Employers shuffle through stacks of job applications every day, but what catches their eye and lands applicants closer to a job offer?
We spoke to Piktochart’s HR and Recruitment Officer, Jun Rui Teoh, on the recruiting secrets and practices that could give you the edge you need in your next job hunt.
The HR officer was instrumental to Piktochart’s growth from a tech startup in Malaysia to a 55-strong company with employees based around the world. Its specialists have created many milestones for the leading online graphic design tool since its inception in 2011.
Teoh says recruitment strategies are all about finding “the right fit” in the highly competitive world of talent acquisition.
“Finding the right fit means helping the team to get the human resource they need to grow the company,” she says.
Teoh reveals the five things she looks out for when screening applicants for top jobs, and the recruitment duties she does in the background.
Take time to answer application questions
Teoh goes through an average of 20 job applications daily. What gets her attention?
“Applicants who take time to answer the application questions,” she reveals, adding that it “shows how serious they are to get the job”.
“Apart from showing an applicant’s relevant skills and experience, it helps me in getting to know their experience better through those answers,” she says.
Be HOPEFUL
When hiring people, Teoh says she looks for the “HOPEFUL; people who have the right attitude to embrace our culture and are able to strive in our environment.”
Piktochart values people who are humble, open, passionate, excellent, fun loving, user-focused and full of love.
Leave the lazy
As the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant put it, “I can’t relate to lazy people. We don’t speak the same language. I don’t understand you. I don’t want to understand you.”
HR officers like Teoh echo the same sentiment. Her pet peeve is “coming across applicants who simply apply for the role and don’t bother properly answering application questions”.
She is definitely not impressed when applicants “don’t prepare their resume properly”. “They either just put everything there or just list their job titles,” she says. Your resume gets one foot in the door, so don’t be lazy in dressing it well.
Did you know you could easily create your resume using Piktochart templates? Try the editor now.
Be open to innovate
Teoh says today’s job market is wide open to people who are willing to innovate in how they land coveted roles. HR officers are continually looking for novel ways to recruit and so should job hunters.
“As more millennials join the workforce, HR practices have become less conventional; embracing technology like online employee engagement surveys, or recruiting on social media,” Teoh reveals. Know where to look and be open to innovate.
Use time-saving tools
Hunting for talent and getting them onboard is time consuming, which is why HR officers like Teoh use time-saving tools to save the day.
“Back then, my monthly reporting was done in a spreadsheet. Now I have transferred it to a one-page recruitment dashboard,” she says.
She also taps graphics to post job vacancies or company announcements. She uses the Piktochart editor, of course. “All the templates are very time saving, and I can easily customize as needed,” she says. She also translated Piktochart’s 8-step hiring process into a simple infographic that applicants can easily understand.
“Piktochart has helped me in simplifying the message I want to send, while making it more interesting and effective,” she says.
