Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Recruiting

We know Talent Acquisition. We can help create strategic talent acquisition plans and processes to market, source, recruit, hire, and retain top talent. This category features insights specifically on Recruiting.

  • Application Process 2023

    Application Process 2023

    Should you Change your Application Process to make it easier for Candidates?

    A couple of years ago, we worked with a client who was having difficulty filling positions. They were using all the right avenues to get the word out to potential candidates, but the pipeline was not working. After surveying several candidates, we discovered the issue was with their extensive application process. It was lengthy and ultimately deterred candidates from completing their application. Fortunately, we helped them streamline by removing some of the steps to apply.

    Recently, a close family member applied for a position online and had the opposite experience. During a conversation, he shared that it was the “easiest process” he’d had while applying for jobs. He was asked two questions and had the option to upload a resume. Within a week, he was called in for an interview.

    In Alabama, the current unemployment rate is 2.2%. Which means, most everyone who wants to work is already working. This makes it tough for companies who are looking to expand their workforce. Making the application process easier for candidates is one way they can attract future employees. A few weeks ago, I was in a café that had “mini applications” placed throughout their dining area. I immediately took a picture, thinking of our clients & how we can help them increase their applicant pool.

    How can you streamline your hiring process? Consider what steps you can remove from the process all together. Save the paperwork for new hire orientation! Let us know if we can help.

  • Second Chances

    Second Chances

    Who among us has not needed a second chance in life? Have you been extended that grace? In my life I have been given chance after chance and have needed that opportunity to fail and to learn from those failures. When prisoners are released they are told that they cannot carry a fire arm and will not be eligible to vote but most times are not warned of the invisible barriers that exist in finding a job, housing or transportation. For example, you are good enough to buy a car but you cannot sell cars for a career. You must obtain housing but most will not rent to you due to your criminal record. 

    On June 29th Lorrie, Mary Ila and I attended the first Reentry Leader Conference in Birmingham at the Hyatt Regency Wynfrey. As a subject that is near and dear to my heart, I was excited to hear about ways to help employers afford people a second chance. We have so much untapped talent and potential in Alabama and in the world. Studies show that 77% of our population is justice involved, that’s 32% more than the percentage of people who have college degrees. Depending on state, there are between 2-4 open jobs for every one person available to take that job in the industrial sector. Connecting those jobs to reentrants is critical. Of the 9.7 million reentry each year, only 8% can find employment.

    This is where Reentrycenters.com comes in. They equip participants with must haves such as affordable housing, food, transportation to appointments and counseling and most importantly good jobs. They even offer a free mobile bank for reentrants. Local Auto plants like Mercedes near the Reentry centers employ these workers. 

    During the 2nd chance employer Leader Session, Donny Jones from West Alabama Works shared about Building Hope West Alabama. Their passion is to “provide hope, help, and opportunity to people that are justice involved.” This program “connects justice-inolved individuals with meaningful jobs, as well as the job skills and educational credentials they need for long-term success.” Schnellke is one of the employers hiring people who are justice involved. They believe that everyone deserves a second chance.

    Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb was the keynote speaker. She became judge at 25 and now runs RedemptionEarned.org. It is an effort to help worthy incarcerated adults to become productive citizens. Alabama has one of the highest percentages of the aging population incarcerated. Out of the 4002 total parole hearings in 2022 only 409 were granted parole.Their mission is “to identify, assist, and represent worthy individuals who have spent decades behind bars, demonstrated they are transformed, and earned parole or work release.”

    At Horizon Point we have a people first mindset. We believe that people are a company and community’s greatest asset. As one of the ladies speaking put it, which one of us has not made a mistake that needed forgiveness? How can your organization help to give “people” an opportunity after they have been held accountable for their actions? Afterall, don’t we all need a second chance?

    Need inspiration? Read more from The Point Blog here:

  • 2 Key Places Where You Need a Rule Breaker

    2 Key Places Where You Need a Rule Breaker

    I was a hardcore rule follower as a child. I didn’t question rules in any form or the adults or organizational or societal factors that put them in place. I was on time, didn’t question when or how things were done in school, on the sports field, in my home, and in my community.  I did all the things I was “supposed” to do.  In fact, I don’t think I thought much about the why and reason behind much of anything, I just did as I was told. 

