4 best practices for high-volume recruitment

[00:00:12] Welcome to Episode 79 of the High Volume Hiring Podcast. I am Stephen Rothberg, one of your co-hosts. I'm the founder of College Recruiter. And today we have a little bit of a different episode. My co-host Jeanette Leeds is here, but we don't have a guest today. Today, we are going to talk about a webinar that Jeanette recently did on high-volume hiring and some of the takeaways from it. So Jeanette, want to introduce yourself and tell people a little bit about who the heck you are?

[00:00:40] I know. So for those that don't know me, aside from Jeanette Leeds being the co-host of the High Volume Hiring Podcast, as you see on the line below, I'm a HR tech entrepreneur, a evangelist, a innovator. But how the heck does that relate to high-volume hiring?

[00:00:58] So for those that don't know, I've spent many, many years in high-volume recruiting, both as a practitioner and on the tech vendor side and on the RPO side. So past few years, I was at AMS running their hourly by AMS tech product, which focused-

[00:01:18] Huge global RPO.

[00:01:20] Huge global RPO. And then I was also on their America's Exec Leadership Team running their high-volume RPO practice, which was that combination of tech, which was hourly tech product plus whatever our customers used, process and people. And so to me, I'm always like, hey, you need all three really well together. And it's not just about the tech. It's not just about the process, not about people. So that combination is where the magic happens.

[00:01:48] So you might call it a three-legged stool.

[00:01:50] Three-legged stool. Yes.

[00:01:52] Or if I was buying a stool from Ikea and assembling it, I would probably stop at about two legs and then try to figure out why it is felt when I stood on it.

[00:02:02] Yeah.

[00:02:02] That's another story for another day.

[00:02:03] I like to usually say, I like, you know, where one plus one plus one does not just equal three. I feel like that's when it equals like five or 10, because that's where you get way more. But that's me.

[00:02:13] So you weren't very good in math in high school.

[00:02:16] I will just like.

[00:02:20] Actually, that'd be more like second grade, but okay, whatever.

[00:02:23] Exactly.

[00:02:24] So the webinar that you were on for ERE, and for those who are interested, I'm going to throw up, for those watching on video, there's a QR code at the bottom.

[00:02:36] If you scan that, it'll take you to that webpage address.

[00:02:39] For those who are listening on Spotify, Apple, whatever, our audio only version, it's at eremedia.com slash webinars, plural, high hyphen volume hyphen hiring hyphen heroes hyphen strategies hyphen to T.O hyphen scale hyphen and hyphen succeed.

[00:02:58] That is a mouthful.

[00:03:00] That's a major mouthful.

[00:03:01] If you're like visual, you can see the title was like high volume heroes.

[00:03:06] And I have the Wonder Woman thing going on behind me.

[00:03:08] So I was like very, I was very on brand.

[00:03:11] That's like was moderating and participating.

[00:03:14] And it was always like this round table session, which was awesome.

[00:03:18] Yeah.

[00:03:19] So you moderated, you also added your two cents and you had a couple of awesome panelists.

[00:03:26] Again, for those on video, you can see who they are, but when you can talk a little bit about Amanda and Sarah.

[00:03:32] Yeah.

[00:03:32] So we had Amanda Robbins and she has her own company now.

[00:03:36] It's the Robbins Recruiting Solutions.

[00:03:38] Okay.

[00:03:39] And then Sarah Kummer, who was at, who is at T-Mobile.

[00:03:44] Both have a big background in high volume recruiting as practitioners, mostly on the more of the large enterprise side.

[00:03:52] So Amanda was like, is very big into the healthcare side, which was great.

[00:03:57] And then you had Sarah, who was much on the retail side, which so it was a nice like combination.

[00:04:03] And then you had me where I was like that mix of, you know, sort of all between working, you know, companies like Burger King and Delta.

[00:04:12] And, and, you know, so it was a nice compliment to hear.

[00:04:16] I know I had some manufacturing as well.

[00:04:18] So we, it was a good combination.

[00:04:21] Yeah.

[00:04:21] And when you and I, I think first crossed paths, you were with a Wall Street bank.

[00:04:26] So you've got that side of it too.

[00:04:28] Yes.

[00:04:28] I was at Brothers and Credit Suisse, even until the very end.

[00:04:32] Yeah.

[00:04:32] So practitioner on Wall Street.

[00:04:33] And then I guess the other thing, and I was doing campus recruiting.

[00:04:37] So I actually consider to be.

[00:04:39] Which is high volume, right?

[00:04:41] I mean, it is, it's, you know, more, you know, professional hiring, you know, volume, but it's still crazy volume.

[00:04:49] Yeah.

[00:04:49] You don't ever see a campus recruiting program.

[00:04:52] That's not.

[00:04:53] Yeah.

[00:04:54] There's volume too.

