Libby Sartain, Chief People Officer at Yahoo says that “What makes a great employer brand is how it serves to attract and retain and engage talent.” It seems like we are all trying all sorts of ideas to do just that. Ms. Sartain, along with Mark Schumann, has completed a book entitled, Brand for Talent, a sample of which can be read here. There were a couple of issues that caught my attention. They were how a talent brand must “be the strategic tool for a company to attract and retain people and survive Social Media.” Connect to article here.
In the book, the authors emphasize that there is a new “consumer of work.” This consumer is what we used to call job seekers. While the leaders of this new shift are members of Generation Y, it can just as easily be those well before Generation Y. It is not as much the age factor that is working here as it is a comfort level with and reliance on technology. These are people who see no reason to shift their reliance on technology when looking for a job.
If these new “consumers” are not totally engaged in the organization, they will continue to look for opportunities even after they have taken a position with your company. Their overall job performance will likely suffer if technology isn't central to the duties of the job. Therefore, it becomes even more important to begin that engagement process at the earliest possible moment à from the time they view your application process(including addressing the social media piece) to how you ask your interview questions to how you onboard them.
This means using HR software as a cornerstone to your recruiting and human capital management processes is critical. Applicant Tracking Software is the first interaction most of these "consumers" will have with your organization. You want to utilize a solution that provides the tools you need to be user friendly, technology savvy, and offers a way to express your company brand effectively. In addition, the solution must provide multiple ways of using social media to get your brand and job opportunities visibility in the employment marketplace. Finally, this applicant tracking software should offer a way to ask those critical interview questions right on the application that can help ensure that a person is going to fit within the culture of your organization. This most definitely contributes in a positive way to ensuring the engagement of these "consumers of work" and their long term commitment to your organization.
Visit our website at www.exacthire.com to learn more about how our applicant tracking solutions can help you better acquire the right consumers of work for your organization.
If you work in HR you believe, with all your being, that good human capital management leads to better productivity and better product quality. But, sometimes it’s so hard to prove, especially to a CFO who wants to see short-term financial improvements. As one top HR professional put it, "A financial person is concerned with taking money out of the organization. HR should be concerned with putting investments in." Well, now there is some research to support the connection between successful applicants and product quality.
One of the leaders in this effort is Betty Lou Smith, the vice president of corporate HR at Hunter Douglas. She began investigating the connection between employee turnover and product quality. Divisions with the highest turnover rates, she found, were also those with damaged-goods rates of 5% or higher. And extraordinarily, 70% of employees were leaving the company within six months of being hired.
Visit: http://www.fastcompany.com/node/53319/print . This is a fascinating article that also focuses a great deal on why others in many organizations don't care for human resource planning and talent management in general. While most of us might disagree with some of the points made in the article, it is thought-provoking.
Effective Applicant Tracking Software and assessments can be the first steps in finding those with the right Job Fit. Creating thought-provoking key questions right on the application can save a recruiter time and help focus the search on only those that meet the very highest standards. Using employee assessments can validate those first impressions.
At ExactHire, we love creative HR managers who are ready to use every resource at their disposal--Applicant Tracking, Assessments, Human Resource Management Systems-- to get to that perfect Job Fit. We believe, like you, that putting investment IN an organization will produce the value that makes taking money OUT possible. Check out our new website for more information: www.exacthire.com.
Do you ever leave a business & feel like employees were brought in by the Talent Acquisition Process known as "Drive by Hiring"?
Who is managing talent acquisition in those companies? For the sake of retaining customers and valuable workers, having a Human Resource Management System in place is critical.
While talent acquisition is one of the most important functions we as owners and managers perform in our businesses, why do we spend so little time, energy and money trying to get it right? The cost of "Drive by Hiring" is almost always poor Job Fit. What is "Drive By Hiring"; it is when we feel pressured to just fill a seat, or when we don't have the time to really evaluate all the applicants who submit information, OK you get the point. Most of you have done it and it usually always ends with someone who is not an ideal fit for your job, company and culture.
Don't lose customers or good employees by using the "Drive by Hiring" process!! We can assist you to be proactive with better hiring practices through partnering. Visit www.exacthire.com to find out how we can help with pre-hiring employee assessments & applicant tracking to build superior Job Fit!
SHRM did a survey of employees to determine what was important to them. The rating used a 4-point scale to indicate what was “very unimportant” (that’s a 1) to them or “very important” (that’s a 4).
