Oregon Ban The Box Legislation

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As we approach the final quarter of 2015, it is never too early to start preparing for new legislation that will affect hiring practices in 2016.  Effective January 1, 2016, Oregon will become the newest state to implement “Ban the Box” legislation for both public and private sector employment.  Other states that have already enacted this practice in both public and private sector employment are Illinois, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Hawaii and New Jersey.

Oregon governor, Kate Brown, signed House Bill 3025 on June 26, 2015.  This law, H.B. 3025, will take effect on January 1, 2016 and prohibits an employer from requiring an applicant to disclose a criminal conviction on an employment application or prior to an interview.  If an employer does not conduct an interview, the employer is prohibited from requiring an applicant to disclose a criminal conviction prior to a conditional offer.  

Employers are able to notify applicants that they will later be required to disclose convictions or that a criminal background check will be conducted as part of the hiring process.  This legislation does include the caveat that an employer may still consider convictions when making hiring decisions.  For additional information on what this legislation includes, visit the Oregon State Legislature and The National Law Review.  

Upcoming “Ban the Box” Legislation

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 Oregon’s H.B. 3025 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’re 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.

Allen Edwards | Developer

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My journey with ExactHire began back in August 2014. With each passing year, I’ve had the privilege of contributing to the growth and evolution of ExactHire, which led to stepping into the role of Chief Technology Officer in 2019.

As CTO, my focus is on steering our technological vision and strategy. I am immensely proud to lead a team of dedicated professionals who share a passion for innovation and excellence. Together, we are committed to harnessing the power of technology to shape the future of ExactHire and provide our clients with solutions that go beyond expectations.

How Content Marketing Can Help Attract Top Talent

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If you’re a marketer at a small- or medium-sized business (SMB), you’re likely no stranger to wearing many hats and thinking of creative methods for doing more with less. And while your earned, shared and owned media efforts may be overflowing their respective buckets, you might be faced with just a little trickle of budget available for your thimble-sized paid media opportunities. Or perhaps that has even run dry?

The SMB scenario can make it challenging to compete for market share with your Fortune 500 counterparts, so it’s no surprise that it can be just as tricky to attract top talent through dazzling content marketing efforts, too. But it can’t be ignored, either. In March of 2015, recruiting difficulty for companies reached four-year highs for the 11th consecutive month. And that’s for companies of all sizes in the U.S.

The key is to make the most out of available resources– starting with formulating a strategy for the recruiting process in the same way you would for customer acquisition. In this first article of a series, we’ll examine persona development and a few ideas for generating initial awareness and interest for your employment opportunities through the use of content.

Define Applicant Personas

Keep this simple at first, as you can always debate the finer differences between job category target personas later. Start off with two different persona definitions. For example, choose one of the following pairings:

  • Exempt vs. nonexempt employees
  • Executive-level vs. associate-level employees
  • Customer-facing (sales, customer service, marketing) vs. internal department employees (IT, HR, operations, accounting)

Once you’ve defined your initial personas, think about how each of their preferences will shape how they respond to recruitment-specific forms of content marketing. Use that info as a guide to map content marketing efforts to each stage of the recruiting and hiring process. We’ll use the executive-level vs. associate-level employee example in the next section.

Create Awareness & Interest Around Your Job Posting

Depending on the scope of your candidate search, it’s quite possible that your future employees won’t be familiar with your company before spotting a link to your job listing. If that’s the case, their first experience with content from your organization may be via a third party such as a job board or an executive recruiter. If you pique their interest, then you could eventually have a chance to grab their attention on your company site and/or careers portal, too.

Here’s how you might be able to appeal to the executive-level and associate-level personas with an integrated approach using earned, shared, owned and paid media:

Associate Persona

Earned

Free external job boards and job board aggregators arguably fall into the earned bucket because you’re not necessarily guaranteed that job postings will publish. Your odds of inclusion will depend on the reputation of your careers portal and whether you try to game the system by posting multiple positions by the same title and/or frequently refreshing the start dates for jobs.

Make sure your job description includes not only the key responsibilities of the job and the essential requirements, but also a brief description of your organization (including location and general size, since they don’t know you) that paints a compelling picture of the unique opportunities available with your firm.

