Fundoo Recruitment Trick #2

Fundoo Recruitment trick #2

(Slice Search)

Suppose, you are working for a client who wants 3-6 yrs candidates and they can offer exp+2 lacs max salary(i:e-3 yrs guy will be offered max 5 lacs).

How do you do such search?


If you put exp 3 to 6 and max sal 6 lacs in your search, along with relevant ones you will also get profiles where a 3 yrs guy is getting 6 lacs salary- which we don't want.

Any other option to get most relevant resumes ?

Well..


Lets divide the whole search into three parts.

•  3-4 yrs (max CTC 4 lacs)
•  4-5 yrs (max CTC 5 lacs)
•  5-6 yrs (max CTC 6 lacs)

Here we divided the whole resume pool into three parts according to experience and CCTC. 1st search will give you candidates wth 3- 4 yrs experience and having max CTC 4 lacs.Their ideal expectation will be around 5-6 lacs, which is justified.

Other searches will also give relevant results.

Nothing new, isn't it ?

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Boolean search explained for recruiters

Boolean search is a very important tool in sourcing from job boards or search engine. Using Boolean search you can filter out irrelevant resume from the resume database and retrieve resumes with required skill sets. It eases our sourcing effort to a great extent.

Boolean search works based on logic.

Here I will try to explain how to use Boolean operators effectively to extract most suitable profiles from resume database.

Here are two cases out of which I will take one and make an effective search string using Boolean operators.You can take the other case or think of a case on your own and try to use Boolean operators for it. This will help you learn it better.

Case 1: We are searching for candidates with core java and multi threading skills and Unix or Linux or Solaris platform experience but he should not have worked in telecom or networking domain.

Case 2: We are looking for sales managers in insurance domain but he should have retail experience not institutional or corporate sales.

Main Boolean operators:

•    AND  is used when we want both skill sets such as X AND Y
•    OR is used when we want any of the available options i.e.: X OR Y OR Z
•     Bracket/parentheses () is used when AND and OR functions are used in same string. i.e.: X AND (Y OR Z). The above search means X is mandatory and either of Y or Z will do.
•    Quotation mark”—“is used when we are looking for exact phrases i.e. “technical architect”. This search will find resumes with exact phrase “technical architect” written in them.
•    NOT- NOT is used when we don’t want a specific word in a resume i.e.: (X AND Y) AND NOT Z.

 (Pic Courtsey: Naukri)

Here, I will take the 1st case:

1)    If we put a search - Corejava AND multithreading, we will find profiles where all these words are mentioned i.e.: all the candidates might have worked on corejava , multithreading .

2)    Now the problem is - there may be many profiles where people would have written corejava as core java and multithreading as multi threading or multi-threading. We don’t want to miss any of them. So how do we accommodate them? Here OR function comes handy. We can change our search string to - (Corejava OR “Core java”) AND (multithreading OR “multi threading” OR “multi-threading”).

3)    But we are looking for people who have worked either unix or linux or solaris platform. So now the string becomes (Corejava OR “core java”) and (multithreading OR “multi threading” OR “multi-threading”) and (unix OR linux OR solaris) .

4)    Now we are looking for people who have worked in core java, multithreading in unix/linux/solaris platform but he should not be from telecom or networking background.

So the search string we can use is (Corejava OR “core java”) AND (multithreading OR “multi threading” OR “multi-threading”) AND (unix OR linux OR solaris) AND NOT (telecom OR networking).

Now this is a strong Boolean search string which covers all the aspects of the case. Here the results will be lesser in number yet most relevant - exactly what we want.

As I told you earlier, only reading will not do. Take an example and try using the Boolean operators one by one. Look at the results and analyze them. You will find out the pattern very soon.

Some recommendations:
•    When ever searching for any skill try to put all the alternatives a candidate could have used to mention that skills set i.e. (multithreading OR “multi threading” OR “multi threading”). This will make your search more robust.