The percentages below indicate how many people gave the item a 4, meaning “very important.”
The 601 full- or part-time employees were randomly selected from a U.S.population.
63% Job security 60% Benefits 57% Compensation/Pay 55% Opportunity to use skills/abilities 54% Feeling safe in the work environment 52% Relationship with the immediate supervisor 52% Management recognition of employee job performance 51% Communication between employees and senior management 50% The work itself 47% Autonomy and independence 46% Flexibility to balance life and work issues 45% Meaningfulness of job 45% Overall corporate culture 42% Relationships with co-workers 39% Contribution of work to organization’s business goals 35% Job-specific training 34% Variety of work 32% Career advancement opportunities 31% Organization’s commitment to corporate social responsibility 30% Organization’s commitment to professional development 29% Paid training and tuition reimbursement programs 22% Career development opportunities 17% Organization’s commitment to a “green” workplace
Besides the expected answers that relate to pay and benefits, notice how high the rankings are for how they feel about their job and their supervisors.
The key here is not only hiring people that have Job Fit but also making sure you have the right supervisors in place.
When it comes to Job Fit, Job Performance and feedback for HR Management--we'd like to hear what your issues are. We would like the opportunity to help you imrprove your organization. Check us out at www.exacthire.com
We continually talk to our clients about Job Fit. The question that comes up is how to soft skills relate to Job Fit and Talent Management? Soft skills are intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that determine a person's ability to excel and fit into a particular job or company's culture. These skills include competencies in areas such as emotional, communication, leadership ability, etiquette, conflict resolution, decision making, self-motivation, self-discipline, persuasion, etc.
The reason for all the fuss is simple. Experts ranging from psychologists to business and spiritual leaders, such as Donald Trump and the Dalai Lama, agree that one or more of these soft skills have the greatest impact on your level of success.
We can help you with talent acquisition. The use of our applicant tracking software and employee assessments can assist you in identifying potential "A" players and improve your talent management; especially when we are all being asked to maintain a lean HR approach. Take a moment to look at some of the solutions we offer at www.exacthire.com
Longtime human resources professional Harlan Schafir has seen employees go through excruciating divorces, and he thinks he’s on to as good a way as any to handle them.
Schafir, who is majority owner of Exact Hire (www.exacthire.com) and Human Capital Concepts in Indianapolis, makes clear to the employee that he understands they will be distracted and lose their productive edge for a time. He gives them much more flexibility in their schedule during this time.
Giving workers time to deal with their problems and heal is the right thing to do from a human perspective, Schafir says. But it’s also good business.
“If you develop the right culture, it’s a huge component to your success,” he says. “The way you treat your employees is the way they’ll treat your customers.”
What do you think? In your experience, how has divorce—yours or that of a coworker’s—affected your work place?
There is a higher chance that your competition can replicate your product easier than they can replicate your human capital. So why not invest in the best human resource tools? This does not mean large dollar amounts. What it does mean is investing in highly effective applicant tracking software and career personality tests that can make you the best in human resource planning and management.
The key to staying ahead of the competition is managing your human resource tools to create better employees. If you use effective applicant tracking software that asks applicants for key, job related, information you will increase your ability to create a world class team that can build, market and sell your product far better than your competition.
You spend money and time to protect your product or service secrets, why not find out what little it takes to create the best human resource tools? Even if you have the same product, you’ll win every time with an applicant tracking system that increases the quality of your talent acquisition.
Don’t risk losing your best human capital to your competition. ExactHire can help you. Go to www.exacthire.com.
All human resource professionals love it when they see the magic that happens when good candidates are matched with the right job. Everybody wins! The company wins because the new employee makes a successful contribution to the company, both in the bottom line and in the culture of the company. The employees win because they are happy doing the job, they stay longer, build history and success.
Providing an applicant tracking tool and assessments gives us a way to contribute to that magic. We believe in our products and services, but nothing convinces us or others more than when we hear it directly from our customers. Just this week, we received this email:
“We are really enjoying ExactHire and are now wondering what we ever did without it! It has been a wonderful tool to use and is helping us do a much better job of managing applicants as well as our process.”
What a great feeling to know that customers are using our product in assisting them to improve the way they manage applicants and the hiring process. But best of all, it’s making life easier and more enjoyable in the ever changing and challenging field of human resource management. Come and start experiencing the magic for yourself……..www.exacthire.com. It’s only a click away.
Your competitive edge is going to be derived from your employees! So, how are you going to do this? Read on.