Name the key benefits offered that make people passionate about working at your smaller company (e.g. flex time, work from home policies, casual dress, beer Fridays, paid volunteer time, etc.). Stand out from most other job postings hosted on third party sites with a video of an employee describing the highlights of the job and then embedding that video in the job listing.

Shared

Social media is a common means for savvy organizations to be discovered by job seekers. Automatically post new job listings to social media via an integration with your hiring software. Be sure to include relevant jobseeker hashtags, including those descriptive of the position, but also of the geographic area, to generate awareness for your positions.

Owned

Assuming you’ve intrigued job seekers enough to read through the bulk of your job description (and its ideal length will of course depend on the job, persona and company culture), give them links to additional information if they want to sink their teeth into the role details before committing to an employment application.

Appeal to a persona’s preferences with the appropriate writing style (e.g. entertaining top 10 lists for extroverted marketers or detailed flow chart graphics for operations professionals). Here’s one such blog that has worked well for ExactHire in the past. Take it a step further and publish these position snapshot blogs on Medium, LInkedIn and other platforms that may resonate with your persona.

Paid

Perhaps the most obvious source of this media type for recruiting is the use of paid job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder, Dice and more. It can be a budget stretch for SMBs to use these resources frequently; however, if they are to be fruitful, make sure that the message is crafted in a way that captivates, informs and converts the job seeker to the point of application.

Smaller companies that don’t command brand recognition should focus on putting position-specific keywords at the beginning of the posting, and elaborate on organizational details at the end of the job listing. That way, the job listing snippet that appears to the job seeker will correlate with the search performed by the job seeker.

Executive Persona

Earned

Consider business, news and industry-relevant publications within the geographic scope of your applicant search and pitch them on spotlighting your organization for its unique employment benefits, planned growth increase, corporate culture, etc. Higher level candidates are especially likely to read these resources and appreciate the fact that your organization was news-worthy enough to command prime media real estate.

Shared

For executives, their first exposure to your organization may be the LinkedIn InMail a recruiter sends them describing your opportunity. Work with your recruiter to craft a message representative of your culture and position that will resonate with that persona.

Start or join a LinkedIn group relevant to your industry and regularly participate in discussions that may catch the eye of potential executive recruits. Use the forum as a means to advertise the availability of your organization’s opportunities, as well as to comment on desirable traits in successful performers.

Owned

Create content that describes the factors necessary to be deemed successful six months into the position. This resource can live on your own domain and should also elaborate on the corporate culture and convey the typical day or week (or why it is atypical, if that is a selling point). This is often an emotional, warm-fuzzy accompaniment to the typical job description.

Paid

If history has proven that a specific job is a beast to fill (i.e. it requires a boat-load of high-level certifications or is a highly technical job in a remote location), then even the thriftiest of recruiters may need to invest in paid media for this persona type. Conduct research to uncover the most likely outlet for your opportunity. Sponsored social posts with substantial targeting capabilities are a good place to start, and messaging should entice high-level job seekers by appealing to what makes your organization a special and rewarding challenge for the executive (e.g. “Even if you haven’t heard of us, you should check us out and here’s why.”).

By defining your applicant personas and thoughtfully considering what would initially attract them to a job opportunity with your company, you dramatically increase the number of chances you get to convert job seekers into applicants. Stay tuned for the next post in this series for tips on guiding intent within your potential applicant base and using content marketing to increase the number of employment applications your organization receives.

This post originally appeared on Relevance.

Image credit: SaaS Marketing Strategies by Seven Atoms (contact)

A Simple Onboarding Cheat Sheet

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As summer comes to an end and everyone’s schedule gets hectic with school, fall activities and new work projects, finding ways to simplify and focus at work are a must!  There are countless tips out there for enhancing your employee onboarding process (think employee retention), but here is a quick “cheat sheet” to make sure you’re doing the big things–and a few little things–that make the process easy and effective.

Complete New Hire Paperwork…Painlessly

Just like starting school or with any new job, there are a lot of forms to be filled out. Going paperless will help you get through these quickly and easily.  Onboarding software makes this process streamlined and painless for all involved.

Ready New Hire Workstation…Before The First Day

When a new employee arrives, make sure they feel at home with their work area, not just sitting in an empty cubicle. Have office supplies ready  and laptop and any other hardware already set up so that they are not just sitting around watching you get these items together. This will show that you are excited about their arrival to the team!

