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33 Fall Employee Engagement and Culture Ideas

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Pumpkin spice season is here, folks, and that means my favorite time of year is upon us–fall. So many good things happen in the autumn:

  • beautiful fall foliage (at least in the Midwest where ExactHire calls home),
  • tailgating for your favorite sporting events like football and futbol (for all you soccer moms like me out there),
  • new fall TV show premieres, and
  • an early start to the excitement of the holiday season (and more frequent chances to be thankful and celebrate life with friends and family).

At least a few of the ExactHire employees love to celebrate the season, too. Can you tell? Did you know an ATS is a great way to develop and create a strong work culture, through finding good quality candidates? If you want to find out more, check out our Free ATS Guide!

Hey, we worked hard to capture the leaves in motion for this shot!

Hey, we worked hard to capture the leaves in motion for this shot!

The activities our “Fun” Committee plans are great ways to break up the work week and give us more chances to connect with each other. Opportunities for connection are increasingly important for employers in today’s web-based workplace and society.

In this blog, I’ll present ideas for using the autumnal season to inspire ideas for employee engagement.

1 – Pick a day each fall month for competition and snacks

It’s easy to let time get away from you when it comes to planning culture-building activities frequently enough. Have a recurring “funday” appointment on your office calendar, and then fill in with surprise one-off activities as appropriate.

ExactHire has Monday Funday the third Monday of every month following our all-hands company meeting. In September, we honored various pro golf championship tournaments with a little putt-putt of our own. Of course the winner, our Co-Founder Harlan Schafir, was able to claim our super classy brass vase (make sure you pronounce it vahzzz to sound fancy). The giant cookies being served didn’t hurt employee attendance to this event, either!

Harlan Putts | ExactHire Monday Funday

Our Co-Founder, Harlan Schafir, putts for the Monday Funday win!

2 – Roast some office s’mores

Don’t try this one inside, friends…unless you opt to use the microwave or remember to blow out your candle afterward. But let’s be honest, a candle probably won’t get the job done. Lucky for you, mini kitchen blow torches are reasonably affordable.

3 – Have a pumpkin decorating contest

Whether you carve, paint or decorate, procure some pumpkins for all employees willing to participate. Have a small prize, display them in your office (make sure to take pictures!) and then encourage employees to take them home to friends and family.

ExactHire Company Halloween Party-Monday Funday

Employee entries from our fierce pumpkin decorating contest last October.

4 – Volunteer for a worthy cause

As the weather starts to cool (depending on where you live), many non-profit organizations, including shelters, will have a greater need for assistance and resources to help individuals fend off the elements. Organize a team or department to take time to serve in a capacity that will assist the recipient organization.

 

 

5 – Have a dance party

Does anyone really do that? Yes, I’ve worked for employers who did this periodically to destress employees. Take requests and then put a season-inspired song on the phone system intercom. Here are some tune ideas to get you started:

  • “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (go ahead, channel Jennifer Garner in “13 Going on 30”),
  • “Dead Man’s Party” by Oingo Boingo,
  • “Toxic” by Britney Spears,
  • “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by The Charlie Daniels Band, and
  • “Time Warp” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

6 – Stock the kitchen with fancy coffee creamer

Whether it’s artisanal or just the latest Coffee Mate creation, having access to creamer flavors like pumpkin spice, eggnog, spiced latte and peppermint will perk up anyone’s morning brew.

Artisanal Coffee for Office

Image credit: coffee lover

7 – Sponsor an employee team for a 5K

Five-kilometer races abound in the fall in our area. Select a race that benefits a notable cause and sponsor a team of employees who enjoy jogging and walking. Go the extra mile and have a t-shirt design competition, and then produce the winning shirt for all team members to wear during the race.

8 – Board game breaks

Don’t stop at puzzles, schedule occasional “game days” when employees get the chance to spend an hour facing off against other employees to win a game. Hint: Don’t pick Risk–it takes forever! Twister would be a good one to avoid, too. Fun, but relatively short, options might include

  • Uno,
  • Jenga,
  • Qwirkle,
  • Rummikub, and
  • Euchre.

9 – Make caramel apples

If you don’t want to unwrap little caramel candies or don’t have access to a stove in the office, then keep it simple with incredibly convenient caramel apple wraps.

