iCIMS Hire Expectations™

Having only joined the iCIMS family in the past two months, my job quest and candidate experience is still fresh in my mind. Applying for jobs can be a tedious project with complicated twists and turns, but as I applied for numerous positions, I was very impressed by iCIMS’ approach to recruiting talent. The application process was simple to follow from the career site, my recruiter kept me informed all throughout the pre-hire process spanning from my phone interview to my job offer. Most significantly I felt engaged from the start with my recruiter seeming excited to share new updates about my progress in the application process. With this level of engagement early on I couldn’t wait to get further into pre-hiring procedures and it made my desire for the position even stronger. The employee engagement process had begun even before I was an employee. This showed me that the  journey to achieving a job plays a large role in setting the tone for how a new hire perceives their position as well as the company they are entering into.

While I had a fantastic experience in landing my job; this is often not the norm for job seekers worldwide. Many applicants face confusing web-based application processes, large gaps of time between hearing from the hiring company during the recruiting process, and overall confusion as to how the candidate time period is structured by the organization. One of the biggest problems that organizations face in the war for talent is creating an engaging employee environment, and beginning an employee’s career with a less than satisfying candidate experience is not helping. According to a recent global survey conducted by Mercer, the number of workers contemplating leaving their current jobs has significantly increased across the world. The problem here is that employees are not feeling valued and are discontent with their overall work environment, but this can be avoided from the very beginning of the employee lifecycle. Rather than playing catch-up when the employee-employer relationship turns ugly, organizations can build a positive relationship in the earliest phases of introduction.

Far before a position turns completely lack luster for an employee, they must go through this initial candidate experience when applying for a position. While most people see the application process as a way for a candidate to make a first impression, this is also a prime opportunity for companies to begin making candidates feel engaged, because some of these applicants will inevitably become new talent. Creating an engaging environment for potential new hires earlier than ever before, as iCIMS did with me, gives the organization a head start on creating a happy staff member. By nurturing the employee relationship from before day one, the chances of a candidate becoming a more motivated, engaged, and satisfied employee are far more likely; and with employees being more engaged everyone wins.

Here are a few tips on how to create the best possible candidate experience:

·         Make it simple: by implementing a best–in-breed applicant tracking system the online application process will be easy and painless. Applicants that get frustrated with faulty online hiring processes are more likely to give up and not complete the required forms and applications.

·         Keep your candidate informed: applying for a job is always nerve racking, by providing the candidate with brief updates during the application process they will feel valued and appreciate your consideration.

·         Be engaging yourself: positivity goes a long way. If a recruiter seems excited about the company the applicant will want to be excited about it as well.

·         Maintain the momentum: don’t stop going the extra mile after the candidate has accepted the job, find creative ways to keep employees engaged during onboarding and throughout their professional career with your organization.

·         Form a lasting relationship: even if the candidate does not receive the position, make sure to contact them and let them know why. Offer them the option to have their resume remain in the system in case another job opportunity arises. By showing the applicant consideration and providing potential to become part of the organization in the future you are giving them the most positive experience possible without receiving a job offer. This is valuable to the recruiter as well because you never know when their qualifications may become most useful.

By incorporating these tips into recruiting procedures your employees will inevitably be more pleased with their pre-hire process, setting the precedent for their long-term image of the organization and raising the bar on their level of engagement. And not only will your workers be smiling each day, but the company will receive fantastic benefits as well, because happier employees mean better business results!

Last week, I came across an article from Tech Cocktail which gave some great advice on how to hire top talent for your startup. Oftentimes, startups are overlooked in the topic of recruitment; a fact that I find to be pretty misleading when it comes to highlighting both the importance of this issue, and the reality of how invested startups tend to be in the war for talent. After all, recruiting the best possible employees is arguably one of the most important factors in determining the success or failure of a startup company. Without the talent to back it up, even the most revolutionary idea will not succeed.

So, when there are literally thousands of startups out there, how do you make sure yours stands out? How do you separate yourself from the pack and identify your company as the one worth working for, aside from offering killer incentives or building a tree house as part of your corporate office? As I read the list of tips in the article, I realized that they were not only great ideas, but every single one could be accomplished simply and efficiently using an Applicant Tracking System. Technology to the rescue!

