iCIMS Hire Expectations™

As we reflect back at last year’s hiring data, iCIMS wanted to provide a glimpse at where our clients were finding their most qualified applicants across the different sourcing tools available today. In order to provide the most current and comprehensive data, we analyzed our 1,500+ clients’ source effectiveness reports. These reports assess recruitment advertising sources and the volume of candidates coming from each. Additionally, the report highlights the quality of such sources by displaying where candidates were in the recruitment process by source (ie: Did a lot of candidates come from a given source, but all were automatically disqualified?). On the flip side, the reports show if certain sources produce candidates who move farther along in the hiring process. We took the calendar year of 2012, and compared that to our previous study done in of 2011.  The results were accurately tracked by leveraging the automated source tracking feature of the iCIMS Talent Platform. This feature takes away the risk of candidates falsely identifying their source by automatically locking in the true origin of a candidate to ensure accurate reporting. The organization’s that benefit from the iCIMS platform range in size from companies of 10 employees, to global corporations well over 100,000; ensuring our report was applicable for a full range of organizations. In total, the data provided insight from over 1.5 million job postings, 30 million applicants, and 400,000 hires.

Of the 400,000 hires, 25% came from external sources (highlighted in the graph below) ; the other 75% came from referrals, internal hires, company career sites, and undefined sources. This data is very similar to the data collected last year (29% and 71% respectively), and confirms that iCIMS clients are better leveraging the tools at their disposal to make jobs visible via their corporate and in-house portals, as well as through employee referrals to bring in qualified applicants.

Though we are thrilled to see a high number of new hires coming in from these types of sources, the data also reveals the impact of external sources in the hiring process. Of the identified external sources of hire, Indeed.com, CareerBuilder, Monster, Craigslist, Linkedin, and Simply Hired, emerged as the top branded external sources of hire with sources such 3rd party recruiting agencies,  job fairs, and campus recruiting also making the list. Indeed alone accounted for more hires than all other branded sources combined and stood far out from the pack, delivering 27% of all external hires. Career Fairs also saw substantial uptick from last year leading us to believe that the economic climate is beginning to look up, and more recent graduates are finding jobs from these sources.

As we look back at where new hires came from in 2012, a few things are clear. The first is that our clients have continued to utilize the tools that are available through the iCIMS Talent Platform to effectively source out and recruit the best candidates. The second is that the external sources that were being used last year are still being used today, but in higher volumes, and lastly the sources may be the same, but the number of new hires has increased by over 25% leading us to even further suspect that many companies are starting to expand their recruitment strategies.

Talent acquisition is a top priority for all companies, no matter what their size. To get the job done, you need the right person to do it. End of story. But with so many options now available for sourcing talent, where should employers focus their time and energy?

In the recruiting world, there has been a lot of talk about social recruiting--i.e. utilizing social media outlets like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter--to find active and passive candidates. Additionally, the nature of employee referrals is evolving, as these social channels allow current employees to post vacancies on their own personal social profiles.
As a result, the recruiting world is changing rapidly. Whereas sourcing and hiring was once under the exclusive, almost despotic, purview of the HR department--the experts who held the keys to the metaphorical employment castle--social channels have democratized the entire process. Everyone now has a voice. But determining which voices should be heeded, and which forums garner the most appropriate candidates for the job, is becoming more difficult as recruiters are overwhelmed with options.

To help navigate the evolving recruiting landscape, you need to know where you should focus your efforts. Are job boards still your best bet? Or does your company’s career page funnel excellent resumes into your inbox? Should you focus more time and energy scouring through profiles on LinkedIn? On Facebook? There are so many questions recruiters must now ask themselves to stay on top of their game.

In order to help HR departments and recruiting agencies prepare for a future that will undoubtedly be affected even more by technological innovation, Software Advice has prepared a survey to help determine which recruiting channels deliver the greatest bang for their buck, as well as provide employers with a clearer picture of the recruiting landscape as it stands now--and where it’s going.

However, we can’t answer these questions no our own. We need your help. And to make it worth your while, not only will we email you the results, but if you take the short seven-question survey, you can enter to win an iPad Mini!

