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Employee Referrals

Your Staff Can Become an HR Referral Source

by Eric Friedman on April 11, 2013

The power of an employee referral is well known in the recruiting industry. A recent poll of business showed that 41.4% of businesses referrals account for 80% of sales. From a business perspective that is an overwhelming number in terms of dollars earned from word of mouth marketing. Through the eyes of an HR professional, a referral is seem as the #1 source of a quality hire according to Ere.net. There are rarely any bad statistics when it comes to using your staff as a referral source, but how do you entice them to provide quality hires.

Without incentive your company’s staff are less likely to invite their friends, connections, and acquaintances to apply for a job that might have a higher than normal turnover rate. The cost of a referral is substantially lower, in fact using referral programs for executive and technical positions can really reduce the cost of executive searches or agency fees. In doing so, a well-rounded referral program can make your referral cost lower then traditional sources. The benefits are not only strong from a business perspective, but from a recruiting function, there are many factors that help your company.

Creating and establishing a successful referral program takes time and can only work effectively when your employees are incentivized properly. Here are a few tips that’ll ensure your creating value within your own program:

creating a successful internal referral system

Knowledge of Open Positions: With larger corporations and several open positions there is usually a disconnect between current employees and recruiters when it comes to positions that need to be filled. Post regular notices, use your internal network, and actively engage your employees in the benefits of using their own personal network to gain better hires. Referrals are the fastest time to fill positions with an average of 29 days. Depending on the size of your company that could cost the company up to $12,500 a year.

Incentivize Your Employees. Who doesn’t want money every time their friend gets hired? Working for small retail companies and getting $200 every time a friend gets hired is worth the investment. Not only do employee referrals stay longer on average at a company, but also 70% of employers felt referred hires fit the company culture and values better. Hourly employees are always looking for ways to make extra cash and this might be the win-win for your organization.

Make it Fun! Who doesn’t want to have fun at work? Create leader boards, contests, promotions, giveaways, and anything else under the sun that’ll make obtaining employee referrals fun. The prize doesn’t have to be monetary, but building a pool of quality employees saves a recruiter time which saves your employer money. This type of program isn’t going to appeal to everyone in your company, but you only need a few competitive people to build lists of 10-15 potential recruits for your business.

50 Tips for a job-grabbing resumes

Some good advice from this site http://www.girlbanker.com/1/post/2012/09/50-tips-for-a-job-grabbing-resume-or-cv.html

12/09/2012

by Girl Banker

Listen to the iTunes podcast instead.

This is the most comprehensive list of tips for writing a resume or CV on the internet yet!

Ensuring that your resume is very well crafted and answers the needs of the recruiter will increase your chances of getting a job interview immeasurably.

A good resume/CV is the first step to landing that job you want. Our tips:

1. Don’t write “Curriculum Vitae” or “Resume” at the top
This simply isn’t the done thing anymore; it should be pretty obvious what it is.

2. Your name should come at the top
This is the current standard. It makes it easier for recruiters to sort out their pile of applications.

3. No silly email addresses
So, SexySuzy@hotmail.com or bootylish@yahoo.com felt like a cool email to have when you were 16. It unfortunately does not make you look professional or serious. Create a neutral email for your resume/CV – nothing funny, saucy or rude is ideal.

4. Don’t include a title with your name
Your sex is not relevant. If you have a name like Sam or Alex, there is no need to write your title so that the employer knows whether you are male or female. In fact, having a gender neutral name might be an advantage. On average, the recruiter will assume you are male and as the job market currently tends to favour men over women, keeping it vague is probably a good thing.

5. The only necessary personal information: email, phone number, mailing address
Everything else does not matter and should therefore not be included. Double check, are all the digits of your phone number there? It’s an easy mistake to make!

6. Don’t include marital status or sexual orientation
Whether you are single, married or divorced, gay or straight is completely irrelevant to the job; don’t include any of these personal details.

Importantly, giving too much personal information opens you up for discrimination.

7. Don’t include your religion
It doesn’t add to your value as a potential hire.

8. Don’t include your political affiliation
It doesn’t add to your value as a potential hire.

9. Don’t include any salary information
That said, using the correct words and appearing mature will signal the sort of pay packet you are after. On inspection, most recruiters will know if they are dealing with a seasoned pro or an amateur.

10. Avoid age discrimination
It used to be common to include your date of birth on your resume/CV but by law that is no longer necessary in many developed countries. Your age doesn’t impact your ability to do most jobs so don’t include it.

