Workforce Management Archives

7 Catalysts for Developing an Enviable Company Culture

in Workforce Management/by Randi Renee Doerr, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

Be intentional. That’s it. Shortest blog ever, right?

Let’s at least call intentionality the prerequisite for positive culture development. While it is true that you can’t force culture because it happens (insert buzz word) organically, purposefully paying attention to the actions and behaviors an organization takes that affect culture is like putting Miracle-Gro on your cherry tomato container plant. It just makes things turn out more favorably. In this blog, I’ll focus on seven intentional behaviors that can agreeably impact the attitudes people have about your organization’s culture. Let’s get fertilizin’.

1 – Senior leadership’s voice and leadership incubation

Your company’s management team sets the tone. Hopefully it’s melodically dependable like Straight No Chaser.

Or, maybe your managers’ behavior and communication falls flat…or not at all. Especially in fast growth companies, it’s easy for senior leaders to be wrapped up in the operations and investment pipeline for the business, and to just Band-Aid employee engagement initiatives. However, a mentality that stalls culture-focused activities until a later date once the company has established itself is a mentality that finds itself with an unintended and often undesirable culture. In contrast, a company that appreciates how culture evolves alongside operational processes and growth spurts right from the inception of an organization is one that is agile enough to dynamically affect its culture’s direction. Moreover, the latter organization will not be left trying to convince employees that “this time, culture will be better/different/important.” A sad repercussion of becoming intentional later in the game is that members of your organizational ecosystem will be more resistant to and skeptical of change.

Senior leaders forge the habits that inherently shape culture. Some may reflect the personal habits of the founders, while others become necessity based on the industry. Regardless of the habits, recognize and embrace them. Then, use them as a foundation for developing tomorrow’s senior leaders. Sentiments about company culture take a turn for the worse when up and coming managers are out of tune with core organizational habits–often because no initiative exists to groom their development.

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Consider the following contrasting organizational habits and examples of how they may shape culture:

Risk taking vs. risk aversion and stability – the willingness to accept external venture capital funding or the choice to be entirely self-funded
Open book transparency vs. closed books – the responsibility to better educate employees about “the numbers” or the consequence that employees will invent their own ideas about company solvency
Compliance-driven vs. relative nonconformity – the necessity to conform to expectations and/or government/industry regulations or the latitude to go in any/many direction(s)
Deference to history vs. the open road ahead – the tradition of celebrating a long-standing history of accomplishment or the desire to forget the past and start with a clean slate
Liberal work schedule autonomy vs. traditional 9 to 5 – the promotion of attractive work-life balance or the adherence to a standardized, brick and mortar schedule

2 – Value-based approach to culture evolution…maybe even revolution

Every company has values, they just aren’t always artfully framed and displayed on the office wall. But what matters more than using them as wall decorations is that they become an undeniable presence in your work operations. I’ll be honest, we’ve got some work to do on this front at ExactHire. I think we already have a distinctive culture which I enjoy; however, we haven’t specifically called out our organizational values (Alas, it’s a Q3 goal this year!). I think part of the struggle for us and other businesses is that if we make the effort to commit to our official values, we don’t want to fall short of supporting them and run the risk of having meaningless wall hangings. That can happen if companies approach the value conversation with their ideas of “aspirational values” (according to Patrick Lencioni), but not if they embrace the gritty, raw nature of their existing core values. For example, being “candid even when times are tough” doesn’t sound as nice as “integrity” (in gold lettering on stamped leather) but it may better describe your business, and if so, wear your pieces of flair proudly! And by the way, all companies should just omit “integrity” from their value lists because I think we can assume all companies should have it as a baseline “no duh” value.

So let’s say you don’t have any defined values yet. Where do you start? Only the senior leadership team should draft and determine the corporate values. Involving the entire company, whether via open discussion or survey, is a journey down a long, meandering path that results in vanilla values…and ones that won’t necessarily recognize the existing habits of the company.

Once senior leaders determine values, they should simmer on them for a few months before announcing them to the rest of the staff. The point of the waiting period is for management to intentionally work to model the values for the workforce and make sure they fit before outing them to the entire company.

Eventually, employees will help interpret the values through behaviors that impact company culture. The key to sustaining this is to recognize efforts that align with values. For example, if an organization happens to value proactive social communication, then appoint someone to create and post celebratory image posts to Twitter whenever a teammates crushes an important goal. Take it a step further by periodically recognizing individual employees who specifically support your different values through their actions. Or maybe have everyone wear black and white to celebrate “candor” day per my previous value example (“Divergent,” anyone?). Okay, that one was silly. But on a serious note, by being accountable to your values your organization will naturally foster a culture that supports your objectives.

3 – Communicate and empower involvement to build your community

A culture is really like a community too, isn’t it? And if you think about what makes all the communities of which you are a part thrive, I bet communication is at the top of the list. Being aware of all the happenings in your community is really what makes you feel comfortable. My husband and I have lived in our current neighborhood for ten years, but it has only been in the last three to four years that I have really felt engaged in our community. This is primarily due to a notable increase in communication now that we’re more involved in school activities (kids are that age now), kid sports, church committees and neighborhood HOA meetings. Because we know all the latest information about the activities in which we are involved, we are more engaged in those activities and empowered to participate.

