Best-Practices in Structuring Recruitment Funnels

Best-Practices in Structuring Recruitment Funnels Sponsored by Perengo A correct understanding of the application funnel helps employers to improve recruitment efforts by optimizing every stage of the process. Looking at how to improve the recruitment process, this lesson will explore: The candidate experience and how to leverage it to attract the right talent The application funnel and how to optimize it for conversions Best practices to improve conversions This article will explain how to increase application rates in your recruitment funnel. Application Funnel: Understanding and Optimizing the Candidate Experience User Flow: A Primer For employers, the user experience is a crucial element to attract the right talent. Online job boards and company application sites need to make it as easy and efficient as possible for job seekers to apply for open positions. Slow loading pages and lengthy application forms can drive potential applicants away. This is where the importance of UX in recruitment stands out. The user/customer experience translates directly into the context of the job seeker. A typical job seeker is someone with little time available to spend. Also, job seekers might have very specific goals and/or questions regarding available positions: Qualification and adequacy: what is the job and where is it located? Personal and financial interests: how many working hours and how does it pay? Ease of application (candidate experience): why and how to apply? Answering these questions up front facilitates the flow of candidates and potential hires through the application funnel, thus optimizing the job seeker experience. Application Funnel: A Lever That Recruiters Can Control Given the current context of job seekers it helps to keep certain aspects in mind when planning an application funnel: Reachability: smartphones are always around. With such a constant availability and high level of engagement from users, employers have a huge number of opportunities during the day of a job seeker to keep them flowing through the funnel. Mobile optimization: job application sites should function equally well regardless of the screen size they’re being accessed from (e.g. via responsive design; etc.). When this aspect is overlooked, applicant drop-off rates increase. Other equally important factors of mobile optimization include single input fields, automatically pre-filled values, step-by-step forms with progress bars, minimal forms, and avoiding drop-down menus. Logical information flow: applicants do not complete application forms for many reasons, dropping out of the funnel as a result. One way to minimize this risk is by establishing priorities in the information flow: the most important info should be requested first and, in the case of application forms, the priority is contact information. This way, if applicants drop off, they can be contacted later and brought back into the flow to continue with the application process.   A/B testing: the application funnel creates valuable data and can be applied to optimize recruiting efforts. By applying A/B testing techniques to the various steps, employers can continually improve both their candidate experiences and conversion rates. A/B testing is especially suitable for analyzing user behavior on application pages and forms. By comparing different versions of these pages and their interactive elements, employers can identify opportunities for improving the candidate experience. Best Practices: Identifying and Solving Issues With the Application Funnel When conducting an application funnel audit it helps to look first at funnel stages with significant drop-off rates. These can be indicative of some type of friction that needs corrective action. Examples of typical friction points include: Poor branding Sourcing problems Usability issues Ineffective hiring process Unattractive job offers These points of friction have a negative impact on the overall efficiency of the recruitment process as well as on the company’s ROI. This is why the funnel requires active management in order to constantly improve recruiting performance. Conversion rate optimization is a continuous process. To optimize mobile application funnels, employers need to: Identify all possible friction points (see above) Leverage available tools for A/B testing and analytics (Optimizely, Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, Perengo, etc.) Create variations of mobile pages and application forms, testing their performance with the A/B testing tools of choice Analyze the data from test results, apply all necessary changes to reduce friction, and continue testing for further improvements A carefully devised conversion rate optimization strategy can improve both recruitment and business goals. About the author:  Mike Kofi Okyere is founder and CEO of  Perengo, a programmatic recruitment platform for performance-conscious recruiters working for high-growth businesses and Fortune 1000 companies. Mike is applying his years of experience in the world of e-commerce and  adtech  to improving the world of recruitment through algorithms and machine learning. Previously, he served as the head of performance advertising for AdMob (SEA/AU NZ), before its acquisition by Google in 2010. At Google, he drove the strategy and execution for mobile display advertising as head of mobile advertising for Australia/New Zealand, and then head of mobile display advertising for Google Asia. Follow Mike  on  his  HR Technologist blog on Medium.