10 – Celebrate Oktoberfest

Whether you go with a full-on German fare-inspired pitch-in or keep it simple with some Bavarian pretzels and a beer tasting, you can’t go wrong with food. Encourage any employees who are brewing and/or sausage-making hobbyists to bring in their own creations to share.

11 – Feast at a festival

The fall is a time for bountiful community festivals. Here in Indiana, the Covered Bridge Festival is a multi-day, multi-town event that combines crafts, cuisine and crowds into an explosion of autumn sentiment. I never miss it. Check your state festival guide to see if any local events would make a great extended lunch destination for your crew.

12 – Conduct meetings outdoors

Does your building have a patio space, or even a few picnic tables? If so, unplug the laptop and head outside for a group meeting or a 1-on-1 discussion. Employees will relish the fresh air and everyone can soak up some extra vitamin D.

Have Meetings Outdoors | ExactHire

Image credit: Picnic Table

13 – Go on a scavenger hunt outside

Plan an autumn scavenger hunt as a team-building activity and friendly competition. A recent chaperone experience I had with my son’s class field trip taught me that empty egg cartons make great containers for small scavenger hunt items. Or, if you want to go a more tech-savvy route, have participants share proof of accomplishing hunt challenges by tagging your corporate Instagram account (a great tactic for employment branding).

Fall Scavenger Hunt Egg Container

Handy container for collecting fall scavenger hunt items

14 – Plan a spirit week

If you enjoyed dressing up for spirit week during homecoming in high school, then you’re bound to be amused by participating in themed days in the workplace. Solicit employee ideas for themes and consider awarding small prizes each day. Our team had fun with high school day in the past when we showed off our letter jackets, senior portraits and yearbooks.

Letter Jackets Group

Some EH’ers showing off our high school memorabilia.

15 – Have a potluck tailgate

Set up a grill in the parking lot and have employees pitch in by bringing tailgate-themed dishes. Depending on the date and time of the event, consider streaming a favorite sporting event for all to watch while eating. Don’t forget to have everyone wear their favorite jersey, and have a drawing to win a couple of tickets to a college or pro sporting event.

16 – Make some microwave caramel corn

Growing up, the only way I’d eat caramel corn was if it was made in a brown paper bag in the microwave. There’s something about that warm, gooey deliciousness that puts it near the top of my comfort food list. The best part about it is that it is easy to clean up after your office teammates dig into it. Just fold up the bag and toss it in the garbage.

17 – Nerf gun turkey shoot

Looking for inspiration for silly office games? Look no further. Gather up a few Nerf guns from employees’ children, and set up bowling pin-style targets that complement the season on a conference room table. Go for turkeys, pumpkins, ghosts or leaves.

Turkey Targets | ExactHire Monday Funday

All set with turkey targets in place!

18 – Produce a Thanksgiving card or video

This is one of my favorite ExactHire traditions. Instead of sending a winter holiday card to clients, we always send a Thanksgiving note. In the beginning, we sent cards in the mail, but then we transitioned to a collaborative video production to show thanks. We can’t wait to put one together for this year, too! If you’re nervous about getting started with this kind of project, we have some video production tips for you.

Wicked Witch Legs

Wicked witch legs on a previous ExactHire Halloween work day.

19 – Have a costume contest

What would a fall activity list be without a reference to Halloween costumes? Incentivize employee participation with kooky prize categories such as

  • best homemade costume,
  • most tech-savvy costume,
  • best unconventional materials costume (yes, I’m channeling Project Runway), and
  • best pop culture-inspired costume.

20 – Take a group trip to pick apples

Go on an outing to gather up ingredients for some red hot applesauce (a favorite from my childhood) or apple dumplings.

 

 

 

 

Image credit: Time well spent

How to Motivate Management to Support Company Culture Improvement

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Hopefully you’ve had the pleasure of working for an employer with a deeply rewarding work culture. One of the reasons you enjoyed the experience probably had something to do with the actual work you accomplished there, but that likely wasn’t the only factor. Or, maybe you long for culture improvements at your existing employer, but struggle to make a business case to senior management to win their support and resources for what can sometimes be deemed as a “fluffy” back-burner endeavor.