Inform Staff About The New Hire…All Staff

Make sure every member of your staff–regardless of role–is aware of the new hire’s arrival. Encourage interaction and support of the new hire so that they will feel part of the team immediately.  This will be a positive for everyone. The sooner a new hire is  comfortable and acclimated, the more efficient the organization can be!

Welcome New Hire To Your Organization…Social, Fun

Be fun! And be yourselves! Host a carry-in lunch, or order in bagels the first day to help break the ice. You want the new hire to enjoy open conversations (this is easy to do over food!), rather than feel  bombarded with inquiries. Also, invite current employees to celebrate the new hire via company social media pages. They can post with fun hashtags #newhire !

Provide Ongoing Support…Resources to Thrive

Resources for learning the job in the first few weeks, as well as for continued professional development, are vital for new hires. Also, have a plan of attack for the training period, and be able to provide an outline or schedule of this plan to the new hire. They will feel more at ease with what to expect during the first few weeks. And after the first few weeks, be sure to keep new hires informed of opportunities for continued improvement through professional development and job evaluations.

Hopefully this list helps you do the bigs things (and a few small things) to effectively onboard new employees. Great onboarding will lower costs and boost moral within your whole organization, so it’s worth your investment.

To learn how onboarding software can compliment your current onboarding process, visit ExactHire to checkout a demo, or contact us to learn more.

The Onboarding Game

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Employee onboarding is no game; it’s serious business. But sometimes our well-planned processes breakdown, and it seems as though employee onboarding experiences are determined by a roll of the dice. Will everyone on our onboarding team execute this time??

*fingers crossed*

It can be maddening for HR professionals when inconsistencies creep into the onboarding process. I like to compare it to the board game, Chutes & Ladders. So in the spirit of that classic board game, I’d like to offer 5 dangerous ”Onboarding Chutes” and 5 helpful “Onboarding Ladders” that can determine whether your onboarding process is a winner.

The Chute: Weak Pre-Boarding

This is the first mistake you can make with a new hire–and it could also be your last. You’ve put so much time and effort into finding the right candidates. It was a hard decision. But after coming to an agreement on compensation, you finally hired the perfect fit for your organization. You’ve come so far!

But now, you decide to take it easy and relax. You go radio silent with your new hire for the next two weeks.  Your “perfect fit” hire is left wondering whether your organization is really the perfect fit for them.

The Ladder: Bridging The Gap

Rather than leaving new hires out in the cold for two weeks, invite them in as soon as they accept your offer. The time between job offer acceptance and the first day can be used to strengthen the employer-employee relationship and get a jumpstart on required HR tasks.

Determine which forms or documents can legally be completed before an employee’s first day, and then offer the new hire the opportunity to complete these ahead of the first day. If you use onboarding software, many of these tasks can be done from home–without paper and pen. This will free up the new hire’s first day to include exciting and engaging activities.

Beyond paperwork, organizations can bridge the gap with creative welcoming gestures. A “welcome card” signed by future co-workers arriving via mail? An invite to a company after-work social? A quick, quirky “welcome video” shot with an iphone? Grand or tiny, welcoming gestures that occur before the first day will elicit excitement from new hires.

The Chute: No Written Training Schedule

Your new hire has arrived! Yay! You pull out all the stops for your new hire in those first few hours: bagels and coffee, grand facility tour, co-worker glad-handing, and big-wig sit-downs. The whirlwind welcome ends with the new hire arriving at a clean, nicely appointed desk. The computer is ready. Email is set up. Now what?

If the new hire’s next five hours and the remainder of the week are characterized by a hodgepodge of ad hoc meetings and supervisor drop-ins, then your impressive welcome may be all for naught. New hires need to learn and do a lot quickly–this can hardly be avoided. But to leave them in the dark is a step–or several steps–in the wrong direction.

The Ladder: Proactive Transparency

A written training schedule sets expectations–expectations for the organization and expectations for the new hire. This provides context and confidence for new hires, as they are able to see the big picture and anticipate how best to manage their free time. It also reflects well on the organization, in that it illustrates thoughtful planning and adds transparency to the onboarding process.

A training schedule can cover the first few days, weeks, or even months. The length will vary based upon the unique needs of the position and organization. The important thing is that it’s designed to be accurate and useful; otherwise, the schedule will confuse new hires–the exact opposite of its intended purpose.

