Key Findings from the 2024 Talent Acquisition Trends Study

Everybody, I'm so glad to be here with you.
I'm Ben Eubanks. I'm, uh,
the Chief Research Officer for Lighthouse.
And it is my job, like all of you,
to understand why candidates make some
of the decisions they do, what we can do
to serve new employees.
They're coming to the organization.
I love using the research as a, as a method
to answer those kind of questions.
And I actually got my start in HR in recruiting.
So I recruited Black Hawk helicopter instructor pilots.
You can believe it. So I've done some of the hard work
that all of you're doing, trying to dig through, trying
to attract, trying to convert.
I've done all those kinds of things
and now I get a chance to help serve all of you
with the research we produce.
And so I'm thrilled to be here with you, Mike,
because we're gonna dive into some fun stuff today,
share some data, have some good conversation around this.
Why don't you tell the audience
more about who you are, what you do.
Uh, Mike kpi, I'm the director of product Globalization
for Hi Bob, which is essentially a fancy, fancy title.
That means I help with our vision
and strategy for our product.
Um, I've been with Hi Bobb, uh,
for a little over three years.
Um, but I've been in the HR tech space for over 20,
so I am glad to be here.
I think I've, I see some familiar names, uh, in the chat,
so I've probably met you at some event
or, uh, you know, in person somewhere.
So, uh, thanks for joining us today
and, uh, let's engage and have some fun.
All right, awesome. Before we get into
stuff, so you got a poll? Yes, there you go.
I was gonna mention the poll, Ben.
So before we, we do that, we just want to do a simple poll,
and really if you, you know, about us or not.
Um, so thank you for, uh, engaging with the poll.
All right. I'm so excited about this one, Mike.
It's, it's fun because talking about talent
acquisition is, is always exciting.
'cause all of us have been a candidate at one point,
so we see things from that side.
And it, I'll say,
it breaks my heart sometimes when I talk to hr.
I talk to recruiting leaders
and they're, they're talking about their own experiences
as the candidate going through things
and being like, listen, if I worked
for that company, it would look different.
It would feel different. So I'm hoping today as we're going
through this, we can give them some good tools,
some good takeaways and things to help them,
lemme think differently about that.
Get some better outcomes overall.
Absolutely. All right.
Gonna give the whole, just another seconds and done.
Okay, perfect. Alright, we're ready to dive in.
So here's how we're gonna structure it today.
I'm gonna go through, and I'm
gonna share some of the data with you.
I'm gonna talk through some of the key findings in the
research, some of the things that, that we think are
interesting, notable big themes
and trends, things like that.
And then we're gonna transition, and Mike
and I are gonna have sort of a fireside chat.
We're gonna talk through some of the big ideas
and topics, things that we're seeing.
And at that point of the conversation, we would love for you
to be, again, engaged in the chat,
bring your questions, bring your ideas.
We want you to be part of this overall.
We don't wanna talk at you.
We wanna talk with you through this.
And, uh, after we finish that portion, we'll take questions.
We'll, we'll dive into that and,
and try to wrap up right on time today
so everybody can get back to their day.
So we've got a lot of good stuff in front of us.
Let's go ahead and dive into
that really quickly about the research.
Here's what you can expect. So we surveyed employers.
We have over 1200 of those companies responded to this.
Some of you may have been response
respondents to this survey.
And if so, thank you. Um, answering about
what are the biggest trends around talent
and acquisition, your challenges, your priorities, all of
that good stuff, as well as a thousand candidate responses.
So when we're citing this today,
we didn't ask 10 of our best friends.
We, we went out there and did a really serious in-depth
piece of research on this to understand what's going
on and what's changing there.
And you'll notice, I, I just said a minute
ago, we want you chiming in.
I'm gonna give you a chance right now to chime in.
So I wanna hear from you. I've already seen you in the chat,
Zach queued all of you up, so I know you'll be engaged.
So I'd love to hear from you.
Go ahead and drop this in the chat while
we're getting started here.
What is the hardest job
that you have to fill at your company?
I don't, I've heard everything
by the way, in recent, in recent weeks.
Everything from like very, very specialized doctors
and things in the medical field to people
who are literally digging ditches.
It's like this whole range of skills
and types of roles, everything else.
So I'd love to hear from some of you what those things are.
Just to give you an idea as we're going
through the conversation today,
it'll help me think about the kinds of companies I'm talking
to, the leaders I'm talking to some
of the challenges that you're facing.
Okay, excellent. Lots of things in technology fundraising.
My goodness. People in nonprofit fundraising,
they are real champions, professors, executives.
Okay. Forklift drivers. See us all ends the spectrum.
There's not one or the other. Okay. Investors.
Investigators. Sorry. Clinicians. Okay, wonderful. Alright.
Alright, great. Thank y'all for chiming in there.
So, as we can see here,
it's not like everybody's got this down
and we just got one field
or one specific type of job that's hard to fill.
There's a whole range of roles that are difficult
for employers to, to figure out.
And I've been doing a lot
of research on this in the last year or two to dive into it
and share more about how to recruit, how to retain,
and how to keep the best people.
So today we're gonna give you some,
some data on that and help you out.
So to start off, I'm gonna talk about three
of the big challenges we're seeing in the research
that are plaguing employers
that are holding them back right now.
So, number one, creating predictability in hiring
in some areas of our life, we like a little bit of spice,
a little bit of unpredictability.
Uh, we were chatting before we started recording today,
Mike told us he's a little bit of renegade.
Sometimes he pushes the boundaries in a, in a positive way.
But when it comes to hiring, we want predict predictability.
We wanna know what to expect
because our hiring managers wanna know what to expect.
We wanna know when that job's gonna be filled.
And yet the majority
of companies tell us they have trouble forecasting
and looking ahead and figuring out
how many people if they're gonna hire.
And one of the things we've seen the data is things like
recruiting automation can help with that,
but can also create more problems.
We make it really easy for people to apply to jobs.
Suddenly we have more people to
sift through and sort through.
And increasingly we're seeing some problems
with candidates using some tools that make them, uh,
make all their resumes start look the same.
I'll talk more about that in a little bit,
but that's, that's one of the big
problems is that predictability.
