Hiring in Healthcare: Does a Nursing Shortage Exist?

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There’s a nursing shortage! I don’t know when I started hearing about it, but it was probably in the early 2000’s right before I set off for college. I distinctly remember hearing that nursing was a great career choice. And I once considered pursuing it–even after the movie, Meet the Parents, played up the stigma around male nurses. There was a shortage of nurses, I was told. There was good pay and job security, and it was a respectable vocation.

I didn’t go into nursing, but I continued to hear about the shortage of nurses, and I believed the stories. In fact, I still hear about it today. So I thought I’d take a closer look at what’s driving the shortage , since employment trends and hiring challenges are kinda my thing.

The Nursing Shortage is Complex

I had no reason to doubt the nursing shortage. I expected to find clear reasons behind it, and I was hoping to come up with a few solutions to address the challenges. Most articles made a simple, straightforward (and quite urgent) case that there is and/or will be a shortage of nurses. It’s an easy story to tell that gets people’s attention–the type of story that when told frequently will eventually evolve into common knowledge.

However, I quickly discovered that the nursing shortage is not straightforward. It’s a multifaceted issue with many viewpoints and considerations that don’t make it into our newspapers or favorite news sites. Trying to make sense out of the disparate views was challenging. Researching this topic was confusing to say the least.

Past studies predicted a shortage that never came. There are stories of nurses who left the profession because they could not secure a position. Some studies are conducted by organizations that likely have a conflict of interest. And in 2017, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) predicted a surplus of nurses for 2025! And yet, the prevailing coverage is: “it’s a well-known fact that the U.S. suffers from a nursing shortage.”

To be fair, predicting the future is not easy. You use the information you have at hand, and your predictions can only be as accurate as that information. However, it seems that too many stories on the nursing shortage are either omitting crucial information, or worse, misrepresenting the facts.  To better understand the nursing shortage (or lack thereof) it’s helpful to consider the following perspectives:

Delayed Retirement of Baby Boomers

“The nursing shortage is real…or at least it will be.”

Proponents of this perspective believe that all the talk in the early 2000’s and today about a looming nursing shortage was accurate; however, a generational change in views on retirement combined with the economic realities of a post-recession world caused many veteran nurses to delay retirement or rejoin the workforce.

It is true that the baby-boomer generation is retiring later in life than predicted. This is the case for the majority of occupations, not just nursing. However, they will retire at some point (and eventually require more healthcare). According to a National Nursing Workforce Study, 50% of nurses are age 50 or older, which means a significantly larger portion of nurses are closer to retirement than are not. So it makes sense that a shortage could occur when a large increase in healthcare demand coincides with a large decrease in nurses.

Underserved Areas

“The nursing shortage is real…but it depends on location.”

Smaller towns and rural areas often struggle to find workers when compared with larger, metropolitan areas. Many nursing graduates or re-locating nurses may find it difficult to secure a job in a particular metropolitan area. This does not mean that a shortage of nurses doesn’t exist, it simply means that to find job opportunities, job seekers must be willing to commute or relocate–many are not.

Unfortunately, this fact is seldom disclaimed alongside proclamations of a nursing shortage, and nursing graduates are often blindsided when local demand for nursing is non-existent. According to the HRSA, only seven states are predicted to carry a nursing shortage through 2030: California, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.

Artificial Shortage

“The nursing shortage is FAKE NEWS…hospitals want to ensure a surplus of nurses.”

Some of the more cynical may posit that the nursing shortage is part of a conspiracy led by hospitals. The thinking goes that if a hospital can ensure a surplus of nurses (its largest employment cost), then it can better control overall operating costs. Without a single, unified nurses union in the United States, a labor surplus provides hospitals with leverage in establishing wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.

Would hospitals prefer to have too many nurses rather than too few? The answer is most certainly, yes. Are hospitals overselling or even lying about a shortage? With changes in healthcare legislation, an economic recession, and a generational movement away from previous notions of retirement, it is more likely that the complexity of the issue has caused the disconnect between studies, predictions, and reality.

So…does a real nursing shortage exist? Is it looming?

The above perspectives are just a few examples that add color to stories around the nursing shortage. While claims of a nursing shortage may sound like “crying wolf” to some, healthcare continues to grow faster than any other industry, and any change in the supply of nurses (entry of new graduates or the exit of retiring nurses) could quickly make a nursing shortage a reality.

