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.
I was driving down the street today watching Holiday decorations going up in the trees, lights being strung, ribbons placed around light poles---so the daydream started.
As you wind down 2009 and look forward to 2010 what are your plans for the coming year?Will you modify your processes to make your businesses more successful next year?
Will any of the people you hired this year or for the holidays have outstanding job performance? Will they transition into great long term employees?
Now is the time for all of us to start planning how we are going to attack 2010. What will we do differently next year to be more successful.
I suggest you look at our applicant tracking software and employee assessments as a way to increase the probability that you will hire employees that are engaged. In a very short period of time you will be able to determine if what we offer is right for your organization. The ROI can be very significant.
Visit www.exacthire.com to learn more about how we can help you meet your objectives in 2010. Proper talent management and employee engagement can make a big difference.
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
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.
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
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.
First, let me stress that the more than 90 out of 100 people who want to work in this country are working. Second, most organizations are surviving, and will make it into 2010 with their businesses intact.
That said, the flood is coming. I just read the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the subject, and it isn't pretty. You can read it here.
"Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed tem-
porary jobs increased by 547,000 to 8.2 million in March. This group has nearly
doubled in size over the past 12 months." Yikes.
So...what? It means that the businesses that are hiring are going to get flooded with applicants, and at a time when HR departments are slammed with too much compliance, employee relations and harassment stuff. It means the hiring processes will be quickly overwhelmed, and two things will probably happen.
1 - The best candidates will be drowned in the clutter of all of the volume. Lots of lost opportunities from hiring the first one that fits, rather than the best.
2 - The ability for people who are not a fit to sneak through and get hired is up - because the time to do a good screening job just isn't there. If HR is overwhelmed and understaffed, then bad decisions can sneak through.
What to do? Leverage your technology and raise the standards. Implement a well-thought out talent acquisition strategy, use pre-employment assessments, and focus on metrics that indicate job fit. Then you will have a process that supports good HR and can drive employee engagement.
Then you have a swimming chance against the coming flood...
I presented this morning on Employee Engagement to a great group of HR professionals. The coffee was fresh, the coffee cake was tasty, and the issues were predictable.
"What metrics really work in today's business environment?"
We worked through what metrics they were using, and got into what metrics they SHOULD be using, and ended on how to measure and project the impact of good employee engagement. We talked about Lean HR, about applicant tracking, and HR services that are aligned with the organization's vision. All good.
As I drove away, I reflected on the wish of everyone in the room for a "silver bullet" that would fix tough employee relations issues and solve the talent management problems of the future.
There is a great first step. Train all of your managers in the skill of active listening. If the managers start to listen better to their staff (or at least appear to) and if they can know more about their staff through the use of valid assessment tools, then the staff will feel well-managed and deliver the goods. Whatever the goods are.
So, there you have it. As an extrovert who does not like to listen, this is tough advice. Just listen to it...the answer is out there.
Just saw some scary data from a global Engagement consultant. There were several data points that predict either pain or opportunity, depending on your actions during the slowdown.
Scary things -
The percentage of highly disengaged employees has increased by more than 25% since 2007. These are "hostile passengers" that are actively hurting you in productivity levels and quality, all of which translate to numbers that matter.
The decline in overall productivity is huge - 3 to 5 percent.
There is a second "time bomb" with this. The disengaged are itching to leave - and will leave when the economy starts picking up...which is exactly when you will want them as high performing employees.
The moral is simple. Get your talent acquisition in place before the green flag is waved. Use employee assessments to better manage the staff, and use fair and consistent methods, as a part of a Lean HR system, to keep the good ones engaged.
Then, engagement will work for you...and be a competitive advantage.
I was reading a resume for a client last week, and hit a phrase I had not seen before - "top to top selling". Since I work in sales, I "got it", but others might not. I realize that there have been several new words cropping up that were not there before...
Joining the Twitterverse A "torch and pitchfork" group Nanoblogging WILB - Workforce Internet Leisure Blogging
...and so on.
Those of us that need to keep up (and we all do...) need a simple resource to look these words up. That way, our performance management systems and Applicant Tracking Software can be capturing meaningful words, and we can guide better talent management decisions. If we keep up with the words that are used, we can keep up with the people.
Here is a secret weapon - WordSpy.com. I love it - you can quickly find out what it REALLY means. The last one I came across on a tech resume was Ubicomp. Huh?
I looked it up. It is short for ubiquitous computing. And, now I'm current. Word.
Working on a Applicant Tracking site this morning for a client, I realized how much I dislike job descriptions. If the goal of a hiring system is to source and select high performers, job descriptions can work against you.
Top people don't need or want a job description to begin exploring an opportunity with an organization. With good candidates going online, the objective of a job description should not be to pre-qualify the person, but rather to generate interest in the position and company.
A job description seldom does this. It's the "buzz" that does - the marketing, the branding, the word on the street. An opening page summarizing a group of jobs with some facts about the company values and attitudes is a good start. These pages should describe the company culture, the importance of high performing talent in the company, something about career opportunities and a few reasons why these open jobs are important to the company's future. By the way, these statements need to be true.
Once you interest a candidate in a class of jobs and the company, then you can begin a the dance of selecting and screening. This is where good career personality tests and job performance metrics can come in - and pay off.
On job descriptions - less in the way of task and responsibility lists can produce better hires. That is, after all, our goal, right?
People who are thinking of installing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)need to step back and think for a second.
An ATS is a system that is built to manage resume flow and gives the recruiters the ability to sort, sift and prioritise candidates on the basis of keyword searches. Great technology, perhaps… but built to speed up a flawed process. The same hiring answer is arrived at, just faster.
What people should want is anApplicant Relationship Management system. An ATS, if you will, that has ties to social networks and a database of interested people. It would give the candidates a chance to interact in an uncommitted way with the company – register to get cool stuff and targeted communication – then give them a chance to get interviewed online when they are ready to do so. Meanwhile, the company learns a huge amount about their various demographic target groups and gets a chance to grow relationships over time. Then, good human capital management can start happening, with job fit and Lean HR principles in place.
That is when the front part of hiring gets really interesting, and high quality candidates start emerging from the sourcing process. None of this has ties to the expensive world of the online job boards...which is why it is even more interesting.
Does anyone know of someone already doing this? Let me know...
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