Expect the same effect by employing more regular communication in your organization. Senior leaders should regularly address employees about what’s going on with the company, and HR and hiring managers should make sure that newly hired employees are added to recurring meeting requests and newsletter distribution lists. Be certain that communication habits align well with core values, and setting that example starts at the top. For a traditional banking institution that may mean formal notices in employees’ mailboxes, while a completely distributed workforce of remote employees may rely on messaging via a corporate intranet or a chat platform.

4 – Standardize training, but still champion individuality

Do you have “Ambassadors of Quan” conducting training for new employees and succession planning purposes? Or…just warm bodies carrying out this critical activity?

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The quality and complexity of your training efforts directly impact the degree to which employee actions align with corporate values, and therefore, the extent to which your culture is desirable. Be sure to invest time to train your trainers so that a relatively consistent, comprehensive experience is available to trainees; however, engage trainers in the effort by allowing them to leave their own unique mark on the activity, as well. This may include latitude in methods for testing the retention of knowledge and/or strategies for gathering continuous feedback to improve training activities–both critical exercises.

5 – Hire and onboard with a laser focus on job fit

Let’s not forget that a significant driver of company culture is the workforce, itself. When it comes to hiring new employees, make sure that candidates will jive well with your values. To do so, incorporate behavioral-based questions into the interview process that will elicit whether a candidate’s own values will have synergy with your organization’s set. It can be easy to hire a rock star candidate that has the highly technical skills necessary for a role, but if his/her attitudes will start an internal riot within the company the best move is to move on to another person.

Beyond the initial interviews, create opportunities for candidates to proactively demonstrate their behaviors and attitudes by inviting them to job shadow prior to an offer. Additionally, employee assessments will give you a glimpse into the behavioral hardwiring of an individual so that you may ask targeted questions that will help you clear up any remaining uncertainty about an applicant. Many applicant tracking systems can make these additional steps easy by integrating assessment tools within one hiring software interface.

Achieving optimal job fit doesn’t stop with an employment offer to the top candidate. Use the employee onboarding process to have discussions with new hires about core values and how they support objectives and catalyze your culture. Consider a formal mentoring program that pairs new employees with existing employees who especially exemplify values and champion culture. Another fun activity during the employee onboarding phase would be to invite new hires to complete a scavenger hunt during which they complete value-aligned activities at the organization. For example, if cross-departmental collaboration is cherished at the company, then new hires might be prompted to Pokemon-Go (gasp!) over to other departments’ work areas in order to learn how their roles interface…while catching an elusive animated character, of course. Make sure these culture-enriching activities don’t fall through the cracks by creating a workflow specific to your organization with an employee onboarding software tool.

6 – Reward culture evangelism

Do this by recognizing and celebrating value alignment. If employees are praised for representing corporate values and intentionally nurturing culture, then they will want to keep doing it. Recognize what motivates different employees as it is the key to unlocking a new level of productivity and engagement. At ExactHire, being a smaller business, many of us are motivated by seeing one’s individual impact on the work of the entire company, for example, so we have monthly meetings in which we review financials, celebrate progress on individual and departmental goals and plan the roadmap for the next quarter together.

Recognition should be appropriately customized for the department or individual to which it is directed. Additionally, be specific with praise (no boiler plate email templates please!) so that one has clarity on the exact behavior that resulted in commendation. Be sure to explain the impact of one’s efforts, and do so in a timely fashion. For example, if your business has cultivated a culture of responsiveness then you certainly don’t want a supervisor missing the window of time for maximizing the appreciation an employee may feel for his/her efforts. The thank you note that is received three months after the birthday party doesn’t quite mean as much does it? That kind of misstep forms cracks in the authenticity of an organization’s culture.

7 – Make sure feedback doesn’t land in a black hole

Evolution. Dynamicism. Relevancy. Three adjectives I’d use to describe company culture nirvana. But you can’t get to Shangri La by sticking your head in the sand and going about business as usual. You must continuously evaluate your culture-minded activities and organizational engagement as a whole in order to keep your culture healthy.

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Collect feedback in a way that supports your core values. For some this may mean periodic in-person focus groups where one employee’s idea can feed off another’s in a public forum. For others, weekly “pulse surveys” that prompt anonymous feedback on just one or two questions at a time may be ideal. Plus, don’t forget the value of human resources staff and management keeping their ear to ground and informally gathering feedback everyday.

Mine your feedback for hidden gems by collaborating with others to unearth the ideas that will become the next culture-focused priorities or experiments for your company. Keep in mind that one idea doesn’t fit all and that employees will be motivated by different activities and opportunities. Their opinions may be formed based on past employers’ (perhaps failed) culture efforts and generational differences, among other factors.

Most importantly, communicate what you are doing with the feedback to your workforce! Depending on corporate values related to transparency, you may share all of the feedback or just highlight the ideas that are being implemented. The point is that you communicate action steps resulting from the input and then promote and recognize the worth of the contributions. Report on how ideas have changed the company in the future, as well.

With these seven catalysts in mind, you will put your organization in a better position to synthesize the kind of culture that will attract talent from your competitors and engage employees to take the organization to new heights.

4 Guidelines for Optimal Job Application Conversion Rates

in Hiring Process, Workforce Management/by Randi Renee Doerr, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

We live in an age of distraction and it’s wreaking havoc on your talent applicant sourcing process. Despite your efforts to write engaging job descriptions, post them far and wide and publicize your amazing corporate culture, your click-to-apply ratio is dismal. So what gives?

