-powered candidate matching and sourcing
• Talent rediscovery
• Social recruiting
• Internal mobility

Also read: 7 Workable Competitors To Help With Your Hiring Efforts

Zoho Recruit: Best recruiting software for analytics

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Zoho Recruit is a recruitment software solution and all-in-one applicant tracking system (ATS) for reaching, assessing, and hiring qualified applicants. Like Manatal, Zoho Recruiting also addresses the participation of outside vendors like staffing agencies in a company’s hiring process. 

Whether hiring with an internal team or with third-party recruiters, hiring managers using Zoho Recruit connect with qualified applicants. Zoho Recruit’s resume parsing and other AI-powered features helps recruiters identify good-fit applicants and assign them a score.  

Like all other solutions, Zoho Recruit also features reporting and analytics capabilities. However, it stands out with its recruitment forecasts that generate predictive insights based on factors like:

• Past forecast data
• Recruitment ROI
• Competitive analysis
• Economic climate
• Industry trends
• Team performance

Using this information, organizations can plan ahead for their workforce needs against the backdrop of broader economic and industry trends.

Across all compared features, Zoho Recruit is the only one that checks all the boxes. Beside Breezy HR, Zoho Recruit is the only other vendor to offer a free version with basic features like interview scheduling and candidate management. However, if you want employee referrals, social recruiting, and AI candidate matching, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan. Zoho Recruit works best when paired with other Zoho products, but it can sync with third-party software.

Zoho Recruit pros and cons

Zoho Recruit key features

• Recruitment forecasts
• Advanced analytics

How to choose the right recruiting software

All of these vendors offer standard features, such as branded career sites, syndicated job posting, AI functionality, and employee referral tools. 

However, for the best value for the money, we recommend Manatal or Zoho Recruit. In terms of breadth of features, Zoho Recruit offers all the compared features, while Workable offers all the compared features except document management.

If streamlining the hiring process is a priority, look into JazzHR, Jobvite, or Zoho Recruit, as these platforms offer both document management and digital signing. If your company is focused on mitigating bias in the recruitment process, JazzHR, Jobvite, Workable, and Zoho Recruit include anonymized screening.

If sourcing talent is a high-ranking criterion, iCIMS, Jobvite, Workable, and Zoho Recruit all offer ways to hire from within. iCIMS and Workable are a cut above the rest in terms of rediscovering silver-medal candidates that narrowly missed a job offer in the past. 

If none of these vendors meet your needs, check out our Recruiting Software Guide to browse other solutions.

The post The Top Recruiting Tools for Effective Employee Hiring appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

When it comes to hiring top talent, bias, intentional or not, plays a role. Even the most well-intentioned hiring teams are susceptible to unconscious bias, which prevents otherwise sound recruitment strategies from delivering top talent.

Implicit bias might be negatively influencing recruiting strategy. Recruiters and hiring teams might hire people similar to them which leads to a homogenous team where everyone thinks alike and maybe even looks alike. A homogenous workforce hampers business innovation and adaptability because the company won’t be able to identify with and serve the needs of a broad customer base.  

Check out our Recruiting Software Guide to explore software features that help to further reduce hiring bias.

7 ways to avoid unconscious bias when hiring

Left unchecked, bias in hiring leads to a homogenous workforce starved of the very skills and ideas that help a company grow to be more successful. But there’s plenty that a company’s recruiters and hiring managers can do.

1. Educate employees about unconscious bias

It’s hard to address a problem that employees might be unaware of in the first place. The Harvard Business School’s Project Implicit is an eye-opening exercise that helps people recognize and measure their biases. This first step gets everyone on the same page with an understanding of what unconscious bias is. 

Approaching the topic with humility and empathy can help get the message across that everyone carries prejudices and they’re normal to have. HR professionals, chief diversity officers, and consultants can then present unconscious bias training as an opportunity to observe and shape one’s own thought patterns.

Training encourages employees to further explore and challenge their assumptions before they start evaluating candidates and making hiring decisions. Everyone benefits from examining their own implicit bias, especially those involved in hiring. 

Organizations can create their own internal training program, hire a consultant, or use online resources like Google’s unconscious bias training.

2. Diversify hiring teams

Recruiting and hiring is often a team effort, especially for larger organizations. Putting together a panel of contact people at various stages of the applicant’s journey invites different perspectives of the candidate’s ability to succeed in the role. 

Those involved in the hiring process should represent an array of skills, experiences, backgrounds, and seniority levels because the team can evaluate each candidate more holistically. A diverse hiring team sheds insight into how a candidate themselves interacts with different people they meet in the organization.

In addition, each member’s perspective fills what another’s perspective is lacking. For instance, one member of the team might dismiss a candidate because their work experience appears to be unrelated to the role in question. Yet, another team member might then point to the applicant’s transferable skills. 

3. Craft neutral job posts

Being mindful of word choice will help attract more diverse candidates from the get-go. Hiring managers should examine a job description for words that inadvertently bring to mind candidates of a particular gender, age, or ability. Tools like Textio scan job descriptions, flag skewed terms, and suggest more objective phrasing to replace them. 

Gender

Those in charge of drafting job posts can pull a number of small but powerful levers to arrive at more gender parity in the applicant pool. Making small tweaks to the job title, pronouns, character trait wording, and the requirements list can make a difference. 

Before getting to the description itself, gendered job titles can attract or deter certain candidates from applying. Those drafting the job description should carefully examine the job title first to swap out problematic titles like “salesman” for something more gender-neutral, like “salesperson.” In the same vein, replacing gendered pronouns like “she” and “he” with the more neutral “they” will help attract applicants of various genders. It also makes for easier reading, as long as it doesn’t muddle the meaning.

Also, certain words and phrases are culturally coded as feminine — like “collaborative” and “empathetic” — or masculine — like “competitive” or “determined.” As a result, such words actually discourage applicants of some genders or draw a disproportionate number of resumes from candidates of other genders. A more moderate approach that mixes coded words helps strike a gender-neutral balance.

Furthermore, a LinkedIn report reveals that job postings with long lists of requirements will deter women from applying. This is because women tend to apply only to jobs where they meet 100% of the requirements. Men, on the other hand, tend to apply when they meet about 60% of the requirements. Women applicants hold themselves to a higher standard of perfection when browsing job postings.

Also read: Best Practices for Writing the Perfect Job Descriptions

Age 

Characteristics like “dynamic” and “energetic” are not only vaguely related to the role itself, but they also signal to applicants that the company is looking for someone of a particular age group and ability. Choose descriptive traits that more directly speak to the job duties and company values. 

For example, instead of words like “dynamic” or “energetic,” which connote movement and speed, try the adjective “influential” or a verb like “contribute” or “impact.” Pairing these adjectives with nouns makes it even more concrete for applicants reading the job post. 

