Workforce Management Archives

The Anatomy of a Perfect Job Post

Bookmark this blog post, and make sure you’ve completed this checklist the next time you press “publish.”

1. Your Target

With the popularity of job aggregators, it might seem pointless to worry about placing your job postings on boards that target a specific type of job seeker. However, job aggregators do have limitations; one of them being visibility.

You see, although your job post may be picked up by Indeed or Glassdoor, there’s no guarantee that your ideal job seekers will see it–the volume of job posts is just too great. So while it’s important to optimize your job posts for visibility on job aggregator sites, you cannot ignore the first step of identifying niche job boards and networks that engage job seekers of a specific professional background.

Targeting specific job seekers also extends to the careers page of your organization’s website. Items such as employee testimonials and spotlight videos should touch on all departments and roles within your organization. In this way, an organization will be prepared to engage job seekers for any and all open positions.

Tip: Use Google Search to find niche job boards that will be of frequent use to your organization (they might be on the second or third page of results), and then create accounts for later use. Store the login credentials and a short description of the board. Some applicant tracking systems may offer to integrate with these job boards if you request this from the vendor.

2. The Title

The job title is one of the most important parts of a job listing. Too often, however, employers simply use the official, internal job titles for job listings. This is unfortunate because “Junior Developer” is not nearly as descriptive or informative as “Front End Javascript Developer”. Remember, the job title of your job post will impact 1) the visibility of your job post and 2) whether or not a job seeker clicks on the link.

So go ahead and make a super-descriptive job title for your job post, just make sure it’s not so long that it exceeds a maximum character-count for search engine results. You don’t want to appear as if you are hiring for a “lead automotive mechanic”, when you really want a ”lead automotive mechanical engineer.”

Tip: Study your competitors’ opportunities for job title ideas that represent your employment need. You want to strike a balance between descriptive/enticing and readable ( i.e., not truncated).

3. The Order

A common element of many job descriptions is the “about us” section or company overview. This is an opportunity to showcase basic information about the organization’s products or services, as well as illustrate the company’s work culture. Unfortunately, many organizations make the mistake of placing the overview section at the beginning of a job description.

This placement can hurt the click through rate (CTR) of job postings because search engines display the first 160 or so characters of a page’s body text. Do you really want the link to your job posting to only have the title and a couple sentences about your company?

Tip: By moving the company overview towards the end of the job description, you can include compelling information about the job opportunity at the beginning. This will make your job description more attractive, helping to increase the CTR of your job posting and bring more traffic to your career site.

4. Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions are the short 160-character descriptions, contained in an HTML tag, that display under the page title on a search results page. They are used to provide additional information about a result–in the same way as described in the previous point. However, when a meta description is left blank, the search engine will default to show the first 160 characters as described in #3.

If your applicant tracking system or the content management system of your website allows you to edit meta descriptions, then you won’t need to worry as much about how your job description is ordered. Your meta description will display, regardless of what that first sentence of your job listing describes.

Tip: Just like your title, most search engines and/or job boards will limit the number of characters you can use. So make every word count by focusing on a jobs required duties, skills needed, pay, location, and benefits.

5. Readability

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a term thrown around a lot. For the purposes of writing a perfect job description, it refers to the likelihood that a job seeker will find your job post among thousands of other, similar job posts. What will make your post appear first?

A common approach is to write a job description around a keyword or phrase. The idea is that the frequent use of this phrase within a post will signal to a search engine that your post–and not your competitor’s–is the definitive post for a “Senior Digital Strategist.” There is a danger, however, to embracing this approach without considering readability.

A job description that is 500 words long, but uses the phrase “Senior Digital Strategist” 50 times throughout the post, will encourage most job seekers to instantly hit the back button. These posts just feel like spam.

Tip: First, create job descriptions to be informative and enticing, yet readable. Then, review and edit your description for opportunities to add keywords and phrases in way that does not distract the reader.

6. Images and Video

Talk of meta description, job descriptions, and titles is important. However, if recent history has shown us anything, it’s that people really prefer to consume information visually.

So in addition to providing an old fashioned, text job description, consider whether an infographic could convey the same information in a more compelling way. Include pictures of your current employees on the job, showing job seekers your workspace and how people interact. Many companies will invest in creating a 2-minute video that covers the “About Us” component or even provides an overview of specific roles.

While the production of this content may take a little time and money, many applicant tracking systems make it easy to place this content within the job descriptions.

Tip: By engaging job seekers in a different way, while also providing the need-to-know job information, you will make it more likely that they click-through and land on your careers site…

7. Nail The Landing

Having a perfectly optimized and engaging job description is all for nothing if your job post directs job seekers to a careers page that is lacking. And this can be the case…in a lot of different ways.

For one, while most organizations now have mobile-responsive websites, this does not mean that their career site–often designed and hosted by a hiring software vendor–is also easy to use via mobile devices. Nowadays, careers sites and online job applications must be optimized for mobile. There are simply too many job seekers who use phones and tablets to conduct their job search.

Your careers site or job description page should also make it very clear and easy to apply. This obviously means offering an online application, but it also could mean offering services like “apply with LinkedIn” or “Apply with Indeed,” where job applicants can save tons of time auto-populating online job application with information stored on those popular job search platforms.

Tip: If job seekers cannot easily apply once landing on your careers site or job description page, then it’s very unlikely that they will return. Utilize online application, auto-population features, and a mobile friendly design to encourage job seekers to apply anytime, from anywhere.

ExactHire offers applicant tracking software for small and medium-sized businesses that make it easy to create job posts that target, engage, and entice the right job seekers to apply for your open positions. Contact us today for a personalized demo of our solution.

12 Tips for Maximizing the Impact of Employee Testimonials

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

There’s no denying the power of social proof. When I’m getting ready to do a big project around the house, make a large purchase or plan a vacation, I turn to my peers, social media and review sites to help me narrow down my options. Not surprisingly, the same is true for job seekers as they endeavor to find an employer that will suit their career aspirations well.

So how do employers leverage the word of their existing employees to induce job seekers to consider a position with the organization? In this blog, familiarize yourself with twelve different action steps you can start today to maximize the impact of employee testimonials in your talent acquisition efforts.

Always Be Curating

“Always Be Closing” isn’t the only definition for A-B-C, and whether or not you’re a Glengarry Glen Ross fan, you still need to be ready to curate new testimonials at all times and from a variety of different sources. Keep your pipeline full! Here’s how…

1 – Automate reminders to look for new testimonials

If you can make the gathering of employee testimonials a new habit, then you’ll always have a compelling collection of content to showcase to job seekers. Use employee onboarding software to customize and create reminders to regularly collect new testimonials from newer hires. For example, build a workflow that pings a new hire a few months after her start date to invite her to complete a testimonial form. Or, schedule a call to get her verbal comments about what it is like working for your organization.

