I remember—way back in the 1990’s—watching Star Trek: Next Generation and thinking “Yeah, right! As if there’d ever be a time in the future when people regularly talk via video screen!” Boy, was I was wrong! It is now more normal than ever—and growing in popularity with every passing day. With the overall impact of COVID-19, many employers are utilizing video interviewing in their hiring process, and if you’re looking to hire someone—a virtual “face-to-face” interview is likely in your future.  While we haven’t reached the age of spaceships yet, there are plenty of ways to ensure that you get the most out of conducting a virtual interview.  Here are some helpful ways to harness this newfangled normal to your advantage!

Before we launch into what makes a good work from home space, I want to thank all of those working essential jobs who are keeping everyone who is staying home safe and fed. And yes, I’m at home, not sure what day it is, but I’m here, day in, day out, so I’d figured I’d talk about how to set up an effective work from home strategy.

Texting is rising to the occasion when it comes to recruitment tools. As mobile continues to be embraced by most everyone how is the job search process changing? Check out the full infographic here.

Once upon a time, employees and employers mated for life. Anything less would have been seen as disloyal - perhaps even traitorous. But with Millennials comprising such a large portion of the workforce, the shift from job to job has become far more commonplace. Additionally, the exit of Baby Boomer employees has the potential to create 10,000 jobs per day. Factor in the thousands of dollars it takes to recruit, hire, and train a new employee and the future of the workforce starts to look bleak.

Fortunately for hiring managers and cost-cutters everywhere, there is a relatively untapped market and I’m not talking about the incoming Gen Z. Behold the Boomerang. A boomerang employee is one who left amicably in the past and now is considering, or being considered for, a rehire. In the bygone times of eternal loyalty, many companies actually implemented policies that prohibited boomeranging. But the fact is, acquiring a brand-new employee is both time-consuming and expensive. It might be time to consider the value of the former employee.

Now that Millennials are fully and firmly integrated into the American workforce, many businesses are setting their sights on the newest influx of workers: Gen Z. These Digital Natives were born into the world of WiFi which means their strengths (and weaknesses) will vary greatly from those of previous generations who were born into much more analog worlds. Their technological prowess will become increasingly necessary for companies to stay current which is shifting the dialogue from “Do we want to hire Gen Z?” to “How can we recruit more Gen Z?”

With the mass hysteria about the outbreak of the COVID-19 aka the Coronavirus, a lot of major companies are asking their employees to work from home in an effort to try and lessen the spread of the virus.

Microsoft recently asked its employees in Silicon Valley and Seattle to work from home, as did Facebook and Google. Amazon asked its employees worldwide to stay home if they can. Even schools and universities are closing and asking students and teachers to carry on with online-courses instead of meeting face-to-face.

Given the mass amounts of employees now working from home, the effectiveness of telecommuting is being tested for the first time on a large scale. It has been talked about for the past 20 years as being the next new wave of work culture, as telecommuting has been found to have a lot of benefits for companies and employees. Even though the amount of those who work from home has increased immensely (in recent years with around 43% of American’s work remotely) the world has never seen this number, until now.

So, how exactly does telecommuting benefit not only companies but also employees as individuals? Here are some ways telecommuting has been proven to be beneficial.

To hire a smoker or not to hire a smoker? That is the question! But is it discrimination not to? The answer is surprisingly yes and no, and primarily depends on where you happen to live. It’s a debate that has been recently reignited as U-Haul—the company best known for renting you a truck to help you move—has implemented a nicotine-free hiring policy. As of February 1^st of this year, if you a candidate submits an application to work for U-Haul and they smoke cigarettes; they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. While this isn’t the first time a policy like this has been implemented, U-Haul (with its 30,000 employees) is the first major company in its field to do so. Let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on here, shall we?

With the ever-increasing demand for top tier talent, job seekers’ inboxes are bombarded with messages from recruiters every day. As a recruiter, how do you craft a compelling message that potential candidates respond to? What will result in a reply instead of a banishment to the spam folder?

Follow these tips to improve your chances of getting responses from potential candidates:

In today’s world, most everyone is stepping into their careers with a college degree and the best experiences in internships, special projects, and volunteer work. So, it can be difficult for companies to attract and eventually hire the hardest working and most talented candidates. These days, rather than everyone else scrambling for one job at a top company, top companies are scrambling to bring in top talent.

Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing are no longer just a term being thrown around among HR professionals. The ideas of Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing are now essential conversations in the creation of recruitment strategies and companies ranging from high-level corporations to local start-ups are all getting in on the action.

But what do these terms mean?

Why Diversity in The Workforce Fuels Growth

At a young age, we all embraced an unlikely iconic duo of a bird and a snuffleupagus without questioning their collaboration. Elmo’s age and species are up for debate, but his contribution to our emotional development as human beings would be hard to dispute. We idolized an entire street of monsters and grouches and adults and kids that lived in harmony, and maybe some of us begged our parents to move there.

When you peek your head up from your cubicle/out your office door (now that we’ve all (allegedly) grown up)—what cast of characters do you see? Do you a heterogeneous mix of backgrounds, races, ages, and monsters? Or is everybody just like you?

The trend of hiring people who are a good “cultural fit” gave us a bunch of people who were exactly like us, who liked the same things, and knew the same things, and believed the same things. If we all agree, where is the room for growth in the organization?