Recruiting and Retention Archives - Page 2 of 77

Onboarding: Your Connection Between Recruiting and Learning

June 18, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

We’ve all seen the headlines lately about the U.S. being at “full employment”. On the surface, full employment might sound like a good thing, right?

Well, not so fast. Full employment can create a couple of challenges.

Over inflated compensation and benefits. I’m all for a competitive job market. Top talent should be able to get what they deserve for their skills and experience. However, too much competition can cause employers to throw money at their recruiting problems. I know what you’re thinking, “Is that a bad thing?” I hate to say it, but it can be. Employees don’t want to be underpaid. They also don’t want to be overpaid.

Less turnover. I’m not advocating for high turnover. But some turnover is good for business. It brings in fresh perspectives. In my experience, when recruiting gets tough, organizations might be reluctant to terminate employees for fear that they won’t be able to find a replacement for months. It’s the philosophy that it’s better to work with the devil you know than someone new.

As a result of these “full employment” recruiting challenges, the recruiting and training functions must work together to fill the talent pipeline. Recruiters must be able to tell the organization what roles are better to develop in-house (versus recruit from the outside). Trainers have to do the same thing. Let the organization know what jobs would be better to hire from the outside (instead of developing from within).

In addition, training and recruiting also have to work together to ensure that new hires are set up for success. The way to do that is with onboarding. It’s the intersection between recruiting and training that creates employee success. According to TLNT.com, one third of new hires quit their job in the first six months. And we all know turnover is costly.

When it comes to onboarding, I’m starting to hear more about a format called talent center. The idea is that talent centers are dashboards where employees, managers, recruiting, and training can monitor and measure onboarding progress. Within the talent center are resources and checklists that new hires and managers can use during the onboarding process.

Now, before declaring checklists as evil, hear me out. On some basic level, we all work with checklists on a regular basis. We need them to remind us because we’re not perfect. Checklists can be used to:

Outline what it takes to be successful in a new role (i.e. competencies)
Document compliance requirements

The tricky thing about checklists is making sure they’re used. That’s the difference between a boring, outdated checklist and an interactive talent center. Here are a couple of things to consider:

Employees and managers must be trained on how to use the talent center. Organizations should not make the assumption that everyone knows how to effectively use a checklist. That’s probably one reason that they’re used badly – no one has ever received training. We’re not talking about hours or days of training here. But do provide managers and employees with guidance on how to make the most of the resource.

Regularly survey managers and employees. The other reason that checklists are not used effectively is because they can quickly become outdated. An outdated checklist is worthless. Managers and employees should be surveyed quickly to make sure onboarding resources are current. (And on a side note: training and recruiting should work together to put a maintenance program in place for talent center materials.)

It could make a lot of sense to transform a traditional onboarding process into a talent center, bringing together recruiting, learning, and performance. They key is getting everyone to participate at a high level. That includes HR.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the 2016 MBTI Users Conference in San Francisco, CA

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Quick Shots for #Recruiting and #HR Pros – Boomerang Employees Edition

June 16, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve received several notes about boomerang employees. In a nutshell, boomerang employees are basically rehires. They worked for the organization, left, and have boomeranged back.

It’s a good time to talk about boomerang employees. There’s been a bit of a rise in boomerang employment. I attribute it to the increased challenges in finding talent. The last U.S. jobs report started the conversation about “full employment”. I recently heard a senior vice president of human resources say that the “war for talent” is child’s play. Candidates were showing up for interviews with 6, 7, 8 offers. Organizations have to start thinking about how they will differentiate themselves.

One way is to consider “Adding Boomerang Employees to Your Recruiting Strategy”.

When you think about boomerangs, it might be tempting to only think about employees who leave for another job. First off, not everyone who resigns is unhappy with the company. It’s possible that employees might leave to attend school. Or maybe they’re an intern. It’s also possible that a boomerang could be an older worker returning to the industry at a later point in their career.

I know it would be awesome if employees never left in the first place. Organizations do need to have retention strategies. Turnover does happen. Sometimes though, it can be good for the employee (and the company) to let the employee leave and gain skills they would never have exposure to otherwise. Then the company can welcome the employee back.

A first step in letting boomerang employees know they’re welcome is the exit interview. Use exit interviews as a way to let employees know they can reapply for jobs.

The next step, and a really important one, is then making sure boomerangs actually feel welcome. It’s one thing to say it and another to actually do it. I had the pleasure of discussing the advantages (and cautions) of hiring boomerangs with Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos, and John Hollon, award-winning journalist and talent management expert, during the podcast “Boomerang Employees: Can you Go Home Again?”