2 – Source from social media

Don’t wait for opportune comments to come to you–go find them where they originate. Scour social media for positive mentions of your organization by employees and then ask those teammates if you may turn their comments into an official testimonial for your website. Consider taking a screenshot of the actual social post so that you may use it as an authentic image on your website.

3 – Take advantage of special events

Think about specific events or activities that your employer hosts throughout the year and then use them as an opportunity to gather very targeted testimonials about your organization. For example, for an event that focuses on culture-building, snag the chance to interview a teammate about what “Monday Funday” is and why they enjoy it! Pair the testimonial with a fun, out of the ordinary picture from the event, too.

“I love working for a small company that offers me so much variety in my role AND the chance to impact the entire organization through my work. And as serious as we are about our work, I definitely look forward to Monday Fundays to have a good time and enjoy the moment. Winning the Golden Vase doesn’t hurt either!” – Jessica Stephenson

4 – Dig into email threads

In the same way your organization or department might forward a “happy note” from a customer that commends the team for doing great work, look for email correspondence with job seekers, applicants and/or new hires that uplifts your positive recruitment brand. If you find a few statements that would play well as a testimonial, then get the individual’s permission to use his comments in a public-facing testimonial.

Strategic Placement for Better Conversion

If you’re going to do the work to amp up your employee testimonial presence, then content is only part of the project. Don’t underestimate the power of placement!

5 – Pair comments with a call-to-action (CTA)

Rather than pile all of your testimonials onto a single “Employee Testimonial” page on your careers site, put individual testimonials near CTAs to influence your site visitors to take action to apply. For example, an employee’s smiling face along with her written testimonial next to the “Apply Now” button has the potential to influence more job seekers to start the application process than without that powerful social proof. Aside from placement near clear CTA buttons/links, testimonials might also be adjacent to a form job seekers complete to subscribe to job updates.

This practice of placing one or two testimonials near a CTA is more natural and effective than a testimonials page because it seems more legitimate. When you put all of them on a single page, then most people might skip viewing it anyway because it will of course only say positive comments.

Note for your marketing team: The exception to skipping the single testimonials page is when you see an opportunity from a search engine optimization (SEO) standpoint to rank and convert on a page optimized for “[INSERT ORGANIZATION NAME] Employee Testimonials.” If you do create this type of page, make sure you still sprinkle individual testimonials throughout other pages, too.

6 – Post testimonials on many of your best pages

Don’t be afraid of putting one or two employee testimonials on lots of different career site pages. For maximum impact, target the pages that are the most heavily trafficked on your careers site–whether they are informational pages about careers at your organization or actual job postings that receive the most views. Use your applicant tracking software reporting dashboard and/or Google Analytics to dig into data about which pages have the most traffic.

7 – Job descriptions can highlight employee comments, too

Don’t be afraid to put a written testimonial or embed a video testimonial within your actual job descriptions. Consider how this uncommon approach will help persuade the job seeker to consider converting on your job application. After all, if he knows a little more about what he’d get himself into at your employer before taking the time to apply, then you’ve removed one of the barriers to making that decision. Start with your hard-to-fill job listings first.

8 – Leverage third party rating sites

Embrace the fact that if your organization is large enough, you likely already have reviews and ratings posted about your employee culture, benefits, etc. on third party sites such as Glassdoor. See them as a chance to repurpose positive comments for your own career site and/or social media profiles, too. And by all means, address any negative comments or reviews about your employer by taking action to correct or improve circumstances.

Gain some control over what is otherwise out of your control by claiming your employer profile on these third party sites. Then, add content that is accurate (aka “from the horse’s mouth”) about your company (e.g. company history, benefits, awards and accolades, photos, etc.).

Create Contextual Relevance

Just like consumers, job seekers will respond more to content and experiences that cater to their own individualized tastes and preferences. Content that seems to be designed just for you will get your attention more than a generic testimonial that is boilerplate.

9 – Match testimonials to pages based on subject matter

Place testimonials on pages and job listings based on the content of each testimonial. For example, if you have an employee testimonial that details the richness of your benefits package, then make sure it is at least on a page within your careers site that lists employee benefits.

The more contextually relevant the blurb is relative to the page on which it is featured, the better chance of converting job seekers.

10 – Map the job seeker journey

Consider your candidates’ progress through the hiring process and introduce testimonials with the highest potential impact for that point in the journey into the experience. For instance, a testimonial that celebrates the empowerment of your organization’s client services roles could be a banner in the email signature of a recruiter. That way, an in-process Client Services Associate candidate would notice it when using email to reply about setting up an in-house interview.

Why work at ExactHire?

Or, include existing employee comments affirming that they made the right choice to join the employer’s team in employment offers to final job candidates.

Vary Testimonial Formats

Don’t forget that variety is the spice of life!

11 – Grab attention quickly

While a paragraph-long employee testimonial may be full of good advice, it’s length may deter some job seekers from reading it. Counteract this possibility by using words from the testimonial to create a snappy headline that can be bolded and placed above the entire testimonial. That way, a busy job seeker can get a quick idea about the topic of the comments before diving in to read the detail.

Here’s one of our own examples from the ExactHire team:

Positivity – With Clients and Teammates!
“ExactHire offers exactly what I am looking for in a role–a place to build positive relationships with clients and my team! Whether it be with our clients or any of my teammates, knowing that I can help others help themselves in their daily duties inspires me throughout the day.” – Nancy Meyer

12 – Mix up your media

Encourage employees to share testimonials in a variety of formats:

Use the typical written testimonial next to a picture of the employee who provided the content.
Shoot video testimonials when you may take advantage of a venue that might be appealing to job seekers (e.g. If you let employees work remotely, then have one shoot a video outside of her home in Germany!).
Do a podcast featuring a series of spoken employee testimonials and embed it on your careers site and/or in your talent blog.
Feature an animated GIF file and come up with a humorous meme to modernize your testimonials and prime them for widespread social media appeal.

At ExactHire we work hard.
But we also make time for gift wrapping shuffleboard races.
Join us and you could, too. – Jeff Hallam, Co-Founder

Experiment with different approaches to highlighting employee testimonials and test results to see what works best for your organization. The more prominently and positively you feature your organization’s employee ambassadors, the easier it will become to collect more valuable comments!

