iCIMS Hire Expectations™

Today's blog post is brought to you by iCIMS Talent Development Manager, Christina Helm!

I clearly remember where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with when I got the call from iCIMS about the role that I now hold at iCIMS.  I had invested months of precious time and energy researching the company and talking with people about the job, and I worked hard to prove I was worthy!  Both my hiring manager and I were excited. I couldn’t wait to start!

After I signed my offer letter, I received a welcome message from iCIMS Talent Acquisition Team Lead. In the message, he said he was very excited for me to start and was looking forward to meeting me.  The friendly message was accompanied by links to iCIMS New Hire Onboarding Portal. The Portal containing more information about the company and all the required onboarding paperwork, such as W4 and I-9.Years ago, this onboarding paperwork would have taken the entire first day on the job to complete. It is amazing how technology has improved this process.  Before I even started new employee orientation, I was “engaged.” I completed the onboard paperwork in record time, I learned a more about the company, and even made a new friend!  

Recent studies show that engaging employees during onboarding helps the new hire get up to speed faster and be more productive from day one. Furthermore, engaged employees tend to stay at a company longer.  Unfortunately, studies also show that few employees are actually engaged at work.  Most likely, these people are spending work hours looking for another job. With all the research and talk about employee engagement, I got to thinking about all the reasons people leave their jobs.  

When it comes down to it, retention and engagement are mainly about emotional and/or psychological connections the employee develops with the company and its products, the work the employee does, and the employee’s coworkers, including the boss.  Linking engagement and retention to emotional and psychological connections may sound rather challenging, but it’s not. Actually, as you read on, you will see that it is the little things that help new hires develop deep connections. 

The Hiring Manager and the Talent/HR team are responsible for ensuring that employees begin developing connections from day one. Developing connections early on will help to ensure that employees stay connected.  Here are a few ideas the talent team and hiring managers can implement to build new hire’s connections to the company: 

Roll out the Red Carpet

On my first day at my very first real job, my desk was all set up with a stapler, pens, pads, etc., but the best part was the vase full of flowers with a personalized note from my boss. (Connection to my boss, check.) If you not the flower type, there are other ways for a manager to connect with the new hire.  For example, before the new hire starts, send an email to the new hire and the current employees with whom the new hire will be working introducing the new hire, explaining the new hire’s role within the company. Encourage the current employees to reply welcoming the new hire.  When the new hire meets the current employees in person, they will already have established a connection. The manager may also consider invite a few close coworkers out to lunch with the new hire during the first week to facilitate interaction.

Tell a Story

Employees want to connect with the organization’s culture.  They want to be able to tell their friends all about their “work family.” Part of that connection comes from learning the company’s history.  For example, years ago when I started at Chase Manhattan Bank, we learned that the company’s founder, Aaron Burr, started the bank in 1799 to compete with another bank that was run by Alexander Hamilton.  The two were fierce political rivals and Burr ending up killing Hamilton in a duel.  The gun that Burr used was actually on display in the corporate headquarters!  Not every company has such dramatic beginnings, but every company got its start somehow!  iCIMS CEO, Colin Day, personally tells new hires the story of how he founded the company, and they all say it’s the best part of the whole orientation. (Connection to my company, check.)

Tell them how they fit in

In order to feel like our work is meaningful, many of us need to see how our efforts contribute to the overall success of the company.  When we are starting a new job, we naturally want to put our best foot forward and prove that we were the right choice. Sharing the overall strategy of the company and discussing how your department contributes to the success is a great way to open the dialogue about the importance of the individual’s role to the organization.  Reiterate the key objectives and priorities of the person’s job.  Schedule a meeting specifically to provide the opportunity to clarify the organizational vision as well as the hiring manager’s expectations for performance. (Connection to my role, check.)

As you can see, there are countless opportunities to connect at all stages of the employee’s experience. These recommendations are not expensive or difficult, but they help to engage the employee early in their employment. You must make connecting with employees a priority. If you connections a priority, you will be able to enjoy the successes of a fully engaged team.  

As a serial entrepreneur and acting CEO of TaxBreak ( a subsidiary of Neon Workforce Technologies) , Shannon Scott offers diverse professional experience and dynamic perspectives on profitability and business growth. He has owned and operated multiple successful information technology and business consulting companies over the past twelve years.

His first company, Capsource Technologies, was established in 1995 and privately sold in 1997. He, then, established his second company, Infusion Technology, in 1998 which was also sold privately 2002. In 2003, he began Netleverage Consulting and, after the company experienced rapid growth, sold that company in 2006.
 
