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Steps Toward a Successful Recruitment Process
HR Question:
I understand that we’re living in a “candidate’s market,” which means I need to be both efficient and effective when recruiting for new talent. I want to know what best practices are to create a strong candidate and brand experience. What steps should I take to build a successful recruitment process?
HR Answer:
You’re right – today, businesses are operating in what’s called a “candidate’s market.” This means that job seekers have more opportunities and professional options to choose from. More importantly, though, it means that the top-tier candidates have the most leverage for the best opportunities. Secondly, it means that you can no longer use the same old hiring practices that you’ve used in the past when there were more candidates than there were jobs.
While the recruitment process may look different depending on factors such as business size, industry, or seniority of the position, some fundamental steps can be taken to help ensure a successful recruiting process.
Define the Position
The most successful recruiting efforts are built on clearly defined roles, which means creating (or updating) the job description for the role. You should meet with the relevant stakeholders (i.e., managers and peers) to understand which skills, tasks, and experiences are critical to the success of the position, and possibly missing from the team and organization, to update the job description.
Then, for clarity and effective candidate screening, a best practice can be to identify the top three to five skills or qualifications that are essential to the position (rather than providing an exhaustive list of potential needs) and build your job ad around those items.
The difference between job descriptions and job ads
It’s important to note that your job description and your job ad are not the same thing! Your job description should provide a detailed view of the job requirements, expectations, reporting structure, etc. Your job ad should give a brief overview of the position and highlight the most critical qualifications needed to be successful.
Your ad should also provide compelling reasons why candidates would love to work for your company. Remember, your job ad needs to be intriguing enough to potentially woo someone away from their current job. This is your chance to highlight why they should consider making that leap.
Another key task in these early stages is making sure that you have a clear description of the culture and what a “strong fit” may look like for the existing team. Be sure you understand your “need-to-have” qualities (such as the ability to pivot quickly or experience with certain software) versus “nice-to-have” qualities (i.e., it would be great if the candidate came with these skills, but I can teach them if they don’t).
When it comes time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), consider the following:
- Job ads should be easily read on a mobile device with minimal scrolling, as almost 70% of job seekers in 2021 applied via their mobile devices.
- Utilize catch statements at the beginning of the ad (i.e., are you looking for a fast-paced, creative environment?) that speak to the candidate you may be looking for.
- Use a short paragraph to summarize the major responsibilities of the position. No more than three to five sentences.
Post the Position
Once your job ad is written, it’s time to cast a wide net to attract a diverse candidate pool. Consider major job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter, as well as a number of free job boards, niche/industry-specific job boards, diversity job boards, and social media groups. Don’t forget to leverage your own network, including LinkedIn alumni groups and associations in the area you are recruiting in. Be sure to post it on your company’s career page too.
As you post the role, be sure to simplify the candidate’s ability to post/apply to positions. Remove any unnecessary steps that make the application process lengthy or complex, which may turn off the candidates from even applying in the first place.
If you use pre-screen questionnaires, make sure they are optimally designed and easy to complete. Wait until after initial conversations with a candidate before making them complete lengthy applications or assessments. This allows for an opportunity to “sell” the position and the employment brand of the company and to get the candidate interested in moving forward through those tasks.
Be Proactive!
In a tight candidate market, you may not want to solely rely on waiting for the candidate to come to you. Research organizations, social media outlets, or other networking options that are relevant to the position or company. Routinely connect with your network, share news, and let them know that you are hiring.
And if you are competing for the same candidates as other organizations, be ready to sell the candidate on why your company will be their best choice. This is not just a discussion of pay and benefits, but more about the culture, mission of the company, and potential career growth. So, if your organization does a great job of providing career paths and development opportunities, be proud of that, put that message first and foremost ahead of pay and benefits.
Focus on Candidate Experience!
As candidates come rolling in, you’ve reached a crucial time in a successful recruitment process – you need to make sure you’re reviewing and responding to candidates in a timely fashion. A best practice is responding to the candidate with an acknowledgment, if not the next steps, within one to two business days. This can be a simple email that thanks them for their interest and includes an explanation of what the next steps in the process will be. The candidate will appreciate the follow-up, which will also help protect the employment brand of your company.
Other best practices include:
- Utilizing readily available technology to find alternate ways to reach out to candidates. For example, texting can be an effective way of quickly getting in touch with candidates, as it boosts engagement and may cut down on the amount of time spent playing phone tag. This is especially true if your organization has a lot of high-volume recruiting.
- If you know that there will be multiple steps in the process, communicate that as early as possible. This also opens the door to encouraging the candidate to keep you informed as well should there be any developments in their current job search.
- Simplify the interview process as much as possible. Avoid having candidates come on-site multiple times for interviews by scheduling as much as necessary in one or two visits, max. Top-tier candidates are usually currently employed, which makes it very difficult for them to take time off to interview.
Be sure that your entire hiring team prioritizes the recruitment process and that they are actively involved in the hiring process so that you do not lose top talent to roadblocks caused solely by the hiring team. More often than not, your best candidates may come in the first round of resumes that you receive. Encourage anyone involved in the hiring process to keep this in mind as they recruit and to be timely in making decisions.
Thank you to Lisa Johnson, CIR and Samantha Kelly for contributing to this edition of our HR Question of the Week!
A successful recruitment process is much more than just posting an ad. It requires a targeted message, the right resources, and a significant amount of candidate engagement. Are you overwhelmed with your recruiting? Our on-demand recruitment services can give you the support you need no matter where you are in the process. Visit our Outsourced Recruitment page to learn more, or contact us today!
What Are The Top 5 Commonly Missed Records In Employee Files?
For human resources professionals, there are many things you simply have to get right in order to protect your organization, and recordkeeping is one of them. Employee files, also known as personnel files, are a key component of the recordkeeping process for any organization. They provide a written history of each employee’s tenure with an organization including important information such as pay increases, promotions, disciplinary action, etc. Additionally, there are several documents that are required to maintain HR compliance at the federal level in the United States. For example, check out the U.S. Department of Labor’s reference for federally required new employee documentation.
These documents and comprehensive files can be maintained physically on paper or digitally ideally using a defined data storage strategy supported by an organization’s IT department. Many employers utilize the U.S. Department of Labor’s digital data storage guidelines when developing a digital data storage strategy.
5 Most Commonly Missed Records in Employee Files
Out of all the documents required to be maintained in employee files, below are the five most commonly missed. Do you have these records in your employee files?
1. Pre-Hire Documents
Pre-hire documents include the employee’s resume and application, the signed offer letter or employment contract, a signed handbook acknowledgment, tax withholding forms, a signed code of conduct, and emergency contact information.
2. Wage and Salary Information
Wage and salary information include any increases given (e.g., merit, cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), or promotion-related increases), bonus information, and significant changes to an employee’s position relative to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) exemption status.
3. Performance Reviews
The performance review documentation that should be stored within an employee file may be a 30 or 90-day review or a signed copy of the employee’s quarterly/semi-annual/annual review. Follow your organization’s timeline and policies for performance reviews and ensure these are added to all employee files.
4. Disciplinary Action
Disciplinary action forms and performance improvement plans (PIPs) are key to maintaining a comprehensive and documented narrative for the employee’s performance. If for any reason an employee is terminated, it can provide information with the potential to protect an organization from litigation. Learn more about at-will employment termination risks and how to reduce your liability.
5. Training and Development
Training and Development documentation can include training plans or checklists, verification of federal or state-required training, as well as the employee’s attained certifications, degrees, and licenses.
How to Properly Store Employee Records
It’s important to understand and follow proper employee record storage procedures. For example, did you know it is recommended that the I-9 Form be stored separately from the employee files? According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I-9 Forms should be stored in a way that best fits your organization, yet is easily available for USCIS inspection. As a result, best practice leads to storing I-9s separately from other files.
Although there is some leeway with employee record storage, best practice is to maintain the following five separate sets of files:
- Employee/Personnel
- Medical
- Confidential – Non-Medical
- Form I-9
- Candidates Not Hired
For more on what should be included in each of these files, read our article explaining how to organize employee records and remain compliant.
Regardless of the storage process you choose, be sure to audit your employee files to ensure compliance. We recommend creating an employee file document list for new hires and ongoing employment by reviewing federal and state requirements, record retention guidelines (which can vary for federal contractors), benefit documentation, and organization-specific documents. This will provide a starting point to validate that your organization’s current files aren’t missing any key forms.
Thank you to Mary Mitchell, MBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CHRS, Senior HR Business Advisor for contributing to this Emerging Issues in HR.
Keep the guesswork out of how to store and maintain your employee files. Strategic HR has a handy Recordkeeping Desktop Reference that outlines the employee documents you should have on file and how long to keep them. Learn more about our HR Compliance & Recordkeeping Services or Contact Us for help!
How Can My Company Choose Between Different Types of Recruitment Services?
If your organization is struggling to get candidates to apply or remain in your selection process, can’t seem to find the right person to fill a key role, or simply don’t have the bandwidth to fill the volume of open positions, it may be time to consider external recruitment solutions. There are many types of recruitment services that can often help you find and hire the right talent faster, improve your recruitment function’s effectiveness, and save you money in the process.
So, how do you get started and what should you look for?
Four Types of Recruitment Services
We’ll break down four different types of recruitment services to help you understand what they can do, their typical pricing/fee structure, and how to decide if it’s right for you.
1. Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
RPOs, also known as outsourced recruitment services, are described by the Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association as being similar to business process outsourcing, where “an employer transfers all or parts of its recruitment processes to an external service provider.” An RPO can manage some or all of your recruiting process while also offering options for establishing or improving your internal hiring function.
How do RPOs work?
Full-service RPOs act similar to an internal recruitment team as they work on your behalf representing your organization and employer branding. Many times, because they are a seamless extension of your company, candidates don’t know these recruiters aren’t on your staff unless it is shared.
These recruiting experts can tackle all aspects of your recruiting from initial scope to onboarding including:
- Creating compelling job ads and posting to their curated networks
- Screening resumes and sourcing candidates
- Conducting interviews, setting up interviews for your hiring managers, and gathering feedback
- Communicating with your decision makers and candidates – ensuring an excellent client and candidate experience throughout the process
- Conducting reference and background checks
- Extending offers and assisting with negotiations
- Arranging and leading onboarding
There is additional value as you leverage their candidate reach, discounted job ads packages (including social media), technology, and applicant tracking tools. Many outsourced recruitment services can use your applicant tracking tools, provide their own, or even help you establish new ones.
RPOs are often strategic consulting partners for your organization. In addition to supporting or managing your hiring process, they can address underlying issues with your recruitment strategy, refine your processes, and identify cost-saving opportunities.
This structure allows for an on-demand approach, as outsourced recruitment services can manage as much (or as little) of your recruitment as you prefer. Some companies choose to use an RPO to manage their entire recruiting function – eliminating the need for an in-house recruiting team. Others take an à la carte approach using outsourced recruitment services to support their biggest area of need, such as advertising or initial screening.
Ideal for:
- Organizations of any size that have limited, overburdened, or no dedicated staff for recruiting. They allow business owners and managers to focus on their business.
- If you don’t have the resources or your plate is too full, an RPO can keep your timeline moving with a minimal time commitment on your part.
Pricing/Fee Structure:
As you can imagine, not all RPOs are alike, and neither are their pricing structures. Some charge an hourly rate for time worked while others charge monthly, project-based, or cost-per-hire rates. So it’s important to do your homework!
For companies seeking recruiting support with the most flexibility and time and cost-savings, outsourced recruitment services that charge by the hour may be the best fit. That way, you’re only charged for their time working on your needs, and not charged when they’re not.
2. Interim/Temporary Staffing Agency:
This type of recruitment service is also a third-party entity that operates entirely independently of your company. Temporary agencies usually have a database and network of individuals who can quickly fill in for short-term needs. These candidates may be on the payroll for that staffing agency or simply be employed on contract as needed.
Ideal for:
- Quickly filling an interim position
- Bulk hiring for short-term projects or seasonal staffing needs
Pricing/Fee Structure:
Employers typically pay an hourly rate to the agency and the agency determines the temp’s pay rate.
Some agencies may also offer the contract-to-hire option, where you pay the hourly rate, but have an option to hire the temporary employee long-term. At that point, you often pay a conversion rate or a placement fee when you hire.
3. Retained Executive Search
These companies specialize in recruiting for senior and executive-level positions and tend to have an extensive network of qualified candidates. Executive search firms often take a deep dive into understanding the needs and expectations of the open role, in addition to their clients’ company branding, culture, vision, and mission. They use this information to identify ideal candidates more accurately.
Retained executive search firms often find and present a few top candidates after conducting thorough screening and interviews. They also help with ongoing communications with those candidates if you choose to interview them. The firm will also help negotiate and provide offer expectations for their candidate(s).
Ideal for:
- When your recruiting team doesn’t have the appropriate network or time to dedicate to this key position
- Guaranteeing you’ll get a hire for a hard-to-fill senior or executive level position.
Pricing/Fee Structure:
Many firms charge 30-40% of the position’s first year salary. Employers pay an upfront retainer fee and get a “guarantee” of a hire, often accompanied by a prorated rate refund or replacement if the hire leaves within a short period.
4. Contingency Recruiters
These recruiters set themselves apart as they are only paid if you hire their candidate(s). They recruit for entry- all the way through senior-level positions and work to develop a wide network of candidates for various roles in multiple industries.
To increase their chances of securing a hire (and getting paid!), they tend to recruit for multiple companies and may submit the same candidate to more than one company. Because of this, it is important that you act quickly if a candidate is a great fit so as not to lose them to a competitor.
When using this recruiting approach, you’ll want to understand what happens to your search if you opt for a contingent option while the firm’s other clients are using the retained search model. This can lengthen your time-to-hire.
Ideal for:
- Similar to a retained search, when your recruiting team doesn’t have the appropriate network or time to dedicate to the position
- In tight labor markets when you need to search your competitors’ rosters
Pricing/Fee Structure:
You pay only if you hire the candidate they present. Typical fees range from 25-35% of the new hire’s first-year pay.
How to choose the best recruiting service for you
No matter which of the types of recruitment services you choose to explore, we recommend that you:
- Check client and candidate references to understand their reputation with both groups.
- Ask how they find and recruit candidates. Do you still have to pay for job ads, professional membership fees, etc.?
- Learn about the process including if they utilize your ATS or their own.
- Understand the average or expected time to hire or similar analytics.
- Know your time/involvement needed upfront and on-going.
- Ask how they provide a positive candidate experience, as well as who/how they will handle all follow-ups.
- Do the math! Compare costs between your top options. You might be shocked at how much you can save.
Bottom line, any of these staffing options can offer support when you need it. The key is to find the best fit for your needs, as well as budgetary and time constraints.
Thank you to Andrea Whalen, Senior HR Business Strategist, and Melinda Canino, MS, Senior HR Communications Advisor, for contributing to this Emerging Issues in HR.
Do you need recruiting help? Our Outsourced Recruitment Services may be the perfect solution. We’ll manage the full process or support just where you need it for one or all of your positions. Plus, we now offer Executive Search solutions through Clark Schaefer Executive Search! Call Strategic HR today at (513) 697-9855 or email us for a free recruiting consultation.
If you don’t have openings but still want to evaluate that your process is top-notch, it may be the ideal time to take our Free Recruitment Checkup.
How do I manage compensation increases with inflation?
HR Question:
How do I best manage compensation increases with inflation still rising?
HR Answer:
This is a question many companies continue to wrestle with as the US economy experiences rising inflation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer price index (CPI) reached its highest annual increase (8.6%) in over 40 years in May 2022, and we continue to watch the CPI on the rise. These increased daily costs put significant pressure on employees to stretch their income further, which in turn, puts pressure on employers to increase wages to cover the gap.
Employers also need to consider other factors when assessing pay strategies, such as the state of the labor market. With employment rates at record lows, it can be harder to find and attract qualified candidates, making salary a sticking point in many employment conversations.
What does this mean for organizations as they try to meet the needs of employees and remain competitive in the market? How are they supposed to be competitive when navigating rising costs across the board? What if salaries have already increased – should they be expected to continue to climb so soon? We recommend the following considerations to help manage your compensation increases amidst inflation and a tight labor market.
Keep Inflation In Mind When Strategizing
With these external influences, HR leaders need an effective rewards strategy that retains current high performers, attracts top candidates, evaluates business costs, and is applied equitably. Easy, right? Not only that, but the approach should align with organizational strategy, have market-based salary data, include review processes, and consider non-monetary compensation. Then, that complex plan should be communicated throughout the organization.
