Select and Implement Software for Your Employee Experience

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It’s exhausting to build a business case for improving your organization’s employee experience through an investment in software. Unfortunately, it only represents the first challenge in realizing ultimate success. Convincing your organization of a need to improve the employee experience is a positive first step, but your efforts will be wasted if you fail to select the right vendor or lead an effective implementation.

In order to select the right vendor and meet the challenges of implementation, it’s important to have a plan that is driven by a timeline and aligned with organizational goals. But first, you want to establish desired outcomes that are measurable.

Desired Outcomes

Defining your desired outcomes for your employee experience may seem easy at first. In fact, you might have done a lot of this work while making a business case for change. However, before moving onto vendor selection, it’s a good idea to take a closer look at your current processes and ideas for improvement…from every angle.

To begin, compile a list of all stakeholders and their roles in the employee experience. It may make sense to put some individuals into groups, but you’ll want to make sure that you single out those with specific responsibilities, especially in the human resources department. Then, find time to discuss each stakeholder’s (or group of stakeholders) perspective on the employee experience. Some suggested questions to ask are:

  • What is missing from our experience?
  • What is included, but unnecessary?
  • What information or data is needed to support your role?
  • Can you access the data you need easily?
  • What data should have restricted access?
  • What has changed in the recent past?
  • What do you anticipate changing in the future?
  • Are there any other software solutions that may require integration?

You can ask these questions through a survey platform, but an in-person discussion might be more effective as it allows you to clarify your understanding by asking follow up questions. These discussions are also a good time to take inventory of the many different types of HR paperwork your team must process or complete. While this may take some time, it’s likely that you will emerge from the discussions with several new insights to inform your desired outcomes.

Finally, you may receive a lot of feedback about ways you can improve your employee experience, but you want to make sure that all desired outcomes are measurable. If stakeholders respond that your organization can improve the experience by “having more fun,” ask them how they would measure that. Or, ask for examples of “fun” and  what frequency of “fun” would make a difference. As you can see, your desired outcomes will not always come right off the paper. It will require follow up and a committed effort to uncover those factors that will really move the needle.

Timeline for Implementation

One of the most important aspects of effective implementation is having a thoughtful timeline. By thoughtful, I mean that dates should not be arbitrary, but meaningful and practical based on input from all stakeholders in your employee experience. If the timeline is too aggressive, it may cause confusion or, worse, resentment among your organization’s staff. Similarly, a timeline that is too conservative may delay early results that build confidence and energy among stakeholders.

A good place to start is in determining your milestones–big, time-based goals that are essential to success. These milestones will slightly vary by organization, but most will look something like this:

Communicate implementation plan to stakeholders

It makes sense that if you take the time to solicit input from stakeholders, you would also communicate the results of their input. Make sure that your implementation plan is communicated well in advance of the plan beginning.

Begin training and implementation

Often, organizations focus too strictly on a “go live” date. This makes sense, as that’s the point when a return on investment begins to accrue; however, a complete and thorough training and implementation phase is critical for maximizing an organization’s ROI in software.

Complete training and implementation

This may seem superfluous to the milestone above (or below), but having a concrete date for the end of training and implementation ensures that the time in between is structured and purposeful. This helps to eliminate unnecessary “padding” and holds both stakeholders and vendors accountable for their time and effort.

Implementation review

Another reason to have an end-date for training and implementation is to plan time for a review. This will be a period of 3 to 4 days when all stakeholders can express any concerns or questions they may have before the software goes live. Ask each stakeholder for a “go” or “no go”– just like NASA’s mission control room. This helps your organization avoid any self-inflicted hiccups in the days just after launch.

Go live with software

While it’s tempting to set an aggressive “go live” date, this is where you really need to trust your vendor. Ask a member of the vendor’s support team for a recommendation–don’t ask the sales rep. Then ensure that the “go live” date doesn’t conflict with the planned (and hopefully detailed) implementation phase.

Account billing begins

You may not have much control over this date. Depending on the vendor, billing might start before the ink dries on the contract. Others will not begin billing until your software is live. Some are flexible and will work with you to reach reasonable timing based on your unique circumstances. Regardless, this date is important because it will determine the actual cost of training and implementation.

Your organization’s relationship (or contract) with a software vendor can alter both the order and content of these milestones, however it’s important to account for all of these somewhere in your internal planning.

Vendor Considerations

Once you have agreed internally on the desired outcomes and timeline for implementation, you are now in a position to review possible vendors and more quickly determine which vendors will be a good fit for your organization. In discussing possible solutions with vendors, be sure to share your organization’s goals and how/when you want to achieve those goals.

Even when you’ve gained every assurance from sales reps that their solution is the perfect fit for your needs, you’ll want to ensure that the vendor has a few important things in place. The following characteristics of a software vendor act as insurance against sales reps who over-promise on their solution:

Intuitive Interface

All the features and capabilities in the world won’t mean anything if using software is difficult or confusing. Yes, customer support can mitigate this issue, but no one wants to constantly require extra help. An intuitive interface helps an HR staff remain self-sufficient and realize gains in productivity.

Self-service Capabilities

Until recently, most HR software focused on completing tasks for the HR department. The primary benefits, therefore, came in the form time-savings for the HR staff. Today, self-service capabilities provide benefits to everyone from job-seekers to candidates, and from new hires to veteran employees.

Helpful and Responsive Support

To reiterate, the ideal situation is to have software with an intuitive interface that minimizes confusion. However, users also need thorough training through implementation and easy access to support resources should any issues arise. Helpful and responsive support is insurance against the unexpected.

The desired outcomes for your organization’s employee experience may add to the prerequisites listed above, however having these in place will protect you from picking the wrong vendor, and greatly increase your chances of picking the best one.

Communication with Software Vendor

With a vendor and implementation plan in place, you’re now ready to begin work toward your first milestone. It’s likely that any software solution designed to support the employee experience will involve several people, maybe even dozens. This can make it difficult to easily track your progress if the right hand (client team) doesn’t know what the left hand (vendor team) is doing.

