Finding the right candidate to fill an open job position has always been a challenging task, and the fact that the monetary cost of a bad hire can reach up to 30% of the employer’s first-year earnings only adds to the pressure. During the process, you need to ensure that you attract, hire and retain the right talent, so that your company may reap the benefits of having a skilled, engaged and productive workforce, instead of suffering because of bad hiring choices. Fortunately, with all the advancements it brings, AI has also taken the world of recruitment by storm. Many HR experts now leverage AI-powered tools to help them locate and attract potential candidates, build meaningful relationships with high-profile applicants, and make smarter hire choices. Here are the four most important ways AI can assist in recruiting talent. 1. Attract Great Candidates One of the most significant challenges HR departments face is attracting skilled staff, as 87% of HR experts claim that there is a lack of qualified applicants for the positions they are trying to fill. However, the quality of your job applicants largely depends on the initial candidates you’ve attracted to your job posting. To get more applications that match your job posting, and fewer of those who are over- or under- qualified, your job description needs to represent what you’re looking for in candidates accurately. AI-powered tools, such as Textio, can help you come out with a perfect job description that is tailored to address the needs of your potential job candidates. This AI tool analyzes over 10 million job ads each month. Due to its extensive database, and NLP capabilities, Textio gives you suggestions on how to adjust your job description depending on your industry, and offers you alternatives that better match your target audience. If you sound better to your target candidates, you’ll attract more high-profile candidates from the talent pool. 2. Improve the Quality of Recruitment Even though we hate to admit it, the recruitment process is always biased. A study has found that people with no facial flaws are more likely to get a job. When certain imperfections exist, the attention of the job interviewers will mostly be focused on these facial differences, instead of on what the candidates are saying. AI can make the recruitment process unbiased, as it can help you determine objective criteria, and act on these criteria alone when narrowing down choices and making a selection. Besides, during an interview, AI can spot some other vital characteristics that the human eye can’t easily capture. For example, in an attempt to find perfect matches for their open positions, Unilever uses neuro-science based games, as well as facial expression analysis to assess their candidates’ personalities and honesty. After the interview, the algorithm comes up with a review of each candidate, making it much easier for the HR department to make a final selection. Learn the Art and Science of Resume and CV Writing – Job Search Skills, LinkedIn and Interview Skills all Included! 3. Provide Your Candidates With Better Experience The HR department can now successfully use conversational chatbots to engage with candidates during the recruitment phase, and significantly improve their experience with a potential employer. An AI chatbot can be used to answer candidates’ most common questions, to inform them about the status of their application, and update them on all the recent developments. Many companies don’t follow up with their top candidates after the interview, which severely damages their reputation and their chances of making the best hires. AI chatbots can be there to keep the communication lines with the top candidates open, showing them respect and...

If you are not getting hired inspite of possessing all the required credentials, then it’s time you looked into your social media profiles. Posting inappropriate pictures or information, discriminatory comments related to gender, race and religion, derogatory comments about your previous employer or fellow employee are some of the top reasons for not getting hired. Picture Source – Pixabay Showing a business owner you are the right person to fill their job opening is not easy. Business owners receive hundreds of resumes for each of the job openings they post. When looking through a large pile of resumes, a hiring manager will be looking for things that catch their attention. If you are trying to modernize your resume, you should think about including information about your social media profiles. LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms on the planet. Over 675 million entrepreneurs and business professionals use this website on a monthly basis. If you feel like your existing resume needs to be retooled, then be sure to visit ResumeBuild. This website provides you with the tools needed to make your resume more appealing and informative. Here are some of the things you need to consider when trying to include social media in your resume. Great Social Media Profiles Make You Look Well-Rounded Submitting a resume that is both full of information and easy to read is crucial to your long-term success in your chosen industry. A hiring manager is looking for candidates that exhibit all of the qualities their company holds dear. If you are trying to show a hiring manager how well-rounded you are, then including information about your social media profiles is a great idea. “5 Must Read Tips On How Any Service Business Can Achieve Insane Growth With Facebook Ads“A must read from Socialgrowr that emphasizes “Facebook advertising is a great way that can make your business experience exponential growth and increase traffic with just little effort.” While it is important to highlight the skills you have, you also need to show a potential employer that you have things going on outside of work. This is why giving them a glimpse at your social media profiles is crucial. Showing a potential employer you are successfully managing a work/life balance can make you a more appealing candidate. A Professional Image is Important Are you trying to show off your professionalism? If so, then including your social media profiles on your resume is a must. Platforms like LinkedIn are designed to allow professionals to network with each other. The profiles on LinkedIn can include information about your past jobs and a list of the skills you possess. Crafting content and posting on your LinkedIn page is also a good idea. Publishing industry-specific blogs is a great way to show a potential employer how knowledgeable you are. Before you start to share links to your social media pages, take some time to freshen them up. Doing things like updating your work history or adding new skills can come in handy when trying to attract the attention of a hiring manager. The more information you have about yourself on a social media profile, the easier it will be to land the job of your dreams. Tricks to find guest blogging opportunities and tools for keyword generatorA comprehensive resource about guest posting as a link building strategy and backlink checker tool from Spopli Show a Company You are a Good Fit For Their Culture Before you apply for a job with a particular company, take a look at their culture. If a company has a culture based on wellness and hard-work, you need to do all you can...