11. Font: use Arial size 9 or 10
Arial is clean cut and looks very professional. If you really want to get it all on one page and Arial is taking up too much space, use Arial Narrow.

12. Length: one page, ideally
Most people have a very short attention span so the shorter it is, the more likely that the recruiter will get through the whole resume/CV.

Two pages is okay but even then, get the most critical job-grabbing information on page one.

13. How far back should you go? No more than 15 years, generally
As you gain work and life experience, you’ll need to start deleting some experiences because they simply don’t matter anymore.

For instance, my CV when I finished high school had some positions of responsibility: Head of House, Captain of This, Captain of That and I have deleted all of that now. It’s not relevant and has been superseded by my university and more recent experiences.

14. Use bullet points
Bullet points give structure to a resume/CV, they make it more punchy and much easier for the recruiter to read.

15. Don’t use narrative
Don’t use full sentences or write like you are telling a story. You can do that on your cover letter.

16. Don’t use personal pronouns – I, he, she, it, we, they, you
Get straight to the point. “I closed the largest sale of the year” is too long, just say “Closed largest sale in 2012”

17. No borders
Generally, a professional resume/CV does not have a border. If President Obama or David Cameron had to write a resume/CV do you see them having borders on it? For some reason, I cannot. Even from the very outset, you want your resume/CV to have the air of a Statesman – clean, confident, professional, to the point.

18. Don’t try to be too different, no fancy stuff
Take it from someone that’s had to recruit before. Above and beyond looking clear and smart, there is nothing more annoying than someone who tries to stand out by a) adding graphics to their resume/CV or b) presenting the information in a totally different way to the standard.

If you have a pile of 50+ resumes/CVs to get through (and a lot of recruiters nowadays have many more), it is a lot easier to get the work done when people follow the usual order of things. Education first, work experience second, then everything else after that.

When I want to hire, I just want someone that can do the job and having a cool resume/CV isn’t going to differentiate you. If anything, some might assume you are trying to compensate for a lack of something.

19. Format matters
Some resumes/CVs look downright shoddy. A recruiter who has a large pile of resumes/CVs to get through will not waste their time on someone that couldn’t bother to neaten their resume/CV up. We have free resume and CV templates to get you started.

20. Show dates clearly
Place dates either on the left or the right so it’s easy to follow your education and work experience path. Merging it all together with your bullet points is a) messy and b) can suggest you are trying to hide career gaps.

21. Date formats should be consistent
Generally, if I just have a year, I write the full year. If I have months and the year, I shorten the year because the resume/CV starts looking clogged up.

Good format for year: 2012

Bad format for year: ‘12

Good format for month and year: Sep-12

Bad format for month and year: September 2012 (it takes up too much space)

22. No pictures
Unless the employer asks for it, you don’t need to have a photograph of yourself on your resume/CV.

If you’re applying for a modelling job then your portfolio of pictures might be necessary as it is obviously a very necessary feature of the job.

23. General rule: most recent information goes first
Put the most recent education and the most recent work experience first. So, under education, university comes first and then secondary or high school information. Under work experience, the most recent work experience is put first.

24. Relevance rule: most job-relevant information goes first
If the most recent work experience is not the most relevant, place the most relevant work experience first.

25. Use the correct spelling
Applying for a job in the UK? Then use British English. Applying for a job in the USA? Then use American English.

By the way, to the British it’s a CV; to Americans it’s a resume.

26. No typos please
It will definitely reduce your chances of getting a job. If I’m recruiting and I see a typo, I’m probably going to throw that resume/CV in the trash unless there are other redeeming features.

27. Don’t use text language, jargon, acronyms or slang
This is a big no-no.

Text language is essentially a typo. It should not feature anywhere on your resume/CV.

Jargon will make it difficult for the recruiter to understand your background. Remember, resumes/CVs normally get filtered by Human Resources (HR) before they are passed on to the teams that need to hire. HR might not be familiar with some jargon. Same applies for acronyms; unless they are accepted acronyms like USA, UK etc. an acronym is essentially jargon. You should spell out your acronym first (like HR in the previous sentence) if you intend to use it.

Slang is simply not professional, do not use slang.

28. Use a descriptive title
Especially if you are applying as an experienced hire, under education and work experience, make sure the job titles are very specific and that they sell you. Specific titles allow the recruiter to very quickly decide if you have the necessary qualifications and experiences for the job.

