Workforce Management Archives

What is the Best Employee Onboarding Process

in Workforce Management/by Randi Renee Doerr, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

The benefits of effective employee onboarding are often overlooked. But, done correctly, onboarding will contribute to your organization’s financial health. When you make the effort to acclimate your new employees to their new roles, they will become productive more quickly and will stay longer.

Finding and training the right people is expensive, and you risk wasting financial resources if you don’t do everything you can to make your new hires successful. By creating an effective onboarding plan, you’re also shaping your company’s culture into an environment that bolsters teamwork.

Onboarding acclimates your new hires to the company and their position within it. The best employee onboarding process will steer new hires toward success in their roles and create alignment with the company’s culture and values.

New Employees and Getting Started

It’s easy to be overwhelmed when considering how to onboard a new employee. You’ll need to create an onboarding schedule that’s unique for each role, even though many tasks will be the same for all new hires. For example, every employee will need to know and understand your harassment policies, but those in management will require further training.

Additionally, there’s pressure to come up with creative new ways to onboard employees. Like most employers, you’re probably experiencing a shortage of qualified applicants. You don’t want to risk losing your new superstar under piles of employment forms and reels of outdated videos.

COVID-19 has created yet another series of challenges as many human resource professionals wonder how to onboard new employees remotely. You can get started by breaking down the steps to onboard a new employee.

First, consider your onboarding goals. These goals will vary for each position. In general, the onboarding process should transform a new hire into a productive team member.

Determine the metrics you’ll use to measure how long it does take for a new employee to be productive. These metrics will become goals for the new hire. Determine the support your new hire will need to achieve each goal. Armed with this information, you’re ready to create an onboarding process flow chart.

Employee Joining Process Flow Chart

An employee onboarding process flow chart is a powerful visual tool because it creates benchmark deadlines. Your onboarding flow chart should take your onboarding processing from the preboarding stage through to the employee’s first annual review.

A team member should be assigned to each phase of the flow chart and a deadline should be assigned. Goals should be clearly communicated for each item. You can use onboarding software to manage communications and organize important documents.

Onboarding software can help you create a flow chart for the new hire training process. The flow chart you create with onboarding software can assign tasks to your onboarding team. The customized workflow can automate assignments and trigger reminders. Team members will be able to access files and reports from within the system.

Software can help you organize your onboarding process and save you time. Using software, you can easily create an onboarding process flow chart template for every position in your organization. New hires will be able to fill out their employment forms digitally and their information can seamlessly merge with your human resources system. Everyone on your team will spend less time inputting data and managing records.

New Employee Orientation

The best orientation practice will help your new employee understand how his role fits with the company’s larger picture. Orientation is your opportunity to present your company’s mission. This crucial introduction will help rally your employees around the company’s values. It’s a key component to creating a strong team.

Many organizations create games to make new employee orientation fun and memorable. You can create a mock game show using questions about the employee handbook. Or you can create an office scavenger hunt for new employees. To help new hires get to know their coworkers, give them an autograph book. Tell current employees to initiate a short get-to-know you conversation when they sign the book.

The best practices for employee onboarding will incorporate a technology perspective. You can use onboarding software to create training modules for your new hires. Use the triggering feature to avoid overwhelming employees. You can even send automatic reminders to gently nudge employees to complete training modules.

Onboarding software will come with free templates and checklists to make new employee orientation easier to manage. You can create new hire packets quickly and easily.

Virtual New Hire Orientation Ideas

COVID-19 has upended the onboarding process for many companies. If your organization operates in a state that has mandated work-at-home policies, you may be concerned about providing your new employees with the support they need. Even if your employees are able to work onsite, masks and social distancing policies may undercut your efforts at team building.

Now it’s even more critical to make sure new employees are able to build rapport with their coworkers. Advise supervisors and team members to check in with new employees while they learn to navigate their role in a pandemic world.

Many organizations have turned to creative ideas for new hire orientation during the pandemic. Make the most of virtual meetings. You can avoid “Zoom fatigue” by utilizing breakout rooms and doing interactive activities.

Team members can also create a welcome video for new hires. You can also encourage team members to have a virtual “coffee break” during which they can chat and get to know each other. You can use these techniques and others to encourage the socializing and relationship-building that happens naturally in the office.

Ideas for orientation can include a presentation for new hires during which the team can get to know each other with ice breaker questions. These ideas include employee orientation videos and PowerPoint slides that new hires can view remotely.

New Employee Welcome Packet PDF

You can send the digital portion of the welcome pack to the new hire’s email. Include welcome messages from the new hire’s manager and team members. Also include a link to the online benefits portal as well as their digital employment forms.

The welcome pack should include the things all new employees need to know. Include the company’s mission statement and organizational chart with the employee welcome booklet. The new employee welcome packet PDF should also include the company handbook and policies.

The welcome packet is also an opportunity for your new hire to get to know your brand. Throw in some company swag such as a t-shirt or a hat. Mix in professional items with fun items. A personal development book with something fun like a mini basketball net to go over the waste basket will foster productivity and creativity.

Your new employee will grow as she moves through the stages of the onboarding process. The welcome packet, orientation, training, productivity goals and ultimately the first year performance review should all be structured to support your employee’s success.

Employee Onboarding Process Flow

The key to a smooth onboarding process is a checklist. Software can help you easily create and customize a checklist for each position. You’ll be able to assign tasks and deadlines from within the application. Each stakeholder will be able to access the checklist and communicate from within the software.

The employee onboarding process should flow seamlessly from the preparation stage all the way to the first annual review. When you use onboarding software, you can track your progress and data so you can improve the onboarding checklist over time. You can create a questionnaire for new hire’s to complete at the end of their first year to find ways to improve your onboarding process.

If you’re wondering what the phases of the onboarding process are, we’ve broken it down for you here.

Employee Onboarding Process Summary

Strong job growth over the past decade and, more recently, the pandemic have forced organizations to get creative with their employee onboarding process. The talent shortage of the past few years has made hiring more difficult. COVID-19 has made it difficult for new hires to build relationships and acclimate within their new organizations.

The unique challenges companies face going into 2021 mean the employee onboarding process is more important than ever. By using digital tools to foster community and putting extra effort into team building, you can increase employee retention and build a stronger team.

Companies are finding it takes more than converting their welcome packet into a PDF file to meet the digital challenges during the pandemic era. As it becomes more difficult to find and keep talent, more companies are asking what is the best employee onboarding process that will reduce turnover.

But the best onboarding process hasn’t changed in these stormy times. A new set of challenges simply helps you see the solution more clearly. By seeing the onboarding process as an opportunity to support your employee’s success and develop a dynamic company culture, you can bolster your organization’s financial health.

Want to learn more about onboarding software?

Schedule a live demo today!

Schedule Demo

Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash

Your Application Process is Worse Than You Think

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

During this global pandemic, many employers have struggled to remain in business. This is especially true for multi-location employers of large numbers of “non-essential” employees. These organizations weathered the storm of being forced to shut down operations for periods of time to ensure the safety of workers and community.