So I predict that we will continue to see news stories and press releases that announce an emerging nursing shortage. I also suspect that the reasons for the shortage will begin to vary–a lack of nursing faculty and lower acceptances/enrollments at nursing schools seems to be the popular cause for concern today. However, regardless of how the story trends, there are a few key takeaways for employees and employers.

What you need to know about the nursing shortage:

  • For aspiring nurses: Understand how the demand for nurses will vary by region. Finding the right job may require moving to the right region. Additionally, depending on the area, available nursing positions may vary by specialty; it may be necessary to target more niche areas of nursing and to look beyond hospitals, especially for those who are just starting their careers.
  • For employers: Invest more resources in recruiting qualified applicants to “shortage areas.” This could include partnering with local governments and educational institutions to develop strategies for attracting talent. Of course,  more attractive and competitive compensation packages will also be necessary to retain talent. This is especially true if nursing shortages begin to develop in more attractive areas.

Both employers and employees alike must understand the reality as it relates to their particular set of circumstances. When employers, employees, job seekers, and students can separate crisis from “crying wolf”, everyone is in a better position to make employment decisions that advance their respective goals.

 

ExactHire provides hiring technology for the healthcare industry to help streamline the hiring and onboarding of new employees. To learn how our solutions can help your organization, contact us today.

Select and Implement Software for Your Employee Experience

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It’s exhausting to build a business case for improving your organization’s employee experience through an investment in software. Unfortunately, it only represents the first challenge in realizing ultimate success. Convincing your organization of a need to improve the employee experience is a positive first step, but your efforts will be wasted if you fail to select the right vendor or lead an effective implementation.

In order to select the right vendor and meet the challenges of implementation, it’s important to have a plan that is driven by a timeline and aligned with organizational goals. But first, you want to establish desired outcomes that are measurable.

Desired Outcomes

Defining your desired outcomes for your employee experience may seem easy at first. In fact, you might have done a lot of this work while making a business case for change. However, before moving onto vendor selection, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at your current processes and ideas for improvement…from every angle.

To begin, compile a list of all stakeholders and their roles in the employee experience. It may make sense to put some individuals into groups, but you’ll want to make sure that you single out those with specific responsibilities, especially in the human resources department. Then, find time to discuss each stakeholder’s (or group of stakeholders) perspective on the employee experience. Some suggested questions to ask are:

  • What is missing from our experience?
  • What is included, but unnecessary?
  • What information or data is needed to support your role?
  • Can you access the data you need easily?
  • What data should have restricted access?
  • What has changed in the recent past?
  • What do you anticipate changing in the future?
  • Are there any other software solutions that may require integration?

You can ask these questions through a survey platform, but an in-person discussion might be more effective as it allows you to clarify your understanding by asking follow up questions. These discussions are also a good time to take inventory of the many different types of HR paperwork your team must process or complete. While this may take some time, it’s likely that you will emerge from the discussions with several new insights to inform your desired outcomes.

Finally, you may receive a lot of feedback about ways you can improve your employee experience, but you want to make sure that all desired outcomes are measurable. If stakeholders respond that your organization can improve the experience by “having more fun,” ask them how they would measure that. Or, ask for examples of “fun” and  what frequency of “fun” would make a difference. As you can see, your desired outcomes will not always come right off the paper. It will require follow up and a committed effort to uncover those factors that will really move the needle.

Timeline for Implementation

One of the most important aspects of effective implementation is having a thoughtful timeline. By thoughtful, I mean that dates should not be arbitrary, but meaningful and practical based on input from all stakeholders in your employee experience. If the timeline is too aggressive, it may cause confusion or, worse, resentment among your organization’s staff. Similarly, a timeline that is too conservative may delay early results that build confidence and energy among stakeholders.

A good place to start is in determining your milestones–big, time-based goals that are essential to success. These milestones will slightly vary by organization, but most will look something like this:

Communicate implementation plan to stakeholders

It makes sense that if you take the time to solicit input from stakeholders, you would also communicate the results of their input. Make sure that your implementation plan is communicated well in advance of the plan beginning.