Boomerang employees can bring a lot of value back to the organization. They already know the company’s strengths and weaknesses. The one thing that must be resolved is the reason for the employee’s departure. Will the same annoyances happen again? The employee and company need to have their eyes wide open and discuss matters honestly.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby somewhere on the back trails of Walt Disney World, FL

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Increase Employee Engagement and Retention with Better One-on-One Meetings

June 8, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 6 Comments

One-on-one meetings between managers and employees have always existed. However, they are getting much more attention lately. I believe a big contributor is the focus on continuous performance management. Which makes sense. Why not use regular communication as a way to strengthen performance.

Organizations need to remember that the one-on-one meeting becomes successful when managers and employees have a good meeting. I know, this sounds basic, but when we read about all of the unproductive meetings that take place, it’s doesn’t make sense to assume that managers and employees know exactly what to do in a one-on-one meeting.

If organizations want managers and employees to have productive one-on-one meetings, they should offer some training and guidance on how to conduct them. And not just for managers. Employees are 50 percent of the meeting. They need training too!

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been working with our friends at Saba Halogen to outline the elements of a successful one-on-one meeting. I hope you’ll take a moment to check these posts out. Bookmark the page. Socialize it around the office.

A Manager’s Guide to Successful 1:1 Meetings with Employees

An Employee’s Guide to Successful 1:1 Meetings with Your Manager

These two posts share a blueprint to prepare for a one-on-one meeting. You can use it as creative inspiration for a microlearning session. It can be turned into a meeting agenda. The goal is to get managers and employees to start scheduling, planning, and participating in productive meetings. Because when they do, the organization wins.

Regardless of your company’s views about the annual performance review, managers and employees need to have regular conversations. And the conversations need to be good. The result will be trusting relationships, employee engagement, and retention.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after attending the Great Place to Work Conference in Austin, TX

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Job Seekers: Use Games to Find Your Next Job

June 6, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

(Editor’s Note: Today’s post is sponsored by Criteria Corp, a leading provider of pre-employment testing services. Their testing system, HireSelect, is a SaaS (software as a service) solution that enables organizations to increase recruiting effectiveness using state-of-the-art technology. Criteria Corp has clients in all 50 U.S. states and 30 countries. Enjoy the post!)

Let’s face it. Looking for a new job isn’t always fun. It takes time to send out your resume out to lots of companies (aka “spray and pray”.) It involves waiting. Lots of waiting. So, what if I told you that it was possible to have a bit of fun while trying to find a new job?

Our friends at Criteria Corp have launched an app called JobFlare (iOS, FREE) that allows users to play “brain games” that are scientifically created to test the cognitive abilities that every employer wants AND are considered the key predictors of job success. Let me explain how the app works.

Cognitive Ability Correlates with Job Success

I don’t want to get too far into the weeds, but there is scientific research spanning the course of almost a century on the predictive validity of hiring methodologies. The research has found that cognitive aptitude is one of the most predictive factors of job performance, just after work samples (which is obviously hard to beat). So JobFlare allows users to play games that are highly correlated with cognitive aptitude tests, which have been consistently proven as one the most predictive factors of job success.

JobFlare offers six games. Each game in JobFlare takes 90-seconds. Users can play the games as much as they like.

Math games (Infruition, Weigh Station)
Verbal games (Words of a Feather, Mumble Jumble)
Mental Fitness games (Robot Inspector, Expert Witness)

While JobFlare isn’t designed to improve cognitive function, Criteria Corp did share with me that candidates who are playing the games can regularly improve their scores. I believe using brain games in this way could reduce or eliminate some of the common apprehensions about job-related test-taking like “I was nervous so I didn’t do my best.” Or “If I could take it a second time, I’d do better.”

In my experience, employers really aren’t looking for employees to be perfect on a test. They do want employees who can think, reason, and improve with practice. And it’s important to note, employers don’t have direct access to see scores, so if a person starts out with a lower score, they don’t need to worry about anyone seeing them.

JobFlare Partnership with ZipRecruiter

Josh Millet, CEO of Criteria Corp, says that JobFlare takes the best of gamification to help users find a job. “Brain games are already a popular activity on smart phones. JobFlare uses games to measure the specific cognitive traits – problem-solving, learning ability, critical thinking, and attention to detail. These traits have been shown to best predict work outcomes and are coveted by most employers. We’re excited to partner with ZipRecruiter to deliver relevant job postings to JobFlare users.”