In 2007, he became a partner in Taxbreak and the acting President. In 2009, Shannon was appointed the Chief Executive Officer. Under his guidance, the company has experienced exponential growth. He has dramatically improved the infrastructure and increased the profitably of the organization, as well as expanding the service offerings into new markets.

Under his leadership, the company’s growth has been recognized by INC year after year, receiving the INC 500 award in both 2008, and 2009, and the INC 5000 award in 2010.

The success of these companies, in addition to his strong information technology, sales and business operations background has also afforded him consultative roles at some of the most successful companies in the United States. 

He received his BA in Business from the University of Alabama in 1997.

The cost associated with hiring, training and retaining employees in today’s economy can be tough on any size business, especially ones with higher turnover.  HR executives are constantly being pressured to lower costs but still stay just as productive. What was the old line from Rodney Dangerfield? “I don’t get no respect, no respect”. Have you ever asked yourself what you would do as an HR professional if you had more money to put back into the company you work for or even better, your department?

Employment based tax credits may just be the answer you are looking for. Integrating tax credit recovery into your hiring process could earn your company hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by identifying the people who may qualify for tax credits.  These tax credits were designed to financially reward businesses that provide opportunities to certain target demographic and geographic groups by reducing the actual amount of taxes your company owes. Tax credits help employers with some of the additional costs associated with training and retaining disadvantaged workers while reducing unemployment. Simply put, you hire people, and you can generate additional cash flow for you business.

First implemented during the Reagan Administration in 1981, tax credits are worth up to $9,600 per qualifying hire.  On average, one in five new hires will qualify your company for a tax credit.  Some target groups for the credits include veterans, supplemental security income benefit recipients, residents of empowerment zones and enterprise communities and food stamp recipients.

Unfortunately, complex eligibility requirements, hectic hiring schedules and detailed documentation can make capitalizing on these opportunities seem challenging and labor intensive. Billions of dollars in tax credits are left on the table each year because companies do not have the tools necessary to recover these credits. Using an integrated solution like TaxBreak’s tax credit recovery program alongside  iCIMS Talent Platform, can alleviate the difficulty and leverage the tax credit benefits more effectively. 

As you look for ways to streamline the hiring process, you can turn your HR department into a profit center by screening job applicants or new hires for tax credit eligibility.  Integrating tax credit recovery into an organization’s hiring process can greatly increase efficiency, including a 90% reduction in paperwork.  An integrated solution can also pre-populate tax credit forms as part of the new hire package.  The new hire e-Signs the forms and they are automatically sent to TaxBreak, who coordinates certification of the credit. (Now that is easy!)

In return, you can then pour the money you save back into your business by hiring more employees, investing in new technology or sales and marketing.  Just imagine when you put your super hero cape on and tell your CEO that you just found your company $100,000. I bet that respect situation starts to look a whole lot better!

ADDIE is a leading instructional design model, and at iCIMS we use this as the backbone of our training approach.  Teaching technology has the potential to be boring and ineffective, so the proper instructional design of training initiatives is essential to making sure the content sticks.  The ADDIE method is not only used for custom training sessions but also for our standard webinars, FastTrack, and New Hire training.
 
ADDIE consists of five phases:

Analysis: During the Analysis phase, iCIMS works with the customer to understand their training need.  During Analysis, we identify the goals and objectives of the training, become familiar with the training audience and determine the project timeframe and deliverables.
 
Design: During the Design phase, we sketch out the plan for training.  Using principles of adult learning, we outline the curriculum and chunk it into major components.  Once the customer has agreed on the overall design of the training, we move into Development.

Development: During the Development phase, we further the Design phase and fully develop the training curriculum.  Here is where we determine all of the details and nuances of the training we will deliver.   

Implementation (Delivery): Implementation happens when we deliver the training to the partner or client. 

Evaluation: Finally, after the training has been delivered, Evaluation occurs.  Feedback is solicited from the customer and used to assess the value of the training. In this way, we can learn what worked and what could have been more smoothly designed and/or delivered.

Over the years, iCIMS has found this method allows our customers the greatest flexibility to focus on the topics that are most important to them. Further, the interactive nature of the design and delivery provides for a high information retention rate, making this the most effective instructional design model for our industry.