The first impression a new hire has of a company is based on their experiences from the date they accept an offer to the first couple weeks of employment.  New employment is a HUGE deal and often becomes the conversation starter for most individuals.  How many times after you inform a close friend or family member about your new position did you hear, “How is your new job?”  Most often, the answer to this question is formulated based a person’s experiences during the first few weeks of training (also known as onboarding). The answer might not be so positive if a person spends the first week with no computer and fills out paperwork. However, a much different impression can be made if they are able to get right down to business and learn their new role with other employee and manager engagement.

Engagement begins the moment the new hire accepts a position with an organization.  Seamless integration with the recruitment process should allow the organization to create the employee profile, assign tasks, and send a personalized welcome e-mail that introduces the new hire to the company and lets them feel engaged prior to their first day of employment.  Ideally, new hires should be organized and segmented based on new hire characteristics.  A centralized theme for their onboarding process can be based on their location, job type, or department just to name a few.  Each theme should create a personalized experience that can include department videos, informational documents or introductions to management or other employees.

The ability to completely personalize the new hire experience is the key to success for the retention of each new hire.  Each new hire should be treated like a top level executive that the organization could not continue without.  Personalized messaging, images, and videos centralized to the theme of their department, location, job type etc. can help create this positive perception.  In addition, tasks required to complete the process should be targeted to the new hire and ONLY what that specific new hire is required to complete.

A task can be anything from an online W4 Form to instructions for the IT department as to what equipment is needed for the new hire.  Keep in mind that new hires are not the only ones required to complete paperwork and tasks before starting, there are internal stakeholders involved in the onboarding process as well.  Allowing these stakeholders to access the information they need to complete their required task as well as creating a simple way for them to communicate back to the process owner that it is complete is extremely important. Task progress by the new hire and internal stakeholders should drive the process from one step to the next. Transparency and consistency in communication between all parties gets the onboarding process done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I strongly believe that decreasing the new hire time to productivity while providing them with a great first impression to the organization is an easy way to ensure strong employee engagement and retention.  A great onboarding experience not only provides efficiency gain, but will also create positive word of mouth and perception for any organization. Who knows, maybe even employee referrals will go up!

When you think of recruiting in retail, you need to think about customer experience first. The entire success of a well-oiled retail machine comes down to the shopping experience. Of course, price, product and store location are parts of the equation, but nothing beats a great customer experience. Unfortunately, for brick and mortar business, recruiting is extremely challenging. High employee turnover, which means that many employees leave voluntarily, can reach 100% is some cases. In fact, the department of labor reported that 570,000 separations took place in the retail sector during September 2010; which is insane! As you can imagine, there are many reasons for such turn: pay, management, job duties, etc.  So right now you may be saying “Poor HR;" not so fast! The real pain is felt with the VP of Store Operations.

The VP of Store Operations wears many hats. Ultimately, their job is to carry out the strategies formulated by the CEO to meet corporate goals. There are many KPI’s that help determine whether or not a store is passing or failing, which falls directly on the VP of Store Operations. The largest metric is Same Store Sales. Same-store sales is a business term which refers to the difference of revenue generated by a retail chain's existing stores over a certain period (often a fiscal quarter or a particular shopping season), compared to an identical period in the past (usually in the previous year). Most of the positive or negative impact of this metric relies on the staff at the store level. For instance, higher average purchases and/or more frequent customer visits; cross selling into a broader product range or upselling to more expensive ones cannot happen without a great team. Now you know why staffing keeps the VP of Operations up at night more than anyone else.

So the next question is what can be done? The good news is that Talent Leaders within this sector are forward thinking and constantly preparing for this scenario.  Obviously, the most common strategy is to have evergreen positions posted everywhere your budget allows. I know the argument here is quality vs. quantity. I’m a big believer in this case, the more candidates, the better. We have also seen in-store kiosks work and now the emergence of social media will certainly help get the word out. In my humble opinion, I firmly believe a strong employer brand is the most important component when it comes to store recruiting. Most people may not view retail as a career path, so to be able to communicate the company’s image as seen through the eyes of its associates to potential hires will ultimately determine success. Since many customers can qualify as potential employees, I think a task force comprised of Internal Marketing (those chasing customers) and Talent Acquisition (those chasing candidates) is the perfect combination to deliver the perfect message. After all, no customers, no sales….no staff, no store experience.