However, the impact of corporate culture is anything but fluff. In fact, Lindsay McGregor and Neel Doshi, the authors of Primed to Perform, have repeatedly done work with organizations to quantify the marked impact that company culture has on employee motivation. They’ve based their work on research initially presented by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan a few decades ago, that suggested that there are six primary reasons why people work–three of which are direct motives being related to the work itself, and three of which are indirect since they are not connected to the actual work.

Direct Motives

  • Play – the extent to which you love the work itself
  • Purpose – the extent to which you identify with the impact of your work
  • Potential – the extent to which you stand to gain from the impact of your work

These direct motives tend to increase performance, with those motives being closest to the work itself having the most significant impact (i.e. play is more powerful than purpose, and purpose more powerful than potential).

Indirect Motives

  • Emotional pressure – the extent to which you work to avoid your identity being marred by some external force
  • Economic pressure – the extent to which you work to be rewarded or avoid penalties
  • Inertia – the extent to which you work simply because it’s what you’ve always done and not because you have any other sound reason

Unlike direct motives, indirect ones generally weaken performance. Emotional pressure doesn’t weaken it as much as the subsequent indirect motives because it is still connected to your identity even if it’s not connected to the work itself.

So Why Does This Matter?

Simple. Engaging senior leaders to your company culture improvement cause must start with applying the very same motives that will eventually drive your actual culture improvement efforts–once they’re approved, that is.

Let’s break down six common objections human resource professionals may hear when trying to make a business case for work culture change. Each of these objections will touch on one of the six aforementioned motives. By reframing each objection into an opportunity to maximize a direct motive or minimize an indirect motive, HR professionals stand a much better chance at creating total motivation (ToMo) to convince senior leaders to invest the time and resources necessary to engage employees via culture revolution.

6 Senior Leader Culture Development Excuses

Culture is warm and fuzzy. We have bigger fish to fry.

 

PLAY

Do you sometimes think your company’s owners are singing “Shiny Happy People” by REM when your HR team brings up anything culture-related in conversation? Or, maybe their version is “Shiny Happy HR People.” They’d rather relegate warm and fuzzy culture development to the people who are more likely to enjoy that kind of work. It’s not their idea of play.

Maybe some senior leaders don’t love the work of cultural activity planning themselves, but maybe they do love enabling their department heads to do the work that invigorates them so that they find their own sense of play. Perhaps the owners’ idea of the play motive is entrepreneurial at heart…getting the right people on the team and then giving them the reins to do great things, to experiment and fail, but most importantly to learn what works and what doesn’t.

If this describes your relationship with management, then brainstorm ways in which you can appeal to your company owners’ work passions. That might include an experiment with trying a new, entrepreneurial approach to teaching the workforce how to play the game of business, or using business analytics to find patterns in what has engaged employees in the past.

I don’t understand what good will come from making changes.

 

PURPOSE


The purpose motive highlights whether you personally identify with and are motivated by the outcomes of your own work. If your senior management team is skeptical that anything will materially change as a result of getting new swag for employees and holding a foosball tournament, then I wouldn’t fault them. They may not have experience with knowing what specific impact a focus on culture may have on the organization (and therefore on their identity as the leader of that organization).

Of course the previously mentioned cliche culture activities are not a sound solution to your employee engagement problems. Many other moves may fall short, as well, if you fail to set expectations with ownership about the desired positive outcomes that you hope to realize as a result of any changes. Help them identify with the potential impact of the organization’s focus on culture improvement on others and themselves.

Here are positive outcomes to which businesses often aspire when endeavoring culture evolution:

  • Greater sense of shared purpose (does your work save lives, help people in need, make life more efficient, etc.)
  • Intrinsic motivation (employees are self-directed)
  • Knowledge sharing (no department silos and selfish data hoarding)
  • Momentum for change; enhanced learning leads to richer workforce skills inventory
  • Expanded opportunity for “play” which leads to innovation
  • Better adaptive performance; or, the ability to be flexible with unanticipated demands and not just tied into rigid tactical performance
  • More productivity; higher revenue
  • Healthier workforce; fewer costs related to health insurance and absenteeism
  • Less turnover; faster time to productivity (this outcome alone is very easily quantifiable to the CFO)
  • Wide span of idea sourcing; really good suggestions come from all areas of the organization
  • Increased access to A-player talent when sourcing new hires

Frame your conversation in a way that makes it clear that these positive outcomes will result, in large part, from the owner’s own work to publicly support culture development initiatives.