And while restrictions have loosened a bit, these employers may find that it’s not necessarily easy to rehire previous employees and attract new talent. What worked pre-pandemic, won’t necessarily work post-pandemic. This logic extends to the hiring process–and includes the job application.

Check out this fourth video in a series about identifying the excuses we often hear and the strategies that ExactHire has the experience to know make a difference in your hiring success.

Video Transcript:

Hi, I’m Jessica Stephenson with ExactHire, and in this video series I’ve been sharing the excuses that we frequently hear from employers. Excuses that are crippling their ability to engage and retain job candidates. Today’s quick excuse overview is rooted in denial.

So, in the spirit of admitting that you may have a problem as the first step toward overcoming said problem…Does this sound like something you’ve said…or thought…before? Our application process “isn’t that bad.”

Let’s say that you agree that a 50+ question application is ridiculous. Right????

But wait, when was the last time YOU actually applied to your own company? Have you EVER done it?

If it has been awhile, apply today! While you’re at it, count all the questions in your application. I hope you don’t come up with 28 questions for the picker packer job at your distribution center!

Next, how easy is it for job seekers to apply to multiple job opps at once? This key question is a significant differentiator in today’s job market.

Not every kind of job seeker cares to apply to multiple jobs at your company at once. But let’s think about which ones would…

Those who work hourly positions…and those available to work at multiple locations.

So, when thinking about the application process excuses your company is making…are you hiring a decent amount of these candidates?

How easy is it for them to apply for multiple jobs in one session? And, can they quickly see how close your jobs are to their home or bus stop?

Addressing these questions is one way to improve your applicant experience and fill your pipeline. Your job seekers and you deserve better. Check out the link in the post and learn how ExactHire can help you elevate your employment experience.

Schedule a demo with ExactHire now!

We’re ready to learn about your hiring process!

Schedule Demo

Check out the other videos in this series…

What Are Some Examples of Recruitment Strategies

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

Organizations need to secure the best possible talent in order to be competitive. Companies that employ strategic recruitment and selection methods are better able to attract and secure top talent. Recruitment strategies involve positive employer branding, marketing directed by recruitment, and the ability to sell positions to high performing talent.

Strategic Recruitment

Strategic recruitment can and should be tailored to the organization but there is a basic outline of stages in the recruitment and selection process. The first phase is the preparation stage. It includes activities such as identifying which positions need to be filled, carrying out the job analysis, writing a job description, and establishing candidate specifications.

Preparing for your ideal candidate is a crucial part of the recruitment and selection process. An organization should develop a document outlining the plan, such as a strategic recruitment and selection pdf, which lists all of the knowledge, skills, abilities, and traits that the ideal candidate will have. Without laying the groundwork it will be difficult if not impossible to get the right candidates to apply.

In the second stage of the recruitment and selection process the organization needs to source those ideal candidates and get them to apply. Methods of recruitment and selection in this phase include advertising the job through traditional approaches such as the use of recruitment agencies, recruiting internally, talent searches, as well as print and web advertising. In most cases however, an organization would be wise to employ some more creative recruitment methods as well.

We all know how important branding is but it’s something we usually associate with the organization and customer experience. Did you know that branding is also an effective recruitment and selection strategy example? Employers should consider how their brand appears to potential employees and work on their employment brand in order to promote themselves as a good place to work.

These days just about all organizations have an online presence and most utilize social media platforms to engage with customers and launch marketing campaigns. Social media is a great tool to proactively source candidates and a good strategy in nurturing a passive applicant pool. Someone who is not actively looking for a job, might see a more lucrative opportunity and consider leaving their employer.

Sometimes the best candidates are closer than they seem. Employers should consider developing targeted employee referral programs to fill vacancies. Successful employees are often a good source of people similar to themselves and most would hesitate to bring in people with a poor work ethic or attitude to their place of business. A good referral program should focus on the best employees and offer the kind of rewards these individuals might want.

Selection Process

The final stage of the recruitment and selection processes is the converting of candidates to employees. The selection process begins with the screening of applicants to determine which meet the candidate specifications laid out in the first stage. Here the organization will need to analyze some of the documents used in selection and recruitment activities such as job descriptions and person specifications to match them with candidate application forms and CVs.

An organization can have a large number of applicants and it is best to use applicant tracking software and employee assessments to screen applicants quickly. It is important to maintain a fast response time throughout the recruitment process and it is possibly even more vital during the selection process. Nothing is worse than losing those best applicants to a competitor in the final stage after the organization has invested all that time and effort into finding them.

The most suitable candidates can be invited to begin the interview process. Preliminary interviews can easily be accomplished with the use of asynchronous video interviewing. This would allow a larger number of applicants the opportunity to outline their skills and abilities as well as provide the opportunity to give candidates more information about the job and company.

The final round of interviews is usually conducted with the hiring manager. This part usually requires documents needed for the selection process such as structured interview questions and benefits information. Somewhere around this time reference checks should be conducted and then the best candidate can be selected.

The last of the documents used in the selection process is the offer letter that is presented to any candidates who will be offered a position. Once the candidate accepts the offer and is officially hired, the onboarding process can begin. Thus the recruitment and selection process is complete.

Recruitment Strategy Example

Is your organization in need of more strategy in its recruitment and selection process? This recruitment strategy plan example doesn’t encompass everything but it’s full of ideas that your business can start using today. Your organization can build on this recruitment strategy presentation to make it your own.

When looking at how to develop a recruitment strategy you need to start with your employer brand. Your organization should have a clear brand to prospective employees which reflects the mission, culture, and values of your business. Start by thinking why someone would want to work for your company, build on it, and incorporate it in your website, social media presence, and communications.

Consider college recruiting as part of your recruitment strategy plan to scout up and coming talent. Attend college career fairs and get featured on campus job boards. You can even volunteer to speak at college events to generate interest and introduce your employer brand.

Create a well polished job listing which reflects your organization. The job post is a large part of your recruitment strategy and should reflect your employer brand. As a recruitment strategy example consider that the tone of your job listing will give the reader a feel for what kind of candidate you are looking for.

Develop a social media campaign and target the kind of people that are most likely to be the best candidates. Post job listings on your most active social media platforms, engage with people, and encourage the sharing of your content. Social media is a great place to begin preboarding. Bridge the gap between recruiting and onboarding more seamlessly and improve employee retention by giving people a clear idea of what it’s like to work for your organization.

Your social media job marketing campaign can target specific types of people but for employees with specific skills it’s worth exploring niche job boards. Look for industry or job specific websites that match your staffing needs. You can also explore professional organizations and post your job listings with them.

Often the most skilled candidates are already working and not actively searching for a job but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take a new position if it was offered. Look for passive candidates and introduce them to your organization and employer brand. You might be in a position to offer them that next career step they’ve been hoping for.