This presents an opportunity to ensure that your annual compensation review process includes an assessment of how the cost of living impacts your pay strategy. Consider adding inflation into your review model utilizing data from the Department of Labor and additional government agencies, along with the criteria you use to determine annual pay increases. While you don’t have to directly increase your salary rates in step with the inflation percentage, not doing so may put your organization at a competitive disadvantage in the candidate market.
Salary Benchmarking
Rather than relying on inflation to exclusively guide your salary increases, consider utilizing salary benchmarking tools for each role in your company. This is also a great opportunity to weave in any feedback you’ve learned from job candidates, stay interviews, or exit interviews. The compensation review process could then use current market-based salary ranges to recommend increases.
And, while it makes sense to consider what’s happening in the economy, an increase in the cost of living may or may not lead to a proportional pay increase. Although prices may be going up, it doesn’t mean that compensation market data has moved at the same rate as inflation. For example, if the CPI has increased by 8%, salaries may have increased by less than 8% or more than 8% in the market. This is why conducting salary benchmarking is crucial for each position.
Benchmarking against what other organizations are planning for salary increases can help give a sense of perspective as well. According to a recent survey conducted by WorldatWork, increases in 2024 are budgeted for 4%. You may want to review several resources to compare compensation data across your industry for a reasonable comparison.
Non-Monetary Compensation
Take-home pay is the predominant concern when inflation hits, but other variables can still be vitally important to employees. Evaluate benefits and non-monetary rewards offered and consider additional low-cost options.
For example, are there ways to enhance health benefit subsidies, HSA contributions, flexibility, paid time-off, retirement contributions, tuition reimbursement, etc.? Providing more generous offerings in this category could help ease the impact of inflation without necessarily increasing your immediate costs.
Communication and Transparency
Before finalizing compensation increases, collaborate with other leaders to determine the overall economic impacts on the organization. Perhaps additional revenue streams or other increased costs may impact the feasibility of compensation increases either way.
Once decisions have been made, effectively communicating with employees is crucial. Tailor the message based on the employee’s perspective and make sure to be transparent and empathetic while explaining the reality of what is and isn’t possible. Doing this authentically will help people feel valued.
Compensation analysis is an ongoing process, and HR Leaders should consistently evaluate the organizational strategy and market data to stay competitive. With a robust strategy, sound framework, and effective communication, any factor can be considered and incorporated appropriately.
Thank you to Becky Foster, Sr. HR Business Strategist, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Let the HR Business Advisors at Strategic HR review your strategy and conduct a compensation market analysis to make sure you’re not missing any opportunities to have a rewards strategy that attracts, retains, and engages your team. Learn more about our Benefits and Compensation Services or Contact Us for help.
What Should We Include On Our Careers Page?
HR Question:
What should we include on our company Careers page to ensure we’re keeping up with the times?
HR Answer:
You’re wise to have the quality of your company’s Careers page on your radar. This is a critical recruitment marketing tool to capture the attention of potential candidates. Your page’s content, look, and feel must grab their attention fast to keep job seekers engaged and interested in applying. Otherwise, you lose them before they even apply. You’ll want to make sure that you seize the opportunity to showcase who you are, what you have to offer, and why job seekers would want to work at your organization.
Your Careers page should be designed to intrigue candidates to want to learn more; actively engage them with your content; and compel them to apply. There are many components that you can consider to optimize your Careers page. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
Nine Tips to Optimize Your Careers Page:
1. Showcase your employer brand
Your employer brand encompasses your mission, values, benefits/perks, and overall company culture. It can be viewed as your company’s reputation as an employer, which is a critical piece that job seekers want to understand.
Although this is different than your company brand, your employer branding should be aligned with your company brand. We’ll touch upon some components of employer branding below, but to dive in further, check out this LinkedIn article, “What Is Employer Branding and How Can It Grow Your Business?”
2. Share your mission and values
According to Strategic HR’s “Generations at Work” survey, a “values match” between the candidate and the company ranked within the top five reasons any generation would prioritize when deciding whether or not to join an organization. By incorporating your company’s mission and values on your Careers page, candidates can connect to your company’s purpose.
A great way to showcase this can be through testimonials from your employees sharing how your values come to life in your workplace. This presents a good opportunity to ensure that you are indeed living the values that you profess for your company.
3. Include benefits / perks
It should be no surprise that job seekers want to know about the benefits and perks that you offer. This is a prime opportunity to market what you offer to your employees and tout why it’s great to work at your company. Wondering what today’s job seeker values the most? Check out Forbes’s “Best Employee Benefits of 2023.”
4. Shine a light on company culture
Your company culture is what makes your organization uniquely YOU. Candidates want to have a realistic picture of what it’s like to work at your company so they can assess if it feels like a good fit for them. A powerful way to communicate your culture can be through videos. For example, you could share “A day in the life” videos showing real employees at work and hearing about their experiences.
Not sure where to start? Check out 8 Steps to Producing a Great Employment Video for tips and tricks!
5. Ensure a fast and easy application process
If you capture the job seeker’s interest to the point where they’re ready to apply, make sure you don’t lose them in the application process! Many applications are too long, and with the number of current job openings far exceeding the available talent to fill them, job seekers can pick and choose where they want to apply.
Make sure your application only asks for the information that you absolutely need at that stage in your selection process. It should be quick and easy to complete – target completion in 5 minutes or less.
6. Make it mobile friendly
Many candidates (particularly millennials) conduct their job search on the go using their phones, so be sure that your Careers page is mobile-friendly. To the point made above, you’ll also want to ensure that your job application is mobile-optimized as well. If you’re not sure, try it out for yourself!
7. Offer job alerts
Don’t count on job seekers to go back to your Careers page on their own if they don’t see a job opening that interests them when they first visit your page. Your Careers page should offer the opportunity for job seekers to sign up to receive job alerts for the type(s) of position(s) they want to pursue. This push notification can help to re-engage that candidate when an appropriate job becomes available.
8. Allow applications without a job opening
Don’t let a potential candidate slip through your fingers simply because you don’t have the right job opening for them today. Seize the opportunity to engage that candidate in a future job opportunity by allowing them to apply for a future fit position. If you do this, be sure that you source your ATS when new positions become available to ensure that you re-engage these candidates who have expressed an interest in your company.
9. Explain your hiring process
Job seekers want to understand your hiring process. They want to know the expected steps it takes to get hired. They also want to know what they can expect from you in this process. Providing an explanation of your hiring process either through text or video can help to manage candidates’ expectations and answer some of their questions on the front end.
After you’ve completed the suggestions above, consider taking it a step further! Reviewing your entire recruitment process annually – from application to offer to acceptance – is a great way to ensure that you’re creating a welcoming, efficient, and attractive process for potential talent to follow should they want to join your team.
Thank you to Samantha Kelly, Sr. Sales & Marketing Strategist, and Stephanie Kolodziejski, Talent Acquisition Consultant, for updating this HR Question of the Week.
Do you need help creating or updating your Careers page? Give us a call! Our expert Talent Acquisition Consultants can help evaluate, streamline, and suggest ways to build efficiencies into your recruitment process. Or better yet, take it off your hands completely! Visit our Outsourced Recruitment page for more information on how we can help you effectively and efficiently find your next employee.
HR’s Role During An Economic Crisis
High inflation, rising interest rates, record-low unemployment, and strong consumer spending seem to have economists scratching their heads. In today’s economic uncertainty, HR professionals are preparing to pivot to meet the needs of their organizations should the economy go into recession.
HR professionals are no strangers to navigating and leading through turbulent times. Throughout the pandemic, HR was and still remains on the front lines – leading change and creating a culture and space that supported a massive transition to remote work and pandemic-safe work environments. HR professionals demonstrated skills that had not been relied upon by many companies in the past, creating a focus on minimizing costs while engaging staff during challenging times.
HR professionals found themselves providing staffing insights to navigate difficult business decisions, offering creative problem-solving, and managing talent and culture, more than they ever have in the past. In this article, we will highlight several ways in which human resources professionals can continue to pivot and develop creative approaches to help their organizations weather the storm of the current economic crisis.
Assessing and Addressing Talent Needs
It may be expected that HR’s role during an economic crisis would center around talent. As companies make critical staffing decisions, the evaluation of talent and the use of that talent becomes paramount. During cost-saving conversations, significant efforts must be made to make effective use of staff. HR leaders can address these priorities through performance evaluations, development tools, succession plans, and cross-training initiatives.
Despite predictions, unemployment remains at historic lows and the Great Resignation could be seen as the beginning of a long-term shift in the labor market. For many businesses, growth has been slowed because of workforce shortages. Fortune indicates that the U.S. workforce participation rate has fallen to 62.3%, which is down from 67% in the late 1990s. More than ever before, HR professionals need to focus on strategies to help their organizations attract, retain, and develop high performers.
As organizations strive to meet their attraction and retention goals, they are also faced with the realities of the current economic conditions. The soaring cost of living has placed pressure on employers to increase salaries as paychecks are stretched by the significant increase in the prices of household goods. HR’s role is to help the business remain competitive in the job market by developing total compensation programs designed to motivate and reward high performance.
In addition to ensuring compensation and benefits are competitive, employers are challenged with meeting the needs and expectations of a multi-generational workforce. In the Generations at Work Study, two of the top reasons that job seekers across all generations choose to join a company besides salary are the ability to enjoy work-life balance and having growth and learning opportunities. HR can champion programs that motivate all generations of employees by offering ample paid time off, flexibility, and learning and professional development opportunities.
By taking a multifaceted approach, today’s HR leaders have the opportunity to create the workplace of the future that is designed with successful talent attraction and retention strategies built in.
Reskilling for the Future
As technology rapidly advances, one thing is certain – many businesses are finding a skills gap with current employees, and this gap is hindering growth. During times of an economic slowdown, HR can shift the focus to the future and find ways to fill skill gaps with current employees through training and development opportunities.
This can be a win-win situation as it helps the business to better meet its needs, and it addresses the desire of employees who are looking for growth and learning opportunities.
Managing the Mood
Difficult times become the most integral time to “manage the mood” of the company. Another component of HR’s role during an economic crisis is to partner with the leadership team to encourage and embrace a culture open to flexibility, evolution, and giving grace to others.
Particularly during times of economic downturns or layoffs, it can be hard to maintain the psychological safety of the team. This is the time to remain transparent in communications on what is happening in the organization, as well as recognizing what is left unknown. Employees left in the dark can become disengaged, putting your organization at risk of fostering a culture of quiet quitters.
Supporting Mental Health and Well-Being
Economic challenges always take a toll on employees in one way or another, and consideration must be made for the mental health and well-being of those that are at the heart of your organization to assure a thriving and productive environment. Promote your Employee Assistance Plans (EAPs), take advantage of the co-pay waiver of many health plans for mental health, and provide regular communication to staff on financial offers from local banks and community resources.
It’s no secret – HR’s role in this economic crisis has shifted and grown. The current economic crisis has put pressure on HR professionals and business leaders to do more with less. Businesses across the board are all looking for creative ways to engage their workforce, reinforce productive and positive behavior, and retain staff – all while allaying employee concerns and fears.
Human Resource professionals can and should take this unique opportunity to play a significant role in leading their organization through this national crisis. By showing their support of the business and its employees through appropriate economic-driven actions, they can support both the organization’s vision/mission and its employees’ health and wellbeing.
Special thanks to Colleen Mahoney, PHR, HR Business Advisor, for contributing to this edition of our Emerging Issues in HR!
HR plays an integral role in optimizing your operations during challenging times. Clark Schaefer Strategic HR can help with your leadership and HR strategy. For more information, please visit our HR Strategy page, or simply contact us – we’d love to hear from you.
How To Set Up An Employee Bonus Plan
HR Question:
I am having trouble motivating my employees to do more than just the fundamental functions of their job. Could an employee bonus plan help? And if so, how do I set this up?
HR Answer:
Yes! While some people are driven solely by their own internal motivation, many behaviors and accomplishments are encouraged and strengthened by external rewards, prizes, or incentives. Think about your own behavior. Do you eat healthy all week and reward yourself with a sweet treat on the weekend for a job well done? Or is there a meaningful work project that would suddenly become more tempting to tackle if there was a reward for knocking it out of the park?
“Behavior that is motivated by a desire for reinforcement or incentives” is known as the Incentive Theory of Motivation. From this, we learn that providing the right external rewards can drive human behavior. In a work setting, incentives can help to set your employees’ course of action and encourage them to perform projects or tasks that might be above and beyond their daily work responsibilities, stretch and grow them in areas that will further benefit the company, and drive advancement and change in your organization.
While there are a variety of ways to incentivize employees, one of the easiest and most impactful ways is a financial incentive or bonus. Not all individuals are motivated by money, and you have to know your employees well to know if and how much money will actually be motivating, so it might prove to be beneficial to conduct an employee survey to understand your employees’ motivators.
There are many creative ways to structure bonuses to incentivize the behavior you want to see. The Economic Research Institute provides a description of the most common types of bonuses used by employers in their article, “How to Calculate Employee Bonuses.” We are going to focus the remainder of this article on the performance bonus.
How to establish a performance bonus plan
To implement a performance employee bonus plan in your organization, we recommend the following steps:
- Work with your company leadership team and chief financial officer to establish a budgeted amount of money that will be available at the time bonuses will be paid out.
- Determine who is eligible to participate in the bonus program. Remember that if you include non-exempt employees, the bonus amount will have to be added to the base hourly rate in the calculation of overtime for that time period.
- Define the time period that the bonus will cover and how often it will be paid out (i.e., monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually).
- Establish maximum bonus amounts for participants – will it be a percentage of their salary or a fixed amount? Will this vary based on the pay grade their job is assigned?
- Prepare a policy with all of this information and communicate the program to eligible employees.
Setting goals for bonus payout
Once you have established the structure of your bonus program, the next step is the MOST IMPORTANT one in the process – setting goals. Work with your employees to set stretch goals that will motivate them to perform their essential functions better, improve processes, learn a new skill, or complete specific projects. These goals should align with both the organization’s annual goals and the department’s goals for the year.
As you align your bonus plan payout with your company, departmental, and individual goals, you may want to allocate percentages of the bonus to each of these areas. By tying the bonus payout to multiple relevant factors, you can set minimum expectations for the financial and performance metrics that need to be met for a full payout. This also provides flexibility to offer a partial payout if certain measures are partially met.
For example, you could structure your employee bonus plan like this:
1. Company Goal – A financial goal the company must meet/exceed – 25% of the eligible bonus amount
2. Departmental Goal – A goal the department must meet/exceed measuring quality, performance, customer service, financials, safety, etc. – 25% of the eligible bonus amount
3. Individual Goals – Two individual goals measuring projects, training/development, performance, safety, productivity, attendance, etc. – 50% of the eligible bonus amount
Once the goals are set, your next critical priority is to follow up on these goals. Whether you are setting a bonus goal for the year or for the month, meet with your employees at regular intervals and discuss their progress on their goals. Assure that the goals are attainable and that they continue to make sense as time moves forward. Company leaders should also provide updates on company and departmental goals so employees have a sense of organizational progress and success.
Finally, at the end of the bonus period, meet with your employees to assess their progress in reaching/exceeding the goals. Reward those goals completed at 100% and lessen the reward if the goals were not fully met. Be sure to assess the effectiveness of your bonus plan at the end of the year and tweak it accordingly before rolling it out again next year.
Thank you to Lorrie Diaz, MS, Sr. HR Business Advisor, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Clark Schaefer Strategic HR have the answers to all of your tough Benefits and Compensation related questions. Whether you need an analysis of your current benefit offerings or are looking to create a cost-effective recognition and rewards program, Strategic HR can do the job. Please visit our Benefits & Compensation page for more information or Contact Us.
Could Sabbaticals Be Your Next Retention Tool?
HR Question:
In today’s fast-paced and high-pressure market, it’s difficult to truly disconnect from work. We’ve been trying to find ways to give our team a break to avoid burnout, but sometimes a week of vacation just isn’t enough. Could sabbaticals be the newest tool in our retention toolbox?
HR Answer:
You’re not alone in considering sabbaticals as they seem to be gaining in popularity. According to a recent World at Work survey assessing US organizations ranging in size and industry, 10% of organizations offered paid sabbaticals (up from 7% in 2019), and 29% offered unpaid sabbaticals (up from 16% in 2019). Now, as we’re well into a period with many different names – the Great Reshuffle, the Great Resignation, the Great Re-Evaluation to name a few – sabbaticals may be the unsung hero that benefits both employers and employees alike when it comes to talent retention, supporting good mental health, and strengthening employee engagement and dedication to their work and your organization.