Ability

Avoid language that can deter individuals with disabilities from applying, especially if such wording is unrelated to the job and if physical aspects of the job can be reasonably accommodated. In fact, employers can proactively mention accommodations in the job description. 

The US Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the Harvard Computer Society Tech for Social Good partnered to create a natural language processing tool that flags job descriptions for ableist language.  

For instance, instead of referring to “standing” for long periods of time, the job description could instead read as “remain in a stationary position.” Or, instead of noting that the candidate would need to “walk from station to station,” expressing it instead as “move from station to station” still gets the idea across without implying how it needs to get done. Another example to consider is whether a data entry role actually requires “typing” data into a spreadsheet, as typing implies hands and fingers. One could also simply “input,” “enter,” or “record” data instead. The Ableist Language Lexicon lists several such terms and alternatives to consider. 

Those that write job descriptions should acknowledge that there are various creative ways to get the work done beyond the typical, embodied ways we describe duties.

Neurodiversity

Hiring managers can revise job descriptions to attract neurotypical and neurodivergent candidates alike. Neurodiversity acknowledges that individuals think, learn, behave, and interact with the world around them in different ways. Neurodivergent individuals contribute out-of-the-box approaches that boost innovation.

To speak to candidates of varying cognitive abilities, use clear, concise language in job postings and avoid sarcasm, metaphors, and idioms. To this end, try to be as specific as possible when putting down “collaborative” or “works well with others” as desired traits. Clearer descriptions of the degree and nature of on-the-job interaction might help ease the social pressure the posting might otherwise imply.

With regards to qualifications, it’s also helpful to clearly segment them into required, preferred, and bonus criteria, so that applicants don’t feel pressured to meet all of them.

Employers can partner with an organization called Neurodiversity in the Workplace to find more tips and engage neurodivergent job seekers.

4. Review resumes blindly

Research shows that even someone’s name or address on a resume raises implicit associations about the job applicant and thus opens the door for bias. 

To review resumes more objectively, a company can invest in resume blinding software or recruiting platforms that conceal names and demographic info during resume reviews to help avoid unconscious bias.

If your current recruiting software or ATS doesn’t assist with reducing hiring bias, it may be time for an upgrade. Fetcher, Greenhouse, Paylocity, Jobvite, Workable, and Workday all have built-in features to support a more equitable hiring process.

Employers should be aware, however, that bias doesn’t end with software implementation. New York City’s AI Bias Law is effective as of January 2023, and other jurisdictions may follow suit. The law requires NYC-based companies to routinely audit their AI-powered hiring tools to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws. So, it’s not enough to implement AI in the recruitment and hiring process; hiring teams and HR have to know how it works, how it’s used, and be able to explain it to external auditors.

Also read at Datamation: Addressing Bias in Artificial Intelligence 

5. Prioritize performance over resumes

Employee referrals, potentially embellished resumes, and name-dropping Ivy League schools increase the chance of recruitment bias and prevent quality talent from rising to the top of the resume stack. Not to mention, they’re not indicators of potential job performance. Discovering diverse talent may therefore require sidelining the resume for a more performance-based approach that includes a small project or test. 

GapJumpers is a blind hiring solution that lets employers screen applicants based on “performance over privilege and pedigree.” Applicants complete a challenge that mimics what they’d do on the job, and the employer gets blind results that conceal that applicant’s age, gender, race, ethnicity, and educational background. 

6. Standardize interview questions

Regardless of whether an applicant applied through a job posting site or was personally referred by the CEO, recruiters should ask them all the same questions. Conducting structured interviews gives each candidate the same opportunity to show their qualifications.

Setting up interview and assessment questions beforehand ensures fairness and apples-to-apples comparisons between candidates. Greenhouse lets HR recruiting teams create “scorecards” prior to the interview process. The team decides on threshold criteria that a candidate has to meet in order to make it to the next phase of the hiring process. A criterion for a managerial role, for instance, might include “demonstrated experience navigating conflict in a team.”

Interview questions should focus solely on the candidate’s work experience and skillset, not on any information that introduces bias, such as questions about family, religion, or any other protected trait. 

After the interview, hiring managers should instruct or remind the team to refrain from discussing candidates with one another before a decision is made. Recruiting software, such as Greenhouse and Breezy HR, provides a private space for note-taking when interviewing a candidate.

7. Determine values fit instead of cultural fit

The criterion of cultural fit as a factor in hiring is highly subjective and therefore introduces bias into the hiring decision. 

Assessing for cultural fit runs the risk of affinity bias which describes the tendency to like people who we perceive to be similar to us. So, while workplace culture is important for some semblance of cohesion, deciding on a candidate based on cultural fit may reproduce the same patterns that lead to hiring employees with similar backgrounds. This only deprives the organization of the diverse skills and experiences needed to thrive.

In the job posting, highlight company values and the characteristics that support them in order to speak to candidates who align with those values. In the interview stage, to get a sense of the candidate’s workplace values, try posing “tell me about a time when” questions or ask the candidate to describe their ideal work environment. Interviewers can take note of how the candidate describes themselves, their behavior, and their co-workers when answering these questions.

Learn how here: How to Select a Diverse Interview Panel and Improve Your Recruitment Strategy

What is unconscious bias in hiring?

Unconscious bias describes the way the human brain makes flash judgments that inform actions and decision-making before one can even stop to think about it. 

In candidate evaluation and hiring decisions, hiring team members might make assumptions about a candidate’s ability to perform or the kind of support they may or may not need as an employee. For example, a hiring manager viewing a female candidate’s resume for an engineering role might unwittingly question her qualification for the role.

What causes unconscious bias in the hiring process?

A range of factors stemming from early childhood influence the way an individual judges someone else. Personal background, socialization, media exposure, and media consumption are but a few key factors that hold sway over how we perceive others.

Less bias means better hiring

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Everyone carries implicit biases that affect their judgment. However, in the context of talent acquisition, failing to recognize and address them means a company misses out on talent that enhances creativity, innovation, and adaptability.  

Mitigating bias in the hiring process creates opportunities to engage a diverse range of talent that ultimately benefits the company in terms of employee morale and satisfaction, innovation, and growth. A deliberate, varied combination of mindfulness techniques, training, and software tools can help recruiting teams reduce bias in their hiring process.

HR and recruiting won’t know if any of the above tactics works unless recruiting metrics are in place to track progress on recruiting goals, such as growth vs. attrition rates, application completion rates, and other indicators.

Check out our Recruiting Software Guide to explore features that help to further reduce hiring bias.