Now that we’ve explored ways to market your organization and get your job listings out to potential candidates, it’s time to talk about what you’re going to do with all those job applications that are going to come flooding in. Invest in an applicant tracking system to help sort through your candidates and convert them to employees. In fact, a good system can help you at all stages of your recruitment strategy and leverage artificial intelligence to find, attract, and connect with candidates.

Now that you’ve narrowed down the field and have identified the best candidates, it’s time to conduct some awesome interviews. Remember that the interview is a two way street. You are interviewing candidates for the position and they are interviewing you for a good fit. Develop a recruitment strategy presentation that will answer their questions and help them feel good about the idea of working for you.

Out of the Box Recruiting Strategies

Organizations need to employ some out of the box recruiting strategies to make the most of what’s available to them and have a competitive advantage. Recruitment professionals know that putting an ad in the paper and waiting for the calls to roll in isn’t an option anymore. Employees know that businesses need them just as much as they need a job. Organizations must compete with one another for the best talent.

Recruiting strategies for human resources are constantly evolving. Some of the most popular recruitment strategies of 2019 as well as the recruitment strategies of 2020 have brought about some out of the box thinking that’s worth incorporating into your recruitment plan. Your competitors are likely doing so and you should too.

Bring out of the box thinking into your careers page and revamp it to be more attractive, user friendly, and in line with your employer brand. Get involved in trade shows and industry events to get eyes on your organization. Create a lucrative and ingenious employee referral program to leverage the talent you already have.

Evergreen jobs are those that your organization tends to need to fill most often. These job openings can be better filled with the use of strategies that differ from your main recruitment and selection strategy. Create a plan specifically designed for your evergreen jobs.

There are plenty more out of the box recruiting strategies that your organization could be utilizing. Develop a boomerang employee rehiring program. Don’t close the door on good talent just because it wandered out in search of greener pastures. Invite those employees back once they realize the grass isn’t greener on the other side; or, once their career interests and goals once again realign with your available development opportunities.

Consider whether a strategy of hiring more from within and making internal mobility a priority makes sense for your organization. After all, a lack of growth opportunities can cause the best talent to leave–while ample opportunity is attractive to potential job candidates. It’s smart from a financial perspective as well. Employees who earn more due to the raises and bonuses they’ve received over time can be moved to higher paying positions, and entry level jobs can be filled with candidates who are positioned to competitively start at the entry point of a job’s pay band.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to candidates that you didn’t hire the first time. Maybe the individual wasn’t quite suited to that position. Or perhaps there was someone else who overshadowed them–at the time or for that specific position. That doesn’t mean there is no place for silver medal candidates at your organization. If they made it to the final round the first time, there might be something there worth holding on to.

Innovative Recruitment Strategies

Currently some of the most innovative and effective recruitment strategies and practices are centering around the development of software solutions. Applicant tracking software will continue to become more important for organizations who are looking for a competitive edge. Automation and technology will certainly continue to drive innovative recruitment strategies.

People are working on the go more than ever. Employers can expect to have more mobile first communications with prospective candidates. Websites that are mobile friendly will continue to be an important consideration. Quick and easy features such as multi-job apply capabilities are going to appeal to a greater number of potential applicants.

Studies show that people reply to text messages much faster than emails. Perhaps that is why organizations are embracing text recruiting. Surely that’s one innovative recruitment strategy that we are sure to see more of as companies race to snag the best talent.

Recruitment and selection are perhaps some of the most important activities that an organization will undertake. Take time to develop a good strategy for your staffing needs. Everyone has a role in recruitment. Create a recruitment plan ppt that will clearly communicate your organizational recruitment and selection strategies as well as innovative ideas and get everyone on board.

Looking for Recruitment Strategy Ideas?

Check out this Guide to Managing Evergreen Jobs.

Photo by Edmond Dantès from Pexels

What are the Phases of Onboarding?

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

Onboarding is your secret weapon for attaining all sorts of goals for your business. For example, taking the time to make the best impression for new hires can help increase employee retention. Having a well-rounded training plan in place can catapult your new employee from lumbering novice to an agent of productive wizardry. The onboarding process can help you take the helm of your company’s culture to increase collaboration and reduce petty grumblings.

Small to medium-sized businesses often neglect the onboarding process at their peril. But realizing the potential of onboarding requires thoughtful planning. Taking new hires on the journey from clumsy newcomer to accomplished contributor calls for a phased onboarding plan.

Employee Onboarding Process Stages

You may find yourself saying “I hate the term onboarding” once you really take a deep dive into how you can make this process better. But I assure you, if you don’t take control of your new employees’ experience, your organization will suffer.

A good onboarding definition is simply the process of introducing your new employee into the organization. Employee onboarding can help your organization reach its financial goals, and that prospect is maximized when you create a phased plan for this important process.

There are six stages to employee onboarding. The first is project management, during which you plan and break down the steps for onboarding your new hire.

The second is preparation and pre-boarding. During this phase, you complete your background checks and brief the staff who will be taking part in the onboarding process. You’ll also communicate with your new hire to help ease lingering doubts about his new position.

Next is the tedious, yet necessary step, that you’re already familiar with: new hire paperwork. Employee onboarding software can help you easily crank out this administrative detail while saving time and reducing errors.

The fourth step is new employee orientation, followed by new employee training. During this phase, your new hire will be introduced to your organization’s structure and will learn how he fits in.

Finally, the last step, reviewing productivity and performance, will help you assess the success of the previous steps.

Process Project Management

In many ways, bringing in new hires and helping them evolve into productive and contributing members of the organization is no different than any other project. You can use the principles of project management to create your employee onboarding process flow. In this first phase, you consider your goals for the onboarding process and develop the basics, such as a timeline.

The goals you set for your new employee will help determine your metrics for the onboarding process. Make the goals specific with clear standards for success.

You want new hires to feel comfortable with how things are done at your company. You can do this by identifying what new hires need to know about the company’s culture and work environment. Consider assigning a coworker to mentor the new hire in the subtleties of staff interactions.

Remember that onboarding is a key factor in employee retention. Consider each onboarding stage from your new hire’s perspective. Consider what impression you want your new hires to have throughout each phase of the onboarding process.

The project management phase for the onboarding process workflow is also when you determine your timeline. Most employee turnover happens in the first year of employment. Incorporate support for that entire first year into your onboarding plan.

The project management phase is also a good time to rally your onboarding team. These are the people who will play a role in helping the new hire acclimate to her new role. Make sure each of these people understand their role in welcoming the new employee.

At the end of this stage, you’ll be able to create an onboarding process checklist. While many of the tasks on this checklist will apply to all new hires, you want to create a detailed checklist unique to each new hire’s position.

Employee Onboarding Preparation And Pre-Boarding

The following onboarding process steps include everything on your checklist that happens before the new hire’s first day.

Don’t forget to think about the onboarding process project from the point of view of your new employee. In this sense, bringing on a new hire is much like your customer onboarding process. In other words, extend as much consideration to your new hire as you do your new customers.

