It's Almost Time for the AAAED National Conference

What's in Store at the 41st AAAED National Conference?

Aside from being in beautiful New Orleans, Louisiana, AAAED will provide in-depth opportunities for HR professionals to provide equal opportunities for all employees. Topics such as OFCCP compliance, diversity hiring, and employee inclusion are just a few items on the conference agenda. More specifically, AAAED plans to credit and appreciate Executive Order 11246, the 50th anniversary of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and how these landmarks affect us today. This is surely a conference you won't want to miss.

Come See SourceCast in New Orleans

SourceCast is excited to be exhibiting at the 41st AAAED conference! If you're coming to the conference, stop by booth #8.At the booth, SourceCast will have a number of giveaways going on with chances to win the grand prize on Thursday, June 4. A member of the SourceCast team would love to meet you and fill you in on exciting SourceCast news, enter you to win in our giveaway drawing, or to just say hi and meet you. We look forward to another great turnout at AAAED, and we can't wait to see everyone there!

Give Thanks; Give Back - 5 Veteran Hiring Companies

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During the holidays, our emotional, appreciative side tends to make its grand entrance. We become nostalgic, say "thank you" like it's a seasonal fad, and we eat, boy do we eat. However, this season, a new tradition has started that isn't merely trending or posing to be seasonal. This holiday season, we've seen a huge investment in veteran hiring. Many companies are coming out of the woodwork with plans and programs designated to hire and thank our veterans. In honor of these companies giving back to our courageous veterans, SourceCast would like to give an honorable salute to these inspiring companies.

According to Fortune Magazine, here are the top 5 Fortune 500 companies making a difference with veteran hiring:

1. JP Morgan Chase: Back in 2011, JP Morgan and a number of other companies initiated the 100,000 Jobs Mission. Already, 117,000 vets have been hired through the program. Now, JP Morgan is increasing the goal to 200,000 veterans. We salute you, JP Morgan!
2. Disney: In March of 2012, Disney started their program, "Heroes Work Here." The goal was to hire 1,000 veterans by 2015. That goal was met in the program's first year. Now, their goal is 2,000 vets by 2015. We salute you, Disney!
3. Starbucks: With a CEO dedicated to the veteran cause, Starbucks has made a commitment to hire at least 10,000 veterans and current military spouses by 2018. Talk about one hot cup of dedication. Starbucks, we salute you!
4. Capital One Financial: Capital One launched its program “Hiring 500,000 Heroes” and donated $4.5 million to fund the initiative. The program is dedicated to matching qualified veterans and military spouses with local small business opportunities. We salute you, Capital One!
5. Booz Allen Hamilton: Booz Allen has long celebrated veterans. Currently, an estimated 1/3 of the Booz Allen workforce consists of veterans. Booz Allen provides a multitude of veteran accommodations such as: the ability to work remotely, leave and return strategies for reserve soldiers, support groups for spouses, and disability accommodations. Booz Allen, we salute you!

Whether you're a large or small company, have billions in revenue or nothing at your disposal, let's all find our holiday spirit and help those who have unselfishly helped us in ways we cannot imagine. Veteran hiring is so crucial, and not because it's right or we have regulations to uphold, but this talent pool is more apt to the job than many even realize. This holiday season let's all give thanks; and give back.

Source: Fortune

Hiring for Fit and Your Company Culture

As we mentioned last week, there's a lot of talk on the "right" way to recruit. As we also said, there's always going to be a debate, because nobody is the same and we all have opinions based on subjectivity. This next controversial hiring tip follows the same beat. What if we hired based on pure skill level and leadership potential? That is to say, what if we threw "hiring for the right fit," right out the window? Now that's an interesting concept.

Hiring for Fit: Wrong Approach?

Laurie Ruettimann has been known for her controversial standings on HR issues. Her latest opinion criticizes hiring for fit. Personally, we here at SourceCast find this quite intriguing. For an organization to continue functioning, can we completely throw out the notion of finding an employee that can fit into a well-greased machine of a company? The concept seems somewhat flawed, doesn't it?

If We're Not Hiring for Fit...

Suffice it to say, we're not sure what we believe. On one hand, no leader was ever born as a mere follower, someone acknowledging and accepting ideas and truths without question. There's something to be said with employing the "thinkers," those who are always thinking about new ideas, ways to critique and strengthen current practices, and those who seem to just shake things up. However, hiring an entire workforce with their own unique mentalities could cause friction, allowing nothing to get done without painful amounts of idea gridlocks. In our minds, there has to be a single direction, a line of focus to a goal. That means hiring people who mesh into the organization's culture (i.e., the CEO's vision) but also hiring those that have their own vision, who can enhance the company's goals or vision and take leadership to get you there.