From the outset, prompt communication must be established as a top priority for your implementation team–internally and client-to-vendor. This can be accomplished through a number of means, ranging from the simple shared spreadsheet to any number of lightweight project management solutions. Even frequent emailing can get the job done as long as there is agreement across the board on acceptable response times.

Make sure you have a clear understanding of how you will communicate with a vendor before you begin training and implementation. This is not something you want to experiment with as you go. Valuable time can be saved by establishing communication channels from the start, and then using those consistently throughout implementation.

Realizing Ultimate Success

With an ever-tightening job market, more and more employers are recognizing the need to improve the employee experience. This places the challenge squarely on HR to chart a course to ultimate success. Selecting the right vendor may seem like the first and biggest challenge, however it’s only one part of the journey. HR professionals must first engage all stakeholders in the employee experience to determine desired outcomes and build a thoughtful timeline that is aligned with organizational goals.

ExactHire offers employee onboarding software that’s designed to streamline your employee onboarding process by using paperless forms and automation. Contact us today to learn how you can customize your solution to support an improved employee experience.

Say ‘No’ to HR Inertia – Make a Case for Change

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Making a business case for any kind of human resources process change starts with a discussion on how the change can make the company more profitable–though identifying the improved outcomes that lead to potential profit isn’t always an easy task. Furthermore, change naysayers may be mired in the mindset of “this is how things are done around here.”

In my experience, inertia is the most formidable obstacle to adopting new HR technology. It manifests itself in many ways, and in this blog I’ll share how comments ExactHire recently collected during software research calls substantiate inertia’s insidiousness. Additionally, we’ll discuss potential responses to act on that inertia in such a way that change is possible and more profit is realized for the organization.

Software Cost

Particularly in the case of a full human resources information system (HRIS), the cost of HR technology can quickly increase as modules for many aspects of HR are adopted by employers. While cost is a common objection that derails well-intended HR departments from exploring the latest technology options, in ExactHire’s 2018 Tech-Based Employee Experience Survey, a notable 40% of respondents indicated that their budget for HR technology spending had increased over the past year. Additionally, 48% of respondents had the same budget in 2018 as the previous year. Consequently, at least the majority of respondents aren’t experiencing contracting financial resources in their quest to find affordable HR technology.

88% of respondents maintained or increased their HR technology budget in the past year.

Nevertheless, cost is often the first red flag management throws when the topic of new technology is broached. Here are some of the stumbling blocks we uncovered in our research calls:

Objections

  • “We have been using our existing HRIS for 7 years now. I have shopped other systems, but management won’t agree to move away from our current application because they feel we haven’t gotten our money’s worth yet.” – Director of Human Resources, non-profit industry
  • “Our applicant tracking system was here when I arrived and there’s not a strong desire to move to anything else within our budget. As far as onboarding goes, spreadsheets and email are not ideal, but our lower volume of hiring makes it doable.” – Director of Talent Acquisition, software industry

Approach

Get at the heart of others’ concerns about cost. For example, there should be a difference in approach if others feel you’re already overspending for current software compared to if they are content with an existing software application and not in enough “pain” to make a change that may cost more.

Armed with an understanding of others’ motivations for objecting to change, consider how your organization’s future growth plans should impact any changes you make today. Ideally, the technology you use should be capable of meeting your needs for tomorrow, too. However, the optimal scenario exists when you can scale a platform to meet those needs over time without overpaying for features you don’t need prematurely.

Do you need all the bells and whistles now? If not, is it easy to add them later? Making a case for change is easier if you plan to implement functionality over time so you aren’t drinking from the fire hose–or paying through the nose.

And while financial “hard costs” (e.g. software implementation charges, monthly access fees, etc.) are the most apparent expenses associated with technology change, motivate management to consider new technology by focusing on the opportunity cost of not making a change and its potential long-term impact, too.

Scarcity of Time and Staff Bandwidth

In the same way that scarcity of time can be an advantage in an opportunity cost discussion, it can also perpetuate inertia. For many employers, allocating the staff resources necessary to explore and implement a new software platform is usually a bigger obstacle than an increase in access fees. A significant barrier to coaxing employers away from HRIS platforms they don’t like that much is time…the time associated with the implementation process and the training that stakeholders must undergo to use a new system effectively.

And even when an HR application isn’t liked that much, inertia may still be victorious as prospects implement additional native modules (e.g. recruiting, performance management, learning management, etc.) just because they are already part of the existing system–even if the system is poorly suited to the employer’s overall needs.

Objections

  • “I don’t know if we are going to stay with our existing software vendor…the more we tap into its various modules, the harder it is to pull away from it; meanwhile, the service is poor.” – HR Generalist, retail industry
  • “I actually had another vendor come in and give us a sales pitch…but the others in the room were reluctant to consider an alternative to our existing software at this time because the idea of a three- to four-month implementation process is daunting.” – Human Resources, physician group industry
  • “We handle recruiting manually with spreadsheets and do posting to third party job boards ourselves. We have applicant tracking, onboarding and other HR components in our HRIS, but they are too difficult to set up. It’s not worth our time to set them up. We would have to hire another full-time person just to set those modules up.” – HR Manager, portfolio company management industry

Approach

While it’s human nature to avoid situations that are expected to be unpleasant or even painful, to address the “change will take too much time” objection you must focus on the long-term impact of staying with a solution that is a mismatch for your employer’s needs. This approach can be aided by hard data on how many man hours are spent working around a system, redundantly entering data and/or manually completing tasks that could be automated for better efficiency. Then, calculate the cost of those man hours to come up with a quantitative answer for considering the return on investment for a new application.

