Sooner or later, every company needs to hire . People leave and need to be replaced, business grows, and you need to expand, requirements change, and you need new skills and experience. Hiring is a science, but it’s also an art. There’s no one formula you can use to plug in your data and receive viable candidates. You need to craft, to sculpt, to create the perfect job descriptions to attract the candidates you want. To help with this task, we’ve put together this guide. No one gets job descriptions right the first time they try, but you can start at a more advantageous position and work to optimize from there. Start with ideas, tips, and tricks that can help you put together a job description that suits your needs. Move to templates, shells of descriptions you can use as a starting place, to customize to fit your business. Then, examine some of the best job descriptions out there, see why they work, and pull elements you can use in your sourcing. Ideas for Compelling Job Descriptions What are the qualities of a good job description, and how can you include those elements in your job description? The specific elements vary depending on who you ask, but what we’ve observed is that every good description has the following: A summary of what makes the position unique. Why will they enjoy working for you? How does this position help the company, both internally and externally? What makes your company unique? This is a good way to capture the candidate’s attention and make your listing stand out. A compelling job title. This title should convey the role and relative authority level of the position while doing what it can to glamorize the position to make it more attractive to applicants. A summary of responsibilities and expectations. This is a short, high-level overview of the position and its responsibilities. Is it managerial, is it technical, is it manual labor? This answers simple questions and helps applicants self-filter for roles they don’t want. A detailed description of the role and its responsibilities. This is a deeper and more detailed rundown of the open position. It lists the responsibilities and duties of the role in more detail. Tip: One of the biggest mistakes companies make here is trying to cover everything the role could potentially entail. Try to limit this section to the most important duties and avoid over-explaining. Details about the job environment. Is the position considered office work? Outdoor work? Is it located in one place or at several different offices? Is travel required? Should the applicant own a vehicle, or are they required to have any other resources? A granular list of specific responsibilities. This is your traditional list of what the job will entail, usually in a bulleted list format. There will be a lot of overlap with the longer description, but this section is where you get more specific responsibilities. Again, avoid listing everything the role could possibly do; just stick to the most important day-to-day responsibilities. A list of must-have requirements. Education level, experience in a similar role, familiarity with specific industry tools and programs; any requirement that is 100% mandatory to succeed in the role should be listed here. These are your non-negotiable, non-trainable skills, experiences, and knowledge that the applicant must have to be considered. A list of nice-to-have attributes. Anything that would help the candidate succeed in the role but is not 100% necessary can go on this list. If an applicant has some of these qualities, it puts them in the running ahead of someone who does not. These can be attributes like extended experience and familiarity with programs and systems, experience with specific kinds of work, or things you normally train employees to do. Salary information (optional). There are pros and cons of including salary information in your job descriptions; see this article for more details . If your job description covers all of these categories – even if you cover some of them in the same section – you’re in a good place. One of the most crucial tips we can give you is to avoid using too much superlative language. We’ve all seen job descriptions looking for that “rock star developer” or the “tech guru”, but that kind of language could potentially turn off some of your best candidates. It could also hurt diversity. NCWIT, the National Center for Women & Information Technology, has found that over-the-top language like “rock star”, “guru”, “ninja”, “world-class”, and “best of the best” tends to turn off some male applicants, and even more women and minorities. Chris Nicholson, CEO of artificial intelligence company Skymind, says: “Obviously what makes someone a stellar employee at one company isn’t necessarily going to translate to every other company… you’re looking for specific skills, traits, expertise that will fill in where you are lacking. The problem is, most companies are using the wrong ones, and that’s not only hurting them generally, but it also contributes to the lack of diversity and inclusion” Above all, however, your job description needs to be unique for the role. As Marissa Peretz says : “Job descriptions tend to be one size fits all, bland overviews written from the company’s point of view. This approach can be satisfactory for entry-level jobs, but it will not hook passive job seekers at a higher level. For that, a hiring manager and HR partner should spend time together to really understand the business needs so they can write a job description that goes beyond lists of characteristics and requirements. ‘Checkbox’ approaches – which are far too common – lack sizzle. More importantly, they don’t work.” With all of that in mind, it’s important to highlight the reasons that the position you’re offering is exciting and can make a difference, as long as you’re not going too far over the top. This will help you attract qualified individuals who are excited to work for you without obsessing too much over culture fit. Let’s take a look at some examples in this next section. Templates for Great Job Descriptions Templates are a tool, but you need to be very careful in using them. They’re good for getting ideas and for taking the format of existing job descriptions, but you should make sure to fully customize them as much as possible. Taking a template and using it wholesale, with just a few key terms changed to suit your company, is a great way to have your job listing ignored by the best candidates. After all, if you’re not putting in much effort to list your role, what else are you skimping on? To that end, rather than provide you with a few hand-picked templates, we’re going to give you a list of lists; dozens of templates you can browse through to get an idea of what a job description should look like. Take elements of different job descriptions you like, make note of specific turns of phrase that caught your attention, but don’t copy and paste the entire template to use. A Simple Job Description Template from Betterteam – This template is barely a template, but it serves one good purpose: it works as a checklist for specific kinds of information you might want to include. For job requirements, for example, if you have particular physical, certification, or licensure requirements, this checklist can help prevent you from forgetting to list them. Monster’s List of Sample Job Descriptions – This is a list of dozens of templates for job descriptions for specific roles. Monster has processed millions of job descriptions per year and has distilled many of them down to the core qualities each possesses, making this a good resource to see how specific roles might be formatted and what information is typically included. 47 Job Description Templates from TemplateLab – This list of templates is a series of document templates for MS Word or PDF displays. They’re useful to show you how you can format and organize information in your job descriptions, though the specifics of them can vary depending on where you’re posting a job listing. 700+ Free Job Description Templates from Workable – Much like the list from Monster above, this list includes a single basic job description template for over 700 different roles. You can find the specific role – or a similar role – to what you’re hiring for, and review their template to get ideas for what you should be including in your description. Samples of Excellent Job Descriptions Now you have a wealth of templates for different roles, and a broad overview of how to compose a job description, including specifics. Now let’s take a look at some real-world examples of good, compelling job descriptions, and what they do right. CVS Jobs We chose a simple example of an administrative assistant role from CVS for this link, but most of their job descriptions follow the same pattern. They list crucial role information at the top, like the job title and location. Then they cover the simple job description, before digging into the bulleted lists of requirements, responsibilities, and qualifications. What we like: The description is relatively short and sweet. It gets to the point without the fluff. For this part-time role, they also list the approximate weekly hours an applicant can expect. Their overview area does a good job highlighting who CVS is as a company and their dedication to inclusivity. Splitting qualifications into two categories, “Required” and “Preferred”, was also a nice touch and something that you don’t see very often. What we don’t like: There are no benefits or perks listed, even for the higher-paying engineering and managerial positions. The requirements were clearly stated, but the only benefit of working at CVS that we can find from these listings is “staying up to date” with product trends and improving consumer loyalty. They could have done a better job of making these listings a bit more enticing. Aptiv Careers Aptiv is a company making primarily automotive parts with a tech focus on adaptive systems, ranging from self-driving vehicles and AI control to safety and security systems. Their careers page recruits for roles around the world, but is available to applicants from anywhere, as long as they’re willing to relocate. What we like: They do a great job at a high-level overview of what a role is and what it does, followed by more granular descriptions of what a candidate should know, what their experience level should be, and what requirements they should meet. They also did a good job at making their job listing sound exciting and at the cutting edge of technology. What we don’t like: The listings could have done a little better outlining what each specific position would entail. They listed some job duties, but these were a little vague and not as exciting as their mission statement. Working with a team, collaborating, developing, documenting – we would have liked more detail here on the day-to-day operations and what to expect. RGP RGP is a consulting firm that hires extremely talented individuals to consult with their clients to achieve a wide range of goals using high-level analysis, overview, and process changes to improve those client companies. Their hiring portal is focused on different categories of consultants they’re trying to attract, with gateway pages to overview each category before digging into specific open roles. What we like: The self-filtering process helps candidates figure out where they would fit within the organization before they get to specific roles, and gives RGP an opportunity to give a high-level overview of entire categories of open roles without cluttering up specific openings with redundant information. Their specific requirements and responsibilities lists for individual roles are also well formulated, with a minimum of extraneous bullet points. Their core values also give us a good idea of what they come to expect out of their new hires. What we don’t like: The initial filtering process does mean that some qualified candidates will click through to find open positions, only to find no available roles, even if similar roles are open in different categories. There were also part-time positions mixed in with consultant and full-time positions, with no way to filter these. This is more of a concern with their careers portal than the listings themselves, but it’s worth mentioning nevertheless. General Mills General Mills , the cereal company, has a wide range of available positions from production line staff to administrative to retailer outreach and beyond. Their careers page is immediate and allows searching through open roles with several advanced fields. What we like: Their job description pages are up-front about the most important requirements by putting them in bold. The “who we are” section is separated from the role section, so you can tell it’s a general element of all roles for the company rather than specific openings. They also use a tabbed layout to separate the description and responsibilities from the qualifications, making it easy to identify which is which. Also, each role has a dedicated “hero image” to showcase an example of what working in a given role would be like, though as an outsider, it’s difficult to say exactly how representative those images are. What we don’t like: Some of their job descriptions vary wildly in quality. An opening for a factory technician has 400 words of description, while one for a full-stack developer has a single 70-word paragraph, much of which isn’t relevant. It appears as though each individual factory, office, and location General Mills hires for has their own person in charge of writing job listings. We would have liked to see more detail on these shorter listings, especially for listings that require a deeply technical background. Your Turn Writing a compelling job description is a matter of artistry and experience as much as it is knowledge and resources . Using templates can give you a place to start, but you really need intimate knowledge of the company, the role, the culture, and the kinds of people you want to attract if you want to craft the best possible descriptions. That said, we know different companies have different approaches to job listings. Has your company tried any experiments with job listings, or have you, as an applicant, seen any yourself? How did they work? Let us know your experiences below.