Time to Re-Charge, Re-Energize, and Reconnect
It’s no secret that the first beneficiary of a sabbatical is the employee. Unfortunately, those who do choose to take sabbaticals may often lack the opportunity to properly enjoy them. In fact, The Sabbatical Project reports that nearly two-thirds of those who do take a sabbatical are often forced into them due to traumatic circumstances out of their control – the loss of a family member, health issues, the need to navigate complex or dissolving relationships, etc. Not exactly the most relaxing setting for a rejuvenating and relaxing period of time.
Although a sabbatical can be used to address such issues, it could benefit organizations to promote them for a broader purpose. Employees should be encouraged to consider using a sabbatical as an opportunity to truly disconnect, re-energize, and re-focus if suffering from burnout or fatigue. They can also be used to discover new passions, chase hobbies, and gain the experiences that many may put off until after retirement.
Sabbaticals Benefit the Employer Too
And while a sabbatical, paid or unpaid, can seem like an intimidating amount of time away from the desk for both the employee and the employer, the benefit of a re-energized and re-engaged employee can pay back dividends. Interviews for a Charter and TIME article revealed employees who returned from a sabbatical found themselves more creative, felt greater feelings of loyalty and energy, and brought new ideas to the table.
When considering the cost of having to replace a long-term employee, along with their organizational knowledge, skills, and work relationships built over time, offering a sabbatical as an opportunity to renew and recharge may be far more cost-effective. In addition, offering sabbaticals as part of your benefits package is not only attractive to retain current employees, but can also be a valuable talent acquisition tool to attract new talent.
Your Team Will Benefit From Your Time Away
The longer nature of sabbaticals creates an opportunity for cross-training. As opposed to managing through vacations where you can push a project or a question off “just a few days” until a person returns, sabbaticals present a fantastic opportunity to engage other team members in new and different tasks, departments, and levels of the organization – providing the employer with a built-in opportunity for the career development and growth that ranks high on job seekers’ lists today.
Sabbaticals Don’t Come Without a Cost
It would be a win-win if sabbaticals came without a cost to the employer or employee, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. That’s why it’s important that employers establish their promises and expectations for sabbaticals. How often and for how long can employees be away? Do they need to serve a certain number of years to qualify? How much of their regular pay will they still receive, if any? How does a sabbatical tie into their PTO or other time off categories?
While the cost may not be a surprise, the money saved by creating an attractive workplace, providing necessary mental health benefits, and showing that you’re an organization committed to putting employees’ needs first may very well pay dividends in attracting and retaining valuable talent.
Special thanks to Sammie Kelly for contributing to this HR Question of the Week!
Providing adequate Benefits and Compensation for your employees is key to the recruitment and retention of a well-performing workforce, and having the right policies in place can make or break a company. Clark Schaefer Strategic HR can help you structure your benefit and compensation system to meet today’s competitive market. Please visit our Benefits and Compensation page for more information today.
Succession Planning: How Can We Prepare for Exits of Key Employees?
HR Question:
In light of The Great Resignation, I’ve been hearing more and more about the importance of succession planning should any of our key employees or leaders resign. How can our organization make sure we’re appropriately prepared for succession planning so we are well-positioned if we should lose any key players?
HR Answer:
The exit of a key employee can certainly result in turbulence within a business. Lack of preparation in filling such an important role can fuel skepticism about the future of the company among both internal employees and external stakeholders. Organizations can help temper such concerns and instability through succession planning.
Benefits of Succession Planning
Thoughtful succession planning leads to numerous benefits. Organizations that hire their leaders internally may benefit from a better quality of hire than those who look externally. According to a study at the University of Pennsylvania, although internal hires are typically paid less than external hires, they tend to perform better and have lower turnover rates. The success of internal hires may be in part attributed to a deep understanding of the business and culture, along with cultivated relationships amongst the organization, its partners, and customers.
Succession planning also serves to foster goodwill among current employees who see the organization’s faith and investment in its internal talent. Especially considering the challenges in today’s talent market, succession planning may help to increase employee loyalty and tenure within an organization.
To begin succession planning, it is important to consider the strategic direction of the organization. You may pose the questions: what roles will we need to support the future goals of our organization? What kind of growth is expected in the next 1-5 years? Determining the trajectory of the organization will better inform the roles on which to focus your succession planning efforts. Executive leadership and directors constitute critical roles that typically merit inclusion in the process. However, organizations should also include key individual contributors who possess highly specialized skills or knowledge in their succession planning efforts.
Conducting a workforce assessment
Once critical roles are identified, it is important to conduct a workforce assessment to consider factors that may affect the stability of these key roles, such as incumbent retirement eligibility. During this portion of the process, it is also essential to identify members of the internal talent pool who may be able to fill these critical roles, with the right development opportunities. You should consider the current performance of these employees, as well as their future potential. Finally, when evaluating your internal talent pool, you will want to ensure that your pipeline of emerging leaders is diverse and can bring distinct perspectives to these key roles.
Identify gaps in knowledge and skills
Next, you will want to identify any gaps between the knowledge and skills possessed by the incumbents of critical roles and those in the talent pipeline to succeed them. Once these gaps are determined, leaders can begin creating career development plans in partnership with high-potential employees. Such career development plans may include shadowing a key employee, engaging in a mentorship program, or participating in a stretch assignment for exposure to new business functions, geographies, and customers. A career development plan may also include courses or seminars to help hone essential technical or soft skills. Finally, as part of their development process, high-potential employees could be invited to participate in board meetings for additional exposure to strategic planning initiatives.
It is important to note that succession planning is not a one-time initiative, but rather constitutes an ongoing process by which the internal talent pipeline is continually identified and developed. Organizations that implement thoughtful and strategic succession planning will benefit not only from increased stability during the exit of a key employee, but also from enhanced loyalty of employees who see the organization’s investment in its internal talent.
Thank you to Christine McLaughlin, HR Business Advisor, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Whatever HR challenge your business may be facing, Clark Schaefer Strategic HR can help! Whether it’s by developing a robust internal succession planning process, creating or improving your performance management system, or developing a comprehensive strategic business plan through our HR Strategy services, our team of experienced consultants is waiting to partner with you. Contact us to talk through your HR Strategy needs.
Are You Ready For These Top HR Trends in 2024?
As we transition into a new year, the world of Human Resources is poised to undergo several transformative trends that reflect the evolving landscape of work. Some transformations are already at work, such as the continued integration of technology in HR processes, with the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and automation tools. These technologies are not only streamlining administrative tasks but also enhancing decision-making processes, enabling HR professionals to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.
Additionally, an emphasis on employee well-being is gaining momentum, with organizations recognizing the importance of creating a positive work environment that promotes mental health, work-life balance, and overall job satisfaction. Our team anticipates that remote and hybrid work arrangements will persist, prompting HR departments to refine policies and practices to accommodate diverse and flexible work setups that continue to support a diverse workforce with varying needs.
And finally, we expect diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives will also remain at the forefront of the HR landscape, as companies strive to create more inclusive and equitable workplaces. DE&I efforts go hand in hand with employee well-being and employee satisfaction. As employers work to foster diverse and inclusive workplaces, they are also challenged to be highly transparent in their communications and actions and to build a high level of trust, which leads to employee satisfaction and retention.
So how do we expect to see these HR trends play out in the coming year?
Generative AI & Upskilling
In a June 2023 survey by Gartner, 81% of HR leaders have already begun to explore and implement AI solutions within their organizations, with 52% exploring potential use cases and opportunities for generative AI. Indeed, the Future of Jobs Report 2023 indicates that by 2027, 43% of work tasks will be automated.
The Future of Jobs Report also emphasizes the growing focus on cognitive skills within the workforce – skills like creative and analytical thinking, technology, literacy, and socio-emotional attributes such as curiosity, resilience, and lifelong learning.
Upskilling in the field of human resources is expected to become increasingly important in the coming years and will play out in a variety of ways:
1. Technology Integration
The HR field is becoming more technology-driven with the adoption of complex HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems), AI-driven tools, and data analytics. HR professionals will need to quickly upskill to effectively utilize these technologies and leverage artificial intelligence for HR tasks such as recruitment, employee engagement, and talent management and development.
As HR professionals explore ways to weave AI into their daily operations, it’s also important to understand the ethical and legal concerns of AI adoption.
2. Data-Driven Decision-Making
HR professionals are increasingly relying on data to make informed decisions in areas such as workforce analytics, recruiting, employee performance, and strategic planning – even more so with the rise of AI. Consider providing data analytics training opportunities to help employees successfully engage and understand the results these technologies can provide.
3. Soft Skills and Emotional Intelligence
With the rise of remote work and digital collaboration, the importance of soft skills and emotional intelligence will continue to be sought after. HR professionals need to be adept at interpersonal communication, empathy, and understanding diverse perspectives – especially when so much interpersonal context is lost from behind a screen. Upskilling in these areas will be vital for effective employee relations, conflict resolution, and fostering a positive workplace culture.
4. Continuous Learning Culture
HR professionals should model and promote a culture of continuous learning within organizations. Reevaluating learning and development strategies, assessing training methodologies, and implementing ideal learning technologies will be essential to support the professional as well as personal growth of employees.
In summary, learning to utilize AI in beneficial ways, as well as upskilling across organizations, will create a mix of technical, interpersonal, and leadership skills that help employees adapt to the evolving workplace landscape and allow HR leaders to contribute to the success of organizations in highly valued ways.
Employee Well-Being
Companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of employee well-being. The employee well-being umbrella includes mental health support, work-life balance and remote work initiatives, and wellness programs, in addition to providing meaningful work and opportunities for learning and development. The expectations of employers are growing by the minute!
The top 5 ways employers can support employee well-being in the upcoming year include a combination of physical, mental, and professional support:
1. Flexible Work Arrangements
Offer flexible work hours and remote work options to accommodate diverse employee needs. A flexible work environment allows employees to better balance their professional and personal lives, reducing stress and enhancing overall well-being. To learn more, check out Gallup’s article, “The Future of the Office Has Arrived: It’s Hybrid,” as well as Techopedia’s Remote Work Predictions for 2024.
2. Mental Health Programs and Resources
Prioritize mental health by providing access to counseling services, mental health workshops, and Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Promote a culture of openness and destigmatize mental health issues to encourage employees to seek help when needed.
3. Professional Development Opportunities
Invest in employees’ professional growth by offering training programs, workshops, and opportunities for skill development. Providing clear pathways for career advancement and continuous learning not only enhances employees’ job satisfaction but also contributes to their overall well-being.
4. Health and Wellness Initiatives
Implement comprehensive health and wellness programs that address physical well-being. This can include fitness classes, wellness challenges, health screenings, and initiatives that promote a healthy lifestyle. Consider providing wellness benefits such as gym memberships or wellness reimbursements.
5. Regular Check-ins and Feedback
Conduct regular one-on-one check-ins between managers and employees to discuss workloads, career goals, and any challenges they may be facing. Foster open communication and create a supportive environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their concerns.
Check-ins allow for the opportunity to course-correct, as needed, and to ensure that employees have the resources they need to do their jobs successfully. In addition, providing constructive feedback and recognition for accomplishments contribute to a positive work experience.
These strategies collectively address various aspects of employee well-being, creating a holistic approach that considers both personal and professional needs. Employers need to tailor these initiatives based on their workforce’s specific characteristics and preferences, promoting a culture that values and prioritizes the well-being of employees.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEI&B) initiatives are more than passing HR trends, but rather, essential for creating a workplace that is welcoming, inclusive, and representative of all individuals. In 2024, employers can take several actions to support and enhance their DEI&B efforts:
1. Establish Clear DEI&B Goals and Metrics
Clearly define and communicate DEI&B goals that align with the organization’s values and mission. We recommend using a DEI&B roadmap as you build your diversity initiatives. Establish measurable metrics to track progress and hold the company accountable for achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives. Regularly assess and report on these metrics to demonstrate transparency and commitment.
2. Cultivate an Inclusive Workplace Culture
Foster a culture of inclusivity where all employees feel valued, respected, and heard. Encourage open communication, apply inclusive decision-making principles, and create platforms for employees to share their experiences and perspectives. Implement training programs to raise awareness about unconscious bias, microaggressions, and other barriers to inclusivity.
3. Diverse Hiring Practices
Implement inclusive hiring practices to attract a diverse talent pool. This includes using diverse interview panels, removing bias from job descriptions, and actively seeking candidates from underrepresented groups. Consider partnerships with organizations focused on diversity recruitment and outreach to expand your talent network.
4. Professional Development and Mentorship Programs
Provide opportunities for professional development and mentorship, particularly for employees from underrepresented groups. Establish mentorship programs that connect employees with mentors who can guide and support their career growth. Ensure that these programs are accessible and inclusive.
5. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
Establish or enhance Employee Resource Groups that cater to specific communities within the organization. These groups provide a platform for employees to connect, share experiences, and contribute to the development of a more inclusive workplace. Support and actively engage with ERGs to ensure their success and impact.
6. Equitable Policies and Practices
Regularly review and update policies and practices to ensure they are equitable and unbiased. This includes performance evaluation processes, promotions, and compensation structures. Strive to eliminate systemic barriers that may disproportionately affect certain groups within the organization.
DEI&B initiatives require ongoing commitment and effort. Employers should listen to the needs and concerns of their employees, continuously educate themselves and their teams, and adapt their strategies based on feedback and evolving best practices. By taking a comprehensive and proactive approach, employers can contribute to building an inclusive workplace that reflects the diversity of the global workforce.
For ideas to enhance your DEI&B programs, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers “4 Ways to Promote Authentic DE&I Practices.”
As we stand on the brink of a new year, the field of Human Resources is on the cusp of significant transformations, mirroring the dynamic nature of the modern workplace. Employers play a pivotal role in steering organizations toward a progressive and thriving future. Recognizing our employees as the cornerstone of success, we can aspire to cultivate environments that prioritize well-being, embrace diversity and inclusion, a new digital world, and adapt to the evolving needs of our workforce.
As we navigate these HR trends and challenges, let us collectively champion a workplace culture that not only reflects the spirit of the times but fosters growth, innovation, and lasting success for individuals and organizations alike.
Thank you to Collen Mahoney, PHR, and Cassie Whitehouse, M.Ed., Senior HR Business Advisors, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week!
Need help tackling your HR Strategy for 2024? Let our team of HR experts assist in building your plans for the new year. Please visit our HR Strategy page to learn more, or simply contact us – we’d love to hear from you.
How Can I Stop Candidates From Ghosting After Accepting an Offer?
HR Question:
It’s a tough market right now! It feels like every time we find the right candidate and extend an offer, candidates will accept the offer but then ghost or decline before their first day. What can I do differently to ensure my candidates stop ghosting after accepting an offer?
HR Answer:
So, your offer was accepted and a start date for your new hire has been established – congratulations! Unfortunately, the phenomenon of candidates ghosting or changing their minds before a start date has become even more frequent in today’s market. Despite accepting an offer of employment, candidates are still entertaining counteroffers and continue to interview even though they may have signed an offer letter and completed a background check and drug screen. “Yes” no longer means “accepted” until a new hire shows up on the first day.
In recent years, Indeed found that 65% of employers surveyed said that they had candidates accept an offer and fail to show up for their first day – proving that a signed offer letter is certainly not the definitive and final stage of recruitment. So how are hiring managers and recruiters supposed to reduce the chance of a candidate ghosting after accepting an offer?
Prepare to Spend the Time (and Money)
With the current labor shortage, employers are competing for many of the same candidates. Since we are faced with a candidate-driven market, employers have to think about how to engage with new hires (pre-start date) differently.
What does that mean? Most likely – more time and more money. But before you click away from this article, consider this: a recent benchmarking analysis from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) found that the average cost of a hire is $4,700, but when factoring in time, the impact to productivity, the emotional toll on the team, and the cost of competition, the true cost of hiring could be up to three or four times the employee’s salary.
By investing in building and nourishing the candidate’s experience with the company, recruiters increase the chances of acceptance of the offer, reduce the time and money costs to the team, and create a hard stop on the job search front. Small up-front costs, like a welcome basket with company swag sent to the new hire’s home prior to the start date or taking them out to lunch or dinner to meet the team ahead of time, can be a welcoming touch to encourage staying on board.
Welcome Them to the Team
Nobody wants to join a team where they’re not wanted. Make it abundantly clear to your new team member that not only are they welcomed, but they’re also an exciting addition to the team! Some ways to do this are sending emails or notes from team members ahead of time welcoming them and sharing tips for success as a new hire. Or maybe, it could look like asking the team member to share details about themselves so that current employees can find common interests to share with the new hire, making them feel like they’ve got a built-in network with easy topics to talk about from the beginning.
