And there’s one more: automation. With the advent of generative and other AI tools rapidly populating the techsphere, automation in HR is becoming the next big technological development affecting your work.

The growing importance of automation in HR

So what exactly is automation in HR? It refers to the use of tech to automate manual and repetitive tasks, including recruitment, onboarding, employee data management, performance management, and analytics. Recent advances have made it easier and more cost-effective for companies to automate these processes, freeing up valuable resources that can be directed towards more strategic activities.

But you know what? The growing importance of automation in HR isn’t limited to just that – it goes beyond cost saving and resource allocation.Let’s look at two benefits for starters:

Greater accuracy

One of the key benefits of automation in HR is increased accuracy and consistency. Robots don’t make mistakes – humans do. Technology is simply designed to replicate what humans do at scale.

Think about the vast volume of manual processes that sucks up your day hours, such as resume screening, organizing interviews, collecting information from hiring managers, defining the ideal candidate profile, and more. All of that is subject to error and bias and it’s more so because we do get a little sloppy when we’re doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Automation helps eliminate all that by ensuring that tasks are completed in a consistent and standardized manner – even in the wee hours of the early morning when humans are just completely checked out of the system.

So… automation makes for smoother, more consistent and accurate processes.

Increased compliance

Here’s something that keeps people up at night – especially those whose heads are on the chopping block if their company gets in a legal bind when managing employees. Your in-house counsel can only do so much to protect you in your HR processes that are subject to numerous laws.

Those laws include the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), and much, much more.

Compliance with these laws can be a complex and time-consuming process, but automation can help to ensure that all processes are in compliance with the relevant regulations – including automatic reporting, data monitoring and so on.

Streamlining recruitment and onboarding processes

One of the key benefits of automation in HR is the ability to streamline recruitment and onboarding processes, which can be time-consuming and often require significant resources. Automation can help to make these processes more efficient, less error-prone and more engaging for candidates.

Efficient Applicant Tracking Systems

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are a type of software that help organizations manage and streamline their recruitment process. With an ATS, recruiters can easily advertise job openings, receive and filter resumes, track candidate progress and more.

An ATS can also help to eliminate bias in the recruitment process by automatically screening resumes for specific keywords, qualifications and experience. This ensures that all candidates are evaluated on the same criteria, making the recruitment process fairer and more objective.

Furthermore, an ATS can provide valuable insights into the recruitment process, such as the effectiveness of job postings and the sources of the most successful candidates. This data can be used to refine and improve recruitment strategies, leading to better hires and a more efficient recruitment process overall.

Automated interview scheduling

The automation of interview scheduling can save recruiters a significant amount of time by eliminating the need for manual scheduling. Advanced scheduling tools can even find the best available time slots that work for both the recruiter and candidate.

Automated interview scheduling can also help to reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations by sending out automated reminders and confirmations to candidates. This ensures that both recruiters and candidates are prepared and ready for the interview, leading to a more efficient and effective process overall.

Simplifying employee onboarding

The automation of employee onboarding processes can help to make the experience smoother and more engaging for new hires. Employees can complete paperwork, participate in training sessions and obtain necessary documentation from their managers online, saving significant amounts of time and paper-based documentation.

Automated onboarding can also help to ensure that all new hires receive the same information and training, leading to a more consistent and effective onboarding experience. This can help to reduce turnover rates and improve employee satisfaction and retention.

In addition, automated onboarding can help to reduce errors and omissions in the onboarding process by providing a checklist of tasks and documents that need to be completed. This ensures that all necessary steps are taken, leading to a more efficient and effective onboarding process overall.

Enhancing employee engagement and performance management

Automation in HR can improve employee engagement and performance management by incorporating real-time feedback systems and data-driven performance evaluations. In addition to these benefits, there are other ways that automation can improve the workplace.

Real-time feedback and recognition tools

Real-time feedback and recognition tools help employees to stay motivated and engaged by providing instant feedback on their work. These tools ensure more frequent feedback cycles and can help create a culture of recognition and continuous improvement across the organization. In addition, these tools can help managers to identify high-performing employees and provide them with opportunities for career advancement.

For example, a real-time feedback tool could be used to track the progress of a sales team. The tool could provide instant feedback on the number of sales made, the average sale value, and the conversion rate. This information could be used to identify top performers and provide them with additional training and development opportunities.

Data-driven performance evaluations

Data-driven performance evaluations leverage algorithms and data analytics to evaluate employees’ performance more objectively, with less room for human bias. Data analysis can help organizations identify areas where employees may require training or upskilling, helping to improve their overall productivity and performance.

In addition, data-driven performance evaluations can help managers to identify employees who are struggling and provide them with targeted support.

For example, a data-driven performance evaluation tool could be used to assess the performance of a customer service team. The tool could analyze customer feedback, call logs, and response times to identify areas where the team is performing well and areas where improvement is needed. This information could be used to create personalized development plans for each team member.

Personalized learning and development plans

Personalized learning and development plans help employees to grow their skills and knowledge based on their individual strengths and vulnerabilities. These plans can be tailored to support employees in acquiring the skills and knowledge that they will need for their current role as well as future opportunities.

For example, a personalized learning and development plan could be created for a software developer. The plan could include training on new programming languages, attending industry conferences, and working on projects outside of their usual scope. This plan could help the developer to stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends and technologies, increasing their value to the organization.

In conclusion, automation in HR can provide many benefits to organizations, including improved employee engagement and performance management. By incorporating real-time feedback systems, data-driven performance evaluations, and personalized learning and development plans, organizations can create a culture of continuous improvement and support their employees in achieving their full potential.

Improving HR data management and analytics

HR automation also helps to improve the way that organizations manage their data, making it easier to monitor and analyze employee data, and drawing actionable insights to make better decisions.

With the increasing amount of data generated by HR departments, it is more important than ever to have an efficient and effective way to manage it. This is where HR automation comes in, providing a way to streamline data management and analysis.

Centralized employee information systems

A centralized employee information system can help organizations to manage employee data more efficiently. They can track employee benefits, job history, and training records and easily access them when needed.

Having a centralized system also ensures that employee data is consistent and up-to-date. This can help to improve communication between departments and reduce errors that can occur when data is stored in multiple locations.

Furthermore, a centralized system can help to ensure compliance with regulations and policies, as all employee data is stored in one place and can be easily accessed for audits or other purposes.

Advanced workforce analytics

Advanced workforce analytics can help organizations to analyze employee data to gain valuable insights, such as trends around turnover, employee satisfaction or workforce skills.

By using advanced analytics tools, HR departments can identify patterns and trends in employee data that may not be immediately apparent. For example, they may discover that certain departments have higher turnover rates than others, or that employees with certain skills are more likely to be promoted.

These insights can help HR departments to make more informed decisions around recruitment, retention, and training. For example, if they identify a trend of high turnover in a particular department, they can investigate the underlying causes and take steps to address them.

Predictive HR insights for decision making

The use of predictive analytics in HR can help organizations to forecast future workforce trends, such as what skills are required, what roles are in demand, and what kind of training may be needed. These insights help to guide decision-making around hiring, training, and development across the organization.

Predictive analytics can also help to identify potential issues before they become problems. For example, if the data suggests that there may be a shortage of employees with a particular skill set in the future, HR departments can take steps to address this before it becomes a critical issue.

Overall, HR automation and analytics can provide organizations with valuable insights into their workforce, helping them to make more informed decisions and improve their overall performance.

Automate your HR and reap the benefits

The benefits of automation in HR are clear. They help to streamline recruitment, improve employee engagement and performance, and enhance the way organizations manage their employee data.

As HR technology continues to evolve, companies that keep up with these trends will benefit from a more productive, engaged and data-driven workforce.

The post Exploring the benefits of automation in human resources appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We’ve collected 10 of these new AI-related jobs for you, with short descriptions for each.

Many of these cool openings can be found on the Workable Job Board, where we’ve linked some opportunities for you to dive right into the AI job market for insights whether you’re an employer or a jobseeker.

1. Prompt Engineer

As AI technologies become more sophisticated, there’s a rising demand for professionals who can fine-tune the way we communicate with AI systems. This is the role of a Prompt Engineer, who can craft effective prompts that not only assist with AI training but also deliver the desired results.

Successful prompt engineering involves understanding the nuances of specific AI models and crafting prompts accordingly. This role doesn’t necessarily require a computer science degree, but it does require creativity and a mastery of language.

Teams that a Prompt Engineer might work with include product development, AI training, and customer experience teams. The current advertised pay rates for a Prompt Engineer can range from $250,000 to $335,000 per year.

2. AI Trainer

The AI Trainer‘s role has emerged in response to the growing use of generative AI systems in industries such as customer service. The AI Trainer assists the AI platform in learning about the business and fine-tuning its responses to sound more human.

The aim is not to replace human interaction but to enhance the AI’s ability to interact with the world. This role does not necessarily involve direct interaction with customers but focuses on aiding the AI system.

Potential areas of work for an AI Trainer include customer service, AI development, and quality assurance teams.

3. AI Auditor

With the rise of AI applications, the need for accuracy and fairness has become paramount. The AI Auditor‘s role is to ensure the AI’s output is not only interesting and useful but also unbiased and accurate.

Their work involves identifying and mitigating any biases in the AI systems, a task that’s increasingly becoming a legal requirement in some jurisdictions.

AI Auditors might work closely with data science, legal compliance, and AI development teams to ensure the highest ethical standards are upheld.

4. AI Ethicist / Ethics Expert

AI Ethicists are responsible for ensuring that AI is used in a safe and ethical manner. They work on reducing bias and increasing fairness in algorithmic systems, a critical need as AI technology becomes more pervasive.

They’re tasked with ensuring the responsible and ethical use of generative AI.

Teams that AI Ethicists might collaborate with include legal, AI development, and diversity and inclusion teams. Their demand is high in the market right now, as ethical AI grows in the overall conversation.

5. Machine Manager

As AI extends beyond text-based interactions to controlling hardware and systems, Machine Managers are needed to oversee AI-operated hardware and systems.

Given the complex nature of the work, this role usually requires a computer science degree and experience in the field where the AI is being used.

Machine Managers could work closely with AI development, operations, and hardware maintenance teams. The pay for this role can vary, with top salaries ranging to as high as $251,000 a year.

6. Data Detective

In the wake of the data explosion triggered by AI systems, Data Detectives are professionals who analyze and interpret this vast amount of data effectively.

The work of a Data Detective involves using statistical and machine learning techniques to identify patterns and insights within the data, which are crucial components in the development of accurate and efficient AI models.

Data Detectives might work with data science, AI development, and business intelligence teams.

7. Cybersecurity Analyst

The increased use of AI also introduces novel threats, necessitating the role of the Cybersecurity Analyst.

These professionals protect against AI-driven cyberattacks, requiring a blend of technical expertise, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Cybersecurity Analysts must be capable of navigating the complex intersection between AI technology and cybersecurity principles. Teams that a Cybersecurity Analyst might collaborate with include IT security, risk management, and AI development teams.

8. AI Business Strategist

With more companies adopting AI, there’s a need for professionals who can align AI strategies with business goals and objectives.

The AI Business Strategist is such a professional, possessing a deep understanding of both AI technology and business strategy. They can analyze a company’s existing operations, identify areas where AI can be effectively applied, and develop a strategic plan.

AI Business Strategists might work with executive leadership, business development, and AI development teams.

9. Data Broker

Data Brokers are professionals who manage the vast quantities of data produced by AI systems. They are tasked with cleaning, organizing, and interpreting this data, converting it from raw form into actionable insights.

This role requires a strong understanding of data structures and data analysis techniques, as well as the ability to translate these insights into terms that decision-makers within an organization can understand.

Potential areas of work for a Data Broker could include data analysis, business intelligence, and AI development teams.

10. AI Explainer

AI Explainers serve a critical role in demystifying complex AI technologies for individuals and organizations that may not have extensive technical knowledge. They translate the intricacies of AI systems into understandable terms, aiding people in comprehending how AI operates and how it can be advantageous for them.

This role requires strong communication skills, a deep understanding of AI technologies, and the ability to relate these concepts in a non-technical manner. AI Explainers might collaborate with education, public relations, and AI development teams.

This is just the beginning

By turning the AI disruption into an opportunity, we can not only create jobs but also ensure that AI develops in a way that is ethical, transparent, and beneficial to all.

Whether you’re hiring in the space, transitioning to new roles, or just someone with a keen interest in AI, these roles offer fascinating insights into the cutting edge of the transformative technology.

Check the Workable Job Board for AI-related job opportunities if you’re looking, or for an idea of what other companies are hiring for if you’re planning your own workforce.

The post 10 new jobs created with AI in the workplace appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are numerous employee management software systems available. When you look for one in your business, here are things you want to consider.

1. Does it integrate with your existing tech stack?

Of course, you can choose employee management software software that does it all, but you can also pick and choose different software for different tasks. Software that can track employee performance goals and the time clock can make for easier reporting.

2. Is it easy to use?

Some software systems are intuitive; others are difficult. Some are plug-and-play, others will need some customization and coaching so you can get the most out of it. Remember, not everyone can be an expert in this software, yet you’ll still want them to use it regularly.

3. Can you manage access?

If you’re using employee management software to build career plans and track progress, you’ll want your employees to be involved, and allowing them to see and update their own records takes work off your plate.

4. What reporting options are there?

If you have to customize reports or download data into Excel and build your own reports, it’s not as valuable as having solid reporting characteristics.

5. Can it handle multi-state options?

Employment law is largely state-based. If all your employees are in one state, this isn’t an issue, but with today’s mobile workforce and an increasing number of people working from home, you may end up being multistate before you know it. What capabilities does your software have?

6. Can it keep up with the organizational structure?

Will it display reporting relationships and allow for easy maintenance of these structures? Can you quickly update the org chart when someone leaves, when a new hire enters, when there’s restructuring, or when there’s cross-company migration? Some softwares even have a drag-and-drop tool that allows you to do all of that.

7. Can it handle leave management, including multi-state and multi-country rules?

Legally protected leaves of absence vary from state to state and from country to country. Staying on top of this is crucial when maintaining compliance.

8. What is their customer service record?

You will need help from time to time because we’re not all so tech-savvy. Is the company known to be responsive and helpful? Can they work with you in a pinch?

Of course, there are company-specific questions you’ll have to ask to make sure your software works for you, but these should be a good start.

Sound employee management is key to retention

If you’re looking to improve your employee management, going through these steps can help get you on the right path towards happier employees and a stronger culture.

Four out of five employees will leave their jobs because of bad management according to a 2022 GoodHire study. Because management practices are so important to employees, improving your employee management methods can make a huge difference.

Your KPIs as an employer likely include employee retention, engagement and turnover. You’ll see a difference there when you have a solid employee management strategy and a software to strengthen that strategy.

The post Choose the right employee management software: 8 top tips appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Regular communication and feedback

Your employees need to know what is going on, what plans are underway, and what struggles the business faces. Without this knowledge, they can’t make the best decisions in their sphere of responsibility.

So, managers must provide clear feedback – both negative and positive – to ensure that employees know what they need to do. Managers must provide this feedback in clear and effective ways. It should mirror the SMART goals. If feedback isn’t measurable or timely, it isn’t clear feedback.

Telling an employee, “That was a horrible presentation,” doesn’t help them make a better presentation next time. Telling an employee, “that was a great presentation,” is nice but, again, it doesn’t highlight the things that work.

Make sure your feedback is, at a minimum, specific and timely. “Your slides had so many typos. Please ensure you have someone else proofread before you present next time,” is a specific item that someone can act on.

2. Acknowledge top performers

Top performers often work independently, and managers are relieved not to have to directly manage them, opening up the bandwidth to focus on the lower-performing employees. There’s a side effect of this, however – this can result in top performers feeling unappreciated or unsure of their abilities.

Even top performers need feedback and acknowledgment that they’re continuing to perform at a high level. And it is critical that you create career plans for top performers.

Unless they say they don’t want to move up the ladder, you should assume they do. And while it may be difficult to lose a top performer from your department, it’s worse when they leave the company altogether.

Focusing on the top performers, giving them growth opportunities, and rewarding their high performance are all critical management jobs.

3. Use the best management tools available

There are employee management tools everywhere. Of course, employee management software helps you keep track of everyone’s progress and helps you identify areas of concern. But you also need solid training programs for managers and employees alike.

Why is training an important part of this? First of all, training is part of employee development. But second, and more importantly, employees leave managers, not companies. You’re neglecting your most important tool if your managers don’t receive proper training.

Related: What’s included in a good employee management strategy?

4. Identify opportunities for development and progression

While each individual is ultimately responsible for their own career progression, they don’t necessarily know what they need to do to advance. Additionally, they may not know what is available at your company. Good employee managers help develop employees.

Developing employees includes giving stretch assignments and providing cross-training opportunities. A best practice is to use a skills-gap analysis to determine what skills your employee needs and what skills the business will need in the future and then match the two of those together. Sometimes this can include formal education or training outside the business.

Your employees want to succeed. Helping them to achieve their goals benefits your business and your individual employees.

Remember, it’s almost always cheaper to bring your employees’ salaries up to market rate than to replace them.

By focusing on employee development you decrease your turnover and increase your performance. It’s time and money well spent.

The day-to-day of good employee management

It’s easy enough to say you want things to be better, but you have to do something about it, and if you want your goals to be SMART, you’ll need to be able to measure improvement.

Ensuring good management is difficult for any business, but especially as your company grows beyond the original start-up crew.

You’ll need to place more trust in managers you don’t necessarily interact with every day. And you’ll need to make sure your managers follow procedures.

One thing that can help refine your employee management practices is employee management software. This can help automate mundane tasks, remind people to follow up, and give a central location for plans and progress.

The post Mastering employee management: 4 best practices appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But first, to ensure a good process, you’ll need to address each one of the following aspects of the employee lifecycle to ensure an effective employee management strategy.

1. Employee onboarding

The onboarding process begins when a candidate applies. Every step along that path prepares the future employee for success or failure at the company. Having a clear recruitment process builds trust in the company bureaucracy, which will play a role later in employee management.

When a new employee starts, paperwork is only a tiny part of the onboarding process. A good onboarding program integrates the new employees into the company and the company culture.

By the end of the onboarding process, employees should have their paperwork done, know where the bathrooms are, and know how their role fits into the larger company perspective.

2. Employee development and progression

While some employees may wish to stay in the same position for 20 years; most want to develop and progress.
And even if an employee wants to stay in the same position, the technology, company goals, and general economic environment mean that every employee needs development and progression.

Each employee needs a development plan that indicates a path forward. This should include:

• Possible career paths
• Skills needed
• Plans for developing lacking skills
• Stretch projects
• Cross training opportunities

While not every business will be capable of taking someone from entry-level to CEO, most companies do have the potential for growth for some, if not all, of their employees.

Managers need to provide regular feedback and support candidates through internal movements. Make sure your policies don’t artificially keep people in their current jobs by giving power to current managers to block movement.

Also, remember to keep salary increases at the market rate as employees move up the internal ladder. If you don’t, they will leave for greener pastures.

3. Employee engagement

Employee engagement is a fancy way of saying how involved and happy your employees are at work. Gallup found that five factors lead to high employee engagement levels:

Measure progress

If you aren’t measuring something, you cannot be sure whether it is improving or failing. To have good employee engagement, you need to know your current status and in which direction you are traveling.

Have growth-oriented conversations

If your employees don’t know there is a plan, they will assume there isn’t one. If you don’t speak with them, you won’t know if they are engaged and what it will take to make and keep them engaged.

Provide clear, ongoing conversations

Do your employees know how their roles benefit the company? Do they know where the company stands? Are you keeping things secret just because it’s always been done that way?

While there are some legal reasons to keep some decisions to a small group, your employees should largely be aware of everything going on. Communication is critical to engagement.

Focus on well-being

Gallup identifies five areas of well-being: “career, social, financial, physical and community.” If your employees don’t have the ability to remain well in all these areas, they risk disengagement at work while struggling with the other areas.

Your business cannot be responsible for all aspects of an employee’s life, but you can provide support in these areas.

Have strength-based conversations

Your employees may not be working in their current areas of strength. They may have hidden skills that you don’t know about. Having these conversations can not only increase employee engagement but can also help your business as well.

Employee engagement doesn’t need to be fancy, and it’s not about pizza parties and team-building programs. It’s about communication and meeting employee needs. This leads to the next aspect of your employee management strategy.

4. Talent retention

Turnover is insanely expensive. Gallup estimates that turnover costs vary from one-third of the employee’s salary to twice the employee’s salary. When you balk at giving a 5% raise to a high performer, consider that, at minimum, you’ll pay 33% more just to get someone new in the door and trained – that doesn’t take into account the new salary you have to offer to attract new talent.

Consider that, at minimum, you’ll pay 33% more just to get someone new in the door and trained – that doesn’t take into account the new salary you have to offer to attract new talent.

Retaining employees can be a difficult task. Overall, the average job tenure was 4.1 years in 2022 and varied by profession and industry, with government employees having the longest average tenure (6.8 years) and service industries having the lowest tenure (2.8 years). Your retention plans should reflect the industry and positions.

Employee engagement correlates highly with retention, so listening to your employees’ needs can help you develop retention plans.

5. Internal conflict resolution and reduction

People do not like to work where they don’t feel comfortable. This means that good employee management strategy requires you to reduce internal conflicts. This does not mean everyone has to agree on everything–it means that you need to remove the emotionally charged disagreements that lead to real conflict.

Psychologist and business strategist Liane Davey posits that there is a difference between healthy conflict and destructive conflict.

Passionate idea discussion is a type of healthy conflict, while jockeying for position, gossiping, and undermining people are all examples of destructive conflict.

Your job is to reduce the latter, but not the former. How do you do this?

Set and maintain boundaries

When people know where those boundaries are, they are less likely to push against them, reducing some types of conflicts.

For instance, if your boundary is no f-bombs at work and you maintain that for everyone, you don’t have to sort out if it was a neutral f-bomb (for instance, swearing at a printer) or a conflict one (swearing at a person). The boundary is clear.

Don’t give in to your biological desire to be nice

Davey says humans are wired to get along, but this can go too far for leaders managing employees. Yes, nice is good, but sometimes we have to override the ‘conflict avoidant’ urge to ultimately reduce conflict. Instead of weakly laughing at a sexist joke, a manager must deal with it immediately.

Don’t let bullies run roughshod over the department because confronting them is uncomfortable. As the manager, it is your job to promptly take care of bad behavior.

Set an example

Bullies get away with bullying because leaders allow it. Sexual harassers get away with sexual harassment because the leaders allow it. If the manager encourages destructive conflict, employees will engage in destructive conflict.

Make it OK to discuss ideas

This, again, must come from the top. If the manager doesn’t listen to other people’s ideas, the employees will not either.
Be transparent

When people know why X and Y happened, it reduces conflict and backbiting. If you cannot explain a decision, it’s possible it’s wrong.

6. Clear organizational goals

Without organizational goals, you cannot effectively manage employees. Until this point, employee management strategies have focused on the people side of things, but without organizational goals, it doesn’t matter how warm and welcoming an environment you’ve created.

Managers need to inform employees what the company goals are and how their part fits into the organization. Break down goals into workable targets with rewards (which can be simple praise) at each step.

While there should be a discussion (good conflict) before the leadership sets the goals, once the CEO signs off on the goals, managers need to promote those goals, even if they disagree. (Excluding, of course, morally or legally wrong things.) It is critical that everyone work toward the same goals.

7. Succession planning

Who will take over the marketing function if the chief marketing officer leaves? Who will run payroll if the payroll manager gets sick and needs to take six weeks of protected FMLA leave?

Succession planning isn’t just about the big positions but every task that needs to be done. When you think about succession planning, remember that the average tenure is only four years. People will leave, or they will be promoted, and you need to work on your pipeline.

You should correlate your succession planning with your career planning for your employees. You create an internal pipeline that saves time and money and preserves institutional knowledge.

8. Clear objectives and expectations

Do your employees know exactly what you expect? When the job description said “flexible schedules,” did you clearly define that? Sometimes expectations can be as simple as explaining whether people generally eat at their desks or go out to lunch.

For achieving business goals, how often should people meet to discuss progress? Should employees provide progress reports? Do employees present their own work to the senior team, or do department heads compile it and present it? What measurable goals do you assign to each person?

There are many ways to set expectations and goals, but one helpful acronym is SMART. Goals should be:

Specific

For example, a goal of “increase sales” sounds great. A specific goal would be even better, such as: “increase sales by 5%”.

Measurable

If you can’t count it, the goal isn’t measurable. So, “be nicer to customers” isn’t a measurable goal. “Decrease customer complaints by 5%” is.

Achievable

Is this goal realistic? Increasing revenue from $150K to $150,000,000 is probably not achievable, as nice as that outcome would be. Make sure you can actually meet the goal.

Relevant

There are lots of great things but is this relevant to your job and your company? Giving everyone in the company a sales goal probably isn’t relevant for everyone.

Time-bound

If there’s no deadline, there is no goal. Make sure you put time parameters around the goals. Often it’s best to break the goals down into manageable time periods. It’s better to say you’ll accomplish X in one month than 100 times that in five years.

With those things in mind, you can set goals for your company, department, and employees.

If you want your employees to succeed which in turn will help your business succeed – focusing on employee management can make a direct impact.

Make sure you create a clear plan for managing your employees and train your management team in order to maintain a uniform experience throughout the organization.

With all of these in place, you’ll have the groundwork for a solid employee management strategy.

The post What’s included in a good employee management strategy? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s why a structured onboarding framework is so critical – it’s more important than onboarding itself.

That’s the 30-60-90 day onboarding framework for you – it’s to provide a consistent, uniform and thorough onboarding experience. It clearly outlines the activities, resources, and expectations for those first three months of an employee’s journey, setting them up for success in their role.

The benefits for the employee are clear – they reach higher productivity in a shorter time (in other words, their ‘time to ramp’ is shorter).

They’re more vividly engaged, they understand what’s expected of them, and they know how to do the work.

For the organization, this results in greater average revenue per employee, lower turnover, and a stronger reputation as an employer that believes in developing their people.

This 30-60-90 day onboarding blueprint is structured in three phases with end goals for each: at the 30-day mark, you’ve set a foundation for that employee.

By the 60-day mark, you’re establishing a clear momentum for the employee to thrive.

And, finally, at the 90-day mark, you’re ensuring that this fully onboarded employee is ready to work autonomously and independently because they’ve learned what they need to know to succeed in their role.

Let’s go into these three stages in depth.

30-day plan: the foundation

We’ll start the 30-60-90 onboarding plan with this famous adage: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

It’s a given that you’ll be spending a fair bit of time during the first 30 days giving job-specific training to your new starters. But equally, a key focus should be on embedding them into the company culture and helping them build connections.

Here are some ideas to get started:

1. Designate a work ‘buddy’

This should be someone from the team who isn’t their manager. They can be the go-to person who shows them the ropes and gives advice. As this person will be a peer, rather than a manager, they’ll probably have gone through the same experience themselves so can empathize.

Link up new starters who are in a similar boat to each other. For example, you could set up a dedicated Slack or Teams channel which joiners are part of for their first few weeks.

2. Organize a team lunch

Ideally this can be done together in the same place, but if it’s not possible, you can still do it virtually. Why not send the new starter a voucher for them to order the meal of their choice?

Regardless, you should send them a small reward and note of appreciation after their first week – it’s a nice gesture which will put a smile on their face!

3. Set up casual meetings

Arrange “get to know” meetings with people the new starter will be working closely with. This is not a work-related induction, but more of a social meeting to break the ice and find out about each other. These meetings should be quite casual and don’t need any sort of agenda beforehand.

You can group people together – for example, instead of meeting all the web developers individually, they can be part of the same meeting. At the same time, try to keep the number of people in these chats quite small, perhaps to a maximum of four or five. Any more can make them feel daunting, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to achieve!

Basically, it should feel more like a coffee date, and less like you’re being grilled on a reality show!

4. Set up daily syncs

At this stage, managers should have a quick 10-minute catch-up with the employee at the end of each day, just to see how they’re getting on. Meeting lots of different people can be a little overwhelming, so having a regular chat with the same person each day adds a sense of routine.

