Where do all your best new hires come from?

Software Advice’s HR blog is running a survey to find out how popular and how effective the various recruitment channels really are. Take their short survey for a chance to win an i-pad mini!

Go to the Recruiting Channels Survey now.

The results of this survey will help determine where your recruiting budget is most effective, and where others are having the most hiring success.

You apply to dozens of positions, sending in customized cover letters each time, sure that the next one will land you the perfect job… but never hear anything back.

Sound familiar? You aren’t the only one. Aside from the automatic email reply acknowledging your application, many companies do not reply individually to their applicants. One of the main difficulties is that there are so many people competing for the same positions. Hiring managers may receive hundreds, or even thousands of resumes – it’s impossible to read through each one carefully, and many are screened out as quickly as possible. Companies using hiring software to pre-screen candidates mean that your resume may be discarded before anyone even sees it. This can be very discouraging, when you are putting in a lot of effort to finding a career. But don’t lose hope – there may be ways you can raise your chances of being contacted. The Glassdoor blog lists 5 reasons why you don’t hear back from an employer, most of them specific to your application:

This post was originally published on LinkedIn, by Greg McKeown. Read original article here.

We are always surprised when we see how many companies and organisations are still collecting resumes by hand or email. With the amount of job seekers in Canada today many Human Resource departments are being inundated with hundreds of applicants a week. The expectation place on them is that each application or resume will be read to determine if the individual is a good fit for the organisation.

There are two main problems with this method. The first is that it takes a LOT of time to read through that many resumes.

The second problem is that the same applicant could be scored differently by the same person at different times of the day based on opinion and not on facts about their experience.

Please read the case study below and find out how you can,

Save Time and Money when Hiring.

Three years ago, Great-West Life & Annuity’s cost-per-hire reached $5,500, which includes print advertising, agency fees and relocation costs. Last year, after implementing an applicant tracking system (ATS), the Denver, Colo.-based insurer reduced cost-per-hire to $1,600. With 1,700 positions filled annually, these reductions have added up to $6.6 million in savings.”

Task	Daily Time (min)	Monthly Time (min)	Annual Time Hours	Summary Annual
				Low ($25/Hr)	High ($100/Hr)
Readingand Filing Resumes	30 – 70	600-1400	120 – 280	$7,000	$28,000
Sorting Resumes and Duplicate Tasks	150	3000	600	$15,000	$60,000
Communicating with Candidates	60	1200	240	$6,000	$24,000
Candidate Search Activities	60	1200	240	$6,000	$24,000
Total	300 – 340	6000 – 6800	1200- 1360	$34,000	$136,000

ATS (Applicant tracking software) saves time, and improves a recruiter’s productivity. How?

Applicant tracking software allows candidates to upload their resumes into a searchable database.  When a candidate applies to a specific job, those resumes flow through to the job list. This means no handling time or cost for the HR team members in the following:

• Storing resumes in folders in some form of manager such as outlook folders or hard drive folders
• Resume data self sorts to job lists allowing HR managers to quickly view and sort new applications
• The only cost is a handful of mouse clicks completed by the candidate taking 5 – 10 minutes
• The candidate saves time on future applications as their resume already is housed in the database
• HR team members are able to produce extensive reports in a matter of minutes

How Are You Losing without an ATS SYSTEM?

• Readingand filing resumes
• Searching to find resumes that “match” a job opening
• Sorting resumes
• Repeat tasks such as screening phone calls, duplicate interviews, loss of previous candidate notes, loss of resumes
• Inability to communicate with candidates quickly and on mass
• Finding that needle in the haystack

Time savings reading and filing resumes

It is estimated that it takes an average of one to two minutes of time to briefly review a resume and file it in the appropriate folder for future reference. It does take you another two to five minutes to re-locate that resume should you need to access it. This assumes you have a reasonably good filing system.

