Do you remember writing your first resume? I do. I worked with the college career center to create my document. This is when we still had library classes and I don’t remember templates being a thing. I do remember that using good paper was a big deal, which is kind of funny now in this digital world where most of us never see a paper resume. But that’s not my point.
My point is that I mostly remember feeling helpless. I grew up in a family where everyone was a teacher or in the military. They weren’t exactly resume writers and surely didn’t know what corporate America was looking for. They knew how to go up the ranks and get a pension. But that wasn’t for me. Every time I would look for a new job, I went back to this document. I would add to it, edit a little, and try to make myself look good, but really I was operating off of things I found on the internet. I didn’t know how to explain my skills to anyone else — I was just told I was good at a few things and I assumed those people knew what I was good at better than I did. They actually had a job and I was still applying, after all. Back in 2010, just about every headline had something to do with replacing the recruiter with a machine. Everyone wanted recruiting to be automated, with artificial intelligence taking the reins and leaving recruiters behind in the past.
Recruiters were out. Machines were in. And chatbots were born. They were supposed to get smarter as more people interacted with them, popping up to say hello as soon as someone clicked on your website. You could ask them just about anything, and they’d search for keywords in an attempt to answer your questions. But at the end of the day? People prefer people. That’s why people still dial zero for an operator when met with a robot on the other end of a phone call. Have you ever ordered groceries online? I can’t allow that level of trust with a stranger. They aren’t going to compare prices and make sure I get the best deal. They don’t know that I would swap broccoli for green beans, but only if the broccoli is on sale and it doesn’t look like it’s melting in the bottom of the produce stand. I’m a little neurotic about groceries, but that’s not the point.
The pandemic accelerated the creation of shop-for-you apps at places like the grocery store. However, the smart technology is not quite intelligent enough. There are a variety of things that can go wrong when a person completes orders without any context. Katrina Kibben to Keynote Annual National Association for Health Care Recruiting Conference7/12/2021
Katrina to speak on writing better recruiting messages and developing candidate experiences.
Economists like to talk about the job market in terms of employer and candidate markets. The basic difference? The party with more control. In an employer market, as we experienced a year ago after the pandemic, employers have all the power in the world. A ton of people are applying. Companies have their choice of active and passive candidates.
That's not the market we're living in right now. Candidates have the power. Around the world, companies are seeing fewer applications and having more people drop out of the process because they already have an offer in hand. Still, so many hiring managers still believe they’re living in an employer market. They value speed over effectiveness and encourage teams to recycle old tactics to facilitate speed. However, current conditions are unlike any job market recruiters have seen. The “tried and true” job posting templates aren't working anymore — but there are some ways to refresh old these old templates for newfound success. Imagine this. I was sitting in a panel interview for a job. There were three executives and a recruiter seated around the table. I was feeling great. It was my last of three interviews that morning. I was sure if this went well. I was getting an offer this week.
They asked me some standard interview question like, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" At this point, I was feeling terrific about my chances, so I went for the fun answer: “Working for you, Sean.” I smiled. I was expecting a laugh, but that's not what happened next. It was as if the air left the room. I think I heard a mini gasp come from one of the executives. The person I referred to as Sean? Not his name, and he was the kind of person who took that very personally. "It's Steven," he said with a huff. "Shit," I said under my breath. There’s a responsibility for companies to show vs. tell people they are LGBTQ-friendly. The candidate experience is the perfect place to start — and there are three simple areas to do that.
#RecognizeThis – the Workhuman LI Live series where we get real and talk about the good, bad, and ugly as we dive into strategic and pragmatic insights into Creating the Human Workplace where all talent and businesses can thrive. Happy Pride Month! We are highlighting LGBTQIA+ in the workplace today.
I’m thrilled to be joined by Katrina Kibben and Aaron Byrne to get their perspectives on the steps we can take to create more accepting and inclusive workplaces? Specifically, places where our brothers, sisters, and they in the LGBTQIA+ community feel at home. Around 2009, some companies got a great idea that they would create unique job titles. Witty, right? These job titles would be ultra-unique and use hip buzzwords to differentiate their company from another company down the street with the same idea and open requisition.
Katrina spoke with students about the power of storytelling to transform best in class practices into strategies that are best for their unique hiring situation.
|
AuthorThree Ears Media Archives
December 2022
|