Employee Onboarding…or Onboring?

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

No one likes to be bored. But what makes people bored in the first place? If you ask my 5-year old son, he’d probably tell you “doing something I don’t want to do”. And that’s a pretty good start. To that, I would add the feeling of “my time is valuable, and this (whatever it is) is less valuable than my time.”

Providing Value

With the above definition of boring, we could say that boring onboarding is a low-value experience–that is, low-value from the employee’s perspective. This should not be mixed up with questions of compensation. Truly great employees are not motivated by salary alone; there needs to be value beyond dollars. So how can you determine if your organization provides a high-value experience though the employee onboarding process?

To help answer this question, it may be helpful to consider what a new employee may likely need or value. This will undoubtedly vary from employee to employee, but an onboarding process that is marked by the following qualities will provide value to almost everyone.

Clarity

No one likes to be confused. Confusion leads to doubt, and doubt can decrease confidence and increase anxiety for a new employee. Employers who provide clarity around initial duties and company policies will empower new employees to become productive more quickly.

The most obvious place to start is with policies. While not all employers have–or need–elaborate policy manuals or employee handbooks, it’s important that new employees can easily access documentation on items such as payroll, PTO requests, appropriate workplace conduct, and available benefits. Ideally, an employer will initially present and discuss these items face-to-face.

Clarity is also important when assigning initial duties to a new employee. Often, a manager may assume that new employees know more than they really do. When a manager unintentionally omits important details related to an assignment, the new employee may feel as if they are in a “sink or swim” environment–which, when unintended, can easily torpedo the employee onboarding experience.

Timeliness

Waiting on something is one the most boring things to do. But timeliness is not just the elimination of waiting, it’s providing the right resources and services at the right time.

For example, on the first day of employment, an employer could provide a new employee with a stack of new hire forms and a schedule of work assignments for the first three week, and this would eliminate a lot of waiting, but it could also overwhelm the employee. A more effective approach would be to provide these items as employees need them so that they have time to absorb and understand the information at a comfortable pace.

Yes, an employer should have resources prepared ahead of time so that new employees are not waiting. But employers shouldn’t dump a truckload of information and assignments on a new employee all at once.

Challenging

A high-value employee onboarding process should deliver an enjoyable experience, but this should not be mistaken for an easy experience. Great employees are constantly looking for ways to improve. They are motivated to achieve and add value to your organization. Giving new employees easy work doesn’t put their talents to use and can be just as demoralizing as giving them too much work.

By developing a plan for a new employee’s first few weeks, an employer has the opportunity to provide a good mix of fun, easy, and challenging assignments. This mix will ensure that the employee gains experience and confidence as they assimilate to a new job and organization.

Fun

Most of the time when we think of a fun onboarding process, we think about an employee’s first day and some type of “meet and greet” event. Maybe this also includes company swag. That’s all worthwhile and exciting, but if the fun screeches to a halt after the first few days, then the glow can quickly wear off for a new employee.

Fun doesn’t have to be special. It doesn’t have to cost money. And it doesn’t have to waste time. But a fun onboarding process does require a fun company culture; without it, an employer is simply creating unrealistic expectations that lead to poor employee retention. Which leads me to our final quality…

Delivering (on) Expectations

Although important, first impressions are easier to make than they are to maintain. And the quickest way for an employer to ruin a good first impression…is to follow it up with a boring onboarding experience.

After the initial recruiting and hiring efforts, employee onboarding seeks to meet an employee’s initial expectations. Everything from an employer’s job description, career site, hiring process, and interview will have made an impression and created expectations. Employee onboarding is where this is all put to the test.

However, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some employees will perceive a discrepancy between what they expected and what they experience. This is natural, and it is why onboarding must also continue the work of creating expectations. This dual objective–of both meeting and creating expectations–is one of the reasons why the employee onboarding process is so crucial to the larger idea of company culture.

Onboring

Despite the excitement surrounding a new employee’s first day on the job, boredom can quickly set in during the first weeks of employment. It is during this time that your new employees will determine what working at your company is “really like.” When employers develop an employee onboarding process that delivers high-value to new employees, those employees are more likely to stay longterm and quickly impact the organization.

ExactHire develops employee onboarding software that provides employers with a paperless employee onboarding process, while also ensuring that new employees and existing staff can efficiently collaborate on onboarding activities.

How to Automate Workflow Within Employee Onboarding Software [VIDEO]

in Workforce Management/by Harlan Schafir

While web-based solutions that can automate new hire employment forms and documents do exist, very few solutions also empower employers to customize their onboarding software platform to automate all the new hire and existing employee tasks associated with a robust employee onboarding process. The ability to automate workflow is one of the core strengths of the OnboardCentric employee onboarding solution. Two features that are key factors in the ability to accommodate unique client workflows are FlexFields and Roles.

FlexFields at work

FlexFields, as the name implies, are flexible, multiple-choice data fields that store unique information about each employee within an organization. These fields are customized on a per client basis. Examples of different FlexFields might include individual employee attributes such as

division,
department,
exemption status or pay type, and
employee level.

The values selected for FlexFields on an employee record drive two primary outcomes within OnboardCentric:

tasks assigned to the new hire, and
follow up tasks assigned to an internal staff member.

New hire tasks

Let’s talk about new hire tasks. We’ll group them into two categories:

tasks assigned to every new hire, and
tasks assigned only to certain new hires.

Tasks assigned to every new hire tend to include the completion of required federal forms such as the I-9 and W4, state tax forms, and policies and procedures specific to a given organization. Please note that FlexFields do not impact those forms or documents assigned to all employees.

However, FlexFields are involved for tasks related to forms and documents that only a subset of employees are required to complete. In fact, the criteria that define this subset of employees are determined by the values of one or more FlexFields.

For example, if new hires in the Compliance Division should be assigned items that other new hires outside the Compliance Division should not be assigned, then “Division” would be setup as a FlexField. Likewise, if new hires at the Executive Level are assigned items that hires at other levels aren’t assigned, then “Employee Level” would be setup as a FlexField. To determine the FlexFields necessary for your business, create a list of all the attributes that differentiate one group’s employee onboarding tasks from another group’s tasks.

Once your FlexFields are created, they’ll be visible as drop-down boxes for each new employee you add to OnboardCentric.

Using the previous examples, there would be a FlexField for “Division” that might have values of “Compliance”, “Information Technology”, “Manufacturing”, and “Marketing.” If “Compliance” is selected, that new hire will be assigned extra tasks that new hires in the other divisions will not. Similarly, there would be a FlexField entitled “Employee Level” that might have values of “Associate”, “Executive”, “Manager”, and “Staff.” If “Executive” is selected, that new hire will have additional tasks that new hires with other values for that field will not.