Data is the key to determining whether a short-term disruption associated with software adoption is less expensive than the financial wake left by your existing software-assisted workflow. Bear in mind this takes a fatalistic approach of HR software vendors’ ability to successfully support clients through implementation in a reasonable time. However, employers’ fear of system change can be minimized by selecting a vendor with a strong track record of timely implementation assistance and ongoing support.

What if being short on time is significantly compounded by a small HR department? While you may be able to get over the hump of increased access fees, and you’re willing to dig in to switch systems, you still only have so much staff bandwidth to get it done along with all the other fires that pop up in the world of HR.

Ask this question: If there were no budget or manpower constraints, what would we be doing differently to support our employees and our organization’s mission? Even though you may think shirking the reality of budgets is like living in a fantasy world, your brainstorm will paint a picture of the ultimate vision for employee experience and clarify which HR-related tasks are most important for organizational success. Remember: retaining the best employees supports profitability.

With true vision in mind, process stakeholders have a starting point to examine the opportunity cost of individuals’ collective time. The true priorities of the department become evident and draw attention to the resource constraint that may be created by doing things the existing way relative to the cost of implementing change.

Buy-in and Support

Lastly, the inertia of static HR processes is often maintained by a difference in perspective between HR, employees and managers. One of the primary reasons making a business case to senior management remains a challenging task is because the language and analytics traditionally used by HR professionals may not be as intriguing to others in leadership roles. For instance, while turnover percentage and time-to-fill are reliable indicators to many in the human resources arena, these HR metrics don’t necessarily translate well to CFOs, COOs, or presidents.

Objections

  • “At the beginning of 2017, my organization needed to fill 70 open positions. We hired way more, but voluntary terminations have increased by dramatically more than the number of hires made–it’s the nature of the difficult work. In fact, we hired almost 400 people. Full time employee turnover is at 48%, and part-time turnover is an embarrassing 201%. Our management thinks we need to fix recruiting, but turnover is more attributable to poor experience. Our stats don’t lie.” – Director of HR, non-profit industry
  • “The three big barriers are: the bandwidth for our HR department to implement something new; getting buy-in from the field (it takes bandwidth to get buy-in); and, the cost to make those changes.” – Director of Human Resources, healthcare industry

Approach

Getting buy-in and support for technology change starts with HR software product owners getting on the same page as employees and senior managers. As the two comments above illustrate, different factors can be at play when it comes to stalled out tech decisions. However, the remedy for both objections starts with telling others what’s in it for them–and with language that is easy to understand.

Organizational decision makers care about the bottom line, and so remember that when attempting to alter their inert opinion on your existing software tools. For example, when adding applicant tracking or employee onboarding software, some HR leaders focus primarily on justifying these new applications by focusing on efficiencies gained and/or staff time saved.

While these metrics have merit, they also fall outside the common terminology of many finance and operations leaders. Because efficiency and staff time saved in HR are difficult to quantify and not as directly attributable to the bottom line, these savings may be discounted or dismissed entirely.

However, focusing on what direct impact those efficiencies can have on the revenue growth or profitability of the organization changes the conversation completely. Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that impact business outcomes and then describe how those business outcomes can be positively changed as the result of new technology implementation.

Don’t forget to be prepared; come to management with a solution, not just a problem. Record benchmark levels for your KPIs and organize your findings in a manner consistent with how management prefers to process information and make decisions. Consider a SWOT Analysis supported by cost projections in which you are illustrating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

It’s also important to get buy-in from existing employees–particularly those who will be heavy users of new software. And, in the HR technology space, that often includes all employees when you consider the self-service options available with employee onboarding, time and record keeping, payroll and performance management interfaces.

Spread the word to gather internal support by regularly communicating about potential change, conducting research with potential users and assuring others that due diligence now will likely prevent the organization from finding itself with a need to adopt new technology later–when it’s potentially more painful to do so.

Most importantly, create triggers to constantly re-evaluate how technology is aligned with your organizational goals and how it is impacting your employee experience. Take action on lessons learned and communicate the impact of changes made to others so that your HR technology system is considered legitimate and positive to your workforce.

It Takes a Village

Don’t fall victim to the tendency to put off what you could do today until tomorrow. In addition to rallying the support of senior management and employees, look to your technology vendor to help you make a case for change.

Ask your vendor partners if they have case studies, blogs, e-books or other content that provide tips on how to make a business case, as well as specific ideas on which KPIs might be the most effective in demonstrating the financial impact of a potential change. If it’s important for your vendor to partner with you in discussions with your management team, make that request.

Daunting as new technology adoption may seem, know that you and your HR team don’t have to go it alone. Even when your existing system isn’t necessarily broken, fight the inertia of not wanting to bother with change, or not considering the exponential impact that additional efficiency may have on the employee experience.

Is Your HR Software Hurting Your Employee Experience?

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Human resources technology is in a unique position to not only provide employers with employee experience data, but to also influence the quality of the employee experience, itself. For years software applications have allowed HR departments to more efficiently manage the administrative tasks associated with people management, but now through next generation interfaces, applications are enabling employee self-service in new and exciting ways, too.

From automatic prompts for new hires to schedule mentoring luncheons to instant access to an interactive, virtual organization chart, modern talent wants information on the go and on demand. But, despite the increasingly innovative ways in which automation can empower both employees and HR to process data, there should still always be a place for “actual human” engagement between applicants, employees, HR and management.

With so many options available in the HR tech space, and numerous factors impacting a successful vendor selection outcome, it’s no surprise that HR software often turns into a love-hate relationship with employers. The key to whether you have the most suitable HR software in place certainly depends on the degree to which it aligns with your people strategy, but also its ability to turn stored HR data into impactful workforce insights.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the following HR technology considerations for evaluating whether an application will have a positive impact on your organization’s overall employee experience.

  • Product implementation
  • Support and training
  • Integration vs. all-in-one
  • Employee self-service
  • Communication
  • Reporting and predictive insights

Product Implementation

You might ask how relevant the initial implementation phase is to the entire employee experience. After all, arguably it may only touch a handful of administrative users in human resources before the product is unveiled to an entire organization for use. However, how many of us have heard about painful software implementations that have taken (gasp!) more than a year!