5. Keep a finger on their pulse

One constant throughout the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan (and beyond) is wellbeing, so ensure managers are still checking in regularly. Pay particular attention to signs of burnout – it’s not uncommon for employees to push themselves extra hard during these opening few weeks.

6. Ensure a solid training plan

As mentioned earlier, training is very important during this stage of the 90 days plan. If you aren’t giving people the tools they need to be successful, it won’t work out for you or them. Things which should be included within the training plan are:

• Company strategy
• Sales positioning
• Department objectives
• Individual KPIs
• Best practice methods
• Systems and ways of working

7. … and be clear about those KPIs

A quick word on those individual KPIs: ensure you are completely clear on what these are – the employee needs to know three things, exactly:

• what’s expected of them
• how that links into the wider organization goals
• what metrics you’ll be using for their work

Setting expectations properly reduces the chances of confusion later on down the line.

8. Make it a two-way street

When it comes to training, try to make this as interactive as possible. People should be able to ask questions and even make suggestions. When training them for the tasks they’ll be doing, incorporate a mix of different learning methods. There may be some things which they can study and practice in their own time, whereas others may require them to learn on the job or be shown step by step.

If you have an online L&D program in place, select the courses which you think will be most relevant to their job. This tailors their training and saves them from having to scroll through lots of different ones.

9. Keep it fun and engaging!

As for the actual work your new starter will be doing, this can vary based on the role and level of seniority. Try to make it engaging though – enthusiasm levels are normally super high at this stage, so you want to tap into this as much as possible. Perhaps you could set them a list of things to do each week and turn it into a fun challenge with points and prizes?

60-day plan: the momentum

Now you’re at one month in the onboarding plan. Your employee should be mostly familiarized with their work and the company’s processes, but that’s just the first step to success. Here’s what you need to think about in the second month of the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan.

1. Maintain a feedback loop

Feedback is crucial, and it’s a very important way to keep the new starter engaged and focused. Managers should give this on each piece of work. Remember it’s still early days, so don’t expect perfection.

At the same time, employees appreciate honesty so give them constructive feedback, and ask for theirs as well. Is there anything they think should have been done differently in the opening weeks?

2. Check on goal progression

It’s also a good time for managers and employees to have an honest discussion about the goals that were set early on. Does anything need to change? Does the employee feel like there are more things they could take on? Either way, do what you did the first time and communicate clearly.

3. Celebrate the small ‘wins’

It’s also important that people feel appreciated. Make sure you celebrate the small successes. If they work in Customer Service, make a big deal of the first ticket they resolve. If they’re in Marketing, recognise them for that first blog they wrote.

This could be a formal shoutout on the recognition platform you use, or even just a round of applause during your end of week wrap-up.

Try and link these recognitions to your company values – this is a great way to remind the employee what you stand for. Try to back the recognitions up with a reward as well. By getting a reward for displaying the right behaviors or for good work, it gives them a morale boost and a sense of gratitude.

You’re now building on the learning

Remember, learning doesn’t just stop after day 30 – but now it continues with the act of building. This is where you trust them to do more independent work and go deeper into their responsibilities. Normally, there are two routes you can take.

If there’s a specific project that was earmarked for them before they joined, allow them to run with this.

If the type of work they do is naturally quite repetitive – perhaps they work on the tills at a shop – ask them to come up with ideas to improve some aspect of what you do. This is a great way to keep them engaged and shows that you see them as a valuable part of the business. It also usually involves them needing to collaborate with other departments, which brings its own benefits in terms of relationship building.

Whichever one of the two routes you choose, ask them to follow the Plan, Develop, Implement model. Here’s a quick breakdown.

Plan

This is where the employee does their research, asks the questions they think are relevant, and puts together a strategy for what they think needs to be done. Give them the time, space and tools to do this.

Develop

Once the plan has been put together, the employee uses it to develop a solution. For example, if they’re in Business Development, maybe they have a better way to reach out to prospects. They can get these new ideas together and test them internally.

Implement

Now the employee takes the results from their tests and puts them into practice. This is where they’ll feel like they’re doing what they were brought in to do, and managers will be able to judge how far along they are.

At all times, managers should ensure help is available if needed – but allow the employee to take control.

Now, we mentioned how this type of task allows employees to build relationships with others in the company. But there’s other ways to do this as well, for example organizing social events. For example, Perkbox has monthly ‘Meet ‘n’ Greet’ events which are an opportunity for new starters to meet with people in social settings.

90-day plan: the independence

This last phase of the 30-60-90 day onboarding plan should help employees feel like they’re a fully-fledged part of the business. All being well, by the end of this period, they should have less of a ‘new starter’ feeling.

The employee should by now be nicely bedded in from a cultural point of view. This doesn’t necessarily mean they run to the karaoke machine on nights out – but they should feel comfortable with their colleagues. If they still seem a little uncomfortable, it’s the manager’s job to get to the bottom of this.

1. Assign full ownership and independence

A core measure of success at the 90-day stage is whether or not you’re able to grant full ownership to the employee. You should be able to confidently assign them projects without walking them through the steps of how to see it through to completion.

At the 90-day mark, that employee is equipped with the knowledge – and experience – to independently make decisions to move the project forward. They no longer will need to ‘check in’ with their manager or seek approval or validation before moving forward.

Of course, there’s always that question of making a mistake – can you trust your employee to do the right thing to ensure success? Well, that’s what onboarding is for in the first place – when you can trust your employees, you’ve onboarded them successfully.

2. Conduct a performance review

What else? Performance reviews. While you no longer require the employee to be checking in with you or other colleagues to get a job done, you do check in with them at the end in the performance review.

This is your opportunity to go through their performance, both in the first 90 days and in the long-term, and identify areas where they can do better and shine a light on areas where they’ve done well. In fact, it’s not simply a review – think of it as a refinement.

3. Ask them about their onboarding experience

A little different from the performance review is a simple check-in with HR. Ask the employee how they’ve found the onboarding process to date. Is there anything they feel should’ve been done differently?

Not only does this help you improve the process for the future, but it shows the employee you take their opinions seriously.

4. Identify their passions – and support them

Hopefully by now they can also let some of their other passions shine through. For example, do you have any Employee Resource Groups or social clubs that appeal to them? Send a reminder of these and encourage them to put themselves forward if they want.

Often, people who join up with these things early on in their time at a company, develop really strong connections with colleagues. This can only be a good thing from a retention point of view!

Those first three months are key for success

Those first 90 days of an employee’s journey within an organization, a new strategy, a different process, etc., sets the tone for their entire tenure going forward. A bad onboarding plan has obvious adverse effects – someone who isn’t properly familiarized with their roles won’t be able to rise to expectations. They get frustrated, demoralized, and worst of all, toxic. Cue ‘quiet quitting’, costly turnovers, and overall disenchantment.

Think of it as keeping a car properly maintained. When every part of the car is well-maintained, the engine is tuned regularly, the tires are leveled, the exterior is washed, the interior deep-cleaned, then the car lasts longer and performs better.

Your organization is your ‘car’ – keep it attuned, updated and optimized with a well-structured, 30-60-90 day onboarding plan for every step of the way, and it’ll pay dividends for you in the long run.

The post Your 30-60-90 day onboarding plan: set your people for success appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The typical employee lifecycle in a company often involves transitions, restructurings, developments, new product releases, changes in strategy, and many other aspects that impact one’s day-to-day work processes.

All of these require an ‘onboarding’ if they want to continue to succeed.

Let’s look at the various situations that can benefit from onboarding plans. Keep in mind that all of them can have the same goal at the end: to prepare an employee for something new.

1. New hires

This is the most common type of onboarding plan. It’s designed to introduce new employees to the company’s culture, policies, procedures, org charts, and ultimately their own role in the organization.

Typically, this plan includes orientation sessions, one-on-one meetings, job-specific training, training on tools and softwares, introductory lunches, and so on.

The objective is to help new employees feel welcome and integrated into the team, and shorten the ramp to full productivity.

2. New project launches

Often, a company will launch a new feature, product or service that will involve new campaigns, processes, strategies and so on to get that out into the marketplace, introduce it to existing/new customers, and bring in new revenue.

This involves onboarding the various teams and employees who will be a part of that launch – and this includes details such as project goals, timelines, roles and responsibilities, and even learning the new product or service itself.

3. New sales strategies

Whether it’s due to the launch of something new, a restructuring of the sales function, a new market penetration or a sales kickoff, sales teams will need to be updated on new strategies so they can be set for success.

This can involve trainings on new sales techniques, product/service knowledge, customer research and market trends – all of which can be conducted through classroom or virtual sessions, role-playing, or one-on-one coaching.

4. Training and development

Learning & development is fast becoming a staple of any human resource strategy. L&D can be focused on new hires and existing employees alike – with a focus on both intangible and tangible skills growth.

Examples include trainings on diversity, equity and inclusion, effective communications, compliance assurance, and any other form of employee growth and development that can be carried through with an effective onboarding plan.

5. Acquisitions and mergers

Often in business, you’ll see acquisitions of other companies or technologies, or mergers with the same. When two divergent groups of employees or technologies come together, this necessitates an onboarding plan to ensure that they work together without losing traction.

This can include training on how to use and integrate new technologies, how to work with others, what the “other” company’s focal product or service is, familiarization with new policies and procedures, and understanding new systems, processes and tools.

Keep the eye on the prize

Let’s tie all this back to the core concept of “onboarding”. It is, ultimately, familiarizing an employee with an area with the goal of setting them for success.

Whether that’s getting a hire acquainted with their new job and company or building up an existing employee’s repertoire of skills, the end result is the same: they are getting the knowledge and resources they need to do their job better.

And, of course, if your employees are better at their work, your bottom line benefits.

The post 5 types of onboarding plans: it’s not just for your new hires appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s right. Signatures in the digital medium.

But first, the burning question: what is e-signature software?

E-signature software is a digital solution that enables you to affix your signature to documents electronically. It provides an efficient and secure method of handling documentation – without needing to navigate the cumbersome in-person requirements, fax machines and paperwork of yesteryear.

The e-signature concept has matured over the years since its inception in the late 20th century. Now, with advanced technology and the shift towards remote and distributed work patterns, e-signature software is more than just a modern replacement for ink-and-paper signatures.

It’s an essential component of a digital-first strategy and is widely adopted by businesses across various industries – with North American businesses expected to lead the way with 35% of global market share by 2023, and other regions rapidly catching up.

Now, let’s go into details about how e-signature software works, the various types of software available, and the benefits of having it in your business. You’ll also learn how to choose the right e-signature software for your needs.

You’ll ultimately gain a comprehensive understanding of e-signature software and why it’s a critical tool for your business or personal transactions.

First, let’s understand how e-signature software works and what types are available in the marketplace.

How e-signature software works

E-signature software simplifies the process of signing and validating digital documents. Its primary function is to facilitate the electronic replication of your signature on digital files, making the endorsement of documents faster and more convenient.

Here’s how e-signature software typically works for you:

Document Preparation: You upload a document to the e-signature platform. It could be a contract, a form, an agreement, or any other type of document that requires a signature.

Signature Request: You specify the individuals who need to sign the document and send them a request via email. The platform generates a unique, secure link for each recipient.

Signing: The recipients click the link, open the document, and electronically sign it within the platform. They can use a pre-designed e-signature, draw their own, or type their name, depending on the software’s capabilities.

Verification & Storage: Once signed, the platform verifies the signature and securely stores the document. You, the sender, will receive a notification once all signatures are in place.

This process varies somewhat between different software providers, but the core functionalities are consistent across the board. It’s a more efficient and secure alternative to the traditional way of signing and managing documents.

Different types of e-signature software

There are several types of e-signature software available on the market, all with their own features, advantages, and limitations. The three primary categories of e-signature softwares are:

Basic e-signature tools: These are simple tools that allow for the creation and addition of a signature to a document. They typically lack advanced features like audit trails or integration capabilities. Examples in this category include DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, and Acrobat Sign.

Integrated e-signature software: These tools come with additional features like CRM or document management system integrations, which are beneficial for businesses looking for a more comprehensive solution. Workable, PandaDoc, SignNow, and the business & enterprise versions of Acrobat Sign fall into this category.

Specialized e-signature platforms: These software platforms are designed to meet specific industry needs, such as real estate or legal services, where unique compliance standards and document types exist. Notarize, dotloop, and Secured Signing are leaders in this area.

When choosing the right software for your needs, consider the nature and scope of your operations, the volume of documents you handle, and the level of security and compliance required.

Now, we’ll delve into how e-signature software can be utilized in various settings.

Applications of e-signature software

Really, there are two main uses for e-signature software: professional/business and personal.

1. Business applications

Business operations can gain immensely from the adoption of e-signature software. Here are some typical uses:

Contracts and agreements: E-signature software makes the signing of contracts and agreements swift and straightforward, saving businesses the time and resources usually spent on physically signing and sending documents.

Human resources: From offer letters to policy acknowledgments, HR departments often need a secure and efficient way of getting signatures from employees. E-signature software provides a solution for these needs.

Sales and marketing: Sales contracts and marketing agreements can be signed and processed rapidly with e-signature software, accelerating sales cycles and improving customer experiences.

Legal documents: Legal teams can use e-signature software to sign and store important legal documents securely, ensuring compliance and accessibility.

2. Personal use

On a personal level, e-signature software can be used to sign various types of documents electronically, including:

Tax Documents: Filing tax returns can be made easier and more secure with e-signature software.

Lease/rental agreements: Whether you’re renting a car or leasing an apartment, e-signature software allows for quick, convenient signing.

Personal contracts: Any form of personal contract, from loan agreements to freelance work contracts, can be signed using e-signature software.

Next up, we’ll explore the benefits of e-signature software.

Benefits of e-signature software

There are many different benefits to using e-signature software in place of traditional signing processes.

1. It’s more efficient

E-signature software increases the speed at which documents are signed and exchanged, thereby improving workflow efficiency. The software eliminates the need for printing, signing, scanning, or mailing paper documents, thereby reducing delays and manual errors.

2. It saves on cost

Think about the costs associated with traditional paper-based signatures: the paper itself, ink, mailing, and storage. E-signature software significantly reduces these expenses. Furthermore, by expediting workflows, it indirectly contributes to cost-savings by freeing up time that can be used for other productive activities.

3. It’s more secure and compliant

E-signature software comes with robust security features such as encryption and access controls, ensuring that your documents are kept safe. Additionally, it can provide detailed audit trails, which are crucial for compliance and legal validity.

4. It’s easier to use

Whether you’re working from home, on vacation, or on a business trip, as long as you have internet access, you can sign or send documents for signature. This convenience isn’t limited to a particular industry; anyone can take advantage of it.

5. It’s better for the environment

By reducing the use of paper, e-signature software is an environmentally friendly solution. It’s a simple and effective way for your business to contribute to sustainability efforts.

Now let’s take a look at how to choose the right e-signature software for your needs.

Choosing the right e-signature software

As always when shopping for new tools or products, there are several factors to consider when selecting the right e-signature software.

1. User-friendliness

A good e-signature software should be easy to use and navigate, both for you and for the people signing your documents. A software with a user-friendly interface reduces the learning curve and increases efficiency.

2. Security

As mentioned earlier, security is paramount when dealing with sensitive documents. Ensure that the e-signature software you choose has robust security features like encryption, two-factor authentication, and secure storage options.

3. Integration

If you’re using other business software like CRM or document management systems, consider an e-signature software that integrates with these platforms. It simplifies your workflow and allows for more seamless operations.

4. Customization

Look for software that allows you to customize the signing process to fit your needs. This could include custom branding, adjustable signature fields, or tailored notifications.

5. Pricing

E-signature software comes at various price points, usually based on features, number of users, and the number of documents signed per month. Choose one that fits your budget but also meets your needs effectively.

6. Customer Support

Consider software providers that offer reliable customer support. It can prove invaluable when you’re faced with technical issues or have questions about the software.

Choosing the right e-signature software is an essential step in optimizing your document signing process. By considering these factors, you’ll be able to select a solution that best fits your needs. I hope you found this guide helpful as you embark on your journey to adopting e-signature software.

E-signing into the future

Remember, adopting e-signature software isn’t just about changing how you sign documents. It’s not even an evolution – it’s ultimately about stepping into a more efficient, secure, and eco-friendly future.

Interested in how Workable’s own e-signing tools can help you in HR? Check it out for yourself.

The post E-signature software: all the things you need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Let’s explore the ins and outs of employee management, its importance and how choosing the right software can make a world of difference for your business.

What is employee management?

At the core of every thriving business is a well-managed team. Employee management is a comprehensive approach to supervising, guiding, and supporting employees, ensuring they achieve their maximum potential and contribute positively to the company’s goals.

It encompasses a wide range of processes, from recruitment and onboarding to performance evaluation, professional development, and conflict resolution. It’s the backbone that ensures a smooth functioning workplace, driving both individual and organizational success.

Effective employee management also takes into account the diverse needs of employees, recognizing their unique talents, strengths, and areas for growth. By fostering a supportive and inclusive environment, employee management encourages a sense of belonging and job satisfaction.

This, in turn, helps employees feel motivated and engaged, leading to higher levels of performance and commitment to the organization’s vision and objectives.

Employee management also involves understanding and aligning with the company’s culture and values, and ensuring that employees are aware of these core principles. By creating a strong connection between employees and the organization, management can foster a sense of loyalty and pride, ultimately resulting in higher retention rates and a more cohesive team.

In addition, employee management aims to maintain a balance between meeting the company’s objectives and supporting employees’ well-being. This involves identifying potential stressors, addressing work-life balance issues, and promoting a healthy and productive work environment.

By balancing the company’s goals with employees’ needs, employee management creates a win-win scenario that benefits both the organization and its workforce.

What are the responsibilities included in employee management?

Employee management responsibilities are varied and essential, encompassing several crucial aspects of the employee life cycle. Effective employee management requires a combination of strategic planning, strong interpersonal skills, and a genuine commitment to the well-being and success of the employees.

These responsibilities are not only crucial for individual employees but also for the overall health and success of the business.

They include:

1. Hiring & onboarding

Hiring and onboarding new employees is one of the most critical aspects of employee management. This involves attracting the right talent, conducting thorough interviews, and selecting the best candidates for the organization. A smooth and efficient onboarding process is essential to ensure that new employees feel welcomed, engaged, and prepared to contribute to the company’s goals from day one.

2. Performance management

Setting goals and performance expectations is another key responsibility in employee management. Managers should work closely with their employees to establish clear, measurable, and achievable objectives that align with the company’s strategic goals. Regular check-ins and progress reviews are vital to monitor performance and provide timely feedback, guidance, and support.

3. Feedback & evaluations

Providing regular feedback and performance evaluations is also essential for employee growth and development. Managers should offer constructive feedback, recognize employees’ achievements, and identify areas for improvement. Performance evaluations should be transparent, objective, and based on predefined criteria to ensure fairness and consistency.

4. Learning & development

Identifying training and development opportunities is crucial for employee management. Managers should assess the skills and competencies of their employees and provide them with relevant learning opportunities to advance their careers. This may include on-the-job training, workshops, conferences or online courses.

Investing in employee development not only benefits the individual employee but also strengthens the organization’s talent pool.

5. Conflict management

Managing employee conflicts and disputes is another integral element. Managers must be adept at addressing interpersonal issues, promoting open communication, and fostering a respectful work environment.

This involves mediating conflicts, providing guidance on resolving disputes, and taking appropriate action when necessary to maintain a harmonious workplace.

6. Workplace safety

Ensuring a safe and positive work environment is a crucial responsibility. Managers should be proactive in identifying and addressing potential hazards, implementing safety policies, and promoting employee well-being. A healthy work environment contributes to employee satisfaction, engagement, and overall productivity.

7. Policies & procedures

Developing and implementing HR policies and procedures is also vital. These policies and procedures should be compliant with applicable laws and regulations, reflect the company’s culture and values, and address various workplace issues, such as equal employment opportunities, harassment, and discrimination.

Managers should also ensure that employees are aware of and adhere to these policies to maintain a fair and inclusive work environment.

Why does employee management matter?

Employee management plays a critical role in the success of any organization, as it significantly impacts various aspects of the business. At its core, effective employee management cultivates a sense of unity and shared purpose, helping employees feel connected to the company’s vision and objectives.

This connection is vital because it drives their motivation, engagement and commitment to their roles and the organization as a whole.

Specific reasons include:

1. Better job satisfaction

When employees are managed effectively, they are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and demonstrate loyalty to the company. This increased satisfaction and loyalty contribute to reduced employee turnover, saving organizations time and resources that would otherwise be spent on hiring and training new employees.

Moreover, a low turnover rate helps maintain a strong workplace culture and a positive company reputation.

2. Higher productivity

Effective employee management also boosts productivity and efficiency. By setting clear goals, providing regular feedback, and offering the necessary resources and training, employee management empowers individuals to perform at their best.

A well-managed, motivated, and engaged workforce is a key ingredient in driving business growth and achieving organizational objectives.

3. Healthier workplace culture

Another reason why employee management matters is its impact on workplace culture. A supportive management approach fosters a positive workplace environment, where collaboration, open communication, and mutual respect are the norm.

This healthy work environment plays a significant role in employees’ overall well-being and happiness, leading to better work-life balance and reduced stress levels.

4. Lower compliance risks

Furthermore, employee management is essential in mitigating legal risks and compliance issues. By implementing fair policies and procedures, promoting a safe and inclusive work environment, and adhering to relevant laws and regulations, businesses can avoid potential legal troubles and maintain their credibility in the industry.

What is the best way to manage employees?

The best way to manage employees involves a delicate balance of various factors, ultimately focusing on creating a supportive, empowering, and growth-oriented environment. Effective employee management is based on understanding each employee’s unique needs, strengths and aspirations, and using this knowledge to tailor management approaches that foster personal and professional growth.

Here are some key elements that contribute to successful employee management:

1. Clear communication

Clear communication of expectations and goals is paramount in effective employee management. Managers should collaborate with employees to establish well-defined, measurable objectives that align with the company’s strategic goals.

By setting clear expectations, employees have a roadmap to follow and a framework for success.

2. Regular feedback & validation

Regular feedback and recognition of accomplishments are vital in keeping employees motivated and engaged. Managers should provide timely, constructive feedback on performance, acknowledging employees’ achievements and identifying areas for improvement.

This ongoing communication fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement, helping employees reach their full potential.

3. Collaboration & teamwork

Encouraging collaboration and teamwork is another essential aspect of successful employee management. Managers should create opportunities for employees to work together on projects, share ideas, and learn from one another.

This collaborative environment not only helps employees develop new skills but also builds strong relationships and a sense of camaraderie within the team.

4. Growth & development opportunities

Offering opportunities for growth and development is crucial in retaining top talent and nurturing a high-performing workforce. By identifying skill gaps and providing relevant training, managers can support employees in advancing their careers and acquiring new competencies.

This investment in employee development benefits both the individual and the organization, as it strengthens the company’s talent pool and enhances overall performance.

5. Ownership of work

Empowering employees to take ownership of their work is another key component of effective employee management. By giving employees the autonomy to make decisions, solve problems, and contribute ideas, managers foster a sense of responsibility and pride in their work.

This empowerment leads to higher job satisfaction, increased motivation, and better overall performance.

What is employee management software?

Employee management software is a powerful tool designed to streamline and simplify various aspects of employee management within an organization. It serves as a central hub for storing and organizing essential employee information, automating routine tasks, and facilitating efficient communication between team members and managers.

By integrating essential HR functions into one comprehensive platform, employee management software helps businesses optimize their workforce management processes and make informed decisions.

Employee management software typically includes a range of features that cater to different aspects of employee management, such as time and attendance tracking, performance management, leave management, and scheduling.

These features provide managers with valuable insights into employee performance, enabling them to identify patterns, address issues and make data-driven decisions to improve the overall effectiveness of their teams.

One of the key benefits of employee management software is its ability to save time and reduce administrative workload. By automating repetitive tasks, such as tracking hours worked or managing time-off requests, managers can focus on more strategic activities that contribute to the growth and success of the organization.

Additionally, the software helps ensure accuracy and compliance, minimizing the risk of errors and legal issues.

Another advantage of employee management software is its potential to improve communication and collaboration within teams.

With features like messaging, file sharing, and project management, the software allows employees and managers to stay connected, share updates, and collaborate more effectively.

This enhanced communication fosters a more cohesive and engaged workforce, ultimately leading to better overall performance.

Ultimately, employee management software is a comprehensive solution that simplifies and enhances various aspects of workforce management. By centralizing employee data, automating routine tasks and facilitating communication, this software empowers businesses to manage their employees more efficiently, ultimately contributing to the organization’s success.

Why should you be using employee management software?

The use of employee management software offers numerous advantages for businesses of all sizes and industries. By streamlining essential HR processes and providing valuable insights into employee performance, these tools play a significant role in enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of workforce management.

Here are some compelling reasons to consider using employee management software in your organization:

1. Saves time & reduces admin workload

First and foremost, employee management software saves time and reduces the administrative burden on managers and HR professionals. By automating repetitive tasks such as time tracking, scheduling, and leave management, the software allows managers to focus their attention on more strategic activities that contribute to the organization’s growth and success.

This increased efficiency can have a tangible impact on your company’s bottom line.

2. Improves accuracy & compliance

Another important benefit of employee management software is the improved accuracy and compliance it offers. By automating various processes and centralizing employee data, the software helps minimize the risk of errors, which can have costly consequences.

Furthermore, the software can assist with maintaining compliance with relevant labor laws and regulations, reducing the likelihood of legal issues and ensuring a fair and consistent approach to employee management.

3. Improves communication & collaboration

Employee management software can also enhance communication and collaboration within teams. Features such as messaging, file sharing, and project management tools make it easier for employees and managers to stay connected, exchange information, and work together more effectively.

This improved communication fosters a stronger sense of teamwork and engagement, which can lead to increased productivity and better overall performance.

4. Provides insights into performances & trends

Another benefit of using employee management software is the valuable insights it provides into employee performance and workforce trends. By gathering and analyzing data on various aspects of employee management, the software allows managers to identify patterns, pinpoint areas for improvement, and make informed decisions to optimize their workforce.

This data-driven approach can lead to more effective employee management strategies and ultimately contribute to the organization’s success.

What should you look for in employee management software?

When choosing the best employee management software for your organization, it’s important to consider several factors to ensure the chosen solution meets your specific needs and requirements.

Here are some aspects to keep in mind when evaluating different employee management software options:

1. Features & functionalities

First, consider the features and functionality that the software offers.

A comprehensive employee management system should include a wide range of tools to address various aspects of workforce management, such as time and attendance tracking, performance management, scheduling, and leave management.

Think about the specific needs of your organization and ensure that the software you choose covers those areas effectively.

2. Ease of use

Ease of use is another crucial factor to take into account. The software should be user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that allows both managers and employees to navigate and utilize the system efficiently.

A solution that is difficult to use may hinder adoption and limit the benefits it can provide.

3. Integration capabilities

Integration capabilities should also be a consideration when selecting employee management software. The ability to integrate the software with other systems, such as payroll, benefits administration, and recruiting tools, can streamline processes and provide a more seamless experience for users.

Additionally, integration with communication and collaboration tools can further enhance teamwork and productivity within the organization.

4. Customization options

Customization options are important to ensure that the software aligns with your organization’s unique needs and processes. The ability to tailor the system to fit your specific requirements, such as customizing workflows, forms, or reporting, can significantly impact the software’s effectiveness and overall value.

5. Customer support

Finally, consider the quality of customer support and the availability of training resources. A responsive, knowledgeable support team can be invaluable in helping you navigate any challenges that may arise while using the software.

Access to training materials and resources, such as webinars, tutorials, and documentation, can also play a significant role in ensuring a smooth implementation and ongoing success with the software.

How do you choose the best employee management system for your business?

Choosing the best employee management system for your business involves a careful analysis of your organization’s specific needs, goals and priorities.