Here’s a run-down of Tech Cocktail’s comprehensive list of pointers, infused with some of my insight on how recruitment software can optimize any startup’s strategy for undertaking each piece of advice:

Establish yourself as a great employer: The more applicant-friendly and immersive your recruitment process is, the more impressive your company will seem. Choose technology that will make your job openings easily accessible online, and then ensure candidates know that they are valued through professional, timely communications. ATS software can send automated emails at each step of the recruitment process for you, without looking like an impersonal mass-email.

Know the position: Job templates make fine-tuning your messaging for each of your open positions a breeze. Determine exactly what skills and requirements would make a candidate a great fit for each job, and then distribute the descriptions to your career site and job boards with one click. It’s also important to know what you don’t want in a candidate, making hot-matching tools and automated screening questions just as vital to your process.

Get existing employees involved: Employee referrals are an invaluable resource in the world of recruitment.  Specialized employee career sites and the ability to network through employee social networks makes it easy for employees to stay informed on what positions you’re recruiting for and how they can help.

Utilize social media: Not only can you use an ATS to post jobs to social media sites and make employee referrals a breeze, but you can also greatly simplify the application process for candidates by allowing them to pre-populate their applicant information using their social media profiles.

Get out of the office: Need access to your system while you’re networking at events and career fairs? Many recruitment software providers are answering the call for mobile-friendly technology, making use of your system on-the-go both simple and effective. 

Place value on culture: Highlight your company’s values, current employees, and a glimpse into a day in the life of your startup with media-rich career sites. The right ATS can simultaneously turn your website into a powerful recruiting tool and utilize your brand to engage applicants and immerse them in your company culture.

Understand which techniques work for you: You can’t take advantage of the recruitment strategies that provide your company with the best results without analyzing your efforts. Tracking applicant data in an automated database can put powerful, personalized reports at your fingertips so you can optimize your processes.

The moral of the story is that applicant tracking software is not just for sizeable, established companies. The key to startup recruitment success is combining these great recruitment strategies with automated, user-friendly tools that bring them to life without exhausting your resources. Incorporate recruitment software as part of your startup’s recruitment initiative, and you’ll have an influx of qualified, eager applicants in no time.

The Olympic Games are underway! Just six days ago we watched 10,000+ athletes walk out during the opening ceremony waving and smiling at over 4 million international spectators. One can only imagine what a population increase of 4 million people would be like. The UK went through a great deal of preparation in London to not only accommodate the visitors, but also when it came to the organization and readiness of the workforce at various venues.

With a large number of Human Resources professionals looking for top talent all within the same four year span, the traditional form of sourcing and recruiting would not suffice. HR professionals need to become familiar with the latest technologies and trends in the industry, specifically regarding Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).

Even though an ATS is a recently popular tool among recruiters, the marketplace has been building up with all different vendors for years. With so many options, how does one know which ATS is the best (or as I like to call it, the ‘gold medalist’) in the sourcing, recruiting, and onboarding of top talent?

Below are the important functions and features of an ATS that will ensure your HR team comes in 1st place:

1. Ease of use - The first thing a prospective ATS user should look for is ease of use in a product and its features. There is nothing worse than using a product that is complicated and frustrating. Make sure the ATS you choose is simple, easy-to-use, and accessible.

2. Configurability - So many ATS providers code and produce a product that is the same for every single customer. This ‘one size fits all’ approach will not achieve optimal results for your organization. Select a product that can be scaled and adjusted to your organization’s size and specific workflow.

3. Branded Career Sites - Make your company’s brand well known. With distinct branding on career sites, recruiters can attract top talent not only to open job positions but to the company culture and brand itself. 

4. Social Distribution - Traditionally, recruiters used head hunters and agencies to find top talent. Nowadays, to find these candidates recruiters have to think outside the box. Many have turned to social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) to reach out to a larger talent pool. The larger the pool the more likely top talent will be found. An ideal ATS can post a job opening to all social media sites with just the click of a button.

5. Excellent Customer Service - Often vendors set an HR professional up and walk away, without any assistance beyond implementation. Find an ATS provider that is dedicated to helping your team every step of the way and is readily available at any moment you need them.

With these five features and functions in mind, recruiters will be on top of their game, acquiring top talent with ease. 

I recently read an article titled “Our Employees Are Our Most Valuable Asset”, which was proceeded by the sentence “This (standard) cliché is repeated over and over by the world’s public employers in their most valuable marketing piece, their annual report. We know it’s B.S. You know it’s B.S. … and so does everyone else.”