While hopefully this is the exception more than the rule within your HR tribe, even month-long implementations can adversely impact the employee experience when you consider the hasty stop-gap plans that are used while waiting for a new product.

When selecting a technology vendor, verify whether implementation is likely to take weeks or months. Also, do research to substantiate whether this expectation has been accurate for other customers. If your plan is to implement more than one module of an application at different points in time, have a good understanding of how the vendor partner supports you in the first phase versus subsequent implementation phases (once the new client “honeymoon” may be over).

Support and Training

For many employers, the quality of the employee experience is influenced by the timeliness with which information is made available to employees upon their request. Some requests must be addressed by pulling data from HR software applications. Your organization’s ability to process these requests will depend not only on staff members’ ability to use the software effectively, but also the vendor’s responsiveness when your team needs assistance.

Take a hard look at your organization’s true support needs while thinking about the tech savviness of your own team as well as the quantity and quality of the vendor resources available. Will you be content to wait three days for a support ticket response from your vendor, or do you usually require same-day assistance? Is it easy to search for the training resources you need to learn how to use new software features? The faster you can get the information you need as an internal product champion, the faster you will be able to serve the needs of your own employees.

Integration vs. All-in-One

 

Should my organization adopt an all-in-one human resources information system (HRIS) or a series of stand-alone specialty applications?

This may be the most polarizing question in the HR technology space, and your preferred camp will depend on the needs of your employer. It may also depend on what you inherited from your predecessors when joining your organization. In fact, the chart below shows that many respondents from ExactHire’s 2018 Tech-Based Employee Experience Survey use both an HRIS and other stand-alone specialty applications. In fact, the two camps are not mutually exclusive.

  • HR Technology Product Mix
  • HRIS + stand-alone recruiting
  • HRIS + stand-alone onboarding
  • HRIS + stand-alone payroll
  • HRIS + other HR software
  • % Respondents
  • 38%
  • 8%
  • 13%
  • 22%

The following factors may help you determine which product mix is right for your organization.

Administrative pain points

Which pieces of the talent management process are taking up the most time for HR? When HR is buried in administration, “actual human” engagement suffers. If recruiting is the priority due to adding a new office location, for example, then a robust applicant tracking system may be desirable compared to a payroll company’s HRIS recruiting module. However, if hiring happens relatively infrequently but payroll is complicated, then an employer may prefer an HRIS with basic recruiting capabilities for the occasional job opening.

Data gaps and data redundancy

If end-to-end integration of data is the priority for your organization, then consider whether any sacrifices you make on features outweigh the opportunity cost of time spent on potential data export/import activities.

Or, if you plan on integrating separate solutions, understand how employees move through the virtual employment life cycle and make sure data remains accurate across systems and easily accessible.

Feature wish list

Will the functionality that applicants or existing employees expect from your organization (relative to your competitors) be available in an all-in-one system? Or, is there an application that you can use as your data change “single source of truth” that pushes information to periphery applications via one-way integration?

Growth plans

Do today’s tech needs look similar to your tech needs one to two years from now? If not, consider the scalability of any stand-alone applications and/or the ability to easily incorporate additional HRIS modules later.

Price

When evaluating different types of systems, think about what you need today and whether you are paying only for your needs today…or also for things you might need some day. Finding the balance between paying for scalability vs. paying for unnecessary feature bloat isn’t always easy. Spending more money on ultimately underutilized technology means less money available for other programs that may positively impact the employee experience.

Employee Self-Service

Customer self-service options abound in the information economy. From scanning your own groceries to using Alexa as your modern mix tape, consumers’ ability to help themselves is a killer advantage in the competition for market share. The same dynamic exists in the employment arena–employers that implement the right combination of personal interaction mixed with savvy self-service options are winners in the war for talent.

And not only does giving employees the ability to help themselves engage them, it frees HR to work on other experience initiatives. Additionally, it ensures the accuracy of HR data since it is regularly verified by the true authority on the data–the employee.

Be sure and have a clear understanding of how any software application’s self-service options may empower your own employees to do more. For example, look for applications that provide subsequent prompts for users to take advantage of other features that would be of interest based on their existing system usage or profile. By providing employees prompts to provide more information over time, software improves the user experience and avoids leaving employees feeling like they are “drinking from the fire hose” just to start using an application.

Communication

Think about your employees’ primary means of communication within the organization. Is it predominantly email, or do many conversations live in chat windows or even in Slack? Wherever correspondence lives, it probably does so because that channel is comfortable, well-established and easy-to-use.

The same must be true of your HR technology in order to engage applicants or existing employees to use communication tools to collaborate on the employee lifecycle. Consider the following questions to assess a software application’s communication tools.

  • Is it easy to email someone from the software application? And if that person responds, is his response also documented in the software interface?
  • Can users easily connect with one another and take action on pending items within the application (e.g. assign tasks, make notes, update progress)?
  • Is it possible to schedule events within the software via calendar integration?
  • Do other integrations exist between the software application, social media sites and other related third party sites?

The more your human resources technology aligns with the communication style already preferred by your employees, the better. You want the tools you make available to your workforce to enhance its productivity…not disrupt it.

Reporting and Predictive Insights

One of the most exciting aspects of smart technology is how it enables us to transform stored data into actionable information–allowing employers to spot trends and take action. Emerging HR technology goes a step further and uses artificial intelligence to analyze existing data to predict future outcomes. These predictive insights are the competitive advantage employers need to attract talent that is the best fit for the organization and retain that talent for maximum productivity.

Insights traditionally originate in the reporting dashboard of your HR software. And, the degree to which you will be able to run customized reports and use existing data to make decisions about new hires or new HR processes will vary across software applications. In fact, in the aforementioned survey, only 42% of respondents indicated they have no issues extracting the information they need from their existing HR software.

