Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Day 2 Jobhop Kickstarter Making Employment Human
Making Employment Human ... Can It Be Done?
When people ask us “Have you got a mission?” the answer is YES .... Making Employment Human!
I was called up on stage once by the amazing Kath Temple, CEO of The Lifelong Learning Company and founder of The Happiness Foundation. Kath had asked myself and approximately five others to come up to the stage and asked us to just to stand there, silent. Afterwards Kath asked the audience to say what they felt from each one of us, when it come to me I was nervous, what would people say? They said they felt that I was on a mission! How the hell did that come across? I never said anything I just stood there, but golly they were right! This mission is what keeps me going, knowing that there’s so much to change, so many people to reach out to, so much knowledge to share.
So exactly what does the mission “Making employment human” mean?
The Job Advert
Starting with the job advert... How many job adverts do you see that are just like a shopping list? Too many! Job adverts need the help of the marketing team to attract the right applicant. Put yourself in a potential candidates shoes, first ask yourself, why should they read the job advert? Remember, these days good candidates attract employers and recruiters because their online profiles are working it for them, why would they be interested in reading your shopping list? Job adverts need to speak to the potential candidate, really speak to them.
A good example of this is one from www.pharmacy.com
CV’s
They’ve been around too long! It’s time to change! Employers who live and die by the CV are outdated, they need to get real! CV’s have had their day they’re too rigid, they waste time for all parties concerned, they’re so yesterday. Technology today allows us to create profiles where achievements, projects and experience can be showcased. When someone creates a profile it’s an evolving process, adding more achievements and experience as time goes by, regardless of someone actively looking for a job or not.
How many people do that with a CV? Errgh.... I can’t think of one person! Usually what happens is this:
Person A says “I need a new job”
Person B says “You better get a CV done”
Person A says “Oh no, I hate doing a CV” or words to that effect!
Employer gets bombarded with CV’s and can’t cope, good people get missed because their CV didn’t have the right keywords, not so good people get through because they paid someone to “tweak” their CV.
If there were no CV’s then employers/recruiters would start tapping into profiles on-line and gawd forbid might even start making relationships!
The Recruitment Process
Currently many are just awful! The candidate isn’t fully briefed on what will happen, how they will be selected or how long the selection process takes. Why does everything have to be so secretive?
Person A says “I sent you my CV, I just wanted to know if you received it”
Person B says “CV’s are currently being shortlisted, if yours is one of them we will get back to you”
Person A is confused, they still don’t know if their one was received, but no point in sending another because the deadline has gone.
The recruitment process should be completely transparent. It should clearly define what the company is looking for, how somebody is selected, how long that selection process takes and when they will be notified. Everyone should be notified whether they got the interview or not. The candidates that don’t get an interview should be given instructions on how to receive feedback and what to do next. Remember your employer brand, if you give good constructive feed back which can be used elsewhere or perhaps at a later stage with your business again then that will be a positive for your applicant. That applicant could go off and train up, then be the best applicant you could wish for in a years time, look after every applicant.
The Interview
Some interviews are just horrendous! Then there’s some of the interview questions! Here’s some really stupid interview questions for you to gawp at!
Does the desk have to be there, acting as a barrier? What about sitting in a relaxed environment so the interviewee is at ease. What’s even better is conducting the interview whilst doing a tour of the company. This is great for the interviewee, they can see where they could possibly be working, they’ll get to visualise themselves working there and it will help the questions to flow.
After The Interview
This is where it really falls down! Many employers forget about human courtesy and respect once the interview has been done. They don’t consider the candidate waiting for the call, people asking them did they get the job. Having to continuously tell their friends and family they’re still waiting to hear becomes increasing frustrating, then that frustration turns into anger! There have been cases of candidates turning other jobs down because they want to hold out for a particular job, becuase they believed the interview went well. How do you think they feel when they never hear a dickie bird! Many employers forget their candidate is also a consumer who is connected to many other consumers and could have the power to influence their connections to stop buying services or products.
A survey by CareerBuilder said that a massive 75% of candidates don’t hear back, that’s completely disrespectful and must be stopped!
Job Description
I won’t go on about this too much as I covered the job description in an earlier post “Say Goodbye to the job description” Job descriptions are rigid, they don’t allow people to grow and create jobsworths! Enough said, the job description needs to change!
This is just a tiny bit of making employment human, other parts to the mission include improving company culture, getting social to flow and getting rid of the hierarchy system that’s in place in so many organisations.
Join us on this mission and help to MAKE EMPLOYMENT HUMAN!
View the Jobhop Kickstarter campaign and see if there are any rewards you’d like
And spread the word!
Jobhop connects digital talent to great employers in a human,fun way http://ctt.ec/j441P+ #kickstarter Make Employment Human Be involved
- Random