Bad title: Analyst at Bank X

Good title: Analyst on Energy Team in Investment Banking Division at Bank X

29. List all the positions you held in one firm separately
If you’ve been with one company for a long time, it’s likely that your title and/or job function has changed over the years. It is helpful to potential employers if you can break down that timeline. Segmenting the information gives an employer useful insight into the nature of your experience.

30. Lacking in work experience? Focus on skills and qualities.
When you are just starting out, you may well not have any work experience. However, if you have time, get some work experience. Even unpaid work e.g. volunteering at a charity shop or at an Olympics or other event is great to have on your resume/CV.

31. Don’t list qualities
It doesn’t matter if you say you’re a great team player or have fantastic communication or leadership skills unless you can back that up.

• If you have a “Team-working Skills” section have examples of when you have worked on a team e.g. in sport.
• If you have an “Organisational Skills” section have examples of when you organised an event.

Always validate skills and qualities with examples.

32. Include Positions of Responsibility
Positions of responsibility e.g. being Head Girl, Head of House or Captain reveal that you have experience in being a leader and managing people. Indeed, they might also reveal that your are popular and personable – more often than not, to be Head Girl, Head Boy or Head of House teachers or the whole student body have to vote for you.

If you’re still in school or university and there’s time, try to attain a position of responsibility in some club or society.

33. Include Achievements
Achievements reveal very different information to Positions of Responsibility, they show you are a goal-setter and an achiever in either sport, the arts or academics. This in turn reveals you’re a hard-worker, persevering and have initiative. Getting an award for something is not usually easy, it requires some amount of grit and determination.

34. Be careful about including interests. Don’t include hobbies.
Some interests open you up to being judged harshly.

Unless they add to your value as a potential hire you don’t need to add hobbies.

At times including a hobby may relay useful insight, for instance, if you’re applying for a role where a lot of reading will be required e.g. reading legal or other documents, then mentioning that you’re a prolific reader and that you can read a 300-paged book in one afternoon is of value.

35. Look decisive, don’t tarnish your loyalty card
Employers want to hire someone that will stay for a while. If your resume/CV shows that you chop and change jobs very regularly, this will act against you. It will show one or more of the following:

• You’re not loyal
• You’re indecisive
• You’re a risky hire

Overall, the resume/CV needs to be consistent.

36. Throw in some stats
Numbers help to further credentialize you.

If you’re applying for a sales position add examples of sales targets you have reached or exceeded.

Example:
Emerging Market FX Sales, Bank X

• Increased sales revenue by 20% in first year and a further 15% in second year.
• Was one of the top three sales people every single year for 5 years

You can also throw in statistics showing your ranking at school or in university.

37. Don’t include reasons for why you left your old job
It’s not necessary on a resume/CV as it doesn’t add value to why you might be a good candidate for the job. Of course, it is likely to come up in interviews so make sure you have a good response to the question.

38. Don’t say anything negative
There is no space on a resume/CV for complaints or criticisms of previous employers. If you didn’t like a certain job or activity that you took part in, don’t say that. Recruiters don’t like complainers or problem-makers.

39. Don’t lie, don’t exaggerate
Your employer will find out when you start work if you exaggerated anything or a background check might bring out inconsistencies. You could lose your job, or end up in court if particularly egregious. It’s not worth it, don’t do it.

40. Have different resumes for different roles
If you are applying for exactly the same type of job in different companies then the same resume/CV will suffice. However, if you are making applications based on different job specs then you need to customise your resume/CV.

41. Before you send it off, match your resume/CV against the job specification
Ensure that your resume/CV includes as much as possible regarding what the employer has asked for. That said, a major point to keep in mind: you don’t need to have 100% of what has been requested.

Statistics show that men frequently apply for a job even when they only partly match the person specification. Women usually only make the application when they have everything. I say, be a man!

42. Check it twice then get a fresh pair of eyes to look over it again
This is related to the point on typos. When you have been working on your resume/CV for a long time you might fail to see inconsistencies that a fresh pair of eyes will pick up immediately. Get a professional resume writer to review your resume and increase your chances of getting a job interview.

43. Key words matter
Nowadays recruiters including head hunters frequently use searchable databases to find a candidate. This is also true on LinkedIn. When I am looking for someone I will type “Head of Diversity Recruiting at Company X” or “Marketing Expert, New York” etc.

Make sure your resume/CV uses the correct keywords for the job you are looking for, so you are visible on these searches.

44. Mention any prominent industry specialists that you’ve worked with
This will help to credentialize you. Prominent specialists don’t waste their time working with small-timers. Having had access to and worked with people of this calibre adds credibility to your profile.