Physical properties of a business can be cloned. Your intellectual properties can not. Business will realize sustainable value from technological sophistication, creative & superior customer service responsiveness and insightful managers.
Outsource projects that are not core competency to a firm who specializes in that field to allow you to concentrate on your own business!
Our specialty is human capital management, human resource planning, applicant tracking, talent acquisition and assessments! We can give you that competitive edge so visit our site now to see how we can partner together! www.exacthire.com
I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of hearing about how bad the economy is doing these days. But, until it improves a great deal, we all will have to continue to deal with it. Having read several articles about this, it made me think (scary, I know!).
All of the experts advise us to do some key things related to talent management with this economy. Incorporate Lean HR practices wherever possible, focus on talent acquisition to upgrade your staff, etc. Great ideas, but in a practical sense, how do you do those things? Especially if you are a small or mid-sized organization?
I'm seeing more companies turn to technology to accomplish these tasks. Using applicant tracking software and automated onboarding solutions can really help to incorporate those Lean HR principles into most any mid-sized organization. Likewise, using employee assessments or career personality tests that can be administered online can really augment any talent acquisition process by helping to ensure JobFit is present for both the new hire and the organization.
These human capital management systems are becoming more affordable and can really improve the overall talent management function within most organizations. More to come, but if you haven't investigated these solutions, I would encourage you to begin.
There is a higher chance that your competition can replicate your product easier than they can replicate your human capital.So why not invest in the best human resource tools?This does not mean large dollar amounts.What it does mean is investing in highly effective applicant tracking software and career personality tests that can make you the best in human resource planning and management.
The key to staying ahead of the competition is managing your human resource tools to create better employees. If you use effective applicant tracking software that asks applicants for key, job related, information you will increase your ability to create a world class team that can build, market and sell your product far better than your competition.
You spend money and time to protect your product or service secrets, why not find out what little it takes to create the best human resource tools? Even if you have the same product, you’ll win every time with an applicant tracking system that increases the quality of your talent acquisition.
Don’t risk losing your best human capital to your competition.ExactHire can help you.Go to www.exacthire.com.
If there was ever a time to underscore the importance of Human Resources, it has arrived. In these days of economic woes--phrases that ring loud and clear are; Lean HR, Human Resource Planning, Job Fit, Talent Management & Talent Acquisition. The importance of using hiring assessments and human resource planning when adding colleagues to the team is more critial than ever. Maybe you don't know where to start nor do you have the tools? Visit our site for more info www.exacthire.com
Companies need to take a rigorous and progressive approach to the hiring process by determining what it is they're really looking for and how to assess it. Who are the "right" people to hire? Members of successful teams differ in complementary ways. If you've ever worked for someone who only hires people like themselves, you know why this is true. Diversity needs to be a part of an office's unique environment. Differing perspectives will keep your company from seeming similar, regardless of the client or the services you deliver. It also helps you round out your team. A team made up of just quarterbacks would not be very successful.
A progressive approach to successful hiring is needed to achieve diversity and success. Do you have a human resource management system securely in place? Have you looked to an outside specialist who can assist your human resources team by using an applicant management & tracking software to help you build a model for successful job fit? The time to invesigate an applicant tracking software systesm is now when you have the time. When the markekt recovers and we return to "green flag racing" we will all be to busy.
It all comes back to marketing. We are stuck with bad processes, and we are comfortable with that. Millions are spent on the choice of a name for a product or a company, but one of the most important concepts for our economy - Lean Theory - is saddled with a name that had little thought applied and is now causing problems. Lots of negative implications, and little upside.
What should the new name be? If we had a clean sheet of paper and wanted to rename the process of waste reduction and simplification, what would we call it? I'm spending time today on this little problem - I need 3 people to respond to this with one idea each of a better name.
If we rename it, and it is more effective, it will be worth it. Time to quote Shakespeare...
Juliet: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet."
These are times that get irritating when all of the pressures start to mount. Our personal reserves vanish when we are under stress, and now we are all poster children for acting snippy and crabby.
We all need to get the answer, and fast. That's where Lean comes in. The whole point with Lean is making things simple, eliminating waste and getting better results, fast. That is exactly what we all want, yet we often just add another layer of stuff on the top of a pile of earlier stuff. Over time, it all just collapses from it's own weight.
In all of the work I do, I seldom see people who are willing to go back to a clean sheet of paper and start fresh. The joy of Lean is looking at the pile of stuff that has built up over the years, and getting rid of the pile and doing it right for right now.