While the aforementioned items are undoubtedly important factors in the talent acquisition game, another critical component is the length of your job application. The likelihood that you’ll make your very next priority about researching your ideal application length will depend on the supply and demand for job categories in your local market. However, know that the very best candidates always have options, so even in a seller’s…ahem…employer’s market, top talent still won’t fill out your 50-question job application.

The proof is in the numbers, and it’s pretty staggering on both desktop and mobile devices. Check out this statistic from a study referenced in an ERE post:

“For every 100 candidates who click through from a job advertisement to a recruitment portal on a desktop device, an average of 8 will complete a job application. For mobile click-throughs, the completion figure is just 1.5 percent.”

I was curious about how the same numbers would stack up across all of our own HireCentric applicant tracking software client job portals. During the last six months, our own click-to-apply ratios for site visitors who make up the referral traffic category* are listed below.

desktop – 9.23%
mobile – 4.96%
tablet – 3.34%

*Referral traffic category visitor = visitor referred to a client’s HireCentric ATS portal from a link on another site like a client’s corporate website or an external job board.

While our ratios come out slightly more favorable than those referenced in the study, it’s still pretty disheartening to think about the fact that out of 100 job seekers referred to your careers portal, only three to nine of them will actually finish the application process, depending on their device. So how can you improve your own job site’s click-through numbers?

Ditch Traditional Job Application Length Thinking

Start to ask yourself the tough questions about what you really need to know from applicants at the onset of the hiring process. Then, dump traditional thoughts like these:

Employer thinks: “I want my application to be long enough that I won’t get overwhelmed with unqualified applicants.”

High potential job seeker thinks: “This is taking too long…I won’t be applying here now…or ever.”

While there is some logic to making your process long enough to be a speed bump to candidates that are just looking to claim their next unemployment check, if it’s too lengthy you run the risk of disengaging the best potential applicants from finishing your application now…or anytime in the future.

Employer thinks: If someone wants to work here badly enough, they’ll jump through whatever question “hoops” we present.

High potential job seeker thinks: If the employer cared enough about its employment brand, they’d only ask the deal-breaker questions early, and save the other stuff until later.

Evaluate your own application process to determine what works best for your organization and job market. And, remember to consider how the applicant might feel while completing your employment application. Use the following sections as a checklist to help make adjustments…and know that what works for one job category may not be ideal for another.

Mobilization

Make it easy to apply from a mobile device

The statistics don’t lie–the conversion rate for job seekers viewing your site from a mobile device are even worse than from a desktop. Smaller screens make lengthier applications appear even more intimidating and stop potential applicants in their tracks. Implement these enhancements to improve your odds for success.

Mobile-friendly jobs site – make sure your careers portal is developed with responsive web design so that your employment application automatically adjusts to the size of the screen on which it is viewed.
Mobile apply integrations – Look for an applicant tracking system that integrates with well-established sites from which candidates may pull application information.
- Apply with LinkedIn – can your candidates authorize their own LinkedIn profile to populate some of the fields of your application?
- Indeed Apply – Is your application set up in such a way (including responsive web design) that Indeed can empower job seekers to use their Indeed profile to push application info to your ATS? The key to making this setup work is collecting only basic information in the first step of the application process (e.g. applicant source, resume and job screening questions, for example).
Dropbox/Google Drive – Candidates can’t necessarily upload a resume file to your jobs site from their phone/tablet. Mobile job seekers will count on your system to allow them to pull their resume files from a cloud-based file storage site like Dropbox or Google Drive.

Segmentation

Do not put the cart before the horse

Do you really need to have a candidate’s references in the first step of the hiring process? After all, only a tiny percentage of all of your candidates will have those come into play at the end of the selection process. And, you don’t really need the full employment and/or education histories right away if you get a resume up front.

Look for an ATS provider that offers employment application options such as the two-step application. This feature allows you to ask only the absolute need-to-know-now questions of applicants in the very beginning of the recruiting process. Then, once applicants are pre-screened and a few top candidates are identified, you can always ask those top candidates (who are now more motivated to respond having been identified) for more robust applicant information in the second step of the application.

Additionally, limit the number of essay questions in your application, and instead opt for multiple choice questions to facilitate informative, quick answers that don’t lengthen the time it takes to complete an application, but at the same time, do allow your staff to use answers to automatically score and/or disqualify applicants. In fact, the aforementioned study found that the length of time it takes one to complete an application is an even bigger driver of applicant drop-off than the number of questions asked.

Customization

Identify the information you need in each job category

Help job candidates help you. That is, customize their application experience to be hyper-specific to the information you need early on to assess their potential qualifications for a position. For example, if you are sourcing applicants for an exempt position, then don’t make them answer an application question that asks whether they are willing to work overtime…as that would only be applicable to non-exempt job candidates. This can be accommodated either through job screening question groups customized for each of your job categories; or, via multiple application layouts for different hiring needs (e.g. executive-level, different geographic locations, etc.) that are set up by a trusted applicant tracking software provider.

Think about other potential considerations to ease the candidate experience. Do your graphic designer job applicants have a designated place on the application to reference their online portfolio? Does the application associated with the recent college graduates’ hiring track allow candidates to link to a copy of their student transcript?