Consider sending him a welcome email with photos and welcome messages from co-workers with whom he’ll be working closely. Include information about parking. Let them know which door they should enter through and who his first point of contact will be.

During the preparation phase, the new hire’s workstation should be set up with the relevant equipment and supplies. Don’t forget some company swag. It’s also a good time for the hiring manager or supervisor to send an email invitation to lunch.

This step in your employee onboarding process is also when you coordinate with security and the IT team to make sure the employee is outfitted with appropriate user IDs and access. Don’t forget to add the new hire to calendar invites and email distribution lists.

New Hire Paperwork

While business has seen a lot of changes in 2020, the content of new hire paperwork has stayed largely the same. From tax forms to payroll forms, the data gathered from paperwork keeps your company rolling and in compliance with important government guidelines.

The most tedious part of the new hire checklist, paperwork, is prone to mindless errors. Onboarding software can automate employment paperwork to save time and reduce errors. New hires will need to enter information only once to populate multiple forms. And the data they enter can cross over to your other human resources software.

After the new hire digitally signs her paperwork, paperless onboarding software can automatically direct her to the orientation checklist and training modules.

New Employee Orientation Checklist

Orientation is your opportunity to help your new hire acclimate to your company’s culture and conform to procedures. Your employee onboarding checklist will include all the items to go over during orientation. You can automate this portion of the new employee checklist with onboarding software.

During this time, introduce your new hire to the company’s mission and its organizational chart. Your new hire checklist wouldn’t be complete without a review of the employee handbook and safety policies. Your new employee orientation checklist should also include benefits documents and basic administrative procedures from security to the telephone systems.

Your new employee onboarding checklist should include activities and/or content to help the new hire better understand your organization’s culture. Schedule lunch outings with key employees. Personal fact sheets are a great way for coworkers to learn about each other. Invite your new hire to complete one and give her access to her coworkers’ fact sheets.

Onboarding software is a great way to manage your new employee orientation checklist templates. You can find a free checklist here if you need ideas for what to include during orientation.

Employee Training

Employee training is when your new hire learns the nuts and bolts of his new position. How long it takes to learn a new job depends on many factors. Your onboarding process should be thorough enough to encourage success, yet succinct enough for your new hire to get up to speed quickly.

How long it does take for a new employee to be productive really depends on a comprehensive onboarding process. You should give your new employee access to training modules. Onboarding software can make the distribution and tracking of these modules easy.

New employee training should also be collaborative. Assign knowledgeable staff members to teach the new hire how to do various tasks. If you incorporate these tutorials as items on your onboarding software, you’ll be able to track their completion and coordinate communication between the stakeholders.

Throughout the training process, you should give your new employee clear standards by which they can gauge their own success. Help them feel comfortable and encourage them to ask questions. Their productivity and performance will depend on how well they grasp key information during the training phase.

New Hire Time to Productivity and Performance

Hopefully, these onboarding steps will lead to success in the last phase: productivity and performance. All of your goals for onboarding hinge on making sure your new hire graduates into a productive employee.

Once your new hire is trained, you can continue your onboarding efforts with support and feedback. Schedule meetings to provide feedback on the new hire’s performance. This is also a good time to introduce your new hire to additional training opportunities.

Let your new hire know his input is important, too. Ask him to provide feedback about the onboarding process. Encourage him to ask questions and address concerns.

From time to time, you’ll need to part ways with a recently hired employee. You can use onboarding software to manage your offboarding checklist. The data you acquire can be incorporated to give you a clearer picture of how to increase employee retention.

If you’re using onboarding software, you can effortlessly measure your onboarding success. Over time, you’ll collect enough data to know the average time it takes to onboard a new employee. You’ll be able to use that data to measure the time it takes that employee to reach the position’s expected level of productivity and competence.

A great onboarding process will help your organization develop effective, long-term employees. By reducing turnover and reducing the time it takes new hires to be fully productive employees, you’ll have a healthier bottom-line.

Want to learn more about onboarding software?

Schedule a live demo today!

Schedule Demo

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Why Are Applicant Tracking Systems Important?

in Workforce Management/by Randi Renee Doerr, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

It’s no easy feat being a hiring manager in the digital age.

A dozen online job boards means a dozen passwords and methods for posting openings. Over 150 million applicants are scouring those job search sites. Every position you post will likely receive hundreds of resumes. You have to sift through them all before you find the four to six candidates with the skills and experience to warrant an interview.

Or maybe you don’t. An applicant tracking system will give you the power to harness the digital age to make the most of your recruiting data.

You can let an applicant tracking system do the grunt work for you. The benefits of using software to track your hiring efforts go beyond saving a few clicks or tossing your password book. The built-in analytics that come with the system will help you hone your most effective hiring and retention practices. Ultimately, better candidates will become more valuable new hires with better retention rates.

Intro to Applicant Tracking Systems

An applicant tracking system will help you manage all your recruiting efforts, from posting the position to sending the offer letter and everything in between.

You’ll finally be able to post your open positions to multiple job boards and social media sites with just one click of your mouse. You’ll also be able to monitor your posting’s response across all those platforms. The data an applicant tracking system provides will help you optimize postings to attract higher quality candidates.

An applicant tracking system will allow you to customize your application for each position and location. You won’t need to depend on an individual job board’s capabilities. You can also use job screening questions to automatically rule out unqualified applicants. With an applicant tracking system, you can test your candidates’ resumes by requiring them to complete assessments.

Now that you have only qualified candidates in your job pool, you can begin sorting and applying status codes to applicants. An applicant tracking system can find resumes using keywords and other search parameters. You can save applicants and import them as potential candidates for future job openings.

An applicant tracking system doesn’t just make finding the perfect new hire easier. It also helps you track data for federal reporting purposes. You can automate the tasks and reports you require to ensure recruiting compliance. An applicant tracking system will even update the latest requirements to help you remain compliant.

Applicant Tracking System Features and Benefits

Applicant tracking software offers benefits and features throughout the hiring process.

Being able to attract more qualified candidates is just one applicant tracking system feature. For example, perhaps you’ve been too swamped to post your positions to more than a couple job boards. If so, you may have been missing out on your ideal applicant. With an applicant tracking system, you can post to multiple job websites with a single process.

Once job seekers find your posting, they can opt to apply for more than one job. The resumes and applications you receive can be saved for future job openings. With an applicant tracking system, you’ll be able to create a pool of applicants who have already expressed interest in working at your company.

You’ll be able to engage applicants on the devices they use the most. Millennials make up the largest demographic in the workforce. Your hiring process must be mobile friendly if you are going to reach the most candidates.

An applicant tracking system will make it easy for job seekers to post their resume and fill out your application from a mobile device. When it comes time to contact desirable candidates, you’ll be able to send text and email messages from within the applicant tracking system.

An applicant tracking system can improve the workflow of your entire hiring process. Everyone on the hiring team can work within the same platform. You can set up multiple users with varying levels of access. You’ll be able to set up interview questions and other documents for each position. You can search, sort and apply a status to applicants so only those who are most qualified are at the top of the pile.