Do the following when shopping for an EMS:

1. Assess your requirements

Start by assessing your organization’s requirements and identifying the most critical aspects of employee management.
This may include time and attendance tracking, performance management, scheduling, or leave management, among others.

Create a list of the features and functionalities that are most important to your organization.

2. Determine your budget

Next, set a budget to determine how much your organization is willing to invest in employee management software. While there may be initial upfront costs, the right software can save time, reduce errors, and ultimately lead to a positive return on investment.

Remember to consider ongoing costs, such as subscription fees, maintenance or support.

There are also free employment management software solutions if your business is on a tight budget.

3. Research different EMSes

Once you have a clear understanding of your organization’s needs and budget, begin researching different employee management systems on the market.

Look for solutions that offer the features and functionality you require and fit within your budget. Read reviews, testimonials, and case studies to gain insights into the experiences of other users.

4. Request demos & trials

Before making a final decision, request demos or trials of the top contenders on your list. This will allow you to test the software firsthand, evaluate its ease of use, and determine how well it meets your organization’s needs.

Encourage feedback from team members who will be using the software regularly to ensure that it meets their needs and expectations as well.

5. Look at reviews and customer stories

Lastly, research the reviews and ratings of the employee management software on independent websites. Look for positive and negative ratings and why.

Request customer stories and case studies when you’re evaluating options. Request insights that show the real return on investment (ROI) of the software.

How to implement employee management software?

Implementing employee management software in your organization involves a series of steps that help ensure a smooth transition and successful adoption of the new system.

Here’s a general overview of the process:

1. Define objectives & needs

Begin by defining your objectives and identifying the specific needs that the employee management software should address.

This will help you establish clear goals and expectations for the implementation process.

Communicate these objectives to your team and any stakeholders involved, ensuring that everyone is on the same page.

2. Assign a team of stakeholders

Next, assemble an implementation team that includes representatives from various departments, such as HR, IT, and management.

This team will be responsible for overseeing the implementation process, coordinating efforts and ensuring that the software is effectively integrated into your organization’s workflows.

3. Draft a plan

Once the team is in place, develop a detailed implementation plan. This plan should outline the steps and timelines for each phase of the implementation process, including data migration, system setup and customization, integration with other systems, training, and ongoing support.

4. Transition & standardize data

As you begin setting up the employee management software, migrate any existing employee data from your current system or spreadsheets into the new platform.

This may involve cleaning up and standardizing the data to ensure consistency and accuracy. Work closely with your software provider to ensure a smooth data migration process.

5. Customize the software

Customize the software to meet your organization’s specific needs and processes. This may involve configuring workflows, forms, or reports to align with your existing practices.

Collaborate with your software provider to ensure that the system is properly tailored to your requirements.

6. Integrate with your tech stack

Integrate the employee management software with any other systems your organization uses, such as payroll, benefits administration, or recruiting tools. This will help streamline processes and improve overall efficiency across your organization.

7. Establish a training plan

Provide comprehensive training for all users, including managers and employees. This training should cover how to navigate and use the system, as well as any specific processes or workflows relevant to your organization.

Offer ongoing support and resources, such as documentation, tutorials, or webinars, to help users become more comfortable with the software.

8. Monitor performance & feedback

Once the software is fully implemented, monitor its performance and gather feedback from users. This will help you identify any issues or areas for improvement, allowing you to make adjustments as needed.

Continuously refine your processes and the software configuration to maximize the benefits of the employee management system.

When to implement employee management software?

Determining the right time to implement employee management software in your organization is a matter of assessing several factors.

For example:

1. Your teams are overburdened

One such factor to consider is whether your current processes are inefficient, time-consuming, or prone to errors.

Employee management software can help automate and streamline tasks, making it easier to manage various aspects of workforce management.

2. Your company is growing

Another factor to evaluate is your organization’s growth trajectory. If your company is rapidly expanding and the number of employees is increasing, manually managing employee data and processes can become overwhelming.

Implementing employee management software during periods of growth can help your organization scale effectively and maintain a high level of efficiency.

3. Compliance is a concern

Compliance concerns are also important to consider. Staying up to date with changing labor laws and regulations can be challenging, and non-compliance can result in significant penalties.

Employee management software can assist in maintaining compliance by providing features like automatic overtime calculations, leave tracking, and audit trails.

4. You’re losing people

Employee engagement is another crucial aspect of workforce management. If your organization is experiencing low employee engagement or high turnover rates, it may be time to reevaluate your current management processes.

Employee management software can foster a more positive work environment by facilitating communication, providing transparency and offering tools for recognizing and rewarding employee achievements.

5. You need better people data

The need for better data and insights is yet another factor to take into account. Making informed decisions about workforce management requires access to accurate, up-to-date employee data.

If your current system doesn’t provide the level of detail and insights you need, implementing employee management software can help you gain a better understanding of your workforce and make data-driven decisions.

6. You’re updating other softwares

Finally, consider any upcoming software or system changes within your organization. If you’re already planning to replace or upgrade other systems, such as payroll or HR software, it may be a good opportunity to consider implementing employee management software as well. Integrating these systems can streamline processes and improve overall efficiency.

Are you ready for a new employee management software?

In conclusion, effective employee management is essential for any organization seeking to maintain a productive, engaged, and satisfied workforce. From understanding the basics of employee management to implementing the right employee management software, it’s crucial to consider all aspects of this important responsibility.

By addressing employee management responsibilities, the importance of proper management, and the benefits of utilizing software tools, organizations can create a positive work environment and ensure smooth operations.

Ultimately, implementing employee management software at the right time can be a game-changer for your organization. By evaluating factors such as process efficiency, growth, compliance concerns, employee engagement, data needs, and other software changes, you can determine when it’s best to introduce a comprehensive employee management system.

With the right approach and a well-executed implementation, your organization can leverage employee management software to optimize workforce management and drive success.

The post Employee management software: everything you need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

From the mountain of tasks involved with recruiting, hiring and onboarding talent to the ongoing work of managing leave requests, benefits administration and performance reviews, the to-do list associated with managing employees is large even if your business is small.

Finding the right small business HR solution can help streamline your HR processes and take the stress out of employee management.

Let’s start this conversation with the basics of HR software.

What is HR software?

HR software, also known as employee management software, is a type of software designed to help manage various HR processes and functions within an organization.

HR software typically includes a range of modules or features that can be used to manage tasks such as:
employee data management

• payroll processing
• benefits administration
• recruiting
• performance management
• training and development

There’s a lot more, but this sums it up. Human resources software for small businesses can help organizations streamline their HR processes, reduce errors and redundancies, increase efficiency and improve overall HR management.

And many HR software solutions are cloud-based, which means they can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making it easier for HR professionals to manage their tasks remotely.

Examples of HR software include Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), and Performance Management Systems (PMS).

Read more: HRIS vs. HRMS vs. HCM: What’s the difference?

What are the benefits of human resources software for a small business?

An HR system for a small business can bring numerous benefits, including:

1. Increased efficiency

Small business HR work may involve fewer employees but there are still many associated with talent management. HR software can automate HR processes, such as recruiting, onboarding, and performance management, which can save time and reduce administrative burdens.

2. Improved accuracy

Manual HR processes are prone to errors, such as typos or misplaced documents. HR systems for small businesses can help minimize such errors by automating processes and ensuring all information is stored in a central location.

3. Enhanced compliance

HR software can help small businesses comply with regulations, such as employment laws and tax codes, by providing features such as document management and compliance tracking.

4. Better data analysis

HR software can generate reports and provide analytics that can help small businesses make informed decisions about their workforce, such as identifying areas for improvement in employee engagement or identifying trends in turnover.

5. Increased employee engagement

HR software can provide employees with easy access to their personal information, benefits, and other HR-related resources, which can help improve engagement and job satisfaction.

Overall, small business human resources software can be a valuable tool for organizations looking to streamline their HR processes, improve accuracy and ensure compliance.

It can also provide insights into workforce data, which can help inform business decisions and improve employee engagement.

Read more: HR software benefits: how HR tech helps you in your work

How to tell if you need employee management software for your small business

It can be difficult to justify the expense of investing in an HRIS for small business purposes if you’re budget-conscious, but the increase in efficiency, productivity and accuracy can recoup the costs quickly.

Evaluate the following questions to decide if an HR system is right for you:

1. How much time do you spend on HR tasks?

If you find that you or your HR staff are spending a lot of time on administrative HR tasks such as paperwork, data entry and manual reporting, HR software can automate many of these processes, freeing up time for more strategic HR work.

2. Is maintaining compliance a concern?

If staying compliant with employment laws and regulations feels confusing or overwhelming, small business HR software can provide features such as compliance tracking and document management to help you stay on top of your obligations.

3. How often are you experiencing employee turnover?

High employee turnover can be a sign of problems within your HR processes. HR software can help you identify issues, such as low employee engagement or ineffective onboarding processes, that may be contributing to turnover.

4. Does workforce data drive your HR strategies?

If you’re struggling to make data-driven decisions about your workforce, HR software can provide analytics and reporting to help you identify trends, track performance, and make informed decisions about your employees.

5. Do your employees feel informed and supported?

If you’re looking to improve your employees’ experience, HR software can provide employees with access to self-service features, such as benefits enrollment and time-off requests, which can help them feel more in control of their work lives.

How to choose the right HR software for your small business

Deciding that your business would benefit from an HR system is the easy part, but figuring out which one to choose can feel like an intimidating task. Here are some things to consider as you research small business HR systems:

1. Identify your HR needs

Start by identifying the specific HR needs you want the software to address, such as payroll, benefits administration, time tracking, or performance management. This will help you narrow down your options and choose a software that meets your requirements.

2. Consider your budget

Determine how much you’re willing to spend on HR software. Keep in mind that some software may require additional costs, such as implementation fees, training, or ongoing maintenance fees.

3. Look for user-friendly software

Choose a software that is user-friendly and easy to navigate. It should be intuitive and not require extensive training for your employees to use.

4. Evaluate integrations

Look for HR software that integrates with your existing systems, such as your payroll or accounting software, to minimize data entry and streamline processes.

5. Check for scalability

Choose a software that can grow with your business, especially if you’re planning to expand or hire more employees.

6. Read reviews

Read online reviews of the HR software you’re considering to see how other small business owners have found it to be useful. This can help you get a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

7. Consider customer support

Look for HR software that offers excellent customer support, including technical support, training, and user forums, to ensure that you get the most out of the software.

Perhaps this isn’t enough for you to make a decision on purchasing an HR software for your small business. If you want to go deeper, check out our complete guide to HR software selection.

Best HR software for small businesses

Now that you know what to look for, let’s talk about how to find the best HRIS for small businesses. Here are a few popular options:

1. BambooHR

BambooHR is an all-in-one HR software solution that offers features like applicant tracking, time off management, and benefits administration. It’s designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses.

2. Gusto

Gusto is a payroll and HR software solution that’s designed to make managing your team’s pay and benefits a breeze. It offers features like automatic tax filing, employee onboarding, and health insurance administration.

3. Zoho People

Zoho People is a cloud-based HR software solution that offers features like time tracking, attendance management, and performance tracking. It’s designed to be customizable to fit your specific needs, and offers mobile apps for on-the-go access.

4. HR Cloud

HR Cloud offers features like applicant tracking, onboarding, and performance tracking. It’s designed to be user-friendly and customizable, with a focus on making HR processes more efficient.

5. Workable

Workable is a comprehensive HR solution designed to help small businesses succeed. With features such as applicant tracking, job posting, interviewing scheduling, onboarding and beyond, Workable streamlines HR processes and improves the employee experience throughout the entire employee lifecycle. Workable’s intuitive plug-and-play HR software has onboarding, document management and time-off functionalities – and it’s included at no extra cost with its best-in-class recruiting solution. This makes it a great software for small businesses that are building out their teams.

No matter which HR software you choose, make sure to take your time and do your research. With the right small business HR tools in your toolkit, your business can thrive at any size.

The post What is the best HR software for small businesses? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The HR tasks associated with talent management involve a lot of very important moving pieces — the work is time-intensive, time-sensitive, detail-oriented, often involves legal liability, and has a significant impact on employee satisfaction.

Using an HRIS (Human Resources Information System)to organize and automate HR functions allows HR professionals to focus their time and expertise on personalizing people management so that they can focus on what matters most, like attracting top talent, improving employee satisfaction, and increasing retention rates.

But here’s the thing: while an HRIS can be incredibly useful, it can also be quite pricey.

And with so many pricing models out there, it can be tough to figure out what you’ll actually end up paying.

Learn more about HRIS software prices so you can make an informed decision in your search for an all-in-one human resources software solution.

What is an HRIS?

An HRIS is a software solution that manages employee data and streamlines HR processes, including tasks associated with recruiting, onboarding, payroll, and benefits administration. Not enough? Go deeper with our all-inclusive guide titled “What is an HRIS?“.

Pros & cons of an HRIS

An HRIS can offer a wide range of benefits to businesses of all sizes. However, there are also some potential downsides to consider. Here are some of the main pros and cons of an HRIS:

Pros:

1. Searchable resource of employee data

A significant amount of data is collected throughout the employee life cycle. With an HRIS, all employee data is stored in one centralized system, making it easier to track and manage. This can help HR teams stay on top of employee information, such as performance reviews, training records, leave requests, benefits management, and more.

Cloud-based software systems make it possible for employee data to be accessed by stakeholders regardless of their physical location, making it ideal for organizations with multiple offices or remote workers.

2. Streamlined hiring and onboarding

The hiring process is not only crucial for securing top talent, it’s also an opportunity to make a positive first impression on qualified candidates. However, it’s time-consuming and involves a pool of people and a pile of paperwork, making it all too easy to make mistakes along the way.

An HRIS system can pull double duty as an applicant tracking system, scanning and sorting resumes, organizing important candidate information, and streamlining employee training and onboarding tasks. Implementing an HRIS increases efficiency by adding an organized structure to hiring processes and automating HR workflows.

3. Manage scheduling, payroll, and benefits

Employee scheduling, leave requests, PTO, payroll, and benefits administration are all important aspects of HR work, and many of the mundane tasks associated with those processes can be automated with an HR software solution, which also makes HR functions scalable as your organization grows.

4. Enhanced compliance

Minimize the legal liability of your organization by using an HRIS to maintain compliance with local, state, federal, or industry-wide regulations.

HRIS software reduces the likelihood of errors and can help businesses stay compliant with various employment laws and regulations by automating compliance tasks, providing access to up-to-date information, and storing data for the appropriate amount of time.

5. Increase employee engagement

Many HR systems make accessing information more convenient with an employee self-service option that allows team members to access training modules, performance reviews, or information about payroll or benefits.

Allowing access to relevant information simplifies the responsibilities of HR professionals and improves productivity by empowering employees with a resource they can access as needed.

6. Track employee-related metrics

HRIS systems often offer advanced reporting and analytics capabilities.Tracking analytics regarding time-to-hire, recruitment costs, retention rates, performance management, employee demographics and more allows businesses to make data-driven decisions about their HR strategies.

Interested in learning more about what an HRIS can do for your business? Check out our comprehensive deep dive into HRIS benefits and our list of 10 must-have HRIS software features.

Cons:

1. Cost

HRIS software can be expensive, particularly for small businesses or those with limited budgets. Additionally, some HRIS systems require ongoing maintenance and support, which can add to the overall cost.

2. Implementation time

Implementing an HRIS can be a time-consuming process, particularly if a business is transitioning from a manual or outdated HR system. This can lead to some initial disruptions in HR operations.

3. Data security

Storing employee data in a centralized system can raise concerns about data security and privacy. It’s important to choose an HRIS that offers robust security features, such as encryption, access controls, and regular backups.

4. Employee adoption

If employees are used to a certain HR system or process, switching to an HRIS can be a significant change. This can lead to some resistance or reluctance to adopt the new system.

Overall, an HRIS can offer valuable benefits to businesses looking to streamline their HR processes and improve data management. However, it’s important to carefully consider the potential downsides and choose an HRIS that fits your business’s needs and budget.

How much does an HRIS cost?

The cost of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) can vary widely depending on the vendor, pricing model, features and functionality, the size of the organization, and other factors.

On average, the cost of an HRIS can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, or even more for larger enterprises. However, there are also free and open-source HRIS options available that can provide basic functionality at no cost.

It’s important to factor in the potential for ongoing costs as well, such as maintenance, upgrades, support, and training.

How do you calculate the cost of an HRIS?

Calculating the cost of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) can be a complex process that requires taking into account various factors, which is why it’s important to get quotes from multiple vendors. Some of the key factors that can impact HRIS software prices include:

Number of employees: HRIS vendors often price their software based on the number of employees in an organization. The more employees, the higher the cost.

Features and functionality: Some HRIS systems may include only basic functionality such as employee data management, while others may include advanced features such as payroll processing, performance management, and talent management.

Implementation and training: The cost of implementation and training may be included in the initial cost of the HRIS or may be an additional expense.

Maintenance and support: Ongoing maintenance and support can also impact the cost of an HRIS. Some vendors may charge an annual maintenance fee to provide updates and technical support.

What can drive up the price of an HRIS?

Several factors can drive up HRIS software prices, including:

Scalability: The ability of an HRIS to scale up to accommodate more employees or features can significantly impact its price. A system that can handle a larger workforce or more complex HR tasks may be more expensive than a basic HRIS.

Customization: Customizing an HRIS to meet an organization’s specific needs can also increase its price. Customization can involve changes to the user interface, data fields, workflows, and reporting functions.

Integration: The integration of an HRIS with other systems, such as accounting software or time and attendance systems, may come at an additional cost. Integration requires additional development time and resources to ensure that the systems can communicate with each other effectively.

Vendor support: The level of support provided by the vendor can also impact the price of an HRIS. Vendors that offer extensive technical support and training resources may charge a higher price than those that provide minimal support.

Data migration: Moving data from an existing HR system to a new HRIS can be a time-consuming and complex process. The cost of data migration can vary depending on the size and complexity of the organization’s data.

Compliance requirements: HRIS vendors that specialize in compliance and regulatory requirements, such as those related to labor laws, may charge more for their services due to the specialized expertise required.

How can you lower the cost of an HRIS?

Let’s face it: the budget is often the ultimate deciding factor and finding ways to reduce costs can help improve your chances of getting executive approval to implement an HRIS. Here are some ideas to look into if you’re trying to lower costs:

Consider open-source options: Open-source HRIS software is available for free, which can significantly reduce the cost of an HRIS. However, organizations should carefully evaluate the features and functionality of open-source HRIS solutions to ensure they meet their needs.

Choose a cloud-based system: Cloud-based HRIS systems typically require lower upfront costs compared to on-premise solutions, as they do not require additional hardware or IT infrastructure. Additionally, cloud-based systems typically have a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing organizations to only pay for the features and number of employees they need.

Prioritize essential features: Organizations should prioritize the essential features they need from an HRIS and avoid paying for unnecessary functionality to lower the cost of the system.

Opt for a self-service model: A self-service HRIS model can allow employees to update their own information and perform basic HR tasks, reducing the workload of HR staff and potentially lowering the cost of the system.

Implement the HRIS gradually: Implementing an HRIS gradually, rather than all at once, may help to lower costs. This approach can allow organizations to implement essential features first and add additional features over time as their budget allows.

Streamline the hiring process with a comprehensive collection of hiring resources.

Different HRIS payment models

There are several different payment models for Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), including:

One-time licensing fee: Under this model, organizations pay a one-time fee to purchase the HRIS software license. The organization owns the software license and can use it indefinitely. This model is less common than other payment models.

Subscription fee: Many HRIS vendors offer a subscription-based (or SaaS) pricing model, where organizations pay a monthly or annual fee to use the system. The fee may be based on the number of employees or the features and functionality included in the system.

Pay-per-employee fee: Some HRIS vendors charge a fee per employee per month or per year. This fee is based on the number of employees in the organization, and the fee may vary depending on the features and functionality included in the system.

Usage-based fee: HRIS vendors may charge a usage-based fee, where organizations pay based on the number of transactions or tasks performed using the system. For example, an organization may pay a fee per payroll run or per job posting.

Customized pricing: There are HRIS vendors that offer customized pricing based on an organization’s specific needs. The vendor may assess the organization’s needs and provide a quote based on the features and functionality required.

Free and open-source: Some HRIS solutions are available for free or at a low cost. These may be open-source solutions that are community-supported, or they may be freemium models that offer basic functionality for free and charge for additional features. Another option is to choose a software that has an HRIS included with it, such as Workable’s recruitment platform. You can learn more about Workable’s HRIS here.

So, how do you pick the right HRIS?

Before you begin researching HRIS options, it’s important to evaluate your organization’s specific HR needs and pain points so that you’ll be able to prioritize the features and functionality that matter the most to your business.

Ask the following questions before you start comparing software options:

• What challenges does your HR team face?
• What do you hope to achieve with HRIS software?
• What is your budget for an HRIS?
• Which teams should be involved in the selection and implementation process?
• What is your timeline for implementing HRIS software?

As you begin researching different vendors, keep the following cost considerations in mind:

• What are the upfront costs and are there ongoing costs associated with using the software?
• Is the solution scalable as your business grows?
• Does the software integrate with any of the other systems your business currently uses?
• Is the software intuitive and easy to use and does the vendor offer training or support?
• Is any customization offered or required for your specific use case?
• Can existing data be easily migrated to the new system?

Once you’re equipped with the information above and some basic knowledge about HRIS software prices, you’ll be able to compare features, functionality, and value so that you can choose an HRIS that meets the needs (and the budget) of your organization. Our article on finding the best HRIS software for your business needs will be useful here as well.

The post HRIS software prices: how to choose an all-in-one HR solution appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Note that most vendors don’t publicly list their pricing details, so you may need to contact them directly for a quote if you have custom requirements.

HR software subscription cost models

Human resources software costs depend on the features offered and the number of employees using the system.

For smaller businesses with fewer employees, a basic system may be sufficient. These systems typically offer only essential features, such as time tracking and payroll management. Prices for these HR software systems start at around $3 per user per month.

Premium plans are available for businesses with more employees or who need advanced features from their HR software such as performance tracking and talent management. These plans usually cost between $688 and $1,239 per month.

Finally, enterprises or businesses with very large teams may need a comprehensive system that offers all the features of a premium plan plus additional support and scalability. These advanced systems can cost up to $3,500+ per month.

HR software license options

The two most common types of pricing models are perpetual licensing (on-premise) and subscription hosting plans (cloud).

Perpetual license – paying upfront for HR software

Perpetual licensing is a type of software licensing where the company pays for the software upfront and hosts the data on its own servers. This option may be attractive for businesses concerned about data security or with complex needs (e.g., large organizations). Some perpetual licenses may require a recurring cost, such as maintenance or support fees (typically charged annually). Some popular providers of licensed-based HRMS software include SimpleHR, Oracle, and Kronos Workforce.

You can often choose this pricing model after trying free trial versions of the software and deciding to make a larger initial investment.

Pricing for perpetual license HR software

This type of pricing is common for enterprise software, such as the Oracle PeopleSoft Human Resource application, ranging from $85 to $225 per employee. For large businesses or enterprises with more than 100 to 500 hundred employees, it might be best to opt for a one-time fee or subscription with annual fees. Many HR software vendors offer discounts for upfront payment when there are a large number of users.

Subscription plans – paying monthly or annually for HR software

Many software providers offer their products as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which allows companies to subscribe to a monthly or annual service fee. This can benefit businesses that want to avoid hosting and managing their own data. Some subscription plans offer a pay-as-you-go with no contract required, while others may have a contract agreement.

Pricing for subscription HR software

The typical pricing structure is based on the number of active employees per month; however, some vendors use a per-user per-month rate that also covers administrative users, such as those in HR. For example, Gusto offers three different plans depending on the needs of your business. The core plan costs $60 per month and $9 per person, while the complete plan costs $39 per month and $12 per person.

Some other popular providers of subscription-based HRMS software include BambooHR and Cezanne.

Costs to consider when looking at HR pricing models

Before you choose a subscription package or perpetual license for your HR software, it’s important to consider the often-overlooked costs associated with it. This way, you can add them to your budget from the start.

Data migration, training, maintenance and upgrades, and IT support are all important factors to consider. Make sure you check with the vendor about these potential extra costs before making your purchase.

Free HR software solutions – open source vs. free software

Many software companies offer “freemium” versions of their products, which allow users to access basic features for no cost.

Pricing models that offer basic features for free are popular among those who need an HR tool but don’t have a budget. Such licenses often come with additional features that you can buy at an extra cost. Another option is to procure a software solution of another kind that has an HRIS feature included; effectively, you’re solving two needs with one purchase. Workable’s recruitment software, for instance, comes with a built-in HRIS to meet the needs of many small- and medium-sized businesses.

On the other hand, open-source software is designed using open-source code that can be downloaded and modified for free – particularly useful for software developers.

There are key differences between open-source software and other HR software offerings. With open-source software, companies download a vendor’s source code and then install or modify it for their own use, carrying the cost of hosting the software.

How to determine which HR software pricing model suits your business

Price is not the only factor to consider when choosing a solution.

You must also keep in mind the following:

• Consider all features and functionality and the total cost for everything you need. This approach makes it easier for you to compare different platforms and systems with different features and pricing models.
• An integrated HR software solution will automate and streamline your processes, increasing productivity and accuracy while reducing the workload for your HR team.
• The total price may be more than the initial or monthly costs – but over time, it could save your company money by automating tasks, reducing errors, and even reducing staff turnover and recruitment costs. This is something to consider when looking at the return on investments of your HR software choice.

The bottom line is that the pricing model you choose for your HRMS can significantly impact your business, especially as you scale. Freemium and subscription models are popular choices, but the licensing approach may be a better fit for larger organizations with more bespoke needs.

The post HR software pricing: which cost model is right for you? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Related: What is employee management?

Let’s have look at what they are:

WebHR

This free, cloud-based service is ideal if your business requires a high level of communication between employees. Built-in messenger and employee discussion forums explain why WebHR is known as ‘The Social HR Software’.

Well – it’s only free if you have five employees or fewer using it, so this software suits small businesses. Some key free modules include onboarding, time and attendance, an employee self-service portal, file and document management, reports, and time off. Should you decide or need to upgrade, you can do so one module at a time.

Zoho People

Zoho offers a fairly comprehensive free package that includes file and document management, time and attendance tracking, performance management, employee development, and time off management. Free for five users, Zoho People provides an employee database as well as office readiness features.

This includes work premises configuration, work from office management, and visitor management. And while you’re only getting 250MB of storage, you’ll still get classic support and e-signature integration. Zoho People is great for organizations looking for many features that offer basic HR services.

OrangeHRM

This is the one that pops up in most “Best free HR software” lists. Companies can self-host; however, this open-source software offers the same solutions in its cloud-based version. With more than 5 million active users, OrangeHRM takes its tagline “HR software for all” seriously.

The free starter package provides time tracking, reporting, HR admin, and recruitment features, along with employee self-service. Leave management, performance, and employee management also form part of the deal. If your priority is scalability, then Orange HRM is a solid choice.

Bitrix24

Collaboration is the key feature of this software. An unlimited number of users in its free version combined with a portfolio of task and project management features make Bitrix24 an excellent platform for cooperative work. Included among the 35 free tools are employee profile pages, company structure, a social network, and a company knowledge base.

This HR software will suit companies that want to easily connect to other aspects of the business, such as customer relationship management and website building.

Freshteam

Affordable scalability that won’t break the bank when you decide to upgrade is what you can expect from Freshteam. With access for fewer than 50 employees, you can take advantage of its free-forever plan that offers a customizable career site, employee referrals, an organizational chart, and an employee information system.

Freshteam’s selling points are its low prices for upgrades, user-friendly interface, and support. This cloud-based system works for small to medium-sized businesses looking for a one-stop shop for their HR needs.

Workable

The main focus of Workable’s HRIS is streamlining the onboarding and management process. With its customizable features such as custom workflows, branded onboarding portal and automated compliance tools, Workable offers a seamless experience for HR management. Key offerings include organized company documents, a clear organization structure and efficient time-off management.