Communication

Paint a clear picture of the path to employment

Many effective writing styles preview a piece of content’s focus before getting into meaty topics. In a sense, you’ve got to tell readers what you’re going to tell them before you tell it. Redundant or not, a lot of people like to know what they are getting themselves into to determine if it’s worth their time in the first place. Job seekers are no different.

Create content that illustrates not just your employer’s application process, but the entire hiring process including interviews, background/reference checks, the offer letter and employee onboarding activities. Here are some communication strategies:

Job description length – If you want more qualified candidates to apply, then you generally need to describe the position in more words than found in one short paragraph. However, your job listing should not be a novel either. Look to recruiting metrics available in an in-app ATS dashboard to help you start to diagnose which of your job listings are performing best when it comes to organic search results…this could be a partial clue into which of these descriptions have a more optimal, keyword-savvy, length.
Career-focused content – Include pages within your jobs site that share Q&A narratives about what candidates can expect from the hiring process. Incorporate video and images as often as possible as it makes it easier and more entertaining for job seekers to process the information presented.
Clear application instructions – Take another look at the actual directions listed at the start and end of your application process. Do they set expectations that additional information may be collected later, if applicable? Could they be lengthened (or shortened) to be more effective?

By heeding these guidelines for converting more job applications, your organization can make strides toward improving your hiring efficiency.

The Eagle Has Landed: Employee Onboarding

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

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)

MondayFunday: Races and Bases

in Workforce Management/by Christian Willey

Unless you’re Patrick Star and living under a rock this summer, you’ve noticed that the weather has been beautiful…and hot. That hasn’t stopped us at ExactHire from going out and having some fun in the sun though! May and June have both proved to be quite competitive here in the office for our monthly MondayFunday as we raced remote control cars in May and tried to throw wiffle balls into a bucket with gusting winds in June.

Out of the Gates

Since May is for racing, the fun committee decided that it was time for the first official racing of the remote control cars. Even before the races started, there was some trouble as Christa discovered that one remote was controlling both cars so it was decided that each person would go solo. As the newest member of the team, I was forced to play the guinea pig in the first running of the ExactHire races. Unfortunately for the rest of the team, I had a few tricks up my sleeve – tricks being ten year-old sisters that keep me up to date on kids’ toys (such as race cars), allowing me to clock in a lap time of approximately 12 seconds…cue victory dance. There were many other admirable attempts to beat my time, but karma was racing the others as there were many bumps and run-ins with patio furniture along the way.

Tom’s son proved to be the best of the best when it came to stepping in as the flag man and providing enthusiasm throughout the harrowing lap – even going as far as to follow the car to the finish line (such fearlessness). Overall, race day proved to be a great way to relieve some stress and have a few laughs together as it was pretty much impossible to navigate that pesky patio furniture, but either way – we all had a good time (especially anyone who got to help Tom’s son have a blast!)

Throwing Caution to the Wind

June’s Monday Funday proved to be insanely difficult as winds were gusting at approximately 110 mph (I’m not a weatherman, but I’m pretty sure it was that windy). The fun committee, not foreseeing such inclement weather decided to have us all participate in a pseudo-game of baseball/catch; we all had to run base to base and throw two wiffle balls, trying to toss as many as possible into a bucket place on the pitcher’s “mound.” This may seem simple enough, but rest assured, it was not.

Harlan Schafir managed to beat us all with a whopping three balls in the bucket. Tom came close to trumping him, with four balls in the bucket, though unfortunately for him, three bounced out – rendering them unscorable.

Despite our winner having a success rate of only 37.5%, we were 100% successful with our goal of having fun! We celebrated our success with a baseball-themed cookie cake which only added to our excitement.

Monday Funday is one way in which ExactHire seeks to build and grow a fun work culture. Each month–on a Monday of course–we recognize the workiversaries and birthdays of our team. We also participate in creative competitions that sometimes turn fierce.

We will share recaps of these events via our blog in an effort to spread the word that Monday can be a fun day. But we also want to know how you have FUN at your workplace too. So add that in the comment section below. Our Fun Committee is always looking for ideas!
Image credit: Spongebob Patrick Star Anime by Koorication (contact)

Onboarding New Employees At Multiple Locations

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

“You just need a little time to get your feet wet.” Onboarding new employees could be described as the process whereby a new employee gets her proverbial feet wet. It’s a process of discovering something for the first time, overcoming fear and anxiety, and gradually becoming familiar, comfortable with a new experience. It’s a slow, measured lowering into the water–starting with the feet. A summer dip in the pool.

Sadly, far too many new employees never experience that placid scene. Their experience is quite the opposite. It’s more akin to Uncle Larry running across the the pool deck in all his gut jostling glory, scooping up nieces, nephews, unaware bystanders– and an unfortunately placed inflatable–before lunging mercilessly into the deep end with all wrapped in his arms. “Uncle Larry I can’t swim!”

Of course, the “sink or swim” approach works at some places. When it’s planned. And when it involves experienced swimmers. And when Uncle Larry isn’t in charge. But regardless of whether your employee onboarding process is measured and methodical or fast and furious, it becomes exceedingly difficult to manage outcomes when onboarding employees at multiple locations.