Begin training and implementation

Often, organizations focus too strictly on a “go live” date. This makes sense, as that’s the point when a return on investment begins to accrue; however, a complete and thorough training and implementation phase is critical for maximizing an organization’s ROI in software.

Complete training and implementation

This may seem superfluous to the milestone above (or below), but having a concrete date for the end of training and implementation ensures that the time in between is structured and purposeful. This helps to eliminate unnecessary “padding” and holds both stakeholders and vendors accountable for their time and effort.

Implementation review

Another reason to have an end-date for training and implementation is to plan time for a review. This will be a period of 3 to 4 days when all stakeholders can express any concerns or questions they may have before the software goes live. Ask each stakeholder for a “go” or “no go”– just like NASA’s mission control room. This helps your organization avoid any self-inflicted hiccups in the days just after launch.

Go live with software

While it’s tempting to set an aggressive “go live” date, this is where you really need to trust your vendor. Ask a member of the vendor’s support team for a recommendation–don’t ask the sales rep. Then ensure that the “go live” date doesn’t conflict with the planned (and hopefully detailed) implementation phase.

Account billing begins

You may not have much control over this date. Depending on the vendor, billing might start before the ink dries on the contract. Others will not begin billing until your software is live. Some are flexible and will work with you to reach reasonable timing based on your unique circumstances. Regardless, this date is important because it will determine the actual cost of training and implementation.

Your organization’s relationship (or contract) with a software vendor can alter both the order and content of these milestones, however it’s important to account for all of these somewhere in your internal planning.

Vendor Considerations

Once you have agreed internally on the desired outcomes and timeline for implementation, you are now in a position to review possible vendors and more quickly determine which vendors will be a good fit for your organization. In discussing possible solutions with vendors, be sure to share your organization’s goals and how/when you want to achieve those goals.

Even when you’ve gained every assurance from sales reps that their solution is the perfect fit for your needs, you’ll want to ensure that the vendor has a few important things in place. The following characteristics of a software vendor act as insurance against sales reps who over-promise on their solution:

Intuitive Interface

All the features and capabilities in the world won’t mean anything if using software is difficult or confusing. Yes, customer support can mitigate this issue, but no one wants to constantly require extra help. An intuitive interface helps an HR staff remain self-sufficient and realize gains in productivity.

Self-service Capabilities

Until recently, most HR software focused on completing tasks for the HR department. The primary benefits, therefore, came in the form time-savings for the HR staff. Today, self-service capabilities provide benefits to everyone from job-seekers to candidates, and from new hires to veteran employees.

Helpful and Responsive Support

To reiterate, the ideal situation is to have software with an intuitive interface that minimizes confusion. However, users also need thorough training through implementation and easy access to support resources should any issues arise. Helpful and responsive support is insurance against the unexpected.

The desired outcomes for your organization’s employee experience may add to the prerequisites listed above, however having these in place will protect you from picking the wrong vendor, and greatly increase your chances of picking the best one.

Communication with Software Vendor

With a vendor and implementation plan in place, you’re now ready to begin work toward your first milestone. It’s likely that any software solution designed to support the employee experience will involve several people, maybe even dozens. This can make it difficult to easily track your progress if the right hand (client team) doesn’t know what the left hand (vendor team) is doing.

From the outset, prompt communication must be established as a top priority for your implementation team–internally and client-to-vendor. This can be accomplished through a number of means, ranging from the simple shared spreadsheet to any number of lightweight project management solutions. Even frequent emailing can get the job done as long as there is agreement across the board on acceptable response times.

Make sure you have a clear understanding of how you will communicate with a vendor before you begin training and implementation. This is not something you want to experiment with as you go. Valuable time can be saved by establishing communication channels from the start, and then using those consistently throughout implementation.

Realizing Ultimate Success

With an ever-tightening job market, more and more employers are recognizing the need to improve the employee experience. This places the challenge squarely on HR to chart a course to ultimate success. Selecting the right vendor may seem like the first and biggest challenge, however it’s only one part of the journey. HR professionals must first engage all stakeholders in the employee experience to determine desired outcomes and build a thoughtful timeline that is aligned with organizational goals.

ExactHire offers employee onboarding software that’s designed to streamline your employee onboarding process by using paperless forms and automation. Contact us today to learn how you can customize your solution to support an improved employee experience.