The Ultimate Route to Happiness Ms Career Girl

The Ultimate Route to Happiness Ms Career Girl We’re often bombarded with ideals about how to live our life. Lose weight now. How to land your dream job. How to find the perfect guy (and keep him). And on and on. It’s hard to know what we should focus on and what our priorities should be. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and you’re not sure what to do next, take a step back. Shut out all the external noise and listen to what your body is telling you. Follow our simple steps to a happy and healthy life. What Do You Want? In her book, The Desire Map, Danielle LaPorte encourages us to think about how we want to feel. Before defining goals and strategies, it is important to think about this. How do we want to feel in our relationships? How do we want to feel when we walk into work each day? Identifying those feelings and emotions can help us to determine what we want to do with our life. It’s so easy to allow ourselves to be pigeonholed. And we can fall into the trap of following a path because this is what we’re good at. Or worse, because it’s what other people want us to do. What do you want to do? And how do you want to feel? Think carefully about each area of your life and decide how you want to feel. This may change over the years, which is fine. It’s a good idea to repeat this process regularly. Look After Your Health We don’t appreciate our health until we become ill, or someone around us becomes ill. It’s something that we take for granted, especially when we’re young. Don’t take your health for granted. Eat a healthy and balanced diet and plan a regular exercise regime. If you need to lose weight, don’t put it off. Consider a simple plan like the 3x fat loss James Barbour program. Consistency is key. Follow these simple tips to staying healthy. Get Enough Sleep Make sure you get enough sleep each night. Lack of sleep has countless negative side effects. Some of these include loss of focus, stress, depression, weight gain and illness. At the absolute minimum, you’ll feel groggy and sluggish. Balance A happy life is often a balanced life. Sometimes it’s easy to pay too much attention to one area of our life. Unfortunately, this may be to the detriment of other areas. For example, we put all our energies into our career and our relationship slips. Or vice versa. Many articles and books have been written on the elusive work-life balance. It is difficult to do it justice in a few lines. For some tips on how to achieve this read this article  in The Guardian  and this one  in webmd.com. Identify your areas of focus and areas that need some attention. Come up with strategies to fix this. Work Out What is Important to You This is the part I can’t tell you. The trick to a happy life is to work out what is important to you. This will be unique to everyone. Once you have figured that out, you can put the necessary steps in place to achieve it. What matters to you? If money wasn’t an issue, what would you want to do with your life? If you could do anything at all for the next year, what would it be? I know you can’t drop everything and do this, but it will give you an insight into what is important. If you want to be happy, listen to what your body is telling you. Happiness Inst a Destination.  Its a choice. Image Source; Image Source; Image Source

4 Ways to Work Part-Time and Still Make Money - Classy Career Girl

4 Ways to Work Part-Time and Still Make Money My ability to earn has always been closely rivaled by my ability to spend.  So less work and more pay has always been high on my priority list.  However, for most of my 30s, depending on the week, I would work between 30 and 60 hours.   Then I had a baby.  He was premature and so tiny.  He was also super sensitive.  I couldn’t put him down.   Ever.  He would immediately start screaming and wouldn’t stop for anyone but me.  I got out of the shower to the sound of my baby screaming for 4 solid months. But I still had to pay for the nice house and the bucket loads of debt I had managed to incur.  Not working was not an option.  Working 40 hours a week was not an option.   I had to figure out a way to work less and still pay my bills. 4 Ways to Work Part-Time and Still Make Money 1. Be Self-Employed I haven’t had a real job (read traditional, with face time and a boss) in years.  But I’m pretty sure that if you have one, the powers that be expect you to work at it.  A traditional job also caps you at whatever your current salary is.  The primary key to working less and making more is being able to control your income flow by being self-employed.   Being self-employed is terrifying most of the time, especially at first.  You don’t get to bank on a paycheck every two weeks, but the cost of that paycheck is not cheap â€" it’s your freedom.  If you can live with the uncertainty, payday as a self-employed person when it finally arrives is usually much larger than the pittance your real job was paying you.  Besides, fear of being destitute is by far the best motivator out there.  You can leverage this fear into a successful career as a  self-employed person. 2. Be The Best There’s always a job for the best.  Spend your time being the best at what you do.  When you first start out, you spend a lot of unpaid time teaching yourself things.  The only thing glamorous about being the best is finally getting to the top.  Otherwise, it is time spent getting better.   It is much easier to be the best if you are in a job that is suited for your personality type.  Otherwise, since you are doing something you are not inherently good at, it will take much longer and the hours spent will feel more brutal than they have to. 3. Be The Most Fun Work is a drag.  Someone being unexpectedly funny is like a cigarette break â€" it’s delicious, it calms you down, and wakes you up, all at the same time.  Of course, no one really takes cigarette breaks anymore, which is even more of a reason for you to bring those elements to someone’s work experience.  Forewarning â€" this only works if you are also the best.  Otherwise, you run the risk of not being taken seriously.   One time a client and I had a big hearing.   It was over 45 million dollars and the future of his company.  He drove a Porsche.   You cannot drive your Porsche to a hearing in which you are claiming dire financial difficulties.  I met him at a gas station and we found a place to park the Porsche.  Which was more difficult than it would initially seem given that the town was a hellhole where no one would ever want to park their Porsche.  Instead of being furious (my first response), I somehow was able to appreciate the humor in the situation.  We won the hearing and he still talks about hiding the Porsche.   People hire people they like.  They stick with people they like, so be likable.  If you need help doing this, read The Art of Seduction.  I initially read it to attract men, but the principles work in any situation. [RELATED:  10 Steps To a Promotion (Without Working Longer)] 4. Never Explain Yourself None of my clients know that I work part time.  I work 10:00 to 3:00 four days a week.   If a client wants to schedule a call outside that time, I’m “not available,” “have a meeting,” or a “prior commitment.”  I do have a prior commitment â€" with my little man or maybe the laundry if I’m feeling ambitious.  I’ve been using this strategy for a year and it has not hurt business at all.  Instead, it makes me look busy and sought after.   The caveat is that you also must be flexible if the situation calls for it.  I was sending a fax at 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. (Yes, some people still communicate by fax â€" it’s ridiculous, almost like sending a telegram).  It wasn’t a big deal to me because my fax machine is downstairs.  It was a big deal to my client, who was incredibly grateful.  There are many instances where I make a call or respond to an email outside of my formal working hours.   I have managed to survive the first year of motherhood and pay my bills at the same time.  It wasn’t easy.  There were times when both were in serious doubt.  They still are in fact.  My kid is screaming as I write this.  I thought about adding another point about living with fear and doubt but then decided that fear and doubt were just part of life that everyone deals with no matter what their situation.  So I can’t say that I’ve overcome fear or doubt or anything that inspiring.  I have, however, paid my bills this month, which is something.  

