Sick of mediocre candidates? Create a job post that filters them out!
Flo Hiring Weekly Update November 1, 2021
Your former employee just walked out.
As the door closes with a resounding thud, so does your heart.
The thought of hiring somebody makes you want to crawl into a hole and presumably stay there…forever.
Hiring isn’t easy.
More so, if you’re stuck having to go the traditional way to do it, which makes it nothing less than a nightmare.
After painfully crafting a job offer that you desperately wish will attract all the right candidates, you then proceed to post it on several different job boards.
This means having to go through the painful process of completing the different requirements on each one.
Not to mention the application costs on some job boards.
With dozens of job posts come thousands of candidates.
And good luck trying to get through each of them!
It doesn’t matter how much you love spreadsheets. This is the ultimate recipe for a slow and inefficient hiring process.
Hi there! Welcome to our weekly update and today...
We have some big news - Flo Hiring has officially been launched! Bringing over 10+ years of expertise building and putting together teams, we have created Flo Hiring to bring you a premium hiring experience.
With our recruiting process, your new hire could be just 3 days away! Check out our website: www.flohiring.com to know more.
Our weekly newsletters are curated to bring you the best solutions to the biggest pain points in the hiring industry. This week we're focusing on crafting the perfect job post, our personal growth journey and what that means for Flo Hiring.
If you're new to the newsletter, make sure to subscribe to keep on top of all the crazy happenings in the world of recruitment.
So, What’s The Solution?
Switching your hiring process to a modern hiring platform. Adopting such a software enables you to have a hassle-free hiring experience and post to multiple job boards at once!
Flo Hiring understands how hard it can be to go to numerous job boards. This is why we have made the process extra simple. All you have to do is give us the job post, and we will take care of the rest!
We then post your job on multiple different job boards and source the best candidates for you.
But if everything hinges on your job post to attract the quality candidates you want to attract, it makes sense to create a job post that will stand out from the rest.
I know it's hard. I mean, who wouldn't want to copy-paste and get the job done? But when you take the time to emotionally engage in your job post, you will attract candidates who are best suited for your role.
What has been your experience with automated hiring platforms? Tell us more in the comments below.
A Job Post That Stands Out
In the wake of the Great Resignation of 2021, it is becoming right next to impossible to attract quality candidates.
With job seekers calling all the shots, you need something pretty damn impressive to hold their attention. And robotic job descriptions are not the answer.
What you need is a remarkable job post.
Your job ad title is the first thing they see
I'm sure you've seen ambiguous job posts where the only information you glean is the fact that they need an employee.
And that's no help at all. These kinds of job posts attract equally ambiguous candidates.
To avoid that landmine, make sure you:
Use keywords that are relevant to the job post. For example, the level you are hiring for and the job role.
For maximum impact, keep it between 50 to 60 characters.
A job description that's well, descriptive
I have come across numerous postings saying something like,
"Further details will be given to the selected candidate."
That is a big NO. This tells the candidate absolutely nothing about the job or what it entails. Without having a basic understanding, how is a candidate supposed to make a decision?
Bottom line: They can't. So they won't. They'll just move on to the next job post.
In your job description, make sure to include the:
Responsibilities of the role
Number of work hours expected
Skills required
Company culture
Bonus incentives
This gives a clear idea of what a candidate can expect and screens out candidates less suitable for the role.
Include attention to detail test
I bet you've come across thousands of copy-paste applications. The solution and best way to save 80% of your time in the hiring process: An attention to detail test.
Maybe you could include a question that they would need to answer in their cover letter or ask them to rewrite the first sentence of the third paragraph.
The purpose of this test is to make sure candidates actually take the time to meticulously go through your job post. This will screen out those who have not even bothered to read it through and you will be sure that any important information is properly conveyed, further saving time in communication later.
Include other testing parameters
A couple of other things that you could do to ensure only the best candidates make it through:
Ask them to record a video answering a few basic questions
Give them a sample to work on
Have a pre-screen process in your hiring system
All this will really shorten your list of potential candidates, making it easier for you to hire your new employee.
An effective screening process is one of the most impactful parts of the candidate-employee cycle. Why? Not only does it prevent bad hires, it also lets you arrive at the best selection decision.
Have you ever created a great job post? What all did it include?
Our Weekly Updates
This week, we focused on integrating our software to AWS, implementing VideoAsk, integrating our app and Github to Slack, linking Airtable, and a few other updates.
Setting Up Permissions on AWS
The major problem faced this week was we did not realize how slow properly setting up AWS user accounts securely could be.
As a fully remote and asynchronous team, we need to be nimble with who we work with. This often means assuming trust and building a sense of shared security.
Getting your employees to work on the systems you need without giving so much freedom that could jeopardize the business if you were to make a mistake.
As a startup, we will make mistakes along the way. This is why we want to make sure that we have the systems in place to fall back on. Drawing the line between security and accessibility is hard but doable given that we have time to sort things out.
