Post: Jun. 6, 2019
Ah summer, the term synonymous with beach weather and vacation. It’s also a time when HR staff look into recruiting college graduates and assessing the company’s needs for the remainder of the year. While the task may seem challenging, our HR Intern sheds some light on important tips your organization should consider when you’re ready to start the candidate search.
Know your audience
Every organization needs a workforce, however if you’re catering to the wrong crowd; you can say goodbye to hiring the candidate of your dreams. The first step is determining how you’re going to reach out to your target audience? Simply having paper applications on-hand in the office won’t entice anyone to stop by. In the digital era we live in, more organizations are turning to social media to promote their open positions. Platforms such as LinkedIn and Facebook let you connect with thousands of individuals with just a few clicks. Small investments into digital recruitment efforts can easily pay off as the number of applicants to choose from goes up. In addition, online job descriptions act as brand advertising for your organization; helping individuals know exactly what products/services you offer.
An applicant tracking systems will become your best friend
With all the digital applications coming through to your organization, you’re going to need a system in place to manage all of that. Software companies like iCIMS which is used by the Council of Industry, easily allow hiring managers to create digital applications with ease and categorize candidates on different criteria sets such as if they should move forward to an interview or not. Need to make a change to a specific job description? No need to re-print paper applications, with a few clicks edits can easily be done. The best part of these system is that all the necessary information HR and business executives need is online 24/7 meaning you can view real-time data on how people are interacting with open jobs.
Refresh.Refresh.Refresh
Digital job descriptions are important but they won’t gain much attention if they’ve been sitting there for months. Research has shown that candidates are less likely to apply for a job once they see it has been open for over 30 days. This is because people will assume the company has found someone or is ready to close the job when that may not be the case. A good practice is to refresh a posting once a month in order to get a steady flow of applicants. Want to look at applicants from prior postings? No worries, iCIMS for example lets you view applicants who applied to the earlier versions of your job description so they don’t just disappear.
Applications: Short and simple
One of the biggest barriers to people applying for jobs is the application process itself. Ever take the time to carefully craft a cover letter and resume only to find out that the application also requires over 5 extended response questions and many multiple-choice questions? While this information is useful to employers; many applicants get discouraged and end up not finishing the application process. A typical application should not take longer than 30 minutes to complete. Simplifying the amount of steps needed to finish an application will help generate more candidates which gives employers more choices when it comes time for adding a new member to your workforce.
Next Steps
The Council of Industry is dedicated to helping members achieve their workforce goals and can help your company implement these tips. Joining the Council of Industry’s Collaborative Recruitment Initiative will give you access to our iCIMS applicant tracking system as well as digital advertising for your job positions on popular social media and career search platforms. For more information, please contact:
Johnnieanne Hansen
Director of Workforce Development and Apprenticeship Program Coordinator
Jhansen@councilofindustry.org
(845)-565-1355
Post: Apr. 9, 2019
When Johnnieanne Hansen began her role as Director of Workforce Development and Apprentice Coordinator for the Council of Industry her first priority was to recruit companies to participate in the newly formed Intermediary Apprentice Program. Her first order of business was to visit with member CEO’s and HR professionals to pitch the idea. What she heard from them, while not completely surprising, did raise some alarm bells in her head and prompted her to rethink her priorities.
“They loved the apprentice idea, they really did. They recognized that it was one solution to finding the skilled workers they needed.” Ms. Hansen remembers. “But they also said that they did not have the time to think about apprentices or to take on a project like that because they ‘need people now!’ So unless I was walking in with people on my shoulders for them to hire, they had more pressing recruiting problems.”
She prodded them further about how they were recruiting and where they were finding candidates. As she did so an idea began take shape in her mind that these small and mid-sized manufacturers, all different, yet all a little alike, could pool their resources to market careers with Hudson Valley manufacturers and develop a system to organize and manage candidates.
Thus, in March of 2018 the Collaborative Recruiting Initiative was hatched.
“In my previous positions as a recruiter and corporate trainer I had done some research into Applicant Tracking Systems. It occurred to me that the Council could purchase a subscription and make the service available to participating members.” Hansen said. “Hiring managers get a system where they can post jobs, sort and track candidates and get other resources and support throughout the hiring process. Posted jobs are distributed to over 100 job boards like: Indeed, Hotjobs, Monster, Zip Recruiter, LinkedIn and Glassdoor.”
Additionally, all the jobs are listed in one place www.HVMfgJobs.com and a social media marketing campaign is in place to encourage people to visit the site. The campaign is designed to target individuals most likely to be interested in careers in manufacturing.