Don’t Be Afraid to Overcommunicate
While your initial response may be to hold back in order to not scare the candidate, the more you can communicate, the better and calmer they’ll feel. Consider sending the itinerary for the new hire’s first day in advance so they know who they’ll be meeting and how the day will flow. Company newsletters or videos of top management media or milestones may help them feel clued in and in the loop. Encourage them to settle into the company and the industry by inviting them to participate in networking events or company gatherings prior to starting so they feel like they have a leg up.
Adopting an engaging strategy to prevent new hires from ghosting after accepting an offer is critical. Regular communication with a candidate during their transition period (typically, as they give their 2-to-3-week notice) will help them feel they’ve made a great decision.
At the end of the day, it is the candidate’s decision. But employers can make the decision to stay an easy one by building an attractive and encouraging engagement process from acceptance to the first day. From there, it’s on to onboarding!
Special thanks to Tracy Walker and Sammie Kelly for contributing to this edition of our HR Question of the Week!
Clark Schaefer Strategic HR provide a variety of resources to help you find the help you need. We offer outsourced recruiting or contract assistance. We can create a plan that’s custom fit for your specific recruitment needs. Please visit our Recruitment page for more information.
What Are Non-Qualified Bonus Grant Programs?
HR Question:
Like any organization, I have a handful of key employees – my “rockstars,” for lack of a better term. If any of them left, it would be difficult to replace them – not to mention the impact it would have on our company’s success. But I’m struggling to keep up with the pay increases that other companies can afford. I need to find a way to retain and compensate these key employees and someone suggested non-qualified bonus grant programs. What are those?
HR Answer:
This is a great question. Not every company can afford to meet the wage increases of 10, 15, or even 20% that seem to be commonplace in today’s competition for talent. It might even seem like competitors are able to pay whatever it takes to recruit key employees away from their current employer. Or if employees are willing to forego a higher salary for other benefits, like stocks or buying into company ownership, but that’s not an available option, what are employers to do? One way that employers can financially reward essential employees over a longer time period (and thus, encourage retention) is through Non-Qualified Bonus Grant Programs.
What are Non-Qualified Bonus Grant Programs?
Non-Qualified Bonus Grant (NQBG) programs were specifically built for employers in need of long-term incentives for key employees when other financial benefits (like stocks, ownership, or commissions) aren’t available. By establishing a vesting period, employers are able to set up key employees to receive additional compensation should they stay employed and perform well over that period of time.
At the end of each year, the employer reviews how the company and employees have performed. From there, a bonus amount for the employee is determined. The amount that is credited is fully discretionary and controlled by the employer, meaning that should an employee not perform as agreed upon during a given year, the bonus amount can reflect that.
What are the Benefits of an NQBG Program?
This can be a fantastic retention tool in more ways than one. First, this program allows employees to defer compensation, creating guaranteed income for the future.
Second, this gives employers an opportunity to reward those can’t-do-without employees for their loyalty. The year-end review also provides employers a chance to review this benefit with the employee and have a tangible result of the employer’s appreciation. NQBGs provide additional benefits to employers in that they are:
- Simple to execute
- Inexpensive
- Flexible based on the business’s needs
Additionally, these programs, along with other non-qualified deferred compensation plans, aren’t covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, meaning that there are no regulations when it comes to who the employer can or has to include in the program’s benefits.
NQBG plans can benefit the bottom line, as the compensation that employees are earning now isn’t payable until the future. The only drawback for the employer is that the funds aren’t tax-deductible for the organization until they are paid out.
It is no secret that employers are having to navigate through a competitive labor market making it even harder to retain their most critical talent. There’s no better time to look for creative and financially viable ways to reward and retain your essential employees. It may be worth exploring if a Non-Qualified Bonus Grant Program could be a valuable retention tool for your organization.
Special thanks to Brian Leen of LS Benefits for sharing his expertise on popular retention tools like NQBG programs!
Strategic HR offers assistance with a variety of Benefits and Compensation needs, including understanding how recruitment trends affect your business and helping you to craft competitive compensation plans. Please visit our Benefits and Compensation page for more information.
How Can I Improve My Recruitment Processes?
HR Question:
We’re in desperate need of the right talent, but I can’t seem to attract or engage the number of candidates I need! How can I improve my recruitment processes to attract more candidates?
HR Answer:
You’re not alone! Recruiting the right talent is a challenge in almost every industry and market right now. Because the competition for candidates is incredibly tight, employers everywhere are looking internally to find ways to improve their recruitment processes to catch more prospective employees. By eliminating barriers for candidates and making the job search and application process engaging, efficient, and user-friendly, employers can see an increase in their candidate flow, further increasing the likelihood of finding the right candidates for their organization.
So, let’s dive in to identify what employers can do to attract more candidates – without losing them during the application process.
Optimize Your Job Ad
First, make sure your job ad is designed to show off your company by highlighting the areas that candidates want to know more about – the culture, the day-to-day, what success looks like, and why they would want to join your organization. What makes you stand out against your competition? Take note of these reasons and work them into the ad, as just placing your job description on your company’s career page is not likely to attract many candidates. Paint the picture of your company and the open role with clear and concise language, limited bullet points, and the key requirements of the position.
Consider researching similar positions in your area for popular job titles to make sure you are not reducing your audience by titling your position something unfamiliar to your target applicant pool. For example, don’t name your Customer Service Representative a “Client Wizard” or “People Pleasing Person.” While the titles may bring a smile to your face, they won’t show up in basic keyword searches.
Although it may cause some hesitation, it is also recommended to include the salary range in your job post, even if it is a broad range. Research has proven that candidates are more likely to apply if they know the compensation range, and it eliminates time down the line by not considering candidates significantly out of range.
Cast a Wide Net to Attract More Candidates
Now that your job ad is written, it is time to get the right eyes on it! In order to make sure you’re spending your time and money to optimize your return on investment, take some time to do a brief search of where similar positions are being advertised. Check out any applicant stats that the job board may highlight about those roles. How many people have applied? How long has it been posted? Are there other similar positions posted on the site? This will help you understand if this is where your desired audience might be found.
If you have the budget to advertise your job, use it. If not, there are also online recruitment platforms where you can post your positions for free, most of which take little time to use and can help with visibility. You can also look for local, county, or state job networks where you can share your position for free. You may want to consider joining some professional associations or alumni groups on LinkedIn and Facebook that align with your organization so that you can share your open positions. You can also use your involvement in these organizations and groups to build a network from which you can source current and future candidates.
Keep It Simple
Once you have a candidate interested, it is important to make your application process as simple as possible. Keeping the process short and simple will help convert the number of views of your job into completed applications. Mobile-friendly application processes are now “a must,” rather than considered “nice to have.” In fact, almost 60% of job seekers apply via a mobile device, so having a long application results in fewer completed applications.
Several job posting platforms allow candidates to apply with one click, which has become an increasingly popular option for applicants and recruiters alike. If you do require an application, first make sure it is mobile-friendly and that your system can auto-populate employment history from the applicant’s resume. Any additional screening questions should be yes or no questions and only those things that are essential to the position at the application stage in your process (i.e., age requirements or required certifications). Save any other questions for later in the recruitment and hiring process.
If you want to improve your recruitment processes, it won’t necessarily require a full overhaul of your entire department. Particularly when departments might feel stretched thin or understaffed, simplifying the steps required and creating targeted materials can make the process easier on both the recruiter and the candidates. Consider taking some time today to review your processes and find ways to simplify your steps!
Special thanks to Lisa Johnson, CIR, and Samantha Osborne Kelly for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Recruitment is more than just posting a job ad. It takes a targeted message, the right sources, and lots of follow-up. But recruiting doesn’t have to take up all of your time and money! Our team at Strategic HR knows what it takes to attract, hire, and retain the best employees. Check out our Outsourced Recruitment page to learn more or contact us for recruiting help!
Making the Most of Job Interviews
When interviewing candidates for a job, time is critical.
The time you spend talking to candidates adds up quickly, especially if you have a lot of great candidates. That has a cost—you’re not getting other important work done. That time also goes by incredibly fast. Within the span of a brief discussion, you have to gather the information you need to make an informed hiring decision and sell the role to a potential hire. And don’t forget you’re competing with other employers eager to snatch up talent. Every minute counts.
Wasting time also amounts to a bad experience for candidates. It’s important to remember that their time is valuable too, therefore you want to show them the mutual respect that you expect by being prepared, welcoming, and optimizing the time that you have together.
Let’s look at some basic practices that will enable you and your job candidates to make the best use of this time.
Have a Roadmap for the Job Interview
Before you conduct any interviews, document what the job entails and what core competencies will be needed to do it. Interviews are not the time to clarify what you want the job to be. If you go into interviews fuzzy about the functions of the job, you won’t be able to assess whether and how well candidates can perform.
Be Specific!
Include questions about specific occasions when candidates used those competencies and what the outcome was. For example, if the job you’re hiring for will involve regularly de-escalating tense situations with irate customers, you might ask candidates to tell you about a time in which they were able to calm an irate customer. This method of questioning—called behavioral interviewing—cuts to the chase. You not only get an affirmative or negative answer as to whether the candidate possesses the competencies you need, but you also obtain verifiable evidence (or not) that they’ve previously done what they say they can do. For behavioral questions to be most effective, pose the same questions to each candidate and evaluate their responses using the same criteria.
Assemble Your Team
Put your interview team together (assuming that you have more than one person involved in the selection process) and coordinate who’s asking what. If the person you hire will be working with multiple people, each with a unique stake in the work being done, it may be prudent to involve some of these employees in the interview process. If several employees will be participating in the interviews, meet with them ahead of time to formulate a plan so there’s no unnecessary overlap in the questions you’ll each be asking.
How Does This Connect?
Connect each response to what’s needed for the job. After a candidate has answered each question, take a brief moment to explain how this new job may be both similar to and different from what the candidate did previously. For example, if a previous role of theirs required them to complete five projects per week, and the new role would require them to complete a greater or fewer number of similar projects, mention that.
The purpose of doing this is to give the candidate a clear picture of the tasks and challenges they can expect in the role so they know what to anticipate if they ultimately accept a job offer. There’s also a reason why now is an opportune time to make this connection. When a candidate is reflecting on a previous instance that required the competencies you need, they’re likely remembering how they felt at the time. Maybe they were energized. Maybe they hated the experience and vowed to not do that type of work again. Whatever the case, eliciting these feelings serves your interests and theirs—yes, even if it prompts their immediate departure from the candidate pool. The last thing you want is to hire someone who either can’t do the job or finds themselves unhappy doing it. You’re not just filling a role. You’re seeking the person who can be the most successful in it.
Don’t Be Cute
Don’t ask cute or clever questions. They’re a waste of everyone’s time. You’re almost certainly not going to learn anything useful by asking candidates what dessert they would be, how they’d plan a trip to the moon, or whether they prefer cats or dogs. Asking candidates to solve a made-up problem on the spot might yield interesting information, but unless the job involves a lot of unprompted problem-solving with no time to prepare, you’re better off asking candidates something that will give you insight into their ability to do the job well.
Stay Focused and Legally Compliant
Keep questions job-related. Okay, we said earlier that the last thing you want to do is to hire the wrong person, but that’s not necessarily the worst thing that can happen. A bigger mistake than a bad hire is a hiring decision that nets you a costly discrimination claim. For example, if the job has a legitimate age requirement (such as operating machinery or serving alcohol), asking “How old are you?” will likely give rise to an age discrimination claim. Instead, just ask if they’re at least 18 years old (or whatever the required minimum age is).
Thank you to the HR Support Center for contributing to the content of this Emerging Issues in HR. The Virtual HR Support Center is a do-it-yourself, always ready, at-your-fingertips resource for everything Human Resources. Contact us to learn how the Virtual HR Support Center can put all the DIY HR tools you need at your fingertips.
What are the Newest Benefit Trends?
HR Question:
We’re trying to review our benefit offerings to make sure that we’re meeting each of our employees’ needs. We’re able to offer the basics – health, dental, vision – but are there offerings we haven’t considered yet to keep up with benefit trends?
HR Answer:
In today’s market, it’s as important to retain the talent that you have as it is to recruit the right talent. The conversation around retention has offered employees a greater opportunity to be more vocal about their individual needs. So, what innovative employee benefits trends are employers implementing to retain their workforce and catch the eye of necessary talent? How can employers structure their benefits package with offerings that are appealing and beneficial to each employee?
Now more than ever, employees consider benefit offerings as an essential part of their compensation packages. While it’s obvious that employers can’t offer the sun, moon, and stars, employers can survey their teams to understand the benefits that would truly make a positive impact in their lives (and hopefully retain these employees longer). The results may surprise you, as it’s possible only a few adjustments need to be made to meet the wants and needs of your workforce.
For example, consider these four trending areas to enhance benefits and voluntary options to accommodate employee wants and needs: mental health, policies to support neurodiverse employees, support for life-changing diagnoses, and financial assistance.
Mental Health
Mental health remains one of the most talked-about and pressing benefit trends of this year. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has receded to levels that allow for a partial return to normal, the impact on mental health remains. Many employers are turning to partnerships with apps like Calm or Headspace, while others (such as Clark Schaefer Hackett) have taken the opportunity to extend their Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to cover their employees’ extended family members, such as siblings and in-laws.
Policies to Support Neurodiverse Employees
It has been proven that diverse workforces naturally perform better. But diversity goes beyond race, gender, or age – it can also apply to thinking styles, abilities, and problem-solving practices (also known as neurodiversity). By creating inclusive policies and benefits for neurodiverse individuals – such as people with autism – organizations can open their doors to additional talent, unique perspectives, and innovative individuals, creating even greater diversity and inclusion in their workplace.
Support for Life-Changing Moments
As the conversation around work/life balance ebbs and flows between a balance and an integration, many would agree that personal life priorities impact performance, focus, and success at work. Offering support for moments such as cancer diagnoses and care programs (such as cancer insurance or critical illness insurance) or addressing the needs of female health (such as time and flexible work hours to deal with symptoms of menopause or fertility needs), miscarriages, or adoption needs can go a long way in addressing the work/life needs of your employees.
Financial Assistance
According to Schwab Retirement Plan Service’s annual survey, 48% of participants found themselves more likely to save more in general due to the pandemic, with over 85% listing a 401(k) plan as a “must-have” benefit. If 401(k) plans fall outside of what your organization can provide, consider offering smaller but still impactful benefits such as reimbursements for work-at-home expenses, stipends for child-care support, or programs to support emergency savings, debt management, and budgeting.
While healthcare costs continue to rise amongst the “Great Resignation” waves, employers are not without ways to attract and retain a larger percentage of their employees – starting with their benefit offerings.
Thanks to Janine Cummings, SPHR, SHRM-SCP for contributing to this edition of our HR Question of the Week.
Strategic HR has the answers to all of your tough Benefits and Compensation-related questions. Please visit our Benefits & Compensation page for more information or contact us to troubleshoot today.
Four Ways to Improve New Hire Onboarding and Training
HR Question:
Currently, our onboarding includes completing new hire paperwork, going over our company history and policies, ensuring they have the necessary technology tools, and having them meet with select employees to learn what they need to learn to hit the ground running. What else should we incorporate to improve our new hire onboarding and training?
HR Answer:
It sounds like you’re off to a great start. Just to be sure that you’re covering the basics, you should check out these key components of an onboarding plan. To move beyond the basics, I’m going to offer four additional, yet sometimes overlooked, ingredients that can greatly improve the effectiveness of your new employee onboarding:
1. Plan the Right Duration for Onboarding
Developing a solid understanding of how an organization operates, as well as understanding the significance of an individual’s role within it (all while building long-term work relationships), takes time. In some organizations, employees are provided one to three full days of onboarding during their first week. In these situations, they typically review and complete new-hire paperwork and benefit plan enrollment forms, review the safety, health, and security components of the job, and complete any other critical training to be able to hit the ground running. However, is this sufficient onboarding to create a long-term employee? Adult learning research would suggest that it isn’t enough.
Effective adult learning practices must provide opportunities for observation, asking questions, and putting facts, ideas, and experiences together to derive new meaning. This can take time, especially when your goal is to develop a clear understanding of company values, culture, and team cohesiveness and effectiveness. So, if you’re looking for ways to improve your onboarding process, be sure you allocate an appropriate amount of time to the process.
We recommend breaking the new employee learning process into two phases: 1) Employee Orientation and 2) Employee Onboarding.
Employee orientation may take place during the first week of employment and include a company tour, introductions to key staff, new hire paperwork, and cover the basics of the new worker’s job, payroll, benefits, company policies, and safety.
Employee onboarding may start within the employee’s first week and take place over several weeks or months, depending on your goals. In the course of onboarding, you may focus on company culture, values, and team development by having the new hire meet one-on-one with team members to learn about various functions within your organization and how they will play a role in them. You may provide additional specialized training to ensure your new employee is set up for success in their position.