One of the foremost challenges in recruiting and hiring is the skill gap between the Human Resources personnel involved in making hiring decisions and the employees hired for technical positions. Some roles, like customer service, sales, and manual labor, do not have a high skill ceiling; this is why they are so frequently identified as “unskilled labor,” though there are skills involved. Other roles, such as mid to upper-level Information Technology, developers, accounting, or skilled trades such as machinists or engineers, are more technical positions. Per Codility : “Technical jobs are most often found within the industries such as IT, engineering, and manufacturing, but they’re not necessarily exclusive to these segments. Technical skill sets are required in a wide range of different organizations, especially in digital-first work environments. Examples of technical jobs might include systems engineers, software developers, machinists, or data scientists.” How do you manage to hire for technical positions when you don’t know what to look for? You can’t expect your hiring managers to be experts in software development, building codes, and everything else all at once. Though technical recruiting focuses on digital and technological skillsets, it can be a valuable process to establish for any skilled position. Enter Technical Hiring Technical hiring is the art and science of hiring skilled employees for highly technical positions. It is a challenge because it requires HR managers and recruiters to accurately and appropriately screen, test, and interview technical candidates. Technical hiring requires the services of a technical recruiter. A technical recruiter is a specialized recruiter: They are capable of developing a technical hiring strategy, from advertising technical positions to interviewing candidates. Technical recruiters contact and work with technical candidates in ways that engage them. They manage  job advertisements and postings  with an eye towards what matters. These focus on what the company needs from a technical hire and what the candidates care about. They assess and interview technical candidates in a way that matters, testing skills and asking relevant and up-to-date questions. Effectively, the technical recruiter is a recruiter who “speaks the language” of the type of candidate the company seeks. They do not need to be jack-of-all-trades recruiters, but rather, they are specialists focusing on a given industry or skill set. They are recruiters in every other way and specialize in recruiting within specific sectors and for particular kinds of roles. Technical recruiters come in three forms. A company such as Google may have specialized technical recruiters for specific areas, for example, someone who can appropriately recruit machine learning and artificial intelligence specialists. These recruiters are kept on staff because the need for new employees with those skills is ever-present. A technical recruiter may be an independent contractor with their own business and connections. A company can contract with the recruiter directly to fill specific open roles within the company. External Firms. Specialized recruiting firms may have broad connections and lists of candidates within their area of expertise and can be hired by a company looking to fill open positions quickly. From the Holloway Guide to Technical Recruiting and Hiring : “The relationship between recruiters and hiring managers is akin to a vendor-client relationship. Teams have hiring needs and make requests, and recruiters take the order and deliver the candidates. This works some of the time, but it takes a partnership between recruiters and hiring managers to be truly successful. The goal is for both parties to be aligned around a common goal, to agree on priorities and expectations, and to be comfortable working together and giving each other feedback. This allows a recruiter to truly understand a hiring manager’s needs, and a hiring manager to understand the complexity and commitment required to hire successfully.” Each option has its pros and cons, depending on available budgets, consistency in hiring needs, and desired volume of hires. How Technical Recruiters Succeed While it might seem like technical recruiters are simply recruiters, they are often significantly more skilled themselves and highly specialized within their areas of expertise. This skill means they are typically more effective and much faster than generalized recruiters. They achieve this proficiency through a variety of techniques, along with experience and training. Just as these recruiters utilize their specific skills, academic professionals often seek the support of partners like Hausarbeiten schreiben lassen to assist with academic writing, ensuring high standards and maintaining academic integrity. Such collaborations are essential for maximizing efficiency in both recruiting and academic environments.  Technical recruiters have reliable sources of information they check regularly.  They specialize in a single industry, so they follow publications and news sources related to that industry. This specialization allows them to keep abreast of any changes in the industry as a whole, in their specific niche, in emerging technologies, and any other relevant updates they should be aware of when recruiting within that industry.  Technical recruiters have at least a moderate understanding of their chosen specialization. A technical recruiter who deals specifically with candidates and companies looking for roles in machine learning will learn enough about machine learning to determine what specifics a client needs and assess a candidate for their ability to fill that specific role. Many, though not all, technical recruiters once worked in their chosen field and thus have first-hand knowledge of the subject. As  BetterTeam  says: “Being familiar with technical jargon and really understanding the differences between terms is the most effective way to source tech talent, write enticing job descriptions, and properly interview tech candidates.”  Technical recruiters use tools, technologies, and assistants to relieve the burden of mundane tasks from their workflow. These tools can be anything from using Zapier to automate simple tasks to hiring a virtual personal assistant to handle everyday email conversations, meeting scheduling, and other organizational tasks. The best technical recruiters tend to be highly skilled and sought-after individuals, and they achieve this by focusing all of their time and energy on areas where they can excel.  Technical recruiters build networks that feed them connections. These networks come in two forms. The first is the candidate network. A technical recruiter might have agents or advertising on university campuses seeking out fresh candidates with modern skills. They might have specialized recruiting websites designed to attract the specific kind of candidate they need to match with their clients. These networks feed them candidates whom they can assess and refer to appropriate roles within the second network. As SocialTalent says : “Recruitment is a competitive industry. Tech recruiting is like recruitment on steroids. Candidates are in high demand and short stock, so being a mediocre recruiter will get you nowhere fast. To hook the cream of the crop, you have to be prepared to go the extra mile. That extra effort means they have to stand out from the crowd. Looking for talent in places that you wouldn’t necessarily think of, reaching out to potential candidates through the channels that they’re most open to hearing from you on, and impressing them with your knowledge of the industry.” The second network is the client network. This network is the group of individuals and connections that lead them to client companies. A client company hires the recruiter to fill roles, and they leverage their candidate network to pull in candidates quickly and successfully. Meanwhile, their satisfied clients, along with advertising, testimonials, and other marketing techniques, allow them to find more clients and grow their services. Both networks feed off one another, and the bigger they each grow, the more successful the recruiter can become at matching the perfect candidate to the ideal role.  Technical recruiters know what candidates in their industry want.  While this might seem like the bare minimum for a recruiter, the truth is, many non-technical recruiters parrot similar job listings, write overly-generalized job posts, or otherwise fail to tailor their recruiting to the needs of the candidates involved. The best technical recruiters understand what their candidates want the most. Is it continuing education? Job stability? A specific salary range? Regardless of what it is, explicitly identifying it and advertising it is crucial for technical recruiters. How to Pick a Great Technical Recruiter Hiring a great technical recruiter to work with, either on a contract basis or as an employee, might seem like it has the same issues as technical recruiting itself. After all, how can you assess a good technical recruiter without knowing the ins and outs of technical recruiting? The truth is, while technical recruiting is indeed a skilled field, it’s much easier for an existing HR manager to understand what they need and how to identify it. Here are some of the keys to picking a great technical recruiter.  Know what you need, in generalities.  You know what role you have open, in what department, with what team. Talk to the team manager and department to pin down what you want from a candidate to fill that role. This conversation should primarily focus on skills that can be precisely assessed and, of course, are relevant to the position. If your company as a whole focuses on one area, such as software development, finding a tech-focused technical recruiter is a simple choice. This information is relevant data to consider if you need specific experts on narrow aspects of technology, such as enterprise networking, machine learning development, or specific programming languages.  Create a “recruiter profile” to identify candidate recruiters.  Much like  creating candidate profiles  when you want to hire a specific person in a particular role, you can create a recruiter profile for the recruiter you want to contract. Do they need to be familiar with certain aspects of your industry or have connections with specific educational resources or recruiting sites? Know what you want before you start looking for it.  Ask about their experience with similar clients or filling similar roles.  A vital aspect of every hiring decision is asking about the recruiter’s background. This situation is valid whether you’re hiring a software developer or a technical recruiter. Particularly for individual recruiters or recruiting firms, it can be worthwhile to ask to talk to past satisfied clients or candidates who successfully obtained jobs through the recruiter. You want proof that they can be effective at what they do. Consider an Emerge Talent Cloud. Sometimes, finding a recruiter is itself enough of a trial that you want someone else to recruit the recruiter. Hiring an Emerge Talent Cloud  can provide your company with access to skilled technical recruiters in various roles and specialties without needing to go through the entire process for each of them. Be willing to invest.  Skilled technical recruiters are among the best individuals around when it comes to helping a company fill open roles. As such, they tend to know their worth and charge rates accordingly. While budget is always a concern when hiring, this is one decision where you cannot afford to scrimp. You may also need to consider investing in skills assessment platforms and other tools to help both you and your chosen recruiter assess candidates appropriately. Can You Afford Not to Hire a Technical Recruiter? In the fast-paced world of technical, skilled jobs, talented employees are in high demand. Competition is fierce. Indeed, some of the most common advice for qualified employees is to spend no more than a couple of years with any one company before moving on to get paid what they are truly worth. In addition to this practical career strategy, seeking assistance from academic partners, such as bachelorarbeit schreiben lassen, for drafting high-quality academic work can significantly enhance one’s professional portfolio. This support is invaluable for those looking to bolster their credentials and demonstrate comprehensive expertise in their field. Moreover, technical recruiters with a proven track record are also relatively rare. So much so that the general impression of recruiters is that, for technical positions, they do not deliver. Many even believe that AI-enabled applicant tracking systems do a better job! Finding an effective technical recruiter to find the best candidates to fill your open roles is among the best decisions you can make in hiring. The better you can fill positions with appropriate candidates, the less turnover and the more loyalty you will have. When the cost of a bad hire rises, both in money and in time, it’s not a decision you can afford to waste. Power up your recruiting and HR by working with a skilled technical recruiter for each significant industry you need within your organization. It’s well worth the cost. Do you have any questions for a technical recruiter? Please get in touch with me, or leave me a comment in the section below! I’d love to hear from you and get a conversation started.

According to Manpower Group’s Talent Shortage Survey, engineers are one of the top ten careers facing talent shortages. For example, there are seventeen job openings for every electrical engineering candidate looking for a job. Engineering is a broad industry that can be broken down into many more specific fields, such as mechanical, electrical, civil, chemical, nuclear, and aerospace. Finding the right candidate in the appropriate field can be challenging, but you must compete with other organizations to attract top talent. Within each field of engineering, there is a hierarchy of positions based on the responsibilities, skills, and experience of people in this profession. One of the highest-level positions in engineering is that of a principal engineer. What exactly is a principal engineer, and why do you need one? Let’s take a look at everything you need to know. What Is a Principal Engineer? Highly experienced engineers overseeing the entirety of various projects are known as principal engineers. These individuals have quite a bit of experience in their field and are ready to take on a leadership role for other team members. There are many duties that principal engineers are typically responsible for, including: Creating and implementing goals through the use of strategic planning Overseeing and managing every phase of projects Acting as an expert in their particular field of engineering and helping team members with less experience during every stage of a project Hiring team members, training new hires, delegating tasks, and overall acting as a team supervisor Meeting with stakeholders to develop a timeline, negotiate prices, and discuss budgets Engineers almost always specialize in one area of the industry, which means that there are principal engineers in every field of engineering. Depending on your organization’s project, you might need a chemical engineer, a civil engineer, an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer, or one of the many other types of engineers to fill this high-level position. What Qualifications Does a Person Need to Be a Principal Engineer? Considering that principal engineers oversee entire projects and act as leaders to their team, it makes sense that you don’t see many recent grads filling these roles. Let’s look at the education requirements for principal engineers and the skills necessary for an individual to succeed in the role. Education For someone to be qualified as a principal engineer, they will need a bachelor’s degree in their specific engineering field. Depending on the undergraduate program an engineer attended, they may have received hands-on experience, or their learning might have been primarily classroom-based. In some instances, a principal engineer will also have a Master’s degree in addition to a bachelor’s degree. A principal engineer will also be a registered professional engineer (PE) by earning state licensure. While a bachelor’s degree is standard for principal engineers, many more years of experience must be gained before an individual is qualified to perform this role. It’s common for these engineers to have more than a decade of experience in their engineering field. Skills There are several skills that a principal engineer must have to be successful in the role. Some primary skills you’ll want to look for when hiring a principal engineer are: Communication skills : Principal engineers must be highly skilled in verbal and written communication. Every day, they talk to team members and clients. For projects to go smoothly, principal engineers must be able to clearly and concisely communicate their ideas and thoughts, and any tasks they’re delegating. Analytics : Principal engineers are constantly working to improve the systems used to achieve goals and solve problems that pop up. To look at a technical situation and find the most appropriate solution, a principal engineer must be analytical. Subject expertise : It should be no surprise that a principal engineer should be a legitimate expert in their engineering field. After all, they oversee a project’s entirety, including research, development, and design. Anytime anyone has a question about the project, the principal engineer is the person to ask. Project management : There are always a lot of balls in the air when overseeing an entire project, so a principal engineer must be able to juggle all the moving parts at play. For example, they’ll need to stay on top of whether their team is staying under budget, reaching goals, and meeting deadlines. People management : Being a principal engineer also requires that a candidate has the people skills to manage a team. They will need to be able to give guidance, answer questions, delegate work, and work to set and achieve team goals. Principal engineers are truly experts in their field and have developed a well-rounded skill set thanks to their years of experience. While technical skills are essential, a principal engineer won’t be able to fulfill the entirety of their duties without a wide variety of soft skills. If you hire a principal engineer who doesn’t communicate well with others, for example, it could seriously impact the efficiency and productivity of the entire team. If the people working under your engineer don’t feel comfortable asking questions to the principal engineer, you’ll find that the whole project suffers. Finding the right engineer for your organization can be difficult, particularly because of a talent shortage in the industry . While engineers are the people who help to improve the quality of life and transform society through the implementation of ideas into reality, there aren’t enough people entering the field to satisfy the heavy demand. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. will need about one million more STEM professionals than it is projected to produce by 2025. This can be particularly challenging when you’re looking to hire high-level engineers who have been in the industry for some time, as you’ll find that you’re competing with other top-tier companies for their talent. What’s the Difference Between a Principal Engineer and a Senior Engineer? Principal and senior engineers are both roles requiring an engineer to have many years of experience and extensive knowledge in their field. However, while they are both high-level engineering positions, these titles aren’t synonymous. In general, principal engineers are higher in the hierarchy than senior engineers. Even though they both have plenty of experience and are at the top of the field, principal engineers act as leaders in their field and tend to take on more complex and advanced projects. In general, the hierarchy of engineers goes, from lowest to highest, as follows: Staff engineer Senior Staff Engineer Principal engineer Distinguished engineer Staff engineers are one level above senior engineers. They possess core leadership skills, including critical thinking and communication skills, in addition to well-honed technical skills. A senior staff engineer is the next step up the hierarchy, but is still below principal engineers. A distinguished engineer is a position only given to individuals who have achieved outstanding technical achievements. This position is typically held at large organizations; not all companies will have a distinguished engineer. In this role, engineers can strengthen the company by building out their own areas of expertise. If your organization is large, there might be a hierarchy among the principal engineers working for the company. From lowest to highest, the hierarchy typically goes like this: Principal engineer Senior principal engineer Distinguished principal engineer Fellow While senior engineers usually report to their department or division leaders, principal engineers often report their project details and findings directly to senior management. When it comes to impact on the operation of a company, principal engineers have more influence than senior engineers. While senior engineers are highly-skilled and have many years of experience, principal engineers are the next tier of expertise and are often considered one of their industry’s thought leaders. Sometimes, a company might require that any principal engineer they hire has spent several years working as a senior engineer. Why You Need a Principal Engineer When your organization is implementing a project (or many projects) that requires an engineer to oversee the process from start to finish, you’re looking for a principal engineer. These individuals have the technical skills necessary to manage every stage of the project and the essential soft skills for overseeing a team and interacting with clients. Without a principal engineer keeping an eye on the big picture, your projects can run into many expensive problems. Not only will the process be less efficient because there isn’t someone highly qualified to keep a bird’s-eye perspective on the project, but you will also be lacking the vital problem-solving skills that a principal engineer will bring to the table. As you might imagine, finding the right person for the job when searching for a principal engineer is essential. However, there are several reasons why hiring an engineer might be more difficult than you would expect. The reality is that there are more job listings for engineers than people to fill them, so organizations need to offer compelling reasons why engineers should choose their company over the competition. Check out our recent post to learn more about recruiting engineers of all kinds . What Is the Salary For a Principal Engineer? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for engineers was $91,010 in 2016. However, median salaries can vary greatly depending on the specific field of engineering. For example, petroleum engineering is reported to be one of the top-paying occupations in the industry, with workers receiving a median wage in 2020 of $137,330. According to the United States BLS, computer hardware engineering, aerospace, and nuclear engineers are also among the highest-paid engineering industries. When you’re talking about principal engineer salaries, though, you’re discussing high-level employees in a specific engineering field. It’s therefore important to understand the typical salary for principal engineers, not just in engineering as a whole, but within the more precise industry and field. Salary.com says the average salary for a principal engineer in the U.S. is $144,663, with a typical range of $130,288 to $164,892. Estimates for the average starting salary of principal engineers hover around $97,000. However, the range of salaries can vary immensely depending on several factors, including: Education Additional skills Specific field Years of experience Certifications Location According to results from a Zippia.com survey that involved nearly 7,000 resumes, the most popular locations for principal engineers to reside are San Jose, California, and Houston, Texas. Generally, you can expect a higher density of principal engineers in larger urban areas and on the East and West coast. Principal engineers are also in the highest demand in locations like California, Boston, New York City, and Midwestern cities like Chicago. Location is one factor that significantly impacts how much money a principal engineer earns. California has the highest salaries for these high-level engineers, followed by New Mexico, Massachusetts, Texas, and Nevada. In states like Montana, Missouri, and Nebraska, principal engineers tend to have salaries on the lower end of the spectrum. Finding top engineering candidates is difficult, but it’s not impossible. Some useful avenues for recruiting the best of the best include engineering industry trade shows and on-campus recruiting events. Partnering with organizations such as akademische ghostwriter can also enhance your recruitment efforts. These experts assist in academic writing and often collaborate with young engineers to hone their technical writing skills, which are crucial for their professional development. While you likely won’t find your next principal engineer at an on-campus recruiting event, this is a great place to find new engineers as they begin their careers and work towards higher-level engineering positions over time. Do you have any questions about hiring a principal engineer for your organization? Or, perhaps, did you have any questions about recruitment, in general? If so, please feel free to leave a comment down below, and we’ll be sure to get a conversation started about either of the topics! We’re always happy to assist in any way we can when it comes to all things related to recruitment and hiring. Additionally, be sure to check out our blog for further information on all things related to recruiting and hiring for specific industries, and in general! We have a vast catalog of information for you to peruse, and if you have any questions we haven’t answered in this article specifically, we very well may have already answered them in one of our previous posts! If we’ve missed the topic you’d like to know more about, let us know! We’d love to make our catalog as comprehensive as possible!

The ability to think strategically is one of the most sought-after skills for high-level employees.  Surveys of executives show  that 97% of those surveyed cite strategic thinking as one of the top skills they look for when hiring. This fact leaves us with two questions: what is strategic thinking, and how can you look for it when hiring? Defining Strategic Thinking To put it simply, “strategic thinking” is the ability to think on a strategic level. A recursive definition isn’t helpful, though, so let’s dig in further. To quote the Center for Management & Organization Excellence ( CMOE ): “Strategic thinking is simply an intentional and rational thought process that focuses on the analysis of critical factors and variables that will influence the long-term success of a business, a team, or an individual. Strategic thinking includes careful and deliberate anticipation of threats and vulnerabilities to guard against and opportunities to pursue. Ultimately strategic thinking and analysis lead to a clear set of goals, plans, and new ideas required to survive and thrive in a competitive, changing environment. This sort of thinking must account for economic realities, market forces, and available resources. Strategic thinking requires research, analytical thinking, innovation, problem-solving skills, communication and leadership skills, and decisiveness.” This definition drills down to the heart of the matter. Strategic thinking is a focused and intentional process wherein an individual can see a problem not just in the immediate terms but in overall, long-term, top-down perspectives. You can learn strategic thinking, but it may also be inherent. Some people are born or raised in such a way as to develop inherently strategic thought processes. They can look at problems from the top down, see not just the initial problem but the consequences of actions taken, picture a goal they want to achieve, and create solutions that lead them towards that goal, and more importantly, do all of that reflexively. Critically, strategic thinking can be a conscious process, and indeed, those who have learned the art of strategic thinking are often better at it than those who do it intuitively. When you’ve learned to think strategically about a problem, you’re more likely to rationally cover all the bases, thinking on a deeper and more comprehensive level. To be clear, both forms of strategic thinking are acceptable, and both are better as leadership qualities than candidates who don’t think strategically at all or whose “strategic” thought applies only to the surface level of a problem. The Value of Strategic Thinking The ability to view a problem from many angles, propose solutions, and extrapolate the fallout of those solutions is inherently valuable. However, strategic thinkers also bring several specific benefits to their companies and organizations. Overall Perspective. Strategic thinkers can see the “big picture” and foresee problems that might crop up outside their sphere of influence. They can see interrelations and connections between business processes that might not otherwise seem related. Moreover, they can foresee these problems and navigate past them before they become problems. Future Sight. With their perspective and logical point of view, strategic thinkers can predict the future with an often startling degree of accuracy, given the information they have available. They make decisions that benefit their organizations (not just immediately but in the future) when short-term thinkers might decide that trade future success for immediate benefits. Current Value. Strategic thinkers aren’t fixated on the future; they recognize that sometimes, an organization must make potentially harmful decisions to profit in the immediate future, to keep itself going. They can remember when this needs to happen and how to do it in a minimally destructive way. Global Views. Strategic thinkers maintain a level of awareness of their industry, situation, and position that encompasses factors as far-ranging as the other side of the globe. With global communications and supply lines, taking advantage of resources, potential customers, and other attributes worldwide allows anyone to compete on the international stage. Strategic thinkers power this level of competition. Upwards Mobility. Strategic thinkers often stick with an organization and, even if they’re hired at a lower level, tend to make their way into the upper ranks of management and executive leadership positions in relatively short order. Given the opportunity, they can become valuable assets to a firm for years to come. This benefit is also a drawback; however, if a strategic thinker is passed over too often, they are dramatically more likely to jump ship and move to an organization (usually a competitor) that values their abilities. Innovation. Strategic thinkers can synthesize multifaceted perspectives from various situations and identify opportunities for innovation that may be missed otherwise. Strategic thinkers tend to find themselves at the upper levels of management, in executive teams, and as part of the C-suite for their organizations. However, modern companies tend to be “flat” compared to historical organizations, and as such, critical business decisions are often made at the middle levels as much as at the upper levels. Thus, strategic thinkers must be positioned throughout the organization, with open lines of communication to work together for the greater good of the company. One question that frequently comes up is whether you should hire your strategic thinkers or develop them internally. The truth is, developing strategic thinkers from within your organization is difficult, expensive, and prone to failure. Unless existing employees already have some level of skill with strategic thinking, developing the talent is not realistic. Almost every organization looks for strategic thinkers as part of their hiring process, particularly for management and higher-level roles. Methods for Hiring Strategic Thinkers When your goal is to screen your candidates to identify strategic thinkers, you need to adapt your hiring process to fit that goal. Here are eight methods you can implement to help screen candidates, identify strategic thinkers, and evaluate their fit for your organization.  Present Candidates with a Real Problem.  The number one way to identify whether a candidate is a strategic thinker or not is to present them with a real strategic problem and evaluate how they think about it and what solutions they propose. As HBR says : “You can use a real unsolved problem, which has the advantage of providing you with several potential solutions. Or you can use a problem that you’ve already solved, which means you’ll already know the critical steps that they should include in an answer. With either option, you should verbally describe the problem or provide a written description, give the candidate a few minutes to think, and then ask them to walk you through the steps they would take to investigate and resolve the problem.” In some cases, this may even present you with a better solution than the one you already have. There’s no better way to find a valuable strategic thinker than to have one benefit your organization before they’re even hired.  Ask Candidates to Review a Known Flawed Plan. Another excellent way to identify a strategic thinker is to present them with an existing strategic plan and ask them to review it and identify potential flaws in the project. Again, you can go about this in two ways. You can begin with a fake plan that you have inserted errors into, or you can use a real-life program that your business implemented and record any issues you encounter. The first can be difficult because developing a fake strategic plan that doesn’t ring hollow can be tricky, and the flaws end up looking obvious. Meanwhile, using an actual program requires having retained knowledge of older strategic plans and their points of failure, which not every organization does. A combination of the two may often be necessary until you have more real-world data to use as a basis for your interview question.  Ask Questions Looking for Strategic Answers.  While evaluating “in practice” data and solutions is a valuable technique, often you can identify a strategic thinker – or weed out those who lack the capacity for strategic thought – simply by asking strategic-level questions. Questions  such as : When working on a strategic problem within your current firm, how do you identify the relevant stakeholders? Do you have any stakeholders outside of your organization? How do you go about mapping the interdependencies and relationships between different aspects of a strategic problem when developing a solution? What steps have you taken throughout your career (or the past year) to make yourself more of a strategic thinker? These questions help you evaluate the strategic thought a candidate puts into their work and give you insight into their self-awareness. Be aware that some strategic thinkers don’t necessarily put intentional thought into developing their technique. These can still be valuable employees, but they may also have significant blind spots and operate via intuition, which may not be ideal.  Evaluate the Questions Candidates Ask for Strategic Reasoning. When interviewing a candidate, the interview process goes both ways. Traditionally, while you ask most of the questions, candidates will also be allowed to ask their own. They may also ask questions throughout the interview process, for example, asking for clarification or further details when evaluating a strategic plan. To quote  Vocal. Media’s Salvador Lorenz , “The right candidates will ask such questions as about business strategy, or their individual use of strategy in your business. They may even ask you how your company utilizes strategic thinking in its own way, which is an instant portrayal of how close they are to this form of thinking.”  Ask Candidates to Explain Their Thought Processes. One of the difficulties inherent in assessing candidates for strategic thinking is that there’s no right way to think strategically. Different candidates can assess a situation differently and come to the same solution through various means or even an equally good alternative solution. Often, diversity in background and life leads to different modalities of thinking. Thus, one of the best ways to screen for strategic thinking – particularly intentional, strategic thinking – is to ask the candidate to explain how they come to a given strategic solution after asking them to create or evaluate one, as in the methods above. The key is not to look for the “correct” solution or look for the “right” path to a resolution. Instead, the key is to evaluate whether a process is strategic. This method can be challenging and requires that the interviewer be a strategic thinker.  Examine Resumes for Indications of Past Strategic Success. It’s impossible to scan candidate applications, resumes, and cover letters for the phrase “strategic thinking” and call it a day. However, it may be possible to filter initial resumes based on specific keywords that indicate strategic thinking in past roles. ERE Media lists many options: “Strategic goals, multiyear, cross-functional, providing a competitive advantage and increasing profitability and margins. Additional phrases to look for include: more than 1 percent impact on corporate revenue, interdependencies, a global approach, shareholder’s perspective, an industry inflection point, connecting the dots, VUCA, prioritization, predictive analytics, and data-driven decisions. Individuals that use words/phrases like integrated, strategic partner, think like an owner, failure/root cause analysis, or those who routinely quantify their results in dollars or revenue impacts are also highly likely to be strategic.” Be aware, however, that the use of these phrases does not necessarily indicate a strategic thinker. It may suggest that someone has read a primer on what keywords to use to get hired as a strategic thinker.  Watch for Signs of Strategic Thinking Throughout an Interview. Often, when conducting an interview, you may be able to observe strategic thinking in action. The specific signs of this can vary, which is why the interviewer must be a strategic thinker. Like recognizes like.  Don’t Mistake Tactical Thinking for Strategic Thinking. Where strategic thinking is long-term, tactical thinking is narrower and more short-term. Tactical thinking can be valuable to an organization, but it can be a distraction when you’re specifically seeking out strategic thinking. Six Sigma thinking focuses on cost savings, and those who express their “alignment with strategic goals” are all typically tactical thinkers. Identifying strategic thinkers for your management and executive teams is of critical importance for long-term business success, so it’s well worth the effort to implement an interview process that looks for them . Do you have any questions for me on strategic thinking? Please share with us in the comment section below! I’d love to hear from you, and I take the time to reply to every comment I receive personally.