Piece number two is actually measuring this.
When it comes to measuring the outcomes in hiring, many
of us rely on things like time to fill.
That's not a bad thing inherently,
but that's the only number we're using.
It doesn't tell us about the quality, the impact,
the results that we're having on the organization.
So many companies struggle, as we've seen in the data
to figure out what's going on in hiring.
'cause they have a little bit of the data over here,
or someone's keeping a spreadsheet over here,
or their a TS capture some of it, but not all of it.
Or they're using a partner
and they submit
through their own channels, things like that.
That makes it really hard to see the one source
of truth for what's happening.
It makes it hard for them to report back
to their leadership team and share with them.
Um, and then last but not least here, disparate experiences.
Is that kind of key down this a little bit earlier,
but we see this like, here's what it looks like for the,
the recruiting, like high touch, high support, white glove.
And then you get in the organization
and it may not be quite the same
or that experience as you're going through the process,
you're attracted, but as they're trying to to get you
through the, the application,
it's not quite candidate friendly we'll say.
So a lot of companies are struggling
there, struggling with onboarding.
And we're gonna talk through, again, some
of these big trends, some of the things,
and try to get you some good ideas based on the data, on
what you can do differently.
So when we ask employers across the board,
these are some big trends, but we ask them,
what are their priorities in the coming year?
What are you focusing on most?
And in a survey about hiring, one of the things
that surprises me is when the audience comes back
and says the number one thing is the very tail end
of the hiring process as we're easing them into the
employment situation, it's onboarding number one.
It jumped more places than any other response this year.
So you see here not just the top six answers,
but also the relative change from last year.
So onboarding jumped all the way up to number one.
It's a big priority for employers as we'll see in some
of the data points we share in a little bit.
Many companies are struggling
to put this into practice in a way that's meaningful
to every single person.
And if you're one of those companies
that suddenly has had remote or virtual
or hybrid work kind of thrown in your lap in the last few
years, that creates more complexity.
It's not as simple as welcoming someone in the front door,
sitting 'em down in their chair, and moving on from there.
Companies are also thinking about recruit marketing.
I was talking to a leader, a TA leader this morning,
and he was telling me that their team is really struggling
with how to compete with bigger companies.
He's like, we don't have the budget of these really
large retail companies.
We're trying to figure out how to compete.
So what can we do to stand out?
How can we market our brand
and talk about our culture in a way that appeals to
and attracts the right people who, whose values align
with our organization as well?
Candidate experiences up there.
Diversity inclusion has been in the top five,
top five priorities for several years now.
So all of these are, are big things.
One of the other ones that pops up in here,
and some of you may have mixed feelings on this.
One, is the hiring manager relations.
So many of us struggle with how to get along
with our hiring managers, how to have clear communications,
how to make sure that the things we're working on,
the things that they would want us to work on
as HR and talent leaders.
So that one has always been up there as well as a,
as a priority because we try to figure out how
to create more clarity, how
to create more connections there with those leaders.
All right, Mike, I'm gonna surprise you here.
I'm gonna throw this out at you and it's okay if you
don't, how you answer.
I wanna, I wanna see, um, you're gonna represent the
audience here, so I'd love to get an idea from you.
How long do you think it takes someone
to know if they're gonna stay at your company? Thoughts?
I'm, I'm gonna say it's a short, short time.
I mean, I would say within the first 60 days maybe.
Okay. It shorter than that actually. So even faster.
Like you're giving some grace there.
You're like, okay, we're gonna have some, some leeway.
So what we see in the data is two out of three candidates
tell us that they know if they're gonna stay at a job in the
first week on the job, the first five days.
So there, there's a lot of pressure on us as employers,
and that's one reason we see employers focusing
so much on the onboarding piece.
That's my, my hypothesis here anyway,
because candidates are telling
us, I'm gonna know pretty quickly.
And increasingly many of them are juggling multiple offers.
So if it doesn't work out the first couple days,
I'm outta here and I'll go work with someone else.
And we, I saw several people, um, I think Lisa was one
of the ones that commented earlier saying
problems with ghosting.
One of the things that her company's struggled with,
and some of you may have struggled with the same kind
of thing we see in the data that more
and more candidates are saying, Hey, even though I accepted
that offer, I'm still gonna keep my options open
for in case something else comes up anywhere from a few
weeks until I'm never really fully
committed to this company.
So that, that really reinforces the importance
of transparency and focusing on culture
and some of the other things that Mike
and I will talk about in a little bit.
Those things are gonna be so
important in that kind of environment.
'cause you've gotta stand out from all the other companies
that are out there now on this onboarding piece.
Here's an actual data point for you.
So when we're thinking about what your process looks like,
there's a couple different maturity levels,
we'll call it here, right?
From the we're compliant, we've got your tax documents,
we've got your government forms, all that good stuff,
your policy sign-offs,
and that's it to this middle tier, which is,
hey, we're, we're just kind of engaging.
We're we're connecting with resources with people,
all those good things, but it's not
really, it's not really great.
Okay? It's not really personalized or tailored.
And then only 15% of companies say
that we are fully personalizing this.
It's supporting that individual,
it's making sure they're
connected to the work they're doing.
They feel like you're part of the right organization,
they see a path ahead, all of those things that matter
to an individual.
And in a bit we'll talk about, again, more about onboarding
and how to really tailor that.
But this one helps me.
If I'm thinking about what my priorities are as a leader,
as, as one of you, I'm talking to my own leadership,
what can we do in onboarding?
How can we invest in this? What sort
of structure do we need to have here?
Do we need to be doing these things asynchronously
and spend our face-to-face time
on things that are more important?
Like building connections, building relationships,
not just repeating policies they could have read off prior
to even showing up on day one.
So we gotta be really careful
and strategic about how we're using that time
because if we're, if we're not doing it quickly,
we're not doing it properly that
that clock is ticking down, right?
That five day clock is ticking down
for two outta three people, and they may decide
that this company isn't really the right one
for them if we don't do the right things to connect
with them right off the bat.
And one of the other, one of the other things you saw on
that, that list of top six was, uh, recruiting automation,
ai, it's a big conversation.
It's a lot of things happening there.