The Anatomy of a Perfect Job Post

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Bookmark this blog post, and make sure you’ve completed this checklist the next time you press “publish.”

1. Your Target

With the popularity of job aggregators, it might seem pointless to worry about placing your job postings on boards that target a specific type of job seeker. However, job aggregators do have limitations; one of them being visibility.

You see, although your job post may be picked up by Indeed or Glassdoor, there’s no guarantee that your ideal job seekers will see it–the volume of job posts is just too great. So while it’s important to optimize your job posts for visibility on job aggregator sites, you cannot ignore the first step of identifying niche job boards and networks that engage job seekers of a specific professional background.

Targeting specific job seekers also extends to the careers page of your organization’s website. Items such as employee testimonials and spotlight videos should touch on all departments and roles within your organization. In this way, an organization will be prepared to engage job seekers for any and all open positions.

Tip: Use Google Search to find niche job boards that will be of frequent use to your organization (they might be on the second or third page of results), and then create accounts for later use. Store the login credentials and a short description of the board. Some applicant tracking systems may offer to integrate with these job boards if you request this from the vendor.

2. The Title

The job title is one of the most important parts of a job listing. Too often, however, employers simply use the official, internal job titles for job listings. This is unfortunate because “Junior Developer” is not nearly as descriptive or informative as “Front End Javascript Developer”. Remember, the job title of your job post will impact 1) the visibility of your job post and 2) whether or not a job seeker clicks on the link.

So go ahead and make a super-descriptive job title for your job post, just make sure it’s not so long that it exceeds a maximum character-count for search engine results. You don’t want to appear as if you are hiring for a “lead automotive mechanic”, when you really want a ”lead automotive mechanical engineer.”

Tip: Study your competitors’ opportunities for job title ideas that represent your employment need. You want to strike a balance between descriptive/enticing and readable ( i.e., not truncated).

3. The Order

A common element of many job descriptions is the “about us” section or company overview. This is an opportunity to showcase basic information about the organization’s products or services, as well as illustrate the company’s work culture. Unfortunately, many organizations make the mistake of placing the overview section at the beginning of a job description.

This placement can hurt the click through rate (CTR) of job postings because search engines display the first 160 or so characters of a page’s body text. Do you really want the link to your job posting to only have the title and a couple sentences about your company?

Tip: By moving the company overview towards the end of the job description, you can include compelling information about the job opportunity at the beginning. This will make your job description more attractive, helping to increase the CTR of your job posting and bring more traffic to your career site.

4. Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are the short 160-character descriptions, contained in an HTML tag, that display under the page title on a search results page. They are used to provide additional information about a result–in the same way as described in the previous point. However, when a meta description is left blank, the search engine will default to show the first 160 characters as described in #3.

If your applicant tracking system or the content management system of your website allows you to edit meta descriptions, then you won’t need to worry as much about how your job description is ordered. Your meta description will display, regardless of what that first sentence of your job listing describes.

Tip: Just like your title, most search engines and/or job boards will limit the number of characters you can use. So make every word count by focusing on a jobs required duties, skills needed, pay, location, and benefits.

5. Readability

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a term thrown around a lot. For the purposes of writing a perfect job description, it refers to the likelihood that a job seeker will find your job post among thousands of other, similar job posts. What will make your post appear first?

A common approach is to write a job description around a keyword or phrase. The idea is that the frequent use of this phrase within a post will signal to a search engine that your post–and not your competitor’s–is the definitive post for a “Senior Digital Strategist.” There is a danger, however, to embracing this approach without considering readability.

A job description that is 500 words long, but uses the phrase “Senior Digital Strategist” 50 times throughout the post, will encourage most job seekers to instantly hit the back button. These posts just feel like spam.

Tip: First, create job descriptions to be informative and enticing, yet readable. Then, review and edit your description for opportunities to add keywords and phrases in way that does not distract the reader.

6. Images and Video

Talk of meta description, job descriptions, and titles is important. However, if recent history has shown us anything, it’s that people really prefer to consume information visually.

