This story was submitted as part of the #Pledge1Gives GivingTuesday campaign, which celebrates the many ways our member companies are having an impact around the world.
Recruiting is usually defined as the act of attracting and selecting candidates for employment within an organization. Thanks to SmartRecruiters’ Reverse Recruiting initiative, that definition is taking on new dimensions.
On the careers section of their website, the company states the following: “We are on a mission to connect people to jobs at scale.”
However, they realized that in order to truly enact their mission statement at scale, they’d have to come up with a more inclusive strategy. One that could help job seekers who have traditionally been successful, as well as those who have encountered setbacks.
In February of 2019, SmartRecruiters’ CEO Jerome Ternynck introduced Reverse Recruiting— an initiative that offers assistance to job seekers who have experienced difficulty finding stable, long term employment. Among them are immigrants, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, parents and caregivers returning to work, as well as senior citizens.
Pilot sessions were held in the spring of 2019 in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, Spokane, and Krakow—the collective response was overwhelmingly positive. Since then, volunteers from over 100 companies across the world have taken the Reverse Recruiting pledge to help “connect overlooked candidates to jobs at scale.” More than 15 events have been organized where, in total, 250 recruiters coached approximately 400 job seekers on how to market their professional experience, sharpen their resumes, improve their interview skills, and strengthen their personal branding.