And I wanna share something that candidates are doing
because I love sharing this with, with leaders like you,
because I often get that sort of
look on your face when you see this
because it's so, so, so surprising.
So one of the tools that candidates have out there
that they can use is this thing called final round ai.
And there are other ones, this is the only one,
but let's say that Mike is interviewing me for a job
and we're doing it over on, over on Zoom.
And Mike asked me a question about a time
that I was leading a team through a struggle.
That algorithm sits there and listens to the question
and then across my screen just gives me a teleprompter
to read back the answer to Mike without me having to think
of or prepare for the interview at all.
It just tells me the answer to give him the answer
that's most likely to help me get
through the interview and get the job.
If that's worries you just a little bit,
it probably should see candidates are using tools like Chad,
GBT and others to change their resumes
to look like the job posting.
And they're using those things to try
to position themselves better in the hiring process.
And we can argue that's cheating,
that's brilliant use of technology.
That's a debate for another time.
But if they're using these tools, employers are gonna have
to think about how we're using automation, how we're using
smart, intelligent hiring solutions,
or we're gonna fall behind.
We're gonna struggle with this.
I was in North Carolina about two weeks ago talking
to a leader and she said a year ago about two outta 10
of our resumes coming in, we could tell, have been kind
of doctored using chat GBT.
She said, now it's about eight outta 10.
And we have trouble figuring out
because they look almost exactly the same.
All of them come out looking very similar.
And it makes it hard for us to filter through
and find the right candidates.
It's a real struggle. So here's the
actual data point on this.
How companies are sort of fighting back,
what sort of tools they're using.
So you may be using some of these, all of these, none
of these, it's hard to tell right here.
But if I'm giving you some, some encouragement on this,
it's, we should be using something, we should be using these
and not spending all of our time
churning through the busy work.
We need to focus on the human connection and recruiting.
And the good thing is when we're using any sort
of automation, any sort of intelligent tools, any sort
of ai, which, whatever you wanna call it,
it gets us closer to people.
Say, I don't know about you,
but I did not get into recruiting
because I wanted to look through a stack of 150 resumes or
because I wanted to, you know, do some of those kinds
of things like scheduling, interview, follow up
and then rescheduling, interview follow ups
and the hiring managers out unexpectedly
and all those kind of things.
Those aren't the reasons we do it.
We do it because we wanna help
someone find a career that matters.
We do it because we want to help the company attract
and have the very best talent possible.
We do it because we'll have an impact on our community,
helping people find jobs that are meaningful.
Like those are the things that really appeal to us.
And the tasks that you typically see here on the left aren't
really feeding into that very well.
So we need to spend our time on those things that do matter,
that do add value,
and let's use some of these other things to,
to schedule the interviews, those kinds of things.
Let's hand that stuff stuff off so we can focus on what,
what really does add, add some value for the candidates
and as for us as well, some career enjoyment, if you will.
Now there's actually, excuse me,
there's actually a quick story I wanna tell you about, uh,
everybody's favorite online retailer.
They did this experiment a few years ago,
and I wanna see if this, if this creeps you out just a
little bit, I want you to chime in the chat and tell us why.
Okay? So Amazon was struggling
to find some talent in one of its key markets.
And so they put this algorithm together that said, okay,
Ben applies for this job.
Ben's got a bachelor's degree in engineering,
or he spent two years at Google,
so he's preliminary qualified.
So that as that algorithm would send me an assessment,
let's take this coding assessment, see how good you are.
I pass the coding assessment. No, you know, good score.
That algorithm then sends me a job offer at the current
market rate without me talking to a hiring manager, manager
interacting with a recruiter.
No contact with a company at all.
Okay, breathe that in for a second.
Now, if that makes you feel a little bit creeped out
or a little weird, chime into the chat, tell me why, tell me
what sort of things that could be missing if we're using an
algorithm to just automatically screen
and pick someone, make the offer without them ever having an
interaction with any of us.
I'll tell you one of the ones that,
that comes up pretty regularly.
Okay? We've got some good questions,
some good comments coming in.
Okay. No human connection fraud.
Yes, April, we're actually seeing a, a bunch of problems
with candidate fraud right now.
I was talking to a friend with
Southwest Airlines the other day about that.
The human element. Mary, yes. How about this?
Would any of us wanna work for a company
that spent exactly zero time trying to connect with us,
trying to build a relationship?
Probably not. We're missing that human connection.
We're missing the culture piece.
We're missing all these kinds of things.
How about this Jessica? Emotional intelligence. Yes.
So how about this?
I don't know if you've ever seen this resume.
I mean, no one on the resume says, you know what, I,
I don't really work well with others.
I don't like working on teams.
Don't ask me a question before nine o'clock on Tuesday
because I haven't had a third coffee yet.
No one says those things and
yet they're, they really happened.
So maybe you've got this resume
and you're like, wait a minute,
this person wants to work with us.
Like, oh, this is so exciting,
I can't wait for 'em to show up.
This is gonna be thrilling.
And the person shows up for the interview
and you're like, oh gosh, what happened?
Like, what did I miss? There was some red flags
or something like, this is a real problem.
So we miss things. We're just looking at a resume,
we're missing the human piece.
And I know that's a part of what Mike
and the whole team at Hi Bob, they spent a lot of time
and effort doing that on the, the employee side.
They've started doing that on the candidate side as well,
thinking about how to connect those dots, right?
We're missing that piece, the human connection as all
of you shared right there.
Okay, I'm gonna share one or two more stats with you
and then if you wanna skip over
and, uh, start, start some conversation with Mike.
'cause I wanna make sure we have plenty of time to get
through that, that fireside chat portion.
So here's some data for you on the candidate side.
We talked a little about the employer, your perspectives
as leaders, here's what the candidates are telling us when
we ask them what matters most.
This is their ranked list and how it compares to last year.
As you can tell those top, those top three
or four, five all were important last year
and they kept on edging out
more and more important this year.
So knowing what the starting pay is,
they don't wanna get three conversations in
and find out that it's not a
match for what they're expecting.
They want an application process
that doesn't make them wanna pull their hair out.
