Will Texting Help You Hire or Get You Fired?

 

“Sorry, it’s just not going to work out. Good luck with your life.”

Breaking up via text isn’t anything new, but it still makes us cringe at a personal level because it feels incredibly impersonal. It’s almost paradoxical, because the texting medium itself represents a connection we have with people we know and trust.

Text messaging has become a powerful piece of communication in our everyday lives. While we all know that person that has steadily refused to participate in the SMS frenzy, research shows that it’s grown to be a core part of how we interact with others. Other than making a call or taking a photo, sending text messages is at the top of the list in terms of how people use their mobile devices.

This is especially pertinent for recruiters who are on the front lines of communication for their organizations. It’s innately personal and incredibly direct--how else can you cut straight through the noise and get a person’s attention right away? Plus, it’s becoming an increasingly acceptable communication tool for work. It makes sense that recruiters will want to leverage this ubiquitous form of communication for reaching and engaging with candidates.

The Secret Weapon For Your Millennial Retention Strategy

Employers are realizing that putting total control of retirement decisions in the hands of their employees was a bad idea.  Older employees are delaying retirement due to underfunding of their retirement portfolios and market volatility.  The end results are increased healthcare costs for companies to support an aging employee population and decreased upward mobility for younger employees.  Many employers have taken steps to solve the underfunding problem for future generations of retirees through auto-enrollment and auto-escalation in defined contribution plans.   However, they have been unable to solve a continually nagging problem.  How do they retain their millennial employees?

Human Resources leaders now have a new secret weapon for solving the millennial employee retention issue.  The $1.2 trillion of outstanding student debt new hires are facing.  According to a recent article publishing in the Wall Street Journal, 70% of seniors took out loans for their education and are carrying an average of over $37,000 in student debt.  More and more companies such as Fidelity, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and SunTrust are launching employee debt assistance programs, in response to the record amount of student debt new employees will have accrued by the time they enter the workforce.   

Hire Those Job Seekers That Are Doing Creative Things to Get Noticed

If you’re looking to make a change in the way your company operates, maybe you need to change your hiring process. Seek out the job seekers that are doing creative things to get noticed. Their fresh ideas likely don’t end once they accept your job offer. They’ll bring innovative, out of the box ideas to the job, so go ahead and respond to that girl who sent over a box of candy bars wrapped in her resume, or call the guy who announced that he’s searching for a job on a billboard. Take the risk and soak in the reward.  

As a recruiter we know you spend countless hours sitting in front of a screen with what seems like a thousand tabs up, scouring the internet for the perfect candidate. But sometimes, you need to do something different. And who knows it could pay off big.

Job Seeker Said He Put Up a Billboard Because 'Nothing Else Was Working'

We often hear from job seekers who are frustrated with traditional job search tactics and feel the need to take the road less traveled to stand out. We’ve heard about a lot of interesting gimmicks, like the girl who wanted to work at Airbnb so she built a webpage to highlight her resume to mimic an Airbnb posting, or someone else who created wrappers for chocolate bars with her resume in place of the nutrition label, or Daniel Seibert who just this week put up a billboard to advertise that he is looking for a career.

How to Focus on Recruiting in a World Gone Mad

Bad news. It seems to be everywhere these days. At home and abroad, there are no shortage of scary, horrifying, discouraging stories.

With all this negativity swirling around, it’s easy to get distracted and have trouble focusing on everyday things – like your job. Even if you’re the most passionate recruiter around, hiring the right person might seem sort of inconsequential compared with the big, bad problems facing the world.

However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. As the saying goes, if you want things to change, you have to start in your own backyard.

So here are 3 ways to focus on recruiting in a world gone mad, and maybe even make a difference in the process.

An Employer’s Guide to Hiring New Grads

While their fellow Millennials have been in the workforce for some time, younger Millennials are just graduating college and beginning their careers right now. So, what are they looking for in a job? It’s easy if you just put yourself in their shoes.

SHRM 2016: Recap

So we just got back from the SHRM Annual Conference in Washington, DC and we just want to say, “Thank you!” to everyone that stopped by the Beyond booth. We had a great time in our nation’s capital and can’t wait to see everyone next year in New Orleans.

Until then, let’s recap! Here were the highlights of the show for us.

Hello, Is It Me You’re Looking For?

How many times did you check your phone this morning before you ever sat down at a computer? If you’re like most Americans, the answer is at least once (but probably more). According to a recent Deloitte study, 78% of mobile users check our phones within one hour of waking up, with most saying they look at their phones within five minutes. And what are we most likely to check first? Our text messages.

Even more so than email or social media, text messaging is a form of communication that’s not likely to be missed. So, it’s no surprise that text recruitment is becoming a thing.

Entitlement Knows No Age

Employee perks are getting pretty sweet at some companies – but that doesn’t mean their employees appreciate it.

Recently a friend was venting to me about his coworker, who had spent the better part of the day complaining about missing her morning Zumba class for a company-wide meeting. By the way, this Zumba class is held – wait for it… in the company’s free, on-site gym.

Now, let’s play a little game.

It’s against all kinds of HR policies to ask this, but we’ll keep it between us. How old is the person you were just picturing as I described her behavior?

You'll Be Shocked To Hear What Freelance Workers Are Demanding

Beyond recently conducted a survey of more than 5,000 job seekers, which revealed that many are hesitant to pursue the growing number of independent contractor opportunities with on-demand companies, such as driving for Uber or performing jobs through TaskRabbit. The survey found that 68% of respondents indicated that they would not work for an on-demand company or would maybe consider it depending upon their financial situation at the time. The gig economy in the U.S. has grown rapidly in recent years, creating more independent contractor opportunities for workers. However, the survey results showed that the lack of legal rights and benefits for on-demand contractors are deterrents for job seekers.