[00:04:54] Like you never have a whole program to hire two people.

[00:04:57] Yeah.

[00:04:57] I mean, yeah, that's not a whole program.

[00:04:59] That's just like regular recruiting.

[00:05:02] So the ERE webinar that you did was, I think it was like early November, right?

[00:05:08] Yes.

[00:05:08] Like November 8th, 9th, 10th, something like that.

[00:05:11] Something like that.

[00:05:12] I'm like actually looking at the calendar in front of me.

[00:05:14] Yeah.

[00:05:15] Something like that.

[00:05:15] And in that, when you and I were kind of prepping to, for this episode, we were talking about like there were, you talked about a bunch of things, but there were, I think it sounded to me like there were basically four main takeaways.

[00:05:27] Yes.

[00:05:27] You and I thought that it'd be good for our viewers slash listeners to kind of run through each of those, like, either here are like the four things that you really need to pay attention to succeed in high volume.

[00:05:39] Is that?

[00:05:40] Absolutely.

[00:05:41] Absolutely.

[00:05:42] Without giving too much of what the webinar was.

[00:05:46] But yeah, like going through with, you know, some of these big, you know, big four best practices, I'd say.

[00:05:52] Yeah.

[00:05:52] So number one is?

[00:05:55] Palancing automation with personalization.

[00:05:57] So, I mean, we think about this is so key.

[00:06:00] When I was talking earlier about it, or we were talking about that three-legged stool, right?

[00:06:04] You can have, you know, great tech and we can scale and do so much with it, but like got to keep it personalized.

[00:06:11] And so we talked a lot about like where, you know, where does it make sense to automate versus keep that human touch?

[00:06:19] And there was also around like what tech tools are most effective in keeping things fast.

[00:06:24] And so the interesting thing that came up there was by far, hands down, we all agreed.

[00:06:29] And even with audience participation was like texting is so key when it comes to high volume.

[00:06:35] And that's texting with a T, not an S.

[00:06:38] Texting.

[00:06:39] Yes.

[00:06:39] Okay.

[00:06:39] Okay.

[00:06:40] Again, if it's with an S, that's another podcast.

[00:06:45] And that was really, really key from just the speed and efficiency and where, you know, where the candidates are used to.

[00:06:53] And then around that piece of like bouncing the automation, you know, the real takeaway there is bouncing automation with personalization is like thinking about what makes a real meaningful impact on the candidate experience.

[00:07:09] And anything that takes away from that meaningful candidate experience.

[00:07:17] Like, that's what you want to automate.

[00:07:28] So whether that's, yeah, whether that's job postings, offer letters, interview schedule, like automate that stuff.

[00:07:36] But the rest, the rest of it, that's where you're really, you know, talking one-on-one don't automate some of that.

[00:07:44] So the actual interview.

[00:07:46] Yeah.

[00:07:46] Real person to real person.

[00:07:48] Yeah.

[00:07:48] But pick a time on my calendar, automate that.

[00:07:52] Automate that.

[00:07:53] Matt Alder, who has like one of the world's best HR tech podcasts.

[00:07:58] I think it's called The Recruiting Future.

[00:08:01] He talks about personalization at scale.

[00:08:04] So anybody who wants to learn more, Matt's the guy.

[00:08:07] Go there.

[00:08:08] Yeah.

[00:08:08] Number two.

[00:08:10] Number two.

[00:08:10] Reducing candidate drop-off, ghosting, decline.

[00:08:12] I mean, this is such, such a big issue in the high volume world.

[00:08:16] How do you, you know, help the candidates get, you know, actually show up?

[00:08:20] And so what we actually talked a lot about was how do you use data?

[00:08:25] And then what you're finding from your data and analytics and insights, how do you make some tweaks to the process to reduce these areas, reduce the drop-offs, reduce the ghosting?

[00:08:36] And I actually shared one example, which one of our panelists was like sort of really loved.

[00:08:42] And she's like, I want to incorporate this.

[00:08:43] But it was, we realized when I was working with one customer, former customer who, I don't know for confidentiality, I won't share, but they, like we realized looking at the data.

[00:08:54] That they had a big drop-off in the first round interview, getting candidates to like show up.

[00:08:59] But it was for particular locations.

[00:09:02] And so what we ended up doing was adding a few extra interview reminders.

[00:09:09] Not in a spammy way, right?

[00:09:10] Or you're getting like text reminders of like, hey, don't forget your interview is tomorrow.

[00:09:14] Because you want to do some of that, but you don't want to be like annoying.

[00:09:17] Yeah.

[00:09:18] So we added in what it was like to work at that company.

[00:09:23] So like a day in a life.

[00:09:25] Or information of like, hey, this is what it's like to look at company X.

[00:09:28] And by the way, your interview is.

[00:09:31] Love it.