How to Effectively Trap Value From the Internet

How to Effectively Trap Value From the Internet Many of us in the recruitment industry talk about consolidating talent data within our organisations. Sure, that may sound like a buzz phrase. But nothing is more important than bridging both, internal and external data, in today’s web-driven recruiting environment. In essence, such data consolidation allows recruiters to establish seamless ad hoc links between candidate data on any given website and the in-house talent database, and fuse them into a single and easy-to-navigate information pool. Why is data consolidation of crucial importance for recruiters? Because it empowers them to find, track and organise information across a wide range of sources, especially when it comes to tapping into a very desirable group of professionals â€" passive candidates. Unlike applicants submitting their CVs directly to recruiters, passive candidates are much harder to find: they are the professionals that may be a perfect fit for a role, but are not necessarily in the market for a job, and are likely happy and valued where they are. These candidates are lurking on thousands of different websites. Where can passive candidates be found? How about the ‘Our Team’ section of a company’s website? Or on a conference brochure listing the biographies of high-profile speakers and moderators? Or on numerous social and professional networks? Professionals found in this manner are often among the best in their fields, and they are the people that hiring managers often want access to. But until these passive candidates are ‘processed’ through an in-house recruitment system, they are just morsels of information ‘out there,’ and they are not really useful to recruiters. And that’s where we find the usual bottleneck in recruitment today: Many talent managers simply don’t have enough handling capacity to deal with such high volumes of data processing. What tools can recruiters employ to effectively bring in and reference external candidates against their internal databases? At Daxtra, we have a new product called Magnet, a Chrome browser extension that allows recruiters to literally ‘clip’ any professional profile from any website or even an offline document or email signature and match it against the in-house database. Let’s say you are a headhunter researching competitors’ websites, looking to fill a senior position. Using Magnet, you can instantly check any compelling bio found on a competitor’s website against your database. If the person is already on the database, Magnet will instantly display past history, contact details and interview notes. It will also allow you to add this person to a list against a job opening and make notes on the in-house recruitment system straight from the Magnet interface without having to switch windows. And if no match is found on the database, creating a new record is only a mouse click away. Tools like Magnet empower recruiters to avoid the source limitations that constrain virtually any search aggregator solution. Any profile from any source, anywhere and at anytime can be pulled from the Internet into the talent database, reducing administrative burdens significantly and building a well of actionable intelligence to draw from. Of course, the technology powering such tools must be able to operate within multiple styles of websites. This is crucial; otherwise recruiters will spend all of their time verifying and organising a jumbled mess of data into appropriate fields. To address this challenge, Magnet works according to the rules of the natural language in which the content of the website is written, which means that it extracts and sorts the information not within a vacuum but intelligently, according to the relevant context. With tools like Magnet recruiters can finally bring relevant information inside their organisations on demand, find candidates faster, and in turn, treat their recruitment database and the Internet as one large and consolidated information pool. And that, of course, means faster and more successful placements. Author bio:  Sergei Makhmodov is one of the original founders of Daxtra Technologies and has been in the talent technology space for over 15 years. He now runs Daxtra’s Asia and Pacific operations out of Hong Kong.