Here’s how the job posting feature works. Once an individual starts playing games, they can set up a user account including the job positions and industries they have an interest. Play all the games as many times as you want. After you play at least one of each game, you will start to receive email notifications from ZipRecruiter based on the information you provided. Now, let me offer a couple of caveats:

Please remember that every job in the universe isn’t posted on ZipRecruiter. That’s not a ding against them. They have thousands of job postings. But there’s no one site with every open job.
I talked with the JobFlare app developers and they gave me a high-level overview of how the job posting algorithm works. Basically, the emails start out very broad – meaning you will see lots of jobs – and get more focused over time based on the job openings you express an interest in (i.e. the ones you click on to learn more).

Flexibility Sets JobFlare Apart

I’ve been test driving this app for a few weeks and the thing I really like is its flexibility. When we’re looking for a job, we need to be flexible and the app provides it. JobFlare users can engage with one or both parts of the process as you wish.

If you want to play the brain games and receive job postings, great!
If you want to just play the brain games but aren’t ready to receive job postings, fine!
And if you want job postings but don’t want to deal with the brain games, that’s okay too!

Some of you might still be wondering about brain games, cognitive ability, and validity. Criteria Corp also offered to send me the nitty gritty correlation coefficients and more, but as much as I love statistics, I didn’t really think it was necessary. I did ask Millet to set the record straight about brain games. “Let’s be clear: our games aren’t designed to be ‘brain training’ games, they are gamified ways to measure cognitive aptitude. No doubt they do play a role in sharpening your skills a bit, but they don’t increase your cognitive abilities. We designed the games with this in mind – all of our games are strongly correlated with our cognitive aptitude tests, which are designed specifically to predict job performance. We believe JobFlare represents a unique vehicle for connecting undiscovered talent to opportunity.”

Job Seekers: Use Games to Find Your Next JobClick To Tweet

Adding a Few Fun Games to Your Job Search Isn’t a Bad Thing

While anyone can use JobFlare, it’s an ideal app for professionals at the beginning of their career, people considering a career or industry change, and individuals looking to downsize their work commitments (i.e. retirement). It provides an opportunity for self-awareness and education, which is always a good thing. Check out the JobFlare iTunes page for more details and to download the app.

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Organizations Need to Expect Turnover

June 4, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 3 Comments

Organizations are focused on retention. And that’s a good thing. Obviously, turnover is expensive – both in terms of cost and knowledge loss.

However, it’s unrealistic to think that turnover won’t exist. So, organizations need to think about what amount of turnover is going to be acceptable. Employees are going to stay for a few years and then move on. Employees are going to retire. All of that is okay. All turnover isn’t bad turnover. But there are a few things that are important to remember about turnover:

Former employees are a reflection of your organization. People take their employee experience with them for the rest of their professional lives. Organizations have to decide if they are going to let a person take a good or not-so-good experience with them.

People are asked about their careers all the time. When they get asked, the response can be focused on the challenging work, the learning environment, and the collegiate teams OR it can be a curt “it was fine”. We both know what the latter means. The way a person views their employee experience has an impact on other things.

Former employees might want to come back – either in a full-time or freelancer capacity. Individuals might find that the grass isn’t always greener at another organization. They might also spend a few years acquiring skills that they couldn’t get inside the organization and be in a great position to boomerang back.

Organizations can also find themselves in the position of needing a niche skill that a former employee was tremendously good at. The former employee might be willing to do some work for the company on the side. Employees aren’t going to be receptive to returning – even in a freelancer role – if they had a poor employee experience.

Former employees can refer candidates and customers. If an individual has a poor employee experience, I believe they will hesitate to tell their friends to apply for work with the company. It’s similar to customer referrals. I don’t tell my friends to eat at restaurants where I’ve had a bad meal. Why would I tell one of my friends to apply someplace where I’ve been treated poorly?!

Surveys show that a poor customer experience has an impact on the business. It seems logical that a poor employee experience will do the same thing.

I don’t know that any of these concepts are new. Former employees have always had the ability to talk about their past employers and refer others. But I do believe the emphasis on the value of the relationship is changing. In the past, maybe organizations didn’t focus on it as much. But now, with unemployment being low and the challenges finding qualified candidates, it’s time to realize the relationship cannot be ignored. In fact, it’s quite the contrary.