Instead of hiring for fit, HR, as Ms. Ruettimann says, "[has] an obligation to advocate on behalf of the cranky, grouchy, unlikeable employees who question everything and don't go along with the flow." HR also has the obligation to advocate on behalf of those passionate, obedient, and loveable employees who also act like worker bees, coercing together beautifully to accomplish goals. Our workforces need both these types of employees. This calls for a shout out to the surge of non-discrimination laws: we don't discriminate in hiring practices or towards those who do or don't follow a company's "culture or fit."

Source: TLNT

Recruitment: One Goal, a Million Paths to Get There

Recruitment has and will always be a buzzword in HR, but it's also been surrounded with controversy. What controversy, you may ask? Well, throughout our newsfeeds, email subscriptions, and other morning coffee reads, it's always safe to say that we'll see some article on the "5 Best Recruitment Practices" or "Recruiting the Right Way," etc. Clearly, there's controversy as everyone thinks they've struck gold with their latest-and-greatest recruitment breakthrough. People will always talk, and we will always listen…until we tune out due to a lack of statistical or at least "meaningful" evidence. Trust me, we're skeptics too when we read recruitment hot topics, but I think we've hit the recruitment jackpot when we observe the company named Zappos, an Amazon-owned retail business, and their recruitment model. I mean seriously, the jackpot is not proverbial in this sense; HR could be saving their companies a lot of money by infusing their organizations with new recruitment zen.

Recruitment Starts with Employee Engagement

According to Zappos, recruitment starts with employee engagement and appreciation. Zappos seemingly puts their employees first, often offering incentives and creating an environment where an employee feels appreciated and excited to work. They focus organically to create this sense of trust and dedication to the company and the brand. With a loyal workforce, Zappos allows potential new hires to chat with current employees, yielding tremendous amounts of applicants after hearing workplace praises from current employees. For years, Zappos has been listed as one of the "Best Companies to Work For," hands down due to the environment they've created by putting people first. In turn, they've ramped up their social presence and have taken to these mediums to turn up the volume of their happy community to 11 for the world to see. And what do you know, people are responding to it.

Recruitment Works Inside Out

This is the kind of environment we should all try to simulate. By focusing internally, you're ultimately assisting your external perception. In turn, recruitment sort of works itself out. Posting on job boards and using recruitment services are great; don't think we're anti-traditional hiring practice. However, the difference between the major and minor leagues of recruitment is your companies' work environment. Would your employees speak highly of your workplace? Could you rely on them to attract applicants? Do you have a strong, lasting relationship with your workforce? If you’re unsure or answer no to any of these questions, maybe it's time to reevaluate your recruitment strategies, starting internally.

Source: Talent Culture

3 Job Site Tips to Secure That New Hire

You know that feeling of frustration and rage you get when you click on a link and it either:

• Takes you to a site requiring everything but your first born child
• The site is so convoluted that you feel like a mouse in a cheese maze
• Modal windows with impersonalized offers pops up every 3 seconds, on the dot
• You have a question to ask, but only a computer to ask it to and a wait period after that

Well, unfortunately, that’s how recruitment is starting to feel like for those jobseekers out there. Nothing is personal anymore, websites are obliviously hiding their application links, and the recruitment process is absurdly long, especially to millennials. What if, when a jobseeker goes to your website, they:

• Easily find an application link without having to sort through your content, and undoubtedly losing interesting in your company.
• Receive a personalized email template thanking them for their interest in your position. All correspondences to any potential candidate should be personal.
• Are quickly and efficiently taken through the interview, assessment, and typical hiring procedures instead of waiting through a delayed, drawn out process. Technology affords us less time needed for practically everything, so why would hiring be any different? The younger the applicant, the more they expect a speedy return when applying for jobs. In addition, why leave it to chance for your dream applicant to get away just because you weren't fast enough to secure the hire?

These 3 things, as potentially obvious or easy as they seem, can be the differentiators making sure you secure the hire, not your competitor. Don't miss out on your dream hire because of simple, common mistakes. Take an enthusiastic approach to your recruitment strategy, and secure your top talent, today.

