From on-demand recruiting challenges, grabbing passive candidates’ attention with the right outreach, and the unique challenges this year brought to light — the IQTalent Partners blog covered the latest hot HR topics and recruiting tips. Recruiters across the country found themselves at a standstill. Budgets adjusted to make ends meet, candidate priorities shifted, and HR departments trod water until they felt a sense of stability.
We gathered the top 5 IQTalent Partners articles from 2020 that hit home the most. Whether you missed them when they first circulated or if you want a recap of the year’s hot topics, these are the articles HR managers found the most helpful.
1. 4 Benefits Of Building A Proactive Talent Pipeline
This year was not the first time someone has discussed the benefits of having a solid pipeline. But in times where no HR department can be sure of the future, a pipeline of qualified, passive talent is one way to give your company the necessary footing to navigate new openings. Filling open positions can be a lengthy and expensive process. And since the start of 2020, generating applicants has become more costly. Getting a single applicant today costs 60% more than it did in January. In a recession, a recruiter’s average time to fill increases by 200-300%.
This article explains how a proactive talent pipeline:
- Reduces time to fill
- Strategically measures candidate fit
- Increases offer acceptance
- Results in higher retention rates
At the top of 2021, whether your company’s hiring has slowed or is ramping back up, nurturing candidates will still be crucial. And having top talent queued up and ensuring your company is top-of-mind for the most desirable candidates will make for a much smoother hiring process for all parties.
@IQTalent reflected on the 2020 #recruiting space and made a list of their top blog posts from 2020! Take a look:Click to Tweet
2. Five Tips For Recruiting And Interviewing Remotely
Before early to mid-spring of 2020, a few companies dipped their toes into the remote recruiting and interviewing process, at least for the early stages of candidate assessment. Maybe it made sense if you were seeking talent from other areas of the country. But in the same city? How can you get an accurate read on a candidate over a Zoom call? Once remote recruiting and interviewing became necessary, companies needed to adjust their processes from end to end fast.
We knew we needed to provide HR teams with tips quickly. This blog post from peak COVID-quarantine came straight from our Chief Sourcing Officer and Co-Founder, Chris Murdock. It this post, he has his tips for:
- Which video interviewing software to use
- Prepping your remote interviewing location
- Eye contact strategies
- Prepping your tech
- How to suit your interview questions for remote
3. The Five Best Subject Lines Guaranteed To Improve Response Rates
The hunt for qualified passive candidates changed this year. The challenge has been just as tough as ever — but recruiters were suddenly targeting a mix of candidates that were trying to maintain their current positions, candidates that were recently laid off and not sure what direction they wanted to take their career, and talent with shifting priorities that needed more security than ever.
We decided to give away a few of our outreach secrets: our tested subject lines guaranteed to grab candidates’ attention.
There’s a reason this article resonates so well with HR leaders. We all know that same generic outreach message won’t work right now (Did they ever work?).. So, rather than vague, disingenuous tips, we compiled our specific outreach strategies that work for the IQTalent Partners most experienced recruiters.
Example: Mention their mascot! People consider themselves a part of their university forever. Subject lines like “We are hunting Wolverines (U of Michigan) in (insert location of the job)” or “Bring your Hurricane (U of Miami FL) strength to our team” can catch an alumni’s attention. Focusing on a candidate's undergraduate university is generally better than using their graduate school, where they were typically more focused on academics than on cheering for the university’s sports teams.
4. How IQTalent Partners Is Helping Displaced Workers
Earlier this year, our team recognized that we needed to take action in our field after seeing so many furloughed and laid off valuable talent and make a difference in the area we know so well. That’s when we launched a website to assist fellow Nashvillians who were temporarily out of work due to the terrible combo of tornadoes or the ongoing health crisis. At no charge, we wanted to offer support for displaced workers with job searches, resume creation, interview preparation, and identifying open career opportunities.
Our co-founder and Vanderbilt graduate, Chris Murdock, said, “I am extremely proud of these employees for creating this initiative. We have an internal employee-driven group that we call the ‘NERDnitiative’ who proactively finds ways to help our local Nashville community regularly. They saw a need where they had the specific skillset to create a solution, and they just did it!”
Check out the full announcement article here.
Note: Assistance through the Recruiting Relief site was offered from March - December 2020. It is no longer a live resource.
Throughout 2020, #recruitingbudgets adjusted to make ends meet, candidate priorities shifted, and #HR departments looked for a sense of stability. These are the @IQTalent blog posts that resonated with recruiters the most.Click to Tweet5. On-Demand Recruiting vs. Recruitment Process Outsourcing
The past year presented a unique opportunity to slow down and reassess HR priorities, budget, and goals. For many, recruiting teams recognized the need to augment their in-house recruiting team and leverage experts to keep them on the right track to reach their goals. IQTalent Partners on-demand recruiting model is slightly different from the recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) model HR teams are used to seeing in the market. But the slight differences prove enormously significant in the end.
There have been few options open to companies looking for talent for the last couple of decades. You could build a recruitment team internally, use a contingency or executive recruiter, or use RPO services. But as the workforce evolved, solutions began to emerge that provide organizations more flexibility and filled the gaps that each of these services inherently has. This efficient model is now known as On-Demand Recruiting, and this article from earlier this year covers the key differences that you need to know before choosing a trusted partner.
Cheers To a New Year!
We don’t claim to know what comes next and if 2021 will present the recruiting world with a calmer landscape. But, we do promise that we will continue to deliver our expert recruiting tips on the IQTalent Partners blog in response to whatever comes next.
If you’re ready to start your 2021 recruiting journey backed with expert assistance ready when you need it, contact us today. We adapt to your processes alongside your in-house team — fully scalable with the freedom to increase or decrease our services as needed, based on what your company faces in the new year.