The post 7 Tips to Avoid Unconscious Hiring Bias appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

In addition, current and potential employees want to work long-term where all employees are treated fairly and well regardless of who they are and what they look like. Among job seekers, 76% report that a diverse workforce is important when evaluating employers. More than one-third of job seekers would not apply for a job at a company that lacks diversity in its workforce.

Typical DE&I Initiatives Are Ineffective

The usual diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, such as diversity statements or bias training, are ineffective and don’t bring about lasting organizational change. A recent report from Josh Bersin — a Deloitte corporate research partner — states that around 80% of companies are going through the motions of touting a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Though well-intentioned, companies run the risk of signaling a commitment to DE&I without meaningful actions to back it up. Putting forth a façade of inclusivity sometimes involves tokenism, which hurts minority employees and damages the company’s reputation. Tokenism describes the policy or practice of making only a symbolic effort to increase diversity or otherwise include underrepresented groups.

Alternatively, some companies set goals without holding themselves accountable for their DE&I initiatives. 

Start From Within

If a company wants to make meaningful DE&I changes that will appeal to potential job candidates, the first steps come from within. A company should consider the needs of a diverse workforce before it can actually hire and nurture one.

Active listening

A company’s leadership can learn a lot by listening to and acting on employee concerns about discrimination, harrassment, and complex social issues that impact the workplace. 

Active listening is an effective yet difficult communication skill that leaders should try to master. Active listening means more than just hearing someone’s words; it involves an attempt at understanding someone else’s perspective and the intent behind their words. 

Business leaders that actively listen to employees are eight times more likely to inspire a sense of belonging and 12 times more likely to engage and retain employees. Company leadership should institute routine town hall meetings or forum discussions, not simply as a reactive, ad hoc measure.

Interactive, real-time dialogue is ideal. However, if that’s not feasible, anonymous surveys are another way to collect valuable employee feedback. Use employee engagement software such as 15Five, Assembly, Culture Amp, or Leapsome to understand what employees care about. 

While surveys are a step in the right direction, it’s even more important for a company to act on that feedback to establish trust between leaders and employees.

Leadership development

A company’s leadership is a huge determinant of company culture, yet 75% of companies lack DE&I elements in their leadership development programs. By implementing a bottom-up approach, leaders can learn about and focus on what employees care about most. Then they have a better understanding of how they can act on employee concerns.

Leaders should also work in conjunction with HR to develop and implement DE&I initiatives. 40% of companies view DE&I as an HR-led and HR-enforced compliance initiative that prevents litigation or negative press for the company, but DE&I isn’t solely HR’s responsibility.

Research shows how ill-equipped HR professionals are in understanding DE&I, let alone advocating for it in a corporate setting. Out of 20 HR assessment categories, HR professionals showed the lowest proficiency in DE&I. Though HR plays an integral role in ensuring an equitable workplace, it’s everyone’s responsibility.

Business strategy and goals

Any company that’s serious about championing DE&I makes it a constitutive part of its business strategy. In fact, high-performing organizations are 10 times more likely to incorporate DE&I into their business strategies. 

To measure progress towards fostering a more inclusive workplace, company-wide goal setting is key. Think beyond quotas to include detailed, meaningful goals, such as:

• Generating X number of ideas from employees in DEI-focused conversations on a recurring basis
• Developing X percentage of the above ideas into concrete action plans as part of company priorities
• Creating X number of career paths for clear talent development pipelines
• Reviewing processes that determine pay and promotion
• Conducting a pay equity audit within a certain timeframe

Lattice, Align, 15Five, Leapsome, Zoho People are all examples of software solutions that help with goal setting and progress monitoring.

Most large companies now disclose diversity data. It’s therefore easy and insightful to also compare a company’s baseline metrics — such as demographic representation in employees and leadership — with those of competitors. Doing so contextualizes and sets more accurate benchmarks for a company’s DE&I efforts. 

Accountability: Announce and act

Goal setting is ineffective unless the company is held accountable at all levels. Be transparent to the entire company as well as job candidates about goals and benchmarks. Doing so signals to employees that the company takes DE&I seriously and that everyone can and should play a role in creating an inclusive workplace.

Institutionalize DE&I into the company’s operations by creating a voluntary DE&I task force in the company. This committee can:

• Establish subtasks that roll up into broader DE&I goals
• Check in with each other routinely to discuss relevant issues and progress toward those goals
• Report updates and goal progress at routine, company-wide meetings

Routine employee surveys can also surface insights as to the company’s effectiveness in cultivating an inclusive workplace. This information should then be used to identify milestones and re-prioritize DE&I goals if needed.

Read more: How to Select a Diverse Interview Panel and Improve Your Recruitment Strategy

Rethink Recruiting and Hiring Strategies

When hiring for a particular role, a hiring team might have a specific educational background, socioeconomic standing, or even gender in mind. 

In tech, for instance, women are still sorely underrepresented, occupying just over a quarter of tech positions. The statistics are even worse for women of color, with only 2%, 3%, and 6% of tech jobs held by Hispanic, Black, and Asian women, respectively. 

Underrepresentation stems from a number of factors. However, one to call out is the lack of support for underrepresented demographics that are interested in but do not have access to training for tech. In addition, unconscious bias in hiring committees may deem unconventional candidates as unqualified for a role.

To cultivate a diverse talent pool for job openings, consider these recruiting and hiring tips to cultivate a more diverse talent pool. 

Build partnerships

Companies should initiate and maintain partnerships with camps or programs that train for their industry. For example, organizations like Black Girls Code and Girls Who Code prepare girls, young women, and non-binary students with the technical skills and experience they need to pursue a career in tech.

Leading tech companies like IBM, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple have partnerships with these organizations because they recognize the need for increased representation of marginalized communities in the tech industry.

Prioritize performance over resume

AI-powered applicant tracking systems usually do a good job of parsing out unqualified candidates from the applicant pool. As useful as these tools are, not all talent can be captured in a resume. GapJumpers is a blind hiring solution that lets employers screen applicants based on “performance over privilege and pedigree.”

Post job ads beyond conventional boards

Look beyond conventional job boards to reach underrepresented talent. Breezy HR enables employers to post jobs to premium, DEI-focused job site partners, such as Apres, Circa Network, and Disability Connect, to name a few.

ZipRecruiter also syndicates job ads to a wide network of job sites including niche job boards. Veteran’s Job Exchange or Seniors Flourish, for example, help employers connect with applicants that may be harder to reach on conventional job boards.  

Specialized recruiting platforms help companies reach diverse talent as well. Door of Clubs is a recruiting platform that helps employers find up-and-coming talented leaders at colleges and universities. Entelo’s recruiting platform helps companies discover and hire candidates from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds.

