March 22, 2023
Creating a Standardized Interview Question Bank
Recruiters face numerous challenges during the offer and sell process, but many can be prevented with proper planning. Here are five high-impact offer and sell best practices to incorporate into your recruitment strategy.
Learn what individual candidates are looking for from an employer and appeal to their priorities by telling a story with the company’s benefits packages. Ask candidates what considerations are most influential in their decision-making process and find available benefits that align with those considerations. Then, create a narrative around the packages that speaks to their priorities.
Know available offer tradeoffs that candidates will accept in place of particular benefits – especially base salary – and adjust messaging to entice them. Some examples include:
Use the offer and sell process to embed candidates in the company culture, demonstrate values, and give candidates an opportunity to envision themselves there. Here are a few ways your peers are already doing this:
Gear the entire recruiting process toward closing candidates by communicating key information early, following up consistently, and facilitating candidate connections.
Develop an awareness for common challenges encountered during the offer and sell process and proactively create a plan to mitigate goals.
• Ask candidates about their must-haves and dealbreakers early in the recruiting process to help foresee possible challenges.
Almost three years after the racial justice movement resurged, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) continues to top the list of strategic priorities for Talent Acquisition (TA) teams. During the summer of 2020, 61% of employers pledged to increase representation of underrepresented groups in response to national news coverage of the racial justice movement. But, throughout 2022, many employers’ ambitious DEI initiatives still yielded disappointing results. 3 in 5 Talent Acquisition teams were given specific DEI goals for recruiting in 2022; while a majority of teams were on track to achieve or exceed these goals, many reported encountering roadblocks.
This year once again, Talent Acquisition teams are aiming to achieve lofty DEI goals, with 4 out of 5 teams expecting their focus on DEI to increase in 2023. However, the letdowns of years past and current labor market trends have created doubt, with over half of companies worried about meeting their 2023 DEI goals. Our recent Employer Benchmarking research revealed the strategies teams are utilizing to overcome challenges in the sourcing, interview, and offer & sell processes this year.
Read: How a Fortune 500 Financial Services Employer Built a More Inclusive Recruitment Process
• Implementing diverse slate hiring
• Providing internal DEI trainings
• Ensuring diverse interview panels
• Initiating and maintaining diversity-focused partnerships
• Assessing and addressing potential bias in the recruiting process
• Increasing retention of diverse candidates
The most common DEI goal among TA teams this year is to consider a specific percentage of diverse candidates in recruiting – also referred to as diverse slate hiring. Of companies that have diverse slates, over half have specific DEI goals for the sourcing stage of the recruitment process. Achieving DEI goals in the sourcing stage has proven to be tough. 45% of companies reported difficulty sourcing a more diverse set of candidates in 2022. Many TA teams are addressing sourcing challenges by putting themselves in places where they might connect with more diverse candidates – 54% of teams have started sourcing candidates through diversity partnerships to improve DEI in the sourcing stage, and 50% have started attending diversity conferences.
The interview process is when companies can really narrow down candidates to find the right fit, and many companies are formalizing that process – to increase DEI in interviews, nearly half of companies have implemented diversity trainings for interviewers and hiring managers. Additionally, 2 in 5 companies indicated they have incorporated formalized and consistent procedures for assessing candidates and/or standardized feedback mechanisms (e.g. developing rating scorecards for feedback).
In the offer and sell process, many TA teams are embracing personalized communication and transparency in order to increase DEI at this stage. 51% of companies have begun reaching out to applicants individually to make an offer, and 50% of companies report talking openly and transparently about where the company is regarding DEI to increase diversity in the offer and sell process. 2 in 5 companies report showcasing their diversity initiatives to increase DEI.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion has been and will continue to be a primary focus in Talent Acquisition, and intentionality in the sourcing, interviewing, and offer processes is critical for winning diverse talent. After all, candidates are paying attention:
“I want to make sure that there’s consistent messaging throughout the recruiting process. You don’t want [DEI statements] to show up on their website and have it never be spoken about again. You want to see that follow-through throughout the application, interview, and offer process and eventually while working in that space.”
To achieve ambitious goals, best-in-class recruiting teams have to leave the guesswork behind and leverage data-driven insights to guide their DEI strategy.
On February 9th, we gathered a group of Talent Acquisition leaders for a problem-solving session. The group voted live to select one challenge TA leaders frequently face. They selected KPIs/Metrics! Our CEO, Carter Bradley, then walked through how they can and should tackle the challenge in today’s recruiting landscape.
Check out the recording here if you want to revisit the content or weren’t able to join live.
We’re thrilled to be bringing together the most senior Talent Acquisition leaders in Veris Insights’ Experienced Recruiting Council later this year! This will be our second annual meeting. We can’t wait to host you in Washington, DC! We look forward to collaborative discussions, presentations of our most impactful research findings, some DC fun, and more.
Venue: We will be hosting this year’s meeting at the Eaton DC.
1201 K St NW
Washington, DC 20005
Schedule: Stay tuned for more details, but this will be the high-level schedule.
Tuesday, May 16th, 2023
12pm-5:30pm Content Sessions
5:30pm-10pm Social Programming
Wednesday, May 17th, 2023
9am-3pm Content Sessions
Attire: While we don’t have a formal dress code, attendees typically dress in business casual attire.
Travel & Lodging: We’re excited that this event continues to be a part of the standard membership contribution. Members will be responsible for their individual travel and hotel stay, and once you’re with us, all is included. The deadline for making hotel reservations at the Eaton has passed and the hotel is sold out. We recommend the following nearby hotels:
Hilton Garden Inn Washington DC Downtown
Join the community! Follow us on LinkedIn to stay up-to-date on all things ERC AMM.
Lunch & Learn sessions are designed to fill a need for more content-based events, where a member of our team will present Veris Insights data on key topics, followed by an optional discussion portion for those who wish to participate.
Join us on Wednesday, April 19th, 2023: 2pm-3pm EST To discuss Hiring/Recruiter Metrics.
Working Groups are opportunities for you to connect with fellow Talent Acquisition leaders around a specific topic. We are excited to create this virtual meeting space for you to problem solve and share best practices with a small group of peers.
Join us on Wednesday, April 26th, 2023: 2:30-3pm EST To discuss Partnering with ERGs.
Working Groups are opportunities for you to connect with fellow Talent Acquisition leaders around a specific topic. We are excited to create this virtual meeting space for you to problem solve and share best practices with a small group of peers.
Join us on Thursday, March 16th, 2023: 3:30-4:15 EST To discuss Upskilling TA Teams.
Working Groups are opportunities for you to connect with fellow Talent Acquisition leaders around a specific topic. We are excited to create this virtual meeting space for you to problem solve and share best practices with a small group of peers.
Join us on Thursday, March 23rd, 2023: 12-12:30pm EST To discuss Boomerangs.
Working Groups are opportunities for you to connect with fellow Talent Acquisition leaders around a specific topic. We are excited to create this virtual meeting space for you to problem solve and share best practices with a small group of peers.
Join us on Monday, February 27, 2023: 2:00-2:45pm EST To discuss Implementing & Incorporating New Tech (ATS, CRM, AI, etc).