It’s often said that sales is the most important department in any organization. After all, your sales team is the linchpin between your company and its customers. When your salespeople succeed, your business succeeds. Motivating your sales team through a competitive compensation package becomes essential when you want to attract the best talent and close the most sales each quarter. If you’re beginning to structure a sales compensation plan for your sales representatives, you might not quite know where to begin. What are the common sales compensation packages, and which are the most appealing to sales reps and companies? What Is a Sales Compensation Package? Sales compensation is how much money per year a salesperson receives. It’s common for salespeople to be compensated with a base salary, commissions, and extra incentives to motivate them to reach their quota (or go beyond it.) A sales compensation package is a structured plan that contains the base salary, commission, and additional incentives that make up the earnings of a sales representative. The ideal package will encourage your sales team to meet a high performance standard. It will also outline salary increases for managers and higher-level salespeople. When a sales compensation plan is designed to set expectations and standards for sales compensation, encourage positive behavior, and produce results to meet the goals of teams and the entire organization, the company benefits. Sales Compensation Glossary Before we look at the common types of sales compensation packages, let’s go over the meaning of some essential terms. Sales Accelerators A sales accelerator kicks in when one of your salespeople hits a certain amount over their predetermined sales quota. With this form of compensation, sales reps can earn substantially larger commissions than typical during months or quarters where they achieve great success. For instance, let’s say that you have a sales rep who hits 115% of their quota by the end of the quarter. A compensation package might outline that they will receive 1.2x their performance over the met quota of 100%. Sales Decelerators While sales accelerators reward high-performing salespeople, sales decelerators penalize reps that aren’t meeting performance standards. For example, let’s say you have a decelerator scheduled to kick in if a sales rep doesn’t meet 50% of their quota. At this point, their compensation would be calculated by multiplying their performance by a decimal. Sales Quota The sales manager will set sales quotas for individuals or the team as a whole. This is a time-bound revenue target. Different sales teams might find it suitable to measure sales in various ways, including deals closed, profit, or overall activity. On-Target Earnings On-target earnings, or OTE for short, are a way for sales representatives to gain perspective on how much compensation they can expect if they meet the quotas. OTEs will commonly include both the base salary and commission that would realistically result from deals that have been closed. This can give people a realistic view of how much money in total they can expect to receive for a position. Clawbacks A clawback is a condition that can be built into your sales compensation package. It’s common in companies that offer subscription services. A clawback will kick in when a customer stops being a customer before hitting a previously specified benchmark. For example, a company might set it up so that reps have to give back their commission if a customer cancels their subscription service one to six months after signing up. The reason for including this in a compensation package is to encourage salespeople to focus their energy on customers who will benefit from the product or service and use it long-term, rather than those who will buy in for a short time and cancel. SPIFs Sales performance incentive funds (SPIFs) are contests that can create a high-performance culture on your sales team. It’s common for these contests to include either monetary or non-monetary incentives. For example, the first rep that increases their retention rate by a certain percentage might receive a $1000 cash bonus, or the first team to close a certain amount of sales could receive gift certificates to a fancy restaurant in town. Usually, SPIFs run for somewhere between one and four weeks. When they’re shorter than this, they don’t offer an opportunity for your reps to take it seriously. When they’re longer, it might not feel nearly as urgent, and you likely won’t see the results you desire. If you’re beginning to build your sales team, you’ll need to fill these seven key roles for maximum efficacy. Compensation Package Factors Depending on the nature of the industry you’re in and factors specific to your organization, you might find it makes sense to weigh these different elements in a way that favors a heavy base salary or a hefty commission rate. Base Salary The base salary you offer is the amount of money your sales reps receive regardless of their performance. It doesn’t matter if they hit 200% of their sales quota or 10% of it– this is the foundational salary you offer for the position. Commission Rate Commission rates are expressed as a percentage of the revenue a sales rep brought in. There are different standards in different industries for commission rates, and it’s a good idea to look at what your competition offers when you’re putting together a compensation package for your sales team. For example, it’s common for car salespeople to make 25% of the gross profit on a car that they sell. On the other hand, real estate agents typically receive a 5 or 6% commission rate through the transfer of a property, which is split between the agents involved and then further with their respective brokers. In general, sales commission rates often range from 5% to 50%. However, the most common range for commission rates in sales is between 20% and 30%. Projected Sales The projected sales of a sales rep is how many deals they are expected to close during a specific period. Commission Per Sale The commission per sale is the monetary compensation a salesperson receives for each unit of the product they sell. Bonus Amount While a commission refers to the salesperson receiving a certain percentage from the sales they close, a bonus amount is compensation that a rep receives above their base salary for deals they’ve closed during a specified period. Are you wondering how to improve your quality of hire when filling your sales team? You can learn more about how data can benefit your hiring process using recruitment analytics here . Examples of Sales Compensation Packages There are four primary types of compensation in the world of sales. These are: Salary Hourly wages Bonuses Commission You will want to tailor your sales compensation package to your organization’s size, resources, and interests. Let’s outline some of the most common compensation packages to help you get a sense of the possibilities when you’re designing your compensation plan. Commission-Only Compensation Package One relatively simple type of compensation package is a commission-only compensation plan. In this scenario, sales reps don’t receive any base salary and instead receive all their compensation through commission. Some companies might choose this model because it helps avoid the risks associated with other types of plans. When your salespeople make a lot of money, your revenue increases for the sales period. When they hardly close any sales, you’re not left in a position where you have to pay out more than the company made that month or quarter. Sales reps sometimes enjoy the freedom and ability to earn as much money as possible. It also reduces your risk because you aren’t paying a salary to a low-performing sales rep. On the other hand, this type of package can make it challenging to stick to a pre-structured budget and forecast your future expenses. If you’re thinking about instituting a commission-only compensation package, you’ll want to think about how involved the sales are and how much customer support you expect your reps to offer. You might decide that anywhere between 5% and 45% is a reasonable commission percentage for your salespeople. Base Salary Plus Bonus Compensation Plan If your sales reps usually meet their targets, a base salary plus bonus compensation package could be the right fit. The benefits of this package include motivating your salespeople to close sales and a high level of predictability. With this type of structure, you might offer a specific amount of money as a bonus for sales reps who sell a certain number of units per year or quarter. You can then use this information to guesstimate how many salespeople will meet this quota, so you can plan ahead for how much money you’ll pay out in bonuses. Base Salary Plus Commission Plan The base salary plus commission package is the most common pay structure for people in sales positions. Salespeople can be sure that they will at least receive a certain amount of money per year in the form of their base salary. On top of that, they can earn more by closing sales and meeting other performance goals. Most businesses will benefit from this type of structure. You can hire competitive and motivated salespeople while having a clear sense of your expenses ahead of time. Another benefit of this kind of package is that your reps will also be obligated to perform additional tasks that don’t directly involve selling because you’re paying them a base salary. If you’re offering a commission-only package, on the other hand, your reps likely won’t fulfill any duties other than trying to close sales. This type of package involves offering a lower commission percentage because reps are already receiving a base salary. The more involved and complicated a sale is and the more impact a sales rep has on the customer’s behavior, the higher the commission rate should be. Absolute Commission Package Also known as a set rate commission plan, an absolute commission plan involves compensating your reps when they meet certain milestones or targets. This is an easy type of plan for salespeople to understand, and it often leads to having a highly motivated sales team. Gross Margin Commission Plan Another option for commission packages is paying your salespeople based on profit instead of sales. For example, a sales rep would receive more compensation for closing a sale on a product with a gross margin of $3,000 versus one with a gross margin of $500. Straight-Line Commission Plan In this structure, a salesperson receives a commission based on the percentage of the quota they meet. If they reach 92% of their quota during a given period, they will receive 92% of the total commission. If they hit 120% of their predetermined quota, they will receive 120% of the commission. Which Compensation Package Is Most Appealing? Depending on the specific details of your organization, the ideal compensation package for salespeople will vary. For example, you might find that offering a higher base salary works well for your team, while another business might focus on rewarding sales representatives through commission. A person’s role, sales cycle length, experience, and type of deals will inform how compensation packages are structured. When you’re designing a compensation package, you’ll also want to consider the following: What type of compensation package is your competitor offering? What’s your budget? What are the goals of the sales team and the organization? What is the cost of living in your area? What is the standard in your industry? How easy is our proposed package for a sales rep to understand? What type of package will attract top talent? Can the organization remain profitable if you enact a specific commission structure? The best sales compensation package for your organization is the one that will drive your reps to perform their best. For many companies, this will likely mean offering their sales reps a base salary plus a commission package. However, just because this is the most common type of commission plan doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the ideal choice for your organization. Do you have any questions about how to put together the best sales compensation package for your business? If so, please leave a comment below, and we’ll get a conversation started. We love discussing all things recruiting and compensation, and we’d be happy to assist you in any way we can!

