For many of us, January is more than the just the start of a new year. It’s a clean slate to set new intentions and a chance to recommit to old ones. It’s no surprise then that January typically sees an almost 20% increase in gym memberships.
However by the time February rolls around, 80% of those commitments have been long forgotten. Without a easy way to track progress towards their goal, people fail to see the headway they are making. Frustration gets the best of them, and they give up too soon.
One of the most common areas that people set their sights on in the New Year is career development. Of course we all would like a pay raise, a title bump, and a promotion by year-end but a lot of work goes into making that a reality. If you’re ready to take on the challenge, here are 5 resolutions to make in 2019 that will take your recruiting to the next level– and how to hold yourself to them all year long:
1. Learn a new skill
According to Statistica, this is one of the most common new year’s resolutions year after year and yet one of the most difficult to achieve. We often have an end goal in mind – master a new technology, leverage AI within our sourcing process – but we don’t know where to get started. If you goal revolves around adding a new software tool to your skillset, head to their website and look for a training portal. Prominent softwares often have an entire website dedicated towards educating users on their product; for us, that's Entelo Academy.
Once you’ve kicked off your training, be sure to track your route to proficiency. The best way to gain proficiency in any new skill is practice– set goals for weekly usage and follow through. Using Entelo’s new Achievements Dashboard, for example, you can keep an eye on your Overall Usage metric. Tracking your overall sourcing activity for the entire year, Overall Usage tells you whether you are putting the right amount of effort in to become an Entelo pro.
2. Build New Relationships
Recruiting is all about building relationships; if you are not playing the long game by nurturing candidates with relevant and interesting content, you are likely losing out on great talent. Set goals around your outreach– both in terms of quantity AND quality. You'll want to make sure to cast a wide enough net, without compromising the relevancy and personalization of your message.
In this case, the two important metrics to keep an eye on are the overall number of emails sent and the average reply rates of those emails. Along with overall usage, you can track these numbers in the Entelo Achievement Dashboard. Only the teammate with the highest reply rate will receive the coveted “Talent Catalyst” title, so make sure you are constantly adjusting and improving your messaging to bump up those reply rates!
3. Get Organized
January is the perfect time to get organized, before our workload gets the best of us. However revamping your entire workflow in one go can be too much too soon. Instead focus on specific areas of your process that you can improve– sourcing, outreach, screening etc.
Most softwares have built out tools specifically to help their users stay organized, but often times these go underutilized. In Entelo, for example, we have Lists that allows users to easily add candidates to the appropriate job req or pipeline list as they source. Curious how organized your sourcing is through Entelo? Check out the Achievements Dashboard to see what level you've unlocked through List usage and set a goal to reach “Super Sourcer” by the end of the year.
4. Make More Money
At the end of the day, recruiting is one of the most important functions for a business. Your leadership can have all the vision, direction, and business strategy in the world, but without the right people to get the job done it’s all for naught. Even one of the most successful e-commerce companies in the world has learned this the hard way: Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh once estimated that his own bad hires cost the company over $100 million.
If you are eager to make a direct impact on your company’s bottom line this year, focus on the top of funnel. Leverage an intelligent sourcing tool and set goals around the number of candidates sourced. In Entelo, you can easily follow your progress towards these goals by keeping an eye on your Search achievements. Check out how your sourcing compares to that of your team and compete for the title of Search Power User (most overall searches on your team):
5. Save That Money
Research from SHRM suggests that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months’ salary on average. That doesn't include all the hours spent sourcing, emailing, calling, screening, interviewing, reviewing hundreds of candidates just to start all over again.
Retention is a particularly prominent issue for companies that lack diversity. In fact, in one study, 57% of departing employees would have stayed if their company had taken steps to make the company culture more fair and inclusive. What's more, mounting evidence shows that diverse teams consistently outperform their homogeneous counterparts.
Recruiters play a large role in shaping the overall company culture, and it all starts with the candidate pipeline they build. Keep an eye on the breakdown of your pipeline, and identify where throughout the funnel diverse candidates drop-off. Entelo users: get full insight into your Diversity Search activity through the Achievement Dashboard and track your progress towards becoming a Diversity Ace!
Whatever your new year’s resolution may be, put a number to it that you can measure and track throughout the year. Progress may be slow, but celebrate the wins along the way and you’ll be reaching those goals in no time. Happy Resoluting!