  • Reporting Ease
  • Easy to report on desired information
  • Struggle to report on desired information
  • Cannot report on desired information
  • % Respondents
  • 42%
  • 43%
  • 15%

Many HR professionals regularly struggle to pull the reports they need even though the data is stored in their system somewhere. Causes of this struggle are often attributable to

  • siloed data living in different systems that are not integrated,
  • a complex HRIS that doesn’t have an easy-to-use reporting interface,
  • redundant data between system modules that is up-to-date in one module but not the other, or
  • having access only to canned reports without the ability to build custom reports on demand.

Your software shouldn’t be holding your employee data hostage.

Best-in-class HR technology gives administrative users access to a virtual workforce explorer to pull incredibly specific data insights on their employee population. Additionally, look for more functionality to marry data from one aspect of the employee life cycle to another to make better decisions. For example, do insights about your best performing existing employees allow you to better vet applicants with similar attributes? More specifically, does your software application prompt you to easily make those correlations?

Alleviating the Pain to Improve Employee Experience

Employees’ opinions about their own experience constantly evolve, and even the smallest radar blips can cause significant declines in satisfaction and engagement over time. The good news is that human resources technology is your tool for measuring the employee experience and capturing insights on how to improve it.

If you have reservations about your current system, then use the considerations presented in this blog to begin evaluating your next steps for incorporating HR software that is better suited to your organization. In our next blog, we’ll address strategies for making a business case for new technology adoption.

 

Maximize your employee engagement ROI with these 5 steps

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Organizations are built around people, so creating a high-engagement work culture is essential for sustainable business success. In the last few years, more companies have started to benchmark employee engagement, hoping that this data will provide insights on how to be a better place to work. But, often employee engagement surveys lose steam after the initial data collection because no one knows how to act on the data, and so the results are left to collect dust until the next annual survey.

Here are five best practices for implementing a survey to make sure you get the most out of your employee engagement efforts.

1. KNOW WHAT YOU’RE MEASURING

Many organizations claim to measure engagement; however, few can provide a singular definition for the concept. This is a big red flag. You can’t measure anything scientifically, let alone change it, without first being able to define what it is.

ADVISA has synthesized decades of research to create a concrete and accurate definition of engagement, and then used this definition as the basis for developing our engagement survey:

Engagement is an internal motivational state to which people choose to opt in at work. We use the words “opt in” purposefully. Ultimately, employees choose to engage at work, and organizations must work to create the kind of environment that encourages the maximum number of people to opt in. Engagement is also characterized by three dimensions:

  • Focus – Engaged employees stay present, in-the- moment, and focused on performing high
    quality work and accomplishing organizational goals.
  • Energy – Engaged employees put energy into their work. They are also an energy contagion; they
    spread energy and engagement to others around them.
  • Meaning – Engaged employees find meaning in and identify with their work and the
    organization’s goals.

As a result of this motivation, engaged employees are high performing and put discretionary effort into their work.

2. RESIST THE TEMPTATION OF THE “DIY”

Building a survey seems simple on the surface, which tempts many organizations into building their own engagement survey. However, if you’ve gone down this path before, you’ve quickly realized that this becomes a trap. It takes a significant amount of time and science to build a high-quality survey, and for something that will touch every member of your organization, designing something in house actually presents a big risk.

How do we avoid leading questions?
How do we get honest responses?
How do we know if we’re asking the right things?

These are all important questions, and they speak to the reason you should have a partner who understands the science of survey design.

3. DEMAND SPEED AND VISIBILITY

After you’ve collected data, you shouldn’t have to wait months to receive the results. Between leadership changes, turnover, reorganization, and market shifts, a lot can change in a few months, and employee engagement is dynamic. To see the ROI on your engagement initiative, it’s important to act while the data is fresh. Quick access to your results is an absolute must when choosing the right partner. In fact, your turnaround time should be no longer than a month from finishing the survey. Make sure your partner can help you answer the “now what?” question that inevitability presents itself when data is returned.

Further, when looking at your engagement data, it’s important to be able to look at trends overall and to slice and dice the data into meaningful groups. Data should be divided based on factors like location, department, level, and generation. Looking at the data this way gives you visibility into micro-cultures within your organization and allows you to action plan for maximum impact. Beware the temptation to slice too finely, however. Digging too many levels deep can erode anonymity and trust in the process,
and cause analysis paralysis. Make sure your partner can help you identify the sweet spots that get the most meaningful insights.

4. COMMUNICATE RESULTS WIDELY

All too often, survey results remain a secret, only to be viewed by those in senior leadership positions. This lack of visibility decreases trust in the process and in leadership, and can actually make it more difficult to collect data from employees in the future. If you’ve asked your employees to take an engagement survey and provide you with honest feedback, it’s your ethical obligation to communicate survey results widely.

While not every employee needs access to every detail, providing some level of feedback and takeaway is essential. A good partner will not leave you with piles of data and no guidance for how to use it. Make sure your engagement survey partner plans to provide you guidance, recommendations and strategies for communicating and cascading data to the ends of the organization.

5. TAKE ACTION

Few things build cynicism faster than the combination of over-surveying and under-acting. Many engagement survey vendors will encourage you to collect survey data and pulse quarterly, monthly, and some even weekly! While rapid surveying can help you detect changes in real-time, I wonder what cultural changes people expect to see so quickly.

Engagement has to do with a real connection to the job and the organization and can only be changed through the hard work of building an intentional culture. This work doesn’t happen quickly, and REAL engagement can’t be shifted through quick fixes like company outings, more snacks or cool swag. So, rather than providing you with more relevant information, rapid surveying may only bring you increased administrative burden and cost.

The frequency of your surveys shouldn’t be dictated by the calendar, rather, it should be dictated by the work you’ve done to create change. Consequently, the most important part of any engagement survey process is what you do with the data. Having a partner that will help you create an action plan is vital for getting the most out of your engagement process.