Roles for existing employees

Next, let’s talk about how Roles work within OnboardCentric.

Think of Roles as the acting parts your existing staff members play in the onboarding process. You may have as few or as many Roles as necessary to handle any follow up actions that must be completed by your staff. These follow ups will always be triggered by a task completed by a new hire.

For instance, once a new hire completes his portion of the I-9 form, that will trigger a follow up for someone within your organization to verify/approve that I-9 form on behalf of the organization. Typically this Role is referred to as an “I-9 Approver.”

Other common examples of Roles include “Countersigner”, “Equipment Provisioner”, or “License Certifier.” In each of these examples, the Role name used may be anything that makes sense within your organization. Instead of “Equipment Provisioner,” you may choose to call that Role “Supply Orderer.” The key point to understand is that the Role refers only to what type of follow up actions you’ll want that person to perform within the OnboardCentric platform.

Accommodating people with similar tasks

The intersection of FlexFields and Roles occurs in situations where you have more than one staff member performing a given type of Role. For example, let’s assume that you have four different staff members who each have the Role of I-9 Approver.

In this scenario, the FlexField values you assign to a given new hire will then be used to determine which of the four I-9 Approvers will be assigned that follow up task once the new hire completes his portion of the I-9.

FlexFields and Roles allow OnboardCentric to accommodate almost any type of workflow necessary for the unique needs of your organization’s onboarding process. We encourage you to take advantage of these capabilities so that you may maximize your onboarding efficiency.

Get started on the path to better onboarding.

Contact ExactHire to learn more about OnboardCentric employee onboarding software.

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Get The Most Out Of A Conference: Part 2

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

To get the most out of a conference, you need to have objectives, a plan to meet those objectives, and a system for processing and organizing the information you receive. These items should all be completed before you go to the conference.

All your planning and upfront work provides a foundation for success, but like anything else you need to execute. The following strategies will help you get the most out of a conference once you’ve arrived.

Arrive Early and Get Oriented

Arrive early. This sounds pretty obvious, but I’m not talking about arriving 5 minutes early…or even 15 minutes. Take a look at the conference agenda and look for the time when doors open. Sometimes this is not listed, so you might need to call. At a minimum, try to arrive 45 minutes early.

If registration is open, go ahead and check in. You might be able to do this before the official registration time too. Does this annoy the conference staff? Maybe. But that’s OK.

Once you have all registration items, walk around the conference space and identify the rooms and spaces that you will be visiting. For larger conferences, this will help you save time and worry later in the day. For smaller conferences…it’s another opportunity to possibly annoy the staff as they hurry to complete last minute setup. But that’s OK.

After you’ve gained your bearings, find a nice out of the way spot to look through your bag o’ swag. In part one of this series, I offered some tips on how to deal with that bag and that swag. But if you want the long and short of it now: get rid of what you don’t need and identify any freebies or coupons that are time-sensitive.

So now that you’ve arrived early, checked in, oriented yourself to the conference space, plucked out your happy hour tickets, and stashed your questionable phone charging accessory, you should start to see people trickling in. But more importantly…you should start to see the appetizer buffets filling up!

Take this time to once again annoy the conference staff. You can start by building a plate of fruit that ruins the caterer’s set presentation. But that’s OK. Spend this time munching, and then you’ll be free to do some hands-free, hunger-free networking as more attendees start rolling in.

With your hunger satiated, you are now ready to enjoy the conference. At this point you have some options based on your particular situation. You may want to use this time to network with other attendees, grab a front row seat for the keynote presentation, or coincidentally bump into a presenter who you really wanted to meet. Regardless of what you decide to do, you will have the time and space (in your mind) to do it.

Finally, make sure you give yourself enough time to take a good seat for the first session. Plan to be in your seat around 10 minutes before the scheduled start time for the session. Use that time to take a quick look at your objectives for the session and the day.

Listen for Key Ideas and Avoid Lengthy Notes

Conferences pack in a lot of sessions. Sessions pack in a lot of ideas. Ideas pack in a lot of information.

It’s important that you don’t try to unpack all of that.

It’s tempting to take as many notes as possible, vigorously transcribing presenters’ words and copying their slides. This approach is flawed, however, because your focus is solely on taking notes. Consider…

You may spend 5 minutes, head down, copying an idea verbatim…but what if that idea is not a good fit for your organization? You’ve wasted time and energy.
What if your notes describe ideas that your organization already implements, or has determined not to implement? You’ve received no value from your effort.

Your focus should be on connecting new ideas with your organization. For this, you need space in your mind to think about the ideas being presented, and to consider whether they could bring value to your organization. The notes you do take should be brief and powerful–just the key ideas that make you think “aha!”

By taking this approach, you allow yourself the opportunity to think about the specifics of how an idea can be implemented at your organization. Through this thought process, you may even generate “spin-off” ideas–ideas of your own that are inspired by your presenter.

You may fear that if you fail to take detailed notes, then you will lose vital information needed to sell or implement the idea. It’s true that you could miss a few important details, but most presenters are more than happy to provide you with notes or additional information upon request.

And what better way to network with a presenter than to follow up with “Hi Nancy, I really enjoyed your presentation on employee engagement, specifically your idea on using technology to streamline the onboarding process. Could you provide me with a little more information on your considerations for purchasing HR technology?

Network Responsibly and Take Breaks

Speaking of networking…conferences are great places to network. A bunch of like-minded, like-employed, like-motivated people all gathered in one place is a powerful thing. But let’s face it, even grown adults have a limit to their attention spans…enter networking.

Networking–both formal and informal–is the oil that keeps conferences moving. It can also be the silver lining in an otherwise dry presentation on HR analytics. But too much networking can easily distract you and wear you out, leaving you exhausted and unable to focus on presentations. Try the following tips for responsible networking.

5 Tips For Networking Responsibly At Your Next Conference

Set limits. It’s not overkill to actually schedule your networking time. In fact, scheduling time to network will reinforce your sense of purpose in networking and ensure that you don’t miss out on other important activities.

Have business cards ready, but use discretion. Have a good conversation, and if it makes sense, exchange business cards at the end of it. Don’t lead with the card…that’s presumptuous and can make a bad impression.

Sales is a next level conversation. I know…I know… if you’re a salesperson you gotta strike while the iron is hot…make hay while there’s sun…and kill two birds with one stone. Sales are tough, but so are first impressions. Follow the same approach as with business cards. If a sales conversation makes sense, offer that at the end of the initial conversation.