As a Talent Acquisition professional, I am acutely aware that career fairs are a beacon of Top Talent.  However, the career fair is the “grand finale;” there is a magnitude of preparation required to run a successful exhibit. 

First, it is important to identify universities, organizations, or professional groups that align with company requirements.  By leveraging programs that cater to your company’s needs, the fair will draw Top Talent candidates.   Also, asking the organizer for analytics of attendees can prepare the recruiter for positions in another office or branch of the company. 

Secondly, each fair is an opportunity to brand your company and showcase the company culture.  Each organization has a culture that is built on the relying of employees to contribute to the culture positively. At each career fair, the potential candidate is experiencing your company for the first time.  For this reason, it is best to bring as much of the office vibe with you; it will source the right culture fit.

Lastly, follow-up, follow-up, follow-up! In having a tight back-end recruitment process, where each candidate can be connected, is key.  Once you have met a potential candidate, it is imperative to realize that they have just experienced many companies in a short period of time.  Reconnect with all of the candidates.  This puts faith in the candidate that their resume was considered, and may encourage candidates to check back for the right opportunity. 

This process of attending career fairs hinges on the ability to cast wide net, engage potential candidates, and stay in touch.  As the process moves forward, the recruiter can bring onboard the Top Talent for the open position and feed their talent pool with engaged Top Talent for future opportunities.  Progressive and positive employment branding will lead to a better candidate experience and more engaged new hires.  

The intent of the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) initiative is to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perspectives on hospital care. This initiative in healthcare recruiting has become an essential part of our hiring practice. If ever there was a time to hardwire a culture of excellent patient care—to ensure that your organization is meeting its mission, protecting its bottom line, and enhancing its reputation—that time has clearly arrived.

Identifying the right skill set is not always the most important factor in hiring the right candidate. What is important is asking if this candidate will fit into one’s culture. Will they change the way a patient receives care?  Identifying the right behaviors that attribute to higher HCAHPS scores become the challenge today. Competences like ‘compassion, adaptability, multi-tasking, and flexibility’ are important behaviors to evaluate for HCAHPS, especially when it comes to nursing candidates.

The Studer Group released an article on “Four Reasons Why Those 27 Survey Questions Will Change Healthcare Forever.”

• HCAHPS provides accurate “apples to apples” metrics.

• Results are tied to quality and clinical outcomes.

• It gives consumers an easy way to compare hospitals.

• HCAHPS pay-for-performance is coming

Identifying these competencies allow a recruiter to screen candidates in a way that hiring managers will understand the true value you deliver to them during an interview process. Hospitals need employees who understand the importance of patient centric care.

To be at your best as a top Healthcare recruiter, you must understand how to impact the HCAHPs scores indirectly. Here are a few bullets to help link these together.

•  Take the time to learn what is measured. 

•  Know your organizations scores and where you are falling short. 

•    During your candidate screening, ensure you are asking questions that revolve around specific survey questions. For example: How do you treat patients with courtesy and respect? Give me examples of how you’ve changed your communication style depending on the patient/situation? How do you explain medications and treatment to patients and their families?

•  Communicate your strategy to peers, hiring managers, and executives

•  Always share your success

The question now lies, how will HCAHPS scores transform the way you select top talent? 

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 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.

Well, recruiters, recent reports show jobless claims are at a six month low, while job growth is short of estimates. With fewer new positions and fewer new hires, it’s time to focus on developing and retaining the top talent you’ve already got.

Previous surveys have shown that 60% of employees plan to leave their jobs when the market gets better. This may not concern you in light of lagging job growth, but think about this: 25% of employer-identified, high-potential employees plan to leave their current companies within the year. If you want to keep these top performers, you need to focus on engagement strategies.

Engagement isn’t just a warm and fuzzy theory. Engagement is a series of strategic actions that produce real, tangible financial results for businesses. Engaged employees are better for the bottom line; they outperform disengaged employees by 20-28%. In one study, companies with engaged employees showed a 19% increase in operating income over a 12-month period, compared to a 33% decrease in organizations with disengaged employees. In fact, the cost of disengagement to U.S. employers is estimated to be as much as $350 billion per year.

