Hiring for Entrepreneurs: Why You Are Bad at it and What Tools You Can Use to Get Better
Entrepreneurs often don’t make great hiring decisions. Frequently they’re time-pressed and during interviews more interested in talking about their business than the candidate. Entrepreneurs need to have a clear vision of what they’re looking for in a candidate and figure out a plan to get the information they need. Will employee referrals be their primary path to candidates? Are they vigilant about interviewing references? What role do social channels play in recruiting? For entrepreneurs, it’s imperative to figure out a hiring strategy that works–and then stick to it.
Source: Peter Carbonara ( @PeterCarbonara / @forbessmallbiz )/Forbes
Culture, Capacity and Craftsmanship: How to Hire for a Startup
Hiring for early-stage companies can be more challenging than for older ones, because everything’s evolving and more fluid–the culture, the roles, the needs. It’s important to follow your gut instinct–to gauge whether there’s synergy between a candidate’s soft skills and your company culture. More concrete traits of great startup employees include capacity to learn, adaptability, willingness to pitch in and inclusivity.
Source: Jordan Ritter/TechCrunch
Why We Don’t Need to Reinvent the ATS
Applicant tracking systems have become a central aspect of the recruiting landscape over the last decade, and the more people that use ATS software, the more people that complain about it. No, your software isn’t going to have the elegant simplicity of a mobile app because it’s designed to address enterprise solutions on a much larger scale. Not all ATS software is going to have offer the same features, or create the same features equally well. Organizations have different needs, and need to prioritize accordingly. Simply put, ATS users need to manage their expectations.
Source: Chris Brablc ( @cbrablc )/TalentCulture
“You’re Not Our Kind of People” – Why Analytics and HR Fail Many Good People
There’s an increasing number of HR SaaS companies that offer predictive hiring analytics. This software examines former and current employees and seeks out common characteristics of long-retention and short-retention hires. Too often, companies rely exclusively on this software to weed out candidates; they don’t take the time to have hiring managers personally explore the candidate pool. This leaves organizations at risk of ending up with a serious lack of diversity. When it comes to hiring, there’s no substitute for the human touch. Hiring managers just need to learn how to ask the right questions in order to mitigate the inevitable human error.
Source: Brian Sommer ( @BrianSSommer )/Diginomica
Airbnb Paves the Way with New HR Role
The travel giant recently retitled its top human resources role from head of HR to chief employee experience officer. The change reflects the broader scope of activities encompassed by today’s HR professionals. Millennials don’t just look at work as their means of living–they’re looking at work more as their way of living. To further enhance and integrate into their employees’ lifestyles, some of the perks Airbnb offers include education programs, travel credits and paid time to volunteer.
Source: Nicola Middlemiss ( @NicMiddlemiss )/HC Online