From there, you can easily view all your communications with applicants. You’ll be able to schedule interviews. You can even disqualify candidates for future consideration. You can order background checks and send offer letters from within the program. Once you have your new hire, you can transfer all of her relevant information into employee onboarding software.

Applicant Tracking System Advantages

Companies spend billions each year in their recruiting efforts. Much of this cost comes from the time it takes to find, hire and train new employees. The cost is compounded when new hires leave before their first anniversary and hiring managers must go through the process all over again.

An applicant tracking system can help you reign in those costs. Many companies lack a centralized platform for their recruiting efforts. Job postings, resumes, and candidate communications are scattered in a slipshod collection of spreadsheets and filing cabinets.

An ATS offers features that you just can’t replicate. For example, the system can seamlessly integrate with online job boards. When an applicant tracking system is an Indeed partner, you’ll be able to allow candidates to view and start the application process for your job posting directly from Indeed. An applicant tracking system can upload a resume in PDF format to make it easy for job seekers on-the-go to quickly indicate their interest. Then, you may invite screened candidates to provide more information later in the selection process with a multi-step job application.

Putting your hiring documents and information in one easy-to-use platform will help you avoid wasting your team’s time. A robust platform that integrates with the latest hiring trends is better than learning how to build an ad hoc applicant tracking system with spreadsheets and a paper trail.

An applicant tracking system is better than an Excel template because it’s designed to parse through a large collection of data. Applicants will be loading their information into the system themselves when they apply on an easy-to-use job site featuring your company brand. From there, you’ll be able to search through applicant data without complex formulas. You’ll have simple searches and reports readily available.

With your system and hiring process in the cloud, you won’t need to rely on your company’s slow IT team. Your applicant tracking system also won’t be limited by the functional requirements of your company’s server. The scalability of an applicant tracking system means it can grow with your company.

Applicant Tracking System Disadvantages

Tracking applicants through an ATS doesn’t work for all employers.

It’s nice to have the capacity for data. But you’ll need to invest time for training stakeholders to manage the hiring process within an ATS system. For that reason, even stand-alone applicant tracking software is not for employers who hire rarely. And, an ATS that may be a part of an enterprise HRIS (human resources information system) is generally used by mid-sized organizations and larger businesses.

An applicant tracking system may not be necessary for employers that are not required to file recruiting compliance data. For example, businesses with fewer than 50 employees that also don’t have government contracts may not benefit from the data capabilities of an applicant tracking system. Such companies likely have just one person who manages the bulk of the hiring process using email folders, spreadsheets or a web form on their corporate website.

Characteristics of Top Applicant Tracking Systems

The best applicant tracking systems in 2020 bring candidates and the entire hiring team together. They’re more than a holding place for data. These platforms work harmoniously across users and sync across multiple websites.

Look for a platform that gives appropriate levels of access for all stakeholders. Your team will be able to collaborate from within the program. From the job’s qualifications to the interview questions, you’ll have an organized repository for the position’s important information.

A great hiring experience isn’t just important for your team. It’s essential for the applicants too. Look for a system that offers a customized online application on a jobs site that complements your branding.

The top applicant tracking systems in 2020 work seamlessly with the latest hiring trends to save time and money. But the savings don’t stop with the text recruiting feature. ATS analytic capabilities will help you zero in on the hiring practices that net you the best new hires. Increasing hiring efficiency is how many companies use applicant tracking systems.

Countless valuable features are why 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies rely on applicant tracking systems.

Perspective on the Applicant Tracking System Free Scan

One of the most powerful features of applicant tracking systems is their candidate profile scanning capabilities. You want to make sure the system you choose gets this feature right. Otherwise, the best candidates may float to the bottom of your talent pool if you can’t perform robust search queries.

Tech-savvy applicants will strive for an ATS-friendly resume. They may load their resumes with the keywords they think you’ll search for in your job scan. There are plenty of blog posts about applicant tracking system free scans online that may inform them and impact their perspective.

You don’t want a new hire who can manipulate the system. You want the best qualified candidate for your position.

Some online job boards offer an applicant tracking system free download. But these low-quality platforms don’t offer a robust job scan for candidate profiles. An applicant tracking system that’s free is not necessarily good for qualified job seekers and could sabotage your hiring efforts.

The digital age connects you with more highly qualified candidates than ever before. But if you don’t have a robust applicant tracking system, you’ll be bogged down with too much data and redundant processes. You’ll never know where you consistently find your best hires, and you’ll have trouble knowing how to increase your employee retention rates.

Coordinate more efficiently with your team. Advertise across job boards and social media sites with minimal effort. Find the best resumes without bothering with low-quality job seekers that try to buck the system.

A robust applicant tracking system will help you manage and organize your hiring efforts. Once your open positions are populated with rock stars, you’ll be able to retrace your steps and gain insight that will save time and money in the future.

Want to learn how to choose the right recruiting and HR software?

Photo by Alesia Kazantceva on Unsplash

How to Develop a Strategy for Each Stage of the Recruitment Process

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

What if your company managed its recruitment process exceptionally well? You would find and hire the right candidate on time and on budget. That new hire would evolve into a long-term, highly productive employee. If your company mastered recruiting, you would repeat this process over and over again.

And—get this—your entire organization would be twice as successful.

Data gathered by the SHRM Foundation found that companies that mastered their recruiting process enjoyed twice the profit margin when compared to companies with poor recruitment performance. It isn’t a surprising finding considering U.S. companies spend $140 billion to find and hire candidates.

Despite the investment and potential of the recruitment and selection process, too many companies treat it like a pesky maintenance problem. HR is expected to fill an open position quickly, as if the empty chair were nothing more than a missing cog in the wheel.

In fact, the employee selection process in HR management is an investment in the organization. The company should understand its employees are a key driver of the organization’s success. Then it can ask “what is the recruitment process” and “what are the steps of the selection process.”

Recruitment Process Steps

Articles on the recruitment and selection process often recommend breaking down the method of talent acquisition into actionable steps. These steps can be further managed using applicant tracking software.

The SHRM Foundation identifies five key steps in the recruitment process.

The recruitment process stages start with establishing recruitment objectives. With the objectives in hand, you can develop a recruitment strategy. This strategy will help you breeze through the next step, which is carrying out recruitment activities. With that third step completed, you’ll have the data you need for the last two steps: measuring recruitment results and evaluating recruitment efforts.

Talent Acquisition Process Example: Create Objectives

Your recruitment objectives should be the intersection of the company’s goals and an assessment of the labor market. The qualities you’re seeking in a candidate should align with the company’s mission.

For example, if a construction company is angling to be more high-tech than its competitors, then it may look for workers comfortable using emerging robot and AI technology. An examination of the labor market will tell this construction company how plentiful these workers are. Using applicant tracking software, the construction company can customize an application to screen for these skills.