Let me repeat that - doing it right, for right now.
We need new answers and the questions are getting tricky.
My vision of the future is simple - back to basics in our organizations and families, our diets, and our life. In the work I do in assessments and applicant tracking, I get a chance to change the world of the organizations in my life, which is truly wonderful.
Beyond my family, my other passion is getting a new way of thinking into the organizations on this world. If we make things simpler and better, good will come from it.
So, a question. What will you change first? I will be keeping you in the loop...
It's all in the packaging. We are very sensitive to the words behind a concept. Would you go to a marketing firm named "Red F"? Ick. Yet, they exist. Click here to see how proud they are of their name.
Years ago, RCA came up with a very expensive set of component electronics they named (at great expense) Dimensia. It failed to get market share - somehow sounding like a psychological diagnosis was not helpful.
Which brings me back to Lean HR. In the work that I do simplifying the hiring process, I am often frustrated by the concern that flickers across employee faces when the term Lean is mentioned. This has gotten worse as the employment marketplace has gotten worse.
If I'm working on job fit or pre-hire assessments, fine. But if I start talking Lean Theory, their imaginations jump into the "worry about my job" column and the project gets slowed down. Making matters worse, there are times that when Lean works and the process becomes more efficient, there are extra workers that can be reassigned.
Anyway, the purpose of my rant is to ask the community for a better term for Lean HR...what do YOU use? What should we use?
In the work I do with Applicant Tracking and Assessments, I am in the front lines of Human Resources.
Sometimes it takes a surprise to cut through the fog. Rather than words, a plant can speak volumes. A dead plant can be better.
I am in a borrowed office. Rummaging for copier paper, I found a mummified office plant that had died of thirst years ago. It was big. It was brown. It was very dead.
Just as I found it, one of our clients was on the phone talking about how her employees were griping about the reduction in benefits that was happening because of the economy. She loves our assessments and our applicant system, but has to cut back on some of the "perks" that people have grown accustomed to.
Rather than giving logical answers to the employees, I reccomend that she replace all of the greenery and cheerful flowers in her office with dessicated, dusty relics of plants that have met an untimely end.
That way, when someone comes to complain, they can be met with a shrug and a gesture to a very tangible reminder that things are different, and could be far worse...
I am not a very cynical person. I really have a green thumb. Just let me know if you would like my plant. I'd be happy to deliver....
or, buy an applicant management system or some assessment tools, and I'll throw the plant in for free!
Though many of us are energy conscious when home, we are less likely to take measures to cut down on wasteful practices as the office unless we are small business owners.
One way to "go green" at the office is to incorporate the services of a company offering applicant management, personnel management, on-boarding, talent management and HR services on-line. This also cuts cost when an employee is able to multi-task and engage in employee assessments on-line which reduces paper, time and lessens the human footprint we are leaving behind.
Before interviewing, you researched the company, donned your best clothes and practical shoes the day of the appointment, planned your route to be early, tucked your updated resume in your portfolio and left for your interview with Human Resources.
In the next hour, you do everything in your power to acquaint them with your skills, explain why you fit the job and why they should hire YOU!
But then, the regret letter arrives saying although they were impressed with your credentials, they have decided to go with another candidate.
You think, what could have I done better in the interview and why wasn't I hired?!!
Well if the company did its job right, it used applicant tracking software system to better refine candidiates and subjected you to taking some employee assessments so they knew more about you before the interview. So if they didn't pick you, maybe they did you a favor? If there was no job fit, how long would you have lasted. Companies need to spend more time focusing on talent acquisition.
On your next job interview if a company using applicant management and pre-employment testing make sure you ask them how they define job fit. It will give you better insight into whether this is a good decision for both of you.
I'm personally sick and tired of headlines bemoaning the general gloomy economic outlook. What to do? Simple. Get back to basics.
We need to adhere to the fundamentals of life/business/etc. Fundamentals begin with values (i.e. what is important to us?). Values are the core of our being. They are what drives our behavior. If we don't know what is important to us and/or our business, then how are we going to survive?
The challenge is to identify our values (i.e. integrity, service, passion, harmony) and live by them. Look for new employees that are in alignment with them. Build an applicant tracking system that asks about values and attitudes. Have pre-hire assessments measure values, not just skills and behaviors. Have a Lean HR focus, so that high performers see a performance management system that works, and is fair and consistent.
Doing so will allow us to thrive in good times and bad. And that will make all the difference.
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