2024 – Verstand Resources

10Aug

Virtual or In-person recruitment

The times keep changing, and one can only wonder what recruitment will look like in the years ahead.

In-person recruitment was the norm until a few years ago. Companies invited candidates to attend assessment centres or technical interview sessions, and they had no objections to travelling from far and wide for such sessions. Employers also had Recruitment Coordinators who were saddled with coordinating travel logistics for candidates.

Some top corporations would arrange flight tickets to get senior executive candidates from one location to another for a 30-minute face-to-face interview. And there were also look-see trips, where candidates got reimbursed airfare tickets for just coming to view the work environment.

With technology improvements, we now have tools that allow interviews to be conducted virtually in the comfort of your home or office. Virtual interviews help candidates control their environment and focus more during interviews as there are no surprises or distractions from their chosen location for the interview. It also allows for better time management for candidates and interviewers as none requires time to travel to the venue. Virtual interviews are either audio-only or video. Candidates are free not to use the video option if the recruiter has not mandated it on the interview invite. Thus, it is possible to multitask during an interview if only audio is required. In the negative, non-video interviews can be manipulated by having mercenaries represent candidates during interviews.

In the last two years in which there were global restrictions on travel due to Covid-19, remote work became the norm, and people adapted to the demands of the new world order. Candidates who often get intimidated or distracted at in-person interviews tend to perform better with virtual interviews.

In-person interviews help with human interpersonal relations. A good rapport can easily be formed when people interact physically. Nothing can be hidden or presented differently as against what it is.

I recall a trending topic about an interviewee commending the good looks of the interviewer. Could this be acceptable professionally? It is yet to be resolved, but it is unlikely to have such a scenario with virtual interviews.

An in-person interview often helps in quick decisions on whether to proceed to hire or not at the end of the interview. Virtual interviews depend on technology; internet access can make or mar an interview. Any interruptions due to technical issues could result in rescheduling the interviews or cancellations. In extreme cases, the company may decide to invite the candidate for an in-person interview.

In-person interviews are great opportunities to observe candidates and experience their personalities, which may not be possible with virtual interviews. In-person interviews, if well-executed, create an atmosphere that makes conversations more interesting and helpful to both parties. Virtual interviews have been confirmed to be effective, especially when candidates are in physical locations that are distant from the recruiter.

Both forms of interviews are globally acceptable, and it behoves the candidates and interviewers to be prepared to make the best of what each Virtual or In-Person Recruitment.

Written By: Fidelis Shenbote, ACIPM

14Jun

SOCIAL MEDIA: A Candidate Sourcing Tool

I come from a school of thought that seems more academic than liberal, so when I agreed to write this article, I knew my introduction would be a definition of the subject matter to gain a better understanding of its implications for candidate sourcing.

Definition –According to Wikipedia, Social Media is a set of interactive digital channels that facilitate creating and sharing information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.

History – Internet Relay Chats (IRCs) was first used in 1988 and continued to be known well into the 1990s. The first recognisable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997. It enabled users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still popular today. After the invention of blogging, social media began to explode in popularity. Sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gained prominence in the early 2000s, and sites like Photobucket and Flickr facilitated online photo sharing. YouTube came out in 2005, creating an entirely new way for people to communicate and share across great distances. By 2006, Facebook and Twitter became available to users throughout the world. These sites remain some of the most popular social networks on the Internet. Other sites like Tumblr, Spotify, Foursquare and Pinterest began popping up to fill specific social networking niches. Today, there is a tremendous variety of social networking sites. We can only speculate about the future of social networking in the next decade or even century, but it seems clear that it will exist in some form for as long as humans are alive. – (Small Business Trends).

Demographics – By tapping into various social connections, recruiters can reach a wider pool of potential employees. However, one critical factor that brings home the point of this article is demographics. It is essential to know where to find a suitable pool of candidates. The table below highlights the global demographics of the major platforms:

Culled from Sprout Social.

Looking closer to home (i.e. Nigeria) and according to a report by Statista, the top ten (10) social media sites used in generating connections, interactions and content are WhatsApp (91.9%); Facebook (86.4%); Instagram (77.9%); Facebook Messenger (71.2%); Twitter (57.4%); Telegram (50.3%); Snapchat (49.7%); TikTok (47.7%); LinkedIn (37.6%); and Pinterest (21.7%).

When the global stats are juxtaposed against the Nigerian numbers, it becomes clear that the most viable tools for finding talent in Nigeria are: the Meta ‘Trio’ (Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp), LinkedIn and YouTube.

● Facebook is arguably the largest and most active platform, thus, always presenting potential opportunities for sourcing candidates across industries and skillsets. The platform has tools that help with targeted advertising to get past all the ‘noise’ to reach those who match predetermined recruitment criteria. Its active population/age (largely male-centric) group falls within the range of new entrants into the workforce and those with some years of experience.

● Instagram is also male-dominated. However, the gap is much closer than the spread on Facebook. Thus, we can assume that the female gender has a growing influence on Instagram. Instagram is also reputed to be a more visual-based platform. As such, job opportunities have to be shared using visuals.

