What can you do if you’re not getting candidates who are highly qualified for the positions you need? With unemployment continuing to reach historic lows, it can be tough to find the right people for the right jobs, so you face stiff competitive for high-level candidates.
If you’re struggling to find qualified applicants in Reno and across northern Nevada, The Applied Companies’ staffing team can help you build a comprehensive solution. What strategic steps can you take to attract quality candidates to your job openings?
1. Write Targeted Job Descriptions
Hiring high-quality employees starts with giving them the right information. First, the job descriptions need to attract the right candidates. To do that, they must have a clear sense of the job requirements and the capabilities and skills needed to excel. If your job descriptions are vague and unexciting, you may be inadvertently pushing away top candidates or attracting candidates who can’t do the job you need.
An excellent job description will give a vivid sense of day-to-day work within the company, helping to get the attention of the people who will make a great fit in that culture. Give candidates a great sense of the job and the organization they will be joining, and you’ll be on your way to having the right candidates applying.
2. Provide Competitive Pay and Benefits
Among the very first thing candidates will be looking for from a new position: competitive pay and benefits. If you don’t offer salaries that at least match what similar companies in the area pay, you’re highly unlikely to attract top performers, especially with the current hot job market. If you aren’t aware of what competitors’ pay scales are, a staffing firm can help provide that information.
Benefits such as paid time off, health insurance and family leave are incredibly important to employees. You need to at least match what competing firms pay.
3. Increase the Distribution of Your Job Postings
What do you do if your job descriptions are clear and your salary and benefits are competitive, but high-quality candidates still aren’t appearing? Perhaps your jobs aren’t listed where your ideal candidates are looking. You need to increase the reach and distribution of your job postings.
Whether it’s social media, a job board or somewhere in your local community, the more places you have your jobs advertised, the more likely it is your top candidates will find them.
4. Target Passive Candidates
Top-notch performers are often happily employed. If you’re looking to attract them, they simply may not be looking. As a result, you need to recruit passive candidates – those who aren’t job-seeking, but content where they are.
Actively monitoring social media sites like LinkedIn for people with the skills and experience you’re looking for is one way to drive direct conversations with passive candidates. If you can offer a better position than the one they’re currently in, you may be able to land a best-fit candidate for your open position.
5. Work with a Staffing Company to Connect With Diverse Talent Pools
Staffing companies use a variety of strategies to attract high quality job candidates. They are great networks of talent pools in diverse niches and industries. They can search for passive candidates and tap into their networks to upgrade the candidates you’re seeing.
Working with a staffing team like The Applied Companies is a great way to find great candidates in northern Nevada! Contact us today to get started.
What Can You Be Doing to Attract Higher Quality Candidates?
/in Hiring Advice /by The Applied CompaniesWhat can you do if you’re not getting candidates who are highly qualified for the positions you need? With unemployment continuing to reach historic lows, it can be tough to find the right people for the right jobs, so you face stiff competitive for high-level candidates.
If you’re struggling to find qualified applicants in Reno and across northern Nevada, The Applied Companies’ staffing team can help you build a comprehensive solution. What strategic steps can you take to attract quality candidates to your job openings?
1. Write Targeted Job Descriptions
Hiring high-quality employees starts with giving them the right information. First, the job descriptions need to attract the right candidates. To do that, they must have a clear sense of the job requirements and the capabilities and skills needed to excel. If your job descriptions are vague and unexciting, you may be inadvertently pushing away top candidates or attracting candidates who can’t do the job you need.
An excellent job description will give a vivid sense of day-to-day work within the company, helping to get the attention of the people who will make a great fit in that culture. Give candidates a great sense of the job and the organization they will be joining, and you’ll be on your way to having the right candidates applying.
2. Provide Competitive Pay and Benefits
Among the very first thing candidates will be looking for from a new position: competitive pay and benefits. If you don’t offer salaries that at least match what similar companies in the area pay, you’re highly unlikely to attract top performers, especially with the current hot job market. If you aren’t aware of what competitors’ pay scales are, a staffing firm can help provide that information.
Benefits such as paid time off, health insurance and family leave are incredibly important to employees. You need to at least match what competing firms pay.