Use software tools that help mitigate bias in screening and interviewing

Implicit biases might be negatively influencing recruiting strategy. Hiring team members might make assumptions about a candidate’s ability to perform or the kind of support they may or may not need as an employee.

Recruiting platforms such as Fetcher, Greenhouse, Paylocity, and Workday have built-in features to support a more equitable hiring process, such as:

• Masking identifying information like names or addresses in the resume evaluation stage
• Setting up interview questions beforehand to ensure fair interviewing

Diversity and Inclusion Is a Journey, Not a Destination

Attracting candidates from a range of backgrounds doesn’t mean that those individuals will feel a sense of belonging in the organization. Incorporating DE&I into the company strategy and culture sets it up for success in hiring and retaining employees of various identities, orientations, and abilities. 

A number of software categories on the market today help make a company’s DE&I vision and goals a reality. Employee engagement software sets up avenues of communication about the direction and effectiveness of a company’s DE&I work. Performance management software keeps companies accountable to their DE&I goals, and recruiting platforms include features that help employers cultivate a more diversified workforce.

The post Strategies for Cultivating a Diverse Talent Pool appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Gen Z is the name for those born between 1997 and 2012. As such, they make up the youngest members of today’s labor market. 

As with any generation, Gen Z has certain expectations when it comes to the workplace. 

Read more: The Great Resignation and What Your Company Can Do to Retain Employees

7 Things Gen Z Employees Value in the Workplace

Gen Zers know what they want and are willing to switch jobs to get it. According to Randstad’s 2022 Workmonitor report, 70% of Gen Z workers are open to new job opportunities that come along, and nearly one-third of them are actively looking for a different job. Companies, therefore, stand to benefit from considering Gen Z values and identifying ways to adapt to their needs in a way that doesn’t neglect other generations represented in the workforce.

The following values are a good starting point:

1. Meaningful work
2. Inclusive company culture
3. Growth opportunities
4. Stability and balance
5. Collaboration and autonomy
6. Cutting-edge tech
7. Short application process

1. Meaningful work

Climate change, extreme wealth inequality, mass shootings, threats from AI, and more have made their mark on Gen Z and will continue to influence their thinking and actions. It should come as no surprise, then, to discover that making a difference is important to Gen Z.

“My goal has and will continue to be prioritizing the concept of working for purpose,” says Gen Zer Dillon Joshua Bernard, a multimedia producer and digital strategist in New York City. “I made a promise to myself that, as much as I can control it, each role I have must match my larger vision to create impact.”

The Randstad research found that 42% of Gen Z workers would even take a pay cut if it meant working a job that makes a difference in the world, and 49% would not accept a job at a company that does not align with their values. This data indicates how important corporate and social responsibility is to Gen Z.

What companies can do

Community outreach: Companies should get involved in community service initiatives and make social responsibility part of the culture. There are business benefits to investing in community outreach, but it also signals to prospective Gen Z employees that their role at the company would serve a greater purpose.

Live out company values: Showcase company culture and values at every recruiting touchpoint to show potential job candidates that the company walks the walk when it comes to what it values most. This means using employee testimonials, releasing short videos on social media, or publicizing high eNP survey results and awards such as the Best Place to Work. 

2. Inclusive company culture

Gen Z has been shaped by conversations surrounding gender inclusivity, racial justice, gay marriage, and other social issues. They’re also the most ethnically diverse generation, with nearly half identifying as non-white. So, it’s no surprise that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are important to this generation. 

More than two-thirds of surveyed Gen Z job seekers would “absolutely” be more likely to apply for a job where diversity and inclusion are championed in the company’s culture. Conversely, 48% would reject an offer from a company that either takes no stance on diversity and inclusion or espouses one that isn’t congruent with the Gen Z candidate’s values.

What companies can do

Hold themselves accountable to DE&I KPIs: A company not only needs to make the values of diversity and inclusion part of its culture and practices. It also needs to be able to point to metrics to show that the company is making progress on becoming a more inclusive workplace. In those areas where it misses the mark, a company that takes diversity and inclusion seriously will commit to continuous improvement and establish an appropriate action plan.  

3. Growth opportunities

Finding a job that aligns with their personal values is important to members of Gen Z, says Ciara Van De Velde, client engagement manager at Employment BOOST in Troy, Michigan. But members of Gen Z also want companies to invest in them.

“[Gen Zers] want to be in a position where they feel like they are challenged and continuously developing new skills while utilizing their current ones,” Ciara says. They go on to add that Gen Z employees want to develop to their fullest potential.

What companies can do

Establish a mentoring program: Companies should set up a mentoring program to maximize Gen Z employee growth. Mentoring software, such as Together Mentoring Software and mentorcliQ, matches up employees based on work experience and professional goals. Additionally, reverse mentoring is a great way to show Gen Z employees that their contributions are valued in the workplace.

Invest in learning and development: Give Gen Zers the opportunity to expand their skill set by shadowing another employee, offering courses through the company’s learning management system (LMS), or reimbursing for Coursera or EdX courses.

Read more: How HR Can Implement Education that Supports All Employee Types

4. Stability and balance

Gen Z workers value stability in their work, which makes sense, considering Gen Zers were children or teenagers at the height of the Great Recession in 2008. More than half of Gen Z workers would quit a job if it was preventing them from enjoying life.

Chris Chancey is the founder of Amplio Recruiting in Atlanta, Georgia. He spends a lot of time working with Gen Z workers, and he says this generation is not afraid to negotiate a good compensation package, including benefits to achieve stability.

“They are looking for perks that will make their lives stable,” Chris says, “so they value things like healthcare benefits and, more importantly, opportunities for professional development with the aim of landing their dream job in the shortest time possible.”

Bea Tanese, a Gen Zer and public relations specialist at ShipMonk in Deerfield Beach, Florida, also expressed that a job should offer not only stability but also work-life balance.

“Balance really is everything,” Bea says. “While it’s nice to feel a sense of purpose through a job, I think this sense of purpose can come from many different areas of your life as well. A job is important because it provides us with financial security, which, along with other factors, make or break our quality of life.”

What companies can do

Stay competitive with salary and benefits packages: Offering remote work, pet insurance, tuition reimbursement, or student loan payment assistance are just a few options to get Gen Z’s attention in the competitive labor market.

Also Read: What is Passive Recruiting?

Prevent employee burnout: Employers can proactively address burnout via performance management software and employee engagement tools. Offering days off for mental health and reimbursements for meditation apps and gym subscriptions go a long way to relieving employee stress as well.

Read more: Using Performance Management Software to Combat Burnout

5. Collaboration and autonomy

Gen Zers value collaboration as a means to learn from others and work with those of various backgrounds and experiences. 

