Finding ideal candidates is an ongoing challenge for every HR department. Fortunatley, HR has tools at their disposal. One of those tools is often under-utilized. What's that tool you might ask? —Talent personas... think of them like a wanted poster for your ideal hire. If you follow the suggestions below and take the time to really map out what you’re looking for in a candidate, personas are likely to become one of your go-to HR tools.

One of the findings of the IPMA-HR HR2020 Task Force was that only 49% of public sector organizations believe recruiting directly supports the culture. If we set the bar a bit higher and ask if recruiting strongly supports the culture, only 11% say it does. If the recruitment process in your organization isn’t promoting the desired culture, what should you do?

Talk to the talent acquisition team at Tesla and they’ll tell you some jobs are hard to fill. If even cool corporations with rich compensation budgets find certain types of jobs hard to fill then what can the public sector do? Well don’t give up, there is an effective strategy.

Attracting Millennials to government work isn’t always easy, especially when there are higher-paying private sector positions with better benefits. Government may not be able to compete in these areas, but there are other ways you can build a next generation talent pipeline.

We live in a culture of immediacy. We’re multi-tasking masters. We get maps, taxis, and dates with just a few swipes of a screen. We consume news in tweet-sized tidbits. We watch ten-second videos that disappear. It’s a world filled with distractions galore.

More than a decade ago, the Pew Research Center coined the term “silver tsunami” to describe the anticipated retirement of Baby Boomers. Although the mass wave of retirements was projected to hit government in 2011, the recession put many of these retirement plans on hold. This gave government agencies a bit of respite, but now, according to a number of reputable sources, the long-awaited silver tsunami may have finally arrived.

Bias is an inevitable part of human nature. When bias is unconscious, we don’t control it. People make nearly instantaneous assumptions and form fast opinions about other people. Though unconscious bias is a handy mental shortcut that can help people process information, it can have negative side effects in the workplace.

Nearly one in three adults—more than 70 million Americans—has a criminal record. Many of these individuals never served time in jail or had an arrest that resulted in a conviction. No matter how major or minor the record, many of these individuals struggle to find employment because they are automatically screened out of the hiring process by checking “yes” on an application question regarding criminal history.

A new job applicant can be in a highly charged emotional state. They’ve spent days, weeks, or even months scouring job boards. They’ve agonized about their resume and cover letter, fussing over how best to describe their accomplishments and skills. They’ve gamely entered all the exhaustive information requested in your organization’s online job application form.