[00:09:32] And just by doing that, we saw an increase in the, you could do it this way, increase in the show rate to that first interview by 9%.

[00:09:40] Or you could say a decrease in candidate ghosting.

[00:09:42] So it was a 9% difference just by like realizing, hey, here's the data, here's the issue.

[00:09:47] What's going on?

[00:09:48] Why?

[00:09:48] And making that change.

[00:09:50] And it was because of doing some data analysis there.

[00:09:55] And so it was a great example.

[00:09:58] And again, one of my, you know, the panelists was like, ooh, I want to start doing that.

[00:10:02] You know, let's do what the day in the life is.

[00:10:04] And so it was sort of this nice best practice sharing live.

[00:10:08] Hey, this is William Tenka, Work Defined.

[00:10:11] Hey, listen, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about Inside the C-Suite, the podcast.

[00:10:15] It's a look into the journey of how one goes from high school, college, whatever, all the way to the C-Suite.

[00:10:22] All the ups and downs, failures, successes, all that stuff.

[00:10:25] Give it a listen.

[00:10:26] Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:10:28] Yeah.

[00:10:29] And the people who come into those interviews are going to be better prepared.

[00:10:32] And you know what?

[00:10:32] Some of them might opt out.

[00:10:34] And that's okay.

[00:10:36] Right?

[00:10:37] It's like, it's good.

[00:10:38] It's like, if that's what my day is going to look like, no, I don't want that.

[00:10:45] And then everybody saves time.

[00:10:47] I love the fact, Jeanette, that you broke it down, you know, with, I guess, with Amanda, with Sarah, into these discrete pieces.

[00:10:55] Because 20 years ago, I think that a lot more employers would have known that they've got drop-off, but not known where or why.

[00:11:04] It's like, we know how many people applied.

[00:11:07] They wouldn't have even known how many people looked at their job ads or anything like that.

[00:11:11] But it's like, we got 1,000 applications and we hired 12.

[00:11:15] And they had no idea.

[00:11:17] Like, where is it going wrong?

[00:11:19] Right.

[00:11:20] How the fuck do it, where is it going right?

[00:11:21] But like, what's the issue in digging into those pieces?

[00:11:24] Yeah.

[00:11:25] It could be the job ad.

[00:11:26] It could be the assessment.

[00:11:28] It could be the interview scale.

[00:11:29] I mean, they're like, I don't know.

[00:11:31] You know better than me.

[00:11:32] They're probably like two dozen different touch points right in there.

[00:11:36] So, number three.

[00:11:39] Number three.

[00:11:40] Okay.

[00:11:40] So, again, similar to the personalization versus automation is like, how do you really enhance that candidate experience at scale?

[00:11:46] And this does relate to this personalization versus automation.

[00:11:50] And what I would say, the biggest example that, again, someone else like loved, I think it was Amanda's like, oh, I'm going to incorporate Sarah's idea.

[00:12:00] What they're doing was around interview tips.

[00:12:04] And so, and I think I could say this because T-Mobile, she literally said this, that that's what T-Mobile's doing.

[00:12:10] Is that for, and I don't think it's for all the roles, certain roles.

[00:12:14] They will actually have an interview tips, almost like coaching session that's offered for roles after they've gone through the screening for candidates and it's offered out.

[00:12:27] So, hey, you know, you've made it to the round where you're going to meet with a hiring manager.

[00:12:31] If you'd like, I can do some interview tips, coaching, or I forget how they phrased it.

[00:12:35] But it's not for everyone.

[00:12:37] And you think about that from a personalization and an accounting experience, we're talking about high volume roles, right?

[00:12:43] The retail space.

[00:12:44] But for the ones that matter, for those roles that maybe they're a little bit hard to fill, certain locations, and I can't remember the specifics of it.

[00:12:52] But if you think about that, offering that, how many companies, you don't hear about that often.

[00:12:58] We want you to succeed is the message that I'm getting.

[00:13:03] And if you're doing that before I even work for you, then, hey, T-Mobile, it's only going to be more.

[00:13:10] You're only going to want to help me more.

[00:13:12] If I'm a candidate looking for whether it's that hourly cashier management, you know, whatever it is that T-Mobile and other employers are doing.

[00:13:20] If I see that from an employer, my interest just went through the roof.

[00:13:25] Exactly.

[00:13:26] And I think what was like the big takeaway from that and thinking about some of the other points is that there was this, to me, what I would say is there's this creativity, right?

[00:13:36] You got to think about like your process and your tech and, you know, obviously people, but like be creative.

[00:13:43] Like to me, these were really creative solutions to a problem.

[00:13:47] Again, you don't have to do it everywhere.

[00:13:49] Maybe it's in a certain spot.

[00:13:51] Be creative about it, right?

[00:13:53] Versus just the typical process of, okay, let me just, you know, get them scheduled, do a quick screening, get them in the door.

