It is essential for any startup to identify and appoint the right talent because only the right people have the potential to keep a startup running smoothly and successfully in a highly competitive business environment. When recruiters and HR professionals fail to identify the right fit, it results in cash burn, and if the employee has a client-facing profile or represents the business in any way, it can also adversely impact brand identity.

With low unemployment and a robust economy, finding the right people to hire has become more difficult. Forty-five percent of employers say they are unable to find people with the skills they need. That represents a large increase in unfilled jobs and the toughest hiring environment in a decade. Right now, there are more than 6.7 million job openings in the United States.

Companies incur significant expenses during the recruitment and hiring process, with various sources attaching figures as low as $5,000 or as high as $11,000 to the cost of hiring a single employee. At the same time, one 2014 study found that 17% of new hires quit within their first three months. Another 2018 study conducted by the Work Institute found that 40% of employees left a company within 12 months, with 50% of that turnover happening in the initial three months of employment. When employees leave the company within the first 90 days, the money spent to recruit, interview, and hire them is lost, and there could be additional losses in productivity for the teams.

The demand for tech jobs has exploded in 2018. It is not just high-tech firms that are looking for talent — the digital transformation is affecting every business. If you have the skills, it is a hot market. If you are trying to hire key personnel, it can be a challenge to find talent.

In today’s corporate world, there are many practices for finding the best talent. People working in talent acquisition do their best to get in touch with the most qualified candidates because they don’t always post their resumes on popular job boards.

Wait. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Isn’t it the responsibility of the candidate to look for a vacant position when it gets posted on job boards?

Human resources originally evolved out of a personnel-based function rooted in administrative tasks. Historically, the HR department has been perceived to add the same value to businesses as marketing or sales roles, but that sort of thinking is old school.

According to a recent report issued by HR Open Source (a community platform for HR professionals), 68% of current HR professionals have previously worked in fields outside of human resources. This cross-pollination of ideas is creating a new breed of HR folks — they're moving from "human resources" to "people operations."

Some companies conduct exit interviews immediately upon learning an employee will be leaving. Other companies conduct them on the employee's last day. And still others don't conduct them at all. An exit interview may appear to be a formality, but it's actually a critical part of the employer-employee relationship and it can give you some unique insights into your company and employees.

Every culture has its own lingo. In addition to native language, there are buzzwords and lexicons that involve a kind of vernacular shorthand. Industries are ripe with acronyms, slang is rampant across cultures, and popular activities have their own vocabularies. 

According to Glassdoor, 89% of applicants look for employment on their phone.

It’s a sign of the times — mobile recruiting is one of the best ways to reach applicants in any field. How candidates view your job posting and the ease with which they can apply are important factors to consider when you’re trying to reach an audience via a mobile device. While this phenomenon isn’t new, many HR departments still have an unwieldy application process that isn’t mobile friendly. How can human resource departments adapt their application processes to this “new” venue?