Workable is an ideal choice for companies looking for a centralized platform to effectively manage employee onboarding and HR-related tasks. The user-friendly interface and emphasis on organization make it an excellent tool for businesses striving for a smooth and professional HR experience. It comes free of charge with the purchase of its best-in-class recruitment solution.

It’s all about what you need

Take the time to carefully consider your company’s needs. Once you have decided on a HR and employee management software solution, it will be difficult to change it once it is implemented.

Even if no payment has been made, certain HR processes are now embedded in the chosen solution, requiring system overhaul and possibly user retraining.

The post The 6 best free HR and employee management software solutions appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is HR document management software?

HR document management software (DMS) is a digital solution for employee document organization. You can use DMS to upload employee information, provide storage for these documents, and update any changes. With this centralized digital vault for important paperwork, HR can easily access and manage vital, up-to-date employee information.

What documents can you store using DMS?

Any documents that pertain to employee relations, from recruitment to onboarding to termination, may be stored using DMS. This includes:

• Recruitment collateral (marketing videos, social proof, career pages, etc.)
• Hiring and onboarding documentation
• Employee contracts
• Company policies and regulations
• PTO requests, medical and disability records
• Payroll documents
• Benefits administration documents
• Performance reviews and records
  Accident and safety reports
• Learning management paperwork

The benefits and challenges of DMS

Pro: Your documents are secure. There are all sorts of safety measures that can be put in place to ensure confidentiality – passwords, data encryption, and limited access for viewing and sharing. In contrast, having a physical storage solution for employee records is a huge risk – one bad weather pattern and your tax documents could be floating away.

Con: Even the most Fort Knox-like platforms have experienced security breaches, so there’s always the risk of being hacked. However, paralyzing fear of this means never entering the digital realm – goodbye online banking, social media, and even email. Taking the proper precautions means you’ll have some sort of protection from those cyberpunks.

Pro: Optimized efficiency and workflow with DMS mean you’ll have a lean, mean HR machine. Knowing where every document is and being able to access them in a centralized portal easily will revolutionize your HR department. Your employees will be able to focus on more important tasks rather than spending time searching for documents.

Con: As with most things, there are costs involved. Not every organization has the budget or wherewithal to implement this type of software. However, it’s also possible to start with the basics and work up to a more complex system. There are also payment models that make this an affordable undertaking. (We’ll delve into this a little later.)

Pro: Scalability means the software will grow as your company does. The benefit of this is that you can keep the same processes and workflows in place as you expand without having to introduce new software or training.

Pro: Not only will you save time with DMS, but you’ll also save money and trees. Paperless solutions mean you don’t have to maintain physical storage for your documents or run the risk of loss or damage.

Pro: Company-wide engagement brings an end to running after signatures and multiple communications sharing the same information. With one platform, the relevant parties are notified and are able to access the documents as required.

Why do companies use DMS?

When it comes to planning your organization’s next big move, you need all the data you can get. Quick access to that information streamlines strategizing and allows for decisions to be made in a timeous manner.

It’s also easier to ensure you’re following the letter of the law when your documents are organized and stored in a practical way. Legislative non-compliance carries serious consequences. Not having the relevant information on hand when the Department of Labor auditors come your way could end in disastrous results.

How much does HR document management software cost?

Ah, the crux of the matter. Yes, you’re aware that DMS is becoming mandatory in today’s businesses but will your accountant protest the expense? First, there are a couple of things you should know, such as:

How do you calculate the cost of DMS?

Start with the actual amount paid over to your selected service provider – this could be a once-off, monthly, or per-user fee. DMS doesn’t take up any physical storage; however, there are certain investment costs to consider. This includes software license fees, hardware to run the program, the cost of implementing it, training expenses, and tech support. Cost must be attributed to the time it takes to retrieve documents which is less than 30 seconds. To work this out, Pairsoft has come up with the following formula:

Add this to your service provider costs and investment costs, and you should have a figure for how much you’ll be spending when it comes to DMS. (Still a lot less than a paper-based filing system!)

What drives up the price of a DMS system?

It goes without saying that the more complex the software, the more it will cost. This could include setting up parameters for legislative compliance or increasing your security requirements. Depending on your payment plan, the number of users and features could also affect the price.

There’s also the option of hosting the system yourself or choosing cloud-based administration. With self-hosting, running off the business’s servers means the initial costs will be high, and you will have yearly upgrades and tech support costs adding to the mix. Cloud-based means you have access to your documents from anywhere with any device – but that also requires an internet connection to see your files. A purely online service, the cost is based on a monthly user fee.

Different DMS payment models

One-time payment

Several service providers offer an annual or monthly fee that increases with the number of features you sign up for. This is sometimes limited to a certain number of users. Providers like Contractbook charge $115/month/3 users, while ContractWorks charges a flat fee of $600/month for unlimited users.

Pay per user

This is the most popular payment scheme, especially amongst smaller enterprises. Companies like Avokaado have a fee of 49€/month/user for up to 15 users and Juro charges $59/user/month.

Pay per feature

A payment plan like this is perfect for users who only require certain services. However, as your business grows, it might end up being cheaper taking a full package than paying on a feature-by-feature basis. eFileCabinet charges $1,200/ year/feature, while Contract Logic has a fee of $59/feature/month.

Free/freemium

If you’re working with a limited budget – and this is usually the case for a smaller business with fewer than 20 employees – it may make better sense to secure a free HR document management software. Of course, because it’s free, you’re limited in what you can do with it, but it may well be enough if you’re not managing and storing a huge number of documents. Many DMS softwares will have a freemium model with the most basic capabilities, and there are other HR softwares – for example, Workable’s hiring software – that come ready-equipped with a document management system add-on at no extra charge.

How to choose the right DMS

Once you start searching, you’ll realize there are countless options out there. So, before you even click on your browser, have a clear vision of what it is you hope to achieve with HR document management software. How big is your company? What are the specific needs of your organization? What’s your budget, and how many users will need access? These are all questions you’ll need to have answers to before you embark on your journey to find the perfect DMS for you.

The post HR document management software: How much does it cost? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a software solution that helps you manage your human resources processes. This includes recruitment, hiring, onboarding, document management, training, performance management, and more. Its main goal is to streamline your processes and save time, money and a ton of paper.

An HRIS not only reduces the number of potential human errors but also boosts employee engagement. Offering a self-service option gives your employees some autonomy in managing their employee profiles.

An efficient HRIS program frees up your HR employees to focus on the aspects that should take priority – learning and development, talent management, and creative strategy development to advance your company’s objectives.

Not quite what you’re looking for? Check out our high-level guide to HR software selection.

But it won’t just help your employees. The system’s report-generation capabilities will help you identify trends and address issues before they have a significant impact. It can also include a regulatory compliance module that ensures you comply with regulations at national and local levels.

And data management? Forget old personnel files gathering dust in archives. Now you can access everything you need from a compatible device without calling on an intern to sift through reams of paperwork. It’s a secure way to handle your employees’ important information and documentation, thanks to cloud-based storage.

So the question isn’t “Why do you need it?” but “Why don’t you already have it?”.

Breaking down the different types of HRIS

Separated into five categories, these HRIS software solutions pinpoint the needs of various organizations.

1. Operational HRIS

• Addresses HR’s functions, such as personnel changes, hiring, promotions, and performance management
• Keeps a record of pertinent documents, including employee records, appraisal information and job specifications
• Ideally suited for the standard requirements of HR and employee management tasks

2. Tactical HRIS

• Great for organizations that need a holistic overview of their status and data to support larger-scale decisions
• Helps allocate resources by supplying information on elements such as recruitment, learning and development, job openings, and compensation
• Includes data related to competitors, legal requirements, and union policies
• Assists in the decision-making process but less handy when it comes to daily HR functions

3. Strategic HRIS

• Similar to Tactical HRIS but aims to expand or grow an organization
• The same data is now used to plan the future of the workforce and the goals the organization can attain
• Provides information pertaining to market status and financial implications to help form the foundation for tide-turning maneuvers

4. Comprehensive HRIS

• Embraces all the functions of the other systems and creates a cohesive package for all your HR needs
• Streamlines your HR processes and offers a dashboard for easy review and access
• More costly than the others but proves its worth with the time and money it will save you in the long run

5. Limited-Function HRIS

• Serves a single purpose and are best suited for smaller operations
• Objectives range from payroll to training to benefits
• Modules with alternative functions may be added on as the needs of the organization diversify
• Maintains a central employee information database
• Affordable way to start the digitizing process and easily monitored

Choosing one of these HRIS systems fully depends on the requirements of your organization. Even if you have a starter company, certain features are must-haves. Read on to find out the components you won’t be able to do without.

Essential features of an HRIS

In choosing the best HRIS software for your company, it helps to compile a list of functions you’ll need to run your HR department at an optimal level.

Here are some features that make a good starting point:

• Applicant Tracking System (ATS): An ATS allows you to manage job postings, resumes, and applications in one place, making the recruitment process more efficient. Workable’s own best-in-class ATS comes ready-equipped with its own HRIS, which makes it a good fit for many businesses.
• Onboarding: With a single space for the completion of “paperwork” that relays this information to the relevant departments, you can avoid errors in the capturing of a new employee’s details as well as save time. Along with the necessary introductory process, some HRIS solutions can even perform background checks. Workable’s recruitment solution also comes with a native onboarding feature.
• Employee Self-Service (ESS): This portal links an employee with their personal information, allows them to request time off, and view their paychecks, among other functions.
• Benefits Administration: An HRIS should include a module for managing employee benefits, including health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off.
• Performance Management: Performance appraisals are recorded, helping to set goals and provide feedback to employees. With real-time performance notifications, managers can respond almost immediately to positive and negative actions.
• Reporting and Analytics: Being able to track key metrics such as turnover rate, headcount, and employee engagement is a powerful tool in the decision-making process of any organization. An HRIS should be able to produce reports that are ready for the boardroom within minutes.
• Mobile Access: Anywhere, anytime, your HR information should be available with just a few taps of your fingertips. With a cloud-based service, the storage capabilities are amplified, making access to all employee information quick and easy.
• Scalability: Sure, your company is small now, but what happens when you begin to build your empire? You shouldn’t have to start fresh with a new software program. Your HRIS must grow with you and meet the demands of your burgeoning business.

There may be other HRIS features that are mandatory for the success of your HR department, such as payroll, learning and development functions, or talent management.

However, even starting with something as simple as a centralized database will show a world of improvement in how your workplace runs.

What’s the difference between HRIS and HRMS?

Being in business these days is no easy feat. It can be bewildering to keep up with technological advances and ensure you have the most suitable systems in place for your requirements. In your search for an HR software solution, you will inevitably come across Human Resources Management Software (HRMS).

It’s essentially the top shelf of HR software that combines the capabilities of HRIS and Human Capital Management (HCM). That means it covers every aspect of HR, from payroll and time off to analyses and strategic HR functions.

Related: Learn more about the difference between HRIS vs. HRMS vs. HCM.

If you have a large number of employees, a complex operation, and a reasonably large budget, then an HRMS will be your best option. However, if your HR needs are pretty basic and you have less than 50 employees, an HRIS that centers on an employee database will serve you well.

Cloud-based vs. on-premise HRIS

Another selection to make is whether you prefer cloud-based Software as a Service or retaining on-premises software licensing options. The PwC Tech Survey of 2022 found that while cloud transformation is the third biggest challenge when it comes to human capital for HR leaders, expectations were met and mostly overcome.

These expectations included:

• Greater HR control (89%)
• Increased employee engagement (84%)
• Improved productivity (86%)
• Saving money (82%)

While it would seem like the obvious choice, there are considerations to take into account:

• It’s possible for the system to be hacked without the right measures in place
• While cloud-based doesn’t require the high upfront cost of on-premises software, the subscription fees may add up to a tidy amount
• It’s fairly difficult to retrieve data from the cloud to transfer to another software solution

On the other hand, on-premises solutions have their own drawbacks:

• It’s a costly undertaking as infrastructure such as hardware, software, and servers need to be purchased to put the plan in place
• An IT team will also be required to troubleshoot any issues and monitor the system
• The uploading of data In this solution is done via manual entry, making the information prone to mistakes as multiple departments capture the same data

As per usual, making this decision is mainly reliant on the specifications of your company and your existing equipment status.

A look at the top HRIS providers

If you’ve done your homework, you’ve realized that there are an astounding number of HRIS providers on the market. Here we’ve separated the wheat from the chaff with the top 5 HRIS companies as voted for by users:

1. ADP

• Full suite of HR functions that include talent management, payroll, and benefits administration.
• Flexibility allows them to service organizations across the size spectrum.
• For small businesses that need a basic package, you can expect to have to add on services like ATS, HR training, and HR forms and documents.

Why we like it:

• Features include payroll, onboarding, ATS, compliance, training, and tracking
• 3 month free trial
• Wisely Direct Debit Card
• Suitable for an organization, of any size
• Flexibility

Why we don’t like it:

• Most features are not available on the basic package
• $63/month (add $4 for every additional employee)
• After-sales complaints when it comes to customer service

2. BambooHR

• The basic package offers a central database, reporting and analytics, time-off management, and employee self-service.
• Onboarding, ATS, and training all form part of the advanced package with payroll, performance management, and time tracking categorized as add-ons.
• The quality of BambooHR’s HRIS is exceptional but with its advanced features, it’s perhaps better suited to medium and large organizations.

Why we like it:

• Comprehensive suite of features
• Simple and easy-to-use interface
• Flat rate for organizations with less than 20 employees
• Available in 6 languages (English, French Canadian, German, Spanish, Dutch, or Brazilian Portuguese)
• New Employee Wellbeing tool to improve retention

Why we don’t like it:

• Features like ATS and onboarding are not included in the basic package
• Not easily customized
• Time tracking is rounded off and problems experienced with converting to payroll
• Customers experience difficulty with integrations

3. Freshteam

• They promise to reduce recruiter workload by 75% thanks to the automation of repetitive routines in their ATS.
• They offer a free plan to businesses with less than 50 employees that includes ATS, employee profiles and directory, organizational charts, basic time-off management, and mobile capabilities.
• Freshteam excels on the recruitment front, but seems to provide fewer functions as employees get past the onboarding phase.

Why we like it:

• Free plan forever for small businesses
• Allows for different levels of access across the organization
• Easy to move applicants from one stage to the next
• User-friendly interface

Why we don’t like it:

• Basic HRIS in free plan that does not include document management or onboarding
• Integrations work best with Freshworks apps, but not as well with third-party providers
• Analytics tools could be improved

4. Zenefits

• They offer seamless syncing across HR, payroll, and benefits administration thereby avoiding time-wasting actions.
• Their base plan offers automated onboarding, time off tracking, integrations, analytics, employee management, scheduling, and mobile capabilities at $8/month/employee.
• At double that amount, they’ll throw in compensation management, configurable people analytics, and performance management.
• Add-ons include payroll, advisory services, benefits administration with your own broker, and recruitment.
• For small businesses looking for an HRIS that covers basic HR functions, Zenefits has a minimum five-employee requirement.

Why we like it:

• Great integration across the sections
• Automated tasks free up employees
• Easily locate resources for quick reference
• Convenient clocking in and out capabilities

Why we don’t like it:

• Features are not as comprehensive as other providers
• Less than five employees and you’ll still be charged the five-employee rate
• Customer support could be improved upon

5. Workable

• They offer a seamless onboarding experience with a branded onboarding portal, automations, and an onboarding dashboard
• Employee information and storage of important documents are easily organized and managed
• Updates are made automatically to your company’s org chart
• Compliance, especially in data privacy, is simplified with automated tools for GDPR and EEOC

Why we like it:

• Has the necessary onboarding & employee management functionalities for SMBs worldwide
• Customizable onboarding and management features
• Centralized platform for all HR-related documents
• Branded onboarding portal for a professional appearance
• Automated tools for GDPR and EEOC compliance
• Comes free with the purchase of Workable’s best-in-class recruitment software, eliminating tech clutter and integration headaches

Why we don’t like it:

• Not as expansive as other, more robust HRIS solutions
• Isn’t isolable as an HRIS software
• Other HR features, like payroll, are not yet built

Choosing the right HRIS for you

Selecting the perfect HRIS software solution boils down to one question: What do you need? If your business is just starting out, there’s no need to overextend yourself on fancy features that won’t make an impact.

Your best bet would be a package that covers the most important HR functions while staying within your budget. Keep it clean, keep it simple, and keep an eye on your bottom line.

The post Find the best HRIS software for your business needs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Besides storage, document management involves various other functions. But which software provider can provide all the features you need at a price you can afford? Check out our comparison of the top document management software providers to find the one that suits you best.

What is a document management system?

A document management system (DMS) is a digital system that’s tasked with the storage, sharing, tracking, and management of files and documents. Specifically in HR, these documents relate to employee information, company policies, and workflows. With the easy accessibility that a DMS provides to authorized personnel, filing cabinets have become obsolete in the HR department.

Why do you need document management software?

Here are some of the benefits of document management software:

It’s safe. No more misplaced documents or files that have fallen victim to coffee spills. Online documents are securely stored behind firewalls, password protection, and data encryption. Plus, you can decide who’s allowed to access the information, adding yet another layer of protection.

It’s efficient. A place for everything and everything in its place. Documents are organized and categorized according to your preferences, making them easy to find and update. The time saved with this function is all the reason you need to install this software.

It grows. The scalability of a DMS means that, as your company expands, so does the system. As a result of this, your workflows and processes won’t change, so no need for new software or training.

It’s accessible. Forget shuffling contracts from one inbox to the next for signatures. The authorized stakeholders receive communication regarding updates instantly and can access documents at will.

It’s paperless. Green initiatives are an integral part of any organization so it’s worth grabbing any opportunity to help the planet. Plus you’ll prevent a whole lot of paper cuts.

What documents can you store?

From onboarding to offboarding, any employee information needs to be safely stored and eventually archived. A DMS will do that for you and more. Here are a few examples of documents you can store:

• Recruitment collateral (marketing videos, social proof, career pages, etc.)
• Hiring and onboarding documentation
• Employee contracts
• Company policies and regulations
• PTO requests, medical and disability records
• Payroll documents
• Benefits administration documents
• Performance reviews and records
• Accident and safety reports
• Learning management paperwork
• Basic and advanced features

Workable’s own document management functionalities are included in its HR software solution – which is already bolstered by a best-in-class recruitment software. This makes it a must-have for many small businesses that may not have the resources to procure a dedicated document management software in addition to other elements of its HR tech stack.

What are the must-haves in document management software?

At its core, document management software should be able to provide the following:

1. Metadata

This allows users to know when a document was uploaded or updated and by whom, providing an automatic paper trail for record-keeping purposes. For some systems, metadata includes extracted text, helping with keyword searches.

2. Integration

If you’re in another app, you should be able to get a document from the DMS, change it, and save the new version back in the DMS without actually leaving the app you’re in.

3. Capture

The DMS should be able to process scanned images of documents. Some may even have optical character recognition software that will convert the images into machine-readable text.

4. Storage

Along with storage, this includes managing the documents, i.e., their location, length of storage, transfer, and destruction.

5. Workflow

The path a document takes through an organization may be created by rules an administrator inputs, ensuring an automatic flow from one department to the next.

6. Collaboration

No more trying to reconcile changes made by various team members. Now, more than one user can work on a single document at the same time. All markups will be recorded and go into the document history.

7. User-friendly interface

You don’t need your staff sitting in hours of training to learn a new system. The interface should be simple to navigate with a dashboard that’s quick and easy to scan.

What are the nice-to-haves in document management software?

Now for the features that it would be great to have:

1. Compliance capabilities

The DMS follows the relevant legislation and regulations to ensure you and your documents are compliant.

2. eSignatures

Electronic signature capabilities are a blessing when it comes to HR. While you can easily use external software for this, all the better if your DMS can provide it.

3. Customized templates

So easy to get through the admin if you just have to fill in the blank spaces. There could be templates for a range of HR functions and regulations.

4. Reporting capabilities

It will analyze your workflows, allowing you to identify molehills before they become mountains and inefficiencies that need streamlining.

5. Automated reminders

Maybe a contract is up or an employee is eligible for certain benefits – it’s near impossible to keep track of it all, no matter the size of your business. These reminders do the checking for you and ensure you remain compliant.

A comparison of the top document management softwares

We’ve done our research and narrowed it down to the best document storage software providers out there. They are:

• Zoho WorkDrive
• GoCo
• PandaDoc
• eFileCabinet

Before we get into the specific areas, let’s look at the highlights of each:

What we like

While the majority of DMSs share most basic functions, some stand-out features set the top ones apart. Let’s take a look at some of the best features each of these document management systems has to offer.

Zoho WorkDrive

• Easy file sharing
• Flexible
• Great permissions feature
• Real-time collaboration

GoCo

• Great user interface
• Good support
• Integrates well with payroll system
• Modern design

PandaDoc

• Easily customizable
• Reliable and intuitive
• Helpful eSigning capabilities
• Unlimited documents

eFileCabinet

• Great drag-and-drop functionality
• Easy to replicate folder structures
• Good customer service
• Scanning is a breeze

What we don’t like

It can’t all be good. There has to be a downside to these document management systems. However, being at the top in the list means there are thankfully few negative characteristics.

Zoho WorkDrive

• Limited integrations
• Tends to be slow
• Mobile app needs improvement

GoCo

• Certain functions (e.g. creating a workflow) can be complicated and confusing
• Can be slow at times
• Sometimes difficult to track the status of changes
• System can be rigid

PandaDoc

• Mobile app can be slow
• Latest version has removed the ability to duplicate documents
• Difficulty in saving or retrieving electronic signature
• Becomes costly with simple add-on features

eFileCabinet

• Cannot make bulk changes to files or folders
• Could be more cloud-friendly
• Not intuitive
• Difficult to delete items that have been added

Choosing a DMS: price, usability and support

Now that we have a quick understanding of each at a surface level, let’s see how they measure up against each other in three fundamental categories worth considering: price, user friendliness, and support.

1. Price

Let’s be honest, this is the most important part – how much do you have to spend on a document management system? The options range from monthly or annual subscriptions per user to fees per feature.

Zoho WorkDrive

• Starter – $2/user/month
• Team – $4/user/month
• Business – $8/user/month

GoCo

• Plans start at $5/user/month
• Add on features according to need

PandaDoc

• Essentials – $19/user/month
• Business – $49/user/month
• Enterprise – Request a quote

eFileCabinet

• $1,200 USD/feature/year

2. User-friendliness

Too many software providers take their users’ technical capabilities for granted. The more complex the interface, the more training required which means your employees are spending more time away from work than necessary. See what customers have to say about the top DM softwares.

Zoho WorkDrive

Offers a modern interface with access controls and a built-in office suite.

• “WorkDrive is a very cost-effective cloud storage option that is incredibly user-friendly.” – Pramod P
• “Although it is user-friendly, it sometimes takes too long to navigate and switch between folders.” – Hüseyin A

GoCo

Designed with flexibility and ease of use in mind.

• “Easy to navigate. User-friendly features.” – verified user in logistics and supply chain
• “It can be a very streamlined system. They just need to work out the bugs of it being slow and the glitches but other than that it is user friendly and self explanatory.” – verified user in mental health care

PandaDoc

Offers user-friendly software that streamlines your business processes.

• “Due to its accessibility, it is convenient for the signer and is generally user-friendly.” – verified user in computer & network security
• “With how customizable it is, it can get confusing. The UI could be more friendly and have more explanations.” – verified user in computer software

eFileCabinet

Provides a simple, user-friendly interface that eliminates the learning curve.

• “It’s very user friendly. The training was long but very informative.” – verified user in legal services
• “Very basic but super user friendly” – verified user in electronic manufacturing

3. Customer support

One of the true tests for software providers is post-sales customer support. It needs to go beyond “Have you tried switching it off and on again?”.

This is especially so when learning a new application and you need guidance to navigate unfamiliar territory. And who better to ask if a DMS passes the test than past customers?

Zoho WorkDrive

• “When I need new features, the support team responds very quickly and discusses whether it is a one-time or repetitive job so the focus of the tool stays in place.” – Hiroshi M
• “I needed some assistance, and received no feedback from customer service.” – Lisa P

GoCo

• “Although the support staff are AMAZING, it takes at least 24 hours for them to get back to me.” – Jared B
• “I can’t pull out a report and I have asked tech support and still didn’t get a response from them after 2 weeks.” – Nick A

PandaDoc

• “No phone support. There is not a number to call and that sometimes makes things difficult. You guys have a chat that is quite quick to response so things aren’t that bad but it would be great if the people attending the chat could give you a call when further technical support is required.” – Juan D
• “We have had some instances of down time but the tech support has been very supportive and will get back to you in a timely manner.” – Keisha P

eFileCabinet

• “Things don’t always work in a consistent way and although the support team is very kind and makes every effort to help, they do not always understand why things aren’t working either.” – verified user in chemicals
• “While I love how helpful the customer support is, I didn’t like how often I needed to contact them with regards to EfileCabinet freezing or some small other annoyance.” – verified user in accounting

On-site vs. cloud-based DMS

Even the ‘location’ of your DMS can be factored into your priorities. There are two such ‘locations’ for your DMS – you can either have it on site or you can run it in the cloud. Let’s look at what each means for you.

On-site DMS

• Your data is stored in servers on your company premises.
• You’ll need resources and an IT team to maintain the system.
• Generally best suited to big companies.
• It’s a costly undertaking.
• You’re not reliant on an internet connection to access information.
• Don’t forget to back up your data — not doing so means you’ll lose it all if there’s a glitch.

Cloud-based DMS

• It’s handled by a service provider, using an external data center.
• There’s usually a subscription fee due but that’s about as expensive as it gets as you don’t need hardware or a team to manage it.
• It’s a great solution for users that require remote access or for companies that are growing rapidly.
• However, you will be dependent on an external service provider and a reliable internet connection.

Making a purchase decision on a DMS

You’ve researched an endless number of document management software providers but you still don’t know which one to pick.

Here are a few guidelines to help you make your decision:

1. Figure out what you need

How big is your company? Do you have comprehensive needs or will a basic package do? Are you currently using a DMS and will the new provider be able to transfer the files for you? Start off as simple as possible and add on features as you need them.

2. Assess your processes

By taking a good, hard look at your workflows, you’ll identify the problems that need to be addressed. The document management software you choose will have to provide solutions for these issues.

3. Consider your security and compliance requirements

Ideally, you’d like a DMS that has layers of protection and possesses international security qualifications. Likewise with compliance. You need a DMS that adheres to the relevant rules and regulations and picks up on discrepancies before they become problematic.

4. How much are you willing to spend?

We’d all love to have top-of-the-range stuff but sometimes, it’s just not feasible. If you choose a document management system that promotes scalability, you should be able to add on the nice-to-have features as your business grows. For now, though, you may have to stick to the basics.

Short-term change to long-term gain

Investing in a document management system is no small matter. It takes time, money, and company-wide cooperation. Your system may be down for days, if not weeks during the conversion to digital, and your staff will miss work to attend training.

However, that being said, installing a DMS in your organization will do wonders for your HR department. Your HR professionals will now have the time to focus on developing your employees to their full potential and driving initiatives to move your company forward.

The post Choosing the best HR document management software: A guide appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Additionally, all personal and work-related details of employees are stored securely within the system making it more convenient for managers to quickly access relevant data.

All businesses can benefit from the implementation of the EMS tool in the following ways:

• implementing processes to help companies achieve their business objectives
• assisting managers in keeping track of admin activities
• help improve employee engagement and increase productivity
• assist with vacations and absence management and timekeeping
• help HR managers and organizational leaders track performance reviews of employees
• connect the workforce and create a sustainable hybrid work model

EMS vs. HR software – what’s the difference?

The terminology used in human resources tech can be confusing, but it needn’t be. “Employment Management Software” is a broad term, so you may find it referred to as the following, each of which comes with subtle differences but includes features of employee management:

Human Resources Information System (HRIS)

An HRIS is a tool Human Resources departments use to optimize their operations. It contains all the components necessary to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in managing HR tasks.

Human Capital Management software (HCM)

Focused on employee management, it is designed to help organizations acquire and develop talent and optimize their team performance. Its features can assist with recruiting, onboarding, and assessing employee performance.

