Why Talent Acquisition and AI are a Match Made in Heaven

Why Talent Acquisition and AI are a Match Made in Heaven Hiring the best talent is critical to business success. After all, an organization is nothing without its people. But talent acquisition is not an easy job. It can be fraught with issues, including unconscious bias. Many companies may believe that their hiring practices are fair and free of bias. However, unconscious bias can scupper any formal processes to increase diversity. Increasing diversity isn’t just a nice thing to do… it directly impacts your bottom line. Companies with the most ethnically diverse executive teams are 33% more profitable than their non-diverse competitors. Introducing unconscious bias Unconscious bias is used to describe the innate prejudices that we hold, that could impact decision making when hiring and promoting people. We all hold some degree of subconscious attitude towards race, gender, education, age, wealth, appearance and many other characteristics. Because it’s unconscious, this type of bias can be hard to identify. Unconscious bias training can help, but another effective way to cut it out of your hiring process is to use artificial intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence and recruitment AI can help recruiters in many ways. To reduce bias, an AI can help screen candidates based on ability (and not race, gender or other biased factors). It can also spot patterns in hiring processes that could be harming diversity. When used in this way, however, the AI needs data. Plugging a CV into an algorithm isn’t enough, and neither is a LinkedIn profile. To identify the best person for the job, you need to consider all of their skills, experience, and most importantly, their potential. You’ll never get this wealth of data from a simple CV or LinkedIn profile. Limited data feeds unconscious bias Indeed, limited information on a candidate impacts your entire recruitment process not just your AI’s efficiency. With limited data available, you’re more likely to be impacted by unconscious bias. You’ll be forced to make decisions based off of ‘gut instinct’ and not empirical data. In other words, you’re probably relying on your unconscious bias. Many might jump at that statement, after all, everyone understands not to hire based on gender, race, or any other common prejudice. However, education bias might pass under your radar. The same might go for affinity bias, confirmation bias, and past performance bias. So, to avoid unconscious bias completely, you’ll need to ensure your AI has current data with a sensible aim to have over 100+ data points for all people in your candidate pool.  This should include their skills, competencies, ambitions, experience, client relationships, volunteer work, and so on. Importantly the AI (or machine intelligence) can then add further suggestions to this list based on similar candidates. Someone experienced in social media marketing, for example, might have campaign management, Buffer, and paid advertising as suggested skills. Other uses for AI in recruitment Predicting success: AI can help predict how successful a candidate might be in a role. Again, having a lot of data available is important for accuracy. AI can analyze an individual’s skills, along with cultural fit and other role-specific criteria, to understand who would be best placed for a job. Creating job ads: It also has an impact early on in the hiring process. AI can use natural language processing to highlight where job descriptions might be biased. It can also analyze competitors’ job posts to give recruiters a benchmark for diverse job applications. Similarly, it can delve into hundreds of past job posts, to discover what attracts the most applicants. From these insights, recruiters can move closer to creating the perfect job ad. Automating tasks: Of course, there’s also a plethora of tools that can automate much of the recruitment process. AI can schedule meetings, send emails, onboard new recruits, and even answer questions from candidate via a chatbot service. Taking over a lot of the mundane tasks in a recruiter’s day frees up time for hiring the right talent. Getting talent acquisition ready for AI Most AI tools available to recruiters are plug-and-play. That means they can get up and running with a little initial set-up. Again, the availability and quality of your data must be emphasized. Without the right data, your AI is going to provide limited insights. Think of it like a car, without enough fuel you’re not going to get very far. It’s worth consulting your IT department to understand how any new AI tool will integrate with the rest of your tech stack. You should also consider whether it requires any additional skills that require training or new team members. Speaking of your team, there is a fear amongst some that AI will take their jobs. In contrast, a lot of AI tools are there to simply augment what they already know. It’s there to make their jobs easier and to move them on to more strategic activities. When implementing any kind of AI tool, communicating its benefits to your team is vital. As is alleviating any fears they may have. Make recruitment a breeze with AI AI technology is impacting all businesses, across all departments. Talent acquisition is no exception. There’s a lot of potentials to make the recruitment process ultra-efficient, truly unbiased and fully exploiting the internal candidate pool. By using AI in the right way, and giving it enough data, you can reach the Holy Grail of recruitment: finding and hiring the best candidate without bias. About the author: Rob Hill is the CRO of ProFinda,  a Team and Work Management platform that maps the skills, knowledge, and expertise available across an organizations total talent supply chain of internal, contingent and alumni workers.