As a leader, one of the most important roles you have is to ensure that your employees are engaged and productive. But what does employee engagement even mean? How can you measure it? And what strategies can you use to increase engagement? These are all great questions, and in this blog post, we’re going to dive into the world of employee engagement strategies and explore the role of leadership in creating a thriving workplace. We’ll also look at some of the benefits of employee engagement programs and discuss tips for increasing employee engagement. So if you’re looking for ways to become a better boss and supercharge your employee engagement strategies, read on! What is Employee Engagement? Employee engagement is the emotional and psychological connection an employee has with their job, team, and organization. It’s a measure of how motivated and satisfied they are with their work and how likely they are to remain loyal to the organization. Employee engagement is important because when employees feel connected to their work, they’re more likely to be productive, creative, and successful. They’re also more likely to be satisfied with their job, stay with the organization for the long term, and go above and beyond to make sure the company is successful. The Benefits of Employee Engagement Strategies When you invest in employee engagement strategies, you’re investing in your company’s future. Research shows that companies with engaged employees are more profitable and successful than those without. Here are some of the key benefits of investing in employee engagement programs: Improved morale: When employees feel connected to their work and are motivated to do their best, morale goes up. This can lead to higher job satisfaction, better job performance, and more loyal employees. Higher productivity: When employees are engaged and motivated, they’re more likely to be productive and successful. This can lead to a higher quality of work, more innovation, and increased efficiency. Increased customer satisfaction: Engaged employees are more likely to provide a better customer experience, which leads to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Lower turnover: When employees are engaged and satisfied with their job, they’re less likely to leave the organization. This can save the company time and money in recruitment and training. How to Measure Employee Engagement Measuring employee engagement can be tricky, but it’s important to do if you want to gauge the effectiveness of your employee engagement strategies. Here are some ways to measure employee engagement: Surveys: Surveys are one of the most common ways to measure employee engagement. Employees can be asked to rate their level of satisfaction with their job, their level of motivation, and their commitment to the organization. Interviews: Interviews can be used to gain insight into employee engagement by asking employees questions about their job satisfaction, motivation, and commitment. Focus groups: Focus groups can be used to gain a better understanding of the issues that are affecting employee engagement. Performance reviews: Performance reviews can be used to measure employee engagement by looking at the employee’s level of productivity and job performance. Factors that Affect Employee Engagement There are a variety of factors that affect employee engagement. Here are some of the key factors to consider: Leadership: Leaders play an important role in employee engagement. When leaders are inspiring, supportive, and motivating, employees are more likely to be engaged. Compensation: Compensation is a key factor in employee engagement. When employees feel their compensation is fair and competitive, they’re more likely to be engaged. Culture: Culture plays a big role in employee engagement. When employees feel like they’re part of a positive, collaborative culture, they’re more likely to be engaged. Work environment: The work environment can have a big impact on employee engagement. When the work environment is comfortable and conducive to productivity, employees are more likely to be engaged. Workload: Workload is another factor that can affect employee engagement. When employees feel their workload is manageable and balanced, they’re more likely to be engaged. Tips for Increasing Employee Engagement If you want to increase employee engagement, there are a few things you can do. Here are some tips for increasing employee engagement: Show appreciation: Make sure to show appreciation for your employee’s hard work and efforts. A simple thank you can go a long way in boosting morale and engagement. Offer flexibility: Offer flexible working arrangements such as remote working, flexible hours, and part-time schedules. This can help employees feel more empowered and motivated. Prioritize communication: Make sure to prioritize communication with your employees. Let them know you’re available if they need help or have any questions. Provide feedback: Provide regular feedback to your employees. This can help them feel supported and recognized for their work. Encourage collaboration: Encourage collaboration between teams and departments. This can help build relationships and create a sense of unity and camaraderie. The Role of Leadership in Employee Engagement Leaders play an important role in promoting employee engagement. Here are some ways leaders can promote engagement: Set a good example: Leaders should set a good example for their team. This means leading by example and showing employees that hard work and dedication are valued. Communicate regularly: Leaders should communicate regularly with their team. This means having regular check-ins, providing feedback, and allowing employees to share their ideas. Provide feedback: Leaders should provide regular feedback to their employees. This helps employees feel supported and valued. Encourage growth: Leaders should encourage their employees to grow and develop their skills. This can help employees feel more engaged and motivated. Celebrate success: Leaders should celebrate their team’s successes. This can help boost morale and create a positive work environment. Creating an Employee Engagement Program Creating an employee engagement program is a great way to show your employees that you value them and their contributions. Here are some tips for creating an effective employee engagement program: Set goals: Set clear goals for the program and make sure everyone is on the same page. Track progress: Track progress regularly and make sure everyone is on track to meet the goals. Celebrate success: Celebrate successes, big and small. This can help boost morale and keep employees motivated. Ask for feedback: Ask for feedback from employees regularly. This can help you identify areas for improvement and make sure the program is meeting its goals. Make it fun: Make sure the program is fun and engaging. This can help keep employees engaged and motivated. Employee Engagement Strategies That Work If you’re looking for ways to supercharge your employee engagement strategies, here are some strategies that work: Offer rewards: Offer rewards and incentives for employees who go above and beyond. This can help motivate employees and boost morale. Create a culture of trust: Create a culture of trust and respect. This can help employees feel supported and valued. Foster collaboration: Foster collaboration between teams and departments. This can help build relationships and create a sense of unity and camaraderie. Promote work/life balance: Promote a healthy work/life balance. This can help employees feel less stressed and more engaged. Encourage professional development: Encourage employees to pursue professional development opportunities. This can help employees feel more empowered and motivated. Gallup Employee Engagement Strategies According to Gallup , the pinnacle of success is a company that values its employees – investing in employee engagement to drive performance and shape lasting business results. Gallup has developed several employee engagement strategies that have been proven to work. Here are a few of the key strategies: Employee recognition: Recognize and reward employees for their hard work and efforts. Performance management: Create a performance management system that is focused on developing employees and helping them reach their full potential. Career development: Offer career development and training opportunities to help employees grow and develop. Employee engagement surveys: Use employee engagement surveys to get an understanding of how employees are feeling and what they need to be more engaged. Leadership development: Invest in leadership development programs to help leaders become better bosses and create an engaged work culture. The Importance of Employee Engagement and Why It Matters Employee engagement is important for any organization. It can lead to increased morale, productivity, customer satisfaction, and retention. It can also help create a positive work environment and lead to more successful and innovative teams. Leaders have a big role to play in employee engagement. They should be inspiring, motivating, and supportive. They should also provide regular feedback and recognition, encourage collaboration, and promote a healthy work/life balance. Creating an employee engagement program is a great way to show your employees you value them and their contributions. Make sure to set goals, track progress, and ask for feedback. You should also make sure the program is fun and engaging. Finally, make sure to invest in employee engagement strategies that have been proven to work. These include employee recognition, performance management, career development, employee engagement surveys, and leadership development. Conclusion Harnessing the power of effective leadership strategies has never been easier – and spurring employee engagement is within reach . We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about these tips on how you can superstar your approach to engaging with your valuable staff. Go for it!

Welcome to the modern job market, where potential employees can quickly and easily research the professional reputations of employers. One of the most influential sources for this research is Glassdoor reviews, where current and former employees can review companies and their experiences. It’s no surprise then that Glassdoor reviews have become an important tool for job seekers, as well as companies looking to increase their reputation and gain more qualified applicants . In this article, we’ll discuss the power of Glassdoor reviews and the reasons why a good reputation matters to modern job seekers. What are Glassdoor reviews? Glassdoor reviews are a type of online review system where current and former employees can review their experience of working at a company. These reviews can include ratings on a variety of topics, such as salary, benefits, work/life balance, and overall culture. Companies can also use Glassdoor reviews to post job openings and provide additional information about their company and its values. Glassdoor reviews are considered to be an important resource for job seekers, as they can provide them with an accurate picture of what it’s like to work for a particular company. The Benefits of Glassdoor Reviews Glassdoor reviews can be an invaluable resource for job seekers, as they can provide them with an honest look at a company’s workplace culture and values. Additionally, Glassdoor reviews can provide insight into what types of jobs are available and what the salary and benefits are like. This information can be useful when considering a job offer, as it can help job seekers make an informed decision. Additionally, Glassdoor reviews can also be a useful tool for employers, as they can use the reviews to measure employee satisfaction and identify any areas of improvement. How Glassdoor Reviews Impact Job Seekers Glassdoor reviews can have a significant impact on job seekers. For example, if a job seeker finds a company with a high Glassdoor rating, they may be more likely to apply for the job. Additionally, job seekers can use the reviews to compare companies and evaluate which one is the best fit for them. Furthermore, Glassdoor reviews can provide job seekers with an inside look at what it’s like to work for the company, which can help them decide if the job is the right fit for them. According to a 2021 Glassdoor survey , A whopping 92%, the majority of individuals are eager to make the switch if presented with an amazing opportunity from a reputable organization. A great corporate reputation is clearly one of the most valued qualities when it comes to choosing where you work. 1. Reputation Management for Companies Having a good reputation is important for companies, as it can attract more qualified applicants and help them to stand out from the competition. Companies can use Glassdoor reviews to measure employee satisfaction and identify areas of improvement. Additionally, they can use the reviews to learn more about their company culture and what their employees think of the company. Companies can also use the reviews to create a positive and engaging workplace culture, which can help to attract and retain top talent. 2. Strategies for Achieving Good Glassdoor Reviews There are several strategies that companies can use to achieve good Glassdoor reviews. First, companies should focus on creating a positive and engaging workplace culture. This can be done by fostering an open and collaborative environment, providing employees with meaningful work, and offering competitive salaries and benefits. Additionally, companies should encourage employees to provide honest feedback and create opportunities for employees to provide feedback and suggestions. Lastly, companies should take the time to respond to reviews, both positive and negative, to show that they are listening to their employees and taking their feedback seriously. 3. How to Respond to Negative Glassdoor Reviews Negative Glassdoor reviews can be damaging to a company’s reputation, so it’s important to respond appropriately. Companies should take the time to read the reviews and identify any areas of improvement.  They should then take the necessary steps to address the issues and respond to the review. Companies should also take the time to thank the reviewer for their feedback and be sure to address any concerns or questions they may have. Additionally, companies should be sure to communicate any changes they have made in response to the review. 4. The Impact of Glassdoor Reviews on Job Search Outcomes Glassdoor reviews can have a significant impact on job search outcomes. Job seekers who find a company with a high Glassdoor rating may be more likely to apply for the job. Additionally, job seekers can use the reviews to compare companies and evaluate which one is the best fit for them. Furthermore, Glassdoor reviews can provide job seekers with an inside look at what it’s like to work for the company, which can help them decide if the job is the right fit for them. 5. Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Managing Glassdoor Reviews When managing Glassdoor reviews, there are a few pitfalls to avoid. First, companies should not attempt to manipulate reviews or write fake reviews. Doing so can be damaging to a company’s reputation and can also lead to legal action. Additionally, companies should avoid responding to reviews in a negative or hostile manner. Instead, they should take the time to read the reviews and provide thoughtful responses. Lastly, companies should not focus solely on negative reviews, but should also take the time to thank reviewers for their positive feedback. Helpful Resources for Managing Glassdoor Reviews If you’re looking for resources to help you manage your Glassdoor reviews, there are a few helpful options. Glassdoor provides a few resources, such as its employer center and its employer brand toolkit. Additionally, there are several third-party websites, such as Reputation.com, that can help companies manage their online reviews. Conclusion Glassdoor reviews can be a valuable resource for both job seekers and companies. Job seekers can use the reviews to research companies and gain an inside look at what it’s like to work there. Companies can use the reviews to measure employee satisfaction and create a positive workplace culture that can attract and retain top talent. Additionally, companies should take the time to manage their reviews, both positive and negative, to maintain a good reputation.  By understanding the power of Glassdoor reviews and taking the necessary steps to manage them, companies can ensure that they are well-positioned to attract and retain the best talent .