● WhatsApp deserves to be mentioned here because it is often the go-to platform (and usually the first to be used) to reach personal networks when seeking a job or employers/recruiters are trying to fill vacant positions. And companies that advertise vacancies on Facebook can always carry over those conversations to Whatsapp directly due to the same platform ownership. Access to the network capacity of WhatsApp (at 91.9% of usage in Nigeria) will be difficult as that is wholly dependent on the volume of individuals’ networks and how easy it is to reach out to people. Thus somewhat limiting potential reach given the platform’s usage generally.

● LinkedIn, with the growing popularity amongst millennials on this platform, it becomes a tool for sourcing the much-needed talent for employers and recruiters. Its lack of popularity compared to other social media platforms makes it an add-on platform to be used in conjunction with others to generate leads for finding talents across different industries. However, if finding talent in somewhat specialised fields with a relatively small pool of qualified/experienced persons, LinkedIn presents itself as a viable sourcing tool.

● YouTubecould be seen as an employer-driven platform where employers attempt to create content that sells the kind of work environment potential employees could be coming to work. In the long term, it could significantly impact the way sourcing is done by encouraging job seekers to upload videos of themself showing what they can do and employers showcasing what they have to offer to attract talent.

Conclusion – Understanding the different platforms’ dynamics makes Social Media a veritable tool for recruitment, as long as a deliberate approach is taken. It is without a doubt that Social Media will continue to grow as a formidable tool for finding talent, though its usage will continue to change over time. The companies that will succeed in using Social Media as talent sourcing tools are the ones that continue to keep abreast of trends and adapt their strategies accordingly.

Written By: Olufeyisayo Sofolahan Soewu (CEO, SquaredLAB Innovations Limited)

18Jan

Sustaining The Workplace Culture

Several business leaders strive to thrive in today’s fast-changing global market because of new challenges that have characterized the business environment. Business leaders face challenges in establishing a workplace culture that impacts productivity and organizational performance. It is a clear fact that every business would expect to make a profit and expand its business size. However, it would then be essential for business leaders to establish a sustainable workplace culture that can impact and assist the navigation of every challenge within the organization.

Culture in the workplace is expected to define the ideal behaviour of people within the organization. The expected behaviours are to be established by business leaders and cascaded into shared beliefs and values to shape the workforce’s perspective within the organization. Consequently, the absence of a defined culture in the workplace is the root cause of low performance within an organization. To address this gap, business leaders must demonstrate a commitment to define the desired workplace culture and model the same to improve productivity in the business. They must also take cognizance of the peculiarities of their business environment to establish the desired culture without necessarily attempting to adopt another organization’s culture.

My observation about workplace culture across organizations where I have worked reveals that the personality of the top leader often informs and reflects on the organizational culture. It is worst in organizations where the culture is undefined in any way. In such an environment, it is inevitable not to have a subset culture that will hurt organizational performance. I have worked in an environment where the top leader is very value-driven and possess a solid character. The personality of the said top leader consequently reflected on the workplace culture, and it positively impacted the overall business performance. I have also worked in an environment where the leader’s personality is poor, and even though the organization had well-crafted policies in place, the character of this poor top leader rubbed off on the workplace culture, which led to overall negative performance. The moral I picked from these two environments is that leaders must make efforts to build strong character because character informs values, and culture is a reflection of values. Leaders must deliberately prioritize building character while leading others.

As organizations evolve, it would be critical for the leaders to consciously assess and strengthen their culture, which will go a long way to impact establishing policies, initiatives, and strategies that align with the set objectives. This alignment has a role in assisting the C-suite to cascade the desired behaviour to everyone within the organization.

The big question in this article is, how can leaders build and sustain a workplace culture? To respond to this question, below are a few thoughts to be considered:

a. Communicate the Expected Culture: Fundamentally, culture must be communicated clearly and consistently to everyone in the organization. This way, everyone is aware of expected behaviours in the workplace. However, communication about culture must also be intentional to avoid distortions that may lead to a lack of trust in the leaders.

b. Attraction Strategy: In the attempt to build and sustain the desired workplace culture, organizations would require coming up with an effective attraction strategy. This strategy can support organizations to make the most of the culture. It means that during the hiring process, the focus should not be only on skill sets but also on the personality trait that fits into the organizational culture. Studies have shown that candidates with a personality trait that fits into an organization’s culture are more likely to perform better on the job.

c. Design Intentional Onboarding Programme: Another approach to building and sustaining a workplace culture is to design an onboarding program that reflects the organizational culture. By so doing, new employees will be inducted into the organization’s culture. Moreso, one of the key motives of the onboarding program is to cascade the organization’s core values and set expected behaviours for new hires.

d. Design Reward and Recognition Programs: Reward and recognition programs are deployable tools to motivate employees that consistently model the set workplace culture. Such employees should be put in the spotlight and rewarded.

e. Design Robust Performance Management Program: Research suggests that employees that fully imbibe the workplace culture stand a higher chance of performing well on the job. Consequently, organizations need to build a robust performance management framework that reflects the workplace culture, and feedback is provided to employees about how they are aligning to expected behaviours.

In conclusion, being part of an astonishing workplace culture generates an exciting experience for everyone within a particular organization. The priority of business leaders is to create a workplace culture where there is trust, open communication, and healthy relationship. Lastly, business leaders must be consciously committed to defining, articulating, and modelling the workplace culture.

Written By: Oludare Obadina (Organizational Leadership Enthusiast)