The Power of Internal Communications

The year 2020 has been a year of transformation, challenges and coping with the best. Every single aspect of personal and professional life has been transformed to cope with the pandemic and its impact. The year set the vision of a hybrid and digital workplace which is much more geographically expanded and wider in skills scope. 

All important functions of the business have evolved to streamline their productivity. One such important business vertical that transformed itself in a major way in the internal communications department. Where most of the business verticals were being transformed through robotic intelligence; the internal communications was promoting the transformation among the employees. It was engaged in not only promoting the positive aspects of the business policies, plans and benefits for the employees but handled the negative impact as well. 

Salary deductions, layoffs, negative reviews now became a part of internal communications. They acted as a support system for employees to show a business compassion towards the hard situations. So internal communications is not just about disseminating information to employees it is more of a marketing role. Their role have become of a story teller which needs to keep the employees together in the tough times and prepare them for the future. 

They are required to share positive stories and even employees look up to them for safety and hearing the leadership thoughts. They are becoming a channel of two-way communication between employees and leadership. 

In the coming years we will see innovation in the space where new marketing ideas will play an important role to the employees engaged. It will be as important as the external communications.

The Power of Internal Communications

The year 2020 has been a year of transformation, challenges and coping with the best. Every single aspect of personal and professional life has been transformed to cope with the pandemic and its impact. The year set the vision of a hybrid and digital workplace which is much more geographically expanded and wider in skills scope. 

All important functions of the business have evolved to streamline their productivity. One such important business vertical that transformed itself in a major way in the internal communications department. Where most of the business verticals were being transformed through robotic intelligence; the internal communications was promoting the transformation among the employees. It was engaged in not only promoting the positive aspects of the business policies, plans and benefits for the employees but handled the negative impact as well. 

Salary deductions, layoffs, negative reviews now became a part of internal communications. They acted as a support system for employees to show a business compassion towards the hard situations. So internal communications is not just about disseminating information to employees it is more of a marketing role. Their role have become of a story teller which needs to keep the employees together in the tough times and prepare them for the future. 

They are required to share positive stories and even employees look up to them for safety and hearing the leadership thoughts. They are becoming a channel of two-way communication between employees and leadership. 

In the coming years we will see innovation in the space where new marketing ideas will play an important role to the employees engaged. It will be as important as the external communications.

How Recruitment Process Outsourcing Sailed Through Pandemic

Pandemic slowed progress resulting in substantial impact to businesses and workforce. Companies were forced to take serious decisions pertaining to finance, work policies and most importantly employees. Not only hiring, but existing employees had to face the hard truth as well.

New hiring was completely stopped during early months of the outbreak but with time the demand for resilient manpower has improved the situation. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) has emerged as an attractive option for companies. Not just being scalable the process also offer customization which reduces cost per hire and generates potential candidates that are largely aligned with company’s needs. 

• Reaching to Niche Skillsets

Another key benefit identified through outsourcing is reaching diverse skillset. Through adoption of artificial and robotic intelligence recruitment process outsourcing have been a boon for companies to expand their business by engaging skills that were never a part of their system. By offering multiple talent across industries, organizations are on a look out for niche skills hire.

• Positive Company’s Branding 

 Today positive organizational branding has gained importance more than ever before because during tough times existing job seekers are not willing to give up their existing job which is secure. Moreover the challenge to adjust in new culture and proving their worth is a constant concern. Hence an additional outsourcing partner can clearly communicate about company’s positioning and expectation from current profile

• Workforce Planning 

Currently companies are looking for strategies and operational planning that can bring them back to business and lead to overall growth. Here recruitment partners play a great role where by sharing market insights in respect to talent availability, competitors’ behaviour and candidates’ outlook can greatly help companies in strategizing their current and futuristic hiring demand.

• Creating Affirmative Candidate Experience

Many times company’s hiring team miss out on certain candidate details that impact the overall experience of candidate. Together the internal & outsourcing team define their role and responsibilities and create a positive experience for candidates. 

The overall talent acquisition process of companies are changing. The wave of technology inclusion and demand for diverse resilient manpower has created larger scope for systems that are customizable, innovative, futuristic adaptable and brings out the best available talent.