Are you looking to hire top talent for your company? If so, you’re likely aware that the traditional recruitment process is often slow and costly. That’s why it pays to explore the potential of social media job advertising. With the changing of the guard and an influx of digital natives entering the job market, harnessing social media is essential for employers to find quality talent quickly. Sprout Social outlines this perfectly – leveraging social platforms to reach a larger, more diverse pool allows businesses to jump-start their recruitment efforts while ensuring they get critical openings in front of ideal candidates. In this blog post, we’ll cover the basics of social media job advertising and provide you with tips and strategies to help you maximize your recruiting ROI . Social media job advertising is the process of leveraging social media platforms to promote job openings and attract potential candidates. This type of advertising is especially popular among employers, as it’s a cost-effective way to reach potential candidates and gain exposure for your job postings. Social media job advertising also offers employers a unique opportunity to target potential candidates based on their interests, industry, and location. This makes it easier to find the right candidates for the job and ensures that your job postings are seen by the people who are most likely to apply. Benefits of Social Media Job Advertising Social media job advertising has the potential to offer several benefits to employers. For example, it can help to: Reach a larger, more diverse pool of potential candidates Save time and money on recruitment costs Help employers find the right candidates quickly and efficiently Increase brand awareness and recognition Boost engagement with potential candidates Help employers establish themselves as employers of choice Types of Recruitment Ads When it comes to social media job advertising , there are a variety of types of recruitment ads you can use to get the word out about your job openings. For example, you can create: Paid job postings are ads that are paid for with a budget. These ads are displayed in people’s newsfeeds and can be targeted to a specific audience. Organic job postings are postings that are unpaid and not targeted to a specific audience. These postings are visible to everyone who follows your company’s page. Sponsored job postings are ads that are sponsored by a third-party advertiser. These ads are typically more expensive, but they often reach a larger audience. How to Create Effective Recruitment Ads Creating effective recruitment ads is key to ensuring that your job postings reach the right people and generate the best results. Here are some tips to help you create effective recruitment ads: Include a compelling headline: Your headline should be clear and concise and include keywords that will help potential candidates find your job postings. Use engaging visuals: Visuals such as images and videos can help to make your ads more engaging and memorable. Keep your copy short and to the point: Make sure your copy is easy to read and understand. Try to keep it brief and to the point. Include a call to action: A call to action (CTA) will help to encourage potential candidates to take action. For example, you might include a CTA such as “Apply Now” or “Learn More”. Use the right language: Make sure to use language that resonates with your target audience. This will help to ensure that your recruitment ads are seen by the right people. Strategies for Optimizing Your Recruitment Ads Once you’ve created your recruitment ads, it’s important to optimize them to ensure they’re reaching the right people. Here are some strategies you can use to optimize your recruitment ads: Monitor your performance: Keep an eye on your recruitment ads’ performance to determine which ones are working and which ones need to be adjusted. Test different ad formats: Try testing different ad formats such as images, videos, and carousels to see which ones are generating the best results. Target the right people: Make sure to target your ads to the right people based on their interests, industry, and location. Track your results: Track your results to determine which ads are performing the best and adjust your strategy accordingly. Tips for Choosing the Right Social Media Platform When it comes to social media job advertising, it’s important to choose the right social media platform. Here are some tips to help you choose the right platform: Consider your target audience: Consider who your target audience is and choose a platform that is popular among that group. Research the platform: Make sure to research the platform to find out what type of content performs best on it. Test different platforms: Try testing different platforms to see which ones are generating the best results. Monitor your performance: Monitor your performance to determine which platforms are working and which ones need to be adjusted. How to Measure Your Recruiting ROI Measuring your recruiting ROI is key to ensuring that your recruitment efforts are yielding the desired results. Here are some tips to help you measure your recruiting ROI: Track your results: Track your results to determine which recruitment efforts are performing the best. Monitor your performance: Monitor your performance to measure the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts. Analyze your data: Analyze your data to determine which recruitment efforts are generating the best results. Set goals: Set concrete goals to measure the success of your recruitment efforts. Best Practices for Recruitment Ads When it comes to social media job advertising, it’s important to follow best practices to ensure that your recruitment ads are effective. Here are some best practices to keep in mind: Keep your ads relevant: Make sure to keep your ads relevant to the job openings you’re advertising. Use the right language: Use language that resonates with your target audience to ensure that your ads are seen by the right people. Include a call to action: A call to action will help to encourage potential candidates to take action. Track your performance: Track your performance to determine which recruitment efforts are working and which ones need to be adjusted. Common Mistakes to Avoid When it comes to social media job advertising, there are a few common mistakes to avoid to ensure that your recruitment ads are effective. Here are some common mistakes to avoid: Misusing keywords: Misusing keywords in your recruitment ads can lead to your job postings being seen by the wrong people. Not tracking your performance: Not tracking your performance can lead to your recruitment efforts not yielding the desired results. Not optimizing your ads: Not optimizing your ads can lead to your recruitment ads not reaching the right people. Not targeting the right people: Not targeting the right people can lead to your job postings not being seen by the right people. Conclusion Social media job advertising is a powerful tool for companies looking to attract and hire quality talent quickly and efficiently. It’s an effective way to reach a larger and more diverse pool of potential candidates and get your job openings in front of the right people. Unlock the potential of social media job advertising today and start recruitment that yields maximum returns. With our expert assistance, you can discover powerful tips to ensure your ads are seen by an audience ideal for success in hiring top talent. Let us show you how it’s done; contact us now !

The global economy has changed, making recruiting and hiring the right candidates a lot more difficult. New economic conditions include global competition, lightning-fast changing business conditions, high unemployment, skills shortages, and a war for talent. Finding and hiring the right people in this kind of recruiting environment requires keeping up with new recruiting technology and social media, developing relationships with successful candidates, and asking the right questions. Busy hiring managers and employers achieve all that when they outsource recruiting. Cost containment and the need to focus on core business operations are at the top of the list of several common reasons to outsource recruiting. Outsourcing all of your recruiting or just part of your recruitment process puts the reins in the hands of experienced recruitment consultants, saving you time and money. Other reasons employers choose to outsource recruiting include a need to improve recruiting processes, reduce a high turnover rate, control rapid growth or seasonality that makes it impossible to keep up with hiring needs, develop a competitive advantage, and coordinate recruiting and onboarding. 1. Reduce Costs In a volatile economy, reducing costs rises to the top of the to-do list quickly. Besides labor costs, the costs related to recruiting activities include advertising on job boards, background screening, applicant tracking systems, and recruiting technology. These costs are all rolled into one when companies outsource recruiting. And it’s usually less than trying to conduct an effective recruiting campaign in-house. Cost-per-hire is a key HR metric, and when companies outsource recruiting to an RPO, cost-per-hire is often reduced along with time-to-hire because of dedicated recruiting resources. Other ways costs get reduced through outsourced recruiting include shared risk and streamlined processes. Passing the responsibility of expanded or shrinking recruiting needs to a dedicated outsourced recruiter eliminates employing unnecessary staff for recruiting or being short of staff when business spikes. When employers outsource recruiting, they streamline recruiting processes by assigning them to an outside firm (ideally an RPO ), eliminating delays and duplication of tasks, and paying for specific recruiting activities. 2. Focus on Core Business Whether or not a company has a dedicated recruiter or some kind of recruiting function, most are not in the recruiting industry. Any recruiting tasks and activities will be outside of the core business functions and take resources from core business operations. When the recruiting process is outsourced to recruiting specialists, it doesn’t take anything away from core business activities and enables employers to find the talent they need without distractions from business operations. Human resources staff with recruiting responsibilities can quickly become overwhelmed with recruiting volume and unable to focus on their core HR responsibilities . When this happens, it can have a ripple effect, interfering with human resources productivity and workflows and their ability to provide service for benefits, payroll , compliance, and employee programs. Outsource recruiting professionals understand that recruiting great talent is a job unto itself. Furthermore, it’s a job that can drain a tremendous amount of your resources. When you partner with a recruitment process outsourcing company, you give that company the tools to fill your open positions faster and more efficiently than you could possibly do on your own. A good outsource recruiting firm will take the time to understand your needs and how your business functions, not just for the current hire, but for all the hires down the road. If your company experiences a fair amount of turnover, you can see a tremendous boost in savings and efficiency. 3. Improve Recruiting Effectiveness With a competitive global job market, ongoing skills shortage, and limited locations for recruiting, it’s difficult for many organizations to find qualified candidates or improve their recruiting effectiveness with in-house recruiting. They may not be able to achieve recruiting process improvements with existing staff, and when urgent recruiting needs start to back up, there is no good way to get caught up with hiring. When they outsource recruiting, they benefit from recruiting firms’ ability to reach more candidates, access passive candidates that they may not otherwise be able to engage, and realize more efficient use of recruiting resources. 4. A High Turnover Rate High turnover costs money in lost and interrupted productivity, lower customer service, and lower employee engagement. But turnover may have less to do with recruiting staff abilities or compensation and more to do with the recruiting function. Companies can address high turnover when they outsource recruiting to get better-qualified candidates and a better recruiting process from experienced, dedicated recruiters. Companies enjoy higher quality hires of candidates who are vetted and well-matched to the company’s openings and culture. When ongoing high turnover starts to strain a company’s resources, the decision to outsource can be a quicker, cheaper way to stop recruiting-related turnover. 5. Rapid Growth Companies experiencing rapid growth or seasonal spikes that make it difficult to meet recruiting needs often outsource recruiting to better control fluctuating recruiting activity’s impact on the business. Seasonal recruiting or periods of rapid growth or expansion strain existing staff and make in-house recruiting a huge challenge. Outside recruiting firms can take over an internal recruiting process with dedicated staff, more experienced recruiters, advanced recruiting technology, and social recruiting methods to meet unusual growth patterns. 6. Competitive Advantage Small companies and start-ups that don’t have the same resources as their larger competitors can compete better when they outsource recruiting. A recruiting firm can more quickly and efficiently find top candidates to help small or new companies build their key staff and keep up with larger companies with more resources. Even the biggest companies that have a lot to offer qualified candidates have to be able to find those candidates. When you have a good relationship with an experienced recruitment process outsourcing firm, you can find better candidates faster than even much larger organizations. This ability will give you a big head start when it comes to finding ways to woo those candidates to your staff, which is another factor that can help you grow and become competitive with larger companies in your space. 7. Coordinate Recruiting and On-boarding If your company is struggling to find and land qualified candidates in a timely manner, it’s not necessarily your hiring manager or HR staff to blame. Even the most talented HR professionals can do so much with limited resources. Hiring managers and staff have a lot on their plates without the need to go out and locate the best candidates. Companies with disjointed recruiting and onboarding processes can benefit from the services that outsourced recruiting firms provide to integrate sourcing, recruiting, hiring, and onboarding. When one department is recruiting, the hiring manager is responsible for hiring, and the human resources staff performs onboarding. Interruptions in candidate experience and recruiting efficiencies can cause problems in other areas of the company. Productivity and turnover are among the first business areas to suffer when recruiting and onboarding processes aren’t working. When companies outsource recruiting, it’s usually in direct response to specific business needs. Whether it’s to save money, achieve process improvements, reduce turnover, or control an issue of recruiting volume, there are many situations where outsourcing the recruiting process, and possibly onboarding processes as well, solves business problems. Recruiting firms can dedicate their time and resources to sourcing , engaging, contacting, hiring, and onboarding top talent that is beyond the reach of small or new companies. Companies can better focus on their core business operations when they are well-staffed with qualified, engaged employees who have been hired with a good recruiting process. Outsourcing recruiting allows companies to meet their recruiting needs without causing other business problems. You don’t have to wait until you have a problem with recruitment before you look into recruitment process outsourcing. You may be at a recruitment disadvantage without even knowing it. Look into outsourcing recruitment today and learn for yourself what it can do to streamline your operation, fill out and upgrade your staff, and help your business grow. #OutsourceRecruiting

Hiring teams are likely well aware that it is illegal and unethical to discriminate against candidates based on “race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, or disability.” However, it’s also essential to ensure that your hiring practices aren’t allowing favoritism to guide staffing decisions in your workplace. Favoritism in hiring certainly can cross into the realm of illegal. For example, research has found that men are more likely to hire other men, while women are more likely to hire other women. This points to the reality that favoritism and its related discrimination might be all too common in recruiting and hiring. At the same time, favoritism doesn’t have to be unlawful to impact your organization negatively. Factors as seemingly harmless as preferring a candidate because you belonged to the same fraternity or sorority, or share common hobbies, can mean that you aren’t hiring the most qualified person for the job. Let’s take a look at how you can combat favoritism in your hiring practices to ensure that you are always selecting the best candidate for the position. What Is Favoritism in Hiring? Favoritism is precisely what it sounds like– favoring an individual for reasons that don’t have to do with their abilities and experience, but instead due to some extraneous feature. That might have to do with a person’s likes and dislikes, membership in a favored group, or another reason entirely. Organizations should be motivated to eliminate favoritism in hiring individuals and in giving out promotions. One specific type of favoritism is known as cronyism . This is when a person is favored because they belong to a network of insiders. Another, more narrow kind of favoritism is nepotism . In hiring, nepotism occurs when someone is hired because they are related to someone in the organization rather than based on their skills, abilities, and experience. Cronyism and nepotism are two types of in-group favoritism, which means that a person favors someone else for being a member of a group they belong to. People can also show out-group favoritism, which is when you favor someone who belongs to a group you don’t belong to. An example of out-group favoritism might be hiring someone because they went to an Ivy League school you have always held in high regard, even though you didn’t attend the school. Why Is It Important to Avoid Favoritism in Your Hiring Process? Playing favorites can be a problem in the office, but it’s also important to avoid it during the hiring and recruiting process. One of the most apparent reasons why combatting favoritism in hiring is important is that it can hurt your organization. After all, if you favor someone in the hiring process for reasons that don’t have to do with their ability to perform the role, your company won’t be gaining the most capable employee for the position. Favoritism in the hiring process can add up over time to cause issues in your company culture as well. For example, if your existing employees believe someone was hired for reasons other than their qualifications for the position, it can lead to resentment, bitterness, and other negative cultural attributes. It’s also essential to avoid favoritism when promoting employees. If it is clear to your team that someone received a promotion because they are your close friend, for example, rather than their ability to fulfill their necessary duties, it can negatively affect motivation, productivity, morale, and the culture as a whole. Is Favoritism in Hiring Illegal? Depending on why an individual is favored in the hiring process, it may or may not be illegal. For example, hiring a less-qualified candidate because they like the same sports team as you isn’t unlawful, though some could consider it unethical. However, hiring one candidate over another because of protected characteristics is illegal. An employer cannot make an employment decision because of an individual’s race, religion, color, sex, national origin, disability, age, or genetic information. Illegal favoritism stretches beyond your actual hiring decision, too. Employers cannot publish job advertisements that discourage people from applying or show a preference toward certain people based on the protected characteristics listed above. For example, it might technically be illegal to publish a job post seeking “recent college graduates” for a position, even if that seems relatively harmless. That is because people over the age of 40 (as this is how the government distinguishes the protected characteristic of age) might be dissuaded from applying. It’s essential to avoid favoritism when recruiting candidates as well. It is similarly illegal to discriminate against people based on a protected characteristic in the recruiting process. In the application and hiring process, an employer also cannot discriminate based on a protected characteristic, and their hiring decisions cannot be based on assumptions or stereotypes due to a person’s possession of one of these protected characteristics. Any tests you require as a part of your job application process must not exclude anyone based on these protected characteristics, and the test must be necessary and related to the job. Employers are also required to provide accommodations for individuals with a disability if they are necessary to apply for the job (so long as significant expense or difficulty isn’t caused to the employer) These protections apply to job referrals, assignments, promotions, pay and benefits, discipline, and discharge. By favoring an employee because they aren’t in a protected class, you are likely breaking the law. For example, if you choose a female candidate over a more qualified male candidate because you assume that the open position is a woman’s job, you are discriminating against the male candidate. 