What does the future of recruiting look like? How can I create a killer employee value proposition (EVP)? What Chrome extensions do I need right now?

These questions are a few that were asked, and answered, earlier this month at Recruiting Daily’s #HRTX Chicago 2017 event.

Hosted at the Yello (a talent acquisition software platform that humanizes the candidate experience) headquarters, #HRTX brought together more than 20 talent leaders for nine engaging sessions on the topics impacting talent acquisition today. Industry peers discussed current challenges, offered solutions and brainstormed ideas to be more strategic in talent acquisition.

Here are the top takeaways from discussions at #HRTX Chicago:

The employee value prop – Authentically representing your organization

How do you show candidates who you are as a company and attract them to join your organization? Promoting the year you were founded or the services you sell just won’t capture a candidate’s attention.

Job seekers want to know about your values and what motivates employees. To compete for top talent, creating a compelling employee value proposition (EVP) that describes the culture, work styles and benefits of working at your company is essential.

Your employees are your most valuable asset in developing your company’s EVP. You need to survey them to learn why they joined, why they stay, and to identify common themes and values.

Use these themes to build an employee value proposition that demonstrates why your company is unique and what’s important to your workforce.

Once you’ve established your EVP, communicate your values to candidates and prospects, and make your organization stand out to job seekers by leveraging social media. Then, share employee-curated content across company social channels to offer some insight into the employee journey in your organization.

College recruiting – For in-demand candidates, senior year is too late

The competition to recruit in-demand college candidates is soaring.

Companies can no longer post a job and expect top talent to apply. To stand out to soon-to-be graduates, innovative employers must find ways to introduce their company to the very best students before stepping foot on campus.

While recruitment marketing is important to engage talent, #HRTX attendees discussed short-term, remote work as an entry way to the company. Offering students brief internships or single projects to complete during the school year give potential employees the chance to learn about your company, while hiring managers learn about the candidates.

The end result? When the fall recruitment season rolls around, these employers already have a pool of engaged talent to fill entry-level positions.

Texting for recruitment – Be the first to reach top talent

Talent acquisition is a game of speed. The first company to contact a candidate is more likely to secure the accepted offer.

Regardless of the age group, texting is becoming the more preferred method of communication.

Talent professionals at #HRTX questioned the continued reliance on phone tag. Why leave a voice mail and wait for a response when you can communicate with candidates instantly via text? In fact, The 2017 Yello Recruiting Study found that 86 percent of candidates feel positively when text messages are used during the hiring process.

Texting can be used throughout the recruitment process:

  • To reach out after a candidate applies;
  • To reconnect with candidates who dropped out of the application process; or,
  • To share a company video when a candidate joins a talent community.

Instead of using email or calls as the primary form of communication, some talent departments are becoming text-driven organizations. When you need to reach talent quickly, texting may be the best option.

Just as #HRTX Chicago brought together talent leaders for meaningful, in-person conversations, Yello strives to empower recruiting departments to humanize the candidate experience. We look forward to future events that continue to advance this goal, helping industry peers foster personal connections and offering a forum to focus on candidate relationships.

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Authors
Michael Megerian

Michael Megerian is the EVP of Sales and Account Management for Yello. Yello’s award-winning recruiting software enables companies to humanize the candidate experience. The platform facilitates mobile candidate engagement, event management, interview scheduling, video interviewing and more, to provide unprecedented speed and transparency throughout the candidate journey. Schedule a demo today. You can follow Michael on Twitter @michaelmegerian, or connect with him on LinkedIn.