How to present it? Hard copy schedules will work, but electronic documents that are hyperlinked to relevant digital resources will save time, paper, and money for your organization. Going paperless will also provide a more seamless experience for your new hire. Bonus points!

Download ExactHire's Employee Onboarding Checklist

The Chute: Internal Communication Breakdown

So everything is sailing right along with the onboarding of your new hire. A warm, enthusiastic welcome? Check. A written training schedule that outlines the new hire’s next few weeks and is in the hands of said new hire? Check.

The blue ribbon is as good as yours!

But then something quite unexpected happens. Larry from IT forgot to order and set up your new hire’s computer before leaving for his month-long spiritual trek in Nepal. Larry from IT!!!

Apparently, Larry didn’t get the memo or email, or hear in the weekly stand-up meeting, that a new hire was coming onboard during his absence. Whether it was the mode of communication or Larry’s understanding of his role in onboarding, the ball was dropped.

The Ladder: Clarity In Role and Expectations

Too often, employee onboarding is looked at as an HR function. True, HR takes the lead in creating, reviewing, and improving the process. But employee onboarding must be owned by everyone in the organization–especially Larry in IT.

Communication breakdowns are the result of either an ineffective mode–email, memo, voicemail, etc.–or unclear roles and expectations. Barring technical difficulties, it’s most often the latter.

Building an efficient and effective onboarding process is not enough on its own. All stakeholders in the process must understand the role they play and the expectations that come with that role. And when it comes to expectations, these need to be as specific as possible–meaning deadline driven. Namaste, Larry in IT.

The Chute: All Work And No Play

With a fine-tuned onboarding process, your mind might explode with ideas for leveraging new efficiencies. Some onboarding stakeholders may set their eyes on the time-to-productivity metric and urge you to pack in more time for training. This makes sense; the faster a new hire is up to speed, the sooner your bottom line benefits. But there is a danger in that approach.

If you work your new hires to the bone, you might find that another important metric is negatively impacted–your employee turnover rate.

The Ladder: Work Hard, Play Hard

With the cost of re-hiring equal to roughly 20% of a new hire’s salary, HR professionals are wise to consider leveraging onboarding efficiency to provide opportunities for training (work) and social interaction (play). This approach balances the two important metrics of time-to-productivity and employee turnover rate.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

The Chute: Monotonous Inefficiency

Sometimes organizations boast very consistent and reliable onboarding processes that result in adequate outcomes. And adequate is good. But don’t you want to be the best? Number one?!

If your onboarding process consistently and reliably provides new hires with a tower of forms and documents to read, sign, and submit…you’re good.

If your onboarding process is characterized by co-workers who consistently and reliably request, remind, and follow-up on required onboarding tasks via email…you’re good.

But if your process consistently and reliably results in a “meh” experience for new hires…you’re not the best.

The Ladder: Paperless HR

A paperless onboarding process is characterized by efficiency and highlighted with excitement.

When you eliminate stacks of paper, automate form completion, and enable e-signatures, new hires spend less time on monotonous tasks.  Similarly, when you eliminate document production, automate task reminders, and enable e-countersignatures, your onboarding stakeholders save time too. That’s where the excitement comes in!

With all the time saved through the use of onboarding software, there is now the opportunity to inject more fun into the the onboarding process. And if you have an efficient, consistent and reliable process that is FUN…you’re looking at “best” status.

Competent HR professionals understand how vital the onboarding process is to maintaining a healthy employee lifecycle–one that spans years and not mere months. However, too often an organization’s well-planned employee onboarding process morphs into a real-life game of Chutes & Ladders. Sure, even the best organizations will have unforeseen circumstances (chutes) that cause process inefficiency, but when those chutes outnumber proactive, value-added measures (ladders), the organization risks being the loser.

Onboarding success should not be a game of chance. Success can be ensured when organizations take the time to plan and gain employee buy-in for an onboarding process that engages and inspires new hires early and often.

ExactHire offers HR technology to help small- to medium-sized business recruit, hire, and retain top talent for their organizations. To learn how you can add efficiency and excitement to your employee onboarding process, contact us today!