In addition to learning the iCIMS Talent Platform using the ADDIE method, customers may also benefit from our experience and implement the ADDIE model themselves. ADDIE can be used to improve learning at all levels. For example, during the onboarding process, your new hires must learn about your company culture, departmental processes, and the technology employed by your business. Employing a standardized methodology for conducting new hire training and orientation can benefit your business by producing better trained, more productive employees.  Not only does this benefit your profitability, but such standardization can also improve employee retention, thus reducing long-term costs.

Overall, ADDIE is simple and offers many benefits. If you would like to learn more about the ADDIE model of instructional design, please visit the following sites.

When social media sites first catapulted into popularity well over a decade ago we classify them as having a simple purpose—connecting people. Social media sites were first created with the intention of bringing people together in venues where they could interact freely, sharing their lives through a blend of sights and sounds. Although we still use social media to connect with people worldwide today, we have recently witnessed a transformation from serving as a leisure activity to being a necessary professional tool responsible for transforming the world of recruiting today.

“Social media is changing how HR professionals do their jobs, most dramatically in recruiting,” contends Alexander Stone of SHRM. The number of employers using social media for recruiting candidates is rapidly rising.  2011 survey results showed that 56% of respondents cited using social media to search and communicate with job applicants. In 2008, an even fewer 34% reported using social media for HR purposes. In comparison to the 77% who utilize social media for their recruiting efforts today, we have witnessed quite a spike in social media recruitment activity.

So, what makes social media so appetizing appealing to HR professionals? According to research conducted by SHRM, HR professionals have shifted focus to social media for recruiting purposes for a few reasons:

• Ability to recruit passive job applicants who might not otherwise apply (80%)
• Ability to target job candidates with specific skill sets (69%)
• Increase employer branding and recognition (67%)

In fact, four out of five HR professionals are using social media as a recruitment tool primarily for its ability to attract candidates who would not typically apply. Social media sites have become such an important piece of the recruiting puzzle that they are being integrated into applicant tracking processes. This automation allows recruiters to automatically post job openings to social media sites, mine candidates through their social profiles, report on the success of each channel in providing the best candidates, as well as granting candidates mobile access to job openings and applications.

With that being said, studies have reported that HR professionals prefer some social media sites over others:

• LinkedIn (94%)
• Facebook (54%)
• Twitter (39%)
• Professional or association sites (29%)

Since social media has penetrated the world of HR we are presented with the question, “what does the future hold for the relationship between social media and HR?” Although the bond between social media and HR has only been recently formed, we can predict that social media features will become a permanent part of recruiting and recruiting software systems. Accessibility will increase presenting career opportunities at candidates’ fingertips. Recruitment software vendors will need to accommodate their software to social media trends and innovations as we continue to see a larger dependency on social media for recruiting, onboarding, and engaging employees. Ultimately, in order to stay competitive in the war for top talent, HR professionals need to stay ahead of the curve and leverage social media as a powerful tool within their recruitment processes.

There has been a lot of chatter about the state of job boards as recruiters and candidates shift towards using different media to connect and apply for jobs.  Are they still relevant?  The answer is a resounding YES.

The evidence is clear – job boards remain one of the top sources for new hires.  Most importantly, jobseekers will continue to use them in their search, as job boards remain some of the most trafficked websites on the Internet.

Job boards have provided many benefits for companies since the beginning of their existence.  For instance, they’ve made it easy for candidates to discover new companies and apply for open positions.  However, over the years, this came at a cost.  Recruiters have long complained of being bombarded with unqualified applications that must be sifted through before reaching top talent, a time consuming and expensive process when recruiting departments try to become more efficient and strategic. 

With this in mind, recruiters and sourcers should consider more targeted job advertisements by utilizing niche job boards.

Although niche job boards do not boast the traffic of larger sites like Career Builder and Monster, it would be naïve to rule them out of recruitment advertising budgets.  Each industry has at least 2-3 niche boards, and they can be further segmented by region, professional association, society, and more. Niche job boards attract specific candidates that possess specialized skills and more relevant, up-to-date experience.  Again, although these boards don’t have the quantity of traffic of large job boards, niche job board postings receive higher quality and more relevant applications.
 
Therefore, niche job boards are the fastest way to finding strong candidates, leading to lower cost-to-fill.
 
Additionally, job boards have evolved into a tool that not only benefits recruiters trying to fill current openings, but strategic sourcers as they look to build a strong talent pipeline for future openings as well.   With job boards, there is an opportunity for employers to actively build and manage their employment brand that attracts not only active jobseekers but passive jobseekers as well – in essence, a channel for future applicants!  Passive jobseekers, who are often employed but would be open to a new opportunity, occasionally browse the different openings that are available. One day, they might be in a position to make a move and will probably start with companies they are most familiar with.