    For example, if a school supply list told me I needed 48 Ticonderoga brand pre-sharpened pencils (I don’t know if I actually ever had this on a school supply list with such specificity when I was a child, but you better believe my kids do now) on the first day of school, that’s what we brought regardless if it meant going to ten different places to find them.  Also, regardless of whether I liked that kind of pencil or thought they were the best tool to use. And if my mom wasn’t on board, I’d worry her to death until she followed the “rules” to the exact specification. I wasn’t coming with the “wrong” thing on the first day of school.  And the truth is, a lot of this probably helped me succeed in school. Education today is still by and large very much geared towards the industrial revolution environment that created it. 

    Now I see this on a supply list for my kids, and if Target doesn’t have that exact number packaged neatly in that brand, sharpened or not, we get what is available. And I’m getting what’s available for drive-up pick up. I’m not going into the store, and I’m most definitely not going to hunt them down. Invariably, they come in multiples of 18 and that never adds up to 48 evenly and because of all the other rule followers out there, they have zero left of the brand on said supply list.  I’ll grab two Target brand packages of 18 (yes, I know that is 36 not 48, and yes, I know some of you are just cringing thinking anyone would get less than what is on the list) because I know from experience to expect approximately 30 never used pencils to come back unopened in my kids stuff at the end of the year.  I just can’t bring myself to care, or have the time to do it.  What does it matter?  Especially when they don’t even use them!

    Basically, I’ve switched in my old age to someone with a much lower level of rules orientation. Described this way, “people with a high level of rule orientation will have a more rigid view, seeing fewer conditions under which it is generally acceptable to violate rules. People with low rule orientation will have a more flexible view, seeing more conditions under which it is acceptable to violate rules.” 

    Rules orientation is really a sub dimension of conscientiousness, one of the most researched dimensions of personality. And as Psychology Today says, “conscientiousness is generally a key ingredient for success—in love as well as work. It’s also a major predictor of health, well-being, and longevity.” 

    Here’s the breakdown of conscientiousness dimensions in a tool we use to help leaders build self-awareness called the Work Behavior Inventory: 

    Of course, you read through these and most people would think, man I’m going to hire someone that is high on all this stuff! Conscientiousness is, in fact, one of the key predictors of success across almost all job types. 

    But, I’d encourage you to pause on the rules orientation and consider whether you need someone that is high or low on this dimension if you are charged with hiring people.  And if you are considering career direction or wondering why the heck you hate your job so much, I would encourage you to pause and question whether you are low or high on rules orientation. Nothing creates a recipe for disaster more than a round peg in a square hole, and rules orientation is most often the lynch pin. Kris Dunn describes the need to understand rules orientation for cultural fit better than almost anyone else in his Workforce.com post. Read it. 

    So, where do you want to consider hiring someone with low instead of high rules orientation? Or if you are low in rules orientation, where are you going to thrive? I think there are two key spots: 

    1. In start-up and high-growth organizations where you are trying to create things, not maintain the status quo (as Kris’ post states, when you are in need of pirates, not the people in the Navy) you need someone with a lower tendency towards rules orientation.  

    One of the places we really like to use the WBI assessment because of its analysis of rules orientation is when we are advising Alabama Launchpad finalists.  These are entrepreneurs working to create and grow high impact start-ups across the state. A lower level of rule following contributes to higher levels of “Creative Innovator” and “Business Start-Up” occupational fit as seen through the WBI. These people are trying to create something entirely different from the pencil, so they most definitely aren’t following the rules in the pencil buying market in order to succeed.  They want to make the pencil obsolete. 

    2. Secondly, you’ll want to consider the need for low rules orientation folks in organizations that have always played by the rules, heck they invented them, but things are no longer working. Typically, they have major issues on their hands. This is often because they are more concerned with the rules than anything else, and that has led to the downhill slide.  