[00:13:59] Like there's interesting things that organizations can be doing to differentiate themselves from their competitors out there.

[00:14:07] Yeah.

[00:14:08] You do want the creativity to be good.

[00:14:11] Unlike sometimes where I get creative in the kitchen and we're just thankful that nobody ends up having to go to the hospital.

[00:14:17] Again, another podcast.

[00:14:19] Another podcast.

[00:14:20] Eight words of food poisoning people by accident.

[00:14:24] Apparently that's a bad thing.

[00:14:26] I, you know, what, go, go, go figure.

[00:14:29] Point number four, communication.

[00:14:32] Yeah.

[00:14:32] Yeah.

[00:14:33] So this was a big discussion on, you know, again, when you have a volume, you have a ton of candidates and also you have a lot of different hiring managers.

[00:14:40] You might, but let's presume that if you, a lot of different locations, how do you stay connected?

[00:14:46] How do you improve the communication?

[00:14:48] And so, you know, there was some discussion on, okay, besides email, are we texting or using Slack?

[00:14:55] One best practice that was shared was every Monday.

[00:14:57] And it was actually on Mondays, a dashboard of stats goes out like via email, but I can't remember who sends it out.

[00:15:05] And there was some discussion of like, well, why not Fridays?

[00:15:08] It's just like, no, but on Monday.

[00:15:10] And it was, I can't remember if it was like a week over a week of stats and trends and just keeping everyone on the same page from a hiring manager standpoint.

[00:15:19] And other stakeholders in the business to like, make sure everyone feels like they know what's happening versus the black hole that, you know, happens when you have a lot of things going on.

[00:15:31] It was, there was a lot of discussion around being proactive versus being reactive, which we all know when you're creating.

[00:15:38] I mean, life sometimes is like drinking water from a fire hose.

[00:15:41] So this is like, okay, wait, wait, wait, like to try and put out a fire before it starts and let me send out proactively some really key points of WhatsApp.

[00:15:50] I love that too.

[00:15:52] And I've heard that described as managing up.

[00:15:54] Yes.

[00:15:54] That if you've got bad news to share with your manager or some internal customer, you might call them, you know, you're the recruiter, you're going to the hiring manager.

[00:16:04] If there's going to be bad news, but you share it proactively before they even know there's a problem, you take the sting.

[00:16:12] It hurts a little bit instead of hurting a lot because that hiring manager doesn't want to be surprised.

[00:16:19] Yeah.

[00:16:19] Right.

[00:16:20] It's like, hey, Jeanette, I understand we missed our numbers, but I can see that you're aware of it.

[00:16:25] You've got a plan to deal with it.

[00:16:27] But I'm a little bit concerned, but not nearly as concerned as if I had found the problem and it would, and I had to bring that to your attention.

[00:16:37] And then maybe you tell me you're surprised and maybe you tell me basically you've been hiding it.

[00:16:42] Either way, trust.

[00:16:44] There's a real trust problem.

[00:16:45] Life advice, right?

[00:16:47] If there's something that's like not as good as you think, just don't hide it.

[00:16:52] Like when my wife and I were moving recently and I broke our favorite lamp and I called her on the phone and told her, that was a good call.

[00:17:01] Yes.

[00:17:02] Uncomfortable phone call.

[00:17:03] Yeah.

[00:17:04] Not fun, but just get it over with before it festers.

[00:17:08] So yeah, for sure.

[00:17:10] So best practices in life, best practices for high volume recruiting.

[00:17:13] I mean, you can use it across.

[00:17:16] So those are really, you know, those four, you know, main, really main takeaways over overall.

[00:17:22] Really sounds awesome.

[00:17:23] Webinar was what?

[00:17:25] Roughly an hour.

[00:17:26] It was an hour.

[00:17:27] I think it was an hour and two minutes.

[00:17:28] So you went a little over and I won't say, but at the end, for those that watch it, the last question I asked was like, give some advice.

[00:17:37] So I won't tell you what the advice was.

[00:17:39] Go on to it and watch the whole thing.

[00:17:42] Get some advice.

[00:17:44] Well, awesome.

[00:17:44] Sounds like a great webinar from the folks at ERE.

[00:17:48] That's no surprise.

[00:17:50] You, Amanda, and Sarah must have been just awesome together.

[00:17:53] So I hope to see it.

[00:17:55] Fun.

[00:17:55] It was a lot of fun.

[00:17:56] So we all learned from each other, which was even better.

[00:18:00] So good stuff.

[00:18:02] Fantastic.

[00:18:03] Thank you, Jeanette, for sharing.

[00:18:05] That was really enlightening, really interesting.

[00:18:09] And I guess we'll see each other in a couple of weeks.

[00:18:12] Until then.

[00:18:13] Take care, everyone.

[00:18:15] Bye.

[00:18:15] Ciao.