Be yourself. Unless you moonlight as an actor or actress, trying to be someone else is exhausting. Conferences can be stressful enough on their own, you don’t need to add to that by morphing into Don Draper. So be professional, kind, and considerate…and hopefully that’s pretty close to being yourself.

Take breaks. Remember that part about scheduling your networking time? You should do the same for breaks. A break could be a walk to a nearby park or attraction. It could be exercise, like going on a run or visiting the hotel fitness facility. You might just need to go veg in your hotel room. Whatever you decide on, make sure you use some of your free time to get away from handshakes, elevator speeches, and happy hours. You’ll bring more energy to everything else.

Putting It All Together

In this short series on how to get the most out of your upcoming conference, we touched on several ideas. You’ll find that they all derive from two principles: have a plan and manage your energy. Most bad experiences can be avoided with proper planning and high energy. Follow your plan, and when things don’t go according to plan, overcome it with high energy.

ExactHire has had the honor to present at conferences in the past, and you can always find us with a vendor booth at the annual HR Indiana Conference. Whether presenting, blogging, authoring ebooks and guides, we strive to help human resources professionals improve their organizations.

Indiana Is First to Bar Local ‘Ban the Box’ Ordinances

in Workforce Management/by Nancy Meyer, SHRM-CP

On April 27, 2017, Governor Eric Holcomb signed Senate Bill 312 (now PL 210-2017) into Indiana law, which will become effective July 1, 2017. This legislation aims to assist employers who hire within Indiana to have more consistency in the hiring process. Currently, employers must adapt to city, county, municipal and township ordinances that vary in timing as to when or if conviction related questions can be asked to applicants in the hiring process. This legislation ultimately prevents local governments from passing differing versions of Ban the Box legislation throughout the state. As usual, employers must continue to adhere to state and federal employment laws in their hiring processes.

Employers who hire in Indiana still need to include expungement language when asking about convictions within an employment application to adhere to existing HEA 1482 legislation. As discussed in this SHRM article, unlike local Ban the Box laws, a state legislature can provide employer immunity or protection if the employer hires an ex-offender and the person commits another crime. According to The National Law Review, SB 312 states that criminal history information regarding an employee or former employee may not be introduced as evidence against an employer in a civil lawsuit based on the conduct of the employee or former employee if the criminal history information does not bear a direct relationship to the facts underlying the civil action, or if the conviction has been sealed, expunged, reversed, vacated, or pardoned, or if the criminal history information relates to an arrest or charge that did not result in a conviction. With this in mind, the expungement language on the employment application potentially provides an additional layer of defense for claims against an employer.

State employment hiring practices in Indiana, however, will be changing. Governor Holcomb issued an executive order for state employment that would ban the box regarding convictions until the applicant proceeded to the interview phase of the hiring process. This too, becomes effective July 1, 2017.

ExactHire does not provide legal counsel so if you have questions as to how SB 312 affects your hiring practices in Indiana, please consult your company’s legal team. If you have any questions or changes regarding your HireCentric ATS employment application, please contact the Support Team at support@exacthire.com.

7 Tips for Embracing the 80/20 Rule With Employee Talent

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

I’m sure you’ve heard of the 80/20 Rule before, but have you ever thought seriously about its impact on your talent management initiatives? Whether you like it or not, the Pareto Principle (another name for the rule) is likely at work within your workforce. Therefore, as few as 20 percent of your employees are driving about 80 percent of your productivity and success. Want to increase that 20% and find all-star job candidates? Check out our Free ATS Guide to see how an ATS can prevent bad hires.

I started thinking about this principle after attending a very engaging program from my local SHRM chapter, IndySHRM, this week. The topic, “Total Rewards for a High Performing Culture” was jointly presented by Susan Rider and Karl Ahlrichs of Gregory & Appel Insurance here in Indianapolis. I enjoyed their presentation, and one of their slides discussed using a normal distribution (aka “Bell curve”) to segment the productivity of your workforce. This isn’t a new concept and has historically aligned with forced ranking performance management systems that assigned numerical ratings to employees grouped into three basic buckets–below average, average, and above average.

Taming the Long Tail of Performance

I support the idea that above average producers produce more per person than your large bucket of average producers, but it wasn’t until I came across this Josh Bersin article in Forbes that I thought about the “Power Law” distribution (aka “long tail”) as more accurately representative of the spectrum of employee productivity. And in my opinion, it is easier to support this because it optimistically suggests that everyone can move to being a “hyper performer” if they are in the right role. It doesn’t force the organization to have a set number of below average “1” ratings (on a scale of one to five for example). And, unlike a Bell curve, there aren’t an equivalent number of people above and below the mean.

One of the hottest trends in human resources over the past few years is to rethink the performance management process and abandon the forced ranking systems of old. The good news is that the long tail distribution model supports that move and won’t disillusion people who have great potential by forcing them into the lackluster “average performer” bucket because there can only be a certain number of “above average” performers.

The bad news, however, is that your true top performers…your “hyper performers” as Bersin calls them…may impact your organization’s success to an even greater extent than you thought before.

You Must Treat Hyper Performers Differently

Does the header of this section make you feel uncomfortable? As an individual charged with human resources, talent management and/or business operations in your organization, you understand the necessity to value, engage and respect all employees…both from a legal and company culture-enriching standpoint. However, equality and equity don’t mean the same thing.

If you challenge, recognize and reward all of your employees equally, then your best ones (the left side “head” of the power distribution) will leave and your below average ones (the right side “long tail”) will stay. Then what happens to your productivity?

So how do you disproportionately engage your hyper performers and your high potentials (i.e. on their way to being hyper)? If you don’t take action, then as Karl Ahlrichs said in the IndySHRM presentation, beware the sounds of smartphone pings in your office. They will be the precursor to your top talent leaving as recruiters engage them on LinkedIn.

Consider the following seven tips for motivating your most critically important high-performing employees. While many of these practices are good ideas to adopt for many groups of employees, their thoughtful application to the hyper performing group will reap the lion’s share of benefits…my estimate is around 80 percent, in fact!

1 – Understand motivators

When looking at your small group of hyper performers, don’t make the mistake of assuming that since they are all uber-productive, that they have the same long-term goals. One person may be purely driven by compensation; whereas, others might live for the flexible working arrangement you offer or the student loan debt assistance benefit you just rolled out.