•    Use NOT operator carefully.  For example: You have mentioned NOT X where you don’t want people who have worked on X skill. Here the search will remove every resume where X is mentioned even once . As a result you may miss some people who have worked in your required skill sets and casually written X once or twice somewhere in there resumes. So before putting NOT operator, think of all the outcomes.



Boolean operators are not as complicated as they are thought to be. After all you have to learn only 5 operators. Remember how many formulas we used to practice in math class in school!

Portal or internal database have huge number of resume of all skill sets. So the key lies in finding the right resume quickly. Strong Boolean skill will help you achieve that.

I have tried to explain how to use Boolean logic in recruitment sourcing as simply as possible. Still if you have any doubt or you think I have missed something, please inform me in comment section or through mail.

Note: I have written Boolean operators in capital letter. But in most job boards you can use small letters also.

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How to organise a recruitment drive (Part 2)

Contd from....Here

On the day of drive:

• Reach the venue at least 1 hour before the starting time. This will give you necessary time to make arrangements.
• If a written test is planned then arrange a long room with sufficient chairs.
• Arrange sufficient chairs in waiting room.
• Arrange enough candidate information forms and interviewer feedback forms.
• Arrange rooms for the interviews to be conducted.
• Have a small talk with the panel members about the hiring plan.
• Discus with the hiring manager and decide on the average duration of an interview. Convey it to panel members. If interviews stretch for very long time, it may be difficult to finish the process for all the candidates.

Once candidates start coming in :

• As candidates come, give them information form to fill. Mention the time of candidate’s arrival so that you can send them for interview serially.
• Immediately start interview process.
• Don’t make candidate’s wait for very long time. At the same time don’t let interviewers sit idly. Once a candidate’s interview is finished, take his feedback and send another candidate. If a candidate is rejected, don’t make them wait. Rather inform them about the feedback politely and send them back.
• Keep proper records (candidate name, interview feedback, panel member name etc) of the process in either excel sheet or any other paper.
• Arrange second round of interview for 1st round shortlisted candidates. And if he clears the final technical rounds try to arrange HR rounds also. If you can finish the whole process in the same day it is good for both the sides. Candidate need not come again and you need not bother to schedule him for HR round again.
• Look at the candidate turn out ratio and if necessary change your plan accordingly.

(Sample record sheet. Can be modified according to need)

Some difficult situations and how to handle them:

•  Low turn out ratio:

Suppose candidate turn out ratio is very less ie: you have scheduled 100 candidates and only 30 have turned up and hiring manager is really angry.
What to do:
Call all the consultants who have done sourcing and ask them to follow up the candidates again and push candidates to come for interview. Then go to the hiring manager, apologize to him for inconvenience caused and inform about the steps you are taking. It will help to cool him down.

• Appearance of uncalled candidates:

Sometimes candidates hear about some recruitment drive from their friends and just show up with their resume. Here either you can ask them to leave as they were not scheduled or let them sit for interview.
My suggestion is: take their resume and show it to the panel members. If they find the resume to be suitable, let them sit for interview.

 

Parameters to measure the success of recruitment drive:

• Turn out ratio: The ratio of candidates scheduled versus candidates turned up should be good. Generally 70-80% turn out ratio can be termed as good.
• Offers: Number of offers will definitely be criteria for success of any recruitment event.
• Smooth proceedings: How well organized the drive was? Did candidates have to wait for very long time? Did you goof up any time?

 

Well, this is the whole recruitment drive process explained.Simple! isn't it ? :)

Plan properly, maintain a calm demeanor and act diligently. Drive will surely be a success.

How to organise a recruitment drive (Part 1)

How to organize a recruitment drive

What is a recruitment drive?

Generally recruitment drives (or events) are conducted when the requirement is generic but critical and number of positions is more. Here on a predetermined day ideally 50-60 candidates turn up for interview and 4-5 panel members keep taking interviews of candidates all along the day. Number of panel members varies according to number of candidates. Mostly recruitment drives are conducted on weekends as candidates have off that day.