What Good Networkers Do... and Dont Do - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

What Good Networkers Do... and Dont Do - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Are you a good networker, or a bad networker? Do people who can help you look forward to meeting with you, or dread it? Do you tend to get what you want, or are you frustrated with your networking results? This article will give you lots of dos and donts to consider for improving your networking results and enjoyment. Last Friday, I had lunch with a former client who created, and continues to build, a successful consulting practice. We enjoyed catching up regarding each of our practices and, at the end, agreed that we should have lunch more often. I went back to my office and referred him to two of my best networking contacts a business attorney and an accounting firm partner. Likewise, he agreed to introduce me to a prospective client who wanted to find a new job and to a business owner who needed to hire some people. We both got something notably useful from our meeting. This was an excellent, enjoyable, and productive networking lunch that we both want to repeat in the future. Let me share some of the things I believe we did right during our lunch and contrast these with what I have observed bad networkers are doing wrong, so that you can do more of the good stuff and avoid the bad stuff: We were meeting with someone with whom we had a strong, positive relationship, whereas bad networkers spend lots of time engaging new contacts or people they hardly know. We met in person to strengthen our interpersonal rapport and gain face-to-face nonverbal feedback to foster mutual understanding,  whereas bad networkers many times attempt to achieve their goals over the phone or through email. We spent the first portion  of the meeting catching up on what had happened since our last meeting before we got around to discussing how to help each other, whereas bad networkers jump right into what they want too early. We each spoke about the same amount of time and gave each other our undivided attention when the other was speaking, whereas bad networkers tend to dominate the conversation and not listen. We both explained clearly what we needed so the other person would have the best chance of helping us, whereas bad networkers ramble  and many times fail to focus and  clearly articulate what they want or need. We both worked hard to uncover ways of helping each other and the results were well balanced, whereas bad networkers get everything they can out of the other person and then give lip service to possibly helping them in the future. One of the more extreme examples of bad networking, which I encounter at least once a week, is the typical  job seeker. I describe them as mobile blood bank operators. They show up saying they want to  network, but end up  drawing a pint of blood (figuratively) from you and then moving on.  This is why many people do not want  to network with job seekers especially those who are unemployed. In Chapter 12 of Fast Track Your Job Search (and Career!), I describe a four step process for conducting an effective job search networking meeting. The four steps are warm up (catch up), discuss how to help the other person, discuss how you can be helped, and summarize specific actions to be taken. Whether you are a good networker or a bad networker, we all have areas where we  can improve. Apply the fundamentals of good networkers outlined in this article and you can become an excellent one. And excellent networkers get far more of what they want! Best wishes for your success.