I fail to see a link between the investment required and a future financial gain.

 

POTENTIAL


To be successful, you must quantify how culture change will move the organization from point A to point B in a financially lucrative way. But how do you quantitatively benchmark culture…that warm and fuzzy, you-have-it-or-you-don’t organizational je ne sais quoi?

The good news is that you can assign a ToMo score to organizations using an analysis of employee responses related to the six work motives. In their consulting work, the authors of Primed to Perform have done this over and over again at many different organizations. And, they found that “in many industries, the most-admired cultures tend to have 15 points higher ToMo than their peers” (e.g. Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Apple Retail Stores).

The research suggests that a focus on having a positive work culture can materially move the needle and deliver a positive ROI. By sharing examples of these kinds of organizations and painting the picture of the impact your organization might have not just on employees, but also on your industry, potential will become clear to your leadership team.

I don’t think we have a culture problem. / I’m worried we’ll try and fail.

 

EMOTIONAL PRESSURE


It’s not really my thing. I don’t want us (or me) to look dumb. I don’t want to acknowledge the cultural elephant in the room. Reframing excuses that relate to one of the indirect motives can be a bit trickier, but never fear. Any of the aforementioned comments reek of emotional pressure and are understandable, as we’re all human.

To overcome the insecurity that they seem to suggest, don’t just explain the “why” of culture improvement to your senior leaders, but supplement your plan with the “how.” You’ve heard it before: come with a solution, not just a problem. Letting your senior management team know that you’re in it to win it when it comes to improving your work environment alleviates some of the emotional pressure (or burden) they may have been feeling about it themselves all along. Double down by enabling senior leaders (and others) the opportunity to “play” to brainstorm ideas on how the culture change might go down. Acknowledging to others in advance that a change is desired, and that it might not be perfect the first time round, is okay. It’s a step in the right direction.

Additionally, during the brainstorm process make sure that managers’, employees’ and customers’ motivations are aligned to succeed. For example, if customer and management expectations for service involve a customized, hold-my-hand relationship, but customer service representatives are paid based on the number of cases handled, then emotional pressure is sure to weaken organizational performance.

It will cost too much.

 

ECONOMIC PRESSURE


Not every company is going to even come close to Google’s budget for culture. However, every company needs to set aside either some funding and/or employee time to intentionally focus on culture development. Focusing on ToMo score in this scenario is helpful in making an argument in favor of culture change, as well. When you think about companies that are admired for their culture like Southwest and Whole Foods–companies with leading ToMo scores in their industries–you’re also reminded that they’re highly successful.

So then the compelling argument to senior leadership becomes, what’s the opportunity cost of doing nothing? Surely, that type of economic pressure warrants consideration relative to the cost of endeavoring change (given that you’re reading this article). In fact, budgeting for culture and engagement may end up eliminating costs in other areas…areas that may include incentives that are eventually found to create the wrong behaviors that weaken total motivation.

It’s how we’ve always done it.

 

INERTIA


The dreaded inertia might as well be called “insanity” in the context of this conversation. After all, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. But inertia is comfortable, familiar, it doesn’t make waves. It’s insidious.

While on its face, this motive seems like the mildest of the three indirect motives, it is the most harmful to total motivation and performance. In fact, it may even be the culture itself…“the way” things get done around your organization.

Tackle this senior leader objection head on with proof that what has always been done no longer (or has never) produced the desired results when it comes to engagement and performance. This may involve an honest look at how your organization stacks up against his competitors in terms of market share, ability to source top talent and length of customer relationships (among other indicators). You may lessen the likelihood of continued inertia by disrupting the status quo with clear suggestions on how opportunities to incorporate play, purpose and potential can be baked into the change process.

 

Convincing senior management to support your company culture improvement endeavors doesn’t have to be a cringe-worthy event. By bearing in mind that the six main reasons people work are the same six reasons your owner works, you can isolate objections and counter with objectives that will both maximize direct motives to support your plan, and minimize indirect motives.

Company Culture Ebook Download | ExactHire

The Unsung Benefits of Effective Employee Onboarding

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Now that you have hired the employee who you envision to be part of your team for the long-term, how do you help ensure that this newest member of your team stays for that long-term? One way to help fulfill your prophecy is through effective onboarding.