Feature Image Credit: Chutes and Ladders by Thor(contact)

Onboarding Employee Love

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New hires should love your organization. You offer a flexible work arrangement, matching 401k, generous PTO, and health insurance–among other benefits. Salaries at your organization are above average for position, region, and industry. You’ve given your new hires everything they need to love you…right?

Wrong. One of the biggest–and first–mistakes an organization makes with a new hire is assuming that acceptance of the job offer equals love of the organization. It does not.

The hiring process barely gets an organization and new hire past the “first date”. Sure, they both find each other attractive in important ways, and so they’ve agreed to continue dating, but love? Not just yet.

Acceptance of Job Offer equals love onboarding leads to love

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

Talented employees who love their employer…will brag about their employer. Employers who are bragged about…will be envied. Employers who are envied…will attract more top talent.

Love is everything. But organizations often fail to cultivate this love until it’s too late. In order to gain employee love, employer’s must invest time and resources in the employee onboarding phase. This is when employees will decide whether the organization is a keeper or just another fish in the sea.

Only Fools Rush In

Many organizations will direct all resources toward finding and hiring the best, but then relegate employee onboarding to a mishmash of emails, paper stacks, and afterthoughts. They rush through onboarding because they assume employee love has already been gained. Fools!

Rushing employee onboarding is like splurging on a romantic 5-star restaurant for the first date, and then following it up with McDonald’s…no, actually, it’s like knocking on the date’s door, and then throwing a handful of McDonald’s coupons in the air and walking away. “Hurry up the car is running.”

Cultivating employee love takes time and consistent effort. An organization should never assume that one action or the mere passage of time will result in that love. To gain and keep employee love, an organization must consistently show love. And that starts with employee onboarding.

A Culture of Love

A unique, compelling employer brand is usually one reason why a candidate accepts a job offer. And an organization with an effective recruitment strategy likely invests time in promoting this. But everyone seeks to make great first impressions, and everyone dresses up for the first date.

It is during the onboarding phase that new hires learn whether or not an organization can deliver on what its employer brand promised. Did they promise a friendly work environment? Transparency? Open-door policy? A work-hard-play-hard philosophy? Well, then, the organization better deliver. And it needs to deliver early and often.

According to SHRM, half of all hourly workers will leave a new position within the first 120 days. That leaves precious little time for an organization to back up its employer brand and cultivate employee love. To succeed, it cannot rely on gimmicks, giveaways, or once-a-year public displays of affection. On a daily basis, it must manage an employer brand defined and driven by an authentic and exceptional culture of love.

Cultivating Employee Love With Technology

An organization with a culture of love is a wonderful thing. But that love can go to waste if a new hire does not return the love or is not feeling the love. Technology can be invaluable in ensuring that:

  1. an organization hires an employee capable of love;
  2. an organization succeeds in showing love to new employees.

It’s in the best interest of every employer to hire individuals who can love them because re-hiring is costly. The Center for American Progress (CAP) puts the cost of replacing an employee at around 20% of that employee’s annual salary. That’s why organizations invest in hiring technology to efficiently find the “perfect match” for the position and the organization.

A similar investment in onboarding technology helps organizations show love and efficiently move new hires from “first date crush” to “longterm love”. Quite simply, onboarding technology makes an organization look good and a new hire feel good. It does this by automating time-consuming tasks and drastically reducing–or even eliminating–those groan-inspiring stacks of paper.

The Game of Love

Love can be cruel. Your organization can do all the right things in hiring and onboarding new employees: present yourself honestly, patiently seek the right match, make the first move, plan the perfect first date, and commit to a relationship…

But damn if that new hire doesn’t leave you for some fun, young start-up with a fake brand!
Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. But at least you’ll know that you did it all in the name of love.

 

ExactHire provides HR technology to help employers hire, onboard, and retain top talent for their organizations. To learn how our solutions can help you get the employee love that you want, contact us today!

Feature Image Credit: Love Colour by Thor(contact)

Getting The Most From Your Work Commute

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Hello. How ‘bout that ride in.

Every weekday morning, millions of Americans take to their cars and head to work. According to a study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, workers from the 30 largest U.S. cities spend an average of 4.33 hours commuting to and from work each week. Those working in New York City lament the longest work drive in the nation at 6.65 hours per week. That’s a lot of time on the road that can leave motorists and their employers paying a heavy toll.