Which got me thinking – could this really be true? As a person lucky enough to have landed a job at a company with a truly fantastic work environment that values its employees, and encourages them to grow, the idea that I’m not my company’s most valuable asset seems a bit foreign to me. When companies like iCIMS and their 1,000+ clients seem to truly take pride in creating fully branded, engaging career sites, I can’t help but wonder why these companies would go through all that trouble if they don’t really care about their employees?  Of course I know that iCIMS would still thrive without me sitting in my - still heavily decorated with “Happy Birthday” decorations thanks to my co-workers (one month later) - cubicle in the marketing department, but from day one you could have had me believing otherwise.

Now in getting to my point, hopefully, besides being in awe that I am not the single reason that iCIMS continues to be a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent acquisition software solutions, it made me wonder why more companies don’t take advantage of branding their career sites to showcase what sets their company apart from others. One of the main reasons I decided to apply for a position at iCIMS was absolutely because of the culture they promoted on their career site. Not only does having a branded career site help potential candidates identify with your company before even applying, but you can also give them a Realistic Job Preview (RJP), if you will, of the culture of your company.

Career sites enable you to easily show potential candidates upfront what type of work environment they would be entering, the qualities your employees must possess, and so much more. If an RJP can greatly reduce turnover for individual jobs by showing potential candidates exactly what they can expect in their new position, why not give them a realistic preview of the work environment they can expect to enter as well?

While the recent economy has made it harder to find a job, it’s also made it even harder to find and retain top talent – we can’t afford to have high turnover (30-50% of the annual salary of entry-level employees, 150% of middle level employees, and up to 400% for specialized, high level employees) especially if there are simple ways to decrease it. If you want to grab the attention of the best possible candidates, you need to be able to quickly show them why your company should be their company, and what better way to do that than branding the career site provided to you through your ATS. Candidates can easily learn all about your company, and then go straight to applying – growing your talent pipeline seamlessly, and showing employees what the standards at your company are before they even walk through the door.

It’s no surprise that college students are graduating and finding that the job market isn’t as welcoming as they had initially hoped it would be. With the percentage of unemployed and underemployed recent college graduates approaching 57%, more and more students are flocking to career fairs to have a shot at landing a job after graduation. Career fairs continue to be a great way for companies to meet educated and motivated individuals who are looking for employment.

Before your recruiters attend a college career fair, make sure they have prepared by asking themselves these vital questions.

•    Are you prepared with the most efficient way to connect and source these college students?
•    Does your company have the tools to properly handle the influx of resumes it will be receiving?
•    Can you take advantage of things like tablets and QR codes to track applicants instead of bringing home a pile or resumes?

As a student going into my senior year, the last thing I want to do is bring twenty copies of my resume to a career fair, just to have it thrown atop a pile of other resumes. I leave wondering if my qualifications will ever make it to the eyes of the recruiter who is looking to fill that position or if the stack will just be misplaced? I know that if my information is stored digitally right at the career fair, I will be entered into their applicant tracking system. These recruiters will then be able to search on my qualifications, which ultimately alleviates a great deal of stress for me, the applicant.  Having digitally stored resumes from a career fair, will enable your recruiters to make better hiring decisions and ensure you find the best applicant for the job.

Another great method for attracting college graduates is to have an impressive presence on your social media sites. Companies have started to recruit socially by distributing jobs to these sites. If you want to target the top candidates, you must have the ability to go beyond your direct contacts and followers. A great way to do this is through employee referral programs. Reaching out to your employees’ contacts that are searching for new jobs automatically enhances your applicant pool with applicants you may never have been able to reach. Having employees post jobs on social media has been proven to bring in more employee referrals, sometimes 4 times as many before posting to social media! If your company isn’t ready for social media recruiting, you may be missing out on the ideal candidate for your organization.

It’s easy to assume the recruiting programs you have in place for hiring entry level positions are sufficient, but the most qualified candidates are going to be attracted to the companies that establish a presence at college fairs and on social media. Job boards are becoming a way of the past, with social media essentially taking over recruitment initiatives. Today, companies need to make themselves known to college grads and sell themselves to the applicants in order to hire the best candidates for their jobs.

For my blog post this week, I interviewed two of iCIMS’ own Human Resources professionals.