So in addition to providing an old fashioned, text job description, consider whether an infographic could convey the same information in a more compelling way. Include pictures of your current employees on the job, showing job seekers your workspace and how people interact. Many companies will invest in creating a 2-minute video that covers the “About Us” component or even provides an overview of specific roles.

While the production of this content may take a little time and money, many applicant tracking systems make it easy to place this content within the job descriptions.

Tip: By engaging job seekers in a different way, while also providing the need-to-know job information, you will make it more likely that they click-through and land on your careers site…

7. Nail The Landing

Having a perfectly optimized and engaging job description is all for nothing if your job post directs job seekers to a careers page that is lacking. And this can be the case…in a lot of different ways.

For one, while most organizations now have mobile-responsive websites, this does not mean that their career site–often designed and hosted by a hiring software vendor–is also easy to use via mobile devices. Nowadays, careers sites and online job applications must be optimized for mobile. There are simply too many job seekers who use phones and tablets to conduct their job search.

Your careers site or job description page should also make it very clear and easy to apply. This obviously means offering an online application, but it also could mean offering services like “apply with LinkedIn” or “Apply with Indeed,” where job applicants can save tons of time auto-populating online job application with information stored on those popular job search platforms.

Tip: If job seekers cannot easily apply once landing on your careers site or job description page, then it’s very unlikely that they will return. Utilize online application, auto-population features, and a mobile friendly design to encourage job seekers to apply anytime, from anywhere.

 

ExactHire offers applicant tracking software for small and medium-sized businesses that make it easy to create job posts that target, engage, and entice the right job seekers to apply for your open positions. Contact us today for a personalized demo of our solution.

Starstruck Behind The Tech Curve

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A professional who seeks to lead in any industry will constantly look for ways to increase productivity and efficiency. The past decade has offered businesses countless ways to improve with the introduction of new technologies. Businesses that invested early (and wisely) in new technology were rewarded with a competitive advantage over those that lagged behind. However, this is very difficult for most businesses to do. The difficulty is twofold:

1. Deciding Which Technologies to Adopt

New technologies seem to hit the market every day. Businesses must wade through the hype surrounding new technology and decide which ones will positively affect the bottom line. The sooner they invest in value-added technology, the more likely they will gain a competitive advantage through its implementation.

2. Choosing the Right Vendor or Product

As more and more businesses adopt a technology, great outcomes–let alone a competitive advantage–are not guaranteed. When demand for a new technology increases, the field of competitors expands. This produces some great vendors…along with some awful ones too.

So how does a business effectively invest in technology, when considering the speed of technological advancement and the volume of hype that accompanies it?

Trends and Hype

Not long ago, trends developed over a relatively long period of time. The X-axis usually ticked in years. And we learned about these trends at annual conferences, quarterly magazines, or books (real books). Those who attended, subscribed, or read up were privy to the latest trends.

Today, with technology advancing at breakneck speed, business are feeling a mix of urgency and uncertainty, perhaps even fear. Tech trends are rising and receding so quickly that it’s difficult to determine which trends to follow–lest you be led astray by a fad. We spot these trends on-demand with internet access, a search engine, and social media. Those who connect, search, and follow are instantly in the know.

All of this creates pressure for businesses to adopt new, trending technologies…if only for the hope that it will lead to the possibility of improved outcomes. To avoid wasting resources on a passing tech trend, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What are the direct outcomes (benefits) of this technology?
  • Do the direct outcomes of this technology affect my bottom line?
  • Does my business need to improve these outcomes?
  • Am I currently using another technology that can improve these outcomes?

This line of questioning will help you determine whether a new technology is right for your business or simply a trend that is a better fit for others. You may determine that your business does have a need for a new technology. In this case, the difficulty now lies in vetting vendors and products to find the solutions that will produce the desired outcomes.

Starstruck Behind The Tech Curve

For all the passing tech trends, there are those technological advances that businesses must adopt in order to remain competitive and profitable. The longer a business delays in adopting a new technology, the more important it becomes to select the right technology. Selecting the wrong vendor or product will see a business fall farther behind, while a business that invests in the right technology can quickly make up lost ground.

With the stakes so high, deliberate and informed vetting of vendors and products is vital.

Unfortunately, too many businesses are rushed to a purchase decision for fear of being left behind by the latest tech trend. They are easily starstruck by software reviews and customer testimonials. This blinds them to the real factors that drive successful implementation and improved outcomes.