No Guard On Duty

Onboarding new employees at multiple locations is a challenge because it’s rarely possible to have a person dedicated to guarding the process at each location. Things get dropped, forms don’t get signed (or counter-signed), documents are lost, important instructions are delivered secondhand or not at all…the list goes on. So for organizations who must onboard employees across multiple locations, many must default to the “sink or swim” approach because they simply do not have the HR staff to facilitate anything else.

However, when no one is around to determine whether a new employee is sinking or swimming in the early stages of employment, a number of negative outcomes can result. These include:

Inconsistent Service or Operations

New employees–to a business’s customers–are just employees. Customers don’t care if they are receiving subpar customer service from a new employee–it’s still subpar service, and it’s not appreciated. When new employees are thrown into a position without adequate preparation, operations and customer service will suffer.

Low Employee Morale

Perhaps a new employee is doing well, but no one is affirming her work in the early weeks. She thinks she’s doing well, but she’s not too sure and so anxious. Over time, that anxiety turns into ambivalence. Ambivalence will soon become resentment. Resentful employees don’t stick around; they start looking for new opportunities.

Low Productivity

Maximizing productivity depends on consistently executing optimized processes efficiently. New employees who are poorly onboarded may lack the knowledge or motivation (sometimes both) to execute a process efficiently, even if that process is optimal. In other words, bad employee onboarding may lead to bad business outcomes.

Rapid Employee Turnover

The initial results of bad employee onboarding are experienced by the employee and felt by the customer; however, eventually this all comes back to injure the employer–specifically, the employer’s brand. A negative employer brand makes it increasingly difficult to grow a business and hire new employees. And maintaining a constant hiring cycle with minimal growth is expensive and ultimately unsustainable for many small- to medium-sized businesses. Hand-in-hand with low employee morale, rapid employee turnover can have a lasting effect on an organization.

Planning Your Pool Party

For organizations with multiple “pools” of employees spread across a geographic area, hiring an HR representative for each location is not likely feasible. So those organizations must find a way to ensure that they are consistently and effectively onboarding new employees at multiple locations. Here are a couple options:

Train Location Managers In Onboarding

Additional onboarding-related training for location managers could equip them with the skills to successfully handle new employee onboarding themselves. In a perfect world, managers would welcome and execute this with open arms, but in the real world it would be scoffed and scorned into oblivion (ain’t nobody got time for that).

Onboard In One Location

A more sophisticated, complex approach to onboarding could involve moving the process to one location. This would see new employees spending their first week at one location, learning the ropes, and then “graduating” to new locations after the onboarding period had ended. With perfect execution this could work too, but who’s to say that a new employee’s experience at the second location wouldn’t differ from her first?

Although the above approaches may work under certain circumstances, the introduction of onboarding software easily tops both.

Cannonball!

To really make a splash during the new employee onboarding process, employers should seek to eliminate monotony and simplify complexity. Employee onboarding software can do this, and for organizations with employees at multiple locations, it has the added benefit of reducing the need for HR staff at every location. How?

By providing tools to digitally manage tasks, documents, and forms, employee onboarding software makes possible the following:

Enter Once, Populate Many

Once an employee enters information into a field, that information automatically populates other fields and documents that require it. No more entering your name and address multiple times.

Electronic Signatures

Collecting, counter-signing, and filing documents can be eliminated completely. Electronic signatures allow for documents and forms to be processed and stored digitally, saving time and resources–and avoiding the headaches of paper chasing.

Task Assignment and Completion Triggers

Schedule required onboarding tasks to be assigned contingent upon the completion of other tasks. This allows an organization to control the timing and pace of the process, which helps ensure that new hires feel comfortable and not overwhelmed.

E-Verify Integration

Onboarding software that features an E-Verify integration drastically reduces the time needed to verify the employment eligibility of new hires. Using information the employee submits electronically via the required Form I-9, software with this integration submits the information to E-Verify, where the information is checked against a federal database and a status returned almost immediately.

Bring The Employee Onboarding Process Alive!

Employee onboarding software succeeds in bringing consistency and quality to the new employee onboarding process by centralizing control of the process in the hands of the Human Resources Department. By automating many of the monotonous and complex tasks required of both new employees and HR, the software provides human resources professionals with the space and time to bring the employee onboarding process alive.

So the next time your organization is analyzing employee turnover metrics or brainstorming ideas for employee engagement and retention, take the time review your employee onboarding process. Are you inviting new hires to enjoy the cool, calm waters of your organization at reasonable, comfortable pace? Or are you bum rushing them into Uncle Larry’s wild pool party?

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.

Image credit: Document-management-workflow (Click on image/Press L for a full view) by Saad Faruque (contact)

No Lifeguard On Duty by Myrtle Beach TheDigitel (contact)

Belly Flop Contest by Steven Depolo (contact)

Pool Rules Girls Pool Party Lourdie by prayitnophotography (contact)

Vermont “Ban the Box” Legislation

in Hiring Process, Workforce Management/by Nancy Meyer, SHRM-CP

As the movement to eliminate potential employment barriers for individuals with a criminal record continues, Vermont is the newest state to pass legislation to “Ban the Box” in the early stages of the application process for public and private sector employment. “Ban the Box” AKA “Fair Chance Policy” aims to reduce recidivism rates and future incarcerations of prior offenders. The policy will help individuals with criminal records “have a fair chance” to be actively considered for employment opportunities despite having blemished records when they are applying for jobs in their attempt to attain employment.
Vermont Governor, Peter Shumlin, signed the legislation on May 3, 2016; however, this legislation does not become effective until July 1, 2017. The time delay will be implemented so that employers will have adequate time to adjust employment processes to comply with this law. The bill, H.261, prohibits employers from asking criminal conviction related questions initially on a job application. Employers are still allowed to ask questions about convictions later in the hiring process. Certain exemptions exist on this law, please consult your company’s legal team for more information on the exemptions and criteria to qualify.