Keep in mind that the volume of new information can be overwhelming for new employees, so you should prioritize and plan appropriately for what information, training, and experiences they need to have from the beginning versus the weeks or months down the road.
2. Design Training for Different Learning Styles
Adults have different preferences on how they learn known as learning styles. Although you might be inclined to develop training based on how you learn best, a valuable way to improve your onboarding and new employee training is to keep your employees’ needs and learning preferences top of mind. A common model for learning styles is the VARK Learning Model which illustrates four key ways that people prefer to learn:
Visual Learners – Prefer to see information. They learn best if they are shown pictures, charts, graphs, or videos to learn important information and details.
Auditory Learners – Prefer to hear the information rather than see it. They prefer to ask questions and repeat back what they have learned.
Reading/Writing Learners – Prefer detailed, written instructions with opportunities to add notes and highlights. They learn best by writing things down to process the information.
Kinesthetic Learners – Prefer to learn by doing. They learn best when they can do “hands-on” work or try to complete a project or task even if it involves trial and error.
Many people actually prefer a combination of these learning styles to meet their learning objectives. Recognizing this can help HR and/or supervisors to tailor their training to each individual. Training Magazine recommends using a differentiated training approach designed to accommodate the different ways that employees learn – ensuring that everyone has an equal opportunity to learn. HR professionals or supervisors can discover employee learning styles by simply asking them how they prefer to learn new information. If you’re providing training for a group, be sure to incorporate a multi-faceted approach.
3. Incorporate Coaching and Mentoring
A supervisor must provide ongoing and frequent coaching to ensure that knowledge and skills are transferred effectively following training. In addition, assigning a “mentor” or “buddy” can provide a huge boost to a new hire’s onboarding and long-term experience in your organization.
Generally, the role of a mentor is to offer the new employee a connection to someone who can guide him or her but is not in a position of direct authority over the new hire. The Business Journals touts the importance of mentors recognizing how they help new employees to quickly apply their new skills while also relieving some of the new employee’s anxiety.
Mentors may be paired with a new employee for as little as a day or as long as a year, depending on the length of the onboarding program. Their responsibilities may range from providing practical information such as directions to the restrooms, cafeteria, or parking places, to helping the employee understand the nuances of working in the organization. Mentors can also help to make meaningful connections within your organization and answer questions that the new employee may not feel comfortable asking of their supervisor.
4. Evaluate the Effectiveness of the Onboarding Experience
The best way to know whether your onboarding experience is truly meeting the needs of your new hires and your organization’s goals is to ask those who were involved. At a minimum, the new employee should be asked how their onboarding experience is going and whether there are components that should be added, removed, or tweaked. They are likely to provide great ideas for how to improve the onboarding process.
Verbal evaluations can be accomplished between the new hire and their supervisor during our recommended touch bases after 1 week and at 30-60-90 days from the new hire’s start date, or you can choose to ask for feedback via email or other internal communication software/tools. You should also solicit feedback from anyone who was involved with facilitating training and/or serving as a mentor.
No matter what method you choose, it will be important to get feedback from those who are involved in your onboarding process to ensure that it is meeting the employees’ needs and expectations as well as organizational goals.
Thank you to Terry Wilson, SPHR, SHRM-SCP for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
You need your new hire’s onboarding and training to be an excellent experience. Because let’s face it, in this labor market, you can’t afford for it not to be. Strategic HR can provide the support you need with all of your Training and Development goals. Contact us to see how we can help.
What’s the Most Effective Way to Use Panel Interviews?
HR Question:
As a retention and growth opportunity, we have decided to shift to panel interviews to engage our team members in the hiring process. What’s the most effective way to use panel interviews?
HR Answer:
Panel interviews, when planned properly, can greatly exceed the effectiveness of single interviewer methods.
Why Single Interviewer Methods Can Be Difficult
From the perspective of an interviewer, conducting an effective interview can be a challenging task. The interviewer must concentrate on asking good questions and listening to the candidate’s responses. At the same time, the interviewer has to formulate an appropriate follow-up question, monitor how much time is left, jot down interview notes and, most importantly, pay close attention to both verbal and non-verbal responses of the interviewee. These tasks altogether create distractions that cause an interviewer to miss important cues from the candidate.
Panel interviewing addresses the shortcomings of the single interviewer method. As the Society of Human Resources shares, panel interviews allow interviewers to get a broader picture of the candidate and their experience while observing the candidate’s verbal and non-verbal responses and taking good notes. From the candidate’s perspective, it can significantly reduce the amount of time that they must spend interviewing with the employer as compared to interviewing with several employees separately.
How to Build an Effective Interviewing Panel
The interview panel generally should consist of three to five members with one of those individuals playing the role of panel facilitator. Whenever possible, the panel should represent the diversity of your organization. Although the specific individuals selected to participate on an interview panel will most likely change based on the positions you are seeking to fill, once a panel is selected for a particular role, the members of that panel should stay consistent until the position is filled. Panel members should receive training on effective interviewing techniques and be briefed in advance regarding their role in meeting with the candidates.
Before each interview, the panel facilitator will be responsible for a few tasks, such as assigning questions to each panel member, establishing the expectations of the panel, briefing the panel on certain areas for more emphasis or depth of questioning depending on the candidate’s situation, as well as distributing the materials to be used by the panel — candidate resume, application, interview guide, job description, etc. Ideally, these materials should be provided ahead of time for each panel member to review in advance.
During the interview, the facilitator will introduce the candidate to the panel, monitor time and, after the candidate has departed, lead the evaluation and consensus rating of the candidate. Preferably, panel facilitators should have good leadership skills, interviewing experience, and consensus-building skills.
The “Flow” of an Effective Panel Interview
The best panel interviews follow a sequence that allows panel members to get the most information from the candidate. Effective panel interviews will naturally follow the same steps.
First, introductions are made by the main facilitator, who will also detail the process for the candidate. The facilitator should let the candidate know there will be time for their questions at the end, so the candidate can feel at ease.
Using the same interview guide, the facilitator and other panel members will take turns asking questions of the candidate. It’s important that other panel members remain silent and take note of the candidate’s responses when it isn’t their turn to allow the candidate to focus on responding to only one person, as well as to make sure they’ve accurately captured the candidate’s thoughts. Once the panel members’ and candidate’s questions are answered, the facilitator will tell the candidate what to expect next and will escort the candidate from the interview room.
Afterward, the facilitator will lead the discussion on the candidate’s responses, qualifications, and ratings for each area questioned during the interview. Panel members will discuss their ratings, point out the basis for their evaluations, compare their decisions, and support their observations. Finally, a consensus on next steps should be reached.
The Importance of Reducing Candidate Stress
The most effective interviews provide candidate responses that are candid and thorough. Candidate stress can inhibit straightforward responses and reduce the effectiveness of the interview. Therefore, a genuine attempt should be made to put the interviewee at ease. This can be done in several ways, such as:
- Giving the candidate enough warning that this will be a panel interview, along with background information on each panelist to help the candidate have a better idea of who they will be meeting with.
- Avoid seating panel members behind a massive table or facing the applicant as if it were an interrogation or a trial by jury.
- Make sure that each interviewer finishes asking all of their assigned questions before others ask follow-up questions. Without this, the candidate may feel interrogated rather than engaging in an open dialogue.
Special thanks to Terry Wilson, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Senior HR Business Advisor for contributing to this edition of our HR Question of the Week!
Could you use some help in recruiting the best talent for your organization? Learn about our Recruitment Services, or better yet, Contact Us to find out how we can help.
Three Ways Employers Can Promote Work-Life Balance
In the midst of a pandemic and a labor “shortage,” followed by an extremely tight labor market, it has become more important than ever that employers listen to and understand the motivations of their employees in order to best attract and retain them. Over the past two years, many employees have made changes that better support family life, financial security, and their lifestyle through remote or hybrid work situations. Many are realizing that work-life balance is not a “nice to have,” but rather it is a necessity.
In fact, in our “Generations at Work: Insights from our Survey of the Generations” report, our team at Strategic HR discovered that the ability to enjoy a work-life balance closely tied as the top reason employees across all generations both join and stay at a company. When combined with the finding that at least 56% of all workers (regardless of generation) preferred a hybrid work situation, employers are trying to strike the perfect work-life balance to attract and retain desperately needed talent.
During a major cultural shift due to the pandemic, many found they were enjoying the “hallway commute,” the additional time with family, and the lessened stress that came from spending more time at home. But for some, there was no clear boundary between when “work” ended, and “life” began. With employees making themselves accessible by email, text, or phone 24/7, it was (and still is) extremely easy to lose sight of that balance. If an employer chooses to ignore the work-life balance expectations of the current workforce, employees will simply move on to a job that suits their needs better.
Three Ways to Promote Work-Life Balance
Each person has his or her own idea of work-life balance or work-life integration, which is another term that some use for the concept of the give and take, tug and pull between work and personal life. So how can employers meet the diverse needs and desires of their employees and achieve work-life balance, particularly if it means something different to each person? Here are three potential solutions:
1) Offer Hybrid or Remote Work Options
To be competitive in today’s market, consider offering hybrid and/or remote work models to employees, in addition to flexible hours. While this may be a complete shift in culture for many organizations, we have seen just how productive and successful employees (and organizations) can be while working virtually some or all of the time.
Some employers may be concerned that remote work could lead to a decrease in productivity and quality of team collaboration. When comparing the collaboration effectiveness of teams working remotely versus in-person, our Survey on the Generations revealed that well over half (55% – 60%) of all generations reported high or somewhat high collaboration effectiveness, followed by 26% – 31% reporting no change as compared to in-person work, and 12% – 19% saw remote collaboration as highly or somewhat ineffective. So what can you do for those who might struggle with remote work?
Steps to ensure success with remote work
Working remotely can present unique challenges to individual and team productivity, collaboration, and success. We recommend that employers:
- Plan for and build internal supports for those who are working remotely to ensure they have the appropriate support (people and tools) and clear direction to optimally perform.
- Have frequent check-ins with employees to ensure that they are on the right track to meet their objectives, have questions answered, and have the resources that they need to be successful. You might discover that there are easy solutions to ensure that everyone on your team is working optimally.
- Ask for employee input to make sure that you are providing the right tools to help them be productive. Be sure that your employees are also properly trained to use the tools. For some, it may also be a matter of creating new, purposeful habits to collaborate in new ways.
Employers should also ensure that their policies and practices are updated to align with their efforts of supporting employee work-life balance. For example, if you offer remote work situations, you should formalize this through a Remote Work Policy that both supports the need for employees’ work-life balance and meets the demands of the business.
A new term for this balance is called “strategic flexibility,” a concept that allows employees and their employers to view the work-life balance holistically and offers insight into how employers can build trust and empowerment within their employee groups while still maintaining fair expectations of employees in remote or hybrid work environments. By offering the option of (at least) a hybrid work environment, employees can reduce the high levels of stress they’ve carried in the past around personal and family obligations and seek a better balance without long commutes.
2) Encourage Employees to Protect Their “Me Time”
Personal time is extremely important for a healthy balance. We are able to be more productive at work when we infuse our daily schedules with some downtime. However, working where we live can lead to blurred lines between work and homelife causing some to find it hard to turn off the workday knowing that there might be one more email/text/phone call that awaits their attention. Employees can start to feel that they need to be available 24/7… falling down the slippery slope that leads to burnout.
Employers can help employees to protect their “me time” by fostering a culture that supports that behavior. For example, it can help to set expectations and encourage employees to “turn off work” by a certain time each day. If an email request happens to be sent during a time when an employee should be “off duty,” instill the habit of noting when something isn’t urgent and can wait until their next workday. This can help employees to set healthy boundaries between work and personal life.
Encourage team members to set time aside each day by doing something for them, whether it’s for 10 minutes or for an hour. The goal is for this time to be set aside for something that truly calms their mind. It could be anything from exercising, meditating, reading, watching TV, etc.
Another way to encourage employees to protect their time is by maintaining a sense of structure throughout the day, whether employees are virtual, in-person, or hybrid. Be sure that you are continuing to host regular staff meetings, group meetings, and social gatherings to make time for some fun together as well.
3) Work Smarter, Not Harder
Help team members stay in the loop through weekly “huddles” or calls to keep everyone accountable and connected. Regular one-on-one meetings allow managers and employees to continue to touch base and uphold the objectives and goals set for the year.
Evaluate processes already in place. Don’t look for places to cut corners, but rather look for steps in the process that may not be necessary to complete the same high-quality work. It’s easy to get into the daily habit of following processes when there may in fact be an easier way.
Work-Life Balance Benefits for Employers
Whether you call it work-life balance, work-life integration, or strategic flexibility, employers who embrace it will not only thrive in terms of attracting, engaging, and keeping valuable employees, they will help to prevent burnout, increase productivity across the board, and ultimately become employers of choice with a reputation for supporting work-life balance. If an employer chooses to ignore the work-life balance expectations of the current workforce, they run the double risk of losing great employees who leave for opportunities that better meet their needs and the impossible task of attracting new talent into a less-than-desirable work environment.
Thank you to Cassie Whitehouse, M.Ed., Senior HR Business Advisor for contributing to this Emerging Issues in HR.
Creating an organizational culture that is supportive of the diverse needs of employees is imperative to attracting and retaining the talent you need – not to mention critical to your bottom line. Strategic HR can support your culture strategy through employee surveys, establishing remote and hybrid work policies, identifying retention solutions, developing employee recognition programs, and more. Contact us today!
Bonus Grants: A Creative Way to Retain and Reward Key Employees
HR Question:
I’ve been asked to look into how we can use bonus grants as part of our retention strategy. Can you help?
HR Answer:
Changes in the economy – as well as clashing generations in the workforce – have altered the employment landscape. Gone are the days of someone retiring after 40 years with the same company. Job hopping has become the norm, and in the war for talent, top performers are regularly being courted by the competition.
Organizations need to implement new and creative ways to keep their key employees – and keep them happy. While salaries are generally staying level, more employers are focusing on bonuses as a way of rewarding employees. But traditional bonus programs may not be good enough anymore. Enter: The bonus grant.
Bonus grants are different than conventional bonuses in that they are a commitment that the company makes to key employees. Instead of earning raises and/or bonuses that are paid out annually, key employees accrue larger bonuses over a longer period of time. The company also has the option of tailoring the program to the individual employee to provide the most appropriate benefit.
While there are many advantages associated with implementing a bonus grant program, the following are the three most significant:
Retention
Most bonus programs are paid in the year they are earned. While this may immediately inspire feelings of gratitude and loyalty, the effect quickly wears off. With bonus grants, key employees are credited a certain bonus amount each year, but they are not fully vested until a specific date determined by the employer (usually 5-10 years). This is a terrific way to help ensure retention because if an employee leaves the company, they are walking away from the bonus account that was set up for them.
Flexibility
Unlike salary raises that commit employers to funds that they may not be able to spare in the future, bonus grants provide companies the flexibility to determine how much – if any – money is given to a specific employee based on their individual performance, as well as the company’s performance that year. Employers can set a different percentage or flat rate for each employee in the program, and these numbers can vary from year to year at the employer’s discretion.
Simplicity
There are different types of retention tools and tactics in the marketplace, but most are complicated and difficult to understand – for both employers and employees. A bonus grant program can be very straightforward. By keeping it simple, key employees will easily understand the value of the benefit being offered, and the company leadership will understand what they are committing to.
Is a bonus grant program right for your company?
Here are some questions to ask when deciding whether a bonus plan is right for your company:
- Are you having issues recruiting and retaining key employees, or competing with larger companies for employees at the executive level?
- Do you wish to provide specialized forms of compensation to key executives or employees in lieu of making them partners or part owners in the business?
- Is your ability to offer a more robust benefits package to high-performing employees hindered by your business’ lack of free cash flow?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, a bonus grant program is worth exploring.
Thank you to our CSH colleagues, Bill Edwards and Lance Drummond, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
There is some strategic planning involved in setting up a bonus grant program, but our skilled colleagues at Clark Schaefer Hackett can help your organization set up and administer one. If you’re looking for a creative way to hold onto your best employees, a bonus grant program may be something that sets your company apart from the competition. For more information, please contact us.
How can internships address your talent shortage?
HR Question:
We’re having a hard time meeting our business goals as we’re understaffed and finding it difficult to fill our open positions. The idea of using interns came up in a brainstorming session. Should my company consider creating an internship program to address our talent shortage?
HR Answer:
You are not alone as many companies are currently struggling to find the talent that they need. It is smart to be thinking about various ways to address your talent gaps, and internships can be a great way to help lighten your current workloads while providing helpful work experience to college students. They also give you the chance to groom potential future employees.
