Talent Insider
Monday, March 1, 2021
In This Issue
Meet Orion Talent’s 50,000th Military Hire, Mason Graham
What is Talent Acquisition and How Can You Improve Your Process?
On-Demand Virtual Hiring Events Through Orion Talent
Join our LinkedIn Group - Talent Insider with Orion Talent
WATCH THE VIDEO - Build a More Diverse Candidate Pipeline with Military Talent | An Orion Talent Webinar
On January 14, Orion Talent and Hirepurpose hosted our second virtual summit, Build a More Diverse Candidate Pipeline with Military Talent, featuring David Lee, Director of Military Community Initiatives of CVS, M.K. Palmore, VP Field Chief Security Officer (Americas) of Palo Alto Networks, and Christianna Casanave, Director of National Accounts and Talent Programs at Orion Talent. Moderated by Hirepurpose Co-Founder Steve Amsden, the hour-long webinar featured the panelists’ proven diversity recruitment strategies.
While 2020 was a year that cemented diversity challenges in the minds of many business leaders, 2021 brings an opportunity to build workforce programs and pipelines that can better meet diversity, inclusion, and equity ambitions. To increase diversity from the start—at the recruitment and hiring level—businesses need to rethink their talent sources, including the U.S. military.
Our panelists discussed how their companies and clients have approached recruiting from this diverse hiring pool. Topics included:
- How to expand and diversify your candidate pools via veteran and military talent;
- How will diversity recruitment look different in 2021 than in other years;
- Case studies, including lessons learned; and
- many others
David, M.K., and Chris presented powerful insight into how to transform the recruiting and talent lessons of 2020 into tomorrow's workforce successes. Ultimately, diversity, inclusion, equality should be a priority in your talent acquisition process. This requires C-suite buy-in and should be baked into your metrics.
Watch the video.
Check out the full free webinar here to learn how talent acquisition leaders can diversify their candidate pools via veteran and military talent recruitment. And visit Orion Talent online to learn more about our Military Talent Solutions.
Meet Orion Talent’s 50,000th Military Hire, Mason Graham
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Orion Talent recently announced our 50,000 veteran hire, Mason Graham, and we want you to get to know his story a little better. From the football field to the battlefield to a brand new career field, all while COVID upends life, Mason’s transition from military to civilian is definitely worth celebrating.
Mason’s Military-to-Civilian Transition Experience
Transitioning from the USMC during the COVID pandemic presented unique challenges for Mason Graham, an Infantry Captain and former Navy Outside Linebacker. Both his networking opportunities, as well as previously available positions, were negatively affected.
“Many companies that I originally contacted were on a hiring freeze due to the uncertainty of their future business projections. Networking wise, many of the conferences and programs that I had signed up for either got canceled or went virtual. I pivoted to searching for direct placement opportunities,” explains Mason.
Additionally, Mason found it hard to select a clear direction for his civilian career. And, until he nailed down a specific job industry, it was hard to network effectively. Instead, he decided to focus on his leadership and people skills garnered in the military.
He explains that the military made him comfortable speaking in front of people, which made in-person interviews more natural for him. He also had eight years of experience leading small and large teams. His experience as a platoon commander and company commander taught him how to deal with a myriad of different types of people all with different jobs and bring them together to accomplish a common goal. Mason knew that this experience was valuable, as, outside of the military, it is hard to have the same leadership experience early on in your career.
Finding the Right Civilian Career
With this in mind, Mason began casting a very wide net into many different types of careers. With a few months remaining until he separated from the Marine Corps, Mason was deep in the interview process with several different companies. “I had narrowed it down to jobs within the medical tech industry and strategic consulting,” he recalls, “As I mentioned earlier, COVID-19 restricted the number of conferences that were available which meant most of my targeting was to specific companies.” It was at this point in October 2020 that Orion Talent connected him with a career with Abiomed, a leader within the medical tech industry.
Abiomed represented the right company culture and the opportunity for Mason to develop a passion for his product. “The motto of the company is ‘Patients First’ which correlates very well with the mentality within the military of ‘Mission Accomplishment’. I am currently selected to attend Abiomed's Military Officer Training Program, which will include a year of training to prepare me for the role of Cardiology Account Manager,” says Mason. He uses his leadership experience in his work at Abiomed on a daily basis.
