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EMPLOYEE REFERRALS TOP SOURCE
A 1999 survey reveals the most productive sources according to recruiters.
THE COSTS OF TURNOVER
Do you know just how much it costs your company to lose a key employee?
THE DREADED INTERVIEW
Why do applicants have so much anxiety over interviewing?
SCANNABLE RESUMES
Recruiters need to educate applicants about how our expectations have changed.
THE COLLEGE HIRING FORECAST
The outlook for 1999 suggests an even more competitive market for college grads.
Project S.A.V.E., the Staffing Alliance of Virginia Employers, conducts an
annual survey of its membership to determine which sources produce the most
hires. For the past two years, employee referrals have taken the top spot,
replacing long-reigning print media advertising.
Until 1997, Internet recruiting was not even on the list as a recruiting source.
Then, in 1997, it emerged as a new source, particularly for high tech workers.
Last year, it moved up to the third most productive source behind employee
referrals and print media advertising. This year, it is second in productivity,
and third in utilization. Clearly, the Internet has become a forum for many
types of job seekers, not just the techies, and recruiters who seek to connect
with them.
Recruiters from 72 percent of the firms surveyed reported participation in
job fairs as one of their major sourcing techniques. Fourth in the productivity
rankings, job fairs continue to provide the means for companies to quickly
identify large numbers of active and available job seekers for their volume
hiring needs.
There continues to be a reasonably high dependence on the temporary and contractor
market as a means of identifying full-time job candidates. This is due in
part to the continuing desire by some managers to try- before-you-buy. But
it is also indicative of the limited availability of active job seekers in
a nearly full employment market place.
Direct, cold call recruiting, once considered unethical by corporate recruiters,
is sixth in the productive rankings, but is still only utilized by 51 percent
of the respondents.
Source / Rank / Used By
Employee Referral / 1 / 100 percent
Internet / 2 / 93.5 percent
Advertising / 3 / 95 percent
Job Fair / 4 / 72 percent
Complete survey results can be found under SURVEY
SAYS
In most companies today, recruitment and retention are often spoken in the
same sentence. And, if spoken by a senior member of management or a member
of the board of directors, it usually is voiced with grave concern. Even without
any standard measures, most people realize just how high the costs of turnover
can be when key employees leave.
A recent report issued by the Corporate Leadership Council pegged the cost
of losing a high tech worker at $123,000. In another survey conducted by Development
Dimensions International, the average replacement cost for an executive vacancy
was estimated to be approximately $675,000.
Certainly, every position and every company will realize a different impact
from turnover. Measuring the costs, however, are becoming more important as
management realizes that their competitive assets are their employees.
Costs which should be considered in the computation of the cost of turnover
should include: lost revenue and production; overtime replacement costs; recruitment
and acquisition costs to hire a replacement; training costs and under-production
during the learning curve.
Our estimates of these costs range from a minimum of $25,000 to over $500,000
per vacancy for most organizations. Take a look at your turnover rate. What
is it costing your organization? How much could you save if you cut your turnover
rate by just 1 percent?
Have you any idea what the person on the other side of the table thinks about
your company's interview process? Most job applicants won't give you an honest
appraisal because they are afraid it may jeopardize their chances of getting
an offer from you. But they are not afraid to tell their friends and fellow
job seekers. Now, that's something to be concerned about.
"The interviewer seemed more concerned about her needs than mine,",
lamented one job seeker.
The most common complaints we hear from job seekers about corporate interviewing
processes are: the lack of preparation by the interviewers - - "They didn't
read my resume"; the repetitive nature of all of the interviews - - "They
all asked the same questions"; and, the unrelated nature of the questions
asked - - "They wanted to know how I would determine how many golf balls it
would take to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool."
Applicants want to be treated with respect. They want the interview to be
a conversation, not an interrogation. A good interview should result in a
friendly exchange of information by both parties. Interviewers who do all
the talking are not interviewing, they are selling. Companies who run candidates
through a gauntlet of redundant interviews over several hours are seen as
insensitive, unorganized and unprofessional.