Knowing what you’re looking for in an ideal candidate and understanding how likely you are to find that person in the labor market will help you as you determine your other recruitment objectives.

Qualifications will likely come to mind when considering what is the first step in the recruitment and selection process. Next, you may set a timeline for having the position filled. While the position’s qualifications and timeline are essential objectives, HR managers can take their recruitment practices to the next level if they consider a few more goals.

As a recruitment process example, knowing how much the organization will spend on each new hire will help you coordinate with the company’s officers to plan for the highest return on investment. You’ll gain powerful allies when you help your company’s key decision makers understand how the resources expended to find and train new hires translates into actual dollars.

When talent retention is translated into dollar figures, you’ll recruit willing members to your recruitment team, starting with the position’s supervisor. You can work with this manager to update your position’s profile and assess how the role coordinates with the team.

The best recruitment process will help everyone who interacts with the new hire understand that finding the right candidate, supporting his success and encouraging him to stay with the company long-term is crucial to the company’s success.

Recruitment Process Step: Plan A Strategy

Once you know your recruitment goals, the next step is to devise your employer recruiting strategy to reach them. In this phase, you’ll create a recruitment process flow with actionable steps that will make your recruitment process a success.

You may find, while updating the job’s profile, that an entry level position requires knowledge of newer software. Your strategy can include applicant tracking software to create assessments to evaluate applicants’ competence.

If your open position requires a high level of performance, you may consider targeting applicants who are currently and successfully employed. If you have a tight deadline, your strategy may include generating many applicants in a short period of time. Software can help you track all of your applicants and help you ensure you’re complying with federal reporting laws to which your organization may be subject like Affirmative Action and EEO.

Perform Recruiting Activities

The objectives you’ve already identified will help you access the types of recruitment process activities that will net the best applicants.

For high level positions, you may decide to use a recruiting professional. Such an expert will be especially helpful if your ideal employee is already employed. Industry events and old-fashioned networking can also help you find quality candidates who may not be actively seeking a new job. On the other hand, you may decide to use a local staffing agency for entry level positions.

No matter what position you have open, job boards will help you cast a wide net. You can use applicant tracking software to post to multiple boards in one step. You’ll also be able to sort the applications by assigning a status to each one.

Measure Recruiting Process Results And Evaluate Success

Evaluate your recruiting process metrics as your search continues. Are you getting the number and quality of applicants you expected? If not, you may need to adjust your strategy.

You can run applicant and job reports using applicant tracking software to access your progress. Ultimately, the success of your recruitment process will hinge on one result: a high-performing new hire that evolves into a long-term employee.

Formally evaluate recruitment process success annually. Then you can uncover which recruitment methods yield employees who are likely to stay with the company. Evaluating your recruitment process can have another benefit. Your results can convince decision makers that finding and retaining great employees can improve the company’s revenue.

You can make targeted improvements to the key problem areas you identify in your evaluation. For example, if you find that new hires are more likely to stay with the company for more than two years if they are referred by a current employee, you can create an employee referral program with incentives.

You may also find previous assumptions were unfounded. For example, you may have been favoring applicants with experience only to find the new graduates perform just as well and stay with the company longer.

Developing a strategy for each stage of the recruitment process does more than fill your company’s empty chairs. It significantly impacts your company’s success. A winning recruitment process strategy will find and hire the best candidates. It will also encourage them to stick with the company for years to come. Carefully planning and carrying out your recruitment strategy will help you make the most of a resource with boundless potential: your employees.

Want More Resources to Evaluate Your Recruitment Process? Download Our Scorecard!

Photo by mentatdgt from Pexels

High Unemployment is Not an Excuse to Avoid Hiring Process Improvement

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

I’ve seen a lot of change in HR technology over the past decade as well as many employer pitfalls when it comes to leveraging technology to improve the quality of hire and increase the number of job applicants.

Those employer pitfalls have really stuck out like a sore thumb this year, as the global pandemic has had a profound impact on employer recruitment and retention success. Creating a great hiring experience has never been more important to workforce productivity.

The excuses your organization may have made in the past about why you haven’t taken the time to improve your recruiting process must be remedied if you hope to compete for top talent in a post-pandemic world.

This is the first video in a series about identifying the excuses we often hear and the strategies that ExactHire has the experience to know make a difference in your hiring success.

Video Transcript:

Pre-Pandemic Employment – THEN

Hi, I’m Jessica Stephenson with ExactHire, and to say that it has been a volatile employment year is a major understatement. Whether your employer has laid off people, or is in a hiring binge, it’s clear the pandemic has shed light on the more troubling excuses we hear employers make about their hiring process.

Before the pandemic began, companies were navigating a candidate-driven market. The job seekers called the shots…and companies couldn’t find enough candidates…fast enough.

At the end of February, nearly 158.8 million US civilians were employed–that was a 10-year high. And, the unemployment rate was at a historic low of 3.5% (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The employment landscape favored job seekers, and while we were in a much better economic position, employers had to rethink their hiring processes to attract and quickly hire top talent. That meant candidates received multiple job offers, employers boosted their total compensation packages and some jobs went unfilled for long periods of time.

Some of those were evergreen jobs…those are the jobs that some industries always have open 24/7, year round. Examples of evergreen jobs might include servers at restaurants, cashiers at retail stores, tellers at banks, direct support professionals with nonprofits…you get the idea. The positions for which multi-location employers, especially, are always hiring.

Pandemic Impact – NOW

Fast forward to now. We’ve made economic improvements and US unemployment has improved to 6.9%…though it’s still almost double what it was in February (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Some jobs are still on hold, and others are at peak demand in an unprecedented way. Like manufacturers of safety equipment, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, e-commerce sites, online meal delivery services and software companies.

And like I said earlier, the excuses employers are making…are more exposed. So, what’s that first one?

A Higher Unemployment Rate Doesn’t Mean Hiring Employees is Easier

Unemployment is still pretty high now, and it’s an employer’s market so I’m not worried about applicant volume.

Not so fast…even though you’ve likely seen an increase in job listing views, application starts and even submissions since the pandemic began, know that some people are still opting out of traditional working arrangements for many reasons.

These reasons may range from a new need to work remotely in order to care for others…to a lack of motivation to work because pandemic-related unemployment resources have exceeded their normal pay rate.

And for people who are underemployed and constricted to a specific schedule of availability due to a short-term part-time job, they aren’t giving your job a second glance if you’re not conveying that your organization is still working hard–even in an employer’s market–to attract and retain good hires.

The Pandemic is Still Impacting Your Job Candidate Pool

According to a Washington Post article referencing Bureau of Labor Statistics data in May of this year, “if you took the official unemployment figure, added in people who wanted a job but were not looking for one, and then included everyone who had been pushed into part-time work, you could say that 26.4 percent of people lost work or work hours in April.

But hey, things are better now than in April, right? Yesss…but let’s recognize that this year more than 1 in 4 workers were hit by the coronavirus fallout.