Advice for Veterans
For Mason, networking is integral to a successful military transition. He suggests his colleagues get comfortable networking and start doing so as early as possible. He also advises that transitioning service members talk to as many veterans that have transitioned as possible to learn from their first-hand experiences.
Mason also shared another piece of advice - do not rest on your accomplishments. “Your new career does not care about your past accomplishments as much as how your military experience will help their company be more successful. Keep that in the back of your mind when you are the new person in your job,” he explains.
And finally, Mason emphasizes the importance of tailoring a resume to the career you want and not the jobs you’ve had, dropping military jargon. This will help non-military hiring managers understand how your skills will correlate with their job role.
Advice for Hiring Managers
When it comes to advice for hiring managers, Mason advises that they ask questions that help learn more about the candidate’s role within the military and how that experience will correlate to the specific civilian role. Also, he says, understand that it is not natural for military members to network or interview, so when talking about their accomplishments within the military, they may be downgrading their pedigree. “Veterans are team players. This is instilled in them through their training, and it will pay dividends to their employers,” concludes Mason.
Celebrating 50,000 Military Hires
We are proud to spotlight Mason as our 50,000th Military Hire. He is a wonderful example for other transitioning veterans, especially in these unique times. Thanks to Mason for letting us help with his military-to-civilian career search.
What is Talent Acquisition and How Can You Improve Your Process?
What is talent acquisition?
Talent acquisition is the ongoing process of identifying, acquiring, assessing, and hiring employees. Talent Acquisition involves recruiters, sourcers, Human Resources, and hiring managers.
Why is talent acquisition so important nowadays?
A company is no more successful than the people it employs. High quality talent is hard to come by and even harder to keep. This is especially true in a world where people no longer prize longevity at a company and have thousands of job listings available to them at all times.
Talent Acquisition vs. Recruiting: What’s the Difference?
Talent Acquisition has evolved from posting a job ad, interviewing whoever applies, and then hiring them. And although many people conflate the two terms, Talent Acquisition and Recruiting are two different things. Talent Acquisition is a process, only a part of which is Recruiting. It starts from the moment you decide where to look for talent continues through the attraction and assessment of those candidates, through to onboarding.
The Talent Acquisition Process
Talent Acquisition is not a one-time event that should be set up as a structured process with a predictable flow. There are six steps that should be part of every Talent Acquisition strategy, which include Lead Generation, Recruiting, Interviewing, References, Final Decision, and Hiring.
Sourcing and Lead Generation
Sourcing is part of the talent acquisition process and precedes recruiting. It is the important step of searching for and identifying candidates. The key to sourcing is knowing what your ideal candidate looks like and then casting your net where that candidate will be. You also shouldn’t forget candidates you previously considered for other positions. Maybe they are right for the new job that opened.
These types of candidates, combined with passive or those who can’t relocate and employee referrals, are an excellent way to fill your talent pipeline. You should also add candidates that you want to keep on file for future openings.
It is important to quantify Sourcing through a Source of Hire metric. Tracking SOH will help a company decide where to allocate their recruiting budget while also improving candidate quality. You can track SOH through your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), surveys, or web analytics.
Lead generation is the Talent Acquisition process in which you attract candidates to your company through compelling content or events. Events may include job fairs or career preparation sessions. Content could include blogs, newsletters, industry partnerships, social media content, free career resources, online networks, webinars, and even surveys.
Leveraging intelligent Sourcing and Leads Generation provides a team with a larger pool of talent from which to recruit and is shown to improve important talent metrics like Time-to-Fill, Cost-per-hire, and Quality of Hire, among others.
Recruiting and Attracting
A company’s Employer Brand factors heavily into this step of the Talent Acquisition process. In order to entice the candidates you gathered during lead generation, you need to have a culture, mission, pay package, candidate experience, and brand that can seal the deal. Employers need to paint a picture of what it is like to work for their organization. Job seekers are savvy and employer branding can differentiate your company when it is hard to find top talent. You can read more about improving your Employer Brand here.
Interviewing and Assessing
Talent Acquisition professionals need to be strategic in planning their interview and assessment process. Interview questions should provide answers that reveal a candidate’s problem solving and logical thinking skills, resourcefulness, and ability to think on their feet. Other assessments include skill, cognitive, and personality evaluations.
If you find yourself needing to conduct virtual interviews, check out this article that provides an in-depth look at the advantages of virtual interviews and how they can lead to successful job offers.