They want a company that says, Hey,
we don't wanna just hire you for a dead end, JOB,
we wanna hire you for the long term.
We have a vision for your success here.
We wanna help grow you
and help you be even more valuable in your career long term.
And people are looking for those things
and candidates are telling us over and over.
By the way, for those of you that mentioned things like I
hire forklift drivers and things like that, people who have
to be physically present on a job, those frontline workers,
when we ask frontline workers, what's number one for them?
That one about commitment
to helping them grow is number one,
that's their biggest priority.
So many of them take a job with a manager that says, Hey,
don't worry, we'll talk about that.
What's next for you? Your next career step at
your six month review?
And that time comes and goes
and there's that conversation never comes up.
They lose the leverage to have that conversation
because they've accepted the offer.
So for those individuals, that's number one, they want
to have that conversation right up front.
They wanna know what's happening there.
Okay, so I'm gonna, yeah, let's go ahead.
We'll transition over here. I've got a good story I wanna
share later on in the conversation, Mike, if we get a,
if we get a moment, uh, free before the que q and a,
but let's go ahead and, and dive in.
We're gonna talk about some of the things that,
from the data, from the research, from stories,
from customers, all that good stuff.
We're gonna give you some solutions, some strategies,
some ideas, things that you can put into practice.
You've seen some of the data.
Now we're gonna have some conversation here.
So I'm gonna throw this first one to you, Mike,
and let you let you answer first.
Then we'll, we'll kick it back and forth a little bit.
So our first question, we saw this come up already from some
of the audience mentioning it,
but how can we reduce candidate
ghosting? What's top of mind for you?
Wow, this, this is definitely a big, big topic.
And in fact, I think, you know, we all could agree that,
you know, ghosting is,
is really much more than just an inconvenience.
Um, but what we've learned in talking to organizations that,
you know, it could also be a sign
that there are potential issues within the organization
or the hiring process itself.
Um, we found that candidates believe the number one reason
the hiring process drags on too long, um, is not,
is actually due to the hiring policies
or process rather than, um, individual delays, um,
from the recruiter or the hiring manager.
Um, we also learned that 70%
of candidates say they frequently
or occasionally experience frustration
during the hiring process, compounding the matter, right?
Your hiring managers are doing a full-time job.
And so how do we make it easy for them, um,
to participate in the process, to help lead the process
and for that process to run smoothly.
Um, recently we've been having conversations around,
you know, you know, starting with something simple like
how do you communicate
or more specific, what is your communication style?
What does the candidate prefer, right?
Traditional methods like email
and phone calls are, are not working as well
as they used to in the past.
And I am very, very guilty of this.
If someone calls me
and I do not recognize the number, I don't answer it.
And if you don't leave a voicemail, I don't call you back.
Um, and so I'm guilty of that.
And, and personally as a hiring manager, I found text to,
to be much better communication tool.
It's, you know, so I'm, I'm starting to use,
I'm texting a lot and then hiring a across the pond,
you know, I'm using WhatsApp quite a bit.
Um, another thing that I think organizations are looking
to do is, you know, looking at the tools
that they're using, right?
So, you know, you know, one system that includes hiring,
onboarding, HR with an interface that's really easy.
Um, a way to optimize workflows
and then continue to refine those,
those workflows help in reducing, um, frustrations help
with finding those areas that we can optimize.
And at the very least, if you,
if you don't have one system today
that does all of that, right?
Um, you know, you, you've gotta sit back
and review the process often to find those efficiencies.
And I am again, guilty of this, where, you know,
work can sometimes get in the way your head's down,
you're going through the process, you have, you, you need
to take care of some things today.
And it's hard to step back
and look at the big bigger picture
to try to make improvements.
And so one start simple, how are we communicating?
We can fix those types of things.
Uh, and then at the bigger picture is, you know, what,
where can we, we find those efficiencies
and put in some, uh, some put in a, a better process, uh,
you know, to, to help candidates stay engaged.
Yes, absolutely. Um, so that, that's a good tie in Sarah,
or sorry, April actually just mentioned
like surveying applicants.
Like see how that's going. One of the things we see in the,
in the research April, is we, we asked candidates,
have you ever, would you want
to respond if a company asked you to?
70% of them? I think 75% said yes.
Have you ever been asked by an employer? 70% said no.
So many of them want to, they're open to it,
but they're not getting a chance
to chime in for the employers.
I was working with a company last year, um,
a Canadian organization and they actually do three,
three quick surveys, like two or three questions each.
I think the post-hire one's a little longer,
but the first one is
after you've had a conversation with them,
after you've had an interview with them.
And then if you're hired, ultimately you get that final one.
And after the interview clo or the rep closes, they, anyone
that did get hired also gets a, Hey,
what could we have done better sort of thing.
So they're getting a little touch point across the entire
process instead of just saying, Hey,
Mike got hired, let's see what he has to say.
Because it's gonna be positive and, and nice
and not very helpful for us from a process standpoint.
So there's a company, sorry, there's one
of the things in the data we see to your points, Mike,
as you're sharing there, you talk about the process being
the thing that, that drags us out.
When we look at the reasons candidates tell us they ghost,
two of the top three reasons come down to speed.
Mm-Hmm. So the hiring process took too long,
or the company, um,
the hiring process took too long or I accept another offer.
So those sorts of things make it hard
for us if we're dragging that out
or letting hiring managers say, no,
we've gotta have a five step high.
Okay? Just know that the people
who are gonna be leaving the process are gonna be
the very best ones.
The people who have lots of options, lots
of people seeking them, they're the ones
who are gonna bail out of that long process.
The ones who are maybe not this high quality of candidate,
they're willing to stick around, have more patience
'cause they're not as in demand.
So that's a really, really big one.
And one of the other things, I know we'll talk about some
Mike in the conversation going on,
but how we communicate with candidates,
the number one reason candidates ghost is
because once they learn more about the company,
it's not what they thought it was.
It's not really that a place they wanna work.
And I'm like, that's kind of okay.
I'd rather know before we hire them,
before I have three
conversations in, they're not interested.
But I know that's important for you
and, you know, highball, like sharing your culture, sharing
what you're about, y'all do a great job of
that out in the community.