If you want to ensure that your employees are remaining on track with regards to their work and that they are hitting all of their important deadlines, you must analyze their performance at all times. Fortunately, thanks to the rise of workforce analysis solutions, performing this all-important task need not take up too much of your precious time. Here are three effective employee performance analysis solutions that are currently made available to you: Performance management technology Performance management technology is definitely something that you should consider using in your bid to keep a track of your workforce. As its name suggests, this type of tech solution will help you to measure, manage and analyze how your employees perform on an ongoing daily basis. Should you decide to make use of this effective employee analysis solution, it’s imperative that you invest in a system that has proven itself capable of increasing productivity in your industry. To uncover this type of essential information, it’s important that you check out past success stories. If a performance management technology provider doesn’t provide this kind of background information, then don’t trust them. The XCD cloud-based system is one software solution that you can trust in this instance. A number of its past success stories are posted on its site peoplexcd.com, allowing you to see just how they have assisted organizations like yours in the past. With this information at hand, you will be able to make a more informed decision with regards to whether or not this is the right software solution for you. Peer reviews You don’t necessarily have to turn to technology in your bid to analyze your workforce’s ongoing performance. Peer reviews can be just as effective when it comes to finding out which of your employees are currently working well and producing the best work. Peer reviews are a relatively easy way for you to attain inside information on how your employees are performing. Going down this analysis route will simply entail you asking your staff members to review their colleagues. If you want to attain thorough feedback from your workforce in this instance, you should ask them the following questions: How well does your coworker communicate with the rest of your team? What strengths does your coworker possess? Does your coworker regularly hit their deadlines? Meet with your staff regularly There’s nothing quite like sitting down with your employees to discuss their performance with them. Meeting with your staff regularly will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of their latest performance levels. What’s more, it will give you a platform from which you can either congratulate them for their hard work or ask them to perform better going forward. Should you decide to hold performance meetings regularly, be sure to cover the following objectives: Provide customer feedback Talk about what you’ve noticed recently Follow up on peer reviews If you want your employees to operate in a highly optimized fashion at all conceivable points, then it’s imperative that you analyze their performance levels at all...