Candidate Experience also plays an important part in Interviewing and Assessing candidates. It is important to keep the recruiting process moving so as not to turn off star candidates, even when it needs to be virtual.
Keep these four tips in mind if you need to create a virtual framework for this step in the hiring cycle:
Communicate Openly and Clearly
Clearly inform candidates about each stage of the interview process they are in and what to expect next.
Emphasize Employer Brand Throughout the Process
Ensure that your Employer Brand is conveyed by all interviewers throughout the hiring process.
Be Empathetic
It is important to be compassionate during the virtual hiring process.
Get Creative
Reconsider parts of the process that are always in person. Read more about these tips here.
Checking References
Often unsatisfying, speaking to the right person for references is important to gaining valuable background on your candidate. Your goal should always be to speak to a candidate’s prior manager and not Human Resources. HR will often only provide job title, dates of employment, and salary, but you need more qualitative information.
Often completed by Human Resources, Hiring Managers should be the ones to make the call unless an RPO firm is involved. RPO experts can take this step off of your hands and conduct the checks while acting on your behalf.
No matter who is doing the checking, this step should always be taken once a company has decided to extend an offer, so as not to waste anyone’s time.
Making Final Selections
If you have followed the talent acquisition process laid out above, this part should be difficult, because you will have a solid group from which to choose. This will make the decision more streamlined for you and any Human Resources, Hiring Managers, and other Talent Acquisition professionals at your company involved in the decision.
Hiring and Onboarding
Continued engagement and onboarding is a powerful retention tool. After you have accomplished all of the steps above, the last thing you want to do is lose your new employee before or right after they start. Onboarding should begin before your new hires' first day.
Consider these three steps for successful onboarding, as laid out in this infographic.
1. Within 24 hours of an offer acceptance, reach out with next steps, such as what to expect during their first week.
2. Within one month give them the tools they need to be successful, like assigning a mentor to them.
3. Within six months, mitigate any issues that arise by maintaining an open-door policy for feedback.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing experts can help you set up an effective onboarding program that ensures retention and ramps up your Time-to-Productivity metric.
Need to conduct onboarding virtually? Check out this article from Recruiting Daily where Orion Talent CEO Mike Starich shares an inside look into a successful virtual onboarding program led by FTC Solar, a renewable energy company.
Tips to Improve Your Process
If your process is Talent Acquisition process is broken or disjointed, there are seven steps you can follow to get it back on track:
Forecast
In order to have a predictable recruiting function, your team needs to have a process that is consistent with reliable data. Talent Acquisition process elements that demand consistency are costs, your talent pipeline, and employer branding. One way for management to achieve these goals is through Outsourced Recruiting. Recruitment Process Outsourcing can help employers forecast by:
Predicting recruiting costs
Talent acquisition process costs are always a concern and predicting them can be difficult. The average cost for a hire through a fee-per-hire solution is about 23%, and adding a full-time Recruiter to your team will cost salary and benefits.
But, utilizing an outsourced recruiting solution will limit wasted resources and can reduce costs by 35%. With RPO, all your hiring costs are rolled into a single cost with RPO, so you know what expenses to expect. You can determine your cost-per-hire with this calculator.
Forecast a Predictable Process
A centralized hiring process where everyone sticks with the plan is the best way to create a predictable process. You can structure and streamline your recruiting through outsourced recruiting. An RPO team will seamlessly integrate with your people, technology, and environment. This process-driven approach results in an average cycle time reduction of 15 days and over 90% hiring manager satisfaction rating with our customers.
Estimate HR Availability for Non-Recruiting Activities
When your hiring process isn’t structured, your HR and Talent Acquisition staff waste time on a disorganized process. If they are focused and all working toward the same goal, they will have time to be able to focus on other important parts of their jobs like your current employees.
Build a Pipeline
Having an established talent pipeline is key to a successful recruiting process. With this in mind, it is important to assess your current pipeline to find where candidates are entering. This is where tracking Source of Hire comes into play. By tracking SOH, you can get the percentage of hires that came from each recruiting source. You can then determine where to allocate their recruiting budget, improve candidate quality, and discontinue channels that aren’t producing.
And don’t forget that to fill this pipeline, you should make sure your Employer Brand is enticing. Recruitment Process Outsourcing experts like Orion Talent can leverage employer branding experience, as well as customized tools and technology, to build your pipeline with speed and precision.