Why Use Social Media While In Transition - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Why Use Social Media While In Transition - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Starting around 2008, many organizations’ human resources departments needed to eliminate their own staffs, and thus many of the traditional human resources functions got bounced over to the respective hiring managers. Unfortunately, those discrete departments couldn’t always afford expensive job boards, so they needed to think out of the box in order to meet their staffing needs. That need accelerated the use of social media for staffing purposes. At the same time, recruiters, too, felt the same financial pressure, and the result was that 80 percent of them started using social media as well for the same purpose. That new reality was welcomed by practically all sides because it facilitated two-way communication. Plus, social media enabled seeing applicants not only in terms of their skills such as via résumés but also in terms of revealing their personalities for assessment of cultural fit. From a candidate’s point of view, it represented mostly an advantage, but at times, i t backfired. The advent of social media as a staffing medium from the recruiting vantage point as well as a networking tool for candidates necessitated learning to use new tools. And not only that, but the tools are continually evolving, with new ones frequently surfacing to make the old and familiar ones instantly obsolete. Despite the steep learning curve, however, candidates welcomed the new mediumâ€"in many cases if for nothing else because they did not have to meet people in person. In the American culture, as opposed to certain other cultures people typically feel uncomfortable initiating communications with someone else, especially if the two have not been introduced by a third party. Online networking provided candidates with several advantages: it’s free; it allows researching the other party before even initiating a first communication; it’s learned quickly; it’s relatively easy to use; and, if applied right, it’s effective. Networking is all about building mutually beneficial relationships, but it’s practically worthless unless the other party is willing to refer the first party furtherâ€"to other people. Since networking is time-consuming, the introduction of efficiency tools into the process is reasonable. Several tools are worth exploring. Batchbook.com, Salesforce.com and another dozen other similar programs are robust and can help those who want to put some time into learning how to use them. These tools are modified customer relationship management tools, with heavy emphasis on social media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and others. Logically speaking, extensive networking is virtually impossible to carry out while people are employed, even though it’s very important to keep doing and is time-consuming. However, when people are in transition, networking is an absolute must. People will not remember you unless you remind them of yourself periodically. An efficient way to do that is via a program called MailChimp.com. Once it’s been set up, this program is easy to use and can potentially prove very useful as a social networking tool.

How to Get a Culinary Arts Career

How to Get a Culinary Arts Career Do you watch cooking shows and feel like you could do a better job than the contestants? Or pass boarded-up restaurants and shake your head, knowing that you would have been able to draw more people in? Or perhaps you read scathing reviews of your favorite restaurants (or glowing reviews of place with food you hate) and want to combat those words with ones of your own. All of these are potential jobs you can work towards in the culinary arts, but they each require a specific kind of formal training in order to pursue them. For some, you need degrees from cooking schools. For others, the coursework you complete may be more general. So what kind of education do you need to go after these different careers? General Degrees to Work in the Culinary Industry B.A. in Hospitality Management; Restaurant/Food and Beverage Management. This four-year degree is for people who are interested in owning or managing an establishment in the food and beverage industry, such as a restaurant, bar, or brewery. Alternatively, you might want to work as a food, wine, or beer critic (not a bad gig!) or help culinary establishments by consulting or marketing their brand. An internship is required. B.A. in Hospitality Management; Beverage Management. Those who go after this degree tend to be less interested in actually working with food and more focused on beer, wine, and spirits, so they skip the parts focusing on restaurant management. It may be perfect if you’re thinking of starting a microbrewery or buying a vineyard. And just like with the degree above, you can also write, consult, or become a marketer. This four-year degree also requires an internship. Culinary Certificate Experience. If you’re really interested in baking and cooking but don’t have the time or money to invest in a longer degree, this Certificate may be perfect. You can graduate in as little as 10 weeks, no internship is needed, and you’ll exit ready and able to get hired as a cook. Specific Culinary Arts Degrees Associate of Applied Science in Baking and Pastry (A.A.S.). Do you really, really like making desserts but could do without other kinds of cooking? Is it your dream to open up a bakery? Is it impossible for you to spend four years getting a cooking degree? Though the coursework is focused solely on baking, individuals who complete this degree will have the ability to work under an executive chef in a full-service restaurant where they will be in charge of the dessert menu or can even open up their own baked goods shop. Associate of Applied Science in Culinary Arts (A.A.S.). This program can be completed in two years by someone participating full time, or in four years if you split your coursework with a job and attend only part time. Graduates will be able to work anywhere in the kitchen, but won’t receive much training for work outside of it. B.A. in Culinary Arts. If you want to find work in the highest levels of the culinary arts industry and have the flexibility to work both inside the kitchen and outside in other culinary positions, this is the degree for you. You’ll need to complete four years of coursework as well as an internship, but once you get that degree in your hands, you should be ready to enter the culinary workforce and begin your climb to the top. Starting to get even more pumped up about working in the culinary arts? You’ve picked a great time to do it. Not only does the industry as a whole employ around 13 million people in our country, but jobs are being added at a faster rate than they are in the U.S. economy as a whole. In short, once you have that degree in your hand, you’re probably going to find it easier to get some kind of job in the culinary industry than your roommate who studied English (sorry, English majors!). Learn even more about how to get the job you want and what kinds of positions are out there by checking out Kendall College’s culinary careers infographic offering an overview of the industry. 1

