At Sourcing Adda we constantly encourage our members to actively participate in the activities we conduct with the Hike Group Chat being one of the many activities we conduct. The Hike Group Chat is conducted every Wednesday where fellow Talent Acquisitionists get together to share their views and perspectives to stay updated with the current trends in the Industry we’re all passionate about.

In view of this, one of our members Manav from the South zone suggested that we have a discussion on the trending topic “Infant Mortality”. Hence, we took his suggestion and decided to have a discussion on, “How do you handle ‘Infant mortality’ in your organisations, in reference to the below article http://m.economictimes.com/articleshow/49319093.cms.

But before we find out what inputs we got let’s brief you about the topic i.e. Infant Mortality. It’s that crucial engagement time from the day the candidate accepts the offer till he on-boards the organisation. We would like to hear the perspectives of our fellow Talent Acquisitionists in order to enrich the learning experience.   And here’s what we uncovered about how we can creatively gaze the pulse of the candidate/sAlthough this was a short discussion, I’m sure you’d agree with me when I say it was still insightful. At least I for one didn’t know about what measures other organisations were taking to curb “Infant Mortality.” It’s really nice to know that most organisations are investing in ensuring that the best candidates get on-board with the organisation. This only goes to show how the Talent Acquisition Industry is evolving and at what pace. Well let’s all make an effort to enrich the learning experience for us and our fellow Talent Acquisitionists as well by following @Sourcing Adda with active participation in the activities to come.

There has been a long drawn out debate on whether Recruitment and Sourcing are different functions. We @SourcingAdda wanted to find out different perspectives about it and to confirm our views about the subject at hand.

In view of that the discussion was based on, “Recruitment and Sourcing as a different function” where we focused on other aspects such as –

1. Is it necessary to have both the functions to be different functions?

                                                        Or

2. Do you suggest that both the functions should be done by one single person?

Having said that, here’s what our fellow Talent Acquisitionists had to say about the topic in question and what we discovered from the discussion held…

The discussion was great with lots of perspectives from our fellow Talent Acquisitionist’s. Hope to have more people joining the Sourcing Adda family to express their thoughts, interact together by participating in these discussions and other activities to come. Follow @SourcingAdda to get real time updates to our upcoming activities.

If you’ve been consciously following Sourcing Adda (@SourcingAdda) then you’d know that we have shifted the well – received WhatsApp Group Chat discussions on to the Hike platform. This is to improve the engagement and experience of our fellow community members. In addition we also make an effort to give our members the opportunity to come up with topics that they would like to discuss.

In view of that the topic of discussion was selected by Chetan Indap a member of the Mumbai Group. The topic for our discussion was, “Can you all list down 3 or best practices we can follow to curb NO SHOW of candidates?” and here’s what our fellow experts had to say…Well this brings our discussion to an end and we’re glad to learn that we have a few suggestions for our discussions to come as well. Once again we’d like to thank all our members for their insights that help us make this discussion better, for their continued support and participation. So if you have a topic to discuss or a tip to share then leave a comment. And we’ll be happy to consider your suggestions. In the meantime let’s bring more experts into these discussions and grow together as a part of the Sourcing Adda family.

A competitors poaching of new recruits is every recruiter’s nightmare, especially if it involves a lot of time and effort invested in the process on the part of the recruiter to find that right candidate. As if this isn’t enough, but now we have to watch out for new employees being poached by competitors. Now that’s just great….; that’s just what I need right now!

Most recruiters feel exactly the same way when they’re efforts come to nothing after that much of work. So the important questions that comes to the fore is, are there any “Ways to Stop Competitors from Poaching your talent?”, if so then what are they? Therefore, let’s find out…

Have an Anti – Poaching Agreement

Corporate s can create an Anti – Poaching Agreement right at the beginning and circulate it within their competitive circle. This will ensure that you’re new recruits or key staff members from becoming victims of competitive poaching. In truth I’m not sure how you’ll be able to do that as recruiters and headhunters have at least four different ways i.e. via phone, email, social media and face to face; of contacting your staff members both in and out of work and there’s nothing that you can do to prevent this. So the best way is to create a resistant environment that is not susceptible to poaching for your staff.

Extend the Standard Notice Period

Since new recruits are likely to jump to another company it would be preferable to prevent them from being poached by extending the standard notice period to a longer duration. This means that the newly joined individual will have to go slow which might increase their chances of switching jobs. But it can to some extent reduce their chances of switching jobs.

Introduce a Bonus Scheme

Having a bonus scheme for new recruits is a great way to attract and get them to stay for a longer duration by informing them that they will be given a bonus at the end of the month but the organisation will give the bonus at the end of the year instead if they remain an employee. This will motivate them to stay knowing that they are applicable for a bonus at the end of the month.

Negotiate with the Competitor

If you’re aware of the possibility of a star player’s poaching then you can bring in your negotiations skill to the poaching company to hold on to critical staff. This will convey a strong message that you are not a soft touch where poaching is concerned. This will automatically get them to back off if you’re convincing enough.

Changing times, a Call for Action

Well the other times when employees are more susceptible to poaching is during times of drastic changes such as layoffs, offices being relocated for whatever reason, strategy changes, restructures, influential departures, rumours, etc. all of these events cause employees to be uncertain and out of control. Therefore, it is essential for recruiters to monitor their staff on regular bases. This will help recruiters to know which of their staff is likely to move due to uncertainty. If possible make sure you squash any rumours circulating within the organisation that can prevents your working staff from staying on.

Work Culture Hiring

Remember to interview the potential candidates about the work culture to find out if they will fit in to the work culture that is practiced. This is an important aspect as most candidates may not approve of the way things are done and this gives them reason enough to change a job acquired recently or to look for a job change after a considerable amount of years spent at the current organisation.

Another aspect that we sometimes forget to take in to account in the midst of trying our level best to keep our key staff members is that they sometimes choose to switch jobs of their own accord. As recruiters we need to keep in mind this aspect before we decide to go all out for key players and send them off with a good note. There you have it, everything that you can do on our behalf to convince, ensure and keep our star employees to stay on and to continue to be a vital part of our organisation. Hey there don’t go just yet, do let us know your views and pointers that we have missed out on in the comments section as we’ll be glad to add them to our next post.

As Talent Acquisition Professionals we are usually overburdened with tasks and Sourcing for Candidates can be a daunting one at that. In the process of Talent Sourcing we tend to ignore common courtesy of providing timely feedback or updates about the position with the applicants. The WhatsApp Group Chat topic for discussion catered to this very aspect which was highlighted by our Sourcing Adda (@SourcingAdda) member Hussain. Hence, the topic of discussion was, “How many of us actually make an effort to get back to the candidates on their application status.” Wherein we also focused on two other aspects related –

1. Is there a practice we follow in particular (send emails/ make calls)?
2. Is there something else that we can incorporate?

And here’s what we found out…

From the conversation that was depicted based on the WhatsApp Group Chat highlighted above we can conclude that it is important to be courteous with potential candidates. This is because as Talent Acquisition Professionals we rely on Potential Candidate Experience as well for our Employer & Employee Branding needs. So now that you are familiar with the importance of informing Candidates about their application status I’m sure you’re impressed with the information shared. Follow us @SourcingAdda to be updated about our upcoming events that might be of interest.