Navigating that experience had a significant impact on job seekers and that impact has lasting effects…effects that you must consider as an employer.

Strategy: Communicate Your Employment Opportunity Differently

Since there are no guarantees that you’ll convert applicants…even in this job market…you must communicate differently.

And I don’t mean just trying different media to communicate (although that is important), I also mean highlighting your solutions to the pain points that today’s job seekers want to alleviate.

If they’re reluctant to return to work for social distancing reasons and your job can be done remotely, prominently display that in your job description…and even your job title.

If you’re open to flexible working arrangements such as temporary work or variable working hours, mention that, too.

Dedicate a portion of your careers site to spotlight your response to the headlines of this year such as the global pandemic and the fight for social justice and racial equality. Weave your employment brand and core values into every piece of career content with consistency, variety of delivery method and sincerity.

And just like you’re not willing to settle for a warm body in a job seat, while applicants may need jobs…they’re not willing to settle at organizations that don’t have brands or values that align with their own.

Has your organization been doing enough to navigate this volatile employment landscape?

Interested in learning more? Watch this webinar on demand!

Check out the other videos in this series…

How Is Onboarding Related To Employee Retention?

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

Employers are facing more challenges than ever as they march into 2021. The pandemic, social unrest, and the general chaos of the past year have brought otherwise healthy companies to the brink, while decimating others that were unstable in the best of times. Our turbulent and uncertain era has illustrated one truth: the corporations that succeed will be the ones that don’t waste their financial resources.

Yet, decision makers often ignore a hidden siphon draining their financial reservoirs: high employee turnover. In terms of lost time, productivity, and resources, every employee that voluntarily leaves costs the company about 15 percent of their annual salary. That means a company loses $7,500 when an employee with a $50,000 salary quits. That percentage goes up when that employee has been with the company for less than a year. When the average company loses a third of such new hires, the losses eat away at the margins needed to weather unforeseen forces such as a pandemic.

You can’t change the news headlines. Luckily, there is plenty you can do to reduce unwanted employee turnover. The best place to start is with a robust and comprehensive employee onboarding process.

Importance Of Employee Onboarding

Onboarding in the workplace, whether positive or negative, creates a powerful impression in the minds of new hires. During those critical first days and months, new hires decide whether they will remain committed to their role or regret taking the position.

You invested time, energy, and money into wooing the perfect candidate. But if your onboarding process is chaotic, overwhelming, and disorganized, your dazzling new hire will be browsing online job boards before he has completed his W-4.

As you probably experienced during the hiring process, finding the right talent is a growing challenge. Eighty-three percent of companies agree: desirable, qualified applicants are harder to come by. There simply aren’t enough workers with the right education and skill set. The talent shortage is three times higher than it was just ten years ago, according to CNBC.

According to the Work Institute, “the escalating competition for workers and a shrinking talent pool are coming together, intensifying an employee-in-control marketplace.” With the job market tipped in favor of applicants, the last thing you want to do is send your lucky catch back to the job pool where you’ll be forced to cast your net again. Onboarding statistics show that the work of retaining valuable new hires begins on their first day.

The importance of employee onboarding becomes clear when you recognize its ability to dramatically reduce the stream of unhappy employees heading to the exit door. Done correctly, onboarding can reinforce your company’s image as being a well-managed employer with clear expectations that empowers employees and provides them with the support they need to succeed.

Employee Onboarding Statistics

Estimates vary as to what employee turnover costs companies. The Work Institute uses a modest estimate of 33 percent of an employee’s salary. When a recently hired employee decides to leave, the company loses thousands of dollars.

But a high turnover rate doesn’t just affect the costs associated with that one position. Organizations that habitually lose talent experience lower performance across the company. Low retention rates adversely affect morale and undermine the cohesiveness of the team. Your best employees often pay the price as their frustrations mount with an increasing workload.

Given the cascading effects of high employee turnover, it isn’t surprising that, since 2010, there has been a 46 percent increase in voluntary employee resignations. A third of these resignations happen before the employee’s first anniversary. First-year resignations are not only the most common contributors to turnover, they are also the most costly. It takes several months for employees to be productive enough to begin to offset the cost of their hiring and training.

Employee onboarding statistics 2020 show onboarding is your best chance to inspire new hires to stick around past their first anniversary, when their retention rate will dramatically increase. Your new hires feel understandably anxious about their new job. Not only do they want to do well, they want to be reassured that they’ve chosen the right company in which to excel. A well-designed onboarding process will let them know how they fit into their new role and how your organization fits into their long-term goals.

Despite the crucial role of those first days and weeks in a new employee’s longevity, Gallup onboarding statistics show that only 12 percent of employees feel their employer nails the onboarding process. Perhaps that is why, as employees plan their future, employee onboarding statistics tell us that 51 percent of those currently employed are looking for a new job.

Benefits Of Employee Onboarding

The benefits of onboarding don’t stop with employee retention. With the right process in place, your new hires will know more quickly what is expected of them. The early investment you make in their career within your company will pay dividends when they become independent and productive. Committed and motivated employees work harder, are more efficient, and have lower absenteeism.

When it comes to improving the employee onboarding process, the benefits of onboarding checklists can’t be ignored. Automating your checklist can be done within onboarding software so you make sure all of your new hires receive the information and training they need to be successful. You’ll finally be able to customize your onboarding packets for each position and its corresponding location. Your new hires won’t be bombarded with information that is irrelevant to their role.

Well-organized employee onboarding will help you ensure that you’re following all federally mandated regulations for new hires. Digitized paperwork means fewer errors and it is more easily retrieved. Security protocols will ensure only the right staff can assess sensitive records.

The advantages of onboarding also include setting the bar high in terms of expectations for new hires. You’ll increase their confidence in the management of the company. They’ll also see your company as a place where they can learn and grow.

The work of putting together new hire packets for all of your potential open positions that take advantage of the many strategies to reduce employee turnover may seem like one of the disadvantages of onboarding. But when considering the benefits of onboarding, survey how your current retention rates may be hurting your organization’s goals.

Employee Onboarding Reduces Employee Turnover

Once you realize its financial impact, you can begin thinking about how to reduce employee turnover through robust retention strategies.

Understanding why employees leave is the first step in managing employee turnover and retention. When employers wonder how to reduce employee turnover in industries as different as manufacturing and healthcare, the Work Institute found that the answers are similar.

The top four reasons employees leave a company are career development, work environment, management behavior, and job characteristics. Employees get their first taste of all four areas of concern during the onboarding process. Strategies to reduce employee turnover begin with onboarding.

Concern over career development is the most cited reason employees give for leaving their jobs. With employee onboarding software, you can present new hires with digitized training and online video tutorials at just the right moment to support them as they learn their new roles. You can create a checklist or schedule of training. You can even use triggers so that a training video won’t appear until the right time so that your new hires aren’t overwhelmed. When new employees are provided the information they need to succeed, they’ll feel that your company will meet their career development needs.