Make strides to understand what motivates each unique person by using one or more of the following tools:

Have him take the StrengthsFinder assessment to unearth his five most prominent strengths. Then, try to align his opportunities with his strengths to bring him even deeper intrinsic satisfaction with his work.
If you used a behavioral assessment during the hiring process, such as the ProfileXT which shares primary interest categories for the individual, then double check that your employee has the opportunity to create…if one of her interests is being “creative,” for example.
Look back through notes from your employee’s interview or past 1-on-1 discussions to jog your memory on comments he made about what motivates him. Many organizations ask motivation-related questions during the hiring process and so you may already have the data at your fingertips. NOTE: Remember that a person’s motivators can change over time based on their current life experiences…so it doesn’t hurt to just ask, too.

2 – Conduct stay interviews

In lieu of an annual performance review, introduce the “stay interview” with the high performers in your organization. According to The Stay Interview by Richard Finnegan, employees–not supervisors–should set the agenda for these performance development meetings.

While the manager can get the discussion ball rolling using questions like “What are you learning here?” or “Why are you staying here?”, these are just conversation openers. As an employee answers these questions, the manager should ask follow-up questions to probe for additional insight in order to reveal the emotions or challenges at the core of the initial question responses, according to Finnegan.

3 – Communicate with context

My eight-year-old son recently reminded me that his elementary school has been studying Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this year. The fifth habit is to “seek first to understand, then be understood.” The key to understanding the motivators of your top talent is to be a good listener and probe for additional information instead of just rattling off the next question on your list. In fact, a stay interview is a great time to do this exercise.

While listening is an essential part of communication, once you’ve heard your employees it is important to work with them to mutually discover how their interests may align with the overall objectives of the organization. When areas of synergy are identified, plan opportunities for additional development.

4 – Provide new learning experiences

With the 80/20 Rule in mind, consider the potentially high ROI on additional training for your best performers. These exceptionally productive employees may be hungry to learn new skills or be exposed to additional insights and perspectives; however, before you assume this note their motivations!

For the employees who do express interest, look for opportunities to send them to relevant conferences and courses. Involve them in the succession planning process and identify them as high potential candidates for specific roles. However, don’t tell an employee he is the shoe-in candidate as it can create entitlement and be counterproductive, according to a recent The Joy-Powered Workplace Podcast.

Gauge your hyper performers’ interest in a mentorship program. They may enjoy learning new skills while serving as a mentee to a more senior person in the organization; or, they might be motivated by the chance to help train other newcomers and up-and-comers within the organization. If you don’t yet have a formal mentoring program, perhaps one of your hyper performers would like to take that on as a special project.

5 – Offer stretch assignments

Speaking of special projects, your best performers may be at risk of becoming bored if they aren’t regularly presented with new challenges. Brainstorm with your senior management team, as well as your high performers, about any potential stretch assignments that could create a new efficiency and/or revenue stream for the organization, as well as give your best performers exposure to new skill development opportunities.

These individuals will appreciate the chance to explore new ideas, people and/or areas within the business, and it can be a good chance to feed their need to excel. At a minimum, this type of assignment can give them a chance to reinvent themselves and avoid burnout/boredom that may eventually seep into their daily work routine.

Additionally, being selected for a special stretch assignment is a nice way to award recognition to these exceptional individuals who are trusted to innovate for their employer.

6 – Customize recognition

We’re all hard-wired differently. While an extroverted, competitive salesperson may live for an unanticipated public mention of his name during the monthly staff meeting, an extremely introverted and stability-minded systems analyst would be quietly mortified to experience the same form of recognition.

If you’ve taken strides to understand your employees’ unique motivations, then your next step is to create customized recognition opportunities that will be welcomed by each individual on which they are bestowed. Maybe your systems analyst is a die-hard fan of chai lattes? Great, have your next 1-on-1 meeting at the local coffee house as a treat for her recent accomplishment.

7 – Disproportionately reward your stars

Consider this statement from the Bersin article:

“Just think about paying people based on the value they deliver (balanced by market wages and scarcity of skills) and you’ll probably conclude that too much of your compensation is based on tenure and history.”

Does that statement describe the state of compensation in your organization? If so, then you may have some work to do to keep your stars with your organization long-term. If your hyper performers, the 20 percent of them producing 80 percent of your company’s success, come to realize that length of employment is the most significant factor in improving their pay, then you’ve just crushed their motivation to work for you.

So what’s the answer? Why not recognize the substantial achievements of your most important talent with variable pay opportunities? While your fixed pay grades may limit you on salary increases, there’s room to get creative with one-time bonuses for important goal achievements that move the company forward (and arguably…pay for themselves).

But remember, not everyone is motivated by pay. So consider allowing your hyper performers to choose their own goals and corresponding bonus opportunities. A bonus could very well be a lump sum payment or additional paid time off; or, it might be the ability to enroll in a course (on the company’s dime) in which the employee’s been interested for some time. Involving the employee in the selection of goals and rewards allows her to take on a level of risk that suits her motivations as well as have a stake in her own reward outcomes.

A word of caution: with the privilege of selecting specific goals and rewards comes the responsibility of carefully measuring success and mitigating unintended consequences. Be sure to avoid creating an incentive for these unintended cobra farms (see #7 at this link).

Now that you’re equipped with some ideas for connecting with your best performers with the goal of keeping them productive for your organization, your next step is to reach out to them and better understand what makes them tick. While you hopefully already have a general sense of this for various high potential employees, you might be surprised by what you learn, too. Good luck!

Get The Most Out Of A Conference: Part 1

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

It’s conference season! Time to throw off the shackles of your desk environment and go to a place where everybody knows your name (because it’s printed on your lanyard) and they’re always glad you came (because you paid out the nose for it).

Maybe you’ll be attending pre-conference workshops, cocktail hours, dinners, and concerts. Or maybe you’ll have a chance run-in with an industry thought leader. And then there’s the swag, all that awesome, eye-pleasing gear that helps you justify–just a little bit–that hefty registration fee.

And are you staying at the conference hotel? If so, then hold on to your briefcase, because it’s like spring break meets summer camp meets college dorm…for professionals! Woo-hoo! …maybe that’s just my past conference experience.

In any case, a lot of excitement surrounds conferences, and it’s very easy to get caught up in it. But as most veteran conference goers know, it’s important to balance fun and work. Here is the first part in a two-part series on how to ensure that you get the most out of your conference.

Have a Plan

About a week or so before the conference, take a look at the schedule of conference speakers and events. It’s probably part of your welcome email, but also visit the conference website to check for any late changes. With an updated agenda in front of you, it’s now time to decide how you will spend your time at the conference.