“We thought that this might be a valuable tool for our members. A way to give them some resources that are otherwise not accessible to them, or at least cost probative.” Hansen added.
The program launched in March 2018 with 10 companies posting about 25 jobs. Today 29 participating companies keep roughly 100 jobs posted at any point in time at www.HVMfgJobs.com. There have been more than 100 positions filled in that time from nearly 5,000 applicants.
“It’s working.” Says Hansen. “Of course it could be better.” She suggests that more could be done to take advantage of the applicant pool and that marketing the positions and Hudson Valley Manufacturing, in general, could be stronger. “Every additional company that participates, every additional job that gets posted makes the program stronger,” Hansen said. “We’re good, it’s solid and it will be even better in 12 more months.”
All Council members are welcome to participate in the Collaborative Recruiting Program and its new pricing model will make it easier for any firm to participate. If you want to learn more visit https://careers.councilofindustry.org/manufacturing or email Johnnieanne Hansen at jhansen@councilofindustry.org
Post: Mar. 6, 2019
When Johnnieanne Hansen began her role as Director of Workforce Development and Apprentice Coordinator for the Council of Industry her first priority was to recruit companies to participate in the newly formed Intermediary Apprentice Program. Her first order of business was to visit with member CEO’s and HR professionals to pitch the idea. What she heard from them, while not completely surprising, did raise some alarm bells in her head and prompted her to rethink her priorities.
“They loved the apprentice idea, they really did. They recognized that it was one solution to finding the skilled workers they needed.” Ms. Hansen remembers. “But they also said that they did not have the time to think about apprentices or to take on a project like that because they ‘need people now!’ So unless I was walking in with people on my shoulders for them to hire, they had more pressing recruiting problems.”
She prodded them further about how they were recruiting and where they were finding candidates. As she did so an idea began take shape in her mind that these small and mid-sized manufacturers, all different, yet all a little alike, could pool their resources to market careers with Hudson Valley manufacturers and develop a system to organize and manage candidates.
Thus, in March of 2018 the Collaborative Recruiting Initiative was hatched.
“In my previous positions as a recruiter and corporate trainer I had done some research into Applicant Tracking Systems. It occurred to me that the Council could purchase a subscription and make the service available to participating members.” Hansen said. “Hiring managers get a system where they can post jobs, sort and track candidates and get other resources and support throughout the hiring process. Posted jobs are distributed to over 100 job boards like: Indeed, Hotjobs, Monster, Zip Recruiter, LinkedIn and Glassdoor.”
Additionally, all the jobs are listed in one place www.HVMfgJobs.com and a social media marketing campaign is in place to encourage people to visit the site. The campaign is designed to target individuals most likely to be interested in careers in manufacturing.
“We thought that this might be a valuable tool for our members. A way to give them some resources that are otherwise not accessible to them, or at least cost probative.” Hansen added.
The program launched in March 2018 with 10 companies posting about 25 jobs. Today 29 participating companies keep roughly 100 jobs posted at any point in time at www.HVMfgJobs.com. There have been more than 100 positions filled in that time from nearly 5,000 applicants.
“It’s working.” Says Hansen. “Of course it could be better.” She suggests that more could be done to take advantage of the applicant pool and that marketing the positions and Hudson Valley Manufacturing, in general, could be stronger. “Every additional company that participates, every additional job that gets posted makes the program stronger,” Hansen said. “We’re good, it’s solid and it will be even better in 12 more months.”
All Council members are welcome to participate in the Collaborative Recruiting Program and its new pricing model will make it easier for any firm to participate. If you want to learn more visit https://careers.councilofindustry.org/manufacturing or email Johnnieanne Hansen at jhansen@councilofindustry.org
Post: Jan. 8, 2019
Hiring competent, high quality candidates for open positions is a challenge for all organizations. In an effort to simplify the process for our members the Council of Industry recently began using the applicant tracking software, iCIMS. iCIMS allows Human Resource professionals to more efficiently manage the recruitment process, and helps lessen some of the challenges associated with filling open positions. Debra Sherman, the Human Resources Director at Fair-Rite Products for the last 19 years, started using the program about 10 months ago and is extremely satisfied with the results.