Nicole Tucker, our Technical Recruiter, is responsible for identifying the talented technologists who drive the current and future success at iCIMS.  Jay Fendrick is iCIMS’ Talent Acquisition Coordinator and Onboarding Specialist.  Jay is responsible for managing the HR Information Systems, preparing and analyzing regular reports for the team, and coordinating the Onboarding process for new hires.

They both sat down eager to spill a little of their knowledge and experience with iCIMS for our readers!

Jenn Carpenter: Can you both tell me a little about your background and how you got involved with Human Resources?

Jay Fendrick:  Sure.  I graduated from Rutgers with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science, and decided I didn’t want to go to law school, which was my original plan.  I immediately took a staff job for Whole Foods Market and after several promotions, was offered a role as the Payroll and Benefits Specialist for a new store opening in Middletown, NJ.  This was my introduction to the world of Human Resources.  After spending some time as HR executive team leader for Target, I eventually made the move out of the retail industry and started doing contract work as an HR Consultant. Shortly thereafter I was fortunate enough to be offered a permanent position as Talent Acquisition Coordinator Team Leader and Onboarding Specialist here at iCIMS.

Nicole Tucker: I majored in History and Communication at Rutgers University.  During my senior year of college I had the opportunity to graduate a semester early, which allowed me to complete a full year internship with Virgin Mobile USA in their Corporate Communications Department during their IPO process.  The company did not have the budget to take me on full-time and understood my pursuit for other opportunities.  I came across a posting for a company in NYC looking for a Jr. Recruiter.  I had no idea what the job of recruiter truly entailed, but the position sounded interesting, so I applied.  The company was a boutique agency-side recruiting firm specializing in retained and contingent searches for the start-up technology arena and the financial industry, specifically quantitative finance.  I joined the firm just before the markets truly went south.  It was definitely a learning experience as companies decided to retract and slowdown on the hiring front.  After almost four years, I realized technology was the place to be and after a short job search I found iCIMS, which has turned out to be amazing.

JC: Nicole, can you talk about the differences you experienced between recruiting for a staffing agency and recruiting in-house for a company like iCIMS?

NT:  Working for an agency recruitment firm is very mercenary.  As a company we managed dozens of clients, which has its pros and cons. It’s very entrepreneurial, but also cut-throat and competitive.  Moving into an in-house recruiter role has been even more interesting and challenging, in a great way.  I can actually see the teams I am helping grow, which is definitely more gratifying.  I get the experience of seeing the impact I have on a company, and now know firsthand how HR interacts and partners with the company as a whole – shaping the culture and making it so that people want to be here. It’s truly exciting because iCIMS is at the crucial point where we’re just starting to really take off and grow.  If I had stayed on the agency side, I would have never seen the full scope of what a Human Resources professional really does.    I would only have that one side of the fence, and I would only be seeing that one side through a peep-hole.

JC:  Jay, this question is specifically for you.  Since starting with iCIMS as an Onboarding Specialist, how has your approach to Onboarding changed?

JF:  The first question I asked when I first became the Onboarding Specialist was “How can I improve Onboarding?”  And that’s something that we still ask every group at the end of our program – what they liked, what they didn’t like, and what can be improved.  At this point, the process is solid and systematic in terms of the structure and organization, but we still have space allotted to grow and adapt as we see fit.  For example, we moved our Breakfast with the C’s from the week of Onboarding to the week after to give new employees more time to let information sink in, and we’ve seen them ask more specific questions instead of very generic ones.  We’re always trying to find more ways to improve and get more people involved by adding classes and seminars, and nothing is ever set in stone.  Even small changes can make a huge difference in delivering our iCIMS brand experience to our new employees.

JC: What iCIMS features do you use the most, and what benefits do you see during your daily tasks?

NT: What I find really great is that everything is trackable and documented.  That’s especially helpful when I have 15 different things on my mind – I can check within the system if I have or haven’t done something already. Also, obviously, the search capacity within the system is great, and I’m a fan of how our system allows you to see how the candidate heard about iCIMS, whether it was a referral or a social media site, etc.   Being able to have everything in front of you and reference actions and emails is incredibly helpful during conversations.

