Recruiting and Tracking Applicants

So far, you have learned about the different components of a job analysis. This video will
discuss the different strategies and tools to recruit and track qualified candidates for a role and
increase the likelihood of attracting top talent for an organization.
As you might recall, the selection process begins with a job analysis and developing a job
description. Now that you have completed the first step, it's time to focus on recruiting and
tracking potential candidates for a position. All recruitment activities such as soliciting and
tracking applicants, and fair and transparent practices fall under this stage of the funnel. Let's do
a quick recap to refresh your memory. When managers identify the need to fill a position, they
submit a formal request to human resources.
In return, HR produces an employee requisition, a procedure used when a company wants to
hire a new employee to fill a position. After creating a job description, that description is made
available to interested applicants with the skills and requirements needed for the role.
Organizations can then choose between several

strategies to recruit talent.

Firstly, they can fill the role either internally or externally. If existing employees have the
skills to fill the role, this information can be collected and stored in a skills inventory for future
use. Depending on the organization's circumstances, external recruitment might be the better
strategy. It involves sharing the job description with people outside the organization through
various platforms, such as job boards, job fairs, social media, and community sites.

The next strategy is executive search firms, commonly known as headhunters. Executive
search firms act as intermediaries between highly skilled professionals and potential employers.
Because competitors often employ these professionals, headhunters can help companies avoid
accusations of poaching talent by using their vast professional networks to make introductions.
However, headhunters come at a high cost, with fees ranging from 30% to 40% of the
executive's or professional salary hired for the position. So the organization would have to
consider this when choosing the recruitment strategy.

Once an organization has begun recruiting applicants, they need a way to track them.
Organizations of all sizes use tools such as applicant tracking systems. ATS's to track job
applicants throughout the recruitment and selection processes. A small organization might only
need a simple filing system to track and manage applicants, but a larger organization might
need an advanced system. ATS's help organize and maintain applicant records throughout the
recruitment process. Integrating ATS's and a Human Resources Information System, HRIS
enables a simple transition from candidate to employee, allowing organizations to use them
independently or together.

ATS's typically allow organizations to list job openings, gather, standardize, analyze, and
compare applicant information. Store data, use background screening providers, combine the
organization's HRIS, and create reports for reviews and government reporting. Now that we've
discussed strategies for recruiting and tools for tracking, let's explore a few best practices to
ensure the process remains Fair and Transparent. During the Recruitment
Process, it is vital to treat all applicants fairly and to avoid practices that can create a bias
towards or against particular candidates.
Nepotism is one such bias. It occurs when people of influence appoint their relatives or
friends to positions in a business, even though they might be less qualified than other
candidates. Employers subject to EEO regulations can face legal issues if they selectively hire
people they know. Rather than considering the entire pool of potential candidates and ensuring
the hiring process remains transparent. When the job demands specialized knowledge, skills
and abilities, it increases the competition for suitable candidates. Alternatively, high
unemployment rates make recruitment more manageable as many qualified candidates apply.
However, this also means that selecting the most appropriate candidate becomes challenging.
For an organization to attract qualified candidates, it must be perceived as a great workplace.
The organization can achieve this through effective employer branding. Which creates a
cohesive and well promoted image that highlights the company's strengths and sets it apart
from competitors. These strengths often include the company's compensation, benefits, work
culture, job responsibilities, training, and growth opportunities.

In this video, you learned essential topics such as employee requisite, position, internal and
external recruitment, tools for recruiting and tracking applicants, and fair recruitment best
practices. Coming up, you will explore this step in the talent acquisition process further.

Recruiting a Diverse Workforce

Previously, you learned about effective strategies and tools for finding and recruiting candidates. We
also explored best practices for promoting inclusivity throughout the recruitment process. In this
video, we will explore inclusivity further by discussing the benefits of building a diverse workforce
and practical recruitment strategies for reaching an organization's diversity objectives. By the end of
this video, you will have a better understanding of how to attract and retain skilled individuals from a
variety of backgrounds through a fair and unbiased hiring process. For your organization to achieve
its diversity objectives, it is necessary to align your recruitment strategies with diversity and inclusion
principles. Inclusive job descriptions are an essential component, but specific strategies can also
reduce bias in recruitment. In this lesson, we'll review three

Inclusive Recruitment Strategies

1) Pre-employment Assessments,
2) Blind resumes, and
3) Employee resource groups.