Human Resources Management system (HRMS)

A digital platform designed to facilitate and streamline a variety of HR processes. It is there to help organizations keep track of their personnel and the activities carried out by the people management team. In essence, these systems are used to provide complete oversight of an organization’s operations.

For a deeper dive, check out our HRIS vs. HCMS vs. HRM guide!

Benefits of Employee Management Software

Let’s look at some of the benefits of using employee management software in more detail, but matching their features with goals:

Goal: To optimize internal processes

Why you need to do it: Managing different HR processes can be challenging and time-consuming. EMS eliminates the need to use several tools and helps improve the HR team’s overall efficiency.

Goal: To improve the work climate

Why you need to do it: Timely feedback helps improve the work culture. EMS lets you monitor, evaluate, and provide workers with feedback on their performance.

Goal: To ensure compliance with legal obligations

Why you need to do it: Organizations must adhere to legal and regulatory standards concerning employees and management. EMS tools ensure you remain up-to-date with the HR and labor rules and regulations.

Goal: To ensure employee engagement

Why you need to do it: To improve workplace motivation and increase employee productivity. EMS helps you easily monitor and evaluate employees’ progress, helps employees feel confident and encourages them to develop a good relationship with the organization, and creates an environment that encourages communication.

Goal: To save HR team time

Why you need to do it: Access to employee data helps managers implement strategic decisions and increase workplace productivity quickly. Most systems are cloud-based, which gives employers and HR teams access to the data anywhere. EMS saves time because HR no longer has to wait to make decisions because of a lack of information

Goal: To achieve better data security

Why you need to do it: Reduce the risk of sensitive information being accessed without authority and adhere to data storage regulations. EMS can guarantee your data security with encryption measures.

Goal: Reduce paperwork

Why you need to do it: Introduce more sustainable practices into your organization and streamline processes. EMS can be customized to meet the requirements of each department to reduce paperwork. It also enables the HR department and employees to complete forms online.

Breaking down the different types of employee management software

Here are three types of employee management software:

1. Time and productivity management software

Managers and business leaders need to be able to track the productivity of their employees; this is where time and productivity management software comes in. These systems are designed to measure:

• productive and non-productive hours
• what projects each employee is working on
• any potential signs of wasted time
• other factors of employee efficiency

Such tools offer a great deal of insight into the busiest days for each department and allow managers to recognize when an employee might need to be more productive.

2. HR Management Software

A crucial element in successful employee management is an HR management system. These systems store all employee data and streamline HR operations to enhance decision-making.

These tools provide a comprehensive solution for organizations’ HR tasks, from onboarding staff to managing payroll activities.

In addition, the compliance-driven elements of many HR processes make manual labor time-consuming and expensive; using such systems simplifies this process and helps managers preserve time, resources, and money.

3. Employee collaboration and communication software

For the team to succeed, effective communication is essential. With the proper tools in place, everyone on the team can remain connected and collaborate effectively. By establishing an atmosphere of regular communication, each individual’s tasks can be completed successfully. Along with providing swift communication, many of these systems enable members to exchange data easily.

Next-gen employee management software: talent management tech

HR departments today have a much different challenge than in the past. With many companies embracing diverse demographics of employees, they must be able to keep up with and respond to workers spread across many generations, skill levels, locations, and unique career goals. All while keeping up with the changing times of a fast-paced world where staying connected is paramount.

As a result, there has been an upsurge in demand for highly intelligent, user-friendly, and efficient tools for managing talent resources. These are some features in employee management software that can help HR departments enhance their recruiting efforts.

1. Streamlining the onboarding process

By utilizing a strong Human Resources strategy, companies can ensure the onboarding process of their new hires is effortless and impactful.

With access to a digital hub filled with company culture and aspirations, newcomers can become quickly informed about what is expected from them.

Recruits are granted the ability to virtually get accustomed to job or department details before their first day.

2. Mainstreaming performance management

Moving away from a system that only includes yearly reviews, the performance management process is now incorporating a more continuous feedback loop with a 360-degree approach. This enables employees and managers to provide one another with continual feedback and advice.

Performance monitoring tools monitor what tasks employees work on and how long they spend on each task to determine their productivity.

Automated employee management software reminds a business unit to share reviews or feedback about a colleague’s performance.

3. Personalized learning and teaching

Companies must learn how to tailor both learnability and teachability to maximize success.

Data and feedback loops can greatly help assess a learner’s current skills and interests and match those qualities with individual preferences and company objectives.

Top employee management software providers

1. Monday.com

Organize your business operations easily with the help of the cloud-based platform, monday.com. This comprehensive tool provides features to support Human Resources needs, making it ideal for employee management tasks.

From creating collaborative workflows, assigning tasks to keep track of performance indicators, and sending out reminders, you will be able to do all this and more.

Key features: HR templates, onboarding, recruitment pipeline, employee wellbeing, employee development and learning, employee engagement, workflows.

What makes it good:

• Suitable for mid-sized businesses
• It helps you communicate and collaborate easily
• It has powerful reporting and analytics
• Supports multiple integrations
• It’s mobile-enabled
• Offers customizable dashboards
• Offers reports for progress tracking, budget totals, capacity limitations, missed deadline warnings, and more
• It has a user-friendly interface
• It is reasonably priced

2. Gusto

Gusto is a complete HR solution for small businesses, offering an array of features that simplify managing payroll hiring.
It might be best known for its payroll system specifically designed with the needs of smaller companies in mind. This means it takes care of filing all local, state, and federal tax forms on behalf of your company – with electronic signing, faxing, and document storage available within the Gusto dashboard.

Key features: Payroll, contractor payment, benefits administration, time tracking, taxes, compliance.

What makes it good:

• Ideal for first-time and experienced HR administrators
• Includes easy-to-use setup tools, management, and payroll runs
• Offers team management tools, employee engagement features, performance reviews, and time-off management
• Good customer service and support
• Offers personalized solutions
• It has powerful integrations such as QuickBooks

3. Rippling

Rippling’s HR and IT automation features make it a breeze to use. Its intuitive platform and app integration capabilities offer a comprehensive range of tools that both administrators and HR staff will find useful.

Features include applicant tracking, custom hiring workflows, task management, compliance training, and customizable reporting. These are all designed to streamline human resources processes that are time-intensive.

Key features: Onboarding and offboarding, payroll, benefits administration, workflow management, time tracking, security

What makes it good:

• Intuitive and easy-to-use
• Highly customizable
• Easy to automate several HR processes
• It has a mobile app
• It makes the onboarding process simple and quick

4. Paycor

Paycor has designed its human capital management software to simplify businesses’ payroll, talent acquisition, workforce management, and benefits administration processes.

It also provides added value by giving insight into the experiences of employees. Advanced reporting and analytics features make it a good choice for companies keen to explore their data further to make smarter choices.

Small business owners can benefit from the tools that aid with employee engagement, turnover, diversity, and budgeting efforts.

Key features: analytics and reporting, benefits administration, employee surveys, expense management, payroll, workforce management

What makes it good:

• Offers extensive reporting and customizable analytics features
• Analytics data is presented in a helpful visual format
• The web platform and mobile app are user-friendly and easy to navigate
• Integrates well with popular benefits, retirement, background checks, and hiring tools

Choosing the right employee management software for you

Are you in search of the perfect employee management software? There are a few key aspects to consider.

You will need an application that enables quick and easy observation of your workforce.

You must be able to access up-to-date job titles, salary details, skills, contact data, and more. Staff scheduling and PTO is another essential function this system should offer.

Performance review tools, as well as survey services, should be accessible to deliver feedback to employees while monitoring company satisfaction.

Benefits and payroll management need to be accessible within the same platform to avoid any unnecessary duplication of data entry.

Automation options should also be available, so you don’t need to spend extra time managing tasks manually.

Finding what works best for your employees

To find the optimum solution for your organization, consider the size of your team. A large-scale organization may opt for an approach that helps track productivity and performance; in contrast, a smaller firm that relies on highly talented personnel might prefer a management strategy geared toward encouraging creativity and collaboration.

Either way, weighing up the pros and cons of the employee management software requires engagement from all personnel who will ultimately be working with it – that’s how you get buy-in and achieve success.

The post Choosing the best employee management software appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is HR software, and why do companies need it?

By automating some of their more mundane tasks, they can refocus on what is most important – those who make up their organization. HR software benefits not only HR staff but other employees too, giving them a better understanding of their organization’s HR policies and procedures.

The remote work revolution has made it necessary for businesses to learn how to foster dynamic and successful teams in an ever-evolving environment. Therefore, HR departments are tasked to introduce performance management solutions that employees can use, regardless of location. Investing in these tools is essential for companies hoping to remain competitive and achieve optimal results from their teams.

Understanding the different types of HR software

When it comes to digital solutions for Human Resources, three major types of software stand out from the rest. Each has unique capabilities and strengths, so understanding their differences can help you determine which best suits your needs.

Here are the three systems that dominate the realm of modern Human Resources technology:

Human Resources Information System (HRIS)

To maximize efficiency, many organizations rely on HRIS software as their main source of employee information and management. These tools are available both online and in a software form and can be hosted by the company’s server, a cloud provider, or a third-party vendor.

Primary benefit: A centralized database houses all personnel data that can be accessed at any time from any location. This makes it easier for HR teams to enter and manage employee records confidently.

Human Capital Management (HCM)

Human Capital Management (HCM) is a more comprehensive version of HRIS, integrating all the same features with more sophisticated solutions and a focus on talent management.

Primary benefit: HCM focuses on employees’ life cycle and career paths within an organization, from recruitment to management and optimization. Furthermore, it can be tailored to any company’s requirements enabling close supervision of employee well-being and satisfaction, resulting in a higher retention rate.

Human Resources Management System (HRMS)

HRMS is an advanced HR software combining the best of HRIS and HCM features with a focus on administrative processes. Its dynamic features extend beyond just the management of time and labor to encompass an automated payroll system.

Primary benefit: Organizations can take advantage of its powerful capabilities, such as productivity reports and analyses, designed to maximize efficiency in the workplace.

Not enough? Take a deeper dive into the differences between HRIS, HCM and HRMS.

Essential features of HR software

For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), a Human Resources system with specific features is essential. Here are some key functionalities that an SMB should consider when selecting HR software.

Personnel tracking

Personnel management, or employee information management, helps businesses keep tabs on the whereabouts and details of their staff.

• It includes personal information, contact info, previous work history, and demographic data
• It enables organizations to plan ahead for absences and delays so resources may be swiftly reallocated
• Employers can easily monitor the hours worked and location of remote personnel such as salespeople

Benefits administration

Organizing your company’s multitude of benefits programs is made easy with the help of this feature.

• Allows the HR staff to stop chasing after employees to sign paperwork
• Lets employees manage their benefits autonomously through an online portal
• Automatically notifies employees about vendor upgrades or government regulations

Reporting

Data collection and management is a key component of the role of Human Resources, and reporting allows for a greater understanding of this data.

• Organizations will be able to identify trends that can inform future hiring decisions
• Data can be used to pinpoint issues to determine how to best address them
• Gives you accurate insights on how to upgrade your business strategy
• Helps ensure your compliance with local, state, and national regulations

Other features

The size of your organization and the sector you work in will determine the type of HR software that is right for you. Further features that are available with some of the best HR software on the market include:

• Employee management: This feature involves managing employee workload and compensation
• Recruiting: This feature uses a centralized database for candidate information
• Benefits management: This feature allows employees to self-manage benefits by choosing their preferences via a self-service portal
• Learning and Development (L&D): Organizations need to be able to deliver training uniformly and in a well-structured way, which is where a learning management system (LMS) comes into play

A look at the top 5 HR software providers

Understanding the HR software marketplace can be a daunting task. To save you time and effort, here are the top 5 HR companies for businesses.

WebHR

Highlights:

• Cloud-based service is ideal for small businesses that require a high level of communication between employees
• Paid-for subscription service available for up to 1,000 employees
• Options become more complex and varied as you transition from the free plan to the paid version
• Internationally oriented thanks to multi-language and currency options

Why we like it:

• Offers most features that an SMB needs to manage and track staff
• Built-in messenger and employee discussion forums
• Upgrades available one module at a time
• Available in 30 languages and multiple currencies
• Does not have any special hardware requirements
• SSL security, strong encryption, and other data security

Why we don’t like it:

• Free version’s features are limited
• Visual style could be improved
• Limited customization
• Limited choice of built-in templates

Zoho People

Main highlights:

• Available in six versions, including a free version for companies with fewer than five users
• Provides tools to manage the entire HR process
• Integrates with other Zoho products easily, such as its payroll solution

Why we like it:

• Affordable and transparent pricing
• Integrates with other Zoho offerings
• Active community forum
• Mobile app available
• Professional setup services are available
• Virtual support assistant

Why we don’t like it:

• Custom quotes needed for larger organizations
• Some features are limited to the upper tiers of the plan
• Lack of direct support options
• Payroll isn’t included
• Limited phone support

OrangeHRM

Main highlights:

• A good choice if scalability is a priority
• Free starter package provides time tracking, reporting, HR admin, and recruitment features, along with employee self-service and other features
• Complete interface for almost all things HR needs

Why we like it:

• Companies can self-host
• User-friendly and good UI
• Excellent time-tracking functions
• Mobile app
• Permission levels for different users

Why we don’t like it:

• Plugins may be required
• Customer support limited
• Price point is comparatively high

Bitrix24

Main highlights:

• Unlimited number of users in the free version
• Portfolio of task and project management features
• Tools include profile pages, company structure, a social network, and a company knowledge base
• Includes software automation features, file sharing, and email marketing integration
• Will suit companies that want to easily connect to other aspects of the business, such as customer relationship management and website building

Why we like it:

• 35 free tools
• Constant notification of opportunities, tasks, and activities.
• Kanban user interface available
• Free up to 12 users
• Simple reporting features
• Affordable pricing

Why we don’t like it:

• Complex user interface
• Social networking limitations
• Doesn’t support chatbots
• Steep learning curve

Workable

Highlights:

• Comprehensive HRIS software with tools for onboarding and employee management
• Branded onboarding portal for a seamless experience
• Dynamic employee profiles for easy organization and updates
• Automatic org chart generation and updates
• Efficient time off tracking and management

Why we like it:

• Streamlines the entire hiring process, from candidate selection to onboarding
• Customizable onboarding activities tailored to each new hire
• Easy-to-use dashboard for tracking multiple onboardings
• Automated onboarding processes save time and ensure timely completion
• Supports multiple profile templates for different locations and employment types
• Company file storage and document templates for easy access and organization
• Flexible time off policies and accrual options to cater to diverse workforce needs

Why we don’t like it:

• Limited in scope and features compared to some other HR software solutions
• Best suited for small businesses with under 20 full-time employees, with limited scalability for larger organizations
• Continuously evolving, meaning the platform may not yet offer the most complete HR software experience on the market

How HR software saves businesses money

HR software can save you money in many different ways.

• Streamlines HR admin: It allows HR teams to spend less time on administration and more on strategic activities
• Efficient onboarding: Technology replaces paperwork, reduces the time to replace an employee, and cuts the cost of hiring an employee
• Employee self-service saves time: Fewer HR calls; therefore, a leaner team is needed
• Cuts the cost of outsourcing: A broad range of HR functions, including payroll, can be performed in-house.
• Eliminates costly errors: Automation reduces the risk of human error
• Ensures compliance: Avoid missing regulatory deadlines that may lead to penalties being imposed
• Supports remote work: Reduces the need for office infrastructure and can therefore save on overhead costs

When you look at the considerable time and monetary savings you can achieve by investing in HR software; you can then weigh them against the costs your organization is currently carrying. This will give you a clear idea of your return on investment (ROI). Once this is clear, you may even decide it’s worth exploring other HR software modules that initially didn’t fit your budget – meaning access to even more savings.

HR hiring software – what is it?

Organizations are turning to specialized software to streamline their recruitment process. Commonly referred to as an applicant tracking system or ATS, this type of software covers every detail, from sourcing and screening candidates to issuing offer letters. Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, it is important to note that the scope of recruiting software extends beyond just ATS functions – they also provide tools specifically designed for each step in the selection process.

Hiring (or recruiting) software can provide a range of benefits to assist in the process of hiring qualified candidates:

• They often include features for sourcing, engagement, selection, and hiring
• Sourcing helps uncover potential applicants who may not have seen job postings while engaging with them ensures they remain informed throughout the process
• Selection capabilities help narrow down the list of candidates based on assessments or evaluations
• Some platforms manage the actual step of hiring as well as provide an interface between candidate and employee experience

Here’s how HR recruitment software works

Through the company portal, hiring managers and recruiters can create job postings, view all relevant job applications, update information as candidates are interviewed, send out job offers, handle paperwork related to onboarding the new employee, and generate reports relating to the hiring process.

This powerful tool organizes and streamlines the entire hiring journey for everyone involved – freeing up more time for additional tasks that need to be accomplished.

The cost of HR software

The cost of an average HR software package typically starts from $3 to $1,200 per month per user, depending on the number of personnel involved. This is how pricing typically works – you get more features as the price increases. The basic plan covers only essential functions, while a higher-priced product will include additional tools for supporting larger organizations or teams.

Choosing the right HR software for you

When choosing the right HR software for your business, start by focusing on what processes you wish would be simplified and which features are most essential. This will help you zero in on the perfect fit and narrow down your selection.

• What to look for: Try to select a program that includes all the Human Resources Information System (HRIS) requirements within its base price; otherwise, acquiring extras could lead to overspending your assigned budget.
• What to be wary of: When selecting a software package, you must be aware of which features are included in the standard version and any extra elements that may require an additional cost.

If you are working with a service provider directly, ensure you secure a service contract providing ongoing maintenance, updates to address changing compliance needs, and software updates to ensure compatibility with other software packages.

Steps to take when choosing HR software

Step 1: Make an initial assessment

Determine if the process will be carried out by internal HR auditors or a consultant that may have the time, data-gathering and evaluation skills your organization lacks.

Step 2: Assess organizational needs

Look beyond the HR department’s needs and consider the organization’s and other department’s strategic plans. This will guide you on the features and modules you require. For example, if you’re a tech startup, consult our SaaS HR software guide.

Step 3: Determine needs vs. wants

Consider how the HR software could improve current procedures, such as new-hire processing. The more value it offers your organization, the higher it will rank as needed.

Step 4: Assess the project parameters

Once you have a list of minimum requirements and additional features you require, see how they hold up against your current infrastructure, for example:

• Budgetary constraints: what are the price points you can afford?
• Technological limitations: do you have the necessary server space and infrastructure in place?

Time constraints – what lead time do you need to complete the request for proposal (RFP), technology selection and review, and implementation processes?

Step 5: Assemble a project committee

This should include IT, payroll, finance, accounting, HR, performance management, operations, training, and recruitment.

Investing in HR software should not be a knee-jerk decision. Taking the necessary steps to ensure you pick the right package and that it can grow alongside your business will also save you time and money in the long term.

HR software: do your homework

For a human resources administrator or executive, having access to good software can make all their complex daily tasks much easier. With modern technology, many of their frequent, time-consuming activities can be automated so that they can spend more time focusing on what’s truly important – their employees.

You now should understand what HR software is, why your company might require it, the available types of HR software, and the features that all HR software should have.

What’s next? Put your assessment process into practice and start weighing up your options. It’s always a good idea to do your homework when investing in new software.

The post Choosing the best HR software for your business needs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

First, a quick look at the importance of employee onboarding and what it should entail.

What is employee onboarding and why is it necessary?

Employee onboarding is an imperative process when introducing a new employee to your organization. It’s a way to help your new recruit integrate into your company in a welcoming and efficient manner – and to calm any nerves they may feel. This can include, but is not limited to:

• Workstation setup
• Meet and greet with fellow employees and managers
• Guidance on organization processes
• A company culture briefing
• Presentation of mission, vision, and values
• Administrative paperwork for tax and benefits
• On-the-job training
• Security clearance
• Provision of technology requirements (hardware and software)

The process of employee onboarding is exactly that – a “process”. It can take anything from a week to a year for your new employee to truly acclimate to their surroundings.

“My new employees go through orientation; why do they need onboarding too?”

Orientation is vital to a person’s new work role, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to proper induction. Orientation is a once-off event that usually takes place in one day to give that first welcome to the company. Onboarding is a process that is made up of a series of events meant to provide your new hire with everything they need to perform at optimal levels.

“This sounds expensive; do I have to do it?”

According to SHRM, 69% of employees who have had a good onboarding experience are more likely to stay with a company for three years.

Higher retention rates means lower turnover rates. This means money saved.

How so? The average cost per hire is about $4,000 and takes 24 days to fill a role. With a high turnover rate, you spend that amount of time and money whenever you hire a new employee to replace the last. So, make sure you’re giving your recruits a great onboarding experience – it will save you thousands in the long run!

What are the major challenges of employee onboarding?

While it’s entirely possible that your onboarding process won’t go off without a hitch, here are a few challenges for which you can prepare yourself:

1. Paperwork, paperwork, and more paperwork

Multiple copies of the same document, forms for IT, clearance information for security, contracts…it’s an endless ream that’s sure to result in paper cuts and ink-stained fingers.

2. Immediate access to information required for work

Your poor new employee has copious amounts of information thrown at them that’s near impossible to remember. A quick-access guide to the most important bits will be appreciated.

3. Struggling to keep track of upcoming events

There are workshops and training sessions aimed at getting your latest recruit up to speed. Creating a schedule that alerts them to when their presence is needed and allows them to track their movements during onboarding gives them some control.

4. Feelings of isolation and incompetence

Joining a new company can be stressful and new hires getting lost in the shuffle is a serious risk. Being bogged down with a backlog of work while expected to perform under pressure can lead to rapid burnout and a swinging door as they throw in the towel. Checking in regularly with new employees and keeping an eye on their progress will make them feel supported and appreciated.

How can HR onboarding software support you?

All these challenges you just read about? Forget about them. Employee onboarding software takes care of the nitty gritty so you can get on with the fun stuff. Let’s see how it stands up to the challenges you could face in onboarding new employees.

1. Paperwork is a thing of the past

Electronic signatures, remote access so they can fill in documents before they even enter the building, and immediate delivery to all the relevant departments – it’s a simple process that can be done within minutes. This will give you the opportunity to focus on employee integration. Time saved, money saved, trees saved.

2. Electronic handbook of work processes and important information

HR onboarding software allows you to create a central repository of documents to which your new hire will have access, guiding them as they find their way through your organization. This knowledge base inspires independence and saves you all from time-consuming queries.

3. Built-in, customizable schedules

When your new employee joins (whether in office or remotely), they will already have a clear idea of what their day looks like, where they need to be, and when they need to be there. Any system that allows a new recruit to operate somewhat autonomously and gives them a sense of self should be instantly incorporated.

4. Communication portals and dashboards

A simple “Hi, how are you doing?” can mean the world to an employee who feels alone or overwhelmed. HR onboarding software usually has a chat function that will allow you to communicate easily and instantly. There are also dashboards for projects allowing those involved to see completed tasks and those that need to be done. You might be able to pick up on red flags by keeping an eye on this data.

What are the essential elements of onboarding software?

Now to consider the absolute must-haves when you’re selecting the best HR onboarding software for you. Here are the essentials every system should have:

1. Includes cloud-based technology

Your employee could be sitting in an office, their home, or a random workspace – you need the seamless integration that cloud-based technology provides for easy but secure sharing.

2. Simple, user-friendly interface

With every new employee, there’s a possibility of a tech knowledge gap. Don’t take it for granted that your new hire is tech-savvy. Choose a software provider that offers a great layout, requires simple inputs, and won’t have your employee calling tech support for every little curveball.

3. A welcome portal

This is where your knowledge base goes. Your new employee’s introduction to the company via this portal should be engaging, fun, and personalized. Videos, welcome messages, quick presentations, etc., should be available to your new recruit as well as instant communication with their colleagues and managers.

4. Automated workflows and processes

A shared task list of everything that needs to be completed should be accessible to everyone involved. The conveyance of information from your employee’s fingertips to the relevant stakeholders should be effortless and once-off. Not only does this ensure the data is accurate across the board, but it also allows your employee to focus on acclimating to their new environment and less on “paperwork”.

5. The ability to set goals

Setting daily and weekly targets allow managers to track their employee’s progress and gives the employee a sense of accomplishment when these targets are met. Any struggles can easily be identified whereas quick completion can indicate potential untapped strengths.

6. Reporting and analytics

There’s always room for improvement, but you need data to implement a plan. Good onboarding software will keep track of your high and low points, allowing you to make changes where necessary and measure the effectiveness of your processes.

7. Easy integration

Some onboarding software is offered as a standalone product, whereas others form part of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Opting for a separate program means the onboarding software must complement your current HRIS. A full HR suite might be your best bet to avoid the hassle.

Top HR onboarding software providers

There are hundreds of options when it comes to HR onboarding software. Here are our top picks:

ApplicantStack

This software combines an applicant tracking system (ATS) with an onboarding package. Operating through WorkforceHub and powered by swipelock, ApplicantStack has won G2’s Leader and Fastest Implementation awards for Winter 2023.

Pros

• Highly customizable – easily add training videos, upload forms and information, and you can include your employee handbook
• Constant rollout of updates and new features – the system is developing as the needs of new employees evolve
• User-friendly and intuitive – simple to set up and creating workflows is easy

Cons

• Combining the ATS with onboarding software costs extra
• Lack of reporting options
• Limited search capabilities
• No notifications of changes to the system

ClearCompany

Operating for close to a decade and having helped over 2,500 clients, ClearCompany considers itself to be customer-led, professional, and ethical. The software is modular, so it’s possible to just choose the onboarding software and not the other options.

Pros

• Autofill technology – carries information from one form to the next
• Introduce team members via the Employee Self-Service Portal
• Bulk onboarding – onboard groups of new hires at the same time

Cons

• After-service customer care is lacking
• Not easily customized
• Hard to navigate workflow stages especially when multiple managers are using the same requisition

Enboarder

This onboarding software has been used by the likes of McDonald’s, Fujitsu, and Deloitte. It won G2’s High Performer award in Fall 2022 and claims to have previously increased employee productivity by 25% and decreased 6-month leavers by 20%.

Pros

• Provides data-led coaching to managers
• Best practice journeys are offered as well as personalized experiences
• Great training and support made available

Cons

• Difficulty integrating with other programs
• No notifications when managers or employees haven’t completed a stage in the process
• Cannot track when changes have been made or see a version history prior to those changes

What should you base your decision on?

Before taking a leap of faith with any of these software providers, consider the characteristics, needs, and future of your organization. Clarifying your position, your affordability, and your goals will help simplify the decision-making process. Here are some factors you should take note of:

1. How much do you need your onboarding software to do?

If your needs are complex and call for intricate detailing, an all-inclusive HR software suite might be best suited to your requirements. If your operation is smaller and you need basic functions performed well, then a simple ATS and onboarding package will be more than enough.

2. What are your thoughts on scalability?

If the onboarding software needs to grow with you at an exponential rate, then buying a more advanced program now will save you in the future.

3. Will it integrate with your current HRIS?

If not, do you plan to replace the entire system? Or will you set your sights lower/higher? And if you don’t have an HRIS, will the uncomplicated ATS and onboarding software suffice?

4. Mind the tech gap

Take on software that is easy to customize and straightforward to use. Your tech-challenged employees will thank you. It’s also best if the visual layout is bright and attractive – your new hires must be inspired by the warm welcome they receive.

5. Let’s talk money

Very few have the ability to dismiss a price tag. Figure out how important onboarding software is to you and work out your budget accordingly. Although, as we mentioned earlier, HR onboarding software is worth the expenditure if it increases your retention rates.

Conclusion

Whether it’s remote or in-person, onboarding is a vital element of recruitment that lays the foundation for the new employee’s tenure at your company. Do your utmost to keep them engaged, happy, and fulfilled during their onboarding process with the support of HR onboarding software to perpetuate that good feeling even once the program has ended.

