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How to Narrow the Qualified Candidate Pool and Increase Millennial Retention Rates

There are two simple ways to increase your commission as a recruiter. One, place more candidates. Two, increase candidate retention rates. While you may have heard these before, what you have not heard are the following secrets to actually put the money in your wallet. So, let’s dig in.

Place more candidates by talking to less of them.

I know what you’re thinking, there is only so much time in the day, so placing more candidates seems impossible with the workload you’re already carrying with your current volume of candidates. The biggest issue with recruiting productivity is that we are talking to far too many candidates on a surface level. A study done by Deloitte on US spending in recruiting stated it takes an average of 52 days to fill an open position, up from 48 days in 2011. The issue we are facing is that hundreds of qualified candidates are applying to several jobs with a few clicks from their laptops at home. On average, each corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes. Of these candidates, four to six will be called for an interview and only one will be offered the job.

The way that candidates automate their job hunt with job databases is matched with a lack of automation on the recruiting side — hence the backup. It’s no surprise that 90% of recruiters say the market is candidate-driven in 2015, up from 54% in the second half of 2011.

It’s easy enough to talk to less candidates, but the fears arise — how do I know if I’m leaving a qualified candidate behind? How do I get a read on candidate soft skills without some sort of interview? Would you believe me if I told you these processes are becoming automated? Companies such as Talentoday, a people analytics solution, provide an automated personality test that is backed by data science and psychology to help you weed through your pile of 250+ candidate applications. They provide you with a job fit percentage that helps you quickly determine which candidates are most compatible with the job you are seeking to fill based on soft skills. Go ahead and re-read that, I did indeed say soft skills!

They do this with their speedy yet effective personality test. It will drastically narrow your candidate pool by comparing candidates against a job profile that you create online. Quality time with fewer qualified candidates means dollar signs on your end.

Finally, something to even the playing field for recruiters in response to the surge of applicants! So what to do with all this extra time… well, you can finally get back to talking to the people who are truly interested and equipped for the position. Another important plus is you now have room to take a extra time to coach your candidates into retention, because nothing is worse than doing all of the work to get someone in the job to find out they left and see that commission refunded.

Increase retention by coaching your millennial candidates on how to ask for what they want.

If you aren’t already, you are bound to be working with a majority of millennials and this generation has no problem leaving jobs, unlike their baby boomer parents. Most Baby Boomers (41%) said workers should stay with an employer at least five years before looking for a new job — only 13% of Millennials agreed.

So let’s get to know our millennial audience and what they want. Here are a few facts from Glassdoor:

  • Nearly 80% of Millennials look for people and culture fit with employers, followed by career potential. (Collegefeed, March 2014)
  • 64% of Millennials would rather make $40K a year at a job they love, than $100K a year at a job they think is boring. (The Columbus Dispatch, Study Conducted by the Intelligence Group, 2014)
  • 46% of Millennials left their last job due to lack of career growth. (Glassdoor survey, March 2013)

What is the theme here? POTENTIAL and GROWTH! Millennials are young and starry-eyed. They think they can have their dream career and they will keep moving until they are happy.

So how do we get them to stay? The first step is understanding how they are motivated. If you end up using a tool like Talentoday they provide you with a complete motivations radar that will give you an inside look on what makes your candidate tick. You can then encourage your millennial candidates to have conversations with their managers about growth within the company.

 

Motivation radar from Talentoday.com

Tell them that instead of “peacing-out” of the job because they are bored or unhappy, to ask for things that keep them motivate them to come into work in the morning. Drive home that candidates should not be afraid to ask for what they want in the job they are in whether that be pay, flex time off or the ability to work from home. Not only will they possibly stay longer at their job, but they will love you as their recruiter for giving them some much needed career success advice!

Allie Powers

Curious to find out if your candidates have what it takes? Start your free trial today and test your candidates quickly & effectively for free!

Let’s face it, recruiting can be difficult. Let us help. Check out our other posts about hiring trends, tips and tricks.


Target Profiles with labels

As our Target Profiles evolve, so does the flow we use to create it. Talentoday Managers are now able to assign labels to groups of people, allowing them to easily create Target Profiles and match candidates to those profiles. When our customers expressed interest in quickly assessing high volumes of individuals we responded with a workflow that is fluid, fast and completely user friendly. So what does all this mean? Well, it means your job just got a whole lot easier.

Here is how it works:

1. Invite candidates

You can invite up to 500 candidates at a time to take the personality assessment. Just copy and paste from excel and the invitation to take the test is sent in just on click.

2. Label candidates

Once you have invited individuals to take the personality assessment, you are prompted to add a label to the group. This will help you easily navigate to your group when creating your target profile in the next step. When you are assessing 200+ people this can be extremely useful and save you loads of time.

Assign labels to a group of individuals who have taken the test

3. Create a Target Profile (in just a few clicks)

Now its time to create a Target Profile so you can match candidates or employees against it. Target Profiles allow companies to see the traits and motivations of a selected group. This can be extremely useful for measuring if someone fits with the company culture, if they fit in a role, or if they mesh with the team dynamic.

 

Creating a Target Profile

4. Match candidates against the profile:

Matching candidates against a Target Profile is the true essence of Talentoday’s technology. Our matching technology gives you a high level overview of who will excel at your company.

Match a candidate against the Target Profile

 

Features built for a quick comparison

Using labels creates a seamless and automatic experience. We understand that time is money, which is why we are always looking for ways to make your processes more efficient.

Suffice to say, this launch is just the beginning of our vision for Talentoday. We’d love to hear what features you think we should consider building next, so drop us a line on Facebook and Twitter.

Talentoday Team

Curious to find out if your candidates have what it takes? Start your free trial today and test your candidates quickly & effectively for free!