How a lack of internships has impacted college students, aka your future employees
In 2020, the number of internships that were completely removed or scaled back was significant. It’s understandable that internships, which by design are temporary and transitional in nature, were affected by the pandemic. However, it’s important to recognize the impact of the reduction of available internships on college students, aka your future employees.
First, college students depend on internships to solidify their field of choice and receive relevant work experience. With fewer internships, many students are graduating unsure and unprepared. According to Forbes, “About three out of four students said losing their internship has caused significant disruption to their future.”
Secondly, 2020 and 2021 college graduates who couldn’t complete internships are finding it difficult to secure full-time positions in their fields. Their resumes are lacking the robust one or two internships experiences that employers, like you, are typically looking for.
When companies are recruiting to fill full-time positions, they often look for candidates who can bring some relevant experience. Previous experience, particularly through internships and co-ops for new college grads, can provide relevant work experience to help them hit the ground running in a full-time post-graduation role. It’s difficult to get experience if internships are not offered. Hence, the argument for the value of internships for both the students and employers.
How internships can address labor shortages, fill your talent pipeline, and create brand awareness
As you’ve likely experienced, the hiring landscape is challenging for many positions. With labor shortages created by fewer available workers than open jobs (.7 person for every open job according to BLS), coupled with the Great Resignation, employers are struggling to fill many of their open positions. As the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reported, internships have “proved advantageous for companies that need some extra help but can’t afford to take on new staff or hire a temp.” We encourage you to look at how you can leverage internships to get meaningful work done that helps you to meet your business goals.
In addition to addressing immediate needs, training college students for your future employment is a forward-thinking recruiting strategy. Hiring an intern is one of the best ways to “try before buying” your next employee. It also gives interns an insider’s perspective on what it’s like to work in your organization which can lead to increased new hire retention rates as they have a realistic view of what it’s like to work at your company.
Offering a meaningful internship program also shines a positive light and message to the community. It helps to increase brand awareness among upcoming college grads, which is particularly important for small to mid-sized companies who may not be household names, yet excellent places to work.
How to create an internship program
If you don’t already have an internship program in place or a former one that you can dust off, it can feel overwhelming to get started. There are many resources available to help create or revise an internship program such as these employer internship resources. You may also want to review the 15 best practices for internship programs according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In general, it is important to provide a meaningful experience where the intern is introduced and welcomed into your company culture, gains valuable work experience, and helps your organization to meet your goals.
One of the benefits of having experienced a year or more of learning online, today’s college students are highly adept at working remotely. Typical summer internships can now be offered year-round, remote, or hybrid. As Forbes points out, “A virtual internship today might be pretty good preparation for the remote work of tomorrow.” In addition, students can continue remote learning and have an internship concurrently, if needed. It can be a win-win for the student and your company.
Offering paid internships will not only make the positions easier to fill, but depending on the school(s) they attend and/or local, state, or federal laws, you may be required to provide compensation. Be sure to understand the law(s) around paid versus unpaid internships in determining compensation.
Bottom line, now is a great time to consider offering an internship program. There are many benefits for college students and for you, their future employer.
Special thanks to Cindy Eldred, Talent Acquisition Consultant, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Are you wondering whether an internship program could help to meet your talent needs? Would you like to start an internship program but just don’t have the time to do it? Our talent acquisition experts are happy to help! Contact us today.
What Are Total Compensation Statements?
HR Question:
Can you explain Total Compensation Statements … What are they? What should they include? When should we use them?
HR Answer:
Total Compensation Statements convey the total value of your compensation and benefits offerings as they include an employee’s direct and indirect compensation. They are a great tool to show not only how much an employee earned in base salary or hourly wages and bonuses in a given time period (often a year), but they also share the hidden costs of employee benefits and perks. Employers prepare and distribute Total Compensation Statements to employees typically once a year, often at the end of the year or with their W-2.
Total Compensation Statements should include the employer’s cost for the following:
- Social Security & Medicare taxes
- Workers’ compensation
- Unemployment tax
- ALL insurance packages (health, dental, vision, life, short- & long-term disability, long term, etc.)
- HSA, FSA, HRA contribution
- Retirement contributions
- Paid time off (vacation, sick, holidays, personal, bereavement, jury duty)
- EAP, wellness, or financial health programs
- Relocation
- Parking
- Tuition reimbursement & education assistance
- Professional memberships
- Professional development and training (internal and external)
- Company vehicle or equipment use
- Company events, lunches, celebrations
How to use Total Compensation Statements to RETAIN your employees
Although you are not required to provide them, we highly recommend that you distribute Total Compensation Statements to your employees. If you are not using them as an essential retention tool, you are missing out on the benefits of sharing the secret value of your employees’ “total” paycheck with them. Most employees have no idea how much it costs to employ someone and have an expectation of benefits without understanding the cost. Seeing these numbers is where the real aha moments come for employees!
Consider providing a Total Compensation Statement to your employees at the end of this year, or maybe even more than once a year. The statement provides a great reminder of the many benefits and the additional dollars you are investing in them beyond what they see in their paycheck, especially if they are thinking about joining the “Great Resignation.” As employees quit their jobs in record numbers, according to USA Today, this Total Compensation Statement may be the message that conveys that you, their employer, care about them and provide benefits that go beyond the organization’s front door to provide for their health, education, retirement, etc.
How to use them to RECRUIT new employees
I recently attended a local event where Sheetz, a ‘new to our area’ gas station/convenience store/fast food restaurant, was handing out free cookies, drawing in the crowd with sugar, and recruiting fliers. What caught my eye was not another flyer for another job, rather a flyer showcasing what you could earn working at the company in terms of Total Compensation. That total number was big and bold right at the top and included their base pay, benefits, and retirement contributions. The flier also showed how an employee could progress through their four employment levels and each level showed the total compensation in bold at the top. You immediately saw that you could earn $31,166 per year (rather than $10.60 an hour base pay). What a great way to stand out and catch the eye of job seekers!
Thank you to Lorrie Diaz, Senior HR Consultant with Strategic HR, for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Need assistance in creating a Total Compensation Statement? Strategic HR will work with your organization to develop a great strategy for using Total Compensation to recruit and retain your talent and even create the statements for you. Contact us to get started!
Why Employee Retention is More Important Now Than Ever
We’ve all been hearing the same thing: we’re in the Post-Pandemic War for Talent. Some have called it the Turnover Tsunami or the Great Resignation. No matter what it’s called, the reality remains the same: businesses are in a talent crisis. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 9.2 million job openings in May 2021 – yet there are only 1.2 available workers per job opening, according to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Worker Availability Ratio. Add to that, roughly 48% of Americans are considering a role change, with 53% contemplating changing industries altogether. And roughly 50% of employees say the pandemic has led them to question their current career goals.
All of these numbers are startling. For many employers, their best resource for talent is the talent that’s already on the team, which makes employee retention more important now than ever. But what are employers actively doing to keep them? While managers may say, “fine, let them go,” the reality is it may be extremely difficult to replace them.
The good news is there are actions that can be taken to improve employee retention. It takes some effort, but in the current climate, businesses can’t afford not to.
A first step to winning the “war for talent” is to lose the intention to return to pre-pandemic business. The workforce has drastically changed since March 2020. Organizations that automatically return to what was “status quo” may find themselves receiving pushback from employees who have enjoyed some elements of COVID work life.
The pandemic forced many businesses into a remote work environment. As the duration of the pandemic continued, employees and leaders had mixed feelings about remote work. Some loved it, while others longed to be back in the office. Many felt the biggest casualties of remote work were communication, collaboration, and relationships. Despite claims of increased productivity thanks to fewer interruptions, the impromptu chats and meetings fell off, eliminating the opportunity to communicate casually, collaborate creatively, and build relationships. So, where do employers go from here?
The Great Debate: Office vs. Remote
Employers who never offered remote work may experience struggles and pushback with deciding what the post-pandemic workplace looks like. A recent Korn Ferry survey found that nearly half of workers would turn down work if it mandated an in-person office presence. For employers, it’s important to be intentional in this decision as it can have a direct impact on employee retention and your ability to attract new talent. Just because in-person was the work norm pre-pandemic, does not mean that it’s right for post-pandemic. With the mixed feelings of employees and leaders, employers might consider a hybrid work environment, with some remote time and some in-office time. Many are finding this can serve as a compromise and still be an effective business model. Talk to your employees. What worked, and what didn’t? Employees want to know that their preferences were considered instead of being handed a mandate. Where possible, offer tangible business reasons for the decision.
Strategies to Improve Employee Engagement
Whether employers choose to be in-person, remote, or a hybrid of the two, it’s critical to maintain an engaged workforce. This can be more challenging with a remote or hybrid work arrangement, but it’s no less important.
Engagement starts with strong lines of communication. The need for communication is often overlooked or not seen to be of value, but choosing to remain silent can be to the detriment of the organization. Some key pointers to keep in mind:
- Share key goals and KPIs with the team, and update status on them regularly. Employers can guide employees’ focus by sharing goals and the progress toward meeting them. All too often, leaders create KPIs and then put them aside until performance review season. By keeping them top of mind and visible, the message is clear: their work is critical to the organizational goals.
- Help employees see where they fit into meeting those goals and KPIs. Engagement is achieved when employees understand how what they do impacts the organization. Every employee needs to know how their role contributes to the success of the organization. The quality of their work, the timeliness in which it is completed, even their attitudes in doing the work are all critical components to success. The best way to ensure employees care about their work is to help them see how they fit in.
- Don’t underestimate the value of morning huddles. A morning team huddle can be brief – no more than ten or fifteen minutes – but it sets the tone and expectations for the day. A huddle can celebrate accomplishments of the day before, provide updates on open issues, and establish the focus for the day. The time spent can minimize issues later. The key is to make the most of the time and adopt a structure to keep it concise.
- Demonstrate transparency. Focus on what is going well and the positive aspects, but don’t gloss over challenges. Honestly communicate issues and concerns and be open to discussing possible solutions. One of the best ways to build engagement is to ask the opinion of those that directly impact the end result.
On an individual basis, set clearly communicated performance expectations, and revisit those often. Managers must provide ongoing feedback to correct and reinforce behaviors. An engaged culture encourages employees to be problem solvers and to take ownership for finding solutions. Use problems and challenges as learning opportunities to demonstrate the troubleshooting thought process to employees. This encourages an environment of constant ongoing learning.
What are your individual employee’s strengths, and how can those be leveraged? This can be a great opportunity to recognize an employee and advance the goals of the business while also impacting employee retention.
Renew Your Focus on Professional Development
Another key contributor to employee engagement is professional development. A recent Bamboo HR survey found that 78% of employers working remotely felt their professional development was negatively affected by COVID, averaging a loss of $9,800 in promotional income. During COVID, many businesses found themselves in survival mode, where professional development was well down in the list of priorities. As we emerge from the pandemic, it is essential that employers return the focus to employee development. If it has lapsed, take the opportunity to restart the conversation with employees – revisit previous career goals. Are these still relevant or do they need to be revised?
Don’t forget that the pandemic work environment may have provided some unique learning opportunities. Are there ways to capitalize on these? A returned focus on professional development shows employees that you are committed to them and their success, and it can contribute to increased employee retention as well.
As the business world looks beyond the pandemic and begins to address the challenges that are being presented, wise leaders will recognize this opportunity to re-evaluate the culture, identify lessons learned, make the most of the talent they already have.
Special thanks to Cathleen Snyder, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, for contributing to this edition of our Emerging Issues in HR!
Would you like to find out how engaged your employees are? Strategic HR can help. We will create a custom survey to mirror your work environment and goals for the business, administer the survey as a neutral third party, and summarize the findings with recommendations for improvement. You can learn more on our employee surveys page or contact us now.
What Features Should I Consider in a New Applicant Tracking System?
HR Question:
My company is considering purchasing an Applicant Tracking System to help organize and bolster our recruitment process. There are so many options out there in the market! What Applicant Tracking System features should we keep in mind as we go through our search?
HR Answer:
As we roll into 2021, companies are beginning to see an increase in demand and are eagerly preparing for an uptick in business as the push for “normalcy” continues. With an increase in business comes an increase in the need for talent, which can cause a scramble for candidates if companies are unprepared. However, by implementing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), organizations can be better prepared to tackle their talent needs. The options are endless and easily overwhelming, so it is important to know what key features and functions of an ATS will support your organization’s recruitment goals.
At the beginning of 2020, Strategic HR went through the process of selecting a new Applicant Tracking System and learned several lessons along the way. Through our research and experience, we discovered a myriad of categories to prioritize in our search and have created a go-to list of categories and questions to consider as you navigate your ATS search.
Budget
Just as with any large software purchase, it’s key to identify a range for how much you’re willing to spend before you begin your search. This will determine the level of implementation support you can achieve, the number of technical questions or concerns you can submit post-implementation, and the level of customization you have with the system.
Customization / Setup
Once you have established your budget, evaluate the flexibility of the systems within that budget range. Can you adjust and customize the system to work with your organization’s recruitment workflow and hiring needs? Can this customization be done alone or does it require additional involvement and potential cost from the vendor? How easy is it to configure and update the process flow as your recruitment needs and team structure adjust? What is the implementation and set up timeframe? All of these questions will determine not only the time required to set up and implement the program, but also the time that is taken up later by questions, concerns, and changes that inevitably come about when working with a new system.
Recruitment Flow
How customizable is the workflow? How easy is it to see all of the candidate information from their resume to their LinkedIn profile, past job submissions, notes from other recruiters on the team? How easy is it to see and move candidates through the different steps in the recruitment process? Can you send communications, application forms, and schedule interviews through the ATS? How well does the system automate the recruitment process from auto-populating candidate’s information to scheduled automated messaging for candidates throughout the interview process?
Parsing
Parsing is the process of moving candidates from your job portal or your email into your ATS. How seamless is that process now, and what improvements can the system make to the process as it stands today? Does the system automatically input candidate contact and address information from their resume? Does the ATS recognize and flag duplicate candidates in the system? Does the system automatically parse in candidates who apply through certain job boards? How easy is it to determine if a candidate is submitting a new resume for a job, or one you already have on file? Does the system also parse in any cover letters, references, and certification information for easy review? How well does the ATS track the requisition ID and referral source of a candidate for reporting purposes?
Sourcing / Screening
How fast and accurate are the search capabilities? Can the system search multiple online sources for key skills and easily parse them in as a candidate profile? Can you search, add prospects to your new ATS account, and contact them directly in just one quick submission? Can you create tags for key skills and prospect folders for future recruitment and highlight strong future candidates?
Job Posting / Employer Branding
Your employer brand is one of the most vital (and free!) pieces to a successful recruitment process. It’s important to protect and maintain that brand through any job posting or career portal you use. So, as you begin to explore the system’s career portal capabilities, ask if the career portal allows for employer branding and how customizable it is. How easily can you make changes to the portal and how frequently does the system update? Is the career portal mobile-friendly? How user-friendly is the candidate application process? Does the system easily integrate and push to national job boards? How many job boards does it integrate with?
Integration
You most likely already have several different systems set up to support your recruiting efforts. The more integrations a system might have, the easier the transition may be. Does the system communicate with your email provider to track communications? Does the ATS have a texting platform or integrate with one? Does the system have a calendar integration for scheduling interviews? Does the system have a CRM feature and how well does it coordinate with the ATS? Does the ATS have a video interviewing integration? Does the system integrate with any other systems, like payroll, and how customizable are the integrations?
Data Storage
What is the data storage limit on the system? This is important if you have a large amount of data to import into the ATS.
Mobile Application
If 2020 taught us one thing, it was to be ready to take our work anywhere. Does the system have a mobile application? How user-friendly is the mobile application? What features are not available on the mobile application? Does the mobile application work with Android and iOS?
Training
There’s nothing worse than diving into a new system without sufficient guidance. Ask your salesperson if training is offered as part of the implementation process? Is there an extra cost for training? Does the system offer a Help Center, and how useful is the content? Is there ongoing support and how quick is the response time from the support team?
Reporting / Analytics
Assess your reporting needs, and ask the following questions: How robust are the systems’ reporting and analytics capabilities? Can you build your own reports? Can you create recurring scheduled reports? Can you filter reports and how well is the information displayed for review? Can you easily export or share reports? Even if you don’t currently have an in-depth reporting structure, the data you collect today may help you tomorrow.
Financial Investment
Does the platform allow for unlimited users? If not, what is the cost per user in the system? While preparing for unlimited users may be more expensive at first glance, this package may benefit your organization (depending on the number of members on your team and your expansion plans in the next three to five years). How much will it cost to import/migrate your existing candidate data? Is there an additional cost for training and customer support? Is there a contract length requirement? Is there a cost associated with customization to the system or to integrate features such as text capability?