The first strategy is pre-employment assessments. Hiring teams commonly use these
assessments to discover if a candidate's character traits align with the specific role. Pre-employment
assessments can also reveal whether a candidate is likely to succeed if they join your organization.
Pre-employment assessments measure different attributes and qualities that are important in a
specific role.
 1) Through specially designed tests,
2) They often evaluate job knowledge,
3) Integrity,
4) Cognitive ability,
5) Personality,
6) Emotional intelligence, and
7) Physical ability.
To administer these tests, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, or UGESP,
requires that any task given to a job applicant should be reliable and valid. Later in this course, we'll
discuss how to ensure the validity and reliability of these tests. For now, it's important to note that
pre-employment assessments may need to be adjusted to accommodate specific individual needs. A
well-designed pre-employment assessment can streamline the hiring process. These assessments
can highlight gaps and experience, discover over representative proficiencies, and identify
candidates with diverse cognitive abilities. This knowledge about a candidate can foster better
collaboration among teams.

The next recruitment strategy is blind resumes, blind resumes hide personal information and
characteristics that are unrelated to the qualifications and experience needed in a role. This
information can include a candidate's name, age, gender, ability, ethnicity, level of
education and educational institution. For example, your company may hire candidates,
ethnicity, or educational institutions to eliminate bias in the hiring process and more fairly assess
candidates. Blind resumes focus attention on an applicant's qualifications and skills regardless of
their demographic background. It's important to note the blind resumes do not guarantee diversity
and inclusion. Your organizations should develop a clear plan for blind resumes. What information
should be hidden, and why? Automated HR software applications, such as applicant tracking
systems, offer a convenient solution for removing demographic information from an application.
Alternatively, you can manually cover personal information on printed resumes or use spreadsheet
applications.

The third strategy is employee resource groups, also known as affinity groups. These
voluntary employee lead groups bring together employees with similar backgrounds or
demographics such as gender or ethnicity. They promote diversity and inclusion through talent
acquisition, employee engagement and professional networking. Employee resource groups can
take various forms, some groups may emphasize volunteerism or support for a particular cause.
Others may offer professional development and provide employees with opportunities to share
knowledge. These groups have well-defined purposes, activities, budgets, and roles in supporting
your organization. Employee resource groups play a vital role in promoting and maintaining inclusive
recruitment processes. They should be constructed with your organization's diversity recruitment
strategy in mind, and be recognized for their contributions.

These recruitment strategies will help you build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. You can
use them to create opportunities for underrepresented groups, accommodate flexibility and
accessibility in the workplace, and strive toward an equitable allocation of skills and roles. Coming
up, we will continue learning about recruiting a diverse workforce.
Example: Recruiting a Diverse Workforce

In this video, we'll discuss recruiting a diverse workforce in a real-world scenario. As you
are aware, a diverse workforce is beneficial and healthy for an organization. You've
learned about a few of the tools an HR team can use in the recruitment process, and
now we'll review them in action. Let's continue with Alex from Connective. As a
refresher, Connective is a modern communication company that helps businesses stay
connected. They specialize in helping distributed workforces collaborate with a suite of
software tools such as video conferencing and cloud-based phone systems. Alex from
HR is working to fill a sales position. The sales team has been struggling to keep up
with demand after a big and successful marketing campaign.
Last time, Alex completed a job analysis and then rolled up the job description and
specification. As Alex begins the next round of recruitment, they know it's important to
build a talented and diverse workforce. Alex has received a formal request from the
sales team and produced an official employee requisition.
Alex and the sales team leaders have determined that an external candidate is probably
going to be the best option for this role. With the job description complete, Alex shares
the job description with people outside of the organization through job boards, social
media, and community sites. There aren't any applicable industry job fairs coming up
soon, but Alex reached out to several colleagues to see if they have job fairs in the near
future. Because the position is fully remote, Alex reaches out to members of the HR and
sales team to see if anyone is interested in attending and representing Connective. Alex
prepares a set of spreadsheets and shared files for the applicant tracking. At
Connective, there is a strict procedure regarding nepotism. That is to treat all applicants
fairly. No relatives of Connective employees are able to apply for this position.