“I value collaboration in a job,” says Stefanie Brown, a member of Gen Z and a production coordinator at Crowd Content Media in Victoria, British Columbia. “When a variety of knowledge and skills are pooled together, whether that be virtually or in person, working towards a project or a goal allows for so much opportunity to learn new things from one another.”

At the same time, Gen Z also values their autonomy in figuring out what work styles maximize their productivity.

“Collaborating with others is important,” says Bea Tanese, “but most of the time, I prefer to do my work independently. I like coming into work, but I find that working remotely can be even more productive for me, as I have fewer distractions.”

Employers need to get their Gen Z employees involved in team projects to show they value Gen Zers’ contributions, while also giving them space to grow as individuals. Performance management software is key to assessing and encouraging that growth. 

What companies can do 

Adopt the right tools: Employee engagement and collaboration tools help keep all employees connected and engaged, especially in distributed workforces.

Focus on outcomes and leave the process to the employee: Offer employees options to work remotely, hybrid, or in the office, and track their performance with performance management software in case any course correction is necessary. 

6. Cutting-edge tech

Both Millennials and Gen Z grew up with the internet and cell phones, but while most Millennials were introduced to the digital world via desktop computers and flip phones, members of Gen Z were introduced via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Nearly all Gen Zers own a cellphone, and 83% own a laptop.

This means members of Gen Z grew up in an “always on” environment and that they have high expectations for technology. Four out of every five Gen Z members surveyed want to work with cutting-edge technology, and 91% say that the company’s technology influences whether they’ll accept a job offer. 

Companies should therefore invest in the best technology to attract younger talent. Dusty Doddridge, director of the Career Development Center at Middle Tennessee State University, oversees a lot of student workers from Gen Z, and he witnessed firsthand how investing in technology made a difference for his staff.

“Our office invested in more laptops this year, and our staff have responded well to that,” Dusty says. “Not only has this created more collaboration within the office, but it makes it easier to work from home when that might be the best or only option.”

What companies can do

Invest in user-friendly cloud-based technology: Laptops are a great place to start. However, depending on the company and the Gen Z member’s role, an organization’s app and device ecosystem should be able to accommodate a range of devices.

Many Gen Z workers cite software such as Google Drive, Slack, Skype, Salesforce, and Trello as invaluable tools for collaboration. Hardware such as tablets for easily reserving and checking into conference rooms and TV-mounted video conferencing equipment are worthwhile investments as well.

Cloud-based, user-friendly software with mobile access will delight not only Gen Zers but probably everyone else in the organization as well because they can perform work tasks when and where it’s most convenient.

Read more: The ‘New’ Employee Experience: How IT and Technology Can Help

7. Short application process

Gen Z is less likely to spend an hour or more on a job application. These applicants don’t want to deal with an application portal that requires them to fill in dozens of fields and upload their resumes, only to have them manually enter the information from their resumes into the portal. 

As such, hiring teams may be inadvertently turning away qualified candidates if their application process is too lengthy.

What companies can do

Make it easy for top talent to apply: Market-leading applicant tracking systems such as Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters, and Jobvite offer easy and fast applicant portals that allow companies to keep applicants engaged throughout the screening and hiring process so that applicants don’t move on before submitting their application. 

Plus, most applicant tracking systems let companies syndicate job postings across a number of different job board websites like Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn. This helps cover all bases so that companies don’t miss the perfect candidate by forgetting to post on one or two job boards.

Also read: Why Modern Recruitment Goes Past the Resume

Is Your Organization Ready for the Next Generation of Workers?

In the current labor market, it’s worthwhile to explore what the next generation of employees wants from its employers. Otherwise, employers risk losing out on the competitive talent market. 

Gen Z employees stay at their jobs for two years on average, and more than a third intend to stay at their job for more than four years. So if your company gets it right, your youngest employees will show up and contribute. 

Take the insights above into account when assessing current and aspirational workplace culture and values, as successful recruiting and retention will depend on it.

Yet, it won’t be enough to cultivate an attractive culture that appeals to Gen Z. Tools that enable the youngest generation to perform at its best, such as employee engagement software and mentoring software, will increase a company’s chances of recruiting and retention success.

Read next: Workplace Trends for Employers to Consider

Top Applicant Tracking Software Recommendations

The post Gen Z Values and How Companies Can Prepare for the Workplace of the Future appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

The recruitment process is an integral part of running any business. Whether you are a small business owner, a hiring manager, an HR professional, or the CEO of a large company, you will have to recruit at some point in your career. However, the most successful recruitment strategies and recruiting software depend on your business’s unique needs and the type of candidate you’re trying to hire.

What are the most successful recruiting strategies?

The top recruiting strategies to attract and hire quality candidates include:

1. Develop a clear employer brand
2. Create job posts that reflect your company
3. Invest in an applicant tracking system
4. Use social media to target talent
5. Explore niche job boards
6. Pay to boost job listings
7. Revisit old resumes
8. Consider college recruiting
9. Attend industry events and job fairs
10. Engage passive candidates
11. Conduct effective interviews
12. Consider an employee referral program

1. Develop a clear employer brand

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Your company brand isn’t just important for reaching potential customers; it’s also a key element of any effective recruitment strategy. Your employer brand is what will set you apart from other hiring companies and show job candidates why they should work for you. Employer branding should reflect your business’s mission, culture, and values.

When developing your hiring materials, think about questions such as:

• Why would someone want to work for this company?
• Does your company support a diverse workforce?
• What percentage of your current employees would recommend your company as a great place to work?

Once you have answers to these questions, check that your business’s “about” page, social media profiles, and advertisements align with your branding and recruitment plan.

2. Create job posts that reflect your company

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Writing a clear, thorough, and concise job post is both an art and a science. Since your job post is one of the first impressions the candidate will have, it’s an early opportunity to establish a reputation for being organized and professional while still showing off your company culture and the qualities that set it apart.

This creative recruitment strategy will help you acquire a higher volume of qualified candidates who are best suited to the role. Then do a final editing pass to confirm that your job descriptions are aligned with your company’s branding — such as color, typography, and logo — to convey professionalism.

Read more: Best Practices for Writing the Perfect Job Description

3. Invest in an applicant tracking system

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You can save your hiring managers time and your company money — not to mention speed up the recruitment process — by investing in an applicant tracking system (ATS). An ATS is a software tool that automates the process of posting jobs and finding qualified applicants. This often includes one-click job posting to multiple sites, applicant sorting, interview scheduling, automated onboarding, and more.

Some ATS features are built into a comprehensive HR software suite, such as BambooHR. However, you can also find standalone ATS options like JazzHR if you only need an ATS or need to take your applicant tracking capabilities to the next level. 

