Hiring

Aug

2022

Improving Inclusive Hiring Practices

Inclusive hiring is incredibly important for a number of reasons. Not only does it open your business to a widened range of viewpoints, approaches, and management styles, but it can be a net positive for an organization’s overall success. With benefits such as employee retention, productivity, and an increase in employee satisfaction, hiring with the goal of inclusivity means spotlighting hiring practices that recognize diversity and new perspective. But inclusive hiring is about more than recruiting with the intent to tick off a box. It should include an active effort to eliminate bias on an organizational level, while actively preventing discrimination. But regardless of your place within your business, where do you start?

1. Evaluate your weak spots and consider what diversity means to you.

What are you missing in the success of your organization? This could be an open line of communication for all employees, a wide range of employee perspective, generational gaps, experience gaps, or intersectionality. Often, when you can identify the areas in which your business is lacking, it’s easier to see where the blank spots exist. Once you’ve effectively identified areas of improvement, approaching a diverse hiring strategy is much more manageable.

2. Pivot your brand identity.

Brand identity is critical to ensuring your business is approachable and welcoming to all applicants at the source. In some industries that can be more male-dominated, messaging can benefit from a makeover. Identify language that could deter visitors to your social media or website, and pivot to inclusive messaging. A good rule of thumb here is to communicate with the goal of making everyone feel like your target audience. Depending on your business there may be exceptions to this rule, such as when you’re identifying specific skill sets or industry experience, but for the most part, your language should be non-gendered, free of stereotypes or generalizations, and neutral in tone.

3. Re-evaluate your job posting strategy

Using inclusive language is important when postings jobs too, but it can also be beneficial to evaluate what job boards you’re utilizing to attract candidates. Some large job sites such as Indeed may have the option to highlight posts for minority groups or persons with disabilities, but getting creative with your posting strategy can be a great approach as well. A good place to start is to check out local non-profit organizations or event groups that have job boards. These can include groups for women in tech, new immigrants, or people with disabilities. Not only will this increase your applicant pool, but you’ll have the opportunity to meet people who may not have otherwise applied.

4. Eliminate career growth obstacles

Larger businesses should already have an internal recruiting strategy in place, but implementing internal mobility tracking can help you to identify where obstacles exist for employees, and paint a clearer picture of growth progression for all employees. As an added bonus, this will help with employee retention and overall morale too!

5. Be mindful during the interview process

The interview process can be intimidating for anyone, but it’s especially important to consider how your organization can benefit from more inclusive practices. Consider a gender balanced interview panel, and be mindful of obstacles your interviewee may have faced over their employment history. You don’t have to compromise on your qualification requirements in every case, but being open to a variety of career paths and employment backgrounds will allow you to see talent and valuable attributes that you may not have encountered otherwise.

6. Keep an eye on your metrics

It may not make sense for smaller companies to track hiring metrics, but larger organizations can only benefit from having an idea of what their hiring looks like from a broader perspective. Some applicant tracking systems can highlight the differences between why certain employees were hired over others, and display pipeline obstacles for candidates with diverse backgrounds. It can also help to keep track of things like how new hires are fitting in with their peers, or employees who may be falling behind.

Do you have a specific hiring need that isn’t being met? Are you having difficultly finding and retaining top talent? Stellar can help. Get in touch with our sales team here.

Mar

2022

Navigating a Multigenerational Workplace

For the first time in history, there are five generations interacting in the workplace. The workforce is now made up of employees from a combination of different milestone generations, each with different values, needs, motivators, career goals, and professional experience. And this is only the beginning – in the coming years, there could be up to six different generations working within organizations at one time, which is why learning to navigate and manage a multigenerational workforce now is so critical. With the median retirement age in Canada steadily increasing, it’s inevitable that organizations will have to pivot to include the evolving priorities of newer generations while still accommodating older employees, and this shift won’t be easy. However, it’s important to remember that generational divide is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and there are steps that can be taken at all levels to ensure that you, your colleagues, and leaders are mutually benefitting and growing within this new generational environment.

What’s In a Year?

While it can be detrimental to categorize groups of people based on their generational group, there are certain elements and experiences that are universal to each generation.

Gen Z: Born between 1996 – 2014

Immersed in technology from birth, adapted to a technologically interconnected world
Experienced growing up with financial and social instability
Grew up during an economic downturn during major global events
High aptitude in digital communications

Millennials: Born between 1981 – 1996

Witnessed major technological advances within their lifetime
Experience finding work in difficult job markets
Witnessed wealth followed by economic downturn
Good balance of in-person and digital communication

Gen X: Born between 1965 – 1980

Experienced high divorce rates and disproportionately high single-family upbringings
Significant technological advancements during working years
Varied workplace experience and high adaptability
Combination of digital skills

Baby Boomers: Born between 1946 – 1964

Post-war upbringing
Not native to digital technology, but experience working throughout varied technological advancements
Experienced high job market accessibility
Tend to be less adept at utilizing digital technology

Traditionalists: Born between 1925 – 1945

Experienced the first wave of true technological innovation during their upbringing
Typically have limited experience with technology in the workplace

Industry Matters

Tech-centric environments are some of the most influenced by multiple generations of employees. It’s becoming increasingly necessary to hire younger employees to close the knowledge gap while still relying on older workers’ tenured experience, which can lead to conflict.

The methodologies in a technological environment are a huge contributor to this issue. While the fundamental career goals of many employees remain the same, including a need for financial security, desire for work-life balance, and overall commitment to their career, methodologies within a tech environment are one of the big differences seen when comparing older and younger generations. In general, rapidly changing technology influences the way that workers interact with each other, with certain environments facilitating a highly communicative and collaborative approach. This can exile older groups while leaving younger generations feeling unheard. Incorporating generational differences in training and mentoring can help, with an emphasis on understanding and integrating the preferred communication styles of all generations. Overall, the most important thing to remember is that the larger goals of the company should be the focus. A good strategy is identifying the areas of each generational group that can be of benefit to the bigger picture.