3. Increase the Distribution of Your Job Postings
What do you do if your job descriptions are clear and your salary and benefits are competitive, but high-quality candidates still aren’t appearing? Perhaps your jobs aren’t listed where your ideal candidates are looking. You need to increase the reach and distribution of your job postings.
Whether it’s social media, a job board or somewhere in your local community, the more places you have your jobs advertised, the more likely it is your top candidates will find them.
4. Target Passive Candidates
Top-notch performers are often happily employed. If you’re looking to attract them, they simply may not be looking. As a result, you need to recruit passive candidates – those who aren’t job-seeking, but content where they are.
Actively monitoring social media sites like LinkedIn for people with the skills and experience you’re looking for is one way to drive direct conversations with passive candidates. If you can offer a better position than the one they’re currently in, you may be able to land a best-fit candidate for your open position.
5. Work with a Staffing Company to Connect With Diverse Talent Pools
Staffing companies use a variety of strategies to attract high quality job candidates. They are great networks of talent pools in diverse niches and industries. They can search for passive candidates and tap into their networks to upgrade the candidates you’re seeing.
Working with a staffing team like The Applied Companies is a great way to find great candidates in northern Nevada! Contact us today to get started.
Check Out These Holiday Activities for the Whole Family in Nevada!
/in News /by The Applied CompaniesThe winter holidays are a great time to check out activities for the whole family. Nevada is full of special wintertime fun for all ages and all interests. Here are seven of our team’s top holiday activities around the Reno area and across northern Nevada!
1. Ice Skating Rink at Greater Nevada Field
Greater Nevada Field is the home of the Reno Aces, but shortly before Thanksgiving, it transforms into a winter wonderland, with a state-of-the-art ice-skating rink through the New Year. It’s at 250 Evans Avenue. Check out the website for times and special holiday-themed events during the season.
2. Watch the Nutcracker
The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts will be presenting the holiday classic ballet The Nutcracker from December 7 to December 9. See the toys come to life and dance in a delight for all the family.
3. Hidden Valley Parade of Lights
Few things create memories like seeing the holiday lights on neighboring lawns and communities. The Hidden Valley Homeowners’ Association’s annual Parade of Lights begins on December 7 and will be active through New Year’s Eve. Homeowners will have their lights on from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. every night. Load up the family and drive to the lights!
4. Christmas on the Comstock
The former mining town of Virginia City relives the old days with a Victorian-themed holiday festival that lasts throughout the month of December. Check out the Grinch Made Me Do It Saloon Crawl, featuring specialty holiday drinks at participating saloons. Cap off the evening with the annual Comstock Cowboys Christmas in the Sierra concert at Piper’s Opera House.
5. 39 North Pole Village in Sparks
The weekend of December 6-8 will also see a Victorian themed celebration, with 39 North Pole. This North Pole will feature Santa, reindeer, and handbell concerts, along with food and crafts for three days of winter fun. The whole family can also take a free fire engine ride on Engine 39.
6. Christmas in Genoa
The town of Genoa puts on a holiday celebration. Check out their breakfast with Santa, carol singing, and tree lighting. Toys for Tots and a cowboy concert are also on the calendar.
7. Reno Wind Symphony: Holiday Celebration
On Sunday, December 17, at 3 p.m., the Reno Wind Symphony will celebration the holidays with a concert full of holiday favorites, including a recital of “The Night Before Christmas” and “The Grinch that Stole Christmas.” The concert takes place at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Nightingale Concert Hall.
The whole team at The Applied Companies loves taking part in holiday events throughout the Reno area and across northern Nevada! If you are looking for a new job or need help hiring new employees during the holiday season, contact us today.
What Do We Do at TAC?
/in Blog Posts /by Celeste JohnsonBy Marketing Coordinator, Candice Vialpando
When is it Time to Outsource Recruiting?
/in Blog Posts /by Celeste JohnsonBy Marketing Coordinator, Candice Vialpando
Why outsource your recruiting needs?
According to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management the average cost of hiring a new employee is $4,129. The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California at Berkeley reported the average cost for managerial and professional employees could run as high as $7,000. Additionally, Dun and Bradstreet’s Business Research states that employers pay as much as 150% of an employee’s salary to replace a management position.