So no one should be surprised when they show up, like
what y'all are all about and how you believe.
Exactly. Absolutely.
I think, Kevin, I think, you know, Kevin,
you said it best is, you know,
ghosting happens everywhere, right?
Yes. It happens with cabinet, it happens with employees,
it happens recruiters, like it happens everywhere.
And I think, you know, just understanding, you know,
some methods on reducing ghosting
or making sure that communication is done in a much better
way, um, is the, is the right thing to do.
Yes. Someone said is a multi-step interview process good?
Yes. The candidates that we survey actually tell us that
anything beyond three touchpoint.
So if you have a phone screen, I have an interview,
I have a follow up, they say that's enough that we don't,
they don't need four or five, six.
I talked to a company recently that does 12 rounds
of interviews, and that made me want
to just punch myself in the head
because I can't imagine doing that to someone.
So candidates say
that if someone makes less than $50,000 a year,
so if you're hiring someone for an hourly role, more
of a manual labor position, things like that,
they say two touch points is enough.
So there should be some expectation
there for hiring an executive.
Yes, we'll probably have more touch points with them,
but if someone who's coming in to do some a little more
of a basic role, they don't need this screen
to the nth degree, let's just check them out
and let them get to work and
get outta their way, essentially. Yeah. I
Think one of, one of the other things around
around ghosting that we've learned is that if you share,
you know, what's expected within the process
with a candidate, and then you change that process, right?
Hey, this is gonna be a three step process.
Here's what it it's going to look like.
Here are the people you're gonna talk to,
and then all of a sudden you add another step
or you change another step, um, you know,
this affects the, the candidate.
Now they're thinking, well, you know, are,
do they really do what they say?
Do they really do what they mean?
And so it's, it's caused a lot of discussion, you know, uh,
you know, in, not just in on my team,
but with organizations that we talk to is, hey, let's,
let's, let's do what we say, right?
If you have a process, let's stick to it.
If there's a change, tell them why it's a change, right?
Just don't say, here's the change
because that, that could affect the,
the candidate thought process on joining your organization.
Excellent. Great takeaway there. And great recommendation.
Just being transparent. Being open share. Okay, be human.
How about that? That's maybe no surprise for us. Okay.
All right. So next up hiring metrics.
What metrics are most important?
How do we get buy-in on that?
How do we get our leadership to really wanna see these be
looking at these, be asking about
these, how can we build that hunger?
Any suggestions or thoughts on that one, Mike?
Yeah, you know, I think we all know hiring metrics are
really essential to any hiring strategy, right?
They're used to track and manage
and they're used to, to optimize, uh, our hiring strategy.
Um, but one thing we learned is that, you know,
it's really the collecting
and processing of that data that's really the true hassle.
It is the challenge.
I still hear from organizations
that they're using spreadsheets to track hiring data, right?
It's a manual work around, um, they don't trust the,
the actual data, right?
Because they found mistakes or it's not compliant.
Um, and so it's hard to accurately track the data
or look for trends and patterns accurately.
And so we need, you need a, an a system
or a tool that's much better.
And fact, we also found that 75% of teams struggle
to accurately forecast their hiring needs,
and 58% of those missed their hiring plan last year.
So when you think of that,
that put the overall business plan at risk.
And so, you know, how do we get that insight?
And so when you think about
what hiring metrics are most important, we're hearing,
you know, it is did we forecast accurately
and did we hit that forecast?
And if we missed if we were up
or low, what were the reasons behind it?
So we can continue to optimize, uh, in areas
or find efficiencies, uh, to, to better gain, uh, you know,
the, the proper, uh, metrics that we want to hit.
Yes, I agree with you.
I I like the optimization piece you mentioned there
because it's not just knowing what's happening,
but once we have some idea of the numbers, we can say, well,
that's actually better than the industry average.
We should, how do we replicate
that across some our other areas?
Or we're, we're twice as slow
as the benchmark we have from a year ago.
What happened? What's going on here?
What is slowing this down and
how can we speed it back up again?
Right? So not just, not just knowing where you are,
like a snapshot, but seeing this full cycle
and being able to use that for, for a process improvement.
There's a, so I just posted this in the chat,
but the number one thing that when we ask leaders like you,
what proves your value back to the business?
It's not how fast you do it.
It's not the cost per fill, it's the quality of hire.
Am I bringing in the people who are producing the work
to bring in someone that's able to get up to speed quickly
and start performing on the job?
So we ask employers a, a layer deeper,
how do you actually measure that?
'cause quality of hire can feel a little bit amorphous.
Then the top three things are they stick around
once they join us, they don't leave 30 days later,
they stick around, they perform well as a new hire,
and then their hiring manager that brought them in.
When we check with them, they're actually satisfied.
Like, yes, we made the right choice.
So couple of our vectors there
that show us we're picking the right people.
One of the problems with quality of hire is that
unless you're hiring someone
on your team, you don't own that.
So the hiring manager, so that's one reason
that hiring manager relations one of the top six priorities.
That's one of the things that comes up over and over again
because we don't ultimately make that choice for them.
We can influence, we can direct, we can guide,
but we can't say, Hey, make this choice.
Mike is the right guy. Pick him.
Mary's the right lady, pick her.
We can't do those kind of things. We have to influence them.
So that's one of the reasons quality of hire is both great
and very challenging as a metric.
'cause we don't control those kinds of things and,
and make the ultimate decisions at the end.
Yeah, and I think, I think you said that
that it, right, Ben, right?
It's, it's influence.
I was talking to, to a Bob user, uh, this past week.
And, and I, this topic came up
and I said, Hey, how, how do you get buy-in?
And she said, what do you mean?
And I said, well, if you need to make changes
to your process, you need new tools.
How do you get buy-in? She goes, I, she goes, it's not
that I need to get buy-in, it's if I show the data
and I show that we've missed
or did not accurately forecast this, this is the hot topic,
this is what the c-suite is talking about.
And so it's not that I have to get buy-in,
but I need to really prove to them why we, you know,
here's why we, what's happening today.
And then we need to focus on these specific areas.
And so it was just an interesting conversation.