Source: SmartRecruiters

4 Tips to Job Descriptions That Attract the Right Talent

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As we sip our morning coffee, scouring our multiple newsfeeds, we see things like "5 tips for landing a job" or maybe "3 ways to set apart your resume," all aiding the jobseeker. However, we don’t see as many tips aiding us employers in areas such as successful job listings, maybe. Why is that? We're people too! So, as we skim through the typical jobseeker-focused tweets and posts, here's a post shouting out to us employers!

4 Simple Job Description No-No's

As you read the tips below, you may think to yourself how simple these are, and sit there idly, waiting for that "ah-ha" moment. Truth is, you may not feel that moment with this post. The reason being, these tips sound so simple and things you've heard before, but we're hoping that posing them from a jobseeker's aspect, you may feel more inclined to turn thought into action with these. Today's tips relate to your job descriptions. This is the first thing a jobseeker is going to see: the portrait of a company they cannot see. Therefore, you need to lure them in given a limited amount of time the potential applicant will give the first few lines of your description.

1. Avoid confusing job titles: As a jobseeker, they most likely know nothing about you, the company, the products, or anything. So, having a non-universal job title does nothing more than read: "This job title is as confusing and complicated as the work you’ll be doing if hired." Not only does it cause applicants to turn away, but things like SEO suffer, because let's face it, Google is as clueless as we are when it sees job titles such as: "Remedy Engineers," (yes, these are real job titles, people).
2. Eliminate grammatical errors: This ranking high up there on our list of hates, along with spiders and snakes. As a jobseeker, this job description looks completely unprofessional and sloppy, leading to the applicant believing that's the type of environment to be expected in said organization. Remember, both the employer and applicant are being evaluated.
3. Please nix jargon or industry buzzwords: Please, please don’t eliminate your chances of a great hire because they read the word "thought-leader, go-getter, robust," and the list goes on in the job description. What do these words even mean? To tell you the truth, they have multiple meanings to different people, and probably not the ones you're intending. So, if you can't clearly define a word without background context, it has no business being in front of an applicant's eyes.
4. No gimmicks: We mean, give them specifics. We can all relate to being let down by a clever marketing ploy using generics. For example, "Big sale" signs that don’t hint at the staggering fine-print or the want ads that say "Hair apprentice," when really you come to find out that you're signing up to apprentice with everything but hair. We've all fallen victim, so to increase application and retention, be very upfront and specific about the duties your new hire is to perform. Plus, this helps strain the worthwhile applicants from the broad, maybe candidates.

While these items almost seem too simple, they are all-too common mistakes that we see in job descriptions daily. While this won't solve all of your recruiting conundrums, the right job description can get the right people, at least, in the door. Stay tuned as we uncover more tips to increase applications and to retain the right employees for your business.

Bullying in the Workplace: Common Problem?

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As we continue to see equal opportunity, especially for applicants, plastered all over our news feeds, we are still reminded to treat our employees with the same non-discrimination after they've joined our teams. Lately, here at SourceCast, we've noticed a trend in reports and news feeds surrounding the topic of bullying. While it is talked about, we notice that it isn't gaining as much steam as we thought. Then we thought, maybe it's because the definition of bullying is so loosely defined or maybe it's because there hasn't been as much momentum surrounding the topic, therefore those affected may feel judged or shy? Whatever the case may be, bullying is trending, and that needs to stop. Now.

Bullying in Real Life

We recently read a story on another blog, detailing an account of an employee who ended up leaving his job due to a female bully. The more we swished the story around our palates, the more we saw the disconnect between such regulations as VEVRAA and how they're implemented in the workplace once the applicant is hired. It's not enough to claim equal opportunity and treatment at your organization if those hired are bullied once on the job! Equality must stem from the recruitment process and cultivate through healthy workplace relationships. Bullying and discrimination both focus on perceived notions, prejudices, and unfair treatment, but let's make it clear, bullies are equal opportunity in who they discriminate against. Isn't that interesting? Discrimination and bullying comes in all shapes and sizes and can happen to anyone.

Preventing Workplace Bullying

To prevent bullying, provide a safe workplace. While we know that's often said, but implementing that is a lot more tactical. This is where HR needs to step up and be the superheroes that we are. Providing team building opportunities, safe channels for discussion, seminars and workshops to explain bullying and prevent against it can ensure your employees feel secure and comfortable reporting something if encountered. There's no way to ensure an applicant won't be a bully, but there are ways to firmly enforce a no-bullying workplace and increase productivity and improve culture along the way.