The post Choosing the best HR onboarding software for your new employees appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

With the onboarding process intrinsically linked to the employer brand, you can’t afford for your candidate to have a negative experience. First impressions are crucial, and poor onboarding can start things off on the wrong foot for your new employee.

You can avoid this by implementing employee onboarding software. With this HR system, your new recruit can submit all their relevant information into a single portal that’s accessible by all relevant parties. Done and dusted, it leaves them with plenty of time to enjoy the onboarding experience.

Here are some of the best employee onboarding software packages you’ll find.

Best onboarding software for small businesses

BambooHR

Renowned for its comprehensive HR applications, BambooHR follows the pattern with a feature-filled onboarding program. Quick paperwork completion, the gathering of electronic signatures, IT checklists, and welcome emails streamline an employee’s entry into a company.

They also offer New Hire Packet Templates that are personalized for each new recruit, creating a welcoming experience for them.

Trainual

Trainual has a quirkier take on the onboarding process, offering fun features like gifs, in-app recordings for guides, and the ability to embed company videos. Along with these, there are simple steps to share your founding story, mission, vision, values, products or services, and competition with your new employee.

Their onboarding playbook includes a hiring process checklist template as well as various company policy templates.

RUN Powered by ADP

This cloud service promises smart onboarding with a form library specific to your industry that can be accessed and completed anywhere. You can create personalized employee portals, landing pages, and information packages for your employee to explore before they even start work. Compliance is also taken care of, including the completion of identification and citizenship documentation.

If you’re using ADP payroll, RUN’s onboarding software is easily integrated. Both systems are automatically populated with employee information and simultaneously update.

Ease

Ease ranks in the third spot on G2’s list of top onboarding software. With a 93% overall satisfaction score and “ease of use” polling at 95%, Ease is a great option for small businesses that have simple HR requirements.

A central, secure employee database means that all the information entered, including W-4s, I-9s, and direct deposit details are well looked after as evidenced by Ease’s HITRUST CSF Certification.

Elmo webonboarding

Elmo promises to save you 80% of your time when it comes to contracts and signatures by digitizing the process. With a user-friendly dashboard that shows you the high volume of onboarding projects the system can manage, HR can track progress and check unfulfilled items.

By creating a program for digital and remote onboarding, Elmo assists hiring managers and the recruitment team to engage with employees on a regular basis.

Deel

With Deel’s international connections, they can help you hire and onboard employees throughout the globe. Saving you the hassle of opening a local entity to hire an employee from a specific country, Deel ensures all local regulations and compliance requirements are adhered to.

Taking on all employment liability, Deel digitally gathers all the relevant tax, payroll, and compliance documents to streamline the onboarding process.

How to choose the right employee onboarding software

There are endless options available when it comes to employee onboarding software providers, so how do you choose? Here are a few factors to consider:

1. Functionality – What do you need it to do?

Consider the specific features and capabilities that the software offers. For example, does it allow you to create customizable onboarding plans, assign tasks, and track progress?

2. Integration – Will it fit in with your current system?

Think about how the software will integrate with your existing systems and tools. Does it integrate with your HR software or learning management system?

3. Ease of use – Does it have a user-friendly interface and intuitive navigation?

The software needs to be clear and well-designed, allowing any user to easily navigate through the program.

4. Scalability – Will it grow with you?

While this article is aimed at small businesses, it’s a happy hope that you soon expand and grow your business to peak levels. As you develop and grow, so should your software.

5. Cost – How much are you willing to spend?

It always comes down to the bottom line. How big is your budget? What features can you let go of and which are must-haves? Do your market research before you buy to make sure you’re getting the best bang for your buck.

With answers to these questions, you’ll soon have the right software to create an onboarding experience your new recruit won’t soon forget.

Need more information on choosing the right onboarding software for your business? Check out our comprehensive buying guide on the choosing the best HR onboarding software.

The post Best employee onboarding software for small businesses appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What does employee compensation really mean?

When people think of employee compensation, it’s usually the base salary of a position that initially comes to mind. However, total compensation includes employee benefits and perks.

Health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, 401k matching, stock options, employee assistance programs, profit sharing, paid time off, sick days and additional incentives could all potentially be included in an employee benefits package and would count as compensation.

Read more: Money for nothing: are we ready for universal basic income?

Direct and indirect compensation

There are generally two different types of compensation: direct and indirect. A generous mix of both helps create an attractive compensation package for employees and organizations alike.

Direct compensation

Direct compensation is monetary and usually the most appealing aspect of employee compensation. Direct compensation options include:

• Salary/base pay
• Hourly pay
• Commission
• Bonuses

Indirect compensation

Indirect compensation may have a financial benefit, but doesn’t involve an exchange of money. Indirect compensation usually includes benefits and perks that improve an employee’s quality of life, such as:

• Healthcare
• Life Insurance
• Paid time off
• Family leave
• Sick leave
• Retirement plan contributions
• Company car
• Technology allowance
• Remote or hybrid work environment
• Four-day work week or flex days
• Tuition reimbursement
• Physical or financial wellness program
• Team outings or retreats
• Childcare
• Other perks

Indirect compensation options offer the additional advantage of increasing engagement, improving employee satisfaction, and demonstrating company culture.

Although a mountain of money always holds great appeal, a fair balance of cash plus life-improving benefits is a sustainable way for organizations to stay competitive when it comes to recruiting and retention.

Read more: New overtime law: How it works and what changes for employers

The importance of competitive employee compensation

The vast majority of employees work as a way to secure financial stability. So although your product could be amazing, your mission statement inspiring, and your corporate culture the coolest, it’s your ability to positively impact someone’s bottom line that’s going to make or break your staffing efforts.

Securing a highly skilled and/or productive workforce is one of the best investments an organization can make, and recruiting can be a challenge in a competitive job market. A generous compensation package can help attract talent, but maybe even more importantly, it can also help you keep valuable employees.

We learned this ourselves. According to our Great Discontent survey of over 500 full-time workers in the UK, 70.1% of respondents listed compensation as the leading motivator that could lure them from their current job. In the US, that number is 62.2%, but still the top choice for workers.

Employee turnover is costly and disruptive — the act of seeking out applicants, interviewing candidates, onboarding, equipping, training, and developing employees requires time, money, and expertise. An attractive employee compensation package builds loyalty and makes employees less vulnerable to competitor offers or recruiters.

As stated by a US-based respondent from the survey, “Employees will go where the money is. And where they’re treated respectfully and valued. But, mostly, it’s the money”.

This does raise a question around when in the hiring process you can start discussing salary. There’s a growing consensus on including salaries in job descriptions from the get-go – here’s why you can and should consider this in your own recruitment process.

How to build a competitive employee compensation plan

As you develop your employee compensation strategy, the first step is to decide how you’ll determine compensation for individual employees or positions. Options include:

1. Pay structures

Also known as salary or compensation structures, pay structures clarify an employee’s path to career growth and higher pay. This process for determining salaries is more transparent, predictable, and equitable than other options, particularly for companies with more than 250 employees. This compensation and development template can also be useful for your own work.

2. Salary history

Offering compensation based on prior salary history is tempting to many employees, however, it may perpetuate systemic pay disparities and could leave your organization vulnerable to discrimination lawsuits. Also, a growing number of US states prohibit employers from inquiring about salary history.

3. Arbitrary figures

A position that’s urgent or difficult to fill, or a particularly qualified candidate, may cause employers to offer whatever salary might persuade a candidate to accept their offer. A potential adverse effect is that direct reports could end up earning more than their managers or more than already-established employees with more seniority or experience.

Structure and strategy are key

To establish a pay structure, you need to first perform a job analysis to better define each position, and its duties, requirements, and qualifications. Then you need to determine the relative value of positions within your company.

You can determine base salary through benchmarking, where market trends would influence salary ranges or pay grades, where jobs are grouped and ranges are applied to each group. Some organizations use a combination of benchmarking and pay grades to establish compensation structures.

Enhance your compensation strategy by deciding on indirect compensation offerings to include in your employee benefits package. Consider not only benefit costs, but also what aligns with your company culture.

A competitive employee compensation package paired with being the type of organization talent wants to work for can pay off far beyond the costs.

The post Employee compensation – what you need to know and why appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And for the employees? Wasting work hours to make a simple time off request, or being unaware of the training they can attend to further their careers, are HR red flags for any modern-day company.

As a business owner, how can you eliminate the aggravation of endless, time-consuming admin and increase productivity?

Yes, that’s right. A Human Resources Information System – the aforementioned HRIS – benefits your company hugely.

1. Onboarding: focus on the experience, not the paperwork

With a capable HRIS in place, gone are the days of dragging a hapless new employee from one department to the next, filling in multiple forms for their induction. Now, a centralized database allows new recruits to enter all their relevant information in one space with company-wide accessibility – the ideal way to avoid double-entry inaccuracies.

Reminders of training workshops, events, and next steps in the onboarding workflow also give your brand-new employee control over their schedule. With the mountain of paperwork out of the way, they can focus on assimilating into your workplace. Over 25% of new hires quit their jobs after just three months, but with automated onboarding, you can beat this statistic with a 16% increase in retention rates.

Workable’s HR solution, already equipped with a best-in-class recruitment software, comes with its own natively built onboarding feature, easing the transition from candidate to employee.

2. Payroll: letting the software handle the hard stuff

Validating employees’ time and attendance, a clock-in clock-out function, and giving employees easy access to view their paychecks are just some of the ways HRIS can work for you. Other capabilities include payroll reports, PTO and overtime adjustments, benefit deductions, tax calculations…the list goes on. HRIS performs complex processes with zero errors and minimal human intervention.

Along with convenience, an automated payroll system awards you some much-needed time. A CareerBuilder study found that managers who did not fully automate lost about 14 hours per week on manual tasks that could have easily been automated. This equates to at least one whole extra day of work that can be dedicated to employee engagement, learning and development, or performance improvement.

3. Analytics: crunching numbers for creative initiatives

The rise (and fall?) of HR analytics researched what its value would be in 2025 and cited that “managers will consider HR analytics an unmistakable link in underpinning and making strategic choices”. That’s all well and good until you have to sift through mounds of data, trying to make sense of the information while picking up on patterns that could predict the future of your workforce.

With an HRIS, however, the data is organized for you and generated in the form of boardroom-ready reports. Make use of templates that consider the usual HR metrics or create a customized analysis specific to your organization’s needs.

Need to convince the board of executives that your initiative has a solid foundation? Nothing lends credibility to a strategy like the numbers that back it up, and with HRIS, those are just a few clicks away.

4. Compliance: Sticking to the rules has never been easier

Whether it’s a US Department of Labor audit or keeping up with government regulations, anything to do with compliance sits firmly in HR’s lap. CCPA, GDPR, EEOC … the alphabet soup of legislation can be disorienting to wade through.

While it’s a necessary aspect of HR, most personnel would rather focus their energy on talent development and employee retention. HRIS gives them the time to do this with standardized reports and graphs that need only have their parameters defined and are quick to access.

But it doesn’t stop at mere information output. Combined with time and attendance data, HRIS tracks working hours, overtime, and break periods – sending an alert when non-compliance may become an issue. It even sends notifications when employees become eligible to enter your company’s retirement program. With fewer items for HR personnel to have to track, you can decrease workload and possible errors.

5. Self-service: opening the portal to employee interaction

When an employee heads to HR to change their personal information, they are distracted from their tasks, which impacts productivity. Time and money are lost for a simple benefits change. HRIS gives employees access to their personal information so they can make certain changes themselves.

Not only does this ensure the information is accurate, it provides your workers with some autonomy while encouraging employee engagement.

Self-service options can include: submitting documentation; viewing paychecks; monitoring time and attendance; changes to benefits; notifications and alerts between management and employees; and access to learning management systems.

6. Time-off requests: saving paper, time, and money with a couple of clicks

Here’s a well-known stat: companies spend $20 to file and store a single document. That’s just the monetary cost of filing one time off request. It also involves the following:

• verifying if it’s unpaid or paid time off (PTO)
• checking PTO balances
• ensuring the correct number of days are allocated when combined with public holidays and weekends
• updating the new PTO balance
• informing the relevant stakeholders

That’s 20 minutes of an office worker’s time doing something that could have been done in less than five.

HRIS makes quick work of this tedious process by instantly sending time-off requests to the applicable manager, updating PTO balances once approved, and sending notifications to interested parties. All this in minutes and with no paper to be seen (or lost) anywhere.

Streamline your processes with HRIS

It’s time to move your operations into the digital age. With a welcoming onboarding program, comprehensive payroll suite, and user-friendly employee self-service function, HRIS takes care of day-to-day duties while boosting company-wide collaboration on a single platform.

In a G2 survey, 80% of HR employees observed that using HR technology improved employees’ attitudes toward the company. It’s a well-known fact that an engaged employee equates to better performance. With the time and money you’ll save, HRIS is the perfect tool for directing your company’s resources to where it matters.

The post How to use an HRIS – and 6 reasons why you need one appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Let’s explore HR SaaS in more depth, and learn what you need to know when evaluating HR SaaS products.

The growth of the HR SaaS market

The future of HR lies in subscription-based SaaS platforms, according to research from 260 global companies. In the next four years, 57% of organizations expect to invest in such software – 46% of which are already using it.

This is driven by cloud technology advances and a trend for businesses to adopt cloud-based business models that support hybrid working models.

It’s not just growing – it’s exploding. The size of the global market for human resources software was estimated at $15.59 billion in 2020 and is projected to reach $33.57 billion by 2028.

What benefits does HRIS software offer businesses?

SaaS HR products can automate several processes, allowing HR managers to save time and focus on their core tasks. After all, allocating more time to specialized and strategic

HR tasks are what all HR professionals should strive for. For example, you can handle data and payroll processing, recruitment, training, and employee performance evaluations quickly and efficiently with cloud software.

A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) platform has many benefits. For instance, it:

1. Provides a one-stop shop for employee data, making human capital management more efficient
2. Can make an HR leader’s job easier and more efficient by storing information in a centralized database, automating tasks, and providing employee self-service
3. Makes tracking hours and doing payroll much more straightforward
4. Can help make compliance with government regulations and requirements simpler.
5. Helps HR teams collect and analyze organizational data to provide insights into headcount, salaries, staff retention figures, employee satisfaction, and more
6. Helps set the tone for new hires and contributes to employee success and retention thanks to automated onboarding
7. Gives employees the ability to manage their own personal information, such as requesting leave
8. Can be used by employees to access training resources and track their progress through assessments so they can monitor their development and set goals for themselves
9. Can help improve communication and morale within a company by freeing up time and resources that can be better spent on things like company culture and values

The importance of SaaS products for hybrid businesses

The way we work is changing. With more and more people working remotely, companies must learn how to create dynamic, high-performing teams in a new world.

For HR teams, it’s essential to invest in performance management solutions that employees can access from anywhere and integrate with the productivity solutions people are already using, like Slack.

Types of HR software: HRMS vs HCM vs HRIS

Common examples of HR organizational tools and human resource management products include the following:

HRMS: A human resource management system (HRMS) is software that helps manage employee data, including recruitment, payroll, and personnel management. Leave approval, attendance monitoring, and promotion are just a few tasks an HRMS can help with.

HCM: Human capital management (HCM) software is designed to help organizations strategically manage their workforce. This type of software provides functionality similar to HRMS but focuses on long-term planning and development.

HRIS: An HRIS is a software that stores employee data and provides tools for human resource management. It can streamline processes and make information more readily available. Although HRIS systems vary in features and functions, they all offer the basic benefits of automation, self-service, centralized databases, and talent management.

Learn more about HRMS vs. HCM vs. HRIS.

To help you choose a system, they can typically be divided into four types, each with unique features. Below is an overview of the different types of HRIS systems and who can benefit most from them.

4 types of HRIS systems

There are four major types of HRIS systems. They are:

1. Operational HRIS

Human resources management can be a time-consuming and repetitive process, but there are HRIS systems that can help automate many of these tasks.

HRIS systems keep track of employee records and performance data. This makes it easier for HR managers to identify top performers and make decisions about promotions and hiring.

For organizations that feel their HR department spends too much time on mundane tasks or searching for employee data, an HRIS system may be the perfect solution.

2. Tactical HRIS

Tactical HRIS systems are used to manage data and resources related to processes such as recruiting, training, compensation, and job openings.

They can help organizations make far-reaching decisions about resource allocation, job analysis, and development.
In addition, these systems often include data on unions, competitors, government requirements, etc.

3. Strategic HRIS

Strategic HRIS systems are an important tool for any company looking to make intelligent, data-driven decisions about its future.

By managing key data points such as market information and operating budgets, HR professionals can gain valuable insight into labor resources and adequately plan for future growth.

In addition, these systems can help set goals and raise awareness of key business objectives. A powerful HRIS system is an important piece of the puzzle for any company planning for expansion or growth.

4. Comprehensive HRIS

The term “comprehensive HRIS” refers to an all-in-one platform that streamlines various HR-related tasks and provides easy access to data.

This system is highly beneficial to organizations as it allows for convenience and centralized employee information management.

What solutions should HR software include?

The range of solutions that HR software offers is wide, but the following are the most common solutions that businesses need.

1. Recruiting and onboarding

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) automate the hiring process from start to finish. It is used to search and select applicants, submit job postings, and onboard new employees.

They also manage applicant information so that recruiters can compare applicants and select the best fit for the job. With the ATS, HR professionals can post jobs on various websites and automatically schedule interviews with qualified applicants, making the hiring process easier and more efficient.

Onboarding software can help new employees have a smooth transition into the company. It usually comes with features such as electronic signatures, onboarding checklists, and employee questionnaires.

2. Compensation and benefits

Payroll software is an essential tool that helps companies process and record employee compensation accurately and on time.

3. Employee management and performance reviews

Employee assessment tools help organizations track employee skills, goals, and progress over time. They can also provide managers with valuable insights during formal or weekly performance review meetings.

4. Legal compliance

Compliance solutions are essential for businesses to keep up with ever-changing state and federal regulations. Not only do they help companies comply with regulations, but they also automate classified document management workflows and reports. This makes it easier for companies to communicate and enforce corporate policies while staying up to date on legal compliance.

Choosing the right HR software for your business

To select the right HR software for your business, first, determine your specific needs. Consider what processes you want to streamline and what features would be most beneficial to you. This will help you focus your search and narrow down your choices.

For example, if you are interested in software that can manage payroll and HR together, look for programs with these features.
Ideally, they should offer the following:

• A self-service portal that allows employees to access information and submit requests easily
• Seamless integration with other software already in use at your company
• A user-friendly interface that requires minimal training
• Robust data encryption and security measures
• A cloud-based system for streamlined HR management

It is important to understand the difference between the standard features of the software and the additional features you will need to purchase. Be sure to choose software that already includes the HRIS features you need in the basic package. Otherwise, the decision for additional features may far exceed your planned budget.

Check out our comprehensive HRIS software selection & purchase guide.

What about specialized solutions? When choosing HR SaaS products, you’ll need to consider the benefits and drawbacks of buying “best-of-breed” products versus an all-in-one system. Let’s take a look at the difference between the two.

Best-of-breed HR software

There are many software products available that serve a single purpose exceptionally well.

A typical example of such a product is an applicant tracking system (ATS). These systems are used to help post jobs, track job applicants, and ultimately identify the best candidate for the position.

Many companies that develop ATS products do not attempt to build additional tools or features that fall outside the hiring process’s scope. Their focus is simply on making the best ATS possible.

Some will, however, add extra features to support the overall employee lifecycle – but ultimately they are specialists in one area with a layperson’s approach to other elements of the HR tech stack.

All-in-one HR software

Small businesses often cannot afford or justify the expense of best-of-breed software for every category. They may not have the in-house technical support and know-how to integrate separate best-of-breed software applications to form their own system.

A solution here for small businesses is an HR SaaS product that can manage HR tasks in one place but may not be as strong on any single function compared to best-of-breed software.

Think of it as a one-stop shop for human resources, in the same way that Hubspot provides a one-stop shop for marketing. Workable’s own HR software, already powerhoused with a best-in-class applicant tracking system, also includes an HRIS with onboard & manage features which makes it ideal for many small businesses.

The price of HR SaaS solutions

When it comes to HR software, there is no one-size-fits-all answer with regard to cost. This is because different vendors have different pricing plans based on various factors, such as the features, number of users, mode of deployment, and integration.

Prices can range from as low as $0 for a free plan all the way up to an annual fee of five or even six digits in price depending on your company’s size and requirements.

1. Quote-based HR plans

Different companies have different needs when it comes to software. A subscription package that customizes the program to meet those needs can be very beneficial.

It allows companies to use the software at a price that is estimated according to their unique needs.

2. Monthly payment plans

Paying for a service on a month-by-month basis is called a “subscription.” This is an attractive payment option for people who want to use premium software services but don’t want to make a long-term commitment.

However, subscriptions can be more expensive than paying for the same service annually.

3. Annual payment plans

Annual plans are often the best option, as most software providers offer a 10-20% discount on these compared to monthly plans.

However, this can limit a company’s flexibility to switch programs should their current software fail to meet their standards or should the company grow beyond a select software’s capabilities.

4. Free plans

Pricing is often a deciding factor and free payment packages can be an excellent option for small businesses that want to improve their operations without breaking the bank.

With this type of pricing plan, you can use certain features of the software at no cost. This can be a great way to get started with advanced software solutions without spending a lot of money upfront. You can usually find these as freemium options in many HR SaaS packages.

It’s important to ask for customer references from vendors and be specific about the type of reference you want. This can give you insights into what the day-to-day partnership will be like, and help you assess turnaround times, the process of setting up integrations, etc. A vendor that is unwilling to connect you with a reference is a red flag.

The bottom line

SaaS for HR creates operational efficiencies, reduces costs, and allows the scalability of efforts for the entire team. With access to the right tools, everyone from leaders to employees can view and collaborate on the same information. This helps to remove communication barriers and fosters working together toward shared goals.

The right software can make a big difference for an overworked human resources administrator or executive. Automating and eliminating many of the day-to-day functions can free up time to focus on what truly matters – the people within the company.

The post The ultimate guide to SaaS HR software appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The parameters within these categories are constantly expanding. Complete a time off request in minutes. Emergency meeting? Create a boardroom-ready strategy report by the time everyone’s taken their seats. And with just a few clicks, you can issue company-wide alerts and notifications.

HR software has revolutionized the way human resources operate. It’s saving companies time, money, and piles of paperwork. With its ever-growing popularity though, the market has become inundated with software solutions led by numerous developers. HRIS, HCM, HRMS… these acronyms have left many scratching their heads.

We will break them down for you so you can find the ideal HR software for your company’s needs.

Deciphering the different types of HR software

HR software is widely available in a variety of solutions. However, three main systems dominate the digital realm of human resources. These systems are not interchangeable, although there is an overlap in some areas.

Here are the three major types of HR software:

1. Human Resource Information System (HRIS)

This system is probably the most popular of the three, with its main focus on employee data organization. The collection and storage of this data aid in performing functions such as:

Onboarding: HRIS simplifies the induction process as the new employee need only input their information once – records in the relevant departments will be automatically updated. This is just one way it improves the onboarding process.

Recruitment: An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) records an employee’s resume and credentials and also performs job matching from the existing candidate pool.

Time and Attendance: Employee hours are automatically recorded for timesheets when employees clock in and clock out.

Compliance: HRIS issues notifications when there’s a threat of non-compliance, for instance, when breaks need to be taken or overtime has been exceeded. It also checks compliance with the relevant legislation.

Payroll: With hours automatically recorded, payments are made on time and accurately. Employees can also easily view their paychecks.

Employee self-service: This neat feature allows employees to change certain personal details without having to contact HR. They can also request time off via this service with approval and updates taking place within minutes.

Performance management: Executives and managers have easy access to performance records and reviews.

Learning management: The system notes the skills and qualifications of each employee. It also allows employees to view available courses and learning opportunities as part of a company’s L&D strategy.

Analytics: Reports are quickly created once parameters are defined. Templates are also available for typical HR metrics.

The efficiency of the system saves a lot of time on the admin end of HR. It also provides opportunities for personnel to strategize thanks to its accurate record-keeping and efficient reporting process.

The self-service portal also helps to keep employees engaged through regular interaction. HRIS is the ideal starter software for any business that needs to streamline its HR processes.

2. Human Capital Management (HCM)

HCM is an extension of HRIS in that it covers all the same features but becomes more complex in its solutions. HCM spotlights the employee’s journey through the company, from talent acquisition to management to optimization.

Here’s what these aspects involve:

Acquisition: This is the process of recruiting and onboarding a candidate. Candidate experiences during this initial period can easily go wrong when there’s a lack of organization. With 33% of new employees quitting within the first 90 days, it’s easy to see how important a structured and comprehensive onboarding program is. HCM inspires confidence in new employees by allowing them to focus on integrating into the workplace instead of mountains of paperwork.

Management:  Throughout an employee’s career, HCM will keep track of the high and low points through time and attendance, as well as performance assessments and reviews. This category also looks at company culture and how it can be developed while managing the day-to-day events of an employee’s work life.

Optimization: This aspect revolves around getting the best out of your employees. Factors such as employee engagement, learning and development, remuneration, competency, and succession planning are taken into account when curating a fulfilling career journey for the employee.

As you can see, HCM takes a deep dive into the career paths of employees to ensure job happiness and high retention rates. The system can also be customized to each organization’s needs, highlighting certain people management practices and processes.

3. Human Resource Management System (HRMS)

And now, we come to the most sophisticated of the three – the Human Resource Management System (HRMS). This powerhouse HR software includes the features of HRIS and HCM while putting extra emphasis on the administrative aspects of employee relations.

The management of time and labor has a new level of complexity including an automated payroll system that calculates wages. HRMS is geared towards improving efficiency by creating productivity reports and analyses.

Choosing the right HR software

There are certain components that your chosen HR software should cover: recruitment and onboarding; employee management; compensation and benefits; employee development; performance management; and compliance.

Consider whether you prefer cloud-based or on-premises software, your budget, and scalability options. The level of security, the system’s flexibility, and how user-friendly it is should also be taken into account when making a decision.

A good starting point would be HRIS software that covers all your basic requirements simply and efficiently.

Whether you have a small home business, a medium-sized enterprise, or a large corporation, there’s a perfect HR software solution for you. It’s just a matter of considering your needs as well as the expense and intricacy of the system you require. Whatever your choice, HR software is a must in any modern-day organization.

Need more? Check out our comprehensive HRIS purchase guide: HR software selection: Your guide to purchasing an HRIS

The post The different types of HR software: a quick overview appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Employee self-service

Self-service HR portals are a boon to employee productivity, enabling them to quickly find and view their leave balance, payslips, and other HR information without having to hunt for it. And because you can access them on multiple channels, including mobile devices, workers can manage their HR information anytime, anywhere.

2. Recruitment management and onboarding

An automated recruitment process can streamline traditional hiring functions and simplify the hiring process. By integrating with job portals, internal websites, and employment-service providers, an automated recruitment process can help eliminate hiring stress.

What happens once you have employed them? Here, an HRIS system comes into its own. The key to successful onboarding is making sure new hires are able to hit the ground running. An automated onboarding process using an HRIS can take care of the paperwork and notifications so that HR managers don’t have to chase down employees and managers. This way, the process is smoother.

3. Employee database

Keeping accurate employee data is essential. But with so many different places where this data can be stored (spreadsheets, individual documents, etc.), tracking everything can be a challenge. This is where HRIS software comes in handy.

By storing all of your employee data in one central database, you can ensure that everything is always up-to-date and accurate. Plus, the software can communicate with other features and third-party integrations, making the job for an HR professional even easier.

4. Payroll systems

Employees can use HRIS systems to process their payroll and view their previous pay stubs. To calculate gross pay, these systems capture employee data, including pay rates, time data, selected benefits, and tax liabilities. Employees can log into the system to view their year-end tax records too.

5. Attendance and schedule management

An HRIS can help take the guesswork and hassle out of managing employee attendance and leave. With an HRIS, companies can quickly and efficiently track employee attendance, schedule changes, and absences. This data can then be seamlessly exported into the payroll system, saving valuable time and resources.