ExactHire and ADVISA frequently work together to bring smart workforce solutions to mutual clients. To learn more about ADVISA’s DIALOGIC engagement survey and partnership process, contact us to start driving your high-engagement workplace today.

 

Erin Wood, M.S. is a Leadership and Organization Development Consultant at ADVISA, a leadership consulting firm that advises leaders on how to engage and develop their people for the long-term success of their organizations. Erin’s expertise includes deep knowledge of assessments, engagement, and using data to help businesses inform people strategy and solve business challenges. At ADVISA, Erin focuses on addressing business challenges and improving company culture through enhancing the areas of leadership development, employee engagement, selection, succession planning, and other talent management processes. Erin holds a master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and is an active member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Build Your Bottom Line: Accountable Culture in 6 Steps

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Top-performing companies understand just how critical the workplace culture is to their success, so they’re intentional and systematic about how they create, drive, and describe their cultures. They know that culture is the “enabler”—or the “hobbler”—for new strategic plans and directions. The companies with the highest-performing teams and most robust bottom lines make accountability the centerpiece of their culture. Their slogan, no matter their business, is the equivalent of “We deliver!”

A culture that embraces accountability fuels employees to deliver every day, all day, and all year. Employees who are accountable are more engaged: they show up for work each day and work hard while they’re there. Accountability helps to reduce absenteeism, lower turnover, and minimize time wasted on activities such as social media and office gossip.

Your culture may be the culprit if your organization is not meeting goals and growing. How can you turn things around and start building an “accountable culture”? Here are six steps.

1 – Add accountability to your core competencies.

Competencies are the skills, behaviors and/or core values that set apart your company from you competitors. Include accountability as one of your core competencies for all employees in all positions and promote the competencies throughout the organization (e.g., on your website, on bulletin boards, in employee communications). This will help employees see just how important accountability is to the company.

2 – Hire for accountability.

Ask behavioral interviewing questions to elicit scenarios about job seekers’ experiences with accountability. Hire candidates who make accountability a habit. For example, ask

Tell me about a time when others abandoned a task or project, but you knew that it was important to complete.

Then, dig for additional context with these follow-up questions:

  • What was the situation? Did this happen previously?
  • What did you do, and how many others were involved?
  • What was the outcome?

In many cases, past performance is the best predictor of future success.

3 – Onboard for accountability.

During onboarding, be sure to focus on the skills and behaviors expected across the organization and send a clear message:

Accountability counts in this company!

Here are some ideas:

  • Tell stories about the lengths to which one or more employees have gone to ensure that projects or tasks were completed on time. To ensure the stories are passed down consistently and efficiently, consider creating a video series starring existing employees that future new hires may watch on demand.
  • Talk about the rewards and recognition available for those who are accountable.
  • Let new hires know that it’s a minimum performance standard. Do so by sharing job success factor documentation as a part of your standard employee onboarding workflow.

4 – Build accountability into your performance management.

If accountability is indeed a core competency, you should evaluate employees on how well they demonstrate it. Have managers address accountability during regular performance reviews and work with employees to continually improve accountability measures.

5 – Train managers to model accountability and to manage fairly to that outcome.

Micromanagement may deliver outcomes in the short-term, but managers need to learn how to delegate successfully so that they and their direct reports operate daily with an accountable mindset—no micromanagement needed!

But don’t just tell your managers to model it! As an employer, be accountable to providing regular management training that includes role playing scenarios in which successful delegation takes place.

6 – Reward accountability.

Being consistently accountable is demanding work! Lift up as examples those employees and managers who go above and beyond. Encourage those who demonstrate strong accountability with monetary or other rewards (extra paid days off, special parking privileges, a gift card, etc.).

As you build a culture of accountability, rate your people on a 1-10 scale in terms of the percentage of goals met well and on time. Year after year, work to move employees up the scale. What would happen if the average employee moved from a 6 to a 9? Your expenses wouldn’t change, but the increased productivity would translate into more profit!

If you intentionally raise the bar by defining accountability in your culture, incorporating accountability into your talent management programs, and providing manager and employee training around accountability, your highly engaged employees will likely sell more, deliver better customer service, produce higher-quality work, and solve problems faster and more effectively. All of these factors directly impact the bottom line.

Nancy Ahlrichs
Nancy S. Ahlrichs, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is an author, columnist and national speaker. She is Chief Talent Officer at United Way of Central Indiana where accountability is a core value along with courage, respect and excellence.

Enterprise Zone and Employer Tax Incentives

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Enterprise Zone (EZ) programs have existed in the United States since the early 1980’s. However, most people are unaware of these programs or fail to realize their impact.

When new tax legislation is proposed or passed, the majority of people immediately consider: “how does this affect me and my family?” The focus is on personal tax rates, credits and deductions. But there are other, somewhat hidden ways in which tax legislation can affect us.

An example of the “hidden” impacts of tax legislation can be found by taking a closer look at the employer tax incentives embedded in EZ programs. Not only do individuals often overlook these programs, the very businesses that they are designed to benefit may not be aware of them either.

EZ Programs

EZ programs first appeared in the U.S. at the state level. Roughly a decade later, the federal government created its own program with passage of the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Act of 1993. Whether it’s an “empowerment” or “enterprise” zone, these programs have remained popular to this day. So what are EZ programs, and how do employers, employees, and communities stand to benefit from them?

Enterprise Zones are areas that local authorities define as being economically distressed. EZ programs seek to encourage business growth and stability in these zones by incentivizing employers to stay or locate there. Employer incentives take the form of government subsidies, such as corporate income tax credits and property tax abatements.

Though the exact package of incentives will vary by area, the goal of all programs is to improve living conditions within the zones. And while most states seek to do this purely through economic growth, federal EZ programs go further by also funding social services and engaging with community institutions to support the needs of residents within the zone.