    These organizations need someone to come in and say, why did you buy that type of pencil in the first place?  Does the supply list even serve a purpose? Do your kids even use pencils anymore in school? Well, they use computers all the time now, so six pencils for the school year will do, and it doesn’t matter what kind they are because they are on a computer now all the time anyway. This is the case where you need to bring in a pirate or a band of pirates to ask a bunch of questions, challenge the status quo, shake things up and fix stuff, also most likely saving you some money too and restoring profitability in the case of for-profit businesses. 

    I find myself in the middle of both these scenarios right now as I’m trying to grow our business and also help a few key clients shake things up.  

    I think I’ll be a pirate for Halloween this year.  I would have never gone for a pirate custom as a kid, probably citing something like pirates are boys (cultural rules and norms).  Well, bring me an eye patch now!  In my view, being a pirate is a heck of a lot of fun.

    Are you a rule follower or a rule breaker?   

     

     

  • 5 Tips for Inclusive Recruiting

    5 Tips for Inclusive Recruiting

    “Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At (company), we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You might just be the right candidate for this or other roles.”

    This was recently included in an actual job posting. I found it posted in an HR group on Facebook and the feedback from HR professionals was pretty negative. The company may have had good intentions, but the message sent was, as one respondent put it, “offensive”.

    So how can companies ensure that they are being inclusive in their recruiting processes? How can they put their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policy to work and make it effective in recruiting talent? Yes, the statement in the job posting is correct, women and people of color ARE less likely to apply for positions if they don’t meet all of the requirements of the job posting. One study shows that men will apply for a job if they meet 60% of the requirements while women will not apply unless they meet 100% of the requirements, but what is the right way to combat that? It’s definitely not putting that statistic in a job posting.

    Here are 5 practical steps:

    1. Review your job descriptions. Be honest with yourself, are your qualifications must have or really wants? Break out your qualifications into required and preferred. Also ask yourself if the degree requirements are absolutely necessary. Can someone who is self-taught with five years of experience in the field perform the work just as well as someone who has a degree and no experience? If you’re job description has a weight lifting requirement, is it accurate for the job? Is that position really required to lift 50 pounds on a regular basis or are they lifting 15 pounds on a regular basis and once every month they might have to lift 50 pounds and can actually get someone else to lift that for them if necessary. If you’re not sure about your requirements, do a job analysis and ask someone currently in the role what they feel someone needs to have in order to be successful in that role.
    2. Use gender neutral language. Instead of using he or she, try speaking directly to the person reading the job description by using “you” instead. If that won’t work, use they/their.
    3. Consider where you are posting your jobs. While Indeed and Linkedin are great sources for candidates, are you utilizing resources that can help you target underrepresented populations? Are there veterans’organizations that you can send your job postings to? Are there job boards or associations that target specific populations (like Women Who  Code)?
    4. Incorporate diversity into every step of your recruiting process. Think carefully about who to include in the interview process. Imagine being a female interviewing for a leadership role and you’re scheduled for a panel interview with five members of the leadership team. You walk into the panel interview and the five individuals sitting across the table from you are all men. What impression do you think that would give? Would that be representative of the diversity of your organization?
    5. Train interviewers on biases. We all have biases, whether we realize it or not. And those biases play a part in how we interview and how we rate candidates. By understanding what the potential biases are, we can better identify them and minimize the impact they have in our decision making.

    How can you create a more inclusive recruiting program in your organization?

  • Is Your Recruiting Strategy to Screen People In or Out?

    Is Your Recruiting Strategy to Screen People In or Out?

    I was taught how to recruit, well really screen people for jobs, before I even graduated college.  Working for a large insurance company as a summer intern between my junior and senior year, I was given a glimpse into the world of corporate recruiting.  It really wasn’t recruiting.

    Everyone on this corporate “recruiting” team was welcoming to me and they divided the selection process up amongst the “recruiters” to show me how it was done. 

    I was taught that the process of selection, “recruiting” as they called it, was screening people out, not in.  

    Yes, we needed to make a hire (or as was the case in customer service and claims classes LOTS of hires at once), so we needed someone in, but the mindset taught in the process was to weed people out.  