'cause it's not a, it's not a how, it's,
it's actually a when, when do you need to, to have
that conversations with, you know, the business and, and,
and, and then focus on, on that
to make sure you're doing the right things. Mm-Hmm.
Yes. Goodness. Okay. All right.
I'm trying to watch the time trying to keep us to that.
So let's, we're gonna go to the next one here.
Again, we could spend a lot of time on this.
If there's something, one of these topics
that you wanna get deeper into Mike's contact information
and mine will be at the end that we can dive more into that.
One of the questions I wanna touch on really quick
before we go, that is several people mentioned,
I didn't get the names, I apologize at the beginning,
but we're asking about priorities.
Several, you mentioned diversity, hiring,
some of the things there.
So we have a little bit of data on that.
We have the top 10 ways companies
are actually trying to support that.
So if you wanna see it, happy to share that out with you.
I don't have it, didn't have it in the deck here today,
but I have that top 10 from our research last year on
how companies are trying to solve for that.
And, uh, so happy to share that list out
with you if you wanna see what those look like.
Okay. So next question up.
I'm, I'm like pitching a match you,
Mike, like, as fast as I can get through.
So, uh, transparency hiring process is a lot of pieces.
You hinted at this earlier.
We talked about we make a change.
We need to be open and share about that.
How else can we support transparency
and make that a priority in the hiring process?
Yeah, this one is definitely a, a big topic, right?
And, and I think there's a lot of organizations struggling
with this, a lot of teams struggling with,
you know, what does this really mean?
And so I think it starts with, you know,
just answering the question,
what makes the hiring process transparent?
Like what is it, right? We all know transparency is the,
the clarity, integrity,
and fairness, you know, from the organization.
And, you know, to that fact, we expect the candidate to,
to do the same, right?
We expect candidates to be honest and forthcoming.
And, and so transparency takes a central role regardless.
And, you know, and when I talk to organizations, I,
I usually start, uh, with something simple like, um,
job descriptions, right?
And I say, are your job descriptions clear? Are they honest?
Do they include, um, the hiring criteria that's needed, uh,
to perform the job?
Right? It sounds simple, right?
Then you start asking more questions.
Well, how, you know is do you have a job catalog?
And where, where does that sit?
And more often, yes, you know,
organizations have a job catalog, um,
but it needs to be updated.
That's what I hear all the time.
Oh, but we need to be updated.
Oh, we haven't really looked at it.
Oh, we, you know, there's, there's so many things happening.
And so I think transparency starts with the simple things
of, you know, are the descriptions clear and honest?
And does it include the criteria that that is needed, right?
And then do you have a process for continu
continual refinement of those things?
Things are gonna change all the time.
So you, you definitely need that process.
And then we started having these conversations about,
you know, does your EVP match reality?
Uh, and I am very, very guilty of this as a hiring manager.
You know, you have a candidate, they're a cultural fit,
a cultural ad, you really want them,
and you go immediately into selling your
brand proposition, right?
You're, you know, why this candidate should join your team,
your company, and all the amazing
things that's going to happen.
Um, but, you know, we haven't shared things like our,
our vulnerabilities, um,
in some cases really harsh realities
and true behaviors throughout the organization, right?
Everybody has like this different idea of, um,
you know, what is good culture?
And you can hear people, we have great culture.
We have great culture, right?
But can you give clear, tangible examples of what
that looks like in your organization?
And so, you know, I talk to organizations like, well,
where do we start with that?
Well, let's start with something simple.
Let's do this use case right?
When a new wreck is opened, is there a process
for internal mobility?
You know, do you share that with your employees?
Is it written? Is it clearly written?
And do your employees know about it?
Do your managers encourage employees
to go through that process?
'cause even that, that internal mobility will be
important for candidates.
Candidates, yes, they're looking for, you know, to the job
that's in question, right?
They're looking to to, to, to get, uh, acceptance in you
to make that offer for that particular job.
But they're also looking for, well, what does life look like
for me in a year, two years?
What are the advancement opportunities?
What does that look like?
And so essentially, culture is like
what life is like at your organization.
So you gotta share what life is like at your organization,
the good, the bad, and all that comes with it.
And so when you think of transparency,
there are things we can do from as simple
as job descriptions,
but also making sure we share
what the true realities are happening
within the organization.
A hundred, a hundred percent for sure.
I think all of us have probably had some example,
a situation where we expect something, get something else,
and it, it feels like a betrayal almost.
Even if it's unintentional, it feels
like a betrayal in the hiring process.
Um, my first HR job I ever worked for, I worked
for a company with about 600, 6, 600 employees or so,
and we had turnover about 50% a year,
and about half of that turnover was happening
in the first 30 days on the job.
So something was happening,
something they were getting sold, something,
they were not getting a real preview of the job.
They were not seeing the realities
and they were getting shocked by something
and ended up leaving early on.
And so we, we had to work to actually fix that,
if we're gonna correct that and extend that out longer.
And that ties back to a question someone was asking in the
chat there a minute ago about what's a good retention
benchmark to look for?
It really depends on the company.
If you hire people,
and they typically are leaving that quickly,
if I had got someone that could,
that would've stayed six months,
that would've been a big win for us.
That would've really dramatically been successful.
But in other companies, if you have people that stay, stay
for, you know, a year, two years, 10 years,
then a one year turnover may be more sufficient for that.
So looking at the, the quality piece there, one
of the other things here on the back
to the transparency components that I wanted to,
to encourage is we saw when we asked
candidates outright, what do you wanna know?
They wanna know the pay, the other things they care about.
Mike talked about like the culture, the values,
what it's like to be here, not just culture, like
what we wrote on the wall over there in the lobby, get back
to work, but this is what it's like to live
and breathe in this organization.
Here's how you're treated, here's how we support each other.
All those kind of things. The process they're going through,
what that looks like, how many steps to expect, all all of
that is important to share with them.
And then career path, what sort of things are there?
All those are important for people to know.
And if they can see that,
what's really interesting is they can sort
of see themselves at your company.
I talked to an organization about a week ago that's doing,
they'll do virtual tours of their office.
So people who are not gonna be working there except
for one day a week, they do a virtual tour of the office
during the hiring process
and say, if you worked with us, here's
what it would look like when you come in on day one.