Reviews and Testimonials | Check For Fit

Let’s face it, product and service reviews aren’t what they used to be. Businesses know that consumers will do research online before making a purchase, and so they invite customers who self-identify as “happy” to provide customer testimonials and reviews for their website and social media pages. Even some third-party review sites allow businesses to invite a “happy” segment of current customers, in addition to unsolicited reviews. This can often result in reviews that skew positive.

The lesson for businesses that are shopping for software is to be wary of reviews and testimonials. While negative reviews will obviously be a red flag, positive reviews require a closer look. Specifically, research the people/companies that are providing the reviews:

Is the company in your industry?

A five-star review of hiring software may be enticing, but if all the reviewers are in the restaurant industry it might not translate well for a business in manufacturing. Consider whether the results described in one industry will translate to yours.

Is the company the same size?

Great software is built to address specific needs and challenges. A large company of over 1,000 employees will have different needs than a company of 50 employees. Consider whether the software has more or less functionality than you need.

How does the company use the software?

It’s common for software to come in editions or packages that include different sets of features. Look closely as to which features are being reviewed and which edition includes those features. Consider whether you need those features and if they address your needs.

Which pricing tier or package do they use?

This goes along with the previous point. Just as reviewers may refer to specific features, they may also review the software for a specific pricing tier. You may fall in love with a Cadillac, when you only have a Hyundai budget. Consider whether the software features you need are available in a pricing tier your budget can afford.

What is the company’s relationship to the software vendor?

In some cases, software reviewers or their employers may have a strategic relationship with the businesses they are reviewing. This can lead to reviews that are genuinely positive, but devoid of constructive criticism. Consider whether the reviews are balanced and complete.

By taking a closer look at software reviews–and the customers behind them, you can begin to create a shortlist of software vendors that are more likely to meet your needs. For the most part, software review sites are very helpful in this process. However, it’s important to look critically at the content of the review and not just a vague star rating.

Avoid Hype, Focus on Value and Fit

A business that adopts the right technologies at the right time can successfully increase productivity and efficiency while gaining an advantage over its lagging competitors. While the concept is simple enough, the path to success requires a disciplined focus on a business’s needs and a critical eye for how the available technologies will meet those needs.

ExactHire offers applicant tracking software and employee onboarding software for small and mid-sized businesses. With nearly a decade of serving the needs of our clients, we are committed to continued improvement of our software and exceptional ongoing customer support.

The Eagle Has Landed: Employee Onboarding

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Competition for talented employees in today’s job market is fierce. The balance of power has swung in favor of the talented job seeker. And since these job seekers have multiple job opportunities to consider, they’re not just looking for a job that pays the bills; they’re looking for a work experience that enhances their lives.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) August 2015 LINE Report, recruiting difficulty reached a 4-year high last July, which also made it 15 consecutive months of increase. In response to this ongoing challenge, many organizations are taking a closer look at their strategy for recruiting, hiring, and retaining top talent.

 

Let Me Fly You To The Moon

Small- to medium-sized businesses are investing in employer brand marketing that attracts applicants and persuades candidates. They are adding “perks” and “fun” to enhance their work culture. They are saying and showing all the right things during the recruitment and hiring phases. And that is all right and good. But too often, new hires are experiencing a disconnect between the marketing (pre-hire) and the reality (post-hire).

Some employers are over-promising, but most are simply too slow in delivering on their promises. Regardless of the cause, the disconnect is driving employee turnover. In the past year, nearly 43% of job turnover consisted of workers with less than 6 months on the job.

Houston, We Have A Problem

If an organization promises the moon to candidates, but then forces new hires to wait a year before getting them there, then that organization has a problem. And that problem most likely lies in new employee onboarding–the period of time between job offer acceptance and a new hire’s complete assimilation into a new organization.