Look For The Right Institution When Writing A Graduate Nurse Resume

Look For The Right Institution When Writing A Graduate Nurse ResumeIf you have ever been in a position to become a nurse and wish to continue your education, then you need to get a graduate nurse resume. Many people will be stunned to hear that you can not just get by with your current work and do not go back to school to get a degree. You will have to give some thought as to the type of doctorate program you want to go into. Do you want to be a clinical nurse, a surgery nurse, a male nurse, a surgical nurse, a wound care nurse, or do you want to work in some other area of medicine?When you are choosing a different program that you want to go into, make sure that you pick one that is accredited. You want to make sure that the institution that you are looking at is accredited. If you don't know much about accreditation, it is a good idea to talk to your local college about the state of the field. Find out how often they conduct audits and see if there are any differences between those who pass and those who fail.It is also a good idea to read over a graduate nurse resume for a few months before you start looking for the right institution. This will give you a good idea of what type of nurse you want to be. What could you want to focus on doing? Are you interested in being a male nurse, or a female nurse, or even a surgical nurse?Since so many of these hospitals and medical schools are starting to cut costs, there is no need to have a huge amount of money to get the training that you need. Many of the nursing programs are offering programs that will allow you to take classes online and then the institution will not only pay for your tuition, but will also take care of the required course work as well.Of course, if you find that you really like the type of doctorate you are going into, then you can try to combine the two different degree programs that you want to be involved in. Take an online nursing degree and take one of the clinical master's programs. In this way, you will be able to go back to school full time, and have a well rounded education.Something else that you will want to think about when you are trying to get a graduate nurse resume written is the number of years that you want to be working in this field. The more experience you have, the better at nursing you will be. As you can imagine, more experience also means higher pay. Once you choose the degree that you want to get, make sure that you research the cost of the program, and the size of the institution.As you can see, getting a PhD in nursing is not a good financial investment. Even if you get the right number of courses, which means that you have taken all the classes you can get, it does not mean that you will be paying for it. It is easy to get online, and do the coursework, and still save thousands of dollars.As you can see, writing a graduate nurse resume is not difficult, and you should be able to create one that is easy to read and that tells the employer that you are motivated and can get things done. Use this information to get the most out of the time that you spend looking for the right institution.

The time I learned to say No at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

The time I learned to say No at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog It was only my second job out of university, working as a software developer for a small consulting company in Copenhagen. I was 26 years old, dressed in a suit and tie that still felt like a halloween costume to me, having meetings with the customers VP of finance, trying to find out exactly what the IT system we were developing for their new factory should be capable of. The customer was in France, and I regularly flew down there from Copenhagen for work and meetings, landing in Basel, an airport situated so you can exit into Germany, France or Switzerland, depending on which exit you choose. As one of my colleagues found out to his cost when he accidentally exited on the Swiss side rather than the French and ended up paying Swiss taxi rates for the trip to the customers factory rather than French. Now heres the problem: At every single meeting, the customer changes the specs for the system. First they want this, then they want that. First they want it in this way, then in that way. Meanwhile, Im quietly going crazy. Of course I never show it, oh no, I play the consummate professional, capable of dealing with everything. And of course the customer is always right right? So I coolly explain to them that this is different than what you said at our last meeting and implementing the change will be costly. They just say sure, but thats what we want. And then, finally, I lose it at a meeting. They introduce change number 2883 (by my loose reconing), once again going back on what theyve told me previously, and I snap. I actually pound the table with my fist, snap my folder shut and say through clenched teeth No. This cant go on. This system will never get off the ground if you keep changing your mind at every meeting. We need to make decisions and stick to them. Then we take a break. During the break Im standing alone drinking a cup of coffee, thinking well, thats the end of this project for me. I feel really embarassed for having lost my cool in that way. So what happens next is totally unexpected for me: They start treating me much better. All the time Id tried to play the cool professional that didnt really fly with them. But when I got mad, and showed it, I showed them some of the real me. I showed them that I was human, and that there were things I wouldnt put up with. From that point on, they respected me more and they trusted me completely. I became the guy they went to first and work on the system became much more smooth. Go figure! I learned two things from this incident: 1: Dont be afraid to say no to a customer Customers trust you more if you say no when the answer is no. In the IT company I co-founded later, we once asked a customer what they liked about working with us. Their answer That you say no! Our other suppliers say yes to every request we have, then dont deliver because its too difficult. You guys say no if you cant do it or if its a bad idea. 2: Show emotions at work Sometimes its a great idea to show what youre really feeling. Theres this fiction in the workplace that we come to work as rational people and leave emotions at home. That just aint so we get as happy, mad, sad, thrilled, disappointed and excited at work as we do outside of it. Never showing that isnt good for you. One of the keys to happiness at work is an ability to say Yes! as I wrote about in a previous post. When a new idea comes along, when somebody asks for your help or when a co-worker suggests a new approach, saying Yes is what moves things along. If all ideas and suggestions are met with a No (or a Yes, but) change becomes very difficult. But its just as important to say no when no is the answer. If you cant say No at work, then your Yes is meaningless. If you work in a company where Yes has somehow become the only acceptable answer, meaning that compliance is forced on employees, then nobody is really saying yes. Theyre not even given a choice. Demotivation, cynicism and covert sabotage are sure results of this. If you liked this post Im pretty sure youll also enjoy these: Get lucky at work Top 5 business maxims that need to go How to resolve conflicts at work Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Steps to Becoming a Leader of Your Organization