As a new initiative at Connective, Alex and the HR team are going to use blind resumes
for this position. Removing personal information and demographic information from the
resume will allow everyone reviewing the background to focus on the skills, experience,
and qualifications of the applicant. Though this isn't a guarantee to introduce diversity. It
is one of the many strategies that can help. Alex has also let the company's employee
resource groups know that this position is hiring and some members have mentioned
that they will share the job listing.
Alex makes sure to thank everyone participating for their time. Alex has made sure to
take some steps towards a fair and equitable recruitment process. There are more
steps to take in the talent acquisition process, but this is where we'll leave Alex for now.
Recruitment, and specifically recruiting a diverse workforce, are two important aspects
of building an organization. Coming up, you'll learn about the next stages of the talent
acquisition life cycle.
Your grade: 100%
Your latest: 100%•
Your highest: 100%•
To pass you need at least 80%. We keep your highest score.
Next item
1. Question 1
A manager at your organization sent in a request to fill a position. What do you produce to begin the hiring
process? 1 / 1 point
An employee requisition
A tracking applicant form
A competition form
A fair and transparent recruitment practice
Correct
Correct! HR produces an employee requisition, a procedure used when a company wants to hire a new
employee to fill a position.
2. Question 2
What type of recruitment involves sharing the job description with people outside of the organization
through various platforms? 1 / 1 point
Internal recruitment
In-house recruitment
Executive search firms
External recruitment
Correct
Correct! External recruitment involves sharing the job description with people outside the organization
through various platforms such as job boards, job fairs, social media, and community sites.
3. Question 3
What type of recruitment strategy reveals whether a candidate is likely to succeed if they join your
organization?1 / 1 point
Blind resumes
Employee resource groups
Pre-employment assessments
Correct
Correct! Hiring teams commonly use pre-employment assessments to discover if a candidate’s character
traits align with a specific role.
4. Question 4
What type of recruitment strategy promotes diversity and inclusion using existing workers’ assistance with
talent acquisition, engagement, and professional networking? 1 / 1 point
Employee resource groups
Blind resumes
Pre-employment assessments
Correct
Correct! Employee resource groups are voluntary, employee-led groups that bring together employees
with similar backgrounds or demographics to promote diversity and inclusion through talent acquisition,
employee engagement, and professional networking.
5. Question 5
Fill in the blank: Creating _____ job descriptions are an essential component of the recruitment process. 1
/ 1 point
specific candidate
blind
resource group
inclusive
Correct
Correct! Inclusive job descriptions allow organizations to achieve their diversity objectives.
6. Question 6
What recruitment strategy hides personal information and characteristics that are unrelated to the
qualification and experiences needed in the role? 1 / 1 point
Employee resource groups
Job descriptions
Pre-employment assessments
Blind resume
Correct
Correct! Blind resumes focus attention on an applicant's qualifications and skills, regardless of their
demographic background.
7. Question 7
During an interview, you ask the following question: “What are your most time-sensitive responsibilities in
your current role, and how do you prioritize them?” The applicant answers and you follow-up with more
questions. What type of interview is this? 1 / 1 point
A basic interview
A structured interview
An unstructured interview
A Questionnaire interview
Correct
Correct! In an unstructured interview, interviewers use open-ended questions to allow candidates to fully
answer the question by using personal experience.
8. Question 8
What statement details the tasks performed on a job and the purpose of the job itself. 1 / 1 point
Job description
Job analysis
Job specification
Job process
Correct
Correct! A job description is a written document describing an employee’s work tasks and responsibilities.
9. Question 9
You are creating a listing for a new position in your organization. You include the education, experience,
training, and required skills needed for the position. What is this an example of? 1 / 1 point
Job description
Job analysis
Job specification
Job process
Correct
Correct! A job description is a written document describing an employee’s work tasks and responsibilities.
10. Question 10
You are on the hiring team to hire a new employee for a customer service position at Urban Attire. After a
discussion, your group has chosen a qualified person from a pool of candidates. What part of the hiring
process is this? 1 / 1 point
Sourcing
Recruitment
Selection
Planning
Correct
Correct! In the selection process, HR selects the most qualified person from a group of candidates.