Lose the Labels

Generational stereotypes just aren’t accurate. It’s an oversimplification to box younger employees into a specific way of thinking and can lead to more division, and research shows that different generations tend to think that their older or younger counterparts have vastly different priorities than they actually do. When it comes down to it, it’s important for organizations to maintain a good idea of what all of their employees want, without making any assumptions. Anonymous company-wide surveys are a good way to monitor the success of different initiatives and gain an overall understanding of how your team is running from a cultural sense. In short, put in the time to find out what your workplace culture is and work together to build it as a team based on real metrics.

Meet People Where They Are

Every employee is going to have their own individual values within the workplace, no matter what age group or generation they’re a part of. The most important thing to remember is that generalizing an approach isn’t the most effective way to manage any team, and having a good understanding of your employees’ widespread goals is the best way to strategize your approach. Good corporate values, better communication, and the right amount of support are things that every employee can agree facilitate a positive working environment, and these are things that can be upheld by employees of any experience level or generational group. Focusing on the things that each person has in common is more productive than trying to generalize each specific concern, and creating an environment that supports good communication allows everyone to have a good understanding of workplace needs as a whole.

Moving Forward

Ready or not, the workplace is changing faster than many organizations can accommodate. On average, only 1 in 5 employers said that they felt “very confident” that their organizations were ready to manage the next generation of talent. To get ahead, prepare to leverage young talent to bridge the skills or culture gap that you might be experiencing. Hire based on skill, not experience, and remember that employer values can make or break a successful work environment. Keep on the pulse of the new generation while making room for your older, more experienced employees. Whether you’re an employer, employee, or brand new to the workforce, think about the things you can do to share your own knowledge with the people around you to build an inclusive and successful place of work, for the benefit of every generation.

May

2021

Best Websites for Job Hunters (And Who Should Use Them)

There’s no shortage of websites that claim to help job seekers in their search for employment. From local career pages to multinational job boards, you can spend a lot of time preparing resumes, messaging hiring managers, and taking skills assessment tests in the pursuit of a new work opportunity. But are all of these sites really worth the time? Keep reading to learn about our favorite online job boards, and how you can utilize them to their fullest potential in your job search.

1. LinkedIn

BEST FOR: Networking and working with recruiters

Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform. This multifunctional site is host to an entire suite of tools that can be helpful at any stage of your career, and virtually every user will benefit from creating a profile, setting up notifications for relevant opportunities, and interacting with like-minded people in their networks. However, LinkedIn is truly second-to-none for established, specialized professionals actively looking to advance their career in their respective industries.

There are a huge variety of open roles on LinkedIn, but the ones you’ll see most often are mid-to-senior level positions in marketing, information technology, HR, engineering, and administration. You can certainly benefit from applying to jobs on LinkedIn through open opportunities, but another great way to learn everything this site has to offer is by flexing your networking skills. Making connections (similar to sending a friend request on Facebook), posting updates on your page, and interacting with local recruiters and hiring managers can be extremely beneficial for advancing your career and learning about new opportunities. Another huge benefit that LinkedIn provides is how popular it is for recruiters – simply having an active profile with your resume information is a great way to attract recruiters to your profile and receive info about active jobs directly to your inbox.

No matter how you use it, utilizing LinkedIn and its features to the fullest potential will reward you with consistent opportunities for growth, plenty of new career prospects, and an amazing network of industry professionals.

2. Indeed

BEST FOR: Active job seekers with specific job requirements

With LinkedIn coming in at the top as the world’ largest professional networking platform, Indeed is in close competition as the world’s largest job website. Featuring 250 million monthly users and 10 new jobs being added per second, it’s no question that this site is a job seeker’s paradise.

Indeed features opportunities in every sector and industry, and works best for active job seekers with a great resume and employable skills. From part-time service industry jobs to opportunities for high-level corporate executives and everything in between, Indeed truly offers the greatest overall experience for those looking to make their job search faster and easier than ever. It’s intuitive interface allows for a streamlined process that will get you hired, and using this platform, you’ll be able to compare salaries, learn about different benefits, and tailor your job search to fit the exact opportunity you’re looking for.

4. Monster

BEST FOR: Active job seekers looking for an easy application process

Monster is the job site that started it all in 1994, and functions similarly to Indeed in that its services are free, easy to navigate, and offer many of the same functionalities. If you’re already using Indeed, it’s worth it to give Monster a try, too – it’s a great overall service that features a huge range of jobs in a variety of industries.

4. Company Career Pages

BEST FOR: Passive job seekers, or anyone hoping to work for a specific company

Company career pages tend to be looked at as the underdog in many a job search – but this doesn’t have to be the case.

You can find career pages on nearly every company site, and while this process can take slightly longer than uploading your resume to sites like Monster and Indeed, the payoff can be huge. One helpful hint is to double check the posting date that many sites will feature – this way, you’ll be able to tell how active the posting is and if it’s worth your time to apply. However, even if a posting is getting dated, you can be assured that your profile will likely be added ton a database that can provide opportunities for months and years to come. Check out Stellar Recruitment’s job board here.

5. Craigslist

BEST FOR: Contract or gig work, opportunities with local companies

Craigslist is an incredible tool for job seekers, and functions the most like a traditional job advertisement. Featuring gig work, full time opportunities, freelance work for those in a creative field, contract work, and manual labour, Craigslist allows job seekers to send emails directly to the poster, and offers such a huge variety of opportunities that it’s worth it for anyone in the midst of a job search to check out.