Recruitment drives can be of two types:

Walk -ins : In case of walk-ins, an advertisement regarding the drive  is published  on news paper or job boards. Any candidate with suitable education and skill set can attend the interview. Mostly it is done for 0-2 yrs candidates.

Scheduled interview: In case of a scheduled interview large numbers of candidates are scheduled by consultants or company to come on the same day for same requirement. In this case their profiles are already seen and shortlisted by the technical people.

Preparation:
In case of scheduled interview, please ensure that all the candidates get the mail with Interview venue, timing, contact person detail and Job description.
Also candidates should be called a day before for conformation and if possible consultants should do follow up calls also.
Also ensure that all interviewers are informed about the timing and requirement properly.
Discuss the process of interview (number of rounds, written test) with the hiring manager.

Continued here..

Don’t look for best talent in the market!

The title is a little surprising.. Right!

Well let me explain.

Talent is a very over-hyped and misinterpreted word in recruitment industry.

What is the measurement of best talent?

Is hiring only about finding the most skillful candidate for the job?

Finding the best available candidate for specific skill set and sending for interview is not end of a recruiter’s job. Chances are also high that he will clear all the rounds. But what are the chances that he will join the organization?

If he is the best talent available in the market, then probably he should have offers from other organization also- after all good professionals are always in demand. What is the budget of your client? Best candidate will obviously not come cheap. He might bargain for money after being offered. Can your client pay best salary in the market to retain him for long time? Even he will be lured by competitors time and again. Will your client afford losing him in between the project? How crucial his role will be in the project?

Well, there are many more factors than skill and money that will decide if the candidate will join or not!

A recruitment consultant’s job is expectation management- expectation of many parties.

• A candidate wants good working environment, best salary in the market and scope to learn.
• Technical manager wants best talent in the market with relevant work experience and quick learning ability.
• Hiring manager wants cost of resource as low as possible and want the candidate to join before the project starts.
• HR people check his personality ,his background, previous working history. They will also evaluate if he will be a cultural fit into the company.

All of them have their priorities and a candidate can join an organization only if all of them are reasonably satisfied.To be a successful consultant one has to look at the bigger picture. Each candidate you send should match with the broader hiring strategy etched out by client, at the same time your client should be matching to his idea of an ideal employer.

Checks for the recruiter:

• Never send a candidate whose expectation is more than what client can offer. Even if his profile is processed and he clears the interview, chances are very high that he will not join due to salary issues.
• Get as much information about your client, its culture, working environment as possible. When talking to a candidate try to juxtapose it with the candidate’s current working environments. Try to access whether the candidate will find comfortable working environment in your client.One small example to make the point  clearer : Working environment is starts ups and in bigger established companies is totally different. Work process in start ups is more casual and spontaneous, where as bigger and established companies follow a lot of process. A candidate from start up background may find the changes suffocating.
• Try to check how flexible the candidate is.
• Try to find out what the candidate thinks of your client, what is his motivation to join your client.
  

Always remember - sending an unsuitable candidate to a client and finally his not joining is wastage of time for client, candidate and recruiter. So respect their time and you will get respect and success in return.

The whole point of this post is: don’t look for the most talented candidate in the market- rather search for the most suitable one who will join your client happily, stay there for good amount of time and do his job  properly.That will generate revenue and admiration for you.

The sooner we understand the difference between the two the better for us.

How to write a good Job description(JD)

How to write a good Job description(JD)

or

Characteristics of a good JD

Whenever there is an open position or a requirement is identified in a company, 1st thing technical people have to do is to understand the requirement properly and make a  job description(JD). Job description becomes all the more important because it is used by recruiters as a reference point while sourcing. Again JD is sent to candidates , so that they can understand the requirement properly. a good JD can play a crucial role in closing a position quickly.

So, What should be the components of an ideal JD?