Poor onboarding does not inspire new employees, and it certainly doesn’t enhance their lives. Employers have 90 days to convince new employees that they have accepted a job with the right organization; after that, those new hires will likely begin looking for another opportunity. Examples of ineffective onboarding include:

  • Initial days of work exclusively focused on new hire paperwork 
  • Cold welcome from co-workers
  • Choppy workflow and vague guidance or instructions
  • Heavy, intensive training with little time to socialize with coworkers
  • Role is unclear or widely differs from original description
  • Lack of resources or proactive provisioning
  • No training plan or preliminary goals
  • Miscommunication between stakeholders (those charged with onboarding new hires)

Most of these symptoms of ineffective onboarding can be traced to one of two root causes: the organization does not have enough time to commit to employee onboarding; or the organization does not value onboarding.

Many small- to medium-sized businesses are stretched on time–that’s likely why they’re hiring in the first place. And it’s also likely that these missteps will be corrected as the organizations grow and gain greater efficiency in onboarding. On the other hand, if an organization is ineffectively onboarding employees because it doesn’t find it important, then it’s unlikely improvement will be gained, and the results of that can be devastating.

SHRM places the direct costs of rehiring for a position at 50%-60% of an employee’s salary. Indirect costs can rise to 200% in some cases! Clearly, poor onboarding damages more than an organization’s reputation or employee morale, it impacts the bottom line.

All Hands On Deck

Onboarding is one of the most overlooked and undervalued areas of the employee lifecycle. This is likely because the definition of onboarding–its length, its content, its purpose–has varied between industries, organizations, and even departments within organizations. To improve the onboarding process, an organization’s leaders must first gain a common understanding of the purpose and desired outcomes–a vision–for the onboarding process. From there, it’s a matter of building a plan for employee onboarding process improvement that serves the shared vision.

ExactHire has published a free ebook, All Hands On Deck: A Guide To Employee Onboarding Process Improvement, that offers guidance on the best practices for employee onboarding, including:

  • Expanding your onboarding definition
  • Identifying common problems
  • Making a business case for change
  • Calculating the ROI of onboarding technology
  • Laying the framework
  • Implementing innovative ideas
  • Maintaining a continuous feedback loop
  • Spotting trends in onboarding process automation

This resource is designed to help organizations gain a competitive advantage by realizing the opportunities of best-in-class employee onboarding.

We Have Liftoff

Smart organizations are seeking to improve their employee onboarding processes. With effective stakeholder engagement, documented process milestones, and an infusion of automation technology, these organizations are increasing onboarding efficiency. As a result, employee turnover is reduced and new employees are becoming productive more quickly. All of this positively impacts employer brand, while also driving business outcomes.

ExactHire offers hiring and employee onboarding software to growing small- to medium-sized businesses that are looking to efficiently attract, hire, and retain exceptional talent for continued growth. To learn more about ExactHire’s HR solutions, please submit a brief contact form.

Feature Image Credit: DSC_0699 by Phaedrus (contact)

4 Plays For Payroll Service Bureaus To Close Prospects

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Independent payroll service bureaus, it’s time to put on your game face. Your competition isn’t getting any weaker these days, and technology innovation and adoption is moving at a breakneck pace. So, what do you do…sit down and relentlessly review game tapes to study your competitors’ every play? Well, not exactly, but it is critical to understand your competitors’ potential appeal to your existing clients and potential prospects.

In this blog, we’ll take a quick look at how large national payroll providers might try to remedy your clients’ payroll–and general human resources–pain. Then, we’ll examine how each pain point can be turned into an opportunity for your business to compete on a level playing field with the big providers when it comes to serving the needs of your small- and medium-sized prospects and customers.

Don’t Let Prospect Pain Lead to Competitor Gain

Take a closer look at what large national payroll software providers will typically bring to the table in order to win over the organizations in your market.

 

Gain Promised by National Payroll Provider

A fully loaded software platform with a variety of HR service-related add-ons beyond basic payroll.

  • Administrative burden is alleviated.
  • Single sign-on is provided.
  • “Free” applicant tracking module is available to streamline the process of posting new jobs.
  • “Baked-in” new hire paperwork automation exists to make employment paperwork paperless.

Your Pain as an Independent Payroll Provider

  • You’re outmatched when it comes to ancillary HR service software features.
  • Your potential clients are seduced by flashy bells and whistles touted by the national providers.
  • Your prospects are led to believe that only a big provider is going to meet their needs.
  • The national providers aggressively push technology, though you want to keep service as the emphasis for your conversation with prospects.