Steps to Becoming a Leader of Your Organization Show respect at all times Procedures the rules of engagement and interaction your team or unit has devised to get work done collectively are a necessary way of corporate life. You can’t just tell the development team to stop their projects and start working on a new feature you thought of yesterday. There are processes for evaluating ideas, collecting requirements, scheduling work and finally deploying. Though not perfect, and at times needing to be revised, procedures are in place for good reason. But what happens when someone decides they don’t need to follow the procedures? For example, when someone tries to hand off an incomplete request over the phone or through a simple email it can cause significantly more work for the department. It’s frustrating and it’s not always easy to push back on that person to do it the right way. Regardless of your feelings towards the person, you have an obligation to do what is best for your company, your boss and your team even when it isn’t easy. That sounds great but the reality is much different. Here are some common excuses Ive heard: I don’t want to seem like a jerk to my friend Well, he’s a Director â€" I can’t say that to him I’ll let it go just this time It’s easier for me to just do this myself than push back The deadline is so close that we can’t wait for her to fill out the intake form We’re still developing our process so I’ll just do it the old way Now I could be nice to you and let you know it’s okay and encourage you for trying but the reality is this isn’t a time for being nice and giving extra chances. I feel strongly that these are the moments where you become a leader. Can you implement an internal process and get your peers to adhere to it? That’s the person who becomes the next Manager or Director or Vice President. You don’t have to do this for the sake of your company but do it for your sake! So how do you do this effectively? Here are the tips to become an effective change agent: Show respect at all times You can’t reveal to the person that you are angry, frustrated or intimidated. Nor can you cut the person down or make him feel unintelligent. Act professional and matter-of-fact so that you earn his respect and he, in turn, feels respected. Support Throughout Ask questions. Find out if there are parts of the process the individual doesn’t understand or doesn’t think or necessary. Here what they have to say. They may enlighten you on a few points of the process. You may need to provide reasonable training and answer questions along the way. You may have to sit and go through the process with him the first time. Plus, you need to collect feedback and continually try to make your process more and more user friendly. Be firm and direct Set the appropriate expectations. If you use vague wording then she gets to interpret what you mean â€" she’ll do so for her benefit so be upfront and direct. Rely on the benefits He may push back on a lot of your points or try to play on emotions to let him slide. Get him to buy in to the importance of the process by explaining the benefits and asking if he feels those are important. Getting that acknowledgement can also keep him engaged rather than thinking of his next argument. The bottom line is that it is time to become a leader and the steward for this process. Remember those guidelines and you’ll see that people show you a lot more respect and you’ll start getting the right reputation around the company.