Upcoming “Ban the Box” Legislation

Vermont “Ban the Box” legislation is only the latest to be adopted a state. Currently, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Illinois, New Jersey and Oregon all have statewide Ban the Box legislation for public and private employment. Other states, cities and municipalities have enacted localized or public employment related legislation related to the Ban the Box concept. To keep abreast of states and cities who enact “Ban the Box” legislation, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) has an interactive map that provides an overview of the current legislative status. For the actual legislation, you will need to go directly to the state or city government website to access the passed law(s) in its comprehensive language.
Employers need to be aware of the legislation that exists and what legislation is pending to be prepared for the potential impact on their organizations. If your organization currently has hiring practices in multiple states and cities, or posts job listings nationally, it is important to be cognizant of the locales’ legal expectations and determine if you need to alter verbiage on your employment application(s) and/or change specific steps in your hiring practices to be compliant with “Ban the Box” legislation.
Please note: The ExactHire team is not legal counsel, and we do not offer legal advice so any questions regarding your company’s eligibility for exemption with the “Ban the Box” legislation and/or proper verbiage for your company’s employment application(s) should be discussed with your company’s legal counsel. To learn specifically how Vermont’s H.261 affects your organization’s hiring practices, please contact your company’s legal team.

ExactHire Clients

At ExactHire, we take pride in doing our best to ensure our clients’ satisfaction is the highest possible. We do whatever we can to resolve clients’ current needs and identify potential needs. After you speak with your legal counsel, and if you and your legal team decide changes need to be made to your employment application(s) to comply with legislation, the ExactHire team can work with you to create a new application with the verbiage you specify for compliance. Also, please know that one of the benefits of using ExactHire’s HireCentric software as your applicant tracking system is that you can create multiple employment applications, each specific to your needs. If you are an existing client looking for more information about updating your current employment application(s) and/or creating additional employment applications, please email support@exacthire.com, and let us know your needs.

Learn More About ExactHire Solutions

If you are not yet an ExactHire client, for more information about HireCentric ATS, please visit our resources page or contact us today.

Thank You, But We’re Not Hiring (You)

in Hiring Process, Workforce Management/by Christian Willey

Thank you for your interest in our company. Though your resume was impressive, we have decided to consider other applicants further. I apologize for the disappointing news, best of luck in your job search.

After reading an email like the one above, a flurry of emotions begin to take hold. Overwhelming disappointment, crippling self-doubt, and a fear of eternal unemployment begin to manifest when reading rejection after rejection. College students and recent graduates, who were once eager to take on the business world, receive these emails and are quickly knocked down into the dark hollows of reality and exclusion.

College students spend four years participating in activities, workshops, volunteer events, and clubs among the countless hours of class and homework to simply be told that, outside of internship experiences, any extracurriculars hold little to no bearing on what the business is actually looking for in a candidate. Internship experience is often heavily tied to your major; CNN reported the following about various college majors and levels of success found through employment rates as well as wage:

Graduates who majored in agriculture, construction or nursing are dominating the job market. Their unemployment rates are 2% or lower — less than half the national average of 5%. Recent grads with nursing degrees make about $48,000 a year. Fine arts graduates struggle a lot — their starting salaries are on the lower side of the spectrum of new graduates: $29,000 a year, 7.6% are without a job and 62.3% end up taking lower paying jobs that don’t require a college degree.

This may seem daunting, but I am here to help! As an English major, I was told time and time again that I would never find a job – we all know the English major jokes, like McSweeney’s, Things to do with your English Degree, but in reality, it doesn’t matter what degree you have or even how hard you work – what matters is how smart you work or at least how smart you say you worked on your resume. The key is phrasing and confidence. So let’s start on how to even get through the countless job boards in order to gain the attention of a potential employer.

Where to Look

Indeed, Monster, CareerBuilder, and here in Indianapolis–the Charitable Advisors nonprofit job board—are just a few of the many job boards that you, a potential applicant, can look through to find a position nearly anywhere in the world. Some of my tips are to really look at the descriptions before you just click “Apply” all willy-nilly. After all, you don’t want to receive emails and phone calls from employers in which you’re not actually interested…it’s a waste of everyone’s time, yours included.