In the end, you will need to choose which applicant tracking system features mean the most to your organization. In Strategic HR’s case, we used each of these key features to review our top ten ATSs and rated each system by these features to narrow our search to the top four. We then went through multiple in-depth demos and trial runs with the sales and integration team for each system, allowing for multiple potential users to ask questions. By utilizing this step-by-step process, we were able to save time on the selection process, involve multiple team members in the search process, and clearly define those items that were top priority in a new ATS (versus wish list items).
Thank you to Lisa Johnson, CIR for contributing to this edition of our HR Question of the Week.
Need help picking out an Applicant Tracking System of your own? Call Strategic HR today at (513) 697-9855 or email us for a free recruiting consultation. Let us tackle your recruiting challenges so you can have time to do what you do best.
Ten Steps to Optimize Your Recruitment Process
HR Question
We’re having a hard time finding the right candidates and filling our open positions. I know we need to evaluate our recruiting processes, and I don’t want to overlook any critical parts. What are the key areas to assess to optimize our recruitment process?
HR Answer
We continue to navigate through a “candidate-driven” market where the number of job opportunities far exceeds the number of job seekers to fill the roles. This gives top-tier candidates the most leverage for the best opportunities. It is critical for an organization to stay ahead of recruiting trends to have competitive access to a new generation of talent.
We have identified the following questions to evaluate the most critical parts of any recruitment process. The following ten areas should be routinely assessed to ensure an organization’s effectiveness in competing for talent.
Top 10 Areas to Analyze and Optimize Your Recruitment Process
1. Employment Brand and Candidate Experience
Do we have a strong employment brand and do we provide a positive candidate experience? These are two separate concepts but are dependent upon each other to give you a competitive edge to attract and hire top-tier talent.
The success of all of your recruitment processes is dependent upon the strength of your employment brand and the experience that candidates have interacting with your organization during the recruitment and hiring process. Check out our suggestions for how you can improve your candidate experience.
2. Careers Page
Does our Careers page include mission/values, employment news, testimonials, benefits/perks, and videos? Your Careers page should be the landing spot for job seekers as they navigate through job boards and social media pages that you have created. You’ve got one chance to make a great first impression, so make it count!
Candidates want to see a realistic picture of what it’s like to work at your company. They want to know about the culture and how it is lived every day. They also want to see what role your organization has in its connection and commitment to the local or broader community. For more, see our 9 tips to optimize your career page.
3. Social Media and Online Reviews
Do we have a strong social media presence? Are there reviews of our organization posted online? With the average time Americans spend on social media increasing year over year, it makes good business sense to ensure your social media presence is as up-to-date and robust as possible.
Social media can provide an online networking opportunity to raise awareness about your organization and to showcase your products and/or expertise. Why not take advantage of this free opportunity to drive traffic back to your carefully crafted website and your exciting careers page?
Part of having an online presence should also involve managing reviews to protect your company’s reputation from outwardly harsh or inaccurate comments. Reviews by current and past employees can often make or break a candidate’s interest in moving through the application process.
Candidates can find reviews in several different locations, whether it’s Indeed, Glassdoor, Google, or Facebook. While you can’t control exactly what your current or past employees post, you can control how you respond. It’s important to respond to both positive and negative reviews. For example, check out these do’s and don’ts of responding to social media reviews.
4. Job Posting Templates
Are we using best practices when creating job postings? It is important to not confuse a job posting with a job description as those are distinctly different documents serving different purposes. The goal of the job posting (also known as a job ad) is to create a post that is engaging and accurately reflects the company culture while sharing key highlights of the job duties and requirements. You should also include the values and perks of working for your organization. Job ads should include links to your career page or other social media to promote your employment brand. Keep in mind if you plan to post your job on social media, you will need to format the ad to best fit the type of social media being used.
Also, some sites, such as ZipRecruiter and Indeed, boast a percentage increase in the number of views and applications a position can receive if salary information is included. In this tight market, it makes sense that more and more employers are including those numbers in their posts to attract the right talent.
5. Job Posting and Sourcing Resources
Are we utilizing the best posting and sourcing resources for our positions? It is always important to have a strong workbench of resources to promote and post your positions. Do not rely on just one resource to post or source for your positions!
Depending on the type of position and industry, there are thousands of resources that are often free to post your position and/or to create a network of candidates.
6. Application Process
Do we have a quick and easy way for candidates to apply for positions in our organization? Can candidates easily apply using mobile devices? A recent Candidate Experience Report from Greenhouse found that a majority (66%) of job seekers determine whether they will apply for a job based on the length of an application. And over 70% of job seekers abandon an application if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete. From our experience, depending on the nature of the job and your industry, even a 5-minute application could be pushing it.
If you’re not sure how long your application takes or whether it’s mobile-friendly – try it out! If it takes too long to complete, remove anything that’s not truly needed at that stage and can’t be easily gathered later in your process.
7. Interview Process
Do we have a well-organized interview process? Are interviewers and candidates provided with the information they need to have a positive experience? Once a candidate has met your initial screening criteria, it can be helpful to have them progress through an interview process – whether that is by phone, virtual/video, in-person, or a combination of these.
It is best practice to prepare specific questions ahead of time to help assess the candidate’s relevant skills, abilities, and fit for the position. Using behavior-based questions that are tied to key competencies of the position are the most beneficial.
It’s important to prepare any staff member who is involved in the interview process. This includes providing them with the candidate’s resume, interview guide and schedule, and ensuring they have been trained on how to conduct legally compliant interviews. They should also be prepared to be excellent hosts throughout the experience keeping in mind that candidates are assessing your organization as much as you are determining their fit.
8. Applicant Tracking System
Does our applicant tracking system (ATS) meet the hiring needs of our organization? There is a wide range of ATS systems on the market today that can be customized to suit the needs of any organization. An effective ATS system can provide a way to automate communications and steps in the recruiting process which can be critical to delivering a high-quality candidate experience.
9. Other Automation Tools
Is it difficult to manage our time to communicate timely and effectively with candidates? Short of having an expensive applicant tracking system to automate communications with candidates, there are several inexpensive, stand-alone tools that can still provide automation to your recruiting process, such as texting and scheduling platforms/applications. These are great tools to reach job seekers (especially mobile device users) efficiently and effectively.
10. Onboarding
Do we have an effective offer and onboarding process for our new employees? In this market, candidates will often continue to have other employers contacting them with other opportunities. It is important to stay engaged with your candidates throughout the entire recruiting and hiring process.
A strong onboarding program will: keep candidates engaged, promote better communication, improve job satisfaction, and promote commitment to your organizational goals. After all, a great resource for finding new employees is referrals from your existing employees! If your employees believe in your goals and have had a strong employment experience themselves, they will be more likely to share opportunities with their own networks.
As you can see from the list above, there are many factors to consider as you look to optimize your recruitment process. By ensuring that you have the best processes, tools, and resources in place, your organization will be well-positioned to attract and retain the best talent.
How Can We Address Pay Compression?
HR Question:
To remain competitive in the marketplace, our company’s upper management decided to raise our minimum rate of pay. Unfortunately, HR was not included in this decision that has now led to salary compression and angry seasoned workers. How do you recommend for our human resources team to handle this?
HR Answer:
This is a challenging situation that you find yourself in, and you’re not alone in this struggle. In the tight labor market that we’re experiencing, many companies are struggling to find qualified workers to fill their open positions. As a result, many organizations have had to reevaluate their employer value proposition in order to attract and retain the best employees. Evaluating salary competitiveness is an important component in this process to ensure that you’re meeting candidates’ expectations. However, in doing so, it’s important to also consider the pay rates of your current workforce and how changes might impact them. Otherwise, an organization could risk dealing with salary compression issues just as you are.
What is pay compression?
For those who may not be familiar with the term, pay or salary compression occurs when the pay of newer or lower-skilled workers approaches the pay of your more seasoned and/or experienced workers. Pay compression can lead to disharmony and lessen engagement in the workplace as the more tenured workers feel less valued for the contributions they have made and continue to make to the company. We are seeing this happen more frequently as the competition for talent remains at a consistent and long-term high, many companies are finding it necessary to raise starting pay to attract the workers that they need. However, at the end of the day, pay and pay equity matters not just to those you are trying to recruit, but also those who are part of your existing workforce.
If you’re wondering how employees found out about the salary discrepancies, let’s face it – employees talk. Even though your company may frown upon it, this activity is protected under the rules of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which enforces the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA protects employees’ rights to discuss conditions of employment, such as safety and pay, even if you’re a non-union employer. The NLRB considers these discussions “protected concerted activity” and defines them as when employees “take action for their mutual aid or protection regarding terms and conditions of employment.”
How can you repair the damage of salary compression?
It’s unfortunate that HR wasn’t brought into the decision-making process prior to implementing the new salary changes. On the surface, it probably seemed that raising the company’s minimum pay rate could only lead to positive results. It probably did make a positive impact on your talent acquisition efforts. However, it may lead to a serious retention issue for your experienced workers if it goes unaddressed.
Our best advice at this point is to be honest with your employees. Provide them with the explanation that probably should have come before the new starting salary changes were implemented.
Here are some things to consider and/or information to address with your workforce:
- Be transparent. Help them to appreciate the reasoning behind the decisions that were made. Understanding the “why” goes a long way with accepting the outcome.
- Help them to understand the reality of the labor market and how difficult it has been for you to fill open positions.
- Share all of the other actions you have taken to attract new workers prior to (or in addition to) raising the starting salary.
- Remind them that you realize the longer positions are open, the longer the burden of work is spread across fewer hands. It is in their best interest that the open positions are filled as well.
- Let them know that you hear their concerns and share what you plan to do to address them.
If you are open about the decisions that have been made and why they were made, your employees will be able to see how you had to take action in order to attract the workforce that you need to keep your organization moving forward. Some may not like what they’re hearing, but it can help them to respect it.
To address the pay equity concerns that have been raised, you may want to do an analysis of your compensation structure and salary ranges to identify inconsistencies and to ensure you are in line with market trends, internal needs, and your company goals. For additional help, HR Daily Advisor has outlined steps you can take to address pay compression in your organization.
For organizations that are navigating through today’s difficult labor market and looking for ways to be more competitive, we urge you to involve human resources in your strategic planning. HR can help to assess the potential impact of decisions on your workforce and develop an appropriate communication plan to ensure a smooth implementation.
Strategic HR has the answers to all of your tough Benefits and Compensation related questions. Whether you need a job analysis of your positions or need to update (or write) job descriptions, Strategic HR can do the job. Please visit our Benefits & Compensation page for more information or Contact Us to discuss your needs.
What Is an RPO?
HR Question:
I keep hearing about RPOs… but I don’t have a clue what they are. What are they, and should I be looking into one?
HR Answer:
It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all of the business acronyms, new or old, so it’s not shocking that you may not have heard of an RPO – particularly if you work outside of the HR space. An RPO – or Recruitment Process Outsourcing – can be beneficial to all kinds of companies, particularly if you’re working with limited staff dedicated to human resources.
What is an RPO?
The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPOs as something akin to business process outsourcing, where “an employer transfers all or parts of its recruitment processes to an external service provider.” While that might sound intimidating, think of it this way – an RPO takes care of clearing your desk of resumes, pending background checks, job descriptions desperate for review, and all of the other paperwork that goes along with hiring new employees. An RPO can operate as a seamless extension of your organization throughout the entire recruiting and selection process.
An RPO will require an element of transparency that you may not be used to, but don’t worry, it’s in the name of better service. An RPO will want to understand your organizational culture, how you typically approach your recruitment process, the reason why you’ve done it this way in the past, and previous candidates that you’ve worked with or considered. This will keep the RPO team from spinning wheels already spun while making sure to move your process forward to find the best candidates who fit your needs and your organizational culture.
Benefits of an RPO
Not only does an RPO take care of the more tedious and time-consuming aspects of talent acquisition, but they can also tackle some of the softer approaches that recruiting calls for in today’s market. With the additional time and attention RPO teams are able to afford candidates, they can create the “human touch” that is so often called for in a recruitment process. Don’t believe us? Check out Monster’s article on candidate experience and why it matters.
RPOs can also be a significant money-saving recruitment solution. When you consider the average placement rate of many staffing firms – which ranges from 25-40% – versus the hourly rate of many RPOs, you can save thousands of dollars. For example, take a new manager position with a target salary of $60K a year. If you were to work through a staffing firm, that new hire could cost you between $15,000 – $24,000, not to mention the time and energy put in by your team to hire and onboard this individual. Should you work with an RPO (with an hourly rate of $150) using an average of 55 hours to fill a position, you’re only spending $8,250 – a cost-savings of almost $7,000 – $16,000. This provides a compelling argument for using an RPO if you’re seeking buy-in from your CFO.
Is an RPO right for you?
Even if an RPO is a great process for some businesses, it’s not meant for all. This tends to be a good recruiting solution for businesses that have a lean or limited recruiting team. If you don’t have the resources or your plate is too full, reaching out to an outsourced recruiting firm can keep your timeline moving with a limited time commitment on your part.
If you don’t need help month-in, month-out or your needs ebb and flow more than you can plan for, an RPO may be a good fit. Ideally, their consultative approach should be able to be turned on or off when your needs call for them.
Or perhaps you may need a recruiting expert or a strategic partner. You and your team might recognize the limits of your understanding or knowledge in recruiting while doing your best to avoid compliance issues. An RPO provides an opportunity to partner with a team of talent acquisition experts who can help to support your recruiting and compliance needs.
What to look for in an RPO
While there are many RPOs out there, not all are the same. When trying to assess which RPO is right for you, consider the following items:
Expertise
If you’re handing off your recruitment process with an increased level of transparency, you want to make sure you can trust the team with which you are partnering. Take a look at the level of expertise the company boasts. What is their approach to talent acquisition? Are they thought leaders in their industry? Do they create and share helpful content? Are they able to speak to providing a positive candidate experience, data analytics, and cost-savings?
Examples & Testimonials
Take a look at their online reviews. Have others in your industry used this RPO? Is this company able to speak to the experience that both candidates and clients have had during their time using their services? Does this company have experience in your industry and understand the nuances that might come with your jobs? Consider sharing your recruiting challenges and ask how they intend to address them. Or, ask about the challenges they have faced recruiting in your industry and how they have overcome those challenges.
Clear Communication
Can this company clearly outline their costs and how they will save you money? Can they provide an accurate prediction of potential costs you may encounter along the way? Are they as timely with you as they are with candidates? How will they communicate progress with you? This may be another good reason to dig into your network and seek client/candidate testimonials to see what others say.
As with any business service you consider working with, be sure to do your homework first to ensure you find the best RPO for your organization.
Thank you to Samantha Kelly, Senior Sales & Marketing Strategist and Melinda Canino, MS, Senior HR Communications Advisor for contributing to this HR Question of the Week.
Do you think an RPO might be a fit for you? Strategic HR can tackle your recruiting challenges so you can have time to do what you do best. Learn about our approach to Outsourced Recruitment or Contact Us today.
Do I Need HR?
HR Question:
As a business owner, how do I know when I should engage someone to help me with our human resources needs?
HR Answer:
The quick answer is the typical rule of thumb is to have one HR professional for every 100 employees. However, depending on the scope of the role and how proactive your organization is, this number may be more like 1.5 HR professionals per every 100 employees (Bloomberg Report).
But not all businesses have over 100 employees, and you can’t wait until you are at 100 employees to address human resources in your business. When you hire one new employee beyond yourself, your journey down the human resources lane begins. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are ready to hire a full-time HR person; but rather, you need to do some basics to get your business in shape to have employees such as:
- Setting up workers compensation
- Obtaining a payroll solution
- Posting mandated posters
- Creating employee files
- Developing a recruiting process
- Creating an onboarding program and required forms
- Setting up how an employee will be paid in compliance with various laws
- Identifying benefits–not just health, but also holidays, PTO, and programs
- Setting expectations for employees through policies in an employee handbook
Once you have your HR function set up, you may be comfortable handling your human resources function internally yourself, through your management team, or even an office manager. But, be sure you have a lifeline to an HR consultant and/or attorney to help you, should an issue arise.
As your business grows, you will also see other triggers that may tell you it’s time to get more formalized help with your HR function such as:
- Business growth
- Employee turnover
- The need for more formal policies and procedures
- Gaining or maintaining a competitive edge
- Change that is impacting your employees
- Conflict with responsibilities
- Compliance
Compliance with federal, state, and local laws is critical for you to stay on top of as your business grows, which again is why it’s important to at least have a lifeline to an HR consultant and/or attorney. Check out this general list of the federal labor laws by the number of employees you have on your team. This list links to details on the actual law. But, there are also many unique state and local laws that may apply to your business too.
