Business
There’s a cost to bad recruiting practices
We all hear about the frustration job seekers feel when they submit their job application online and never hear another word. But how much does this damage your brand? Here is some really good advice from a contributor from Edmonton.
The cost of a bad experience – by Shane Calder
(Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash)
“In 2015, Virgin Media received approximately 150,000 job applications, translating into 3,500 new hires. The company estimated that 27,000 (18%) of those applicants were also customers—and that poor candidate experiences led 7416 of those applicant customers to churn from Virgin Media.”
Bad experience costs you?
Virgin Media lost 6 million dollars in revenue as a result of their candidates experience.
(Photo by Robin Worrall on Unsplash)
How is it costing your company?
It’s simple. It’s negatively impacting your brand.
“Nearly 60% of Job Seekers have had a poor candidate experience & 72% talk about it.”
Candidates want to be contacted with progress of their application. 80% of applicants are discouraged to reapply if they received no feedback. Poor experience can be detrimental to your candidate search and your company’s online reputation. Candidates actually value knowing about the status of their application more than a polished website or a well-designed careers page.
Source: https://workplacetrends.com/candidate-experience-study/
Technology Woes 
(Photo by Adam Birkett on Unsplash)
Have you lost the personal touch?
Candidates who were unsuccessful in a job application doubt a person even reviewed their application. If 85% of the applicants who apply to a job posting doubt that it was ever reviewed by an actual person, imagine the negative impact on your brand and how you are viewed. Will this activity help attract talent?
Add the personal touch.
Augment your resources. Don’t remove your HR professionals from the conversation. Build a rapport with your candidates. Use emails, live chats and social media.
Source: https://www.thetalentboard.org/cande-awards/cande-research-reports/
Rejected offers
(Photo by Ian Tuck on Unsplash)
In the IBM white paper “The far reaching impact of candidate experience” it was discovered that if a candidate has a good experience there is a 54% chance they will accept an offer. If the experience was a disappointment only 39% would accept an offer of employment. Candidates with a positive experience are 2 times more likely to become a customer. The candidate experience is your company’s opportunity to build brand advocates even if no offer is given.
Source: https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/YMOARJJG
Social License To Operate
Photo by Nicole Honeywill on Unsplash
The candidate experience impacts your company and is an opportunity to showcase your company. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to improve the experience. The rewards of increased revenue, reduced costs, advocates and finding good talent are within your control.
Treat job candidates well, give them a great experience and you will be rewarded.
Shane Calder is Principal, 132 ENG Inc. He can be reached at [email protected]
132 ENG is an exclusive Engineering and Technical Services Company, providing placement and recruiting services. Discover our real results. 132Eng experts have proven expertise and depth of knowledge that is powerful. Let us make it easy, save you time and make you look amazing. It will be our secret.
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI and Microsoft negotiations require definition of “artificial general intelligence”
From The Deep View
|
OpenAI’s bargaining chip
| A couple of relatively significant stories broke late last week concerning the — seemingly tenuous — partnership between OpenAI and Microsoft. | |
| The background: OpenAI first turned to Microsoft back in 2019, after the startup lost access to Elon Musk’s billions. Microsoft — which has now sunk more than $13 billion into the ChatGPT-maker — has developed a partnership with OpenAI, where Microsoft provides the compute (and the money) and OpenAI gives Microsoft access to its generative technology. OpenAI’s tech, for instance, powers Microsoft’s Copilot. | |
| According to the New York Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last year asked Microsoft for more cash. But Microsoft, concerned about the highly publicized boardroom drama that was rocking the startup, declined. | |
|
|
| Microsoft, meanwhile, has been expanding its portfolio of AI startups, recently bringing the bulk of the Inflection team on board in a $650 million deal. | |
| Now, the terms of OpenAI’s latest funding round were somewhat unusual. The investment was predicated on an assurance that OpenAI would transition into a fully for-profit corporation. If the company has not done so within two years, investors can ask for their money back. | |
| According to the Wall Street Journal, an element of the ongoing negotiation between OpenAI and Microsoft has to do with this restructuring, specifically, how Microsoft’s $14 billion investment will transfer into equity in the soon-to-be for-profit company. | |
|
|
| Here’s where things get really interesting: OpenAI isn’t a normal company. It’s mission is to build a hypothetical artificial general intelligence, a theoretical technology that is pointedly lacking in any sort of universal definition. The general idea here is that it would possess, at least, human-adjacent cognitive capabilities; some researchers don’t think it’ll ever be possible. | |