6. Benefits administration

An employee benefits management HRIS feature allows employees to sign up for benefits offered by the company, such as health, dental, and vision insurance. The deductions are then automatically converted into tax-correct payroll deductions.

7. Performance management and monitoring

An effective performance management system is critical for any company that wants to ensure that its employees work effectively toward achieving its strategic goals. Such a system allows supervisors and teams at HR to focus less on manually managing performance appraisals and more on the value-added parts of the process, such as coaching, supporting, and training employees.

With an effective HRIS performance management system, companies can ensure their appraisal process is unbiased, link employee performance to compensation, and establish performance-based pay systems.

8. Learning and development

HRIS systems can monitor employee morale and identify potential problems by conducting regular pulse surveys. In addition, some HRIS systems can conduct compliance training or learning courses to keep employees up to date on new regulations.

9. Analytics and reporting

Reporting and analytics are one of the less common features in HRIS systems. However, some systems have automated HR reporting features that can provide insights into employee turnover, absenteeism, performance, and more. Analytics goes further by analyzing this data to enable better decision-making.

10. Compliance

Companies can use HRIS systems to automate compliance and reporting on various regulations. By tracking employee data, hours, benefits, and other data points, HRIS can help identify areas where compliance may be lacking. This way, you can take corrective action quickly and efficiently to ensure that the company meets all regulatory requirements.

Features to look for in HRIS software

An effective HRIS should allow users to customize fields and reports, and it should also be mobile-ready. Whether your employees are in the office, working remotely, or on the road, a sound HRIS system should also be secure and accessible so employees can update their information from any location.

A user-friendly interface for your applications and platforms is not just a trend but an expectation. After all, who wants to use a complicated system that is difficult to learn and use? That’s why companies need to do their best to ensure that their HRIS systems are as user-friendly as possible. That way, they can encourage widespread buy-in and adoption throughout the organization.

There are a variety of HRIS software vendors, each targeting a different type of customer. Some focus on small businesses, while others target large enterprises. Knowing which category you fall into is vital before looking for a new solution. Otherwise, you might choose something that does not meet your needs.

Along with the size of your company, consider what your specific requirements are. Be aware that certain vendors charge per feature, so take this into account when you calculate the budget you’re working with. Equip yourself with this knowledge prior to selecting the best modules for your organization.

The post Top 10 must-have HRIS software features appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is an HRIS?

An HRIS is a software or online solution used for data entry, tracking, and managing all HR operations in an organization. This system provides easy access to an actionable database that helps keep all HR systems running smoothly – whether hosted on the company’s server, in the cloud, or by an outside vendor.

How does an HRIS work?

Most HRIS solutions provide a central database where employee information can be stored and managed. This allows HR teams to input personnel data into the system and access it from anywhere.

What are the main features of an HRIS?

These are the core functions of an HRIS:

• Centralized storage of information about personnel, policies, and procedures in an organization
• Recruitment and talent relationship management
• Automated onboarding of employees
• Performance management
• Employee self-service (ESS) to view and manage personal information
• Time and absence management
• Training management
• Workforce analysis

What are the main benefits of an HRIS?

With all information and analytics in one place, an HRIS can help companies find and analyze data more efficiently. This means better-informed decisions about hiring, firing, salaries, promotions, and other human resources matters. In most cases, an HRIS leads to greater efficiency and productivity for employees and managers.

What is HRMS?

An HRMS usually consists of hardware and software resources that provide much of an HR department’s business logic and help it manage everything HR related.

How does an HRMS work?

Organizations rely on HRMS to automate tasks, organize employee information, and generate data-driven reports. This system eliminates the need for paper documents, making it more efficient and effective.

What are the main features of HRMS?

Some HRMS systems are designed for large companies with many employees, while others are more flexible and can be customized for smaller enterprises. The following are considered general and “best practices”.

• General HR functions such as employee benefits administration
• Time and attendance functions such as absence management and compliance
• Analytics functions including real-time reporting, prediction capabilities, and financial analysis
• Onboarding functions such as paperless forms and reports and probation management
• Compliance features ensuring automatic hiring compliance and legislative compliance
• Learning and development features, such as course management, ensuring compliance, and updating training materials
• Payroll solutions, featuring bulk processing and reprocessing, online payroll, and overtime records

What are the main benefits of an HRMS?

The most notable benefit is the increased security of employee data. In addition, automating HR tasks reduces the likelihood of human error, further protecting the accuracy of employee data. Finally, having fewer HR systems in place makes life easier for both employees and HR professionals.

Human resources management is a major pillar in overall HR. As such, an HRM system is a tool to help you succeed as an HR professional.

What is HCM?

Human Capital Management (HCM) software is a digital HR solution that enables organizations to automate and manage employee-related processes in a centralized system. The goal is to empower organizations to focus on strategic initiatives rather than manual administrative work.

How does an HCM work?

HCM software is a collection of integrated HR tools that use mobile and cloud technology to process data. The data is pulled from the various data centers to run reports and create a seamless user experience for HR professionals.

What are the main features of HCM?

Cloud-based or on-premises, HCM software can give you the data insights to inform compensation packages and work schedules. Predictive analytics and forecasting are used for planning, for business growth, and increased profitability. HCM software automates manual tasks and processes that are time-consuming elements of talent strategies.

It can also include mobile self-service options, multimedia-based training, and chatbot-assisted applicant screenings. Multi-layered protection keeps your data secure, while global and local monitoring capabilities ensure compliance with changing regulations.

What are the main benefits of an HCM?

An HCM system can help businesses improve their decision making by integrating data into a single employee record, supporting mobility, and increasing workforce efficiencies. This can result in reduced costs and improved productivity for the business as a whole.

Main advantages of using an HR system

There are many HR software benefits for your business. These include, but are not limited to:

1. Increase in productivity

HR technology can streamline processes, eliminate repetitive and unproductive tasks, and increase efficiency throughout the organization, leading to increased productivity.

2. Enhanced employee experience

Employees who can find answers to their questions tend to be more satisfied with their jobs. You can create a positive work environment by ensuring employees have access to relevant information.

3. Security

An HR system can help protect employee data from unauthorized access and hackers through encryptions. It can also make payroll processing more secure.

4. Minimize errors

Artificial intelligence software can help reduce errors in processes like payroll management. This can reduce the likelihood of human errors, such as misplaced numbers or decimal points.

How are an HRIS, HRMS, and HCM different?

So, what’s the difference between an HRIS, HRMS, and HCM? Let’s go through them one by one.

HRIS vs. HRMS

An HRMS is a complete system used by organizations to manage employee information. In contrast, an HRIS is simply a database system or collection of databases that track employee data. An HRMS is usually more detailed than an HRIS.

HRIS vs. HCM

HCM refers to a broader concept that encompasses not only HRIS but also other systems and processes related to managing and optimizing the human capital within an organization. HCM systems often include HRIS functionality, but they may also include other tools and features that go beyond just managing employee data.

HCM vs. HRMS

There is often confusion around the terms HCM and HRMS, because many systems perform similar functions. However, there can be important differences between HCM and HRMS programs in terms of specific features and functionality. When considering which system to implement for your company, it is therefore crucial to compare different options in detail.

Which HR software should I choose for my business?

Now that you know the differences between an HRIS, HRMS, and HCM sopftware, you’re probably thinking about how to choose one for your organization. There are many considerations and variables to think about here.

First, define your HR needs. You should consider the extent to which the current HR system is falling short, the most common pitfalls and challenges the department faces, and the biggest barriers to a positive employee experience. It’s also important to determine which HR processes are the most time-consuming and whether new software could streamline them.

In addition, you should research your company’s policies and regulatory requirements around data security, vendor diversity, vendor contracts, etc., and assess how tech-savvy your team is.

Second, identify what matters most when choosing an HR system. Consider whether the system is suitable for your industry and company size. There are many different options, so you must make a list of the features that are absolutely necessary for your business.

To get an idea of what would be most beneficial for your business, talk to stakeholders about where they see gaps in the business and what they would like to see improved.

There is a lot more, of course, but don’t let that intimidate you or scare you off this important decision.

For a deeper dive, check out our complete guide to HR software selection.

The post HRIS vs. HRMS vs. HCM: What’s the difference? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The importance of HR document management software

Employees are the fuel that powers an organization and are often the most valuable asset of any business.

Acquiring top talent, evaluating performance, retaining employees, and maintaining compliance with state, federal, and industry guidelines are all essential elements of an organization’s long-term success, and employee documentation helps inform or ensure all of the above.

Technology has simplified the logistics of managing business documents. Gone are the days of overstuffed file cabinets, making copies, and overnighting important paper documents for review; an HR document management system transforms a pile of file folders and physical paperwork into a secure, easily accessible, searchable archive that improves efficiency while ensuring privacy.

The right document management system (DMS) can also act as an organizational framework for creating a workflow that streamlines the process of managing team members and their records.

Two types of document management systems

A document management solution is a type of content management system that specializes in collecting, managing, and archiving digital documents, and there are a variety of options with different features and functionality to choose from.

One of the first decisions to make when choosing a DMS involves how and where you want to store documents.
There are two main types of document management systems:

On-Premise

An on-premise DMS means that your data is stored on servers that are installed on the premises of your organization. This option is typically chosen by larger companies with dedicated IT staff and resources, since it involves more significant upfront costs and requires your organization to assume responsibility for the storage and security of the documents. There is some risk involved if you fail to back up the files since there is no automatic saved copy being sent to a cloud.

A significant benefit of an on-premises DMS is that you can access your documents without an internet connection, if necessary. You’re also completely in control of your system and its contents since there is no third party vendor involved.

Cloud-Based

With a cloud-based document management system, the data is stored in an external data center managed by a third-party provider. The storage space is on a rented server, with fees paid on a monthly or annual basis.

Costs are generally lower with cloud-based document storage, due to the fact that no hardware or dedicated IT staff are required and fees typically include updates and maintenance. A cloud-based DMS is more easily scaled than an on-premise solution and files can be securely accessed from anywhere, including mobile devices.

However, you are reliant on the vendor to keep the system running smoothly and access may be contingent on an internet connection.

Some organizations have security concerns about storing important digital files in the cloud, but there are potential vulnerabilities with on-premise records management options, too.

What should you look for in HR document management software

There are a lot of different variables when it comes to choosing the right HR document management software for your business.

Before you start doing in-depth research, consider the needs of your organization and decide what pain points you’re hoping to eliminate with an electronic document management system.

Some aspects and key features to consider include:

Security

A lot of sensitive information is collected throughout the employee lifecycle; consequently, security is a critical component of information management. Data encryption, password protection, and permission settings for access control are important security features that can help keep your digital assets safe.

Ease of use

Choosing user-friendly software makes it easier to get all stakeholders on board with adopting a new tool, and helps improve overall efficiency. A good DMS will have a simple file structure, indexing, and robust search functionality to facilitate document retrieval.

File type versatility

The ideal HR DMS should serve as a one-stop-shop for employee records. The ability to store and share documents in a range of different file formats is essential to implementing a single, streamlined solution.

Document tracking

Employee documents often go through different iterations or edits. Version control and document tracking features allow users to review the history of a document or to ensure it has been updated or to track changes.

Integration

Choosing a system that integrates easily with existing programs, such as email clients, CRM software, and HRIS, or that offers an open API, can optimize your HR workflow through automation.

What are the benefits of using a document management system?

Finding the right document management system offers a wide range of benefits that extend far beyond simply organizing paperwork.

Here’s how a document management system can help your organization:

Document security: Protect the confidential information of your employees with data encryption, password protection, and access control to limit who can view or share files.

Paperless storage: Reduce supply costs and the need for physical storage space with a digital solution.

Improve efficiency: Eliminate the time-consuming process of tracking down a file that lives in someone’s desk drawer or hard drive with a central source of information.

Easy access: Search by employee name, document type, date range, file format and more and securely share information with relevant parties with minimal effort.

Scalable: Document management software can grow with your company from fledgling start-up to global conglomerate without a constant need to reinvent the document collection and storage workflow.

Enhanced collaboration: Share documents, collect signatures, and store copies of important information within one platform.

Improved workflow: Create an organizational structure that can seamlessly store and manage documents from job listing to exit interview.

The challenges of document management

The challenges of document management multiply as your business grows. It’s all too easy to lose a piece of important information — from inconsistent file names to sloppy storage protocol, there are a lot of obstacles that can make a search feel like an impossible feat.

Aside from the loss of productivity, being disorganized can eventually lead to serious compliance issues.

Investing the time, cost, and effort into implementing a DMS solution can reduce the risk of future legal liability.

Which teams will benefit from document management software?

It’s not just your human resources department and legal team that will appreciate the benefits of document management software.

Access to a central document repository makes it easier for managers and executives to review resumes, performance evaluations, and compensation data that can help with the decision-making process when it comes to hiring, promoting, or terminating an employee.

A DMS can also expedite the onboarding process by facilitating the collection of information and the exchange of signed documents.

Related: Explore resources that help manage compliance.

How to start using HR document management software

If you’re interested in incorporating an HR document management software into your workflow, start with the following steps:

Identify relevant HR documents

Start by making a list of the types of HR documents used by your organization, including:

• Recruiting collateral
• Hiring records
• Employee contracts
• Company policies
• Medical, leave requests, and disability records
• Payroll and benefit documents
• Personnel records and reviews
• Safety and accident records
• Training or onboarding materials

Assess current storage

Determine where the documents listed above are currently stored and evaluate the most secure and efficient method for exporting a copy of that information into a new system.

Define access and security levels

While reviewing the list of HR documents used by your organization, decide who needs access to that information, how often they will need access, and identify any special security needs. For instance, medical and disability information is protected by law and may need to be stored separately from individual employee files.

Identify retention requirements

Certain types of documents must be kept for a specific amount of time to maintain compliance. Decide how long you need or want to retain documents and configure your DMS to alert you to upcoming expiration dates.

Learn specifics of DMS functionality

Educate yourself and your team on the features and functionality available in the HR document management system that you’ve chosen to help fully inform the creation and implementation of a new workflow.

Finding the right HR document management software solution for your business can maximize efficiency, reduce liability, and empower your organization to prioritize what really matters — the people who make work possible.

The post What is HR document management software? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Improve employee relations, raise retention rates, inspire employee performance, and create a positive work environment by investing time and effort into talent management.

What is human resource management?

Human resource management (HRM) is the practice of hiring, training, compensating, managing, and retaining the employees of an organization. To put it more simply, HRM is people management.

Every aspect of the strategic planning, decision-making, and work involved with building and maintaining a team of employees is part of personnel management.

Learn the language of human resources:

• HR terms: the plain-spoken glossary
• HR terms: get context, clarity, and insight
• What is human resources (HR)?
• HR Terms: the most extensive HR glossary

How does human resource management work?

Human resource management isn’t limited to the work of the HR department. While it’s true that HR professionals are often in charge of hiring, onboarding, managing employee benefits and compensation, overseeing company policy, and other administrative tasks, team leaders and managers also have responsibilities that can be defined as human resource management.

Employee training, professional development, performance management, and even inspiring and motivating employees, all fall under the definition of HRM.

Check out the following resources to help streamline your hiring process:

• Top 5 human resources (HR) email template examples
• The top 10 questions asked in the HR interview

The importance of human resource management

The basics of HRM ensure that your organization has employees, but a well-developed strategy enhances the employee experience and reflects the core values of your organization.

When implemented thoroughly and thoughtfully, human resource management can increase employee engagement and improve your brand’s reputation, which also makes it easier to attract top talent.

Read more about why human resource management is important:

• Crisis management in the workplace: the role of HR
• How to assess human resource skills
• Key HR metrics: The most important metrics you should track
• Auditing to improve the HR workflow
• Why HR for startups is a good thing
• How to write a recruitment policy

Objectives of human resource management

The main goal of human resource management is to fulfill staffing needs while creating and maintaining a positive work environment for employees. Additional objectives of HRM include:

• Optimizing organizational behavior
• Achieving organizational goals
• Creating a positive work culture
• Implementing training and development
• Supporting employee empowerment
• Improving retention
• Complying with employment law

HRM career opportunities and requirements

HRM positions are ideal for organized, detail-oriented people who enjoy helping others and coordinating solutions to administrative and personal problems.

Examples of human resource management careers include:

• Human resources manager
• Human resources assistant
• HR analyst
• HR consultant
• Benefits manager
• Benefits administrator
• Payroll specialist
• Compensation specialist
• Training manager
• Training coordinator
• HRIS specialist
• Employee relations manager
• Recruiter
• Labor relations specialist
• Leadership coach
• Talent acquisition manager
• Internship coordinator
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion specialist

Entry-level HR positions often require a bachelor’s degree, with a focus of study that relates to human resources, business, or accounting and finance for jobs that involve compensation.

An MBA or a master’s degree and certifications from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) or the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI) can be helpful for landing leadership or management positions in HRM.

Learn more about human resource management careers:

• How to succeed as a HR leader: forget ‘best practices’
• Hiring skills you should have if you’re in HR
• Hiring an HR manager for the first time – A complete how-to guide

What is the difference between HR and HRM?

How are human resources and human resource management different from one another? Human resources is part of the broader scope of human resource management, but the two terms are not synonymous.

Human resources is the department that deals with the tasks and resources associated with hiring, compensation, and administration of employees.

Human resources management is the practice of implementing principles of management to effectively organize and optimize employees of an organization.

Read more about related human resources terms:

• What’s the difference? – a guide outlining common terms and the differences between each
• People operations vs. HR management

Skills and responsibilities of an HR manager

Human resource managers oversee staffing and work with executives to make strategic decisions to create sustainable change to improve the employee experience within their organization. Skills and requirements to be an HR manager include:

• Degree in Human Resources or related field
• Previous experience as HR Manager or other HR Executive
• Experience with HR systems, databases, and metrics
• In-depth knowledge of labor law and HR best practices
• Detail-oriented with excellent communication and interpersonal skills

The responsibilities of an HR manager may include:

• Overseeing the talent acquisition process, from recruiting to training
• Working with executives to align talent management to the organization’s objectives
• Managing the daily workflow of the Human Resources department
• Analyzing trends in compensation and benefits
• Coordinating professional development and growth initiatives for staff
• Handling performance reviews, disciplinary issues, and terminations
• Ensuring compliance with local, state, and federal labor laws and regulations

Read more about HR skills:

• The most important HR skills and how to master them

How to become a Human Resources Manager

Starting a career as a Human Resources Manager often requires a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field and prior professional experience in a human resource management position.

HRM tools & software

Since HRM covers such a broad range of relevant positions and objectives, there is a wide variety of tools and software available to streamline the process. A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) can help make managing people, policies, and procedures more simple. HRIS solutions make it easier to record and analyze information such as applicant tracking, onboarding, payroll, and performance management.

Human Management Resource Systems (HMRS) perform similar functions to HRIS solutions, but also include features about more qualitative information about the performance and engagement of employees.

Discover additional resources to streamline HRM:

• HR Toolkit: resources to support the full HR lifecycle
• HR tools & calculators
• How to write an employee handbook
• 21 HR tools designed for growing companies
• Recruiting budget: HR planning tips and examples

Human resource management trends

The most significant shift in recent human resource management trends involves a new emphasis on benefits and work/life balance. Offering a healthcare plan and the occasional birthday cake in the breakroom doesn’t cut it in today’s competitive job market.

Company culture and the employee experience matter more to potential applicants than 401k matches, in many cases. Consequently, organizations are staying competitive by offering perks that improve an employee’s quality of life, such as remote work opportunities, four day work weeks, flexible working hours, and generous (or unlimited) PTO.

HRM is about more than filling positions — it has evolved into creating a work environment where employees feel valued, supported, and empowered to be their best personal and professional selves.

• HR statistics and trends: Demystifying 2020
• The future of HR: what does it hold for recruiters?
• Josh Bersin’s recruiting and HR trends for the future

The post Human resource management: the ultimate guide to HRM appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is talent acquisition?

Talent acquisition is a strategic approach to finding, identifying, and selecting qualified candidates for open positions. It’s usually the responsibility of human resources professionals and technically includes each step of the hiring process, including sourcing, interviewing, and even onboarding.

However, the most effective TA strategies have a big-picture perspective and include less obvious steps of the process, such as building a desirable employer brand, improving the candidate experience, and prioritizing relationship management in an effort to attract and retain high-quality candidates.

Recruitment vs. talent acquisition

Recruitment and talent acquisition may seem like interchangeable terms, but there’s some nuance that differentiates the two.

The recruiting process involves the tasks associated with hiring for open positions. Writing job descriptions, publishing job postings to job boards and identifying potential candidates are all examples of recruitment-related activities.

Talent acquisition involves implementing a strategy for long-term human resources planning and is designed to attract and secure the best talent with specific skill sets or experience and the ability to grow into bigger and better roles within the organization in the future.

Recruitment falls under the umbrella of TA, however, talent acquisition is an ongoing process of networking, outreach, and relationship-building versus hiring for a specific position.

Learn more about recruitment and talent acquisition:

• 8 steps of the selection process for hiring employees
• Recruiter vs. hiring manager: Who is really responsible for hiring?

The talent acquisition process

Creating an effective TA process requires more than crafting thoughtful interview questions. Get started by considering the following aspects of the Pragmatic Recruiting Framework:

• Product: Understand your company, culture, and what a “good” candidate means to you.
• Audience: Understand what motivates the right candidates and how your company can meet their needs.
• Messaging: Craft an employer brand that positions your product as a compelling proposition for job seekers who are part of your intended audience.
• Programs: Create go-to-market programs that place your opportunities in front of the right audience.
• Readiness: Ensure your organization’s ability to execute on your selection process.

Once you develop a talent acquisition strategy, you need to build talent pipelines, create positive employer branding, and focus on talent relationship management.

An applicant tracking system can be a valuable tool to manage the logistical aspects of talent acquisition.

Additional resources on the talent acquisition process:

• Communicating the recruitment process: Do’s and Don’ts
• Sourcing talent: The best method for filling your talent pool
• The Pragmatic Recruiting Framework: A lesson from marketing

Benefits of talent acquisition

The primary benefit of creating and implementing this strategy is obvious: It optimizes the hiring process in a way that increases your odds of hiring top talent.

However, there are many advantages of having well-defined parameters for what you’re seeking in new employees. Creating a streamlined workflow that results in the best new hires available helps build the business you want.

Reduce time to hire, increase retention rates, improve talent management, and fortify company culture with an intentional staffing plan that prioritizes the core values of your organization.

Learn more about optimizing your hiring process:

• How to explain your structured interview process to candidates

The post Talent Acquisition: everything you need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What are background checks for employment?

Background checks for employment are a screening tool used to verify job applicant information through official legal records.

Incorporating background screening as part of the hiring process helps employers reduce the risk of potential liabilities and can bring more clarity and validation to hiring decisions.

However, in order to use background checks as a prerequisite of employment, screenings must be carried out in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law that governs the production and use of consumer reports as a hiring tool. FCRA protects employers from claims of unfair hiring practices and job candidates from discrimination or privacy breaches.

Additional resources on background checks for employment:

• How to run a background check with Workable
• Demystifying employment background checks

Benefits of pre-employment background checks

Hiring a new employee is an investment in the future of your organization and it’s a process that involves a significant number of resources. Aside from the time and money spent, hiring the wrong candidate can have a negative impact on employee morale, client relations, brand reputation, and sales.

Verifying that a potential candidate has the appropriate education, work experience, and background before extending a job offer can help protect your company and its culture.

How do background checks work?

Background checks verify an applicant’s identity by using information such as their Social Security number and date of birth to conduct a search of court records, financial records, or public records databases. Manual contact may be made with educational institutions, professional organizations, or previous employers, as well.

These searches are usually conducted by a human resources professional using a background check company, a consumer reporting agency (CRA), or with software such as a human resources information system (HRIS).

The FCRA and state laws have strict guidelines about how background checks are conducted, so it’s important to research requirements to avoid legal risks.

Create your own background check policy:

Employee Background Check Policy Sample

What can be checked?

Pre-employment screening can cover many different areas of interest, including:

• Employment history
• Education verification
• License/Certification check
• Criminal history
• Driving records
• Credit check
• Drug screening
• Social media activity
• Identity

State laws vary in regards to what information can be checked, so research local and federal guidelines before proceeding.

Employment background check process

Background checks are normally conducted at the point when you’re ready to make an offer, but some companies will perform a background check report on several candidates to help guide employment decisions.

There are four main steps to take to ensure compliance:

1. Disclosure: Candidates must be notified that a pre-employment screening is a pre-condition of an offer.
2. Consent: The candidate must provide written consent and must receive notification of the agency conducting the check, as well as their rights under the FCRA.
3. Investigation: Once the candidate has provided consent and sufficient personal details, the report is compiled using relevant sources.
4. Review: You will receive the report for review, which will typically be marked either “clear” as a sign to go ahead and employ or “consider” to indicate that something of concern has been found.

Learn more about the employment background check process:

• The 8 employer essentials on employment background checks
• Speed up background checks with our Trusted Employees integration
• Background check update to candidates email

What can cause a red flag on a background check?

Finding a red flag on a background check shouldn’t automatically disqualify a good candidate. If you have questions about something revealed by the background information, it’s always a good idea to ask the candidate about it and allow them the opportunity to respond.

Here are five red flags that may be worth additional discussion:

• Criminal record
• Inappropriate or unlawful social media activity
• Inconsistencies between background information and resume
• Negative comments from former co-workers on reference checks
• Poor credit history (particularly relevant if the position requires corporate spending or money management)

To comply with the FCRA requirements related to adverse action, you must provide candidates with copies of their reports and have a process in place for candidates to dispute report findings.

For more information, read Background check red flags.

Performing a background check for employment helps hiring professionals make informed decisions, however, it also helps your organization maintain a safe work environment, protect company assets, reduce the risk of liability claims, and comply with federal, state, local, and industry regulations.

The post Background checks for employment: What, why, & how appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We at Workable and Bryq have the data to help you build your talent attraction package so you can attract – and keep – those star employees. Let’s dive in!

Want to see all the data in one place? Jump to the full infographic below or download it for your own files.

Remote work by gender

Employees who work remotely in their current role:

• 51% men
• 54% women
• 52% overall

Employees who want to work remotely in their next role:

• 65% men
• 75% women
• 69% overall

Nearly 70% of candidates are looking for remote roles, while female candidates are 15% more likely than male candidates to be looking for remote work.

Breakdown of what workers most often cited as what’s most important to them in their next role:

Both men and women prioritized the same things when looking for their next role but at different rates. Men looked for better advancement opportunities 16% more often than women and looked for more meaningful work 20% more often than women.

Women, however, looked for a higher salary 12% more often than men and looked for better work-life integration 30% more often than men.

62.2% of US respondents and  70.1% 0f UK respondents cite compensation as a top factor in deciding to move to a new company.

Support your employees’ home lives as well as their work lives

Females in the US are more than twice as likely as males to cite family priorities as the reason why they’re not working, with a difference of 39.4% vs. 19.3%.

In the UK, the difference is much more pronounced, with 41.7% of UK women and 6.7% of UK men citing family priorities as the reason why they’re not working.

Lack of advancement opportunities for minority workers

The percentage of each group in terms of how likely they’d leave their current job for another one with better advanced opportunities:

• 27% American Indian- Alaskan Native
• 31% Asian
• 43% African-American
• 34% Hispanic/Latino
• 27% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander
• 25% Caucasian

Black workers are 70% more likely than white workers to leave their jobs for better advancement opportunities. In fact, white
workers were the least likely of all ethnicity groups to leave their roles for better advancement opportunities.

Workers with disabilities want remote work

Of the population of workers with a disability in the workforce, over 60% of them were already working from home. Going into 2022, a staggering 76% of workers with disabilities are looking to work remotely in their next role.

Younger workers are the future of our workforce

More than two out of five (42.8%) of those aged 21-29 say they’re actively looking for a new job, compared with just one quarter (24.7%) of those aged 50-59.

We live in a diverse society. A one-size-fits-all strategy can only get you so far. With flexibility in your benefits package and working environment, you’re providing an environment in which your employees can thrive.