And like, here's where Rosa sits and you can meet her
and she'll direct you this way.
And here's where the rest of the team is,
and if you want to get lunch, here's the best places.
And they're doing this work walkthrough of the office
and showing them what it looks like virtually
and giving them a chance to visualize themselves in
that role so that connects with them on a deeper level.
So there's lots of things we can do there
around transparency, and that creates better trust,
better attention, and ultimately better
relationships long term.
Yeah. One other thing, I think Kelvin, again, not
to pick on you, but I'm seeing the, your,
your chat there is, you know, you know,
being careful about sharing sensitive information.
So one of the things I've seen work really well
with transparency is ensuring that your hiring managers
or hiring teams, uh, are actually trained
and enabled on, you know, making, ensuring that they share
what that life is like, right?
So, you know, I talk, I share my own stories, um, a lot.
Um, you know, what happened to me, you know,
in this process, what, how I felt, what it did for me,
what va, what value I got out of this process or,
or didn't get out of it, what questions i, I still have.
And so, you know, it's, it's again, those authentic
and meaningful touches within the hiring
process that are key.
And, you know, transparency is, has the central role, but,
but how do you do that?
And so that's what I've seen work well is, is making sure
that the hiring teams understand it's okay, uh,
to talk about you, your team.
It's okay to share what that is like
because you're giving the candidates real world examples of
what that culture and
what life is like at your organization. Yes,
Absolutely. So
the, one of the comments from April
here ties in with our last topic.
I'm gonna kind of tie those two
things together and pass it to you, Mike.
So our last question we're gonna talk about here
before we give you some takeaways and do some q and a.
So if you've got specific questions, use the q
and a tab in the chat.
It kind of gets lost sometimes.
You got a question dropping the q and a.
We've already got a couple in there. Um,
but April said a minute ago, as we're sharing transparency,
also share other ways for people to engage,
contribute com committees, like things
that they can start getting connected in on.
And I think that's a good tie into this onboarding piece.
Like how do we, if onboarding's number one priority
for employers, what are some things we can do to change
that, to evolve that, to improve that experience for people,
get closer to that 15% of companies to that top end
that are actually doing something very personalized,
very tailored, very connected to the individual.
Mike, you wanna start us off on that one?
Yeah, yeah. No, this, this one is, you know, in,
in my opinion, it's, it's, uh, it's, it's more of a, it's
between the reactive and proactive challenge, right?
And it's all focusing on continuing continuous improvement.
You know, you hear this saying, you know,
first impressions count.
Well, all impressions count, every engagement,
any interaction that you have, you know,
with a candidate counts.
And, um, there was a, uh, a Gallup poll, uh, that revealed,
uh, 12% of employees strongly agree
that their organization does a great job of onboarding.
Wow, that is low to me.
And on top of that, you know, when I think about it,
there's no proven formula that says, here's what you include
for onboarding and here's what you don't include.
And so, you know, how do you stand out, you know,
to create those meaningful, authentic
and welcoming touches, you know,
and to provide that new, hire that employee
and give them that sense of belonging as they navigate,
you know, what is an unknown to them?
And so, you know, one of the things I always suggest is,
you know, make pre-onboarding part of your company culture
and your people won't forget it, right?
So if you make pre-onboarding part of your company culture,
people will not forget it.
There's a lot that can happen
between the time a candidate accepts the offer
and the time that they start.
One example is, I had, um, someone who was starting, uh, and
because of different obligations, it, the,
the start date was OA little over a month away.
And I recall in the actual interview process
that they were going on vacation,
they were having this birthday,
and it was a really big celebration for them.
And so one of the things that I like doing is, you know, in
that time is making sure that I'm still connecting
and communicating, you know,
with this new hire now who's not started yet,
but I sent a little card and I said, Hey, happy birthday.
I know you like drinking coffee in the mornings
with your, your spouse.
You share that with me.
Here's a, here's a gift card for Starbucks, right?
And so there's so many ways that those little touches
make meaningful, impactful moments.
And you know, this person still calls me today
and says, I will never forget that you,
you did some things even
before I started that made me feel like,
you know, you valued me.
Not just welcoming to the, you know, them, to the company,
but that you, that they mattered.
Um, and that I was really excited for them to, to start.
So I would start by making, uh, uh,
pre-onboarding part of that.
And then onboarding should be personalized, right?
It, it should also include internal mobility as well.
I, I recently made a, an internal move here at hi Bobb.
And, and although I had been, I had been with hi Bobb
for almost three years at that, at that move, um,
I still went through onboarding onto my new team.
And you know, what that did to me,
and I didn't realize that was gonna happen.
Um, I didn't know that it was my
first internal movement here.
Um, but it further strengthened my, you know, and,
and confirmed, you know,
my thought process on why I made the move to begin with
and why I am still here at this company
and why I wanna make this company as successful as possible.
And so, again, make pre-onboarding a part
of your company culture, uh, and process.
And then also, you know, make sure it's personalized.
So I, I'm, I appreciate the, the personalized piece
so much, and I'm watching some of the chat here.
People are sharing different, different things.
Like even in union environments, things like that.
There's so many nuances to
how onboarding can look and what it can be.
And the, I think the big takeaway listen to you share, Mike,
is do I feel like as the new hire, Mike is saying,
how quickly can I get, you know, get to work?
Basically how quickly can I start earning my keep?
Or how quickly do I feel like I'm in the right place able
to contribute, I've got the support I need.
Like, those are two different sorts of connotations.
And for a lot of people, it's alright, you've been here
for 10 minutes, get, you know, get get started.
We'll do your paperwork later.
And in others it's, we're so glad you're here.
You have a key part to play
before you get started, we want you
to know some important stuff both about us.
We also, we wanna know some important stuff about you too.
And start picking those things up
and making it more of that relationship than
just a transaction.
You're here, you know, start cranking out widgets.
And so I I, I appreciate
that belonging piece you talked about there
and how that piece connects in
because that's so, so important. Absolutely.
And Ben, I think it goes back to even the other questions
that we, you know, we talked about, you know, you know,
you know what you said in the,
in the candidate process, right?
Does it match with the, the, the now the new hire going
through onboarding, right?