1) Designation: Designation he is going to get eg: Software Engineer/ Marketing executive/ Business analyst etc.

2)  Experience range: How many years of total experience and how many years of relevant experience the job requires? eg: 3-6 yrs

3)  Educational qualification: BE,MBA(according to the requirement)

4)  Reporting to : Position of the person whom the candidate is going to report after joining.

5)  Required Skills: Mandatory and desired : Every requirement needs some mandatory skills. Other than this there are some good-to-have skills which if possessed give a candidate edge over other candidates but that is not mandatory. So in JD mandatory and desired skills should be mentioned separately.

          

6)  Roles and responsibilities: Here we have to mention the kind of role he is expected to perform in the current job.

7)  Working environment: Some requirements demand shift work. In such cases it should be made explicitly clear in the JD so that it doesn't create any confusion in future.

So these are the basic components of a good JD.

Many times technical people are not in sync with the talent availability in the market. Suppose they are looking for combination of some specific skills, but there are extremely few profiles with such skills in market. In such cases in stead of searching for something unrealistic, I suggest you to  go back to the technical panel and inform them about the market trends and availabilities. Most of the times after getting understanding of the market availability technical panel give a more feasible list of skill sets. But before approaching panel , please have a detailed look at the market.

I hope the information is helpful to you.

Happy recruiting!

How to do sourcing for volume requirements (part-2)

Contd from here...

Sourcing approach for volume requirements:

-    Understand the JD- This is the 1st step in any requirement. Only here you don’t have much time. By the time you do a research about the technologies mentioned, strings of resumes would have started flowing into the client’s inbox. So understand the JD really fast. If you haven’t worked on such requirement earlier ask and get clarification from some colleague who has worked on it.

-    Use of Technology- Use different tools like mass mailing and job posting on job boards, social networking sites. 
             # These will help a lot because by the time you are doing manual candidate finding from different sources, you will also get responses from interested candidates who have received your mass mail or job post. This will ease your  pressure. 
             #  Again there is a limit to the number of candidates you can talk. But mass mail and job posting has wider reach.
            #  Another advantage is,  if you talk to a candidate and he has already seen your mail or post, it wont take much time to explain the req to him.
            #  When you put a search, you put it for max 3 months, but you can do a mass mail for 1 yr to 2 yrs. This way you can reach the candidates otherwise unreachable. Again given the average time a candidate sticks to a company now a days, you actually have real  chances of getting some good responses.

-    Fast and furious sourcing – After the entire pre sourcing work jump into the sources of resumes like job boards, own database etc. Put a good search and start calling candidates. Act fast and send good resume in large numbers. Here proper utilization of time is very important as other consultants are also working on the same req simultaneously. Don’t waste much time. If you feel you are not getting much good profiles , change the search. In such requirements initial days are very important, as you won’t get many duplicates in that time. Later with more effort, you will get less result. So you know which time is best to put your best effort!

-    Reference – When you talk to a candidate don’t forget to send a corresponding mail immediately. For this you can make a template mail earlier. Many candidates forward requisition mails to their needy friends who in turn reply to the consultant. Always ask the candidate for reference. Anyhow you are already talking to the candidate, right. It will take 10 more seconds and can give you some good resumes. Not bad deal actually.

-    Scheduling and follow up- Remember you don’t get paid for the amount of resume you send, rather for the number offers you make. So your job doesn’t end once you send the resume. You have to schedule all the shortlisted candidates and send confirmation mail and follow up with them through phone or SMS before the interviews. The more the turn out ratio, the more are the chances of offers!

-    Joining- Similar to other reqs you have to follow up with the candidate through out the offer release phase to joining stage.

Volume reqs are definitely demanding, but when you make 4 offers in one day, it all seems sweet!

How to do sourcing for volume requirements (part-1)

By volume requirements I mean when the client has large number of openings for similar skill set.