Mental Health

Ever been stuck in traffic and taken a quick look at the faces of your fellow drivers? Well, stop! Keep your eyes on the road. That’s how accidents happen.

Now, ever been a passenger in a car and observed the drivers’ expressions while in traffic? You might notice a lot of grimaced or yelling faces mixed with dejection, boredom, anger, and anxiety. Sure, there are smiling and laughing faces, but those are few and far between. The majority of drivers are stressed, and they’re taking it with them to work.

The University of Montreal’s School of Industrial Relations found that commute times of more than 20 minutes can lead to “professional burnout” for many employees–disillusionment, cynicism, and general unhappiness with their workplace. And a study from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics found that commuters, when compared to non-commuters:

  • felt less satisfied with their lives,
  • rated their daily activities as less worthwhile,
  • reported less happiness and higher anxiety than non-commuters.

Mental and physical health will often, if not always, impact one another. So it should come as no surprise that employees who face long, stressful commutes, also suffer from physical ailments.

Physical Health

A 2012 report by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine  found that greater commuting distances are associated with decreased cardiorespiratory fitness, increased weight, and other indicators of metabolic risk. Additionally, the cramped quarters of a car present the perfect setting for back and neck pain. This is to say nothing of the spikes in blood pressure that may occur thanks to:

  • That guy who cut you off
  • That guy who’s driving too slow
  • That guy who doesn’t use a signal
  • That guy who’s tailgating

Yeah, you know those guys. They’re a real pain.

Strategies to Overcome the Effects of Long Work Commutes

Fortunately, a long daily commute doesn’t have to be a life sentence of pain and stress. By realizing that long commutes can be hazardous to your physical and mental health, employees and employers can be proactive in combating the negative outcomes–and maybe even add some positive ones.

What Employers Can Do

Telecommuting: In addition to cutting down or eliminating commutes, telecommuting has been shown to increase employee productivity, retention, and satisfaction, according to a study in the Harvard Business Review. For those reasons and others, telecommuting is a rising trend among employers in the United States, where nearly 24% of workers state that they work some hours from home (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011).

Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA): Often times, work commutes cause employees stress and anxiety because some days they are challenged to fit everything into the day. Whether it be doctor’s appointments, childcare, volunteer commitments, or car maintenance, these commuters are feeling the time crunch –and that 20-minute traffic delay doesn’t help.

Employers who offer employees flexibility to work where and when they prefer also provide them with the autonomy to manage their daily schedules in the most effective manner. As with telecommuting, research has shown that productivity and absenteeism are positively impacted by a FWA (SHRM, 2014)

Fitness Space/Classes: Employers can seek to provide employees with resources to alleviate stress too. This can be as simple as providing a quiet room for meditation or, at larger office spaces, access to a fitness facility. Professionals–for mental or physical health–can be invited in to teach crash courses in stress-relieving techniques, such as yoga, mindfulness, meditation, tai chi, or high-intensity cardio workouts.

What Employees Can Do

Change Your Perspective: Before getting into the car, realize that more than likely you will encounter traffic, delays, and idiot-drivers. By simply taking the time to set realistic expectations for your drive, you’ll be less likely to become stressed by delays and the antics of your fellow-drivers.

Podcast or Audio Books: Get a jump on your workday by listening to a podcast for professional/personal development. Or, if you can’t find the time to read for pleasure, why not spend your commute listening to a book? These approaches will have you looking forward to your commute, and the delays may not seem so bad.

Mindfulness: There are many resources available for practicing mindfulness. If you are not familiar with the practice, read up on it and consider using your commute as an opportunity to practice it. In essence, you will seek to be present in the moment of driving–not using past experiences to explain the present, or worrying about future, possible outcomes that may result from the present–just relaxed, with your attention on the drive. You’ll arrive to work fresh and stress-free.

Getting The Most From Your Work Commute

Commuting to and from work is a necessity for most employees. And although more and more employers are offering telecommuting as an option, it is not likely that your work commute will completely go away anytime soon. To combat the negative impact of commuting to work, both employers and employees must take a proactive approach to managing employee stress inside and outside the workplace.

Eliminating unnecessary employee stress is one of the best ways for organizations to retain employees; it’s also one of the best ways to hire them. ExactHire offers hiring technology that eliminates stress for HR Departments and provides job applicants with a transparent, seamless, stress-free experience from application to onboarding.