Should you view just 10 new resumes a day, and relocate the same number, this takes a minimum of 30 minutes and as high as 70 minutes per day  – this equates to potentially 23 ½ hours per month or 280 hours per year. If you value your time at $100.00 per hour, this is $28,000 potential dollars lost in filing and finding resumes. Even at a modest $25.00 per hour, you are potentially losing $7000 per annum on filing and finding resume data.

Time savings Sorting Resumes and Duplicate Tasks

Various methods have been listed to allow for resumes sorts when the HR team does not have an ATS system. Some include binders, printed piles, excel sheets, outlook folders and files up the wall. These methods are not fool proof and are subject to sorting and resorting of resumes, miss-sorting and time lost in managing the sort function. For those 10 resumes handled daily, you may have called a candidate once that has already been phone screened (30 minutes), interviewed a candidate that has already been interviewed (60 minutes), and spent an additional 60 minutes printing, sorting or recording resume data. This has now utilized an additional 2 ½ hours of your day, 50 hours per month or 600 hours per year – ($15,000 to $60,000 in costs that could have been mostly eliminated with applicant tracking software.

Inability to communicate with Candidates quickly and on mass

Applicant tracking databases allow HR team members to quickly select candidates, email one or many. This swift communication tool allows you to get to question and get responses from your candidate database quickly and efficiently. The ability to question and get answers from candidates in your job pool allows for time savings in quicker response rates, less time recording responses (they auto record), and an ability to talk to many potential candidates at one time, thereby increasing your marketing capability for your jobs. A reduction in time to hire and cost to hire in advertising are two direct benefits. This ability is estimated to save you a minimum of 1 hour per day or 20 hours per month, and 240 hours per year or $6000 to $24,000 per year.

These will be the five hardest slots for you (and any start-up) to fill in the new year

The year flew by mostly because it was a very, very busy one.

Although the economy continues to face many challenges, the startup and tech industries are very much alive.  The IPO window slightly opened up for companies like LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon, Zynga, and Carbonite.  We saw monster rounds of funding for companies like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox.  The appetite for seed and angel investing was extremely active.  Tech incubators and accelerator programs kept popping up.

It was also a very busy year for hiring at startup companies, as you know, and it doesn’t look like that will slow down in 2012.  We’ve certainly seen opinions on both sides of the fence as to whether or not there is a tech bubble or 2012 will be another active year of investing.  I’m an optimist and I believe the pace of investing will remain consistent.  Yes, some companies will fail, of course, but others will scale and grow their teams at a steady clip.

Hiring the best of the best is an absolute must if you are going to build a successful company.  You will need to be prepared to compete against big companies with deep pockets and other up-and-coming startups that also have blue chip investors and a game-changing idea.

So, what are the most competitive areas for talent these days?  Here’s a look:

5: Software Engineers and Web Developers

The demand for top-tier engineering talent sharply outweighs the supply in almost every market especially in San Francisco, New York, and Boston.  This is a major, major pain point and problem that almost every company is facing, regardless of the technology “stack” their engineers are working on.

4: Creative Design and User Experience

After engineers, the biggest challenge for companies is finding high-quality creative design and user-experience talent.  Since almost every company is trying to create a highly compelling user experience that keeps people engaged with their product, it is tough to find people who have this type of experience (especially with mobile devices including tablets) and a demonstrated track record of success.

3: Product Management

It is always helpful for an early-stage company to hire someone who has very relevant and specific experience in your industry.  This is especially true for product management, since the person in this role will interface with customers and define the product strategy and use cases.  However, be prepared, as it will be a challenge to find people with experience in these high-growth industries: consumer web, e-commerce, mobile, software as a service, and cloud computing.

2: Marketing

I’m not talking about old-school marketing communications. Companies are looking for expert online marketers who know how to create a buzz of inbound marketing or viral traffic through the web, social media, and content discovery.  Writing a good press release just doesn’t cut it anymore, as everyone is looking for the savvy online marketing professional who understands how the current state of the web operates and knows how to make it work to their benefit.