When looking at the postings, there should be some key takeaways and red flags. With each post and potential application you should make a mental pros/cons list. As an example, let’s look at the three listings:

1st Post – Freelance Social Media Coordinator:
Pro: “Posted five hours ago” – ensures that you’ll be one of the first applicants
Con: “Dates: October 31st-January 22nd*” – no potential to work more than 3 months
2nd Post – Freelance Writer
Pro: “Sponsored by Work Market” – since the company is sponsoring their own work, it is likely that they are well known and can provide a position that is exactly what you are looking for (in the freelance world)
Con: “Sponsored by Work Market” – oftentimes when a job listing is sponsored, it either has been dormant or it is done through a recruiting agency (which isn’t always a bad thing, it’s all about your personal preference) and Work Market is a site that requires payment for specific applications
3rd Post – Sales Specialist – PT Freelance
Pro: “Part-Time Sales” – as long as you enjoy sales positions, this is guaranteed to not have a predetermined end date
Con: “Posted 30+ days ago” – this job has probably been dormant or filled for awhile now.
Generally, it is unlikely to hear back from a listing that has been posted for more than 10 days (based on personal experience)

Though I can’t guarantee you these methods will work in finding you a job, I have listed a few websites where you can find a job, potentially leading you to the pond of real-world employment (or interning).
Indeed
VelvetJobs (this one requires a membership)
Charitable Advisors (non-profit positions)
Monster
SimplyHired

Selling Yourself (and Skills)

I’ve mentioned a few times that the huge selling point is phrasing and working smarter, not harder; in a resume, cover letter, or interview you want the employer to see you as an ideal fit. As a fine arts grad myself, this should be overwhelmingly concerning, right? Well, lucky for me, I minored in business and interned solely in the marketing field throughout college (hence, I am able to phrase my experience as a strong concentration in business and marketing). My dreams of being an editor-in-chief and publishing young adult authors such as Sarah Dessen and J.K. Rowling have been put on the back burner (for now) in order to make ends meet. I’m kidding – I truly have enjoyed working in the marketing field, and anyone that enjoys reading, editing, and writing should strongly consider looking into a business-esque job because the possibilities are endless. But that doesn’t let everyone off the hook; if you didn’t minor or intern in the business field, how do you even land an interview?

First, you’ve got to believe in yourself. Sounds cheesy, I know, but if you think you’re qualified, than others are more likely to believe it too. Your resume is the primary place to present this confidence. Everyone knows how to list jobs and internships, but not everyone knows how to describe the experience. Monster, one of the job boards listed above, made a list of mistakes to avoid that you can check out here, but what I have found to be most important are tips number four and eight.

4. Highlighting duties instead of accomplishments
It’s easy to slip into a mode where you simply start listing job duties on your resume…Employers, however, don’t care so much about what you’ve done as what you’ve accomplished in your various activities. They’re looking for statements more like these:
· Used laptop computer to record weekly meeting minutes and compiled them in a Microsoft Word-based file for future organizational reference.
· Developed three daily activities for preschool-age children and prepared them for a 10-minute holiday program performance.
· Reorganized 10 years worth of unwieldy files, making them easily accessible to department members.
8. Leaving off important information
You may be tempted, for example, to eliminate mention of the jobs you’ve taken to earn extra money for school. Typically, however, the soft skills you’ve gained from these experiences (e.g., work ethic, time management) are more important to employers than you might think.

These tips lead the employer to see that you’re driven to achieve rather than someone likely to sit by and wait for direction. Success, no matter how big or small, is an important factor to exhibit on a resume. It shows the employer that you are motivated and confident in your ability to bring achievement to a team. It’s easy to become discouraged when entering the workforce, but what is important to remember is that you are capable of anything you set your mind to. Finding a job you like is hard but selling yourself on a piece of paper is even harder; you have to believe that you deserve that job then take the necessary steps to obtain it.
The hiring playing field is far from level, but by being confident in your skill set and searching in the right places, you may find just the job you’ve been looking for.

Image credit: Dealing With Rejection by Honest Blogger (contact)

MondayFunday: Leprechauns and Moms

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

It’s been a busy spring for the ExactHire team, but we managed to fit in 2 MondayFunday events. March featured a cut-throat Nerf shootout (sounds violent, but I can assure you it was not), and April saw us channel our calm, creative, contemplative sides as we painted and decoupaged (?) picture frames for the mothers in our lives. Two extremes, I know, but both activities helped us accomplish our planned objectives: We had fun!

In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb

The Nerf shootout in March saw the arrival of tiny leprechauns and pots of gold. The “range” was improved by moving it to the larger conference room–prompted by anonymous complaints regarding the “too tight confines” of November’s Turkey Shoot. It seems the anonymous complainers believed that a larger space would give them a better chance of defeating the “Turkey Shoot Champ”, Allen.

But that was not to be. The larger range certainly made for more variety in target positioning, but this hardly helped anyone gain an advantage over “Deadeye Al”–as he’s since been named by at least one anonymous team member, allegedly. Anonymous allegations aside, Allen certainly was impressive at the range. He hit 5 out of 6 targets for a winning score of 55. When it comes to a nerf battle, “Deadeye Al” is someone you definitely want on your side.

Though spirits may have been low after yet ANOTHER win by Allen, we ended on happy note by wishing happy birthday to Susan and Nancy. While I cannot release actual birthdates or ages, I estimate that the two were celebrating birthdays of somewhere in the range of 20-100 years.

Susan takes careful aim, but no one could match “Deadeye Al.”

April Is for Mothers Because May Is For Racing

The fun committee labored long in brainstorming a MondayFunday activity for April. The meeting became so tense that at one point a committee member punched a hole through the dry erase board, then through the wall, and finally into the office of Jeff, who is still suffering from light facial abrasions, allegedly. Assault allegations aside, the committee finally decided that with the centennial running of the Indianapolis 500 in May, there was no other choice but to move up a Mother’s Day tribute to April.