Image credit: Los Angeles Traffic by Luke Jones(contact)

Applicant Tracking System User Access Levels [VIDEO]

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In this Q&A video chat, Jessica Stephenson discusses the common differences between applicant tracking system user access levels. In particular, she reviews manager and assigned user ATS access in detail — including feature availability and ideal timing for involving new users in the selection process.

Video Transcript:

Hi, I’m Jessica Stephenson and welcome to another episode. Today we’re going to focus on best practices for determining the appropriate level of user access within the applicant tracking system for the many stakeholders involved in your hiring process. And we work with small and medium-sized businesses, so this question often surfaces during the implementation process. And, while commonly people are familiar with an administrative level user, or the super login I Iike to say, they might not be so sure of the different types of user access levels for people outside of the HR department, in particular.

So usually HR staff members will be administrative level users within an applicant tracking system, and sometimes I see that expand to include owners or CFOs at smaller companies, as well. And the administrative level user can certainly manage applicants across all business units that are established within the system, and then do things like change settings, add or edit job listings, access reporting, leave HR-visible notes so that lower level users can’t see those notes, and then add and edit other users to the system.

When it comes to employees that should access the system outside of the human resources department, I divide those into two categories. The first one being manager-level users, and the second being candidate-specific assigned users. So, with manager-level users, they can access all applicants across their own business unit or units, and for your organization that might mean a department or a geographic branch, so on and so forth. Larger organizations that are rigorous about training hiring managers on the recruiting process may wish to optionally allow these manager-level users the ability to add, edit and post job listings, as well. However, many smaller organizations will tend to leave job edits to those in human resources and lock down that access so that managers can’t touch job listings. In addition, in general, manager-level users in applicant tracking systems can’t access reporting, change settings or add or edit users within the system.

Now candidate-specific assigned users are what I would call “bare-bones” access level users, in that they login and they don’t see any other dashboards like jobs or settings or users, and they will only see candidates that have specifically been assigned to them by other users. Think “minimalist” when you think of this type of user, and know that it’s ideal for organizations that are ready to empower non-HR staff to make applicant notes and decisions within the ATS…as opposed to via email correspondence back and forth with HR, for example. The other compelling benefit of making wider use of this very restricted login type is that in a reputable ATS, it should support a complete view of the applicant record including: who at any point in time has looked at that applicant record; to whom it has been forwarded via email; the email correspondence history with the applicant; and, any time someone has been an assigned user for that candidate so that they could review the candidate’s credentials. This benefit is especially critical for those organizations that are subject to affirmative action plan compliance, as well.

So now depending on the applicant tracking system in use, these two broad user level categories that I’ve discussed will likely have various toggles available for further customization, as well, especially at the manager level login. So for example, an administrator may choose whether or not that manager can initiate job requisition requests; or leave notes and view notes on the applicant record; update the EEO information for a candidate; and, optionally edit the status or disposition assigned to a candidate, or the date on which it was assigned.

In terms of timing, and what I mean by that is, how soon various non-HR users would start using the system during a specific hiring process…that will of course depend on the level. When a manager-level login is created, because they can access all applicants across all business units, and sometimes even job listings, as soon as their login is created they are going to be able to at any time go in and view details. And so, certainly the organizational expectations and culture surrounding hiring managers’ participation in the selection process will help dictate when those hiring managers should actively start to participate and perhaps leave comments and assign status codes and so forth.

Now, with more restricted assigned users, their scope is more limited since they are only going to be able to start taking action once candidates have specifically been assigned to them. So if you choose to exercise the most control and/or wish to make the review process as simple as possible for those non-HR folks, then the assigned user is the ticket.

And with both types of user-level access, the great aspect about using an ATS and not making them administrative level users is that you don’t have to have any worry about them inadvertently accessing sensitive information related to perhaps the candidate’s employment history, any kind of red flags that might be on their record that you’re not ready for other people outside of HR to see, and that sort of information…because you can lock that down. And so, the timing of their access becomes not as important a factor as it might be otherwise.

So, above all, I want to reiterate the value and certainly the security piece of mind organizations will see when they handle all applicant documentation, including screening activities and correspondence with candidates, within an applicant tracking system…not via email, for example. I hope you enjoyed this episode of video chat and please stay tuned for answers to further questions. Thank you!