Too often, we see businesses wait until a problem occurs: if it isn’t broken, why fix it? When it comes to HR, you are better to be proactive than reactive to avoid losing key employees, receiving penalties for violating a law, or litigation.
Strategic HR can help you with any of your human resources needs, whether you are hiring your first employee or your 1,000th. With our customized, a-la-carte approach, we can support exactly what you need. We can conduct an analysis of your HR function, establish your HR function, become your HR function, or help with key components of HR. Want to learn more? Request a Free HR Consultation.
Why You Should Always Be Networking
Question:
I keep hearing “Network! Network! Network!” I already have a full-time position. I thought networking was just for job seekers.
Answer:
In short, you should always be networking – no matter if you are employed or unemployed.
Let’s begin by defining networking so we are on the same page. According to Merriam-Webster, networking is “The exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions specifically the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business.” Networking is about building professional relationships. Essentially, it’s all about who you know, who they know, and how you might be able to help one another.
We are all busy with our professional and personal lives, so why take the time to network?
- To meet potential prospects/clients/customers/referrals
- To build relationships and/or friendships
- Help spread awareness about your product/service you provide
- You never know what your next opportunity will bring. Someone may be looking for your unique skill set.
- Do you like helping others? Pay it forward. You may know someone who is looking for a job.
- To get/give advice. Effective networking is mutually beneficial to both involved. It should not be a one-way street.
Steps on how to network:
Even when you understand the value and importance of networking and building professional relationships, you might ask yourself, “So where do I begin?” Here are suggestions for how to get started:
- What sets you apart? What makes you, YOU?! If you are not sure, ask people.
- Make a list of who you know including family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, managers (present and former), and affiliations/professional associations you are involved with.
- Identify what your need is. Do you want people to know about your company/service/product? Are you job seeking?
- Think about the knowledge, skills, and abilities that you can offer to those you’re networking with. Remember- networking should be mutually beneficial. Of course, you may not know exactly how you can help someone until you talk with them about their own interests and needs, but giving some thought to this before meeting them can help generate ideas.
What to do when you attend a networking event:
To ensure that you get the most out of attending a networking event, it can help to do some preparation before you go. Make sure that you take any necessary materials that will help you in making connections, such as business cards, brochures, etc. Think about how you want to introduce yourself. Some people find it helpful to practice a short “elevator pitch” that succinctly explains who you are and what you do.
Here are some suggestions on how to begin, track, and follow up on your networking conversations:
- A common thing people do when first meeting someone is to ask, “What do you do?” A great way to meet someone is to ask them, “What brought you here today?” That way the person doesn’t feel awkward if they are in a job search.
- Ask for their business card. Make a note on the back of the card about the conversation and follow-up with them.
- Connect with them on LinkedIn. Always send a personal note when sending an invitation for the connection. It can be something like, “Hi Joe, we met at the XYZ Event the other night. I really enjoyed our conversation and would like the opportunity to connect with you on LinkedIn to expand my network.” Once the person accepts your LinkedIn invitation, you can follow up with the conversation that you had with next steps.
- Keep a spreadsheet of the people you’ve met, where you met, a brief description of your conversation, and any next steps.
- Keep your networking fresh by sending an email or a LinkedIn message saying that you just wanted to say hello and that you were thinking of them. This will go a long way.
- Always ask the other person how you can help them. Even if there isn’t anything at the present time, there may be an opportunity in the future. Networking is a two-way street and beneficial for both parties.
Where can I find networking meetings/events?
If you are looking for networking and professional development opportunities, Strategic HR has a great list of HR events that are hosted by local and national organizations. Many of the events address topics of interest to a broad audience, so they are not limited to only HR professionals. Eventbrite and Meetup are additional sources you can use to search for networking events based on your interests and preferred geographic location.
Bottom line, you can network wherever you are…at work, at the grocery store, at sporting events, etc. The key is being open to meeting new people and being yourself. If you’ve thought about what you want people to know about you, it’s easier to dive in when networking opportunities present themselves. Remember to share your talents and not just your title. By effectively networking, you will reap the benefits both now and in the future. So always be prepared to network!
Communication often seems like a “no-brainer.” You have something to say and you just “say it.” However, hearing and listening are two different functions. HOW you communicate is often as important as WHAT you communicate when it comes to getting results! Strategic HR has years of experience preparing communications for a variety of audiences and topics. Visit our Communications page to learn how we can assist you with various communication-based projects.
What is a Certificate of Qualification for Employment?
HR Question:
This week a hiring manager was excited about a candidate but learned during an interview that the candidate has had a Felony for theft. The candidate mentioned having an Ohio Certificate of Qualification for Employment that they could provide. Although we are not a bank and the role does not handle money, we need to make sure our organization will not be put at risk by making a careless hire. Alternatively, we do not want to be discriminatory or lose an otherwise qualified individual that could make a great fit for the role. So what is a Certificate of Qualification of Employment and how can it help our company?
HR Answer:
Ohio law provides for a certificate to be available that removes criminal-record-based barriers to employment, without erasing or hiding the criminal record itself. The “Certificate of Qualification for Employment” (CQE) will allow persons who have a previous felony or misdemeanor conviction to apply to the court to lift the collateral sanction that bars them from being considered for employment in a particular field. A CQE is only given if an individual has been through an extensive application and investigation process and deemed, by both the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections (DRC) and the Court, to be rehabilitated. A Certificate of Qualification for Employment may be revoked if the offender is convicted of or pleads guilty to a felony offense committed subsequent to the issuance of the certificate.
Employer Benefits of a Certificate of Qualification for Employment
A CQE can benefit an employer by removing mandatory rules that prohibit licensure or employment of individuals with certain criminal records. The Certificate may be used for general employment opportunities as well. If an employer knowingly hires a CQE holder, the Certificate offers the employer legal protection from a potential negligent-hiring lawsuit. (However, if the employer fails to take action if dangerous or criminal behavior is exhibited after hiring and retains the employee after such behavior, the employer can then be held liable.)
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction provides information to learn more about the certificate and a link where you can assure the authenticity of a CQE. You can also contact The Ohio Justice and Policy Center or directly review Ohio Revised Code 2953.25.
Banning the Box
There are many states and cities with laws making it illegal to exclude an otherwise qualified applicant who has had a misdemeanor or felony. At least 16 states have already passed legislation, “banning the box”, which prevents employers from inquiring about a criminal background at initial application. Federal EEO laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibit employers from discrimination by using criminal history information in their employment decisions because they can significantly disadvantage protected individuals such as African Americans and Hispanics.
The EEOC also has written the following guidance you may refer to:
- What You Should Know About the EEOC and Arrest and Conviction Records
- Enforcement Guidance on Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
This candidate’s Certificate of Qualification for Employment could prove to be a win-win. An applicant who has the qualifications you need and is looking for that long-deserved break may prove to be one of your most grateful and loyal employees if given the opportunity. Remember whether hiring or declining, before making a potentially costly decision, it is important to educate yourself on related federal, state, and local laws and/or seek legal counsel.
Struggling with hiring the right person and figuring out how and where to find candidates? Wondering how to do drug screens, background checks, physicals, references, and assessments? We can help you make sense of it all. Whether you need a complete recruitment solution or just help with pieces of the process, Strategic HR can assist you. Visit our Recruitment page to learn how we can provide you with top-notch outsourced recruitment solutions.
What is the Value of Job Descriptions?
HR Question:
Do I really need job descriptions for my employees? Are they legally required? We have a small staff and everyone has to be willing to do everything. What is the value of having job descriptions?
HR Answer:
No, job descriptions are not legally required documents, however, they can help your employees (and their supervisors) to understand their responsibilities and how their roles contribute to the mission of your organization. They are also an important part of compliance and, when written well, can help to protect your organization should you face employment law disputes.
To achieve optimal performance, it’s important that your employees understand the scope of their responsibilities. Job descriptions help to define a job by determining and documenting the responsibilities of the position and the physical requirements of the job. This document is not a “how-to” or a procedure outline (which can change frequently), but rather it should capture what individuals are accountable for in their job.
Job descriptions add value because they:
- Provide a clear picture of the job to applicants applying for the position
- Help current employees to understand what they are accountable for
- Serve as a helpful tool for supervisors to coach employees on how to improve performance
- Help to determine appropriate salary levels for a position based on the expectations, education, and experience requirements for the role
- Allow individuals to evaluate the physical requirements necessary for the position and what the work environment is like (i.e., Does it require heavy lifting? Is it a “desk job”? Does it involve frequent travel, evenings, or on-call availability, etc.)
- Allow organizations to determine if an employee can perform the physical functions of a job or if an accommodation could be made for those applying for a job (or coming back from a medical leave or workers’ compensation leave, for example)
Getting Started: What to Include in a Job Description
If you’re beginning the process of creating job descriptions, it can be helpful to conduct a job analysis to understand the necessary tasks and responsibilities for the position and how the job is performed by employees at your organization.
Common components of a job description include:
- Job Title
- Reporting Structure: Role the position reports to and role(s) the position supervises, if applicable
- FLSA Classification
- Date of Job Description Creation / Revision
- Job Summary: It is helpful to provide a brief, general overview of the position.
- Essential Job Duties/Function: Describe the duties that must be performed in the job. Focus on the function of the job rather than the means used to achieve that function. It helps to identify the required outcomes of the job tasks rather than describing the tasks themselves.
- Physical Demands/Requirements
- Work Environment
- Minimum and Preferred Requirements
- Disclaimer: Explains the job description isn’t designed to list every responsibility and is subject to change.
- Acknowledgement/Signatures of Incumbent and Supervisor
For additional components to consider, see this step-by-step guide provided by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). We also recommend that you consult your legal counsel for guidance to ensure your job descriptions are appropriate for your organization and legally compliant.
Out of Date Job Descriptions Pose a Risk
It is important for your job descriptions to be kept up to date, otherwise they can potentially cause more harm than good when it comes to providing HR Compliance support. However, when written well, the positive aspects of a job description outweigh the negatives and can provide you with documentation on the job requirements and support actions that you may have taken. Therefore, whenever your organization goes through significant changes or the nature of your work or specific jobs shift, be sure to revisit and revise your job descriptions accordingly.
An Easy Way to Keep Job Descriptions Updated
If finding the time to revise your team’s job descriptions feels like a daunting task in and of itself, consider addressing them one at a time. An easy way to work updates into your routine is to have supervisors take a few minutes during the performance review process to work with each employee to make any necessary updates their job descriptions. Approaching the updates one at a time during your reviews can help to make the process more manageable.
Job descriptions are too important to fall to the bottom of the “wish list.” When done correctly, they serve a multitude of functions. However, we understand busy workloads often relegate job descriptions to a “when time permits” activity. If you are putting off creating or revising your job descriptions due to a lack of time or staff, contact us. Dare we say it’s “in our job description” to help!
How to Handle Background Checks for Temporary Employees
HR Question:
We had a fabulous individual working for us through a temporary agency. We decided to hire the individual and ran them through our process, including conducting a background check. The results were shocking – we thought the temporary agency had already verified their background. How should I handle background checks for temporary employees going forward to ensure this doesn’t happen again?
HR Answer:
Many companies treat temporary employees differently when it comes to background checks and only realize it when it’s too late – when they try to hire the individual. The staffing company said they ran a “background check” before they placed the individual with you. However, when you compare the results of your own verification versus the staffing company’s, it hits you: If you had run your own background check first, instead of relying on the staffing company’s, you would never have considered the individual in the first place. So, now what do you do?
Unfortunately, this situation is all too common. Many employers allow temporary workers into their organization without knowing anything about the “background check” the staffing company performed before those individuals started working for their organization.
Did they only run a database search? Maybe they just entered the employee’s name in a local county records website or simply Googled the person. Or, even more disturbing, maybe they didn’t research the person’s background at all!
The term “background check” is very broad. When working with temporary employees, it is best practice to confirm that your staffing company is running quality courthouse background research before you let them place temporary personnel with your organization.
Background Check Tips for Temporary Employees:
- Connect with your attorney to discuss whether or not you should include background check requirements in your Master Service Agreement (MSA), as well as how they are to be conducted. Many times that might include the last seven years of residence, county, state, social security number, aliases/previous last names, etc. You may want to consider using a third party rather than an internal database search.
- Ask to see the reports for individuals who have a criminal record. It is a good HR practice to apply your evaluation approach consistently to both temporary and permanent employees.
- Consider including county criminal research. Many organizations have found county research to be a helpful source in finding if a felony or misdemeanor charge exists for an individual, and it can help to support HR Compliance with the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
- Don’t be fooled by a “federal” search. This check certainly has its value, however, it can be misleading. While it may sound all-encompassing, it only includes federal crimes. Pre-employment screening companies have found the majority of crimes committed are state crimes. Therefore, most people with a criminal past would come back clean on a federal search.
Managing the hiring process can be tricky. If you currently run pre-employment screenings before you bring someone on board, you already understand the importance of this verification process. To help protect your organization and your employees, follow the best practice of having employees from staffing companies meet the same expectations as direct hires.
A special thank you to Matt Messersmith, President/CEO, Signet Screening, and Amy Turner, Senior HR Business Advisor, for sharing their expertise in this HR Question of the Week.
Does the thought of hiring someone make your head spin? Full-time, temporary, temp-to-perm, intern…pre-employment assessments, references, background checks, drug screens – we can help you manage it all. Whether you need a complete recruitment solution or just help with pieces of the process, Clark Schaefer Strategic HR can assist you. Visit our Recruitment page to learn how we can provide you with top-notch recruitment solutions.
How Long Should We Keep Resumes and Applications?
HR Question:
We’ve received a lot of resumes recently – some have been for positions we’ve posted, and some are unsolicited. Do we have to keep all of these resumes, and if so, how long do we need to keep the resumes and applications?
HR Answer:
First, let’s address what to do with unsolicited resumes. You are not obligated to store unsolicited resumes; however, it is important to be consistent with your approach. If there are any unsolicited resumes that you have kept for further consideration, your best approach is to keep all unsolicited resumes for the same duration of time that you retain your solicited resumes.
For resumes and applications that you have received in relation to a job opening, there are a few federal laws that require employers to retain employment applications and related documents ranging for a period of one to two years from the date of the hiring decision (the date the position was filled, not posted). Employers are responsible for following the federal laws under which they are covered as well as any contractual requirements that they may have (i.e., union contracts) that may require additional time to maintain records.
Another important item to note regarding applicant recordkeeping is that you are required to maintain not only employment applications for a position, but the entire hiring record. Hiring records could include such things as applications, resumes, screening tools and assessments, background checks, and reference checks. Anything that you use in assisting you with an employment decision is considered part of your hiring records.
Major federal laws that address employment records retention requirements include:
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – Requires employers to keep various employment records, including job applications, for one year from the date the application was received.
- Age Discrimination in Employment Act – Requires employers to retain employment applications for one year. There is language, however, that indicates if you are aware the applicant is over age 40, you should retain it for as long as two years.
- Americans with Disabilities Act – Requires employers to retain job applications and documents for one year. There is some variation based upon whether or not the applications are solicited or unsolicited, but the maximum retention is two years.
- Executive Order 11246 – If you are a government contractor and have less than 150 employees or a contract of at least $150,000 you must retain these records for one year. If you have at least 150 employees or more and a contract of $150,000, you are required to keep the records for two years. If you have a resume on hand from a previous search and decide to consider it for a new position months down the road, you will need to keep that resume or application for the time required based on the last viewing of the document (i.e., 1-2 years past the fill date of the second position).
A word of caution – if there is a discrimination charge or unlawful employment practice brought against the employer, employment applications must be retained until the matter reaches a resolution. This can get tricky if someone claims discrimination because they did not get a promotion; the employer is then required to keep all the applications received for that promotion until the claim is resolved. With a lengthy lawsuit and litigation, this could be an extended amount of time.
Generally speaking, good practice is to keep resumes and applications of non-hired individuals for two years following the date the hiring process is completed for a position (i.e., from the time the new employee starts working). Remember to consult state laws in addition to federal regulations when determining how long to keep employee records.
Recordkeeping can be a daunting task, especially when you are trying to clean out old records and maintain the pertinent ones to remain compliant. Strategic HR understands your frustration and has many tried-and-trusted tips on recordkeeping – including a handy Recordkeeping Desktop Reference to help you decide what to keep and what to toss. Visit our HR Compliance & Recordkeeping Services to learn more about ways we can help you to get your employment records in order.
The Difference Between Applicants and Candidates
My recruiter talks about applicants and candidates as if they’re not interchangeable–what’s the difference?