First off, it’s a good idea to review the agenda with your supervisor and colleagues. If you’re attending the conference with them, then you can “divide and conquer” the sessions. If you’re going solo, then their input will help you create a schedule that brings value to both you and the organization.

In addition to creating a schedule of sessions, you should have objectives for each session. So if you are attending a session on “How To Enhance Employee Onboarding”, an objective might be: to learn how to improve coordination of onboarding activities among staff. This doesn’t mean that you might not discover other important takeaways, but it focuses your attention on how the content can help your organization today. If a speaker doesn’t address your objective, then it becomes your question for the Q&A or a follow up tweet.

Finally, outside of the sessions, be sure to schedule time for professional networking. This time should also have an objective, like scheduling time to:

Make new connections
Maintain existing connections
Meet current clients or customers

By planning out your time and attaching objectives to it, you can avoid wasting any time and quickly begin to gain real value from the conference.

Have a System

Much like planning your schedule for the conference, having a system in place for gathering and storing information is invaluable. Sure, you could walk into the hall with just your smartphone, grab a swaggy notepad and pen, and survive the day. But you want to get the most out of the conference!

For Notes

Whether you decide to go digital or keep it low tech with a notebook, there is a lot you can do before the conference to make it easy to gather and organize the flood of content you will receive.

Start by creating a page for each session–if you’re taking notes the right way, one page should be enough, but go ahead and use two if you must. For each page, write the title of the presentation, time and date, and speaker’s name. Then write your objectives for the session.

These easy, proactive steps save you time, reduce stress, and help you stay focused on the speaker and your pre-determined objectives. Apps like Evernote, OneNote, and a host of others can also be set up in this way.

For Business Cards

Reports on the death of business cards have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the popularity of LinkedIn and apps for paperless sharing of your contact info, the business card endures. That’s good news for printers and the manufacturers of business card holders, but it’s bad news for people like me who always seem to forget and misplace them.

If you use a portfolio binder, then the solution is easy. Just use the handy little pockets they have. But importantly, make sure you remove any old business cards that you’ve received beforehand. You only want your cards and conference attendee cards. This makes it easier to recall someone you’ve met earlier at the conference.

If you’re storing your cards elsewhere, like your pockets, purse, or manpurse, then the same rule as above applies. But also make sure that you keep your cards separate from the cards you receive, lest you accidentally give someone the wrong card or lose a card in your stack of cards.

After storing cards, you’ll want to review them at the end of the day. At this point you can store them digitally and/or take notes about the contact, like:

When you met them
What you talked about
Any follow up actions you need to take

Once you’re finished with reviewing and organizing your cards, toss the cards that are not useful to you–harsh, I know. Just don’t do this immediately after talking with someone.

For Handouts

Like business cards, there are the handouts that you may have and the handouts that other attendees and vendors will have. Keeping all of these organized and handy is a challenge. Let’s start with materials that you might have.

First off, if you have sales materials and you’re not at a booth, it may be a good idea to keep those in your hotel room. If you meet someone who is interested in learning more about your services or wares, take that person’s card, and then schedule a meetup for that evening where you will bring the sales materials. You could stockpile them in your European carryall and distribute them on-demand, but that’s not a good look, as others will likely avoid talking to you, the travelling salesman.

When you receive materials from someone, it’s likely because you’re at the vendor exhibition or had an unfortunate encounter with the aforementioned travelling salesman. The exhibition usually provides bags, so use that or just repurpose your swag bag from registration. And for the salesman…if you have the cargo space and are legitimately interested in the material, then go ahead and tuck it into your portfolio or bag; otherwise, just politely decline. When you get back to your room: review, purge and organize the materials you’ve received.

The goal with handouts and business cards is to only come back home with items of value. If you take back everything, you just might overlook an important contact or piece of material.

For Swag

I’ve listed this for one reason and one reason only: coupons and freebies. OK, technically that might be two reasons, but anyway…buried beneath the branded notepads, stress balls, water bottles, t-shirts, and iffy phone chargers, there are often some great coupons and vouchers. It’s easy to overlook these little guys and sometimes they are time-sensitive–like a free drink at tonight’s happy hour.

Assuming that you arrive early to the conference (do not do this during a presentation), go through your swag bag and pull out all your coupons, quickly separate time-sensitive ones, and discard the ones you’re not interested in. Put these coupons in a safe place (not with your business cards or back in the swag bag). Enjoy!

A Plan and a System

Attending professional conferences can be exciting and instrumental to the development of your career.
To ensure that you get the most out of a conference, you should start by investing time in the planning of your conference schedule and objectives. Then, be sure to have a system to process all the content that will be thrown at you. With these two items in place, you will arrive at the conference ready to squeeze every last bit of value out of it.

In part two of this series, I will discuss a few strategies for getting the most out of the conference once you’ve arrived.

ExactHire has had the honor to present at conferences in the past, and you can find our vendor booth at conferences like the annual HR Indiana Conference. Whether presenting, blogging, authoring ebooks and guides, we strive to help human resources professionals improve their organizations.

Healthy Working From Home: Part 2

in Workforce Management/by Tom Branson

If you work from home, your friends have likely told you how lucky you are, or how they wish they could work at home too. Their minds immediately go to the benefits of working from home. They overlook the challenges of working remotely.

In the first part of this blog series, I wrote how remote workers can maintain good physical health by making a plan to avoid bad, unhealthy habits. However, in order to stick to any plan, a person needs to be mentally strong and disciplined. And as with your physical health, there are certain bad habits to avoid in order to maintain mental fitness.

Please Note: the following advice does not attempt to resolve, minimize, or otherwise simplify the seriousness and complexity of mental health disorders.

Bad Habits That Affect Your Mental Fitness

You’re Not Sleeping Well

This bad habit could very easily be discussed with physical health because it is foundational to your overall health. However, poor sleep can often be the first domino that falls in a series of bad habits that affect your mental fitness. Not getting enough quality sleep negatively impacts your judgement, mood, and memory. Poor performance in these areas can lead to further negative outcomes–physical health being one of them.

So any discussion of improving your mental fitness while working at home must begin with establishing a prerequisite for good sleep. The National Sleep Foundation quantifies that as 7 to 9 hours per night for most adults. Seems easy enough, but why is this a challenge for remote workers?

The late weeknight has many temptations: television, page-turning books, social media…a few drinks with friends. These are possible temptations for all workers, but there are little justifying thoughts that can pop into the head of a remote worker: “I’m working from home tomorrow. I don’t need to get ready for work. I don’t need to drive to work. I can sleep in a little. I can stay up a bit later.”