Speeding Up the Remote Hiring Process

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The world has changed so has recruitment. Today the emphasis are largely being done on artificial and robotic process where a recruiter can multitask and at the same time align the best talent as per the hiring needs of the organization. Not only this, the geographical spread of the talent have enhanced, where global HR consultants have expanded their reachability to diverse candidates.

This also mean a reduction in time and cost to hire & candidate orientation as some of the very basic necessities pertaining to candidates searching, interview coordination and infrastructural requirement have reduced. The concept of remote candidate is not new as companies long before have already validated the benefits of remote working, some of them being:-

• Reduce total candidate hiring and employee seat cost
• Higher retention of employees where early disorientations are not  prevalent 
• Increased productivity where remote employees are not in the cycle of office distractions

Remote hiring has become a new trend and it is here to stay. More and more exploration are being done to integrate remote hiring as an innovative yet normal process of candidate search. Candidates are also on a look out for remote work which easily aligns with their lives. 

Hence in order to make remote hiring successful you need to include simple steps like:-

• A Detailed Job Description: whenever posting a job for remote candidate be explicit in your requirements. Talk about the role that is being offered to the candidate. Outline the job work, position, benefits and growth the candidate will get. Most important highlight how much time commitment is expected from them. 
• Interview Questions Checklist: Since online interviews somewhere creates a restriction of connectivity between recruiter and candidate. Hence it is suggested that the interviewer prepares a detailed list of questions that requires candidate’s thoughts. Also to be more specific video interviews involving a structural process can be used. 
• Removing the Unnecessary: A lot of times potential candidates have to go series of interviews such as preliminary, technical, psychometric, HR and the list is long. Remote hiring has definitely reduced the process. Here the advantage is that multiple stakeholders can assess a candidate on one single go and decide the future prospective.
• Tracking Assets and Resources: when you go ahead with the candidate there are certain assets allocated for remote working. Therefore it is necessary to make list of asset tags and allocation details with usage instructions and resources that can help in managing the resources effectively.

Building Talent Intelligence for Best People Decision

Businesses are on continuous path of growth and the only resource that can guarantee success is people. Therefore organizations are continuously building strategies and resources that can attract and retain the best talent available as per diverse skill sets. Moreover with the evolution of technology in recruitments lot of emphasis have been given on hiring the best fit candidates and recently talent intelligence have become a prime fascia.

If talent intelligence needs to be understood in simple form then it means data science and machine learning of candidates so that the recruiters and companies are able to make better informed people decisions. The wealth of candidate data extracted from technology gives recruiters an upper edge in calculating the fitment and the value addition. Therefore more and more companies are on a lookout for talent intelligence resources. So here we will talk about some of the key features that talent intelligence brings

What Talent Intelligence Do?

It gives data of candidates representing community of existing available talent pool, internal and former employees, passive candidates and candidates present at direct & indirect competitors. 

The data brings a diverse understanding of candidate in respect to functional and general skills, work performance & productivity, employment history, behaviour & cognitive mapping, social media communication, educational qualification and salary benchmarking.

What Companies Have Gained? 

By introducing talent intelligence, companies have been able to select out candidates that are keen and confident to join, identify direct & indirect industries, skills and expertise from which they can source candidates and which candidates can bring a positive wave in the company.

What Else Does Talent Intelligence Do? 

Other than candidate insights talent intelligence is also able to extract details that give further supports to companies and recruiters about their hiring trends and strategies. Some of them are:- 

1. Source and quality of hire: understand the current trends about sourcing and hiring quality candidates. 
2. Labour market and skills gap: analyze whether there is a talent shortage in a specific area or department, and find ways to fill these gaps with qualified talent.
3. Migration reports: map how your competitors are attracting your talent and why your top performing talent are leaving you. 
4. Benefits & salaries comparison: compare how your competitors are giving employers for the same role & profile. Understand what benefits, compensation & rewards system are existing across industries and organizations as yours. 

There is no doubt that talent intelligence has changed the way companies are sourcing and hiring candidates. Beyond this this is helping HR Managers in building strategies that retain the best talent and ensure that the existing talent pool is able to give their best towards the assigned role.

Say Yes to Right Career Transition of Employees

The COVID-19 pandemic brought in a state for companies where they had to take a hard decision of letting go some of their best employees. The situation was a large one where not just sector but diverse industries had to universally take this decision. It created a bad impact on the employees and the culture of the organizations. However to be empathetic towards their employees lot of companies opted for outplacement services.