Prior to using iCIMS Debra was using Excel Spreadsheets to manage her applicants, and filed resumes manually. She noted the difficulty with sorting through paper resumes and trying to remember which candidates possessed the qualifications she was looking for. During her search to find an applicant tracking system that met her needs the Council of Industry introduced her to iCIMS. The ease of use, and ability to simply search for specific skill sets listed on candidates’ resumes, sparked her interest in the software. She posted her first job on the system 10 months ago, which also published the position to Indeed, Monster, LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and several other employment-oriented platforms. Since that date Fair-Rite Products has posted 29 open positions, received over 560 applications, and filled 16 of those positions.
Debra knew that the software was going to be a success when iCIMS helped her fill a position that Fair-Rite had open for over a year. She was struggling to find a qualified candidate to fill an Applications Engineer position, and had little success uploading the job to LinkedIn and other platforms herself. Once she uploaded the job to iCIMS she finally found the right candidate for the position, and filled the job in just a few short months. Debra believes that iCIMS played a big role in finally finding the ideal person for the job.
iCIMS has vast capabilities, and the Council of Industry continues to assist its members in understanding how to fully utilize the software in order to get the best results. Debra described the system as “robust” and likes that it gives her the ability to easily weed out non-qualified candidates. She also commented on the convenience of always knowing the number of candidates who applied for a job, having the ability to sort candidates by their commuting distance, reviewing the number of days it took to fill a position, and quickly emailing applicants through the system’s email templates. Debra believes that the ability to notify rejected candidates when a position has been filled is a common courtesy that was difficult, if not impossible, to do before she had access to the iCIMS automatic email templates. Now she can easily contact all rejected candidates with just a few clicks.
The success that Debra has experienced at Fair-Rite is a prime example of how beneficial the collaborative recruitment initiative can be for our members. Debra stated that, “The Council of Industry’s solution to our applicant tracking needs has been a huge success and has far surpassed my expectations.” Moving forward she hopes to fully eliminate the paper application with the help of the Council of Industry.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Collaborative Recruitment Initiative please contact Johnnieanne Hansen at jhansen@councilofindustry.org or (845) 565- 1355 to discuss your recruitment obstacles and decided if this initiative is right for you. We are always willing to set up a time to speak with you about the capabilities of iCIMS and provide a demonstration of the system.
Post: Dec. 14, 2018
By Guest Blogger Michaela Ryan
Did you know that jobs are searchable by MOS codes? MOS codes are a specific code used in the military that identify a particular job. Each MOS code has its own job description. Active members and veterans typically know their MOS code like the back of their hand. Therefore, when a veteran is searching for a civilian job, they know that they have the qualified skills and experience if it aligns with their MOS code. This information is being implemented into various recruitment strategies when trying to attract veterans for job openings.
Finding information on this is simple. When you search “MOS code job search” in Google, MOS translators for civilian jobs are the first links to pop up. For example, MOS code 44E is the code for a Machinist in the Army. A veteran could type “44E” into the MOS translator and it would present a list of job openings that align with their background as a machinist in the Army. It allows veterans to use their gained experiences and skills from the military and put those skills and experiences to use in civilian jobs. Recruiters can implement MOS code compatibility into their recruitment process by providing applicable MOS codes in their job postings. Multiple MOS codes can align with a single job. You can also find a list of MOS codes categorized by military branch, for example an Army MOS code list and a Marine MOS code list can be found here. There are numerous resources online when trying to figure out which MOS codes could apply to your job openings. This can help veterans find jobs faster that align with their prior experience and it can help you find qualified candidates by reaching a new market. This could open new doors for access to skilled candidates!
The Council of Industry has started matching the jobs in our Recruiting Initiative to their corresponding MOS codes. As the Council of Industry works with Manufacturing Companies throughout the Hudson Valley, many of the skills and required experience needed for these types of jobs closely aligns with those of veterans. All of the applicable jobs will have a list of corresponding MOS code(s) implemented into the job description/posting. This will allow veterans to know that they qualify for that particular job and it will also make the job searchable by MOS code. Anyone can go to our website (Link Here) and search an MOS code and all applicable jobs will appear for candidates to easily apply. Our hope is to reach a broader candidate base for our members, as well as, assist veterans in their job search.
Making MOS codes searchable with job openings is a new opportunity for recruiters to attract veterans. By implementing this into your recruiting process, you can increase your likelihood of finding the quality candidate you’ve been looking for. Many companies have already started to implement this into their recruitment process and there are a variety of tools readily available to assist in the implementation of this process. If you would like to attract veterans or find a new market of candidates during your recruitment process, this could be what you are looking for.
*If you’re a veteran looking for a career in manufacturing search your MOS code here, by typing your MOS code into the search bar.*