Employer State and Local Tax Incentives

State laws define the qualifying criteria for an enterprise zone; however, they may also dictate additional conditions that employers must meet in order to qualify for EZ incentives.

For example, some states require that EZ employers must create new jobs, hire from the local area, or provide wages above a specified level. The purpose of these extra conditions is to ensure that EZ programs actually benefit the EZ community in a meaningful way.

For employers looking to participate in EZ programs, it’s important to understand the EZ requirements at the local and state levels.

Federal Empowerment Zone Wage Tax Credit (FEZ)

The FEZ program provides a federal income tax credit of up to $3,000 per qualifying employee, per year. Employers’ facilities or work sites must be located in the zone and employees must live in the zone as well. Qualifying employers may claim this credit by completing Form 8844.

Employers can determine eligibility and tax credit potential by doing the following:

  1. Identify which facilities, worksites, and employees meet the geographic requirements.
  2. Understand minimum retention requirements.
  3. Determine qualifying wages based on analysis of hire dates, termination dates, qualifying rehire dates and maximum annual credits.
  4. Calculate retroactive credits
  5. Complete appropriate schedules, supporting documentation and reports to provide to you and/or your tax accounting firm.

While completing the above will require a team effort among organizational leaders, hiring software and third party providers can help make this process easier. In many cases, an investment in software and services can easily be justified by the savings derived from tax credits.

The Future of Enterprise Zone Programs

A number of studies in recent years have suggested that enterprise zone programs, despite their great intentions, do not actually work. Some states have sought to eliminate or restructure programs in light of this research. In 2013, California repealed its EZ tax credit program, opting to replace it with a competitive tax incentive program.

However, as with other government programs, lawmakers in other states and at the federal level are finding that it’s harder to take a program away than it is to establish one. With over thirty years of history, EZ programs have momentum on their side. Congress recently extended the federal EZ program, retroactively, through 2017.

As elected officials change, however, employers who wish to benefit from available tax incentives will need to keep a close eye on tax legislation.

Disclaimer:The information provided is not intended to be legal advice. Please seek legal assistance, or assistance from State, Federal, or International governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct for your location. This information is for guidance, ideas, and assistance.

Movement in Equal Pay

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Over the past couple of years, the U.S. has seen its fair share of social movements. To make a list would easily exceed my 800 word limit for this post. But if you’ve read or listened to the news, then you’re likely familiar with several of them.

One of the interesting aspects of these movements is how quickly they generate support (and opposition). They dominate headlines and hashtags, are on the tip of every celebrity’s tongue, and they demand a response from elected officials. Many now view social movements as the best way to effect change—labor law and employment issues are no exception.

Recently, my colleague wrote about emerging and newly established legislation that sought to combat the gender wage gap. These laws were all established at the local or state level in places that have a progressive reputation–think California, Oregon, Massachusetts, New York. There’s no doubt that grass root efforts helped bring these early laws about; however, now a much larger movement seems poised to strengthen equal pay protections across the country.

Equal Pay: Challenge and Solutions

The first and primary challenge for any movement is to convince enough people that there is, in fact, a problem. In today’s era of “fake news” and “alternative facts”, this has become exceedingly difficult. However, there is still something to be said for thorough research, and one figure that can drive an equal pay movement is compelling: a typical, or median, woman working is paid 83 cents for every dollar a typical man is paid (Economic Policy Institute, 2017).

Some estimates of this figure vary slightly, but an actual gap is undeniable. So if the gender pay gap is 17 cents on the dollar, then how can a social movement change that? The answer has been twofold:

1) Seek pay transparency from employers,

2) Restrict an employer’s access to salary history.

Equal Pay: Legislative Approaches

The value in addressing pay inequality with multiple approaches has not been lost on policymakers. Beginning in 2015 with California, jurisdictions began amending existing equal pay laws to address pay transparency, salary history, criminal history, and other barriers to equal pay and opportunity.

Pay Transparency

The objective of pay transparency is to give all employees a clear idea of salary ranges so that they can better negotiate compensation. At a minimum, current laws seek to protect the employee right to discuss salaries and pay rates. The ultimate form of pay transparency (for proponents) would be specific pay levels tied to a position/education/years of experience–similar to the GS structure used by the federal government.

As of this writing, 15 states and the District of Columbia have pay transparency protections as part of Equal Pay Laws. It’s also important to note that all government employees and employees of government contractors receive pay transparency protections through the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA §7) and, more specifically, through E.O. 13665 . However, there are currently no laws at any level that include an affirmative obligation for private employers or federal contractors to make salaries public.

Equal Pay and Pay Transparency Protections by State

Source: United States Department of Labor

 

Salary History

Laws that prohibit an employer from seeking a job candidate’s salary history help to ensure that one instance of pay inequality does not forever penalize an individual. While laws of this nature do not directly address current wage disparities, they do act as a sort of “reset” for job candidates so that future employers must use other factors as a starting point for salary negotiations.

As of this writing, there are 9 jurisdictions (only 4 states) with legislation that bans employers from seeking a candidate’s salary history. These bans vary as to whether they apply to the public, private, or all employers. Some jurisdictions have not yet enacted these bans or will not enforce them for some time, and some will not provide employees with the right to file an action in court for several years to come. However, employers in these jurisdictions are already making adjustments to processes and applications to avoid future liability.

Equal Pay and Salary History Bans by State

Equal Pay: Employer Considerations

While employers likely see legislative movement on equal pay as slow, they would be wise to keep a closer eye on the social movements that surround them. The issues driving pay transparency and salary history remain prominent in the media and in the minds of voters. With several states and jurisdictions having already put a stake in the ground, legislators will be under increased pressure to follow suit and strengthen their respective equal pay laws.

Legal requirements aside, employers may also have another reason to make changes to salary structure and employment policies. Finding and hiring great talent is not getting easier. In this tight labor market, proactive employers stand to gain a competitive advantage in hiring by implementing (and marketing) employment policies that embrace pay transparency and genuinely seek to close the gender pay gap.