Here generally the skills are generic, no of positions more , client wants to close it ASAP and in process they pass the requirement to many consultants thus creating more competition. Most of the times clients organize weekend drives to close such positions, where large number of shortlisted candidates come in a specific day and attended all rounds of interviews there.

E.g.:                     Required- Software engineer for a service-based company

                           Exp: 3-5

                           Skills: Java, J2ee

                           Number of position: 10

As Java, J2ee is a widely used programming language and projects are more or less similar in all service-based companies, finding candidate for this requirement will not be that difficult. Just put a simple search for java, J2ee, 3-5 yrs in any job board and you will get plenty of similar resumes.

Challenges in volume requirements:

Volume- As the number of positions are more, client expects us to send more profiles. More decent profiles mean more short listings, which in turn means more scheduling and more follow ups!

Time – As it is open to other consultants you don’t have more time to understand the JD. You have to act quickly.

Duplicity – More or less, all the consultants are dependent on Job boards for resumes for such reqs. So as the source is same for all, same candidate is likely to get calls from many consultants. If the candidate doesn’t inform you that his profile has already been processed and you also process it - It will come as a duplicate for you. And it is a waste of time and effort. Duplicity is a major issue in such kind of requirements. Two minutes delay to process a resume can cause a duplicate.

Competition – More number of vendors means increased competition.

Note--In the next post we will discuss about how to approach such positions.

Recruitment Process Explained

Recruitment process explained(from a third party consultant point of view):

1. Requirement gathering
2. Receive the JD
3. Sourcing and sending the resume
4. HR screening
5. Technical screening
6. 1st and 2nd level interview
7. HR round
8. Offer
9. Joining

1. Requirement gathering:

In this phase managers talk to the client hiring managers and gather requirement, i.e, no of open position, basic skill sets , target date of closure etc.

2. Receive the JD:

Here recruiter gets Job Description(here after JD) from the client. The JD explains roles and responsibilities, required skill sets, experience range etc. Before sourcing thorough understanding of the JD is required. If recruiter has any doubt he should contact the client and get clarity.

3. Sourcing:

Sourcing here means finding suitable resume from different sources and talk to the candidates and open them for the requirement.For a recruiter sourcing is a very integral part of their job. Sources of resume can be job portals, database, own network, reference from other candidates, social and professional networking sites etc. Then recruiter has to talk to the candidate, explain them about the requirement properly and tell them why they think his profile can be fitting for the position. If they are looking out, they are interested for the position and their salary expectation is matching to the client benchmark recruiters share there profile with the client.

4.HR screening:

Generally in most of the companies before going to the technical panel the resume goes through the HR coordinators. They screen the resume as per the filters given to them. Whichever resume they find suitable, they send them to technical panel for further screening.

5.Technical screening:

After passing through the HR , resume comes to the technical panel. They also screen the resume to verify if the resume is fitting as per skills required.

6. 1st and 2nd level interview:

All the technical screening shortlisted resume are scheduled for technical interview. It can be telephonic or Face-to-Face according to convenience of both parties. Generally there are two technical interviews. Here technical panel talks to the candidate and try to gaze out the knowledge level of the candidate on required skill sets and if he can fit into scheme of things in the project.

7. HR round:

Once the candidate clears the technical round he faces HR round. Here candidate and HR have salary negotiations, discuss about the notice period and joining date. Again HR checks the candidate on personality front and try to find out if the candidate can be a cultural fit to the organisation.

8. Offer:

If every thing falls into place, candidate is offered by the client. The send a proposed offer letter containing new CTC(cost to company). If candidate accepts the offer then he is officially offered.

Then HR collects different required documents like previous company offer letter, educational certificate copies etc from the candidate. They also do the background verification of the candidate.

9. Joining:

In the mean while the candidate resigns from his company and after serving the notice period joins the new company.

Note:

# Although the above explanation talks about technical requirements , process is more or less same in other types also.

# It was a brief explanation about different aspects of recruitment process and in further posts I will discuss about them in detail.

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