JF:  I absolutely love our Communication Center.  For onboarding purposes, I use it to send multiple communications to new hires before their first day. Communications I send range from their initial Welcome or Congratulations e-mail to providing them with login information for our New Hire Onboarding Portal, where they can fill out paperwork in advance and learn more about the company.  It’s really a great tool, and since all messages can be saved as templates and shared, everyone with access to the system can use it!

JC: Great insight!  My last question is – what has been the strangest thing that’s ever happened to you with a candidate?  Any funny stories?

NT: Oh, I have so many funny stories.  I actually know of a client that emailed iCIMS and said that there was a bug in our software because a candidate profile in their system and the form the candidate filled out didn’t match.  So R&D went back and found out that that particular candidate had previously submitted a Background Check Release iForm, but had gone back later, changed their social security number and their name on their profile.  Once you submit that iForm, that information cannot be changed.  The sleuths here at iCIMS were able to go back and tell that client that this particular candidate was a liar.  And it turns out that that person had used their sister’s name and social security number to apply because they had a warrant out for their arrest!

JF:  At one of my previous companies, we were interviewing someone to be an overnight cleaning crew employee.  The Social Security verification process was manual at that time, so I had to call the Social Security Administration hotline and provide the information.  This particular candidate’s information did not agree and I had to inform him that he needed to contact the SSA and correct the situation before we could extend the employment offer.  When I explained the situation to the candidate, he responded by pulling out a stack of roughly 20 social security cards from his pocket,  tried to hand me a few, and said “Here, try these!”  Obviously, I did not, and told him we could not offer him employment.

Thank you, Jay and Nicole, for being open and candid about your approach to Human Resources, experiences throughout your career, and best practices regarding some of your tasks using an Applicant Tracking System. 

This past week millions of Americans tuned in to enjoy the 83rd annual Major League Baseball All Star Game in Kansas City. This Midsummer Classic is an extraordinary event because it brings together the top talent from across the country to show off their skills and represent their team as the best of the best. The All Star game brought together the league’s heavy hitters in Prince Fielder, Jose Bautista, Carlos Beltran, and Robinson Cano. The best pitching the MLB has to offer in Felix Hernandez, Ryan Cook, and Matt Cain; and of course the fan favorites in Derek Jeter and Josh Hamilton.

Although this event is loved by baseball fans all around the country, it is nearly impossible to satisfy every opposition during the player selection process. Due to the substantial input fans have in the final selection, I can’t help but wonder how many of the incredibly talented players slip between the cracks and miss what could be their only shot at All Star greatness.

Similar to this process in Major League Baseball, companies of all shapes and sizes pick their own “All Star Teams” each and every day when they source, hire, and onboard top talent for their organization. These candidates may not be judged on the speed of their fastball or their batting average; however, the productivity and assets new employees will bring to their team are just as valuable to an organization as a great player is to a baseball team. 

Choosing who the All Star players will ultimately be is a painstaking process; comparable to the hiring procedures HR teams go through on a daily basis. The average HR recruiter spends most of his or her day sifting through resumes to determine which applicants make the first cut for their team; it can then take weeks to handpick candidates that are fully qualified for the position.  Once their talent pool is narrowed to a reasonable number, recruiters will spend the upcoming weeks interviewing all of these candidates to determine if they fit in with their company culture.

The process is very tedious and costly. Combined with the ongoing war for talent, this means if recruiters do not act on these applications in a timely manner, their very own Derek Jeter or Josh Hamilton may already be playing for the other team. To avoid this from happening, HR executives must be prepared with streamlined processes in place to decrease time and cost-per-hire. What is the best way to do so? By ensuring your company has a robust, user-friendly, and successful Applicant Tracking System.

If you are unsure of what this is, think of it as a Baseball Roster. You have your starters in their positions, the reserves behind them, and your best pitchers, ultimately followed by your relievers. All the potential players are readily available and fully prepared, on-demand. Most rosters include the player’s stats as well. The pitchers with the lowest ERA’s are usually at the top and the batters with the highest batting averages and on-base percentages are easily spotted over those who are not performing as well. Rather than sifting through your entire deck of baseball cards to recruit the top players for your team, you can easily refer to your roster and quickly fulfill the current opening on your bench.

An ATS is your very own roster for your Human Resource department. All of the applicants who apply to your organization send in their resume (baseball card) and it is automatically uploaded into your system (roster). You can view the applicants by highest GPA, highest level of education; most years of experience, etc. Don’t let your top talent slip through the cracks; make sure your ATS is fully satisfying all of your recruitment needs, ensuring this season's selection process is a painless one.