So whether it’s the legislature or the labor market that drives equal pay, it will ultimately depend on enough people–job seekers, candidates, and employees–insisting on fairness and the policies and protections to ensure it. Once this happens, employers that have had trouble making the right moral decision, will have an easy business decision to make.

Are You Ready for an I-9 Audit?

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U.S. immigration policy has always been a hot issue on the campaign trail and in the halls of Congress. However, in recent months, it has risen to become the issue as lawmakers seek to reach a bipartisan agreement on comprehensive immigration reform.

In the background, a dramatic shift is already taking place in regard to the enforcement of federal immigration laws currently on the books. One area that should be of particular importance to employers is the planned increase in I-9 audits by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

In an October 2017 speech to the Heritage Foundation, the Acting Director of ICE, Thomas Homan, stated that ICE has already “increased the number of inspections and worksite operations,” and that employers would “see that significantly increase this next fiscal year.” According to Mr. Homan, the plan is to increase the time spent on worksite enforcement in 2018 “by four to five times” current levels.

So with an increase in enforcement, need employers worry? That depends on their compliance with the Federal Form I-9 requirements established by the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA).

Number of I-9 Inspections Per Year

2014: 1,320
2015: 435
2016: 1,279
2017: 1,360
2018 (projected): 6,120

What Are the Federal Form I-9 Requirements?

The Form I-9 is used to verify employment authorization and identity of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire, both citizens and non-citizens alike. Employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form within three business days of an employee’s first day of employment. A summary of the general requirements follows:

For Employees (Section 1 Form I-9)

  • Attest to their employment authorization
  • Present acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization
  • Complete the above on first day of paid work

For Employers (Section 2 and 3 Form I-9)

  • Examine employee documents to ensure that they are genuine and relate to the employee
  • Record information from submitted documents on the Form I-9
  • Retain Form I-9 and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers
  • Complete above within three days of employee beginning paid work

For a more detailed overview of Form I-9 requirements, visit the USCIS website.

What Are the Penalties for Non-Compliance?

Violation of  Form I-9 requirements can happen for a number of reasons, so ICE focuses on the employers intent when determining penalties. This means that violations will fall into two groups: intentional violation and unintentional violation. Within these groups the penalty per violation will vary based on percentage of employees that are in violation and whether the employer is a repeat violator. Additional enhancements (increases) or mitigations (decreases) to the fine may be applied as well.

Penalties for Substantive and Uncorrected Technical Violations (unintentional)

Employers who fail to obtain the appropriate documentation from new employees can be fined between $220 and  $1,862 for each violation. These fines are levied for “substantive and uncorrected technical” violations when an employer unknowingly makes an error or experiences a technical error in completing the Form I-9.

Penalties for Knowingly Hire / Continuing to Employ Violations (intentional)

If an employer hired or continues to employ unauthorized individuals, they will be fined between $548 to $21,916 per violation. These fines are for “Knowingly Hire/Continuing to Employ” violations when the employer has an intent to hire or maintain an illegal workforce.

Penalty Enhancement and Mitigation

Within each of the two intent groups above,  ICE considers five factors that can increase or decrease the fine. These are the size of the business, good faith effort to comply, seriousness of violation, whether the violation involved unauthorized workers, and history of previous violations. Combined, these factors can increase the standard fines by up to 50% per violation.

 Total Fines Levied Per Year

2014: $1 Million
2015: $4.62 Million
2016: $2 Million
2017: $97.6 Million

How Can Employers Avoid I-9 Violations?

For employers who don’t want ICE knocking at their doors, the first and obvious step is to not intentionally hire unauthorized workers. The second, more difficult step is to have an air-tight, compliant process in place for completing the I-9 requirements. So what does that look like?

  • Remove all I-9 records from personnel files and organize them in a separate I-9 binder–or store them digitally. This makes it easy to access the I-9 files all at once in the event that ICE conducts an inspection.
  • Assign a member of you HR team to serve as the I-9 process owner. It will be their responsibility to oversee the I-9 process. Ensure that this person receives annual training on the I-9 requirements.
  • Create an onboarding timeline that mandates the completion of I-9 requirements before other activities can be advanced. Remember: new hires must complete Section 1 on their first day of work, and employers must complete Section 2 no later than the employee’s third day of employment.
  • Ensure that I-9 documents are verified in person, making it easier to approve the documents as legitimate and reasonably relating to the employee being verified. Never accept faxed or scanned documents for I-9 purposes.
  • Allow new hires to choose the I-9 documents that they will present from the list of acceptable documents. This helps employers avoid any issues with document abuse.
  • Accept only the minimum number of supporting documents required–do not accept more than needed–but allow the new hire to choose which ones to submit. This, too, helps employers avoid any issues with document abuse.
  • For employees who state that their work authorization will expire, record the expiration date in your calendar and set a reminder. Employee onboarding software or an online I-9 system can be valuable in automating these reminders.
  • Review your process annually. Employers should ask the human resources team to present and explain their I-9 process. This presentation can be combined with annual training on common I-9 issues or the conduction of an internal I-9 audit.

It’s important to know that the majority of  I-9 violations are substantive and the result of human or technical error. This means that having a solid process in place, annual training, and an internal audit will protect most employers from unknowingly committing any violations. When considering the fines that could result from just one I-9 violation, employee onboarding software that automates the I-9 process can prove to be a very smart investment.

To learn more about ExactHire’s employee onboarding software and the ways in which it can protect your organization from compliance risks, contact us today.

Disclaimer:The information provided is not intended to be legal advice.Please seek legal assistance, or assistance from State, Federal, or International governmental resources, to make certain your legal interpretation and decisions are correct for your location. This information is for guidance, ideas, and assistance.

Image Credit: Audit by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images