 

Opportunities for a Good Offense

In this section, we’ll examine each of your pain points as they relate to your prospects being recruited to use national provider solutions instead of your services. In doing so, opportunities for you to score more points in your market space will be presented, as well.

1 – You’re Outmatched Technologically

When faced with the prospect of playing basketball against a squad of seven footers, and you’re only 5’8”, it’s time to run some innovative plays–or, find some sturdy stilts. The challenge is no different when you’re competing against mega payroll software providers that have a one-stop shop software platform to meet every human resource need of your small- and medium-sized business clients.

Your Play: You can make your product offering look “big” as well by partnering with an HR software provider that specializes in systems that fall outside of your core product or service. Not only will your payroll function remain strong as you continue to make it your primary focus, you’ll give yourself additional reach with clients by incorporating options for recruiting, employee onboarding, reference checking, background checking and/or other HR-related tools.

2 – Their Flashy Bells and Whistles are Seductive

The big providers’ long list of customers, features and their share of the market can be impressive accomplishments in the eyes of your prospects. However, upon closer inspection sometimes the sizzle is just a smokescreen for a lack of substance. Specifically, while the big providers give users access to a suite of HR tools in addition to payroll processing, when individually examined these tools may be regarded as afterthought ancillary systems that get added onto the provider’s original payroll code.

Your Play: By forming a strong relationship with a best-in-class HR software provider, your business can match the feature offerings of national providers to get a foot in the door and generate initial interest. However, the especially important benefit of a strong partnership is that your business will have a better track record of customer retention, as it will be providing robust systems with a proven record of continuous development and innovation.

3 – They Throw Their Weight Around

Flashback to fifth grade P.E. class, and I bet your memories include witnessing the biggest, strongest kid always being picked first to be captain of the dodgeball team. The choice was natural as the kid was obviously athletic and a seasoned competitor. Your prospects and clients are thinking the same thing…they want the biggest- and strongest-looking payroll provider to take care of their needs. They want to be in capable hands.

Your Play: When everyone wants to be on the big kid’s team, it’s going to be hard for the captain to customize his coaching to each individual teammate. So, in the interest of efficiency he may adopt a one-size fits all approach. Your prospects may face the same cookie-cutter mentality once they partner with a large payroll provider.

Therefore, consider reinforcing your own coaching excellence with a partner that rounds out your perceived weaknesses as they compare to your larger competitors. In doing so, give your clients a scalable system that can be customized to their payroll needs and current size, and that also includes integrations to the additional recruiting, onboarding and reference checking tools they desire for improved HR efficiency. Better yet, assure them that these additional modules are provided by a partner that is constantly improving its own core offerings while you focus on your bread and butter – payroll. Everyone wins.

4 – They Lead With Tech; You Focus on Service

Think of your competitors as the flashy, private school team with the latest style of uniform and top-of-the-line sporting equipment. They step on the field and you instantly fight off hearing “We will, we will, rock you” in your head. If your business doesn’t pick up a teammate with the right equipment to compete, then your new internal soundtrack will be “I’m a loser baby” as your customers walk out the door…before they even get a chance to be raving fans of your service. They won’t even know what they missed, because you won’t even get an at bat.

Your Play: Add some dazzle to your own pre-game warm-up routine by bringing a solid recruiting and onboarding software partner to the table to assure your prospects that you can fill the same kinds of HR service technology gaps as your competitors. Only then, will you get the opportunity to elevate the conversation to focus on service comparisons where you can further differentiate your firm.

The level of service your competitors offer doesn’t even rival the stellar support that you extend to your customers, right? By allowing your trusted partner to focus on tech development outside of your payroll offerings, you still have time to make servicing your clients a priority. Additionally, with the right teammate, you determine which is your better play: being first tier support on your partner’s products or introducing your clients to your partner’s close-knit team of U.S.-based support specialists that are used to working with small- and medium-sized (SMB) clients.

Game Time Decision

Your customers don’t want to experience employee turnover as a result of missing out on the latest, most engaging HR technology. And you don’t want turnover in your client base, either. Find a trusted partner that helps you provide best-in-class HR service add-on software to delight your customers. Check out ExactHire’s guide to choosing a partner below.

HR Software Provider Partnership Guide

Image Credit: 4 by Rosmarie Voegtli (contact)