Also read: Best Applicant Tracking Systems

4. Use social media to target talent

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Social media recruiting involves leveraging social media to source talent, advertise jobs, and communicate with potential candidates. Many brands have been successful in finding quality talent on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Be sure to create a presence on the channels that make the most sense for your company.

It’s also important to focus on sharing content that reflects your company’s values. For example, if your company values philanthropy, share photos or videos of a recent successful philanthropy campaign that your organization spearheaded. Current employees may also share company-branded messages about job vacancies on their social media networks, which will then reach people in their network who may be looking for jobs.

Also read: 7 Ways to Build A Strong Social Media Recruiting Presence

5. Explore niche job boards

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Depending on what job you are hiring for, it may be difficult to find talent on one of the many large job market sites. If your company falls into a smaller, more defined category, try looking into recruitment marketing on niche job boards. These are smaller job sites devoted to a specific niche industry and often have a community of job seekers and recruiters.

You can find job boards that are specific to industries like retail and construction, and there are others that focus on increasing visibility for women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ applicants, and other marginalized groups. Posting to these job boards helps cultivate a diverse talent pool and reach prospective employees who may not otherwise see your job opening.

Choosing an ATS with lots of job board integrations can make it easier to find and post to these specific job boards, speeding up the recruiting process. For instance, recruiters can connect Greenhouse to more than 1,000 free and paid job boards to widely promote job openings with just a few clicks.

6. Pay to boost job postings

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Paying to boost or “sponsor” your job postings can be an effective way to increase the number of qualified applicants who see your job openings. This may not be necessary on niche jobs with fewer entries, but it can be very helpful for more popular job boards such as Indeed and LinkedIn, where your job opening will immediately get pushed down by the sheer number of other posts.

If you have the extra budget, you might also find it helpful to pay for ads on social media sites as part of your hiring process. If you pay for ads, you can target profiles that match the candidate personas you are trying to reach, which can increase the quality of applicants that make it through the pipeline

Also read: 8 Best Job Listing Sites for Employers

7. Revisit old resumes

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Just because a candidate wasn’t the right fit for one role in the past doesn’t mean that they won’t be perfect for a different job opening in the future. If you’ve been using an ATS for a while, your hiring team should have a big database of resumes from past talent. They can search through these resumes using keywords and screening rules to find candidates who are qualified for your current openings even if they weren’t a good fit in the past.

8. Consider college recruiting

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College campus recruiting can help you discover emerging professionals in a particular industry, while also aligning your company with internship hiring opportunities and campus connections. You can recruit from colleges in many ways, including attending career fairs or job fairs, volunteering to speak at events for your industry, and being featured on campus online job boards.

9. Attend industry events and job fairs

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Attending local career events and job fairs can connect your company with job candidates from a wider range of backgrounds. If your local area doesn’t already have these events in place, then offering to host them can also connect you to fellow businesses in the area as well. An ATS with a mobile hiring app makes it easier to add candidate information and upload resumes onsite, so recruiters can move prospective candidates through the hiring process as quickly as possible.

10. Engage passive candidates

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Passive candidates are people who are currently employed and not actively looking for a job. Engaging in passive recruiting involves personally reaching out to them, and it should definitely be one of your company’s recruitment methods. Doing so shows that you are truly interested in their talent and will be sure to grab their attention.

Using social media and personal connections will help you identify potential candidates as well as raise awareness for your company. Some ATS also harness the power of machine learning to help your talent acquisition team quickly find passive candidates who are qualified for open roles. For instance, Zoho Recruit has a “Source Boosters” feature to help recruiters identify promising candidate profiles.

Also read: 4 Ways to Recruit Passive Candidates

11. Conduct effective interviews

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It’s important to remember that the interview process is a two-way street. While you are interviewing your candidate, they are also interviewing you. Whether you are meeting remotely or in person, be sure to make it comfortable and low-stress to create a positive candidate experience. Remember that you are looking for both values alignment as well as professional qualifications.

When interviewing candidates, be aware of unconscious hiring bias that might lead your HR team to unfairly overlook an otherwise qualified candidate. Standardizing interview questions and having an objective rating system will help your team to avoid this unconscious bias when making your final job offer selections.

Also read: 7 Tips to Avoid Unconscious Hiring Bias

12. Consider an employee referral program

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Employee referral programs allow existing employees to refer qualified candidates for open positions within your business. These programs usually offer rewards such as gift cards or cash bonuses to encourage employee participation. Some ATS platforms, such as Workable, come with an employee referral tool built into the system to make it easy to gather employee referrals and reward them for their recommendations.

Employee referral programs help source pre-vetted candidates with minimal effort from the recruiting team. Referral programs also often improve the most important recruiting metrics, including time to hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, and retention rate. 

However, referral programs can sometimes impede DEI efforts if employees are only referring candidates who are from a similar demographic or background. To promote diversity in the referral program, it may be beneficial to increase the reward value for referrals who are from an underrepresented group.

What’s the best recruiting tool for your hiring process?

In addition to implementing effective recruitment strategies, recruiting software can help at every stage of the hiring process, including posting job descriptions, emailing candidates, and sorting through resumes. Recruiting tools also help to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up your talent acquisition team to spend their time and effort on more valuable activities like conducting interviews and sourcing new talent.

To find the best solution for your business, explore top vendors in our HR Software Guide, ATS Software Guide, and Recruiting Software Guide.

The post Recruitment Strategies for 2023: How to Prepare for the Future appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Workers’ willingness to switch jobs, when paired with a widespread shortage of talent, means that relying on incoming applications alone will not suffice. If companies are to remain competitive and attract top talent, they must also engage in passive recruiting.

What Is Passive Recruiting?

Passive recruiting is a persistent and proactive approach to talent acquisition. A company’s HR professionals, and even other employees, passively recruit by seeking out qualified, already-employed professionals and building rapport with them. Fostering these professional relationships generates a network of talent for the company to tap into.

Unlike active recruiting, passive recruiting isn’t necessarily about filling a current vacancy. Rather, it’s a long-term strategy to stay in touch with passive candidates and keep them engaged until a job opening opens at the company.

Passive recruiting isn’t just for HR professionals, either. Anyone in the company can passively recruit, even inadvertently. Let’s dive into some examples of how passive recruiting happens, who passively recruits, and what it looks like in action.

Read more: Why Your Company Needs Passive Recruiting in 2022

How Passive Recruiting Happens

Before the pandemic, trade conferences and other professional in-person events were incubators for networking and collaboration. Professionals who meet others in their field at these events reap benefits for their own careers, such as getting hired. But companies benefit from having employees present at these events, as well.

In-person events are slowly starting to make a comeback. However, especially since the pandemic, LinkedIn has become the most likely place to see passive recruiting in action because it’s the largest professional networking site.