45. No need for references
It is more common for people to just write “References available on request”. Some people think this is daft because that’s stating the obvious. However, I would say include this line if there’s space. It doesn’t do you any harm.

46. Update your resume/CV and your LinkedIn profile regularly
Ensure you have an updated resume/CV and profile on LinkedIn so you’re ready to take advantage of your next opportunity.

We live in a fast paced world; your next job offer is always around the corner. Head hunters are constantly scanning people’s profiles on LinkedIn to fill new positions. Gone are the days when people sat in the same job for 30 to 40 years at a time.

47. Print your resume/CV on a high-quality printer
This ensures it looks attractive and professional.

48. Print your resume/CV on high-quality textured paper
This adds to the look of professionalism. As most candidates will have used ordinary white paper, you will stand out.

49. Email your resume/CV in PDF format
PDF looks cleaner and can be viewed in the same way on any computer. If, for instance, your resume/CV is written in Microsoft Word, sending it in that format means:

• All the paragraph marks, and tables etc. will show – that’s not very attractive.
• A recruiter using an Apple computer without Microsoft Word installed will have the formats re-arranged – again, this is unappealing.

50. Consider getting professional help
Especially during recessionary times, employers are inundated with resumes/CVs for available positions. Getting a professional to look at your resume/CV and mark it up is a worthy investment. It’s especially useful if you’re new to the job market.

Sent your resume out for many positions and heard nothing back? Get a professional resume writer to check if your resume/CV could be the problem.

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Workplace bullying policy could become part of the federal workplace system

Workplace bullying policy could become part of the federal workplace system

When You Work in HR, It’s The Norm For People Not To Like You – via fistful of talent

When You Work in HR, It’s The Norm For People Not To Like You
By Kathy Rapp · 01.28.2013 · 2 Comments
Tagged: Audacious Ideas, Career Paths, HR (& Life!) Advice, Kathy Rapp ·

It’s the truth. Working in HR means not everyone is going to like you. Perhaps no one will like you…except your mom, and even she questions why you work in HR!

Business Insider ran a similar article about “driven” people and I wondered how applicable their advice would be to those desperate for love in HR. Below is the BI advice, so let’s see if it will get you, HR pro, invited to the next company happy hour.

•Be clear in your own head about why what you want to achieve is so important. Um, this would be a given for anyone in HR. If you can’t articulate why getting managers to deliver performance evals is crucial – then you probably shouldn’t be nagging those who don’t do them.
•Accept responsibility for the parts of your zealotry that need to be improved. OR – drop the need to be zealous all together.
•Build a group of friends and mentors whom you can trust to be fair and honest. Yep, you need a posse inside work that will have your back as well as tell you to your face when you’ve crossed the line. And to be clear – these peeps should NOT work in HR too.
•Laugh off the silliest accusations and make yourself smile even though you don’t feel like it. Let’s face it – you have to have thick skin to work in HR. You also need to be able to laugh at yourself and at times, pretend not to care…..until you get home and then you can beat the crap out of a pillow or go for a healing run around the block.
•Take time each week to review through your goals and ideas and progress. Ultimately this is what keeps you in the business of HR. You have to be able to focus on the right goals – not the fluffy ones – but the ones that will make money or reduce expenses for your company.
•Tune out almost everyone around you most of the time. While this could be fun, it’s not realistic or prudent. If you work in HR you have to listen, respond and act. If you are tuning people out, you probably won’t have a job for very long.
Bottom line, working in HR probably isn’t going to make you the most popular kid in your company. But not because it’s HR…..but because it’s a perception that continues to be perpetuated by those who still think HR should be called “personnel” and work behind locked doors in the basement of your building.

That perception should be beaten like the shag carpet of the 1970′s where it originated and never be allowed to come back.

If you believe in the “norm” and the perception of HR, then perhaps you should work in the basement and accept that people are not going to like you. The rest of us will be at the local bar with the sales and marketing team laughing at jokes about the accountants. Cheers!

FOT Background Check

Kathy Rapp is a Managing SVP at hrQ in Texas, where she helps companies find groovy HR Talent or HR Consultants to drive business results. Prior to joining hrQ, Kathy booked more than 15 years of human resources leadership experience working for such companies as Morgan Stanley and First Data Corporation. A connoisseur of the intersection between pop culture and business, Kathy believes many talent issues can be addressed via the succession planning lessons experienced by Van Halen (David Lee/Sammy and sadly, Gary Cherone)..

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