5 Tips to Combat Favoritism in Your Hiring Practices To make sure that the most qualified candidate is hired for any open positions at your organization, it’s essential to work to combat favoritism in your recruiting and hiring process. Here are five ways to ensure that preferential treatment isn’t impacting your hiring decisions. 1. Rewrite Your Job Descriptions One of the first places you can begin combating favoritism in your hiring practices is through your job descriptions. The application pool you receive can be significantly impacted by even the subtlest word choices, so it’s worth taking the time to ensure that no candidates are dissuaded from applying because of how the description is written. For example, using certain words in a job post can come across as more masculine to job seekers, potentially leaving women to feel as though they don’t belong in the work environment to the extent that they don’t apply. Words that typically dissuade women from applying to a job include adjectives such as “determined” and “competitive.” On the other hand, words like “cooperative” and “collaborative” tend to draw more women than men and might deter men from applying. Are you interested in learning how to improve generational diversity in your workplace? If so, check out these five ways to confront age bias . 2. Institute Blind Hiring Practices Another way that you can reduce favoritism in the hiring process is by instituting blind hiring and recruiting practices . Blind hiring involves anonymizing the resumes and applications of candidates so that recruiters can focus only on their experience and skills rather than other factors that could lead to favoritism or discrimination. When you follow a blind recruitment process, several common identifying details can be left out of resumes and applications. Whether you have a third-party anonymize these documents or you use a blind recruiting software, some of the information that can be removed from resumes and applications includes: Gender Ethnic background Names Age Education Personal interests A person’s name can indicate many pieces of identifying information, such as their gender, nationality, and ethnic background. Even if the indication is false (for example, a person with a name that sounds female but is actually male), favoritism or discrimination could arise, even unconsciously. Leaving out the specific educational institution where a person received their degree can also reduce favoritism in the hiring process. For example, a recruiter might feel a sense of camaraderie with someone who attended their alma mater and show favoritism towards them during the process. Most hiring teams would never dream of explicitly being discriminatory or showing favoritism, but it’s essential to understand that this can be very subtle. For example, if a person’s interests are listed, a hiring team member might favor them because they share a similar hobby without even realizing it. 3. Standardize Your Interview Process While unstructured interviews are often the preference for hiring teams, research has found that they are “among the worst predictors of actual on-the-job performance.” In this type of interview, the goal is for a candidate’s skills and experience to unfold through a natural conversation rather than being guided by defined questions. On top of being less effective as a hiring practice, unstructured interviews also open up the process to potential favoritism. The person conducting the interview might be more likely to favor someone they feel they have a lot in common with, for example, over someone else with more experience with whom they didn’t “click” with as much. Implementing standardized interviews can allow you to minimize bias and focus only on factors that directly impact candidate performance. Ideally, the interview process can be another independent data point that can be incorporated into the hiring decision. 4. Have Candidates Complete a Work Sample Test Another way to remove potential bias that might lead a hiring team to favor one candidate over another is by including a work sample test. This test mimics the type of work expected of the candidate within the role. By having a standardized test for all candidates, you can weigh out their performance against one another in a way that doesn’t incorporate non-related factors. If the position that you’re hiring for is customer-facing or otherwise requires high levels of interpersonal skills, you might find that incorporating likability as a measurable factor could be helpful. Studies have revealed that employers tend to hire people whom they personally like the best out of the candidate pool, as well as the fact that the initial impression made in the first ten seconds of the interview can lead to a candidate getting hired or not. While it is natural for people to want to work with others they get along with, it’s important to combat favoritism in the form of natural chemistry or common interests. If you know that likability is a significant part of the role the candidate will be fulfilling, consider grading all of the candidates on a likability score to help control this as a factor and remove it from other parts of the process. 5. Be Self-Aware of Your Existing Biases Learning about hiring prejudices and how they work is essential in combating favoritism in the hiring process. On top of that, you’ll also want to work to be self-aware of any existing biases you might have. Even if you work hard to treat everyone equally in the hiring process, favoritism can still emerge when you don’t even realize it. Subtle things can impact whether you favor one candidate over another. For example, something as simple as a person having the same breed of dog as you could unconsciously lead you to give them preference over another candidate. No one wants to feel like they are unfairly favoring one candidate for reasons that don’t have to do with expected job performance, but the reality is that it’s more common than we’d all like to think. By having a sense of how you might be swayed to favor one candidate over another, you can keep an eye out for preferential treatment or favoritism during the recruitment and hiring process. Do you have any questions about how to combat favoritism in your hiring practices? Did we miss any essential tips that you want to contribute? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we’ll get a conversation started on the topic! We love talking about all things recruiting and hiring, and would be happy to help you work to eliminate favoritism in your recruiting and hiring process.

Most engineers in the U.S. work in the manufacturing industry , particularly in the production of electronic products, machinery, and transportation equipment. However, since engineers help to solve problems through the application of scientific, technological, and mathematical principles, they are highly sought-after across industries. Hiring top-tier, experienced engineers can be challenging because there is more demand than supply in the field. At the same time, engineering positions are often so specialized and technical that it’s essential to find someone highly suited for the role. If you’re trying to recruit engineers, you might be frustrated that there are more job postings for these professionals than individuals to fill them. This means you have to go out of your way to attract the best candidates and convince them that the open position at your organization is the best of all possible options. Let’s talk a bit about the types of engineering and the challenges that companies often face when recruiting engineers before discussing some tips and tricks to help you out during the hiring process . The Different Types of Engineers Engineering can, in broad terms, be separated into four primary groups. While there are countless other interdisciplinary subjects and sub-disciplines that are a part of the engineering field, getting a basic sense of the main categories of engineers can help you zero in on the type of specialist you are searching for. Electrical Electrical engineers can work in various industries, including manufacturing, research, telecommunications, and more. Specializing in the design, testing, and manufacturing of various electrical components, these engineers work in one of the broadest fields in the industry. Some examples of electrical components an electrical engineer might work with include communication systems, motors, power generation systems, and navigation systems. The median salary in 2020 for an electrical engineer was $103,390. The position typically requires at least a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Mechanical Mechanical engineers develop, design, and build mechanical devices such as tools, machines, and engines. Combining mathematics and engineering physics with materials science allows these engineers to design, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems. The median salary in 2020 for a mechanical engineer was $90,160. The position usually requires the candidate to have a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Chemical The field of study surrounding the design and operation of chemical plants is known as chemical engineering. Through chemical engineering, raw materials are transformed into useful products using efficient commercial processes. It’s common for chemical engineers to work in laboratories or offices to design and troubleshoot production processes for the manufacturing of fuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, foods, and more. Chemical engineers had a median salary of $108,540 in 2020. A Bachelor’s degree is generally required for the position. Civil Civil engineers primarily focus on the design, construction, and maintenance of the built environment, including bridges, roads, dams, canals, pipelines, railways, the structural components of buildings, and more. These engineers deal with all things infrastructure and can work in both the private and public sectors. They commonly spend time both in the office and on project sites. The median salary for civil engineers in 2020 was $88,570. The position typically requires a Bachelor’s degree. Engineer Recruitment: Common Challenges If you’ve already begun the process of recruiting engineers to work with your organization, you may have run into some difficulty along the way. Numerous online employment sites have ranked engineering as one of the most challenging jobs to fill. This means that you might have to go above and beyond your regular recruiting practices to attract the right candidate for the job. High Demand, Low Supply One of the most obvious reasons that it is challenging to hire high-quality engineers is that the demand is outpacing the supply . Many of the best engineers are nearing retirement, while not enough engineers graduate from colleges and universities to fill the gap. While there can be benefits to bringing on new graduates, you’ll likely notice that there is a learning curve that equates to a less efficient process overall. Extended Hiring Process The average time it takes to fill an engineering position is fifty-eight days, which is fifteen days longer than the average length of time for all job positions. This is more evidence that recruiters have to work harder to find the right candidate for the position. These jobs can also take longer to fill because there can be so many technical aspects associated with them. This can mean that the hiring process is longer than usual, as more screenings and interviews are required for an organization to feel comfortable committing to a candidate. This can also cause issues, though, because it means that your ideal candidate has more time to negotiate with other organizations while they are interviewing with you. That means you could get three-quarters of the way through the process with the ideal candidate, only to find that they decided to go with another position. Tips For Recruiting Engineers Anyone who has been looking to hire engineers in the current market likely knows just how challenging it can be. Let’s look at some tips to help your recruiting process be more effective and efficient. Creating Your Job Posting It’s essential to clearly communicate the expectations and responsibilities of a position when you’re writing the job posting. The highest quality candidates will only take the time to apply for positions that they believe they are well-suited for, so it’s important for the posting to communicate all the essential functions that they will be required to perform in the role. You’ll also want to include details about whether the position is permanent, full-time, or part-time, and what candidates can expect from the company culture. Assess Both Technical Skills and Soft Skills When searching for an engineer, it’s easy to focus only on technical skills. Soft skills are also essential in the workplace, though, along with personal passion. Finding an engineer who is genuinely passionate about their work can make a massive difference in the outcome you receive. An engineer with the necessary soft skills can ensure they fit well as a long-term candidate within your company culture. Every time you create a new job posting, you have the opportunity to collect and analyze data to inform your recruiting team and allow the next round of hiring to be even more seamless. Check out this recent post to learn more about recruitment analytics and how you can use data to improve your quality of hire. Encourage Referrals From Employees Whether you have full-time engineers on staff or you’ve been working with contract engineers, consider creating a referral program to help find the best candidates. There’s a good chance that your existing employees have an expansive network within the engineering field. People that you are already working with will typically have a good idea of what your company is looking for in an engineer and which types of candidates would be best suited for open roles. You can offer incentives to help encourage employee referrals, monetary or otherwise. Consider Using Digital Channels While employee referrals and well-written job postings can go a long way to help you find the right engineer for your organization, there are additional, non-traditional channels you also might consider using. For example, you might find high-quality prospective candidates on engineering Slack channels or other online forums. You can also find digital networking channels supported by tech conferences, which could provide additional opportunities to connect with engineering talent. Create an Internship Program Depending on your engineering needs, you might find that creating an internship program creates a steady stream of future employees. If you can build a successful and attractive internship program, you can reduce the use of company resources in recruiting. Internship programs often attract younger candidates who have recently graduated from college. By starting these individuals in a suitable, beginner-level position, you have the opportunity to cultivate a long and vibrant relationship with a new generation of talent. If you’re considering starting an internship program, consider reaching out to local universities with top-tier engineering programs. It isn’t uncommon for universities to require students to participate in an internship program before graduating, and it’s possible you could partner with local colleges in a way that benefits all parties involved. The structure of your recruiting process can significantly impact how quickly and effectively you can fill open positions at your organization. If your recruiting team has primarily been focusing on passive candidates when a role opens up, you might find that pivoting to an active recruiting strategy could save your company resources in the long term. You can learn more about the difference between proactive and reactive recruiting in this recent post. Advertise Your Culture Since there is more demand for engineers than supply, it’s essential to understand that engineers have their pick of the litter when it comes to jobs. On top of the salary and benefits that come along with a position, engineers will often look at additional factors such as the company culture . To attract top-tier engineers to your organization, advertise the positive aspects of your culture. Include a few bullet points about the culture in your job posting to help prospective candidates see what makes your company stand out from the crowd. Screen Your Candidates Because engineers are in high demand, it can be tempting to take the first marginally qualified person who comes along. However, it’s essential to screen your candidates thoroughly to ensure they will be a good fit for the position for the duration of the job. Otherwise, you could find yourself back at square one in just a few months’ time. Either through email or during an in-person interview , consider asking some screening questions that allow you to filter the candidate pool further. Some questions you might ask during this stage of the process include: How much experience do you have in this field? What are your salary expectations? What are your long-term goals in this field? Including an assessment can help you gauge the practical knowledge and skills of potential candidates. Of course, you’ll also want to perform the necessary background checks to look into the employment history, criminal record, and qualifications of any candidate you are considering hiring. You also might need to verify the licenses or certifications of candidates, depending on the state your business operates in and the industry. Have you been considering shifting to a blind recruitment process at your company? Learn more about how anonymous hiring works in this article. Have a Long-Term Strategy Chances are, this isn’t the last time you’ll be working to recruit an engineer for your organization. For this reason, it’s a good idea to devise a long-term strategy that you can turn to repeatedly as you build your team of engineers. Whether you periodically need to hire a contract engineer or your organization has dozens of engineers on staff, creating a system that helps you recruit and hire the best talent in the field will ensure the process is as efficient and effective as possible. Do you have a position that needs to be filled in a hurry? Be sure to take a look at our complete guide to effectively recruiting during a time crunch . Consider Hiring a Recruiter Finding the right engineer can be a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be when you enlist some help. Recruiters specialize in finding the perfect candidate for open positions and can do so more quickly and with greater ease. This can be particularly useful in a competitive market, as they have highly developed knowledge that they can apply to the recruitment and screening phases of the process. If you need a rock star Emerge Talent Cloud to help grow your workforce, you’ve come to the right place. To learn more about what makes Emerge Talent Cloud different than other agencies, sign up for a free consultation today . Conclusion In the quest to recruit top engineering talent across various specialties—electrical, mechanical, chemical, and more—the challenges faced by organizations are manifold. The highly specialized, technical nature of engineering roles, coupled with a market where demand outstrips supply, necessitates a strategic, multifaceted approach to attract and retain the best in the field.  Crafting clear, detailed job postings, emphasizing both technical and soft skills, and showcasing your company culture are pivotal first steps in drawing in high-caliber candidates. Leveraging digital channels, encouraging employee referrals, and instituting robust internship programs can broaden your talent pool. Additionally, adopting a long-term, proactive recruitment strategy, including the potential engagement of specialized recruiters, can streamline the process, ensuring a consistent influx of skilled engineers.  By navigating these complexities with a comprehensive, well-considered plan, organizations can not only overcome the hurdles of the competitive engineering job market but also secure the innovative, skilled professionals essential for driving success and growth in an increasingly technical world. Ready to elevate your engineering team with top-tier talent? Don’t let the complexities of recruiting in a competitive market slow you down. Reach out to our expert recruitment team today and discover how we can streamline your hiring process, connect you with the industry’s best engineers, and drive your organization forward. Page updated on January 29, 2023.