Also read: 3 Ways to Leverage Community-Based Marketing on LinkedIn

Who Conducts Passive Recruiting?

Anyone in the organization can partake in passive recruiting tactics. Let’s explore how. Passive recruiting tactics sometimes happen organically as professionals interact with one another virtually and in person. It’s not as hard as you might think.

A simple, yet thoughtful gesture to build and maintain a relationship with passive candidates is to send occasional messages. For example, anyone from your company who networks with a passive candidate could wish them a happy birthday, congratulate them on a work anniversary, or pass on a news article that is of interest to the passive candidate’s profession.

Occasional notes not only show goodwill towards the professional, but also keep your company on their radar as a place they might like to work in the future.

Your message’s delivery depends on social intelligence and being able to gauge how the recipient will perceive your message. You can send a note via private message on LinkedIn, post it on their LinkedIn profile wall, or even send a handwritten note.

The manner of delivery will depend on the duration and nature of the professional relationship. For instance, if an employee at your company met another professional in the field at an in-person conference and got along very well from the start, a handwritten thank-you note within a couple weeks of the event will likely be well-received.

In contrast, sending a handwritten note to a professional that you cold-connected with on LinkedIn will, at best, get no response. At worst, it could reflect negatively on your organization.

Though anyone in your company can passively recruit, there are some role-specific ways that different members contribute:

• HR professionals send automated, yet personalized messages to qualified candidates about the company, its benefits, and any potential openings.
• Current employees network at events, refer from their professional networks, and advertise on LinkedIn what they love about their employer.
• Marketing teams organize webinars or conferences with professionals outside of the organization in order to achieve mutual business goals and establish both hosts and invited guests as thought leaders in the field.
• CEOs can extend personal invitations to connect and chat on LinkedIn with top talent acquaintances in their professional network.

In short, passive recruiting happens organically when employees across the organization are active in their profession and just all-around nice people. This reflects positively on your company.

Passive recruiting requires tact, authenticity, and high social and emotional intelligence from those who do it. Because of that, passive recruiting actually starts internally with a thriving workplace culture held up by talented, valued, and active professionals.

Attracting and retaining talented professionals who rave about your company and help others has a compounding effect. It builds up a network of passive candidates who not only know of your company, but are already fond of it.

Read next: 4 Ways to Recruit Passive Candidates

The post What Is Passive Recruiting? appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Bringing your recruiting in-house takes some upfront work, but many large and growing teams find that the benefits are worth it. Here is what you need to know about getting started with your own internal recruitment team.

Read more: 8 Employee Recruitment Strategies to Improve Your Hiring Process

Why Have an Internal Recruitment Team?

If you don’t currently have an internal recruitment team, then you are probably wondering what difference having one would make to your company. For starters, it keeps other employees from spending valuable time on recruiting. For example, it’s common in startups for CEOs or other high-value employees to devote a lot of their time to recruiting, which quickly becomes unsustainable.

Having an internal recruitment process will give your company the people power it needs to hire big and fast during a growth spurt, which is especially important for startups that are taking off. Moving things in-house may also save your business money if you are currently paying an outside agency thousands of dollars a month to recruit for you.

Internal recruiting teams make it easier to find highly specialized talent because the team already knows the ins and outs of your business. This contrasts with outside recruitment agencies, which usually work on multiple different clients at once, so you have to take more time to bring them up to speed on your hiring needs.

In fact, staffing agencies can sometimes even waste your time and money by bringing in a bunch of candidates that don’t really fit your needs. Having an internal recruitment team prevents this problem.

Internal Recruiting Team Roles

An internal recruitment team structure varies depending on the size of the company, your hiring needs, and your budget to staff the various positions. Here are nine positions and titles, along with brief job descriptions, that you need to be familiar with:

• Recruiter: This is a catch-all position that handles all steps of the recruiting process, from sourcing to hiring. It’s common in smaller teams where you need a jack-of-all-trades.
• Sourcer: This role is dedicated solely to sourcing candidates. It’s common in larger teams and high turnover companies when they need to do a lot of sourcing.
• Recruitment Coordinator: This entry-level role assists recruiters and sourcers in posting job listings, scheduling meetings, etc.
• Technical Recruiter: This type of recruiter specializes in filling technical roles in software design, engineering, etc. and is common in companies in these industries.
• Campus Recruiter: This type of recruiter specializes in maintaining recruiting relationships with colleges and business schools to fill entry-level roles. They often travel a lot to the schools to participate in job fairs and conduct interviews.
• Executive Recruiter: This type of recruiter specializes in hiring for C-suite level positions. They usually have a bit more experience and seniority because of the expertise needed to headhunt at this level.
• Recruitment Manager or Hiring Manager: This is a more senior to middle manager role that oversees teams of recruiters and sourcers. It’s common on larger teams where there are multiple recruiters who need a manager to coordinate their work.
• Recruitment Marketing Manager: This role oversees marketing efforts specifically for promoting job openings. The marketing manager can act as a liaison between the marketing team and the recruiting team.
• Head of Recruiting and Head of HR: This is a C-suite level position that reports to the CEO and oversees the big-picture strategy of the recruiting team. Bigger companies usually have a separate head of recruiting, but in smaller companies this duty falls under the head of HR. If there is a separate head of recruiting, they may report directly to the head of HR.

Read more on Small Business Computing: 10 Tips for Building a Strong Recruitment Database

How to Build an Internal Recruiting Team

Determine How Big the Team Needs to Be

The first step to building a recruiting team is deciding how many people you need to hire at a particular time. At the very least you’ll need a recruiter and possibly a hiring manager as well. Remember that you can always hire more people later if you need to. You also need to decide whether you will need specialized recruiters (technical, campus, and/or executive) and tailor your team accordingly.

Consider Company Culture and Values

Look for candidates who have the experience you need who also share your company’s culture and values. A good company culture fit is important because the recruiting team will set the tone for all future hires.

Once you’ve made your first recruitment team hires, onboard your new employees and get them oriented to their new job. Choose what metrics you will use to track your recruiting team’s progress and set up the analytics to do that.

Encourage Building Relationships With Other Departments

Encourage the recruiting team to build relationships with the departments they are recruiting for—after all, these relationships and company knowledge are what give internal recruitment teams the edge over outside agencies. You should also take steps to educate your team on recruiting biases and design systems to help guard against this.

Develop Workload and Professional Development Strategies

Distribute the workload fairly and hire more people if needed. Recruiting teams that are stretched thin often lead to bad hires, which has a ripple effect across the whole organization.

Also, make provisions for professional development, and encourage your recruiting team to constantly improve their skills. Continually assess your team’s way of doing things and make adjustments as needed.