Onboarding? Yes, onboarding! There are many facets of onboarding that encompass a smooth transition for newly hired employees, and which will benefit all parties involved. A new hire wants to feel informed, connected and valued. An organization wants team members who actively contribute and who fit well within the existing work culture. Both goals can be achieved and solidified through an effective onboarding process.

The first day for new hires should be geared towards bonding with their new team, learning first-hand what the new culture is like, and building rapport. Onboarding is not just a manager’s task; it is the responsibility of all team members within the organization itself to provide accurate information in an encouraging manner. Teammates need to welcome new hires and provide a climate of support for them during the acclimation time frame.

The Time in Between – Pre-Onboarding

In the immediate days after new hires accept an offer–and definitely before their first day–you should ensure that they complete many of the “to-do list” tasks that often bombard them on Day 1. Send new hires any packets, paper or paperless, that contain items like tax forms, personal data forms, and insurance registrations. They can review, complete and submit the information to HR before arriving to work. This will help them avoid a first day solely spent on documentation, while providing them with time to become acclimated to team policies and departmental/organizational expectations.

Keeping Connected – Onboarding Technology

Onboarding technology helps an organization keep in contact with new hires during the time between their offer acceptance and their official first days on the job. A lapse in communication between new hires and their managers at this critical time can potentially cause a big disconnect, which can be detrimental to relationships that must be developed between new employees and their teammates. Onboarding technology is also the most efficient means to continue promoting your organization’s employer brand that was introduced during the recruitment phase–especially for new hires that are working remotely on a full-time or part-time status.

Setting and Meeting Expectations

New hires have a lot on their minds. Whether they are recent graduates or seasoned workforce veterans, they will have acquired notions of what a workplace should be from their previous environments. They will bring these past mindsets along with them in the back, or possibly the forefront, of their minds when starting at a new place. The norms of the environment from which new hires come can affect the way they perceive and perform their tasks and acclimate within the new culture.

Since it is inevitable that some form of internal comparison will take place in the new employees’ minds,  it is important for current team members to be cognizant of this as they interact with new hires. Having a component within the onboarding process that shares norms and expectations of your organization will give your manager and team the opportunity to communicate expectations, as well as learn more about the new hires’ past experiences.

Improving Your Onboarding Experience

Simply put, there are always additional means to improve a process whether it is part of the onboarding process or an organizational based procedure. Within each new hire’s onboarding process, solicit feedback from each person. Ensure new hires that constructive criticism will help improve the organization’s onboarding process, and reiterate that their feedback will be taken positively.

The new hire’s feedback could lead to change that could positively impact the morale of the organization along with profitability.  With feedback from a new hire, additional training and employee development opportunities could develop.  The fresh, open mind of a new hire can help stimulate others to open their minds and discard the “But We Have Always Done It This Way” mentality.

As you develop and implement your organization’s onboarding process, realize that continuous improvement of the setup, content and delivery of the onboarding process itself is an objective for which to strive.  What works today for your new hires will not necessarily work for tomorrow’s new hires since we are in the midst of rapidly changing workforce dynamics.

Resources for Building an Onboarding Process

SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series outlines the Four Cs of Onboarding which gives an organization an excellent foundation on which to customize its onboarding process.

  • Compliance – Teaching employees basic legal and policy related rules and regulations
  • Clarification – Ensuring employees understand their new jobs and job related expectations
  • Culture – Providing employees with a sense of organizational formal and informal norms
  • Connection – Creating relationships and interpersonal networks that new employees need

Creating and delivering an onboarding process which encompasses the Four Cs provides initial direction that can be adapted to the intricacies of any organization delivering the onboarding piece.

A Final Note: Enthusiasm Is Contagious

Ultimately, the quicker new hires feel connected and knowledgeable about their job duties, the quicker they will be positively contributing to the overall goals of your organization. Onboarding should not be perceived by new hires and the organization’s team as something tedious and monotonous.  Onboarding is not that at all!  Onboarding helps generate excitement for something of high value–your organization, its team and your organization’s mission and vision. Enthusiasm is contagious!  Build excitement on what you do and who helps you do it!  Your organization’s mission is a calling, and positively communicate that calling to new hires in your onboarding process.  If new hires hear that calling, let them answer.