Organizations need to realize that the employee/employer relationship lasts well beyond the time that the employee works for the company. They need to think about it and strategize about it in ways similar to the candidate experience. The employee experience is important and has an impact on the bottom-line. Not only when the employee is working for the company, but for years after.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby after speaking at the Learning and Development League 2016 Annual Conference in Delhi, India

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The Business Case for Hiring 50+ Workers [infographic] – Friday Distraction

June 2, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 1 Comment

I’ve been to quite a few conferences lately and recruiting remains a top challenge. So, I think we’ve moved past the point where we need to convince people that recruiting is difficult. It seems to be a given that finding qualified talent is tough.

Organizations everywhere are looking for qualified workers.

If you’re not aware, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has partnered with AARP to help organizations understand the value of recruiting, engaging, and retaining older workers. At this year’s SHRM Talent Management Conference, we learned about a report titled “A Business Case for Workers Age 50+: A Look at the Value of Experience”. In addition to the report, AARP produced this infographic.

We know that many older workers had to postpone retirement in the wake of the Great Recession. But as the economy gets stronger, not all workers are looking to retire. Many older workers feel passionate about the job they do, enjoy contributing to the organization, and like the mental/physical challenge of work.

This is an opportunity for HR and hiring managers who are looking for talent.

But it does involve open, honest communication from everyone. Organizations need to create cultures where having open dialogue about retirement is acceptable. Workers do not want to think that mentioning retirement means the clock is ticking on their departure.

Managers need training on how to discuss options with employees. They have the ability to redesign jobs. But the only way they can do that is by 1) knowing an older worker is interested in a job redesign – maybe to part-time or flexible hours and 2) having enough time to work with HR and senior management to properly make the change.

Finally, older workers have to communicate as well. If the company is willing to work with them, are there ways they can work with the company? Maybe in terms of assisting with job design, hours, pay, benefits, etc.

My point is this – companies want qualified workers. 50+ workers are qualified workers. Yes, it’s possible that conversations need to happen and jobs revisited. But it can be done. And it could be the best thing that ever happened to the business and employees. If you’re not tapping into this group for talent, it might be time.

P.S. If you want to learn more about “Building an Age Diverse Workforce: SHRM and AARP Insights”, check out this webinar being held on June 5 at 2p Eastern. The webinar will focus on best practices for attracting, hiring and retaining workers age 50+ to develop an age-diverse workforce at your organization. And if your schedule doesn’t permit, sign up anyway so you can get the archive. Viewing the entire presentation, either as a live event or archived, counts for one SHRM Professional Development Credit (PDC) for recertifying the SHRM-CP^SM and SHRM-SCP^SM credentials. This presentation has also been pre-approved for one credit hour toward PHR/SPHR/GPHR General recertification.

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Quick Shots for #Recruiting and #HR Pros – Google Hire Edition

June 1, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

In case you missed it, Google has introduced a new product called Hire. As the name implies, it’s focused on recruitment. I heard people talking about it during the TAtech Spring Congress as well as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Talent Management Conference. It’s still very new, but worth keeping your eye on.

Personally, I’m always a little torn when I hear about new offerings from Google. And this is no exception.

There’s been very few specifics released about Google Hire. I did find a couple of articles like this one from Mashable “Google tests Google Hire, its own jobs tool”.

Workology put together a round-up of information titled “What You Need to Know About Google Hire“.

If you Google the term Google Hire, you’ll discover that the launch had a bit of a challenge. This article from Fortune “Relax—Google Won’t Share Your Browsing History with Employers” explains what happened.

My hesitation with Google is their tendency to abandon projects. Computer World put together a list of products and services that have gone to the Google “Graveyard”. I believe recruiters want to build long-term sources. Searching for a new talent source takes time and resources. Short-term sources are fine, but it’s important for organizations to establish a clear sense of brand.

That being said, I don’t want to be a complete downer. There are some definite advantages. Let’s face it, Google is already in the search and advertising business. Not to mention, candidates start their job search on Google.

It could also be helpful to understand how Google Hire will impact the recruitment industry.

In the end, it’s possible that Google is going to use Hire as a way to share resources. Similar to their blog re:Work. I found this article on Inc. Magazine further emphasizing Google’s willingness to share information – “Here Are All the Documents You Need to Hire Like Google (for Free)”.

It’s no secret that recruiting is a challenge. New companies are going to enter the market. Existing companies – like Google – are going to offer their services. Regardless of our feelings, we have to do our research and possibly give them a try. They could be exactly what we’re looking for.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby during the SHRM Annual Conference in Washington, DC

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