Consider Investing in HR Software

In addition to hiring a recruitment team, you might also want to consider investing in HR software that can speed up the sourcing and recruiting processes.

Recruiting AI programs can automate rote processes such as taking notes during interviews to free up your team’s valuable time. There are also many different recruiting software tools that make it easy to post to multiple job boards and review candidate résumés.

If you are ready to find a new recruiting software to supplement your internal recruiting team, browse our software guides or reach out to one of our technology experts to schedule a free consultation.

Read next: Best Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) Software

The post Recruitment Team Job Descriptions & Roles appeared first on TechnologyAdvice.

Articles on passive recruiting cite LinkedIn’s 2015 data reporting that passive candidates make up 70% of the global workforce. More recent research notes that nearly one-third of 700 surveyed professionals said they are considering leaving their job without having a new job lined up. It’s unclear just how much of the current workforce is passive, but it’s safe to assume that given the disruptions ushered in by the pandemic, the number of passive candidates is formidable and justifies a passive recruiting strategy. 54% of companies around the world are reporting a talent shortage, and by 2030 the talent shortage could climb to 85 million. It therefore behooves employers to engage in passive recruiting in addition to active recruiting.

Also Read: Gen Z Values and How Companies Can Prepare for the Workplace of the Future

Virtually anyone in an organization can take part in passive recruiting efforts, from HR to current employees to top leadership. HR can send automated, yet personalized email messages to qualified passive candidates. Current employees can make referrals and advertise what they love about their job or the company. CEOs can extend personal invitations to connect and chat on LinkedIn with top talent acquaintances in their professional network.

Also read: 8 Employee Recruitment Strategies to Improve Your Hiring Process

What is passive recruiting?

Passive recruiting is a proactive approach to talent acquisition that involves building relationships with qualified, already-employed candidates who may be open to a new job. Passive recruiting generates a network of talent for HR to tap into when a job opening arises.

Passive recruiting isn’t urgently transactional, so don’t wait until a vacancy arises to start passively recruiting. Rather, the whole point is to be proactive, whether there is an immediate opening at your company or not. Passive recruiting is a long-term strategy to stay in touch with passive candidates and keep them engaged until a job opening does emerge. This can take the form of sending regular messages, for example, to congratulate them on a work anniversary, wish them a happy birthday, or send along a news article of interest to their field.

How to source passive candidates

Passive candidates are not actively looking for a job, so how does one go about finding them? There are a number of ways to find passive talent:

• Search profiles on LinkedIn
• Consult professional websites and communities
• Browse social media or via search engine
• Gauge willingness to switch with AI-powered predictive analytic tool (i.e. Visage)
• Encourage employee/network referrals

Workable, for example, is a talent acquisition software that has a tool to incentivize employees to refer job candidates from their own networks.

Also read: 4 Ways to Recruit Passive Candidates

How to engage passive candidates

Finding passive candidates is one thing, but initiating contact is another. To build a diverse pool of passive candidates, leverage multiple online touchpoints to engage them. Reach out to candidates on social media, LinkedIn, email, or via phone call, but keep track of which channel you use for which person and how many times you’ve reached out.

In the initial reach-out, leave a brief elevator-pitch-style message describing your company or explaining a specific position and why you believe the individual would be a good addition to the team. Make sure to be specific and as personalized as possible. Canned elevator pitches are ineffective. Close your message in an open-ended way with an invitation to connect.

After contacting the passive candidate, follow up after 1-2 weeks if you don’t get a response. However, if they accept your invitation to chat, make it easy for them to set up an appointment and keep the time options open to accommodate their schedule.

To build rapport, send them targeted content that is relevant to their area of expertise. Doing so will keep your company on their radar and demonstrate goodwill.

When a passive candidate decides to submit an application for an open position, make it as easy as possible for them to apply. Ensure that job postings are mobile-friendly so passive candidates can easily apply on-the-go.

The challenge of passive recruiting and how to address it

Passive recruiting isn’t a breeze, but it’s also not as difficult as one may think. In fact, 99% of job seekers would accept an interview invitation if another employer approached them. The hurdle to move a candidate to another company is not all that formidable, considering how often workers switch jobs over the course of their career. Workers between the ages of 18 and 24 change jobs an average of 5.7 times, while those between 25 and 34 and between 35 and 44 change jobs an average of 2.4 and 2.9 times, respectively. So there is a diminishing return for passive recruiters the longer a passive candidate has been established in their career. However, addressing the usual pain points that motivate a job switch could be a successful strategy to employ.

Diminishing return

A common challenge with passive recruiting is that the more experience a candidate has, the less likely they are to switch jobs. When approaching a passive candidate, address the typical pain points that could persuade them to switch jobs by highlighting what your company can provide them. Besides offering a salary that may be higher than what the passive candidate is currently earning, some of the following reasons to switch may resonate more:

• Generous perks and benefits
• Ample advancement opportunities
• Greater flexibility in the form of remote/hybrid work
• Company culture that values employee work-life balance

Tips for successful passive recruiting campaigns

Below are pro tips to increase the likelihood of successful outcomes for your passive recruiting strategy.

Organizing consistent correspondence

The challenge of passive recruiting is organization. Staying organized in personalized correspondences necessitates an automated recruiting tool that generates and sends reminders to an HR person or personalized messages directly to the candidate at regular intervals.

Celential.ai automatically sends personalized engagement emails to good-fit candidates. Through consistent, personalized contact, your company will be top of mind when a passive candidate or someone in their network is contemplating a job switch.

Making a name for your company

It’s crucial to build up your company’s brand within the industry, especially for SMBs. Part of the branding strategy should include how the company treats its employees because this will attract passive candidates’ attention. Below are some ways to increase awareness and visibility of your company and its culture:

• sponsor or cosponsor community events or local sports teams
• provide volunteer opportunities for employees
• apply for and widely advertise received local and regional HR awards to showcase that your organization is a great place to work
• invest in a social media expert

Also read: Recruiting Challenges Will Be Heightened by Remote Work

Persistence pays off

Passive recruiting requires consistent, long-term effort, but it pays off in the long run if you do it right, which we’ll explain below. Passive candidates that get hired are 120 percent more likely than active candidates to have a positive impact on the company they switch to. In addition, they are 17% less likely than active candidates to need skill development when coming aboard. Passive recruiting thus spares the company time and money for training a new hire.

Your HR team should passively recruit in 2022

It’s hard to find talent these days in a market that favors active and passive job seekers alike. Augment your active recruiting strategy with passive recruiting to generate long-term positive outcomes for your company. It’s not easy, but with the right approach and tools, the common barriers to move passive candidates can be overcome.

Read next: 6 Recruiting Platforms That Help You Source Better Talent

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