In the current age, when we don’t know the answer to a question, we tend to turn to our good friend Google for the answer. In 2011 alone, Google performed a total of 1,722,071,000,000 searches – that’s an average of 4,717,000,000 searches per day! Needless to say, Google will be there to provide you with an answer to your question, but none of those 1,722,071,000,000 queries will tell you which candidate is the best fit for YOUR company. In fact, it might even provide an answer that is completely opposite of what you are desperately hoping to hear. Therefore, consider these three points when making important executive business decisions.

1. The most experienced candidate should get the job.
Some of the most important decisions made in an organization involve hiring new employees. Without a superior workforce, your efficiency and productivity will suffer. Therefore, recruiters must provide hiring managers with the best candidates for the position, every time.  But, what happens when your hiring managers don’t know who to hire?

A recent Fast Company article entitled “8 Rules For Creating a Passionate Workforce”, mentions that one must hire for passion and commitment first, experience second, and credentials third. To be honest, I was surprised to see experience second; however, candidates who are passionate and driven are more likely to thrive in your work environment than those who have prior experience but lack the necessary dedication.  Ultimately, looking for individuals that fit in with your corporate culture is just as important as finding someone with the technical skill set.

Remember: If the candidate looks good on paper, confirm he/she can also exemplify the necessary qualities to succeed and fit in with your organization!

2.Sourcing specialists must be proactive to find quality talent.
Because recruiters can leverage applicant tracking systems to collect job applications and communicate with candidates, they often have been seen as reactive to the candidate’s job request. But, what happens when there aren’t enough candidates that apply to your company?

Now, more so than ever, recruiters and sourcing specialists are constantly searching for qualified candidates on job boards and social networks. By using a sourcing system, HR departments can leverage internal operations to create a talent community for enhanced candidate engagement. What this really boils down to is the ability to capture a person’s information without requiring an application to be submitted. The visitor (with a click of a button) can simply show interest into  employment opportunities, while simultaneously adding themselves into a greater pool of candidates on the back end for recruiters and sourcing specialists to access. By creating this talent community, a reactive process is formulated allowing sourcing specialists to communicate with just about anyone that shows interest.

Remember: You just can’t communicate with the candidates you don’t have!

3.    Turnover rate is a large factor when measuring the effectiveness of your HR program.
Many will agree that a company’s biggest asset is its people. If you hire good people, sell a good product, and back it with quality support, your company will undoubtedly succeed. But what happens if you don’t hire good people? 

Some might assume that a high turnover indicates an ineffective HR program, but companies shouldn’t worry about these raw figures. Sometimes, high turnover could be seen as a positive entity. To shed some light, if a company loses 10 people because they weren’t fulfilling their job responsibilities and/or had trouble meeting expectations, is the company really concerned about their turnover? If HR can replace those 10 newly open positions with stellar recruits, one might argue that the turnover rate really does not matter. Think about it like this, would you really lose sleep knowing you lost 10 of your worst employees? In the interim, efficiency might slow a bit, but once the team is reinforced with new bodies, a successful onboarding program will get new recruits hired and ready to start in no time! Check out the eHow article “How to Calculate Turnover” for suggestions on what might be most important for your reports.

Remember:  Discuss your turnover rate with upper management. Find out how these metrics will be used and what the end goal is for your company.

Now, don’t be afraid to do your own research on how to equip your organization for the next hiring wave. But remember, keep it specific and aligned with your company’s mission, vision, and values. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll be celebrating your recruitment success in no time!

It was halfway through spring semester of my junior year and the pressure was on. Everyone I knew was looking for summer internships. I had spruced up my resume, lined up my references and applied to numerous marketing and communication internships. Then I received an email requesting I set up a phone interview, and when that went well, the company brought me in to meet with my prospective team in-person. The next thing I knew, a software company named iCIMS was offering me a marketing internship for the summer.

What happened next took me completely by surprise. I received emails from multiple people welcoming me to the company and I was able to fill out all of my employment paperwork online, before I had even stepped into the office for my first day of work. I was quickly becoming more and more impressed by this process they called “onboarding”.