| There’s a clause in OpenAI’s contract with Microsoft that if OpenAI achieves AGI, Microsoft gets cut off. OpenAI’s “board determines when we’ve attained AGI. Again, by AGI we mean a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work. Such a system is excluded from IP licenses and other commercial terms with Microsoft, which only apply to pre-AGI technology.” | |
| To quote from the Times: “the clause was meant to ensure that a company like Microsoft did not misuse this machine of the future, but today, OpenAI executives see it as a path to a better contract, according to a person familiar with the company’s negotiations.” | |
|
|
| This is a good example of why the context behind definitions matters so much when discussing anything in this field. There is a definitional problem throughout the field of AI. Many researchers dislike the term “AI” itself; it’s a misnomer — we don’t have an actual artificial intelligence. | |
| The term “intelligence,” is itself vague and open to the interpretation of the developer in question. | |
| And the term “AGI” is as formless as it gets. Unlike physics, for example, where gravity is a known, hard, agreed-upon concept, AGI is theoretical, hypothetical science; further, it is a theory that is bounded by resource limitations and massive limitations in understanding around human cognition, sentience, consciousness and intelligence, and how these all fit together physically. | |
| This doesn’t erase the fact that the labs are trying hard to get there. | |
| But what this environment could allow for is a misplaced, contextually unstable definition of AGI that OpenAI pens as a ticket either out from under Microsoft’s thumb, or as a means of negotiating the contract of Sam Altman’s dreams. | |
| In other words, OpenAI saying it has achieved AGI, doesn’t mean that it has. | |
| As Thomas G. Dietterich, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Oregon State University said: “I always suspected that the road to achieve AGI was through redefining it.” |
Alberta
Alberta investors now have more options for securing cryptocurrency and other digital assets.
Bringing balance to Alberta’s financial system
Balance Trust Company has officially been registered as an Alberta-based trust corporation under the Loan and Trust Corporations Act.
On Oct. 17, Alberta’s government issued the company its certificate of registration, enabling it to offer cryptocurrency and other digital asset custodial services to investors in Alberta and other authorized jurisdictions.
“We are proud to support innovative companies like Balance Trust Company. With its registration, Alberta strengthens its position as a leader in the finance and financial technology sector. Our commitment to the sector’s growth keeps us at the forefront of financial innovation, boosts our economy and provides greater security for investors.”
Balance Trust Company leveraged Alberta’s financial services concierge, a service designed to guide financial services and fintech companies through the province’s regulatory landscape. Alberta’s government established the financial services concierge and regulatory sandbox to help companies set up shop in Alberta.
With Canada’s digital asset market continuing to grow, the presence of more licensed custodians reduces Canadian investors’ reliance on foreign entities, enhancing compliance and control over their investments. Balance Trust Company’s presence in Alberta will promote healthy competition, attract further investment and reinforce the province’s reputation as a hub for financial innovation.
“Since 2021, public fund managers and restricted dealers have sent more than $5 billion worth of investor assets to the U.S. due to the lack of local custodians. It’s time to bring them back, and I can’t think of a better home for those assets than Alberta. We’re grateful to Minister Horner and the entire team at the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance for recognizing the criticality of this task and for enabling us to bring this much-needed infrastructure to our local ecosystem.”
Quick facts
- Balance Trust Company is a subsidiary of Balance, Canada’s oldest and largest digital asset custodian.
- Balance Trust Company is Alberta’s second registered digital asset custodian, after Tetra Trust which was registered in 2021.
- Balance Trust Company is the only custodian with a proprietary technology platform developed entirely in-house through more than seven years of continuous research and development.
Trudeau claims under oath that Jordan Peterson, Tucker Carlson are funded by Russia
Clean energy think tank says Alberta has the resources to lead Canada in carbon capture and storage
Alberta piloting test to supply industry with fuel derived from worn-out tires
Alberta reaching out to Canadians to help kill Ottawa’s job-killing cap on energy production
-
Alberta2 days ago
Clean energy think tank says Alberta has the resources to lead Canada in carbon capture and storage
-
Alberta2 days ago
Alberta piloting test to supply industry with fuel derived from worn-out tires
-
Alberta2 days ago
Alberta reaching out to Canadians to help kill Ottawa’s job-killing cap on energy production
-
Censorship Industrial Complex2 days agoJordan Peterson says he rejected regulator’s offer to pay legal fees in exchange for resignation
-
Censorship Industrial Complex2 days agoJudges to decide if Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can sue Biden administration for colluding with social media companies to censor free speech
-
Health2 days agoThinking of taking a flu shot? Read this first…
-
Bruce Dowbiggin2 days agoWord Games: Why Liberals Scolds Are Offended When No One Else Is
-
espionage2 days agoTrudeau Admits Missing At Least Five Crucial Reports Or Memos Intended For Him to Authorize Defensive Briefs to MPs