You know, you know, did you share what life is like?
Um, and was wasn't honest and and truthful.
And then I also think it ties back into the other question
on, you know, you asked me earlier is, you know,
how long do you think an employee will last
before they figure out, Hey,
this is the right place for me, right?
So if it doesn't, so if things don't match up,
because the candidate process was, you know, all good,
and then I go through onboarding and it wasn't great.
Um, you know, this affects, uh, you know, everything.
And so, you know, it's, uh, it's definitely something
to think about and something to, to really dive into
to see if there is efficiencies on how
to level up every approach in the onboarding process.
Is it a springboard or is it a stumbling block?
There we go. Yeah, there we go. Okay.
Alright, so I'm gonna share this,
this next slide really quickly.
I gave you a couple of quick takeaways.
Um, I know we've got a couple questions there, Zach,
if you've got the other poll queued up, while I'm talking
through these really quickly, if you wanna share that,
that last poll, because I don't wanna run outta time here
and then we'll, we'll address any questions we can in the
last few minutes We have.
Really quick, I wanna give you a couple
of things based on the data, some,
some tips and suggestions.
You've already got some good stuff from Mike
already and some of the things in the data.
Number one, when you're putting together a job ad,
a job description talk not just about the industry you're
in, but the impact the person will have we find in our
testing with candidates is they're twice as likely
to click on a job that you're sharing.
If you talk about the impact they're gonna have on the
community, the values your company has, those,
those bigger things than just,
this is the space we operate in.
So talk about that. Same thing on comp.
85% of the time we give 'em a choice.
They refer a pay, uh, job posting
that has pay data on it over one that does not.
Candidates tell us, I said, I mentioned this earlier,
it came from the conversation.
84% of 'em tell, tell us that three
or more touchpoints is overkill.
So keep that short as you can.
And I know that's a, that's a challenge
'cause hiring managers think their process is better.
They've got this thing they're committed to.
There were some good suggestions shared in the chat on how
to, how to remedy that video in the hiring process.
Not video interviews, but actual video.
We're sharing the least preferred video, sorry, everybody,
the least preferred video candidates wanna see is something
from a HR person or a recruiter.
The next least preferred.
The ones they don't wanna see is that company culture video
that's just overarching and pretty and flowery
and very polished.
What they most refer is if you can share a person
who works here, a hiring manager, someone,
even if it's not perfectly polished
and pretty talking about what it's like
to be here, they care about that.
They wanna see themselves in that
and see someone that makes them feel comfortable there.
And then candidates most of all want a
chance to show what they're made of.
They want to get a chance. We actually ask them in our
research, if you had a chance to just submit a resume
or submit it and take some sort of short test
or assessment to see how qualified
you are, which would you prefer?
They preferred the second one
because they said it's about letting me put my best foot
forward and be judged based on that.
Not how well Mike had chat gt write his resume, not
how well Ben had that resume writer,
professional person write my resume, but how good I am
and how connected I am to the actual job.
So. Awesome. All right, so we got a couple of questions
that have come in the last few minutes.
We got just a few minutes left here.
Um, Mike,
I'm gonna drop this first one on you, if you don't mind.
This one on onboarding here.
Um, so Dan asked a question about how do you get
that hiring manager involved in the onboarding piece,
make them a, not just a passive spectator over here,
but an active participant as they're going through this so
that they not just have skin in the game,
but maybe they can help personalize it too based on
what they know of the job, the
role, the team, things like that. Any thoughts? Yeah,
Yeah. You know, Dan,
great question.
We've, we've actually done and just internal to hi Bob.
Um, but we go through training
and enablement with hiring managers as part of the process
and you know, we share the, the, the, the good things that,
you know, and, and things that we, we expect out
of the hiring manager, but we also give them tools
and you know, we encourage them to use their stories
and prep for, uh, you know, those candidate meetings, right?
So we, we provide them with a list of questions on here's
how you could share our culture, here's how you could share,
you know, our vulnerabilities and,
and things that, you know, sometimes we're scared
to di to discuss.
And so, you know, making sure
that your hiring managers are not just part of the team
but actually enabled.
And I'll take me for instance, my first,
you know, manager role.
I did not get trained, but I was also expected to hire.
And so I fumbled a lot.
And so, you know, that constant reassurance
with hiring managers
and making sure that you set the right expect expectations
and then giving them those tools, I think is, is really key
to get them involved in, in much better ways.
I talked to a company a while back that used the approach.
They called ten one hundred. So in the first 10 days
that manager, the manager had
to lay out a hundred touchpoints for that person.
And some of those are people, a hundred sounds like a lot.
Some of those are people, some
of those are processes and things they had to sign off on.
Some of those are work standard
operating procedures they need to get familiar with.
Some of that's just spaces to to be in.
But that got them thinking like, this isn't just show up.
Do they have a computer? Do they have a phone?
Okay, they're good to go. But they, they had
to think more expansively about that.
And it got them to think really creatively about, Hey,
maybe I do need to show,
tell them here are the three restaurants that,
that the team prefers to eat at at lunch.
So if you like to bring your lunch, maybe expect to do
that once a week or
you know, once a week we budget for that.
So expect to go out with us
and spend some time there getting them
thinking about those bigger things.
Not just telling the hiring manager they're gonna,
they're gonna show up fully prepped
and you could just get them
their stuff and they're gonna get going.
Alright, goodness, we are right at the top of the hour.
So Mike, thank you so much for, for sharing,
for bringing your wisdom, for bringing your, your passion
for this, for helping these leaders out there.
I appreciate you for spending some time with me
and for spending some time with the team here as well.
Um, if he wants to reach out to you,
your contact information here on the screen.
Any last words before we wrap up?
Nope. Just thank you for, for having me today
and, uh, I truly enjoyed it.
Hope to to see you at an event or please reach out.
Awesome. Thank you again.
And to everybody else out there,
I hope you've got some good takeaways, ideas, things like
that, good strategies to go out there,
serve your candidates, serve your employer,
and hopefully get more meaning from your work
as an HR leader, talent leader, trying to do the recruiting.
Thank you so much for spending some time with us
and we'll catch you again next time.
Thank you, Ben.

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