According to a new survey by iHire, job seekers want more frequent and transparent communication from employers during the recruitment process. iHire surveyed 600 job seekers, asking questions designed to uncover the preferences of current job seekers.
Job seekers want more communication during the recruitment process: 95% of job seekers say they “want employers to acknowledge they’ve received their application after applying for a job online.” More than 80% of job seekers said they “want employers to inform them if they are disqualified from a job.” 38% of job seekers further said they “would be less likely to interact with a brand in the future if they apply for a job and don't hear back from the company.”
Candidates want salary transparency: 78% of job seekers said they “would be more likely to apply for a job if the salary was listed in the ad.” 44% said they “would not apply if the salary was not specified.”
While not a dealbreaker, candidates do care about companies' approach to unbiased hiring: Only 16% of job seekers said a “company’s commitment to DE&I was among the most important aspects of their job search.” However, more than 40% said they would be “more likely to apply for a job if they knew the employer used ‘blind’ or ‘anonymous’ recruitment tools to reduce bias or increase diversity hiring.”
Candidates want to work for a company with a positive employer brand – and they want proof. 38% of candidates said a company’s reputation as a good place to work was one the most important factors in their job search, while 76% research the hiring company before applying for a job “always” or “most of the time.” Of those who do their research, 66% said they want to read employee reviews/testimonials to gauge what it’s really like to work for the company.
"Employers who treat applicants well will not only have a competitive edge when it comes to recruiting, but also in their overall success as a business.”
Read more via iHire
While being a working mother is not necessarily easy in any state, WalletHub's new rankings show just how much harder – or easier – it is depending on where you live.
The best states for working mothers, according to WalletHub, are on the East Coast, and include Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, where pay is higher and child care is more readily available.
WalletHub ranked southern states worst, namely Louisiana, South Carolina and Alabama.
Read more via Employee Benefit News
Increasingly, social media is becoming a “standard recruiting tool” for US companies, according to the latest Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals. Most US hiring managers say they currently use social media to source, research, and screen applicants.
41% of hiring managers say they feel that social media platforms are “among the best places to source candidates.”
70% of companies report using social media to “research potential job candidates.” (Just 17% of companies say they use social media platforms to research every candidate.)
80% of companies that research applicants via social media platforms say they do so directly, with 20% using a third-party research service.
60% of respondents said employers “should screen all applicants’ social media profiles.”
69% said looking at candidates’ social media profiles is effective.
"It can be easy to fall into the trap of thinking personal and private lives should be separate, but this survey shows employers might not feel the same way.”
Read more via ExpressPros
Employers continue to face challenges when it comes to finding workers, and with the widespread legalization of marijuana, they are increasingly reconsidering how, when, and if, they want to restrict the talent pool further based on background checks.
Recreational marijuana is now legal across 22 states, with medical marijuana legal in 38 states.
In New York and New Jersey, state laws bar employers from “discriminating against employees who use marijuana legally.”
Efforts are underway in New Hampshire and Oregon to “clear or hide prior marijuana convictions where the drug has been legalized.”
Even the federal government is reconsidering whether it makes sense to rule out candidates with past drug offenses.
Companies that provide background check services say they are actively working with employers to “unblock potential candidates who may have been shut out of jobs previously because of their criminal records, including drug convictions.”
Checkr says it helped “unblock” more than 128,000 candidates with marijuana charges at employers’ request in 2022 alone.
Experts say the federal government's relaxing of their own recruiting rules is likely to influence more private sector companies to do the same.
“It’s very important, especially if you’re an employer, to think about, are you overlooking tens of millions of people? And who are you rejecting and why? As we work with customers, many realize, ‘Hey, you know what, I was thinking about it in a narrow way in the past, and there are actually a lot more candidates who are qualified who I can bring into my workforce.’”
Read more via Fast Company
According to the latest Conference Board’s CHRO Confidence Index, 51% of HR leaders say they “expect hiring to increase in the next six months.” (That's up from just 42% in Q1.)
In contrast, just 15% of HR leaders say they “expect layoffs in the next six months.”
Instead of laying off workers, HR leaders say they are “taking short-term measures to address the slower-growth environment, including eliminating travel, only hiring for critical positions, and reducing or delaying employee development opportunities.”
Only 34% of HR leaders said they “expect employee retention to increase over the next six months,” down from 45% in Q1.
“Over the past few years, acute labor shortages have taken the challenge of hiring workers to a whole new level… Despite a weakening economic environment, CHROs are thinking twice before resorting to layoffs … CHROs are focused on shorter-term actions to address the economic downturn, which also reflects our forecast that the recession will be short and shallow.”
Read more via Conference Board