Employee onboarding is the perfect time to take control of your company’s culture and work environment. Task a new hire’s coworkers with various aspects of her orientation. You can even do this during the pandemic by having coworkers record a welcome video or schedule a virtual get-to-know-you meeting with their new colleague. By taking the helm of your company’s culture, you’ll create a pleasant work environment for your new hires and strengthen your team’s cohesiveness.

A comprehensive onboarding process helps managers understand what is expected of them as they welcome a new employee. Now is the time for managers to get to know their new team member. Knowing a bit about the new hire’s home life can help the management team mitigate another reason for employee turnover: work-life balance. Managers can also use employee onboarding to clearly set forth the expectations they have for the new hire and identify ways to help the new hire succeed.

Employee onboarding software will allow you to easily create customized new hire packets for each position. Armed with a packet that contains comprehensive and relevant information, your new employee can be comfortable in his or her new role.

The right employee onboarding process will create a good first impression in those retention areas: career development, work environment, management behavior, and job characteristics. Getting the impression right from the start will reduce employee turnover.

Impact Of Employee Onboarding

The travails of 2020 may have been unpredictable, but employers have always had to contend with external circumstances when making hiring decisions. The silver lining of this past year may very well be the enduring lesson that employees should be valued like customers. The financial impact for treating them like cogs in the wheel can be devastating when the world’s chaos starts circling your business.

You can avoid the often hidden, though significant, financial losses of high employee turnover. Done correctly, onboarding can lead to reduced employee turnover, meaning better margins and productivity. The best time to double-down your efforts to keep your talent is on their first day at work. Onboarding reduces turnover, increases your employees’ loyalty to your company, and inspires them to excel.

Photo by Campaign Creators on Unsplash

End-of-Year HR Budget Spending

in Workforce Management/by Nancy Meyer, SHRM-CP

It’s been a long, roller coaster of a year…and we still have another month to go!

The HR professional’s December to-do list is usually longer than a kid’s wish list for Santa. However, as with most things in 2020, your list is likely a bit different this year. It may include the same items from years past, but the pandemic has forced organizations to look at these items through a new lens. Take, for instance, end-of-year HR budget spending.

End-of-Year HR Budget Spending

“Use it or lose it” is a typical theme around this time of year. However, with so much volatility in 2020 spending, it is important to remain fiscally responsible with your remaining funds. In fact, fiscal responsibility should be top of mind for the majority organizations right now. More than ever, spending truly needs to be a cost-savings investment.

To help you effectively invest (not simply spend) your remaining budgetary funds, here are a few key questions to ask initially.

What are my company’s goals for 2021?

When we were celebrating 2020’s arrival at New Year’s, little did we know that our goals and strategies for the year would soon drastically change. Perhaps your 2020 looked something like this:

Pre-COVID goals

- Increase profits.
- Be the best known product/service provider in the city, state, region or nation.
- Reduce turnover.
- Hire the best talent.

COVID goals

Goals before the pandemic still applied, but new goals likely emerged out of necessity.

- Reduce time on tasks to maximize cost-savings.
- Minimize furloughs and layoffs.
- Stay operational.

With all the curveballs and changes thrown at you this year, what will your goals for 2021 look like? It’s a good idea to take the time and do some internal soul searching here. A SWOT analysis is a reflective strategic process that can help you make sense of 2020 and provide learnings to use in 2021 goal setting. It includes asking yourself questions like:

What worked well?
What did not work?
What could we modify?

Evaluate your answers carefully and consider the knowledge that you acquired this year, then determine how your end-of-year spending can support strategic goals and operational scenarios for 2021.

What will enhance productivity for my organization?

Our work environment has changed dramatically. And with no clear roadmap ahead, there are many questions to answer:

Will all or some of your employees work remotely?
Is remote work viable as an option, or will it now be required?
How can communication be improved among teams?
How can organizations improve the work lives of employees to make it easier to complete tasks?

While these questions may not be easy to answer right now, they are great topics to discuss with your employees. These discussions can help employees feel connected to their work and supervisory teams.

Organize periodic video or phone chats to see how work is going, and to see if outside environmental factors are impacting your employees. Unless you ask and truly listen to their answers, certain work and non-work stresses may go unrecognized.

What can be automated or streamlined to save money?

Employee onboarding is one of the many processes that have been upended by the pandemic. Completing new hire paperwork onsite has not been a viable option for the majority of the year, and so many organizations have had to rely on email, scanning, printing and other workarounds. This is obviously not the most efficient and engaging way to acclimate new employees.

Employee onboarding software offers the ability to create tasks and engage new hires with paperless onboarding. No matter where you or your employees are, tasks can be assigned among your team for completion. OnboardCentric by ExactHire also has the ability to integrate with E-Verify, which is extremely helpful as more states are requiring the use of this federal program.

Similarly, organizations have had to be creative when it comes to the the hiring process. Many have embraced technology, but are struggling to cleanly incorporate new digital tools into traditional hr processes. ExactHire HR Software bundles together several tools that support remote hiring, such as integrated:

- text recruiting (with no extra fees)
- email and attachments
- event scheduling
- video interviewing

And when it’s time to send an offer letter to an applicant, you can send and receive documents directly from the applicant’s record. Other optional integrations include background checking and assessments. Reduce time to hire and manual labor in the hiring process by posting jobs and communicating with applicants and teammates directly using ExactHire HR Software.

How can we show appreciation for employees?

Do my company’s employees know they are appreciated? How can we reiterate that to them? Unfortunately, social events have been hindered this year due to social distancing and varying local/state capacity orders. However, in-person events are not the only way to show appreciation for your teams.

Supporting each other has never been more crucial than this year. Some employees are juggling remote work (which may be new to them), while others continue to perform tasks onsite with health concerns about COVID. Companies that provide flexibility in work hours and environment will help relieve employee stress and enhance company loyalty.

A flexible work arrangement will go a long way in showing appreciation and empathy for employees. However, when employers also need to find a way to bring everyone together–especially when we’re not physically together. Gifting items to employees is one way to do this. Company logo items are a good approach; your employees can represent your organization with pride. But maybe a deeper look is necessary.

How are your employees doing at home? Are there any resources they need? Do they have the means to provide a meal, particularly on the holidays? If not, consider checking with local farmers or grocery stores to see if discounts could be provided for bulk purchases for certain foods that could be distributed to employees’ families. Support your community while supporting the life of your organization – your employees.

Budget Planning for 2021

If your organization’s funding is already allocated through the end of the year, take the answers to these questions and apply the information when crafting your organization’s 2021 budget proposal. Designate funds in your new budget to invest in resources and software that will yield a fruitful return for your organization and its people.

Here’s a virtual high five and air hug to you. It’s been a rough year, but we are in this together! Cheers to a calmer 2021!

If you would like to learn more about ExactHire HR solutions or discuss your unique hiring needs, please request a demo call. We’ll discuss your needs, answer your questions, and–if it makes sense–provide you with a tour of our software.