    The weeding came in the form of pre-screening questions. If you answered “no” to any one of them, you were automatically out.  The system kicked you out before I even saw you.  Most of these questions related things like required education and experience.  For which I now question why they were “required.” 

    The weeding came in me and my fellow “recruiters” screening people out based on their resumes. For any number of logical and sometimes illogical reasons. 

    The weeding came in interviewing people and, again, tossing them out for a number of logical and illogical reasons. 

    And sometimes, if the pool of candidates was particularly good and we needed another mechanism to weed, we’d toss in some kind of assessment.  Well, actually all those classes we were “recruiting” for in customer service and claims had an assessment before I even saw you too.  Don’t waste my time or yours with an interview if you can’t pass our “test”. 

    The mindset instilled in me was to get people out until you land on the one that is the least bad and hire them!

    It has taken me 15+ years to realize that the method I was taught, which always seemed to not sit quite right with me, but for which I couldn’t put my finger on as to why was because it doesn’t lead you to the best hire. 

    This revelation, or AHA! moment, came to me as I was listening to a podcast by the Neuroleadership Institute on growth mindset.  

    The Co-Founder and CEO of the NIL, David Rock, asks Priya Priyadarshini, General Manager, Employee Career and Development at Microsoft what they do differently now that they have adopted a growth mindset.  She responds:

    The first thing that really just immediately comes to my mind is our Chief HR officer, our Chief People Officer, Kathleen Hogan, who had done a post a couple of years ago. And we really sat down as an HR leadership team to talk about who are the people who we are hiring? If we are truly going to double down on diversity and inclusion and bring people from all walks of life, all sorts of experience, truly being the global company we are, do we screen in people? Or do we screen out people at the get-go? When we are meeting with people, like, I is my brain always thinking about what are the things that will help me quickly eliminate this talent? Versus what should I truly deeply watch for that will help me think about the potential of what this talent is going to bring to the table? How they are going to add to the cultural fabric of Microsoft? 

    So this concept of addition versus elimination has been really, really powerful. And it’s easier said than done. But it really requires a growth mindset on the part of the candidate, first of all, to apply to Microsoft, and how we make that attractive and compelling for them. The hiring manager, the GTA, the global talent acquisition processes, how we reach and our outreach, and all of that. And that’s been really powerful. 

    And a very small example of that would be, today, my team runs a global apprenticeship program, which is a 16-week program called Microsoft Leap. And it’s really that. We are inviting people to take that leap with us. And we have people from all walks of life, returning moms who used to work in a completely different industry. And for them, it’s about how do people have to confront their own fixed mindsets? I don’t have a computer science degree. Microsoft! My gosh! It’s a software company. It’s a tech company. Do I even belong? And so that whole notion in itself requires so much around growth mindset for all parties involved. So that’s just one.

    So, how do we shift the paradigm to screening people in because it gets us the best talent? 

    1. Realize what paradigm you are operating in now.  Are you screening in or out?  Map what steps in your process lead your brain to think “in” or “out”.  Awareness is the first step. 
    2. Adjust thinking to cultivate changed “priorities, systems, and habits” (NIL has a lot of resources on this to develop a growth mindset).  Some  examples: 

    Changed priority:  We have been focusing on time to fill in hiring as a key metric, now we are focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion (pick any number of metrics here) as our priority. 

    Changed system: We are going to engage with marginalized and/or underrepresented populations and draw people into our applicant pools. Microsoft’s Microsoft Leap program described above is a good example. 

    Changed habit: I am going to teach my “recruiters” how to look at a resume and find potential transferable skills instead of binary criteria for screening purposes. Or maybe your changed habit is not to require or look at a resume at all! 

    3. As mentioned in the changed habit example, you’ve got to train and reinforce the skill through leading with patience, practice, and rewards for those that deploy the growth mindset in hiring, or in any other arena.  Some of these reinforcements come naturally once a growth mindset is continually practiced, but leaders need to model and instill it through their behavior as well.  Who knows if I’d still be a “recruiter” today if I was taught to screen people in instead of out?

     

    How do you cultivate a growth mindset in your hiring practices?