This proved an opportunity for the companies to realize that the process of hiring does not stop once a candidate is onboard rather a very crucial step is outplacement. Although this service becomes active when companies has to let of their employees but it actually creates a lasting positive environment for both employees and companies.

• Helps in Finding Work: when an employee is undergoing a job loss the most prevalent feeling is of loneliness and failure. This further impacts an employee’s confidence towards futuristic job opportunities. Here this service plays a very important role in respect to guidance and spreading a message that the employee is not alone and finding a job is not one man’s task. 
• Helps in Coping Up: job loss involves a cycle of stress and low behaviour that affects not just the employee but the related families as well. This creates financial as well as mental stability loss to individuals. The series of career guidance discussions, interview practice and resume upgrading workshops and activities helps the employee in coping up with the current crisis and positively look for better life offerings.
• Increases Loyalty: during layoffs no matter how long the association have been a relationship of tension is created. By sourcing a resourceful employee to another company an organization proves that they care for their employees and also they are thankful of what the employee have done all these years. This creates a system of loyalty where the employees are going to become prominent promoters of company’s culture irrespective where they go.
• Improves Branding: it helps in maintaining the public image of the organization and set a case example for others to practice the wellbeing of their layoffs employees. The process can create an opportunity for promoting available talent pool within correct organization so that a step ahead is created within a candidate’s professional career.

Attracting the Right Skills

Employees for future scenario undoubtedly are preferring work from home. The belief to work from is ‘the’ strategy of workplace. Businesses have redesigned their internal policies to offer the best possible work environment for work from home. One such policy that is substantially being redesigned is recruiting the future talent. Placement agencies are being assisting organizations to hire the talent for the future. The recruiting strategy looks like:

• Expanded Approach: With work from home, the talent search is expanded. No longer are restrictions for ‘preferred locations’. Now when both organizations and employees have become virtual the tremendous potential that can be tapped is endless. Recruitment should focus on right skills, desired experience and candidate potentiality.
• Technology Upscale: Recruitment and technology is the future of Human Resource. Shift towards video interviews, psychometric tests to test candidate capabilities, technology based assignments are the tools to lead recruitment actions in the right directions. 
• Gamification: Through gamification, organizations are positioning the intent of a job that is required from a candidate. Games are being used and will be used to test candidates on industry knowledge, product knowledge, and skills like creativity and problem-solving.
• Data Analytics: Data is significant more than ever. Quantifying candidate potential and reviewing it through data algorithms is boosting in the right search. Data analytics is the next big thing in recruitment where more than candidate physical appearance their capabilities are recommended.

9 Questions Which Every Candidate Should Answer

GlobalHunt India Pvt Ltd

In the headhunting process we get in touch with so many candidates that sometimes while interacting we tend to forgot the human essence or value. We are so convinced with the skills that we overlook how the person actually is. So to make sure that you create a balance between the right skills and right fit there is a list of 9 questions which needs to be included in every interview. 

1. What are your beyond work life?

Start with a simple question where you give me an opportunity for the candidate to relax. But also this provides an insight about his or her preferences, hobbies and emotional intelligence that can add creativity and commitment to the work assigned to the candidate.

2. Currently how is the candidate’s industry placed? 

It is very important to understand whether your candidate is well equipped & updated about the industry that he or she is a part. Every industry has its own dynamics and how the candidate can provide insights based on the calculation can prove beneficial to the company. 

3. What have been your greatest professional achievement? 

A candidate always have something to say good about professional achievement because that actually measures why the candidate is best suited for the job. Discuss on what grounds did the candidate achieved the success, what strategies were involved and the time duration involved among others

4. What has been your biggest challenge? 

Every profile has its set of challenges some are common and some are unique. Talk about them as they tell whether the candidate is equipped to handle work stress & pressure and moreover during this time whether the candidate has the ability to provide problem solving solutions. Also with what past experiences the candidate does comes with for the company.

5. What is your strength?

Understand how a candidate describes his or her strength that can add value. Check whether the internal abilities are co-relating with your job requirement and whether the candidate actually holds these strengths or not. 