There is plenty of research regarding the benefits of onboarding. However, having recently gone through the process revealed to me three key elements that are vital for a successful onboarding program:

1. Provide the Technical Tools and Knowledge

• Have a new hire’s work station and all log-ins/user access set up before their arrival.
• Schedule training sessions to educate the new employee on all of the company’s internal systems as well as the roles of the people in their department.

Benefits:

• Reduces time-to-productivity – Employees can start working on small projects even while they are going through training.
• Results in more competent employees and reduces the number of technical questions – New hires will have fewer questions about how the systems work, but will know exactly who can most effectively answer their questions when and if they arise.

2. Make Job Expectations Clear

• Give the new employee clear goals and provide a project plan so they know what is expected of them and understand their role in the bigger picture.

Benefits:

• Reduces “Buyer’s Remorse” – Having a clear understanding of company expectations will ensure new hires are far less likely to regret their acceptance of your job offer.
• Improves Performance – When employees feel like their work matters, they want to perform to the best of their ability. This will ultimately result in targeting company goals and enhance business productivity overall. 

3. Engage and Assimilate

• Making new hires feel welcome is the over-arching goal of the entire onboarding process because it can make or break the employee’s decision to stay with your company.

Benefits:

• Increases Engagement – When new employees feel like they fit in with the company culture, they are more invested in their work.
• Increases Optimistic Environment – Employees who have felt accepted and welcome from day one will work more harmoniously with one another and lead to a positive working atmosphere.

Before iCIMS, onboarding had been a foreign concept to me. However, after experiencing it firsthand, I’ve seen how much of a rewarding and beneficial impact it can have on the culture of an entire company.

You may not know it yet, but the people entering your stores, purchasing your products, and returning time and time again, may be the perfect candidates for your jobs. These people are your customers, and many retailers sometimes forget that their customers can be a valuable recruiting source. In fact, they may even be your best candidates because they are users of your products and services, which means they can best represent them to other customers, like themselves.

Here are 3 tips on how to jumpstart a successful customer recruitment campaign:

Tip #1: Use Your Resources

You have the resources to communicate with your customers, so why not use them for recruiting too! These resources are your emails, your company’s social media accounts, and even your store receipts. I would approach emails with caution because you don’t want to annoy your customers with tons of recruitment emails. Instead, send an email every quarter highlighting all of the great perks of working at your company (i.e. employee discounts, work environment, and events). Keep in mind that a lot of your customers are passive candidates and may already have a job; however, it may take just one email from their favorite retailer to persuade them to apply.

A lot of retailers are now using social media to connect and engage with their customers. It’s their way of sending and receiving instant feedback about their products and services. It is also a great outlet to let customers know that they are hiring. Use your company’s Facebook Page to post out current openings, or create a Facebook Page dedicated to your careers. With a Facebook Career Page, you can post helpful articles and tips on resumes, cover letters, and interviews, as well as your jobs.

Lastly, use your store receipts for more than, well, a receipt. ERE.net posted a great article on how Wells Fargo used their ATM receipts as a recruitment source. On the bottom, it said, “With you when you want a career opportunity that’s right for you”, along with a link to their career site. Genius, I know!

Tip #2: Provide a stellar candidate experience

Although customers can be your best candidates, they are still your customers. It is highly unlikely that you will hire every person who applies, ensure a positive candidate experience so they will remain loyal customers. Make the application process as simple as possible. Nothing puts an applicant in a worse mood than filling out a long and tedious application. Let your candidates apply with their social profiles from LinkedIn or Facebook. This way, they can skip the manual data entry and have all of their information auto-populate in your forms. Also, open the channels of communication and build a relationship with your applicants. It could be simple things like sending an email to confirm their application or thanking them for applying to your job opening that can have a big impact on their candidate experience.

Tip #3: Automate your tasks

All of these tips can be implemented, but if you want to receive maximum ROI on these campaigns, you need to automate your tasks with a recruitment technology like iCIMS. Instead of manually posting jobs to your Facebook Page, use a technology to post your jobs during set times and frequencies – set it and forget it! In addition, if your customers aren’t looking to apply to your jobs, allow them to pass your jobs along with one-click job sharing to their social networks. Don’t forget to enhance your candidates’ experience with branded career sites that allow them to easily search and apply to jobs. Lastly, send automatic, mass-personalized emails to notify applicants that their resume has been received.

Put these tips to the test and you’ll be one happy and successful recruiter!