Today's tight labor market does not allow us the luxury of playing these kinds
of games. If we do not impress the applicant in the first interview, there
will be no second chance. Smart companies don't leave this all-important relationship
to chance. They have only their best, most-knowledgeable people recruiting
and interviewing.
"The people I met in the interview process convinced me that this was
the right company,", said one recent new hire.
Many companies have recognized that their managers have never been trained
in effective interviewing techniques and, therefore, tend to do what was done
to them by other untrained interviewers. This leads many of them to ask inappropriate,
unprofessional, or even illegal questions.
Breaking managers of these bad habits often takes more than just a couple
of hours of training on the do's and don'ts. It usually requires the introduction
of a systematic approach to interviewing and selection to include selection
profiles, interviewing guides with pre-planned questions, and selection team
decision- making sessions.
Give your managers the knowledge and tools they need to be confident, friendly
and professional interviewers. Your recruiting and retention rates can be
improved significantly with a small investment in interviewing and selection
training today.
IT'S NOT WHAT YOU ASK, IT'S HOW YOU ASK IT.
Avoid leading questions.
Instead of "Are you willing to relocate?" ask, "This position will require
a relocation to Northern Virginia outside Washington, DC. What problems will
that pose for you?"
Avoid theoretical questions.
Instead of "What will you do if you encounter that problem again?" ask, "What
have you done differently since you faced that problem?"
Make it easy for candidates to reveal negative experiences.
Instead of "What are your major weaknesses?" ask, "We all have had times when
we have not been particularly pleased with our own performance. Tell me about
a time when this has happened to you. What did you learn from it?"
Encourage the applicant to reveal his/her capabilities to you.
Instead of "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your skills as a
Java programmer?" ask, "Tell me about some of the programming projects you
have undertaken using Java. What problems did you have to overcome? End results?"
Start with the broad question, then drill down to the specifics.
Instead of "Were you fired or did you quit?" ask, "Why are you looking for
a new position at this time? Are you still employed? Under what circumstances
did you leave?"
With the information revolution, one would think that everybody would have
a current resume in a standard, readable, electronic format. Unfortunately,
we recruiters know that we have a long way to go before the world conforms
to our needs.
What we want: resumes formatted for easy and accurate scanning, containing
appropriate nouns and key words for searching, and stored in a common file
format for easy transfer from computer to computer.
What we get: graphics, tabs, boldface type, and non-traditional fonts on folded
or double-sided sheets of paper.
The world is going to be slow to change but we can help it along. We need
to do ourselves a service by offering free advice on resume preparation through
every forum available to us, including job fairs, college placement offices,
outplacement firms, on-line forums and career sites.
Here's what we should ask for:
- one-sided, 8.5 x 11, unfolded originals
-standard fonts, e.g. Helvetica or Arial
-wide margins around the text
-no graphics, shading, bold or italics
-no lines, tabs, parentheses or brackets
-no staples, if mailed.
There may be many career advisors on the Internet offering this information,
but most people don't seek it out, especially the ones who need this advice
the most. Let's find ways to give it to them.
The latest Job Outlook published by the National Association of Colleges and
Employers forecasts the demand for new college graduates will increase in
1999 by nearly 10 percent. This will be the fourth year of steady job growth
and demand for college educated workers. 1998 had the greatest increase with
over 20 percent increase from 1997 levels.
The greatest demand is expected in the service sector with a 20.6 percent
increase in hiring expected. The manufacturing sector, however, will actually
lose about 6 percent as more and more jobs go off-shore.
There are no surprises in the data when it comes to majors in highest demand.
The technical disciplines will still have the most opportunities, particularly
engineers and computer science majors. However, demand has been growing for
accounting and sales people as well.
From September, 1997, to September, 1998, starting salary offers for B. S.
engineers rose by 9 percent and B. S. computer science grads' salaries rose
by over 10 percent. For 1999, similar increases are likely.
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