Image credit: Speak Your Mind by Ben Grey (contact)

New Goals For HR Efficiency

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‘Tis the New Year!  Whether that brings you joyous excitement or “Bah Humbug”, the new year is here, and changes are sure to come. And while we cannot slow time, we can control how we respond to the changes that the New Year will bring.  With positivity, wonder, and excitement, we can look forward to those changes and learn from them.

In our personal and professional lives, resolutions for change are a common concept for this time of year.  However, often these resolutions are not in line with what we actually need. And when those lofty resolutions are not met, additional stresses often erupt for us. Life can be stressful enough as it is.  Why add more stress with unrealistic/unneeded resolutions? It may be better to look at existing needs and set goals to meet them.

In the world of human resources, we mix with people daily.  And in the grand search for the “holy grail” candidate, we often neglect the needs of our organization and ourselves . Let’s look at three goals that could enhance organizational efficiency and make each workday a more positive, productive experience.

Streamline the Hiring and Onboarding Process

Explore tools to help you manage your organization such as  Applicant tracking software, employee onboarding software, reference check software, employee assessment solutions, and paperless HR resources. ExactHire offers these tools along with a support team that values forging relationships through hands-on installation and implementation of our solutions. After all, successful partnerships are built on solid relationships. 

Organize Applicant Data for Daily Use and Internal/External Reporting

Are you familiar with the Reports Dashboard of ExactHire’s HireCentric portal? There are numerous standard reports here to organize your data with report options that include various types of applicant searches, EEO data, and time calculation among many other topics.

For example, there is a report that shows a list of incomplete applications.  By running an “Incomplete Applications” report, you can see who started an application for your organization but has not yet submitted it.  If you want to reach out to those individuals who have incomplete applications, HireCentric has a useful feature that allows you to email those applicants.  If you want to create custom reports, you can do that in HireCentric also.

Enlighten Your Team

Without a doubt, our support team is here to answer your questions and be your advocate whenever you need us.  Also, we have a library full of tip sheets located at support.exacthire.com that can help you get the most out of your tools. With this knowledge base, you are empowered to fully learn new features that you can share with your team. We are ready to assist you as you explore our tools, and we want you to have the resources that are most beneficial to enhancing your organization’s functionality. 


There are countless opportunities that lie ahead this year, but let us take a few moments to appreciate where we have been and where we are going.  At ExactHire, we value our clients, and we are here to assist you and your organization not only in this New Year, but in the many years ahead. To learn more about how ExactHire can create HR efficiency for you, contact us today!

Image credit: High Efficiency by Tom Magliery (contact)

6 Ideas on How to Increase Organizational Productivity for 2014

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Can you believe it? 2013 has come to a close and what a great year it was! It’s time to think about making some organizational productivity resolutions for the New Year, both for yourself and for your company. Here are some ideas on how to get increases in efficiency from your entire staff during 2014:

Have employees take an assessment

(If they have not already taken one.) Employee assessments can give the employee and the manager a great deal of insight about why a person works the way he/she does. Also, it shows what motivates him/her, as well as, what negatives (or demotivators) you can avoid to keep an employee engaged and efficient all year long.

Switch up the office layout

Change is good and this is a fun and easy way to liven up the office. Maybe its hanging new art or painting a few office walls. Maybe it’s a larger change like switching up cubicles and offices for much of the staff. Think about how refreshing it would be to have a new “neighbor” in the office to get to know each day.

Use an ATS system to make hiring easier

This is an obvious one from our company but if you haven’t already heard, there are TONS of benefits to using applicant tracking software (ATS). It is simple and makes it easy to streamline your hiring process. It’s consistent, compliant and efficient! This will especially help with human resources staff and hiring managers, but the benefits will affect the whole organization.

Have REGULAR brainstorming meetings

This keeps everyone feeling like part of the team on an ongoing basis. It’s a wise idea to take time every quarter to assemble as a group (or subgroups by department) and brainstorm on how to resolve the current issues and opportunities for the company. Don’t just meet once and call it done for the year…build it into your schedule on a regular basis. This helps keep creative juices flowing on all levels and in all business units of the company year round.

Implement employee onboarding software to reduce hiring stress

Again, this is one specifically helps managers and HR, but using a paperless onboarding system can save tons of time and money for the company. This will increase productivity by allowing all new hires to be efficiently added to the team.