Five episodes of Game of Thrones later, you’re finally getting to bed at 1:00 AM. You plan to get 7 hours, but you’ll wake up at 6:45 AM, unable to get back to sleep. So you put the coffee on and start your day.

There’s no getting that sleep back, even with a midday nap. Your day is off to a bad start and you haven’t even started working. This provides the mindset for a host of bad habits to follow–some that are listed below or covered in part one.

Your Solution: Set a bedtime that provides for enough hours of quality sleep. And go to bed on time! To help yourself in this task:

Move to your bedroom at least 30 minutes before you plan to fall asleep.
Use that time to read, meditate, sudoku, crossword puzzle, or talk to a loved one, but NO screens (phones, tablets, TV’s, etc.)
Ensure that you have a completely dark and quiet room–blackout blinds, non-visible alarm clock, and a white noise machine will all help with this.

You’re Not Focusing

It’s hard to focus on a task when you’re tired, but there are other things that can cause you to lose focus as well. Stress–internal stress and external stress–can cause your mind to wander while you’re working anywhere, but at home it can become more prominent.

Internal Stress

When most people hear the word “stress,” they think of internal stress–worry, anxiety, dread. Often times internal stress is the result of outside factors associated with work, interpersonal relationships, or other ongoing responsibilities and commitments. It’s these factors that initiate the stress, but then it continues to exist in your mind.

When working from home, internal stress can often be exacerbated. Work stress is higher when communication with coworkers is weak or inefficient. Interpersonal relationships may be strained if family members fail to respect your home/work boundaries. And then there is the constant temptation to attend to house chores that you’ve been putting off–laundry, vacuuming, lawn care…that DIY project.

External Stress

External stresses are short-lived and immediate, though they may occur frequently. These are almost always a result of the environment and affect one of your five senses. They may also be a factor that contributes to internal stress.

If you’ve ever been dutifully working from home, only to be interrupted by the sound of your neighbor cutting grass, then you’ve been affected by external stress. That interruption might, in turn, remind you of the need to cut your own grass (internal stress), which you can’t do tonight because your child has a soccer game (more internal stress)…suddenly you’ve lost focus!

Your Solution: As best you can, make an effort to control your work environment and structure your schedule. One of the great benefits of working remotely is the ability to enjoy the coziness of your home. However, this should not be confused with working anywhere within your home at anytime. Set boundaries with the following tips:

Print out your work schedule and share it with your family members and overly neighborly neighbors. Let them know that you cannot be distracted when working.
Create a quiet, clean space with a quality desk and chair, free from distractions, to help you maintain focus on your work and keep external stresses at bay.
Lean on the side of over-communicating via email with co-workers. For particularly complex or important discussions that must take place while you are at home, call or use video chat.
Structure your free time wisely. Sometimes working at home makes you feel like you’re always on the clock. It can be difficult to transition from working for your employer to working for yourself, but by using your free time wisely to take care of household chores and personal commitments, you can lower internal stress while working from home.

You’re Not Engaging With Coworkers

Good communication with coworkers is important for productivity and to reduce stress when working from home, but it also serves another purpose when working at an office. Communication helps coworkers engage with one another through the sharing of experiences. This sharing can easily be threatened when a team is working from home.

We all know about the dangers of working from your email, or allowing email to manage your work schedule. Because of this, recipients often prioritize the emails they receive, and senders streamline the emails they send (no one wants to be the annoying emailer). Although these strategies help keep the focus on work, they also reduce the opportunities to share.

When working from home, there is no water cooler or break room for small talk. You really have to go out of your way to engage with coworkers, and it may seem forced or unnatural. The physical space between you and your co-workers may even make you feel that engaging in small talk while “on the clock” is somehow wrong.

Your Solution: Team bonding is difficult for remote workers, especially if they are working from home full-time. To a large degree, a team’s ability to overcome this really depends on their personalities. But organizations can facilitate bonding by creating a structure that provides opportunities for sharing. A few ideas for this include:

Schedule at least one day per week when the entire staff works from the office.
When a physical office is not available, have a weekly department meetup for remote workers at a coffee shop, co-working space, or library. Or have a team member host at their house!
Require staff to share a short, weekly “non-business” update with the team on Mondays. This could be a weekly “How was your weekend?” email chain.
Conduct remote meetings via skype or another video enabled chat service. Seeing each other’s faces may make you feel closer.
Host monthly, low-cost gatherings that are “non-work” such as a happy hour, miniature golf, or bowling.

You’re Not Motivating Yourself

Finally, your mental fitness can really be at risk when you fail to motivate yourself through work. No one wants to work in an office with a manager constantly looking over their shoulder, suffocating them. But the opposite scenario can be equally challenging.

Working from home by yourself can be, at once, both empowering and isolating. This is especially the case when communication or engagement is low or poor. Even for those who are intrinsically motivated, it can take some time to adjust to working remotely. Thankfully, there is no shortage of resources on self-motivation! But first, you have to recognize that your motivation may be lacking.

Your Solution: Take inventory of your current level of motivation.

Do you feel that you are accomplishing something meaningful everyday?
Are you staying “on task” on a consistent basis?
Are you contributing new ideas to the organization?
Do you feel that you have grown as a professional over the last 3 months?

The full answers to these questions can tell you a lot…more than just whether or not you are motivated. But what’s most important to know is that you are in control of these answers.

Answering “yes” to these questions will not always be easy. It requires self-motivation, goal setting, and discipline. And answering “no” to these questions cannot be automatically blamed on your employer. An organization can create a structure for you to succeed, but it’s ultimately up to you to get to “yes”–especially when you’re working from home.

Working From Home | Plan Healthy Habits

Sleep, focus, engaging with coworkers, and self-motivation are four key areas of mental fitness that are vital to maintain when working from home. Building strong, healthy habits in these areas can be challenging, especially for those who are transitioning to remote work.

A good strategy is to structure your workday as if you were, in fact, in the office. Arrive and leave at the same time everyday, and schedule breaks consistently. Do everything you can to simulate an office environment in a designated area of your house, and let your family and friends know your schedule–and its importance. To stay motivated, you can write reminder notes of your goals and post them in your workspace.

As you become accustomed to working at home, you can begin to make small adjustments to your schedule, like working on the patio for an hour or taking a trip to the gym over lunch break. This will make it easier to adjust to changes and allow you to enjoy the full benefits of working from home.

ExactHire provides paperless hiring software that makes it easier for teams to complete their work from anywhere. Our applicant tracking software and employee onboarding software provide HR teams with the tools they need to communicate and manage hiring processes effectively.