Because we didn't anticipate this, we faced the following problems
Couldn't give all permissions and could only give access to the ones that were extremely important.
Didn't know the permissions needed because of lack of experience with AWS.
Held back our tech team from completing it.
Currently, our app is deployed on a temporary server - Vercel, for the first week. We want to move to AWS for their great customer support service and the opportunity to scale up our business as it grows.
For now, we are thinking of guiding our product lead to complete the task since she has administrative access.
VideoAsk Integration
The plan was to deploy the front-end side of the application and get the form started, but it was soon understood that for the client to fill it out, we needed a server set up.
But that wasn't part of the plan. So it had to be set up real quick, and minor changes were made to the repository.
Another problem was the fact that VideoAsk was not allowed in some countries, which is not ideal. We are still looking for a possible solution.
For now, the best option for startups would be an AI screening process. With a huge applicant pool, it is vital that recruiters optimize their time. So what does an AI screening look like?
Grunge work is automated. (Yay!)
Can auto-screen potential candidates based on the data you provide, ex. biased language.
Can recognize facial expressions and word choices to screen out candidates.
No disruption to your workflow
A Minor Issue With Our Chat Box
On chats, usually, the sender is on the right side and the receiver on the left. On our chat box, it was the opposite. Just to clarify, the bot is the receiver.
We will change to make it easy and conventional for the users. But since it's a minor issue, it will be fixed later after our app is deployed along with improvement of the chat box UI.
We use React to create our chat box. Here's the link to the package we use: https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-slack-chat
Do you know of a better package that we can use to create our chat box? Please tell us what you think in the comments below.
Integrating Github Repo Updates To Slack
The integration is done and we are now able to see the daily updates.
Other Updates
Created home page using React and made it mobile responsive.
Airtable integration with Videoask and job description page
Created newsletter header image preview
Do you have any thoughts on how we could have approached our setbacks better? We would love to hear from you.
Problems Faced When Finding Candidates
When finding candidates, we ran into a few problems. This is to be expected as every job comes with its own challenges. Below are the three key problems that we faced this week.
Requires Greater Expertise
We have a job post where our client wants candidates with experience in specific coding languages and app interfaces. We are not getting a lot of candidates that have the expertise needed and fit the limited budget we were given to work with.
If you have the skill set but lack experience, it might be helpful to put together a great sample of your work and bid at a low rate. This way, if selected, you get to build your portfolio while also learning how to work in a team environment.
Mediocre/Poor Pre-screens
Another problem we are facing is not getting good pre-screens from candidates. Remote roles require excellent soft skills, and that is not visible in the applications that we received.
Soft skills are key if you want to ace that interview. When doing your pre-screen, make sure you highlight your problem-solving skills, how good you are at collaboration, and how you manage your time.
The best way to do this is to approach all questions with 'How?' instead of 'Why?'. This allows you to make sure you can fully showcase your soft skills and provide thoughtful answers.
Having great video quality also matters. Since, most employers need good quality audio and video to hear and see you well, it's important to make sure you have a camera/video set that will enable you to capture your aspirations in the best way.
Not Interested In The Hiring Process
Because we ask people to do a pre-screen, there are candidates who are not willing to do it. They find it lengthy and unnecessary, which is exactly why a pre-screen should be a part of your hiring process. This screens candidates who are not willing to even do the bare minimum when it comes to a job application.
Remember, pre-screens are a way to show the company why they should choose you. You get to
highlight why you're the best fit and show them how passionate you truly are about the job!
As a candidate, what have you been struggling with? Tell us more in the comments below.
Our Social Media Channels
Our social media channels launched last week, so make sure to check them out for updates on Flo Hiring. We share content that is sure to bring insight into the way you approach job hunting.
We'd love it if you clicked that follow button and shared our accounts with anybody who needs an inside look into the hiring community.
When we collaborate and share, we build a community that can help bring about the next big change in the hiring landscape.
Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/flo-hiring
Twitter:
Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/Flo-Hiring-112061141251104
Know any incredible social media strategies we could use? We would love to know more.
Statistics From This Week
Here are our weekly numbers. Showcasing our metrics is our way of ensuring transparency in our journey of growth. Numbers will let you know how we're doing so far and what we need to work on.
Number of candidates:
We had three new applicants in the database.
Number of job posts:
Three new job posts were created:
Full Stack Engineer (Scrolller)
DevOps Engineer (Scrolller)
Actor (Flo Hiring)
Sales Manager (Dave and Buster's)
Successful Hires:
There were no hires this week.
Revenue:
No growth from the previous week.
Want To Learn More?
We have combined our experience of hiring thousands of employees across multiple companies to come up with a method that is the most success-oriented when it comes to new hires.
Interested in using our hiring services? Send us your job details using this form: https://airtable.com/shrtHb5ffwxxhg4Up
Want to know more about Flo Hiring? Schedule a 15 min call and we'll answer all your questions: https://calendly.com/flohiring/15min
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