1: Analytics

Since data is becoming more and more accessible, smart companies are increasingly making decisions driven by metrics.  Analytics is becoming a central hub across companies where everything (web, marketing, sales, operations) is being measured and each decision is supported by data.  Thus, we are seeing a high level of demand for analytics and business intelligence professionals who almost act like internal consultants; they help determine what should be measured and then build out the capability for a company.

Source ( Keith Cline |  @VentureFizz   | Dec 19, 2011 http://www.inc.com/keith-cline/talent-shortages-in-2012.html)

After months in which part-time jobs and self employment represented the bulk of job creation, a new survey points to a welcome trend toward increased professional hiring in Canada.

“Definitely the trend has changed over the year. In the first quarter of the year, just 10 per cent of executives expected to hire and 7 per cent anticipated staff cuts. For the fourth quarter of this year, 17 per cent are planning active hiring and just 2 per cent plan reductions,” said Mike Gooley, regional vice-president of Robert Half Canada, which commissioned the survey of 1,000 executives in a range of industries.

Over all, 87 per cent of the executives said they are confident that their companies will grow between now and the end of the year.

“Locating the right candidates appears to have be more difficult than it has been all year, with 48 per cent of managers saying it’s challenging to find professionals with the right skills today,” Mr. Gooley said.

Executives in finance, insurance and real estate are most expansionist, with 31 per cent saying they expect to hire over the next three months.

About a quarter of those surveyed in transportation and retail said they plan to hire; 22 per cent in wholesale, and 13 per cent in business and professional services.

The weakest industry for growth is construction, with 6 per cent of executives expecting to take on staff and 5 per cent expecting to make cuts.

When asked to identify the type of staff who are hardest to find, many of the employers described the need for people who have a track record and experience using the latest technology and software.

“It’s clear from the descriptions that candidates who are up-to-date with the latest in their field are in the most demand,” Mr. Gooley said. Many of the jobs on the most-wanted list are in specialties. For example, in law they are in areas such as litigation and intellectual property.

While this might suggest that specialization is the key to landing jobs now, people who can highlight their transferrable skills and are willing to research specific needs in their industry will find more opportunities, he said.

“Because so many employers are saying they have difficulty finding candidates with all the skill and experience they want, it’s important to do some research about the positions and specific technological qualifications are in demand. So, network to discover how your transferrable skills can fit a role [the employer] may be having difficulty filling,” Mr. Gooley advised.

“If you don’t have all the technical experience they require, at least be conversant with the requirements and highlight skills with examples of your ability to learn and adapt in the past,” he added.

The survey also asked about year-end bonuses for employees and found that 62 per cent of the companies that gave bonuses last year will give as much this year, and 20 per cent said they will give higher amounts. However, that may not mean much for the majority of employees. Only 34 per cent of those surveyed said they gave bonuses last year.

IN-DEMAND JOBS

Advertising and marketing

User experience designers: Specialists in visual elements for online presentations.

Web designers: Especially creators of interactive websites.

Graphic producers: High demand for designers with expertise in Adobe Creative Suite 5.

Accounting and finance

Accounting managers: Analysts with experience in accounts payable and receivable are in highest demand.

Payroll administrators: Specialists should be able to establish and implement innovative policies.

Business systems analysts: Especially those who combine finance and information technology expertise.

Technology

Network administrators: Knowledge of cloud computing and virtualization required.

SharePoint developers: Client and intranet business-collaboration systems developers are highly sought after.

Desktop support professionals: Help desk and client-support staff, required on full-time as well as project basis.

Legal

Corporate law staff: Lawyers and support professionals with a broad background in business law.

Litigation specialists: Including associates, law clerks, paralegals and legal secretaries with backgrounds in labour relations and employment, commercial litigation and insurance defence.

Intellectual property experts: Includes lawyers and patent agents with experience in patent filings.

Source: Robert Half Canada survey of 1,000 Canadian executives

Source (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/on-the-job/employers-laying-out-welcome-mat/article2205548/)