So how do you create a culture of engagement? Here are a few tips:

1. Make a strong first impression. Effective onboarding and coaching of new hires allows your employees to get started on the right track, and it has a tremendous impact on morale. The best onboarding programs allow new hires to assimilate into the culture through a combination of training and mentoring. iCIMS’ executives actually sit down and talk with each new hire class. This might not be realistic for larger companies, but the gesture is not lost on our new hires.
2. Continue the dialogue and help them grow. Allow for two-way feedback and stay invested in your employees’ development, so they never become bored or complacent. Keep them challenged by offering opportunities for growth and training. Provide clear career development opportunities and conduct frequent career conversations to determine how their goals are evolving.
3. Reward exemplary performance. Implement competitive compensation and benefits. If you’re not sure what a competitive salary for a certain position is, utilize a service such as Payscale. You should also consider implementing merit-based pay raises and award programs to keep employees motivated. But compensation doesn’t just have to be monetary in nature; a little recognition can go a long way, too. You should make sure your employees are shown appreciation for their accomplishments, and that they understand their role in the company’s success. Recognition should be given quickly and often. The once-a-year performance review is becoming a thing of the past; many would argue that the future is in more frequent or social performance reviews.
4. Foster connectivity among employees. Allow for cross-departmental collaboration that will lead to inspiration and deeper involvement with the organization and its goals. The more invested employees are in your company’s initiatives and the more involved they are in the successes across departments, the more satisfied they will be. iCIMS has implemented a program called iLead, which has been an effective way for our employees to develop leadership and project management skills while working across departments. An iLead is a high visibility, cross-departmental initiative, and the application process is competitive. The skills developed through participation in these initiatives have proven to be invaluable.
5. Provide leadership that inspires trust. This is particularly important at the executive level. Executives should provide a clear vision and frequent, thorough communication. They must be consistent and transparent. Large group meetings are a great way for executives to boost morale and give employees insight and awareness of company strategy. Additionally, company leaders should allow decisions to be made at the lowest level possible, so employees at all levels are invested in the company’s initiatives. The more informed, involved, and empowered your employees feel, the more likely they’ll be to stay motivated and satisfied with your company.

As difficult as it may be to discover new talent, the real challenge is retaining the talent you already have in your organization. With a deliberate, active culture of engagement in place, you’ll be sure to keep more of your top talent!

Individual or team productivity is influenced by many factors that companies overlook day in and day out. In his recent article on ERE.net, Dr. John Sullivan explains, “Increasing productivity is one of the most critical goals in business.” Well, he is absolutely right. The goal of all business, big or small, should be to facilitate productivity, so that employees produce quality work on a consistent basis.

Dr. John Sullivan has compiled a list of 22 essential factors that have a huge impact on individual or team performance. He broke these factors down into six categories: Foundations of Productivity, Direction and Guidance Factors, Support Factors, Skills, Communications, and Information Factors, Resourcing Factors, and Miscellaneous Factors. There are two factors I would especially like to focus a bit on:

1. High performing and innovative employees are the foundation of productivity
2. Technology, tools, and equipment can limit or bolster productivity

 
So how do businesses implement these essential factors? For starters, some HR departments are choosing to use efficient software that will easily produce the best candidate fits through skill-matching for each position posted. When the right choice is made, the chances are higher that the employee will remain productive throughout his or her tenure at the company. Further, these companies are looking to technology to facilitate the number of tasks HR Professionals must complete, so HR staff can spend more time on employee engagement programs.

No matter where you read, critics all have the same opinion - hiring the right people is key to a successful business. Similarly, choosing the right technologies to feed the HR department and employee engagement is essential, as some can be entirely too cumbersome to use effectively. Technology solutions can facilitate the pre and post-hire process, automating the administrative work that HR professionals get bogged down with. As Bob Dylan once said, “The times they are a changin’.” We live in a technological world; we might as well embrace it. Make life easier and use the tools that are available to you!

Further, time is money, and flies by faster than any of us ever realize. Making the most out of time is essential to a productive business. For example, the less time it takes to recruit new and qualified talent, the better. Accomplishing weekly or monthly goals in a timely manner only leaves extra hours to get a head start on a new project. Keeping the ball rolling will ultimately increase productivity and open doors to new opportunities for company-wide success.

To wrap things up, always show your employees some recognition, your business will thank you. I guarantee that a little “Keep up the good work!” will make that employee feel like a million dollars. In the end, numbers don’t lie. If a company exhibits all of these qualities, productivity will flourish!