A priority for business owners is to keep up with sales leads and consumer needs. If a business owner needs more manpower to fulfill this need and doesn’t want to spend a ton of money, they should look at outsourcing.
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Fighting Harassment and Improving Inclusion in the Workplace
/in RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
Why do the female inspired #MeToo and its male led counterpart #AskMoreOfHim movements keep making headlines? It is not big brazen things in the news that shock today. Those (sickly) are expected. Instead, they are the micro incidences that have chipped away at the patience level of the people who have had negative experiences. The prevalence and acceptance of harassment and lack of uniformity has insidiously eaten away at people’s confidence, patience and dignity like a flesh-eating disease. We cannot simply run to the urgent care and get “anti-biotics” to treat this. Awareness and education play a part in helping to manage the risk of this “illness” spreading any further.
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Merging Your Company’s Online and Offline Customer Experience
/in RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
Your customers are everywhere. You can’t be everywhere (until we get this cloning just right), but you can be everywhere your customers are. How many “places” did you visit today? Physical bricks and mortar location? Online store? Social media? Database aggregator? An app? Did these “locations” all represent multiple, unrelated companies? Or one company in each location? This is where it gets tricky to manage, especially from an HR and recruiting perspective. Why? Customers, including prospective employees, have more choices than ever when it comes to how they want to get information on a product, service or new employer.
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XYZ PDQ for Generational Workplace Cohesion
/in RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
If those letters put a sinking feeling in your stomach, you probably had a kid tell you “XYZ PDQ” on the grade school playground. “Examine Your Zipper Pretty Darn Quick” meant your zipper was down. Upon its utterance, you probably did some quick damage control action like a quick zip up, during which you developed a flush red face and then quickly switched to prevention though a mental process along the lines of, “How did I miss that?” or, “How can I prevent that next time?”
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Enough with the Millennials Already – Gen Z to the Rescue
/in Blog Posts, RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
Millennials are no longer the newbies. As HR experts, we are “over” over-analyzing this generation. We’re also tired of everyone blaming them for whatever ails us at the moment. It’s time to press the refresh button.
Welcome Generation Z! This generation is the largest on the planet, numbering 72 million and counting. Ages 25 and younger, they represent 25.9 percent of the population and by 2020 they will account for one-third. Every generation looks down their noses at the young upstarts. In order to succeed together we want to change this.
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Success Insurance
/in Blog Posts, RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
As a business owner, how do you ensure (and insure) your business will work and be successful? Put your risk management hat on. Identify each risk and decide what to do about each. There are four main strategies: avoid it, reduce it, transfer it and/or accept it. Buying commercial business insurance is obvious. The tricky part is how to ensure that your business decisions are the right ones. Start working on your business versus in it.
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Your Work is Honorable so Sell Yourself
/in RGJ Articles, /by Jim AnnisBy CEO Jim Annis
This article speaks to you – the student – who may be facing the philosophical duel that society has been fighting for a while now. Which is more important? Education or experience? In my mind, there is no clear winner. It is akin to, “which came first? The chicken or the egg?” So as a student or recent graduate, how do you avoid getting sucked into the debate all together and best position yourself when applying for a job or an internship?
All professions and all kinds of work, assuming they are legal and ethical, are honorable in my eyes. Work has many definitions. In terms of a career, it can be, “mental or physical activity as a means of earning income.” However, I would urge you to use the broader definition, “involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.”
I am sure if you have chosen to be a secondary education student you have worked in a meaningful way, can meet deadlines and have at minimum a glimmer of ambition that an employer like me can appreciate. First, you need to acknowledge all that you have done and account for it. Begin a table/list of all the “work” you do or have done that might be transferrable to a job. Start with your studies: group projects (time management, leadership, results); internships (technical skills mastered, essential knowledge gained, network building/mentors and contacts); Greek leadership (civic engagement, wellness/safety training, risk management, diversity and inclusion, accounting/finance, awards achieved); and then work in your general work ethic, tenacity, presentation skills and specific technical abilities.
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