Every engineer who’s invented some new technology or is adept at coming up with innovative solutions believes that the hard part is over and the step to take that solution to market as an entrepreneur should be easy. And many engineers are in for a shock. In reality, that seemingly short step from engineer to entrepreneur means significantly more risk. In fact, a survey conducted by Duke and Harvard of over 500 technology companies found that only 37% of leaders had any background in engineering or computer science. Engineers should definitely think twice before they assume that they have an advantage when it comes to being an entrepreneur, no matter how great the product they’ve come up with is. The good news is that there are many great resources out there to help engineers make the transition to entrepreneurs. Krishna Uppuluuri’s book, ‘Engineer to Entrepreneur: The First Flight’ is a good start. The book identifies the main business perceptions most engineers have, along with providing a workbook approach to provide a quick start on various business lifecycle topics. Here’s what to keep in mind if you are considering making the transition from engineering to entrepreneurship. A Great Product Doesn’t Always Make a Great Entrepreneur: The old adage ‘if we built it, they will come’ tends to be a common misconception amongst engineers who are considering starting their own business to sell a product they developed. In reality, simply building a solution alone won’t magically make it connect with customers, manage the competition, or communicate the offering to the industry. Today, we’re definitely in an era of information overload. Selling and marketing skills are absolutely crucial to ensure your product takes off, no matter how awesome it is. Thinking that your product alone will act as a customer magnet is a dangerous mindset to have. So, before you make the leap from engineer to entrepreneur, it pays to develop some skills that you can use to put your product in front of the market, promote it, and connect with your target audience. How do you do this? Enroll in a relevant training program or degree: Online learning and online degree programs have made it easier than ever for you to gain the relevant skills you need before transitioning to entrepreneurship, without messing up your already busy schedule. If you want to keep things engineering-focussed then you can find degree programs that combine both engineering and management at Kettering University Online. Or you could opt for a learning program from Kettering University Online that walks you through the basics of business and building the skills necessary to become a successful entrepreneur. Network: As an engineer, you’re probably no stranger to networking; it’s just as crucial in this industry as it is in the business world. You probably already network to keep your engineering knowledge current and stay in the loop about new projects or job opportunities. Switch your networking focus to the business world and connect with people who can offer valuable advice and support. Even better if you can find a network of successful engineers turned entrepreneurs who you can learn from. Get a mentor: Business mentoring is a fantastic idea for anybody new to entrepreneurship, whether from an engineering background or not. Choose a mentor who is able to be honest with you and tell you how it is; you’re going to benefit a lot more from that compared to somebody who won’t stop you in your tracks when you’re on the brink of making a huge mistake. Don’t Rely On a Cool or New Idea to Sell Itself: Similar to the above, just because something is cool and...

5 Productivity Tips for Savvy Small Business Owners Starting your own business is an exciting journey. You’re the boss! You make the rules…and you are largely responsible for setting your own hours, keeping your own workspace organized, and making sure your company reaches scheduled goals. Keeping your employees on track – not to mention staying productive yourself – can be a difficult task. These helpful tips show you how to make a few small changes which will dramatically increase your business’s overall productivity. Set Work Hours – And Stick to Them! Once you step away from the “normal” 9-to-5 workday, you run into a problem: deciding when to work. With the entire day available to you, it’s surprisingly easy to fall into the trap of “I’ll do it later”. Many small business owners find themselves struggling through the difficult early days of company growth working late into the night, battling endless distractions and adopting unsustainable sleep schedules. Avoid this by setting a schedule and stick to it. Work in 3 to 5-hour chunks with time blocked off for breaks in between. Once the workday is over, log out of your business accounts to avoid the temptation to keep working ‘round the clock. Office administrators often do all the behind the scenes work to help your office run smoothly, even in times like these where everyone is fully remote. To show your appreciation for all the work they do to keep things running smoothly and everyone in good spirits, consider getting them a gift for Administrative Professionals Day on April 22nd. There are plenty of remote gift ideas like sending them new home office tools or signing them up for an online meditation class to help them destress. For more inspiration on how to celebrate your office admin remotely, head over to Wikibuy’s blog post. Learn to Love Mornings You may be surprised to find that the average human is much more productive in the mornings. Our brains are awake, we’ve just gotten plenty of sleep, and distractions are less frequent as our friends and family are generally also working. Even if you’ve never been a “morning person,” you should give it a try! Wake up an hour – or even just a half hour – earlier than usual and spend that time working. You might be surprised to find out just how much you get done before lunchtime. Those formerly miserable morning hours can turn into prime productive, business-growing time! Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate Another productivity-destroying trap many small business owners get caught in is the desire to “do it all”. Wanting to be aware of everything that goes on, they waste time struggling through small, tedious tasks such as entering data, fussing with payroll details, and even keeping track of every employee’s schedules. Delegate some of these tasks to partners and employees within your business. This will give you, as the owner, more time to focus on the big picture: setting goals, securing funding and building relationships with clients and customers. This will benefit the entire business – workers will have clearly defined tasks and goals as well as be given chances to develop their own initiative, leadership and organizational skills. Introduce Productivity Tools Today, a wide variety of productivity tools are available, ranging from websites to smartphone apps to good old-fashioned journals and calendars. Take advantage of these tools to keep yourself and your employees organized and on track at all times! Set up a chat client so you can stay in touch with your team without needing to exchange endless emails. Have employees set up to-do lists on a shared web site or app so that you can...