The people who make up an organization are perhaps the most critical factor in its success. Every day, personnel at a company make countless decisions and actions that help determine whether a business grows or struggles. For this reason, hiring decisions are crucial for businesses to get right. When you select a high-quality candidate for a position, it means that they have the potential to increase the success and effectiveness of the organization as a whole. One of the ways that modern companies are making their hiring process more efficient and effective is with the use of recruitment analytics. What are recruitment analytics, and how can they benefit your recruitment process? How can you use data to improve your quality of hire? What Are Recruitment Analytics? Recruitment analytics is the application of big data analytics to the hiring process. Allowing your recruitment team to measure and adjust its strategy based on collected data, recruitment analytics can help you make better, more efficient hiring decisions. This type of software can help identify patterns that emerge in your recruitment data. For example, your analytic software might discover that new hires commonly leave the organization only after two months. This could point toward issues in the onboarding process, candidate selection, or the job description. As you might imagine, this data analysis can completely revolutionize your hiring process. There are tons of essential questions that can be answered by recruitment analytics, including: What channels are producing the best candidates? What similarities do my best candidates share? What is the total cost of hiring for a new position? At what stage in the recruitment process do most prospective hires drop out? Recruitment analytics can draw data from many different sources. Commonly, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, applicant tracking systems (ATS), and human resources information systems (HRIS) are used as data sources. Additionally, this software can use information from satisfaction surveys, job advertising platform data, and brand data. Another way that hiring teams use technology to improve their recruitment process is through the application of software that helps to facilitate blind recruitment. Also known as anonymous hiring, blind recruitment tools can help avoid unconscious bias and improve efficiency. How Can Data Improve Your Hiring Process? Your hiring efforts can be significantly improved by recruitment analytics. By making data-driven hiring decisions, you can keep your hiring process competitive, make better hiring decisions, and help your organization succeed and grow in the long run. When you utilize recruitment analytics, you track, measure, and analyze data from existing employees and prospective candidates. Let’s take a look at how collecting and scrutinizing this data can improve your hiring process. 1. Improve the Quality of Your Hire Perhaps one of the most compelling reasons an organization might want to use recruitment analytics in its hiring process is that it can improve the quality of its hires. These methods will allow you to better identify the top candidates for any given position, explore the skills and qualities that your best hires share with one another, and gather data to help inform an even better and more efficient decision in the future. This means that when you have open roles in your organization, you will be increasingly able to match the right candidate with the right position. This can help reduce turnover, improve employee morale, boost productivity, and help to create a healthy and positive company culture. 2. Tracking Performance You can also compare your performance against your recruitment KPIs and industry standards. This means that your recruiting team can become increasingly efficient over time as they can optimize their workflow and find areas where improvements can be made. 3. Boosting Efficiency Hiring the right candidate for a position can be extremely time-consuming . That being said, there’s a good chance that inefficiencies and bottlenecks in your hiring process are difficult to see without using recruitment analytics. This doesn’t just mean that you’ll be able to find the right candidate more quickly and with a smoother workflow, but it also means that it will cost less to hire each new employee. 4. Allowing For Future Forecasts If you only start to look for new candidates when an existing employee gives their notice or receives a promotion, it means that you don’t have the same competitive edge as many other, more proactive organizations. While it can be challenging to predict the future, you can use recruitment analytics to help anticipate gaps that will emerge in organizational skills and talent. Similarly, this type of data analytics can help you create a plan for the next year or next five years regarding the cost per hire, time to hire, frequency of hire, and overall budget for the recruitment process. 5. Improving Diversity Many HR departments are focused on and committed to improving diversity in their organization. While doing so can present unique challenges to companies, recruitment analytics can help them meet their diversity goals. Gathering and analyzing hiring data can allow recruiting teams to keep track of their diversity initiatives and identify where alterations can be made to create more desirable outcomes. There are numerous ways that analytics can be used to help your team ensure that the organization is adequately diverse. For example, you can examine each stage of the recruitment funnel with a complete demographic report. Increasing generational diversity in the workplace is a significant focus for many hiring teams and HR departments. You can learn more about how to confront age bias in this guide . 6. Optimizing the Cost of Recruiting We all know that the hiring process isn’t cheap, but it’s well worth the cost when you find the perfect hire for an open position. When you’re able to make well-informed recruiting decisions, the candidates you select will be well-suited for the role, will remain with the organization for some time, and will help contribute positively to the company culture. The more effective your recruiting process is, the less you will have to spend overall on your hiring budget. Through data analytics, you’ll also be able to see which channels produce the highest-quality candidates and which haven’t been particularly useful for your organization. As you might imagine, this means you can allocate your resources in the most productive direction for your organization. Your hiring team can work smarter, not harder, when filling open positions at the company, which means you can reduce spending on the hiring process over time. How Can Data Improve Your Quality of Hire? While the quality of hire might sound like a somewhat subjective metric, recruitment analytics can help pinpoint how much value new hires add to your organization. The baseline criteria for a hire to be considered a quality hire is that they create more value while employed at your brand than how much it costs to recruit and hire them. This measure is often used to determine how successful a new hire becomes in their role at the company. However, recruiting teams can also use this metric to look at the overall success of recruitment as well. If you’re only looking at the quality of hire on an individual basis, you are losing out on valuable information that could help improve the hiring process and quality of hire on an organization-wide basis. When you analyze the quality of hiring on a larger scale, you’ll notice that patterns start to emerge that you can use to improve your hiring process further. Through recruitment analytics, you can keep track of how many of your hires become top performers, how long new hires typically stay with the organization, and more. Recruitment analytics can collect historical data regarding your candidates and your recruiting metrics. That doesn’t just mean that you’ll be better able to identify the right candidate when they come to you, but it also means that you’ll be more equipped to transition to a proactive recruiting strategy. A critical aspect of having a proactive recruiting strategy is understanding the difference between active and passive candidates. This article takes a deep dive into what you need to know about these different types of prospective employees. Best Practices For Using Recruitment Analytics Whenever you’re collecting data for your organization, there are practically an infinite number of ways that you can organize and analyze the information. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices for using recruitment analytics. 1. Collect the Right Data Understanding your goals in using recruitment analytics can help you pinpoint the most useful data to collect in the process. Data collection gets more useful the longer the timeframe you’re working from– the more information you have to analyze, the more you’ll be able to identify persistent trends. 2. Select Your Metrics Some of the most tracked recruiting metrics by organizations using recruitment analytics include cost per hire, time to hire, and retention rate. Companies might also choose to track the quality of hire, candidate quality, application completion rate, and more. 3. Visualize It Another built-in challenge with recruitment analytics is making sense of all the data you collect. While it’s great to be tracking the right data and metrics, it can be frankly overwhelming to try to understand what all of these numbers mean for your hiring process. One of the most valuable things you can do at this stage is to use visualization tools to better grasp the information and patterns hidden in your data. Visualization can help you identify easy opportunities to improve your hiring process and also spot trends. 4. Plan For the Future With Your Data Being able to plan for the future can give your organization an edge. If you cannot make predictions grounded in data about the future, you’ll be stuck in the position of always being reactive rather than proactive. With predictive analytics, you can make an educated assessment of how much money you will need to hire a new candidate, how much time it will take to fill a specific role, which sources have historically produced the highest quality candidates, and more. 5. Recognize the Limitations of Recruitment Analytics While recruitment analytics can be a revolutionary tool in your hiring process, it’s essential to recognize that this technology has its limitations. There will always be fewer quantitative factors that impact the job market that you might not be able to pick up on from simply looking at the data. For this reason, it’s important to incorporate data analytics into a larger recruitment process instead of solely relying on this technology as an all-inclusive strategy. 6. Optimize Your Hiring Process Once you have collected enough data to start seeing trends in your hiring process, the next step is to use that data and analysis to optimize your recruitment strategy. For example, your analytics might help you discover that your turnover rate is higher than desired. While recruitment analytics can help you identify this problem, you must take actionable steps to solve the problem. One of the best things about using data in the hiring process is that you can use these tools to get quantifiable results regarding whether the steps you’re taking are improving recruitment at your organization. By gathering actionable insights from your recruitment data, you can optimize your hiring efforts by making meaningful changes. 7. Get Some Perspective As you continue to collect and analyze recruitment data over time, it’s essential to zoom out to grasp a larger perspective on your hiring process. It can be easy to have tunnel vision when you’re focusing on filling specific open positions or positions that you anticipate will need to be filled in the near future. Your hiring team can benefit significantly from the longer-term analysis. This means tracking progress both month over month and year over year. You can then use this information to compare your progress against industry standards and your organizational and recruitment goals. Is your organization using recruitment analytics to improve its quality of hire? Did we leave anything out about how data can make the hiring process more effective and efficient? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below, and we’ll get a conversation started! We’d be more than happy to discuss the topic further if need be!