Hold an offsite work retreat

We all know the importance of feeling like part of a group, but take it a step further by having a company retreat. Holding it offsite is a fantastic way to recharge as a group. This can be a team building exercise, a nice dinner meeting or even just a brainstorming session at a new location. All of these will help refresh your thoughts and perspectives for the company’s goals and issues. This activity does the ExactHire team a great deal of good when we meet offsite in the fall each year.

All companies are looking to stay productive, increase job fit and offer a fun work environment. We hope you use some of these ideas, as well as our products to ensure you have a successful 2014. For more information, please visit our resources section or contact us.

Image credit: Flickr Chinese Dragon Year Statue by epSos.de (contact)

Improve Your Hiring Process: Thin the Herd

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As you might gather from the title above, this is the first blog in a seven-part series about core concepts your organization can use to improve the efficiency and overall results of your recruiting and hiring process. While not the most glamorous topic out there, I think the majority of people involved with recruiting will agree that doing it right, and with as little wasted effort as possible, is critical to the ultimate success of any organization.

To be clear, this blog series isn’t about “process change” or anything nearly that advanced. Instead, I’ll be writing about simple concepts that are easy to incorporate into your existing process and can dramatically improve results. So, off to our first suggestion — thin the herd efficiently.

Screen Employment Applications

I don’t mean to imply that your applicants are a herd of animals, although you may disagree in some instances! However, this analogy holds true for most organizations when you look at what chronically-high unemployment rates have created. We’ve all read the stories about hundreds or thousands of applicants lining up when career fairs are held for new job opportunities. The simple fact is there are a lot of people continuing to look for work, so open positions attract larger volumes of applicants than they did 10 years ago. The “herd” of applicants is typically pretty big depending on the role.

On the one hand, that’s a good thing for you as an employer. There are more options from which to choose and a more diverse pool of potential hires available. On the other hand, it creates a dilemma many of you have encountered…”how do I possibly review all of these applicants for this opening?” That’s usually followed by…”I don’t have time for this AND my actual job!” So, how can you thin the herd?

Screening Questions Are Your Friend

The easiest solution I’ve found is to develop job-specific screening questions for your different positions. While there is initially a little time involved in creating these questions (including making sure they are legal & non-discriminatory), they can allow you to separate the clearly-unqualified job candidates from the possibly-qualified individuals much more quickly than the traditional option of reviewing resumes and applications individually.

It’s possible to do this with existing paper applications or downloadable PDF applications, although these options take away the ability to have the screening done in an automated fashion. Similarly, some of the more prevalent job boards allow you to require applicants to answer screening questions before they can submit their information for your job openings.

More commonly, organizations are looking to automated applicant tracking software tools to help with screening. If implemented properly, web-based recruiting solutions like these can automate this screening process significantly. In many instances, you can automatically “score” applicants’ answers to your unique questions and designate certain responses to mark applicants as not qualified for a given position.

Download our hiring process questions guide

 

Streamline and Improve the Hiring Process

An applicant tracking system shouldn’t be viewed as a way to “automate” hiring — in an impersonal sense. Rather, it’s merely a tool, that when used properly, can help you quickly identify which applicants merit further consideration for your particular job openings. Once you’ve “thinned the herd” initially, you will then be in a position to focus more time and effort on engaging with the shorter list of qualified applicants moving forward.

Be on the lookout for the next blog in my series where I relate the concept of comparing apples to apples to the recruiting process.

Could you use an ATS solution to help streamline your applicant screening process? Contact us to discuss our applicant tracking system.

Image credit: Stampede by Gopal Vijayaraghavan (contact)

Have You Thanked a Veteran Lately? Have You Hired a Veteran Lately?

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It’s no secret that I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for the men and women – past, present, and future – that make up our Military. You will see that every opportunity I have to pay back our military, I will do it without complaint. It boils down to this one sentence, “They risk their lives so that I may be free.” There are very few instances where I would willingly go into harm’s way to save those I do not know. These men and women do it every day.

As we approach Veterans Day, it is a good moment to stop and think about how you thank Veterans for what they have done, are doing, and will do in the days to come.

Have you ever considered hiring a Veteran? Yes, it is wonderful to personally thank any Veteran that you may see. And it is valuable to host charity collections for Veterans. But how about considering a Military person as an employee?