Plans were made to decorate picture frames for the leading ladies in our lives. Darythe provided a number of glues, glitters, paint, and stickers from her vast, private collection of arts and craft supplies. A hot glue gun was even available, though Jeff hoarded it for much of the time. But despite the scarcity of hot glue, several team members succeeded in creating some very beautiful frames that will no doubt be displayed with great pride on the mantles of the recipients or in their most prized storage tubs.

At this point, you may be exclaiming inquisitively, “But what about the MondayFunday competition for April, Tom!?” Well, an anonymous member of the Fun Committee came up with the idea of a hula hoop competition for the Golden Vase. This idea passed narrowly through the committee by a vote of 1-1, with one member abstaining, and the tie-breaking vote going in favor of the hula hoop idea because the dissenting member punched a hole through the whiteboard/wall.

The hula hoop competition was awkward. Maybe it was the office setting. Maybe it was grown adults doing something they hadn’t done since the age of 8. Maybe it was just me. But rather than describe that awkwardness, and thus re-live it myself, I’ll just leave it at that. It was awkward. And the anonymous Fun Committee member who conceived the idea won the competition by a substantial margin.

So the past two MondayFundays have been a little competitive, a little sentimental, and a bit awkward. Mixed results for sure, but ultimately they were FUN! Hopefully you can add some of these ideas (not the hula hoop) to your list of employee engagement activities to support a fun, vibrant work culture that wards off the ever-threatening “case of the Mondays.” We hope you check back in next month to see what we have planned to celebrate the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500!

New FOX TV Pilot “HR”…Will It Be A Hit?

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

I just finished reading a post discussing a new sit-com pilot on FOX with the working title HR. I’ll link to that article a little bit later, but for now let’s consider what this new show might mean to the world of Human Resources.

I certainly support the idea of a new comedy based around the Human Resources profession–no loss for material there. But I can’t help but wonder if HR will be short-changed. Now before you think that I’m just being a Debbie..er Donnie Downer, hear me out.

Workplace Comedy

People spend the majority of their waking moments at work. Sadly, for many it’s anything but funny. It’s dull, boring, and monotonous. Only 48% of U.S. workers are satisfied with their jobs according to The Conference Board–a nonprofit research organization that has conducted the Job Satisfaction Survey since 1987.

So why are workplace comedies so popular? I think Bob Newhart explained it well, “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and then move on.”

When weary workers arrive home to ultimately plop in front of a screen, they’re looking for something. They want to escape. They want to get distance from their day. This can be done countless ways, but workplace comedy provides the opportunity to both escape and laugh at oneself. And for many, that is more than entertainment, it approaches a type of therapy.

So I know that I won’t find many sympathetic souls to join me in questioning the idea of HR as comedy. In fact, at first blush, the profession may seem to be tailor made for it. Even HR professionals themselves would likely agree that their jobs can frequently incite laughter, or at the very least amusement. People do funny things, and at work HR is there to…document it.

However, there is a risk that the Human Resources profession could–as often occurs–be unfairly painted with a broad brush. Frequently, HR is seen as the rule maker, rule enforcer, and both the source and destination for workplace grievances. Sure, a comedy could succeed in laying bare the hilarious truths and absurdities that HR silently, compliantly deals with–and that’s a great start–but what about the genuinely positive role of HR in the workplace? How is that story told?

The Other Side Of The Coin

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to be a buzz kill here. A sit-com is not a social movement or cause. There is no requirement that it simultaneously function as a PSA either. Its goal is to maximize the number of people tuning in to laugh on a weekly basis.

But in looking back at some popular workplace comedies, yes, they were hilarious, but they also treated the professions they satirized with dignity. Think of TV series like M*A*S*H, Taxi, WKRP In Cincinnati, and Cheers. These shows produced a ton of laughs, but they also developed depth in characters, especially the lead roles. In this way, these comedies became something more for the viewers.

Of course, there are other workplace sitcoms with well developed characters, but these weren’t alone in portraying the dignity of a profession to the masses. These sit-coms were counterbalanced by a TV drama that focused on the same profession. For instance: Scrubs could be over-the-top zaney because ER was grounded; Night Court brought humor to the courtroom, while Matlock brought justice; and the motley team of detectives in Brooklyn Nine-Nine are a nice reprieve from Law & Order: XYZ.

Where Will “HR” Land?

As I said, a comedy around the HR profession should have no trouble providing hilarious stories. I will be watching the pilot episode, and I hope the show is funny and ultimately lands a series. But more importantly, I hope that this show succeeds in creating characters who portray the positive aspects of Human Resources professionals.

Yes, let’s laugh at the self-martyring employees, office pranks gone awry, and innocent, but thoughtless and inappropriate, workplace behavior. But let’s also see the real humans behind these HR roles, the ways in which they are trying to enhance the lives of employees, provide guidance on difficult personnel matters, and how they are trying to make the workplace less dull, boring, and monotonous.

If we can walk away from the pilot episode of HR with a dozen laughs and a greater appreciation for the work of Human Resources professionals, then I think FOX may have a very promising comedy in its hands. To learn more about HR, you can check out the SHRM post here. It gives you a detailed overview of the concept, the cast of characters, and a fun discussion about possible plots for this new show–it’s a fun read.

ExactHire provides hiring software for small- to medium-sized businesses that enables Human Resources professionals to spend more time with people and less time on process.