How to Write a Resume For a Flight Attendant - Learn the Simple Tips to Help You Decide If a Flight Attendant Job is Right For You

How to Write a Resume For a Flight Attendant - Learn the Simple Tips to Help You Decide If a Flight Attendant Job is Right For YouSo how do you write a resume that will grab the attention of the employers when they are reading your resume? The truth is there are a few simple tips that can help you make it stand out from the crowd. These tips are:In order to get the best outcome for your resume, include a general information section. This section should be long but not overly long. This section should contain your name, phone number, address, and email address.Information about you that relates to your job duties will be very beneficial in landing an interview. For example, some companies will ask for samples of work related to your previous position or the position you are applying for. You should include this information in your key words. This makes your resume more 'sticky' and more professional.If you are a flight attendant who has worked for a major airline, include the date of your flight on your resume. Many airlines require certain things to be on your resume. It is also important to include your full name. The date of your flight will give the employer a great idea of how much experience you have and how well prepared you are for your interview.A professional flight attendant should include a section on your resume that describes your education, training, and certifications. For example, one good option is to include your most recent certificate, diploma, or degree. When employers see this information they can immediately tell that you have the proper education and training.Always include the dates of the events that will affect your career in your resume. Some of these events may include promotions or salary increases. Provide an example of each inyour keywords.Work experience should be your main focus when writing a resume for a flight attendant. If you list only negative experiences, then you might find it difficult to get a job. Include as many pos itive items as possible. Use the words 'on the job training'internship.'If you want to know how to write a resume for a flight attendant, make sure you use the right skills. Follow these tips and you will improve your chances of landing that job. Get your dream job!

A Special THANK YOU Gift

A Special THANK YOU Gift A Special THANK YOU Gift A Special THANK YOU Gift March 10, 2009 by Career Coach Sherri Thomas Leave a Comment A Special THANK YOU Gift I’m delighted to say that Career Coaching 360 has been working behind the scenes to give you a FR*EE gift to help you manage your career. Starting today, we’re offering a FR*EE professional resume assessment to power up your resume and help put you in high demand with potential employers and clients. As a member of our exclusive Career Coaching 360 community, we’re offering YOU this special thank you gift for a limited time. Just send us your resume at: Service@CareerCoaching360.com with the subject line, “FREE Resume Assessment” along with a note about the types of jobs you’re looking to transition into. Then, one of our professional resume writers will review your resume and e-mail you back specific strategies we recommend that will help you POWER UP YOUR RESUME and stand above your competition! This is a special one-time only Thank You gift (a $39 value!) that we’re offering FR*EE for a limited time during the month of March! Finally, I always love to hear from you, and now it’s super easy to connect with me using , , , or by leaving a comment on the Career Coaching 360 blog. http://blog.careercoaching360.com/ Let us know if there’s anything we can do to support you in your career by visiting the website at www.CareerCoaching360.com, or by calling our toll free number: (877) 559-4533 To your success! Sherri Thomas

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

How Great Leaders Inspire Action I wasn’t sure what to expect from the YouTube video link that my daughter recently forwarded to me (“we watched this in class today and I thought you might like it”).   Well, it turned out to be great.   So great that it is worth sharing. It is Simon Sinek’s TEDTalk on why the most inspiring people and organizations (think Apple, Martin Luther King, Jr., the Wright Brothers) are so successful and influential.   Here is the video: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action My takeaways: There is power in purpose:  start with WHY you are doing what you are doing (rather than the WHAT and the HOW), which in turn makes it possible to attract others who share those beliefs, and to inspire them to act on this shared sense of purpose. There are two kinds of leaders:   those who lead through power and authority, and those who lead by inspiring us.   The latter is more powerful because those kinds of leaders get us to do it for ourselves.   And that is a powerful purpose. Tapping into your purpose allows you to be authentic, and makes you a more “sticky” leader because your followers are showing up for their beliefs, not just for you. To quote Simon Sinek, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. What you do simply is proof of what you believe.” Simon Sinek is a leadership expert and author of “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action”.  He also teaches Strategic Communications at Columbia University, and works with Count Me In, an organization committed to helping one million women-owned businesses reach a million dollars in revenues by 2012.