Maybe you are hesitant because of their experience level. In one of our recent Facebook shares, the article discusses hiring ‘under-qualified’ employees. Many military members have been taught skills that are transferable; however, some of them may seem underqualified at first glance because they may have used military-type language on their resumes that doesn’t necessarily translate well for hiring managers with civilian workplace experience. Keep this in mind when looking at their application. Do you need someone who is able to keep calm and think strategically when things are going haywire around them? Does this sound like any experience the military may have taught a potential employee? If you have ever thought about bidding for a government contract or need employees with government clearance (particularly if you are subject to affirmative action plan reporting), hiring veterans helps your company distinguish itself from others.

Did you also know that many applicants will not market themselves as having served in the military? Some find it an honor and part of their duty to serve America and therefore do not want to put it “front and center.” Others are worried about any negative connotation an employer may have about veterans. If you find that there is a break in employment history, you may want to ask if they served because military service is not always obvious. Many of our clients ask if an applicant has ever served in the military as part of their standard employment application in their applicant tracking software portal. This can help identify a veteran who has not made his/her service known in other parts of the application.

Forbes released an article November 9th titled, “5 Reasons Leaders Hire Veterans”. The author, Meghan Biro, did an excellent job at pinpointing and expanding on these skills: leadership, grace under pressure, performance and results-oriented, self-sacrifice, and communication and goal-setting.

A program that was started last year by JPMorgan Chase called the 100,000 Jobs Mission helps connect companies and Veterans. Their goal is to hire 100,000 veterans by 2020. You can sign up on their site to help with the mission. Your company’s logo will be displayed on their page and it will be linked to your career site.

Hiring a veteran can be a great opportunity to gain a loyal, dedicated, hard-working employee. But make sure you are hiring for optimal job fit first and foremost. It is not good for you or the veteran to hire the wrong person for the wrong job. Taking a second look at a veteran’s application is a good way to say thank you on this Veterans Day.

Unique Job Specific Screening Questions Part 2 – Nonprofit Leadership

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For those of you who read my first Unique Job Specific Screening Questions blog, then you know that many of the deal-breaker and essay questions sampled in this piece are especially common to high-volume positions for which one may recruit frequently. But what about your organization’s leadership roles? While you may not be creating these types of job listings in your applicant tracking software very often, it is still critical to identify the make-it-or-break-it questions for these high-level positions, as well.

In this follow-up, we’ll focus on the nonprofit industry. Easy-to-assign screener questions are just one of the many benefits available to not-for-profits that use technology to go paperless. A special thank you goes to Bryan Orander, Founder and President at Indianapolis-based Charitable Advisors, for sharing some of his preferred job-specific screening questions for certain key leadership roles in the nonprofit arena.

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First Executive Director Screening Questions

  1. Tell us about your experience working with a nonprofit board of directors to help them add meaningful value to the organization and the relationship you strive to create with the board.
  2. Tell us about your experience and success in building relationships for fund development that could apply to this position.
  3. Based on either your personal knowledge of our service area or your research, what do you see as some of the greatest opportunities in our service area?
  4. Tell us about how you have exhibited the skills that will be needed as the First Executive Director of this organization. Consider that you would be wearing many hats and expected to work frequently at the community visioning level; and, that you would be hands-on with people, projects and paperwork while you work to grow the organization and build a staff team.
  5. Tell us about your experience in engaging businesses and neighbors in efforts to benefit their community…ideally, in a multicultural setting.

President Screening Questions

  1. Describe what you feel are the essential components of successful fundraising.
  2. Describe your most significant accomplishment.
  3. Provide an example of how you have taken on a leadership role to make our community a better place to live.
  4. What role could or should our organization play in making our community a world class place to live, and what initial steps would you take to make that happen?

Executive Director/CEO Screening Questions

  1. What fundraising approaches would you see as most important to an organization like ours, and how have you used them successfully?
  2. Describe how you have successfully engaged board members in sharing your organization’s story and taking ownership for raising funds.
  3. The Executive Director/CEO will be leading the Board’s evaluation of the organization’s current name and brand identity. Tell us how you would approach conducting such an evaluation.

If you would like to share your own ideas for screening questions for leadership positions – in any industry – please comment on this blog. We can certainly all greatly benefit from our combined collective knowledge of hiring and selection tips. For more specific information about how to leverage job-specific screening questions in your own selection process, please contact ExactHire to learn about our applicant tracking software options.

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