6. At what point of time did you go wrong?

The questions demands the candidate to be honest. This gives a recruiter the option to validate the genuine level of the candidate. Everybody deals with blunders and taking ownership & discussing these situation reflects the knowledge, acceptability and sincerity of the candidate.

7. What is your opinion about continuing skills development? 

Today’s time is demanding where resilience have become the key skill. Therefore it is essential to map whether the candidate is open for flexibility, adaptability and multi-tasking. Be clear in asking what additional portfolios has the candidate handled or managed.

8. What after 5 years? 

Look where your candidates sees themselves after 5 years. What goals do they hold and what plans do they have to achieve them. Although it is a very general question but this really help in understanding what future plan and commitment plan is the candidate bringing.

9. Do you have any questions?  

It is very important for the candidate to ask relevant questions because this reflects (a) the enthusiasm level of the candidate towards the job & profile (b) how much the candidate is able to relate with the job and (c) how much the candidate is adaptable towards new culture and company.

The Potential of Artificial Intelligence in Performing Human Jobs

The growth rate of data analytics and overtaking human based work by artificial intelligence has not been hidden by anyone. Everyday businesses are evolving with technology to reduce human interventions and inaccuracy rate. Businesses are skilling the AI and RI to perform the most crucial actions.  Artificial Intelligence will surround even more than it does today. Within years to come it will perform and replicate everything which a human is capable of. Machine intelligence processes are built upon data, textures, codified speeches, pictures to make prediction patterns and analytics. 

AI and RI technologies are being used to speed up office backend activities which were mostly done by humans. So how does it evolve the future of human work force. Companies are adopting to labor saving and cross cutting technologies to bring operational efficiency. 

Analytics and predications on customer preferences are making way for better decision making that require intuition, imagination and most importantly compilation of data from different sources. Artificial Intelligence is being used by firms to make decisions where to allocate more resources. But it is still far behind in identifying the real-time problems or issues; this is where human intelligence will dominate the robotic intelligence.  

So we come to the question who is performing the right-brain activities. Is it the humans or the machines? Right-brains activities require intuition and creativity which only humans possess. Humans are required to emphatically think and use information presented by the artificial intelligence. The ability to evaluate the output of AI can be done only through creativity and imagination. Humans can do experiments with AI they may exceed or may fail but they with the support of technology are evolving the information. 

No doubt with AI information humans are able to make decisions and strategy but as humans need machines to improve their operational efficiency. In the same way machines also need human creativity and imagination to improve results.

Employee Engagement Post Lockdown

In the new normal situation, all people are trying to adjust to the current situation with lot of uncertainties around. There are various changing dynamics among the employees during the lockdown situation due to the rapidly changing conditions. The workforce is scattered as most of the people are working from home. Employees are not in close contact with their colleagues which at times might develop a sense of anxiety among them. In their personal social life also, they have limited scope for interaction which is the new social norm. This even affects the mental health of the people.

Anxiety about personal safety and safeguarding the near ones from the attack of the virus are making people worried about their well-being. On top of it, confinement to the homes and continuous fear of job loss or pay-cut are making them anxious about the future. All these changing dynamics are impacting the physical, mental and emotional health of the people.

The onus now lies on the employer and the organization as a whole to help its people face this changing environment and overcome their fear of unknown in order to make them productive. Some of the initiative by which employees can be engaged are:

Adopting Safety Guidelines 

Management needs to ensure that the employees have a sense of security from being exposed to the risk of infection. By adopting proper safety measures the company can provide that confidence among its people who in turn can focus on regular business.

Providing a Cohesive Environment

As most of the people are working from home presently, effective communication plays a pivotal role in this situation. Team members are not in direct contact with their managers or other colleagues. So positive environment and both way communication is essential in running the business successfully.

Maintaining the Work Life Balance

In a time when everyone is juggling their office work along with household chores and home-schooling kids it is essential to help them maintain a proper work life balance. To ensure that managers should not provide extra work pressure or expect team members to be logged into their system the entire day or week as they are working from home.

Prioritizing Health and Wellness

Companies should focus on the well being of its employees more during the time of pandemic. The well being should encompass physical, mental and emotional health of the people. Employees should be provided with right kind of support like medical benefits, insurance coverage to take care of their health issues and the risk of infection.