The following are several ways to use job boards for recruiting, branding, sourcing, to reach those passive candidates:

• Use a consistent look and feel for all job postings. With an automated job distributor, recruiters only have to create the job posting once to distribute it to multiple sites simultaneously.

• Own some of the job board’s “real estate” on the home page or in ongoing job alerts. Is there a specialty of niche job board that you have recruited from successfully in the past? This could be an untapped opportunity to extend your employment brand.

• Connect with your audience through multiple touch points. Are there specific networking events or career fairs that job seekers on specialty or niche job boards are familiar with and attend?  Attend those events while maintaining an online presence within those special and niche job boards.

Finding the right match for your job openings is important in order for your organization to reach its goals and objectives. Niche job boards are a valuable resource for finding quality talent, and vital to a successful recruitment strategy.

Sharlyn Lauby, SPHR, CPLP is the HR Bartender, whose blog is a friendly place to discuss workplace issues. When she’s not tending bar, Sharlyn is president of ITM Group, Inc., which specializes in training solutions to help clients retain and engage talent. Her off-hours are spent searching for the best hamburger on the planet, fabulous wine that cost less than $10 bottle and unusual iPad apps.

Years ago, I learned about metrics the old-fashioned way (translation: the hard way). Each week at our department manager meeting, I would watch with frustration as my peers’ new ideas and projects were fully supported and funded. But when I shared my ideas, they didn’t quite get the same response. 

I finally figured out what was wrong in my approach. My colleagues talked in terms of numbers and ROI. I talked about what made the employees feel good. And while employee happiness is important, when I could attach a number to it, my ideas got approved too.

Reasons for Recruiting Metrics

The organization will use your numbers not only as a gauge of performance but as the benchmark to take action. For example, let’s say that your company plans to open a new plant.  Metrics will determine when to begin recruiting efforts, how much or how little to spend on recruitment advertising, scheduling initial training efforts…just to name a few.

Groups outside the company will be equally interested in your metrics. Using the example above, if the plant you are opening will bring a lot of new jobs to the area, then maybe you can apply for workforce grant dollars to offset some expenses.

Getting Started

It’s critical to show a connection between your numbers and the operation. Otherwise, it’s like cooking a great meal and not serving it. Metrics must be tied back to business objectives.

The SHRM Metrics toolkit can be a valuable resource for metrics calculations. Listed below are a few common calculations that can be used as a starting point.

Practical Example: A consulting firm needs to know the cost of hiring new positions for a contract they are bidding on. Cost per hire will tell the company how much they need to spend on recruitment once they’re awarded the project.

*Cost to terminate includes severance, unemployment, exit interviews, legal fees, temp replacements, etc.

Activity: Once you’ve determined turnover cost, have managers multiply the cost by the number of people they’ve hired in their departments during the year. 
Trust me, they will be surprised. When I’ve done this activity, I found managers gained a greater understanding of the investment the company makes into an employee. And they became better at weighing the cost of training versus terminating an employee.

Please note:  Define the employee statuses it makes sense to monitor. It might not make sense to track on-call, seasonal or temporary employees. This could skew the statistics for your full-time staff and lead to false conclusions. 

Practical Example: Let’s say it takes an average of 3 weeks to fill a job requisition. In addition, once a person is hired, it takes another 2 weeks of training for them to become fully productive. This sheds light on when human resources needs to know about the job opening. In this example, a department could be without a fully productive employee for 5 weeks. 

Compiling Data

As you begin to define the metrics to calculate, think about the best ways to collect data.

• Decide who will be responsible for collecting the data. Talk with that employee and get their buy-in. They need to know the “why’s” and “what for’s” in order to make this effort a success.
• Determine the infrastructure that is necessary to collect the data (i.e. log sheets, computer systems, etc.)
• Establish a starting point for the metrics. It can be a daunting task to go backwards in time to capture historical data. Don’t let that hinder the metrics initiative.
• Choose a frequency for distribution (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually)

The key in reporting data is to find out what your managers want to see. This is an opportunity to demonstrate value. Make your initial reports easy to read. One human resources executive I know puts a ‘red light or green light’ next to metrics, so managers can quickly interpret the results.

It’s really not that hard.

Metrics are a necessary part of business. If you start simple and align your numbers with the business goals and objectives, you are sure to get results. 

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!

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.