Get Everyone On Board
Often internal recruiters each handle the hiring process differently making for a disjointed process. Aligning management, Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Hiring Managers with your company’s recruiting goals is an integral step. If everyone is pulling in different directions, you cannot move forward with your strategy. You can do this by creating an Employer Value Proposition from which your whole team should work.
Spend the Time
A great talent acquisition process doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes time and maybe even some false starts until you see what works. Working with an RPO expert, however, can eliminate the learning curve and help you get to an effective process in a much shorter amount of time.
Whether you go it alone or with experts, though, you should never rush the interview process or get lazy about identifying job candidates. Speed should never come at the expense of quality. Investing in the process can pay dividends when it comes to meeting recruiting and organizational goals.
Build a Successful Talent Acquisition Process
There is a lot that goes into building a process that will continuously feed a pipeline of talented candidates for current and future open positions. You have to have buy-in, spend the time, do the research, build the brand, and predict costs, all while selecting your next star employee.
And you don’t have to do this alone. Recruitment Process Outsourcing from Orion Talent can manage the people, process, technology platform and strategy to support your hiring process. We can manage each element of your talent acquisition strategy, from requisition to onboarding, work on short-term talent acquisition projects, or complement your team with resources to seamlessly support key parts of the recruiting process. Learn more about Outsourced Recruiting solutions here.
COVID-19 Hiring Resources
COVID-19 is a constantly evolving situation, but one situation that is not changing for many companies, especially those in essential industries, is the need to hire good people. With the latest round of suggested safety precautions, how do you make sure you are maintaining that personal touch required for hiring top talent in a socially distant way?
Orion Talent has covered this topic extensively over the last nine months, and we thought this was a good time to provide a comprehensive guide with all of our COVID-19 Hiring resources.
Virtual Interviews
How to Ace Candidate Interviews in a Socially Distant World
Set Your Team Up for Virtual Interview Success
Keep Your Hiring Process Moving with Virtual Interviews
Virtual Onboarding
Longboarding in the Age of Covid
4 Tips to Complete Your Hiring Process Virtually
Create a Virtual Onboarding Program that New Hires Rave About
Overcoming Recruiting Gaps and Hiring Obstacles
How to Navigate COVID-related Hiring Obstacles with Outsourced Recruiting - Part 1
How to Navigate COVID-related Hiring Obstacles with Outsourced Recruiting - Part 2
How to Overcome COVID-related Recruiting Gaps
On-Demand Virtual Hiring Events Through Orion Talent
Leadership through COVID-19
Leading Through Crisis - Steps to Take & Questions to Ask
We hope these articles provide a robust blueprint for your continued hiring success. Please contact us for help in tackling your Talent Acquisition challenges and accomplishing your goals.
On-Demand Virtual Hiring Events Through Orion Talent
- How many candidates would you like to hire?
- When would you like to virtually interview Orion's candidates?
Military Hiring Conferences
Interview Junior Military Officers, Noncommissioned Officers and Enlisted Technicians Recruited for your Hiring Needs
An Orion Hiring Conference is your chance to interview the best military job seekers, selected specifically for your open positions. You will be presented with pre-screened, qualified and suitably matched veterans that are interested in your available opportunities. Click on the dates below to learn more about our upcoming hiring conferences.
Virtual
Click here for more information.
Join our LinkedIn Group - Talent Insider with Orion Talent
Have you joined our LinkedIn group, Talent Insider with Orion Talent? Talent Insider with Orion Talent is a group for all hiring managers, employers, and talent acquisition professionals interested in learning more about how to hire top talent. We are proud to offer access to employer resources, including thought leadership, hiring event notifications, podcasts, blog posts, news, other insights and advice, and more!
We also encourage you to share your expert insight, as well! Whether it be through RPO, Search, Military, Attraction & Sourcing, or Total Talent Solutions, this group will help you achieve the talent outcomes your business needs.
According to our Clients
Refer a Military Job Seeker or Client Company to Orion
If you would like the chance to win a $50 gift card, enter into our monthly drawings for Client referrals and Job Seeker referrals. If your referral results in a hire, you will personally receive a $100 gift card as our way of saying thank you. As always, we will maintain your privacy and never share your information nor that of your referral. That's one entry for each referral that you submit - good luck and thank you for the referral!
Jasmin Greenstreet won the Job Seeker Referral monthly drawing
and is the winner of a $50 gift card.
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