Workable is where the world hires. Find and hire the right person for every job. See how we’ve enabled over 20,000 companies to make over 1.3 million hires – sign up for a demo or 15-day free trial. And learn more about candidate attraction in our Great Discontent report. 

Bryq is an award-winning talent intelligence solution that will transform the way you recruit and manage talent. Use Workable and Bryq together to eliminate bias within the hiring process, promote internal mobility through career pathing, and grow and cultivate your company culture. Download Bryq’s full hiring report here and book your free demo today.

The post INFOGRAPHIC: Want to keep your employees? Give them what they need appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Jobs in retail and healthcare are most at risk for high turnover due to the high demands and stress of working throughout the pandemic that caused irrevocable damage to employee loyalty. The tech industry also saw high turnover rates due to burnout, but they also had more competitive remote work options to turn to.

While it is typical for younger employees to have a higher rate of job turnover, that has recently shifted to employees aged 30-45 years old with an increase in resignations in this group by over 20% between 2020 and 2021. The US Great Discontent survey report also finds that employees in this group are more likely to be passively open to new opportunities than other age groups.

Younger employees are less mobile due to lack of job security while Boomers and Gen Xers are more content with their current employment.

Employers should perform their own self-audit to determine what is causing employees to resign if it does not fall under these more obvious categories.

Certain benefits such as working from home have become a premium in the job market due to the pandemic. As the appeal of juggling two workspaces fades, hybrid jobs do not inspire as much employee loyalty as fully remote jobs – 58% versus 73% employee loyalty. Considering desirable benefits that will inspire loyalty will be necessary to avoid costly high-turnover rates.

The cost of high employee turnover

The cost to replace an employee in terms of marketing the position, paying recruiters, interviewing, relocation costs, signing bonuses, and training the replacement comes to about 33% of an employee’s annual salary according to a retention report by the Work Institute.

It will also take time before the new hire is productive – in other words, the time to ramp, as Workable CFO Craig DiForte describes it – and this factors in lost revenue. These hiring costs can add up when one in three hires leave a company in their first two years and is why it is most beneficial to emphasize best practices for employee retention.

An unfortunate hidden cost of high turnover is that the workload falls on the remaining employees who must pick up the slack until the new hire is up to speed. This can be damaging to staff morale which makes it important to add incentives for those loyal workers who remain before they become resentful.

How to improve employee loyalty and retention

For the employees who remain loyal it is important to recognize when they go above and beyond their job description, especially for those who are responsible for training new hires and picking up the slack. Workers who feel appreciated by their supervisors – and are well-compensated – are more likely to stay. This, again, is confirmed in the Great Discontent survey, with two-thirds of US workers saying they need to make more money as a reason why they’re looking elsewhere.

One proactive solution is to incorporate team-building exercises because keeping employees happy translates to higher productivity which is the ultimate goal. Employers will need to make time in their schedule to be accessible and communicate with their team either at work or at more relaxed employee excursions like going to a sporting event, playing mini-golf, or participating in an escape room experience.

There are other ways to make employees happy that do not cost anything. Some workers simply desire career mobility and transparency about how they can grow in their roles at work. Providing job training and a clear path to career advancement are important to keeping loyal employees – 47% of survey respondents reported that feeling stagnant in their roles was the main reason for looking for a new job that had more opportunities for growth and fulfilment.

Hiring and recruiting strategies

Hiring a new employee is an investment and it is important to establish honest job expectations from the start to guarantee that you do not end up wasting each other’s time – not to mention the money involved in training a new hire.

Employers should carefully craft their job description to reflect their company values and should not shy away from explaining the job role in detail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Ip3mLOjOs&ab_channel=Workable

Future interviews and training should reinforce these ideas so there is no confusion regarding expectations.

It can also be helpful to advertise the fun company culture in job advertisements since workers who are leaving due to burnout may be seeking a better work environment.

It is not enough just to be fun right now because the pandemic is still a serious issue affecting job searches. Offering healthcare benefits is more important to employees than ever due to the pandemic and putting onerous restrictions on when benefits go into effect can deter applications.

Advertising initiatives for mental health resources can be a useful selling point as well and should not be overlooked. Social isolation from remote work is one of the downsides despite its popularity and proactively addressing it instead of ignoring the problem that so many are now facing can be a marketable feature for your employer brand.

Visibility is the key to future-proofing your business

The first step to creating a targeted retention program is to establish greater visibility into the root causes of turnover. This may also involve having uncomfortable conversations with employees that have chosen to resign by performing exit interviews. Ultimately, this data will empower your business to attract leading industry talent, retain loyal employees, and reduce turnover costs.

The post How do you overcome the Big Quit as an employer? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are three areas of labor law that you need to pay attention to in terms of what’s changing with Biden’s labor agenda, each with important takeaways for you. They are as follows:

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
2. Contractor vs. full-time employee classification
3. Apprenticeships

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In June 2021, President Biden signed a joint resolution regarding The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) conciliation process.

The resolution reverses the changes in the process promulgated by the Trump administration and returns the process to its original state. The Trump rule required the EEOC to provide employers with a written summary of their facts of the case, their legal theory supporting the claims of discrimination, the identity of the reporting party, and criteria used to establish a potential class of affected employees.

These stringent requirements would have removed the conciliation process from judicial review.

Biden’s resolution restores the requirements of Mach Mining vs. EEOC, which provides that the EEOC need supply only the allegations of employer wrongdoing and which group of employees suffered as a result. Limited judicial review, as enunciated in Mach Mining v. EEOC, is now back in the system.

Your takeaway as an employer

You as an employer should keep in mind that the overhauled conciliation process gives significant advantages to the EEOC. The EEOC will provide you with much less information, and you will no longer have the identity of the complaining party.

Read more about common mistakes employers make in responding to an EEOC complaint.

2. Contractors vs. full-time employees

Similarly, Biden is rescinding Trump’s changes to the independent contractor test. Independent contractors and freelancers, long utilized by companies for both their flexibility and lower hiring costs, pre-date the inception of 20th century labor laws.

Some background: as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA) established the rights of private sector employees to form unions and engage in collective bargaining with their employers to determine wages. Similarly, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) created minimum wage requirements and required time-and-a half pay above 40 hours a week for full-time employees.

But: independent contractors weren’t explicitly included in these protections, and the specifics of what entails an employer-employee relationship have been murky.

Throughout the 20th century, domestic staff, agricultural laborers, and other workers have advocated for equitable treatment. During the new millennium, the number of independent contractors increased rapidly, rising 22 percentage points from 2001 to 2019.

This dramatic spike brought government scrutiny to the employer misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Obama DOL issued guidance intended to restrict employers’ ability to classify workers as independent contractors under the FLSA, prompting more than a dozen states to establish misclassification task forces.

At the end of his term, President Trump’s DOL adopted an altered independent contractor rule. Lauded as a pro-business reform, the test consisted of two primary and three secondary factors to be considered when classifying employees as independent contractors. The first two factors, the level of agency the individual has over his or her own work, and the opportunity for profit or loss due to their own personal investment, were adequate when they could be conclusively applied to the circumstance at hand.

If the first two factors were inadequate, the level of skill needed to perform the work, the duration/permanence of the work arrangement, and the role’s relationship to the overall business operation clarified whether the worker was an independent contractor. In a return to Obama-era policy, the rescinding of this five-factor test largely leaves states to determine independent contractor status.

It depends on the jurisdiction

Still, the definition of what constitutes an employer-employee relationship varies by state. States use either common law – which takes into account behavioral control, financial control, and the relationships of the parties – or utilize an ABC test, which is based on absence of control, usual business, and customary engagement.

Still, various lawsuits and reforms continue to alter the landscape. Notably, California’s Prop 22 allows Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy companies to classify their workers as independent contractors, overturning an earlier court ruling that would have forced them to award more employee protections.

However, Minneapolis, Iowa, and New York have increased protections for independent contractors, with new laws requiring written contracts and avenues for redress of grievances.

Your takeaway as an employer

As the gig economy expands and evolves, you should note that the pros and cons of employing independent contractors largely varies by services rendered and duration of arrangement. It is important to remember that state-level legislators are increasingly scrutinizing the independent contractor designation.

3. Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships, seen as a feasible way for workers without college degrees to learn a skilled trade and obtain a well-paying job, are also receiving an overhaul under Biden’s comprehensive infrastructure plan.

Of note to employers, this part of Biden’s labor agenda includes a reversal of Trump’s Executive Order 13801, which allowed for the creation of more Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). IRAPs, developed or delivered by entities such as trade groups, corporations, non-profit organizations, offer work-based learning and culminate with the participant receiving a credential. These programs were lauded for both their flexibility, ability to adapt to changing market trends, and effectiveness in teaching industry-specific skills.

The Biden administration argues that IRAPs lack governmental oversight, are slow to implement wage progression, and fail to standardize training procedures. In response to these issues, Biden’s Department of Labor is allotting $130 million to the reinstatement of Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), overseen by the National Advisory Committee on Apprenticeships.

The committee will consist of diverse stakeholders from a variety of industries, tasked with expanding apprenticeship programs into various sectors – namely clean energy, technology, and healthcare. The NACA is also spearheading efforts to ensure that women, immigrants, and other minorities have equal access to vocational programs.

Your takeaway as an employer

The bottom line for employers creating apprenticeships is this: with the shift from IRAPs to RAPs, federal policies and procedures will again take precedent over the company’s policies and preferences.

Biden’s labor agenda: pay attention

This much is clear – Biden’s economic decisions mark a dramatic change in course from the Trump agenda.

The overhaul of the EEOC conciliation process favors the rights of employees, allowing for limited disclosure of the complainant’s grievances to the company. Businesses once afforded a looser definition of independent contractors, in line with Trump’s five-factor test, are now under closer state and federal scrutiny to prevent misclassification.

In addition, state lawmakers and advocacy groups are pushing for independent contractors to receive the benefits afforded to private employees.

And finally, with the shift from industry-controlled IRAPs to federally supervised RAPs, companies must abide by tighter training, diversity, and wage requirements.

With Biden’s agenda putting labor rights front and center, companies such as yourself should be aware of heightened regulation and scrutiny when managing and building your employee base.

The post Biden’s labor agenda: what you need to know as an employer appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But even for the most abstract tests, there are still best practices that can ensure you can learn what you need to know about a candidate.

Enter science and technology. Since you’re digitally transforming your entire recruitment process, it makes sense that you can and should digitize your assessments as well. Plus, you want to have a standardized process like in every other stage in the recruitment process.

Workable’s cognitive and personality assessments are specifically designed to fit in seamlessly within that environment to ensure you make the right hire for your business. There are five areas where you can test candidates:

1. Workplace personality
2. Abstract reasoning
3. Verbal comprehension
4. Numerical comprehension
5. Attention & Focus

The first of these, of course, is the personality assessment, while the other four are for assessing cognitive abilities.

These tests weren’t designed on a whim. A great deal of background and research – including input from international psychology experts – have gone into the design and development of these tests.

We know you want to ensure these assessments are valid and rooted in science before using them in your recruitment process, so we’ll give you some quick highlights to save you the time of researching the deeper material. Once you understand the science, you can then think about how you might include them in your process – please see our resources at the end that can help you with that.

Personality test science and methodology

Workable’s personality assessment is deeply rooted in scientific methods, and is built on the Five Factor model of personality testing accepted in psychology circles worldwide as the de facto model of personality.

The five factors come from statistical analysis of the adjectives used to describe people across five dimensions – and have been translated to many languages and cultures. They are:

1. Agreeableness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Openness To Experience
5. Emotional Stability (or Neuroticism)

These factors are sometimes referred to as the acronyms OCEAN or CANOE. They’re not based on an either-or measurement, but rather, on where a test-taker places on a scale or continuum. It’s been scientifically linked to predictors around health, education and on-the-job behaviors, which makes it a valuable test to evaluate candidates for a role.

Workable’s version of the Five Factor model goes deeper, analyzing 16 additional areas that are selected and modified to be most relevant in the selection process. Workable’s personality assessments have also been analyzed for consistency using Cronbach’s alpha testing and other indexes. For some quick context, this is a common statistical analysis designed to ensure the validity of Likert scale surveys (i.e. sliding-scale or continuum surveys).

Many questions have been adopted from the public domain International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), which have contributed to questionnaires in more than 850 published studies. The IPIP scales have demonstrated high internal consistency metrics along with strong correlations with the scales of many established personality questionnaires. (You can examine the comparisons here.) This further validates many of the scales we measure in our personality assessments.

Cognitive test science and methodology

Professionally designed by testing experts at Psycholate, Workable’s cognitive assessments are likewise modeled after common cognitive tests in the industry.

The verbal and numerical comprehension question sets have been professionally designed by testing experts, and cross-checked by psychologists with a background in psychometrics to ensure validity and accuracy. Other tests were also performed including the above-mentioned IRT testing and parameter estimation, and items that met the criteria were added to the abstract reasoning and attention & focus question banks.

Meanwhile, for the abstract reasoning and attention & focus assessment tests, multiple prototypes were created and tested, contributing to the final version that a candidate sees when they take these tests. Again, these tests were professionally tested and reviewed by psychology experts to ensure each test meets psychometric and industry standards of quality.

Cronbach’s alpha testing was also applied during design and pilot stages.

Real-time scoring, adaptability and length

These tests are not simply scored via ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ answers. Rather, they utilize the universally recognized Item Response Theory (IRT) framework. It uses complex statistical algorithms with each question having a measured level of difficulty and quality metric based on historical data.

Scoring for all four cognitive assessment tests is conducted using the Expected A Posteriori (EAP), which allows for real-time scoring of the candidate with each question answered, and updating upcoming questions based on that scoring. This means the next question is presented based on previous answers.

An adaptive test will estimate the candidate’s ability after every new response based on answers up to that point. It will then adjust and display the most suitable or relevant question to match that just-estimated ability level. As a result, an adaptive test is shorter because it only asks the questions that are needed, without burdening the candidate with potentially irrelevant questions.

Also, unlike preconfigured tests with a set number of questions, an adaptive test decides when to stop based on answers received up to that point. IRT scoring offers not only a score for the ability of a candidate; our assessments can also calculate the positive or negative quality of this score via the Standard Error of measurement (SEm).

Obviously, a score based on more items is more reliable. So Workable’s adaptive tests will stop once a candidate’s score reaches a satisfactory and measurable level (i.e. a low enough SEm) or when a maximum number of questions (for example, 20) has been reached in order to protect the test content.

This all ultimately means that each individual candidate will experience a different and unique set of questions. Along with other measures, this ultimately assures test security: It’s practically impossible to replicate the exact same test or create a cheat sheet to assist in ‘passing’ a test.

There are safeguards in place to ensure that the same question isn’t asked twice in the same assessment.

Want to learn more?

This is, of course, just a summarization of the main science and methodology that have provided the foundation on which Workable Assessments is built. Now that you have a high-level understanding of the science behind the tests and what they’re testing for, it’s now time to think about how you might incorporate that as an essential tool in your hiring toolbox.

If you’re interested in learning more about our assessments feature – or even taking it for a test drive – don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about some of the concerns around assessments from a candidate’s perspective and why you needn’t worry, we cover that in this article. Meanwhile, here’s a tutorial on how to conduct a post-personality assessment interview.

The post Workable Assessments: The science behind it all appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The Series A crunch may be tough but the talent crunch is brutal. We talk to high-growth startups every day and we keep hearing versions of “compared to recruiting, fundraising was easy”. Just like fundraising, it’s very competitive. It takes time, preparation and selling, and getting it wrong can slow down or kill your startup. It’s the hardest thing to get right. It doesn’t get the attention it deserves.

You need to be a hiring obsessive

Whether it’s two founders talking to an angel investor, a team of 10 making something from nothing, or a high-growth company with 50 staff, team quality is the single best predictor of success. If you can get great people then everything else becomes so much easier.

Growth hacks versus talent hacks

Silicon Valley has figured out how to build great products and turn them into successful business models. Methodologies have emerged like Lean Startup, agile product development and growth hacking. They function as roadmaps for the non-experts and inspire conversation and innovation in those fields. In comparison hiring practices have remained in the dark ages.

Getting from 5 to 50 and beyond

Your first five hires pretty much picked themselves but in getting from 5 to 50 you will need the best tools and analytics, and you will need to be systematic. It’s about more than ping pong tables and bicycle racks. We’ve spent the time to curate the best thinking on everything from employer branding and headhunting to every step in the interview process, whether you’re building a distributed team or you’ve got an office. We’ve thrown in ideas, tricks, talent hacks and real life examples from great companies. The result is this startup hiring guide that offers some structure when hiring for rapid growth from 5 to 50. It’s a starting point. And my aim is to get all of us to talk about hiring.

1. Building an attractive company: Employer branding
2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process
3. How to write job descriptions
4. What to look for: Hiring for a startup
5. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates
6. Creating an interview process
7. Workplace benefits and compensation
8. Recruiting software and tools
9. Where to post your jobs

1. Building an attractive company: employer branding

Smart companies typically operate in competitive talent markets. This means that the people you’re looking for are likely to be juggling several job offers. Competing for outstanding candidates with the likes of Google, Facebook and Twitter might seem like a losing proposition but it’s not.

It can be done but, first, you have to realize that hiring is marketing. We live in what’s called the “age of transparency”. It has never been easier for employees to be able to tell who you are or what working with you would be like. Digital platforms mean that even the youngest companies can affordably showcase why they’re an exciting place to work. There’s more to social media hiring than just tweeting your jobs. Everything you do or say on social media is building your brand.

PRO TIP: Intercom’s blog is a great example of doing marketing and employer branding at the same time.

You’re speaking to two audiences: Customers & talent

In the early days, the way you market your product and the way you think about the problems you’re solving, says a lot about the kind of company that you’re about to build. If you become known for doing interesting things for your customers, you will attract talented and ambitious people. Smart people want to solve interesting problems. They’re not looking for a job, they’re looking for a mission. Smart people want to work with smart people.

Your presence in communities, your reputation, your contribution and ideas represent you. Use blogging, social media and public conversations to keep speaking to your ideal future hires. Signpost your involvement in events and your own content to make it easy for people to find out what you stand for and why you matter.

PRO TIP: Buffer’s focus on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Who the hell are you?

In the beginning were the founders. The early hires in startups don’t have a company reputation to buy into, so usually they’re taking a gamble on joining the founders in their big initiative. When you’re in the early phase, it’s the personal brand of the founders that’s going to be the strongest component. Simple steps like having an engaging personal blog can project why you’re worth working for and what you’re trying to do. Let prospective candidates get to know you.

Even in the early days of a company your employees become your brand and signal what kind of people work there. Chances are you’ve hired people who reflect your company’s brand and values well. Showcase your employees on your website and empower them to talk confidently about your business. Employees attending meetups and events, sharing a video of their home working environment, or just speaking with genuine passion about their jobs are a powerful marketing tool.

Hire people who can build teams

Good people know good people. Hire people who are already networked and know much of the talent you’ll be needing. When you can, go for people with a personal brand. This is also a signal to future hires. Remember, some of your best people will be high-potential junior hires who will grow with the startup. So, always look for those who can nurture and grow your young talent.

PRO TIP: FullContact’s paid-paid vacation initiative offers holiday bonuses to staff who go completely off the grid. Everyone needs to from time to time.

Live in the real world

Don’t just be digital. You’re going to be employing people after all and they congregate at events and around offline communities too. Be an active participant in these ecosystems. An event sponsorship or even a few beers can go a long way. Even as remote work becomes more of a standard in 2020 and beyond, human interaction is highly valued and appreciated.

Return to top

2. Always be hiring: developing a hiring process

Networks are king

Ask any startup where most of their hires came from or ask bigger companies where their best people came from and the answer is usually the same: friends, friends of friends or ex-colleagues. It’s all about networks for one simple reason: good people know good people. Part of being a good CEO is building a great network with quality and reach. There are no shortcuts here, it’s real work. The better your network is, the easier your next hire is going to be.

If you don’t know the right person you will at least know someone who does. Remember quality as well as quantity. It’s not just about having thousands of LinkedIn connections (although it can’t hurt). Are you working hard enough to be an authentic member of the community where your talent pool is? If your tech is built with Ruby are you taking part in the relevant meetups and hackathons? Are your developers known for their thought leadership and contribution in your sphere?

Hiring is everyone’s job, especially sourcing

Just as you look for candidates through networks, the best candidates are looking for their next job in the same way. Word of mouth matters. The best recommendation you’re going to get will be when someone you’d like to hire is told by a friend of theirs who is already on your team that your startup is great place to work. If your team is proud of where they work they’ll tell their friends.

What happens when your own network runs out? Keep trying. There will always be someone you haven’t told that you’re hiring. You can go further, take the time to sit with your employees one by one and go through their online networks (LinkedIn is a good example). You’ll find good people and you can get your colleagues to message them then and there. This is a time-consuming process but worth it.

There’s tremendous value in referred employees in the form of greater job satisfaction, higher retention rates, quicker applicant-to-hire conversion – all metrics that ultimately reduce the cost of recruitment, especially when hiring for rapid growth.

PRO TIP: Set up a formal employee referral program in your company, with incentives for your current colleagues. You can even gamify the process to further motivate employees to refer people in their networks.

Get out of your bubble

Your own network can only extend so far and the chances are your colleagues’ networks have a lot of overlap with yours. Plus, there’s the potential for bias – as the old saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. If you’re hiring friends of friends or former colleagues of existing employees, that’s a potential trap in homogenizing your workforce. Get out of that bubble and speak to new people, ask for introductions from your own network so you can start tapping into adjacent ones.

Learn how a tech sales VP established gender balance in her team in a male-dominated field, by looking outside of the usual candidate resources.

PRO TIP: Sending your developers to the best conferences is a sure fire way to grow your network, as well as encouraging them to spread the word through their online networks where they live and play.

How to do social the right way

If you’ve done most things right so far you’ll start with an audience. This means you have something to bootstrap your social media recruiting effort to. Using social for hiring isn’t just about tweeting jobs and getting your colleagues to retweet. The companies who are most successful at social hiring have built up a relevant audience and target their tweets to influential people in their community. Not all retweets were born equal — you want to be talked about in context. You want influential people in your field talking you up as an authority.

PRO TIP: Netflix put their culture presentation online:

[slideshare id=36216034&doc=netflixorganizationalculture-131001173045-phpapp02-140623172442-phpapp01]

That open presentation promoting Netflix’s Culture of Excellence went viral – clearly boosting their employer brand and reputation.

Return to top

3. How to write job descriptions

Don’t go with the flow

Job descriptions could and should sweep candidates off their feet. But all too often, we’re content to lean on the old-fashioned and generic with the result that most job ads are mediocre. We’re guessing you don’t want to be average. You’re not one of those guys looking for superheroes who is too lazy to craft a job description that might actually attract them.

PRO TIP: The first time we came across Medium’s careers page was in Lou Hoffman’s article: The best job descriptions on the planet. Enough said.

Love at first sight

We all know that applicants like to scan. They want to look at an opening and be able to recognize in the blink of an eye if it’s their dream job. Like all busy people they have a thousand things competing for their attention; especially the passive candidates for whom you’re trawling. Make every job description seductive. Start with the job title, keeping in mind that most job boards work like search engines, therefore candidates use keywords to search for jobs.

The about-the-company part

This is your chance to make a good first impression, so start thinking about the distinctive characteristics that make your company special. The type of job description you publish is closely related to who you are as an employer. Give them a glimpse of your company that will charm them into coming to working for you.

PRO TIP: Check out some of our favorite job ads from the Workable job board – each of which can fit different needs in your business.

Candidates need to be able to relate to job descriptions on a personal level. Tell them a story about your company that will make them sit back and picture themselves working with you. Start with an educated guess, with something simple, ask for feedback and then optimize. Ask employees why they enjoy working for your startup. If you have a marketing department lean on them for some content marketing advice. Hiring for rapid growth should not to be done in isolation – it’s a team effort. You’ll need to put in some extra effort but it will pay off.

The about-the-job part

You know that if you go with the flow then your job descriptions will be deathly dull but you’re tempted to do so anyway. Because that’s the way everybody is doing it. But it won’t help your company stand out, it will just add to the mountain of identical job descriptions that grows larger every day.

How are job seekers (let alone the precious, passive ones) supposed to spot that you’re offering a dream gig when it looks like a machine wrote your job description? It’s not necessarily because they’re not well-written, it’s because they’re presented as if they were not written by or for a human being. Do everyone a favor and stick to the important stuff. There are tons of job descriptions out there listing every tiny little task a future employee might perform. That’s not the point.

It’s all about clarity

Start writing job descriptions that build businesses. They will attract the best talent and convert prospects into candidates. How?

• Sell your company and their future in it in an engaging fashion
• Get rid of the boring corporate tone
• Keep it chatty and friendly
• Use words that evoke feelings
• Make them aspire and then act on that desire
• Use “you” or “we’; drop the passive voice

To up the ante you can also add a list of people the future hire will get to work with on a regular basis.

The about-the-requirements part

We’ve covered the basics in our “There’s a difference between what you want and what you need” blog post. If you’ve used Workable, you may have noticed the must-haves and nice-to-haves requirements. Why did we add this feature? To make sure that candidates won’t get excluded from the hiring process just because they clicked “NO” on a secondary skill that is unlikely to be pivotal. Think about what skills would make sense, adding to the equation the fact that they are individuals and not miracle workers. Must-have requirements are the bare minimum: the can’t-live-without list. Nice-to-have requirements are the extras: they belong on the we-can-live-without list.

Jobseekers also have a hierarchy of needs that you need to keep in mind as you craft the perfect job ad. In fact, if Maslow were alive today, here’s what he might think about your job ads.

PRO TIP: Worth looking at KinHR. They might not have a careers page at the moment but this sales job description rocks.

Return to top

4. What to look for: Hiring for rapid-growth startups

Punch above your weight

A startup literally is its team in the beginning. These are the people who will signal your ambition and set your limits. So, go for the people you think you can’t get. You’ll be surprised and once you’ve got the first few heroes it will become a lot easier to attract more of them. This is not a luxury. It seems obvious to punch above your weight but a successful startup will continually shift up the weight categories. If you don’t get these people you’ll get stuck.

Hire deliberately

You’re not hiring to fill a job, you’re building a company. Make the first 20 hires deliberately with the future in mind. Don’t hire people just because they’re good in general and available. These kinds of opportunistic or bad hires early on in a startup’s life can sink you. The cost of a pointless hire can be astronomical. That’s money that most startups cannot afford to waste. Beyond the cost of getting it wrong, your first few hires will set the tone for the future. Getting it right will make something that’s intrinsically hard a lot easier.

PRO TIP: Avoid hiring a candidate who badmouths their previous employers and coworkers.

Hire for potential

A successful startup will quickly outgrow everyone’s current skills and roles. If things work out as intended it’s going to grow and morph unpredictably. So will the demands on your employees. One of the most exhausting aspects of startups is this constant evolution, or as some founders call it “keeping up with their own company”. While it can be fairly simple to assess a candidate’s current skills rating their potential is less so.

Look for people coming into their professional prime. The past is a good guide, so take into account lifetime achievements whether they’re jobs, schools or hobbies. With few exceptions, smart, decisive and hard working people usually manage to go to a great school and do well in exams they care about. Look for high achievers.

PRO TIP: Include pre-interview assignments in the hiring process. Those who bother to go the extra mile will prevail.

The culture fit

This can be hard to pin down but it’s almost always important. It has its roots in the unfashionable word “congruence” — the fit between personality and organization. It means that you need to assess people on their behavior, mentality and match to the values of your organization.

PRO TIP: Valve’s Employee Handbook (the production quality, akin to what you would expect from their best marketing material) tells you a lot about who they are and how important this is for them.

But there’s one simple rule: never hire people with a bad attitude. It only takes one to poison an otherwise stellar team. That little problem you noticed in an interview will be magnified one-hundred fold by six months of hard work in a small team. Don’t overlook it. Go for people with an opinion, people who can honestly explain what they like and dislike. The kind of people who believe in missions, values and visions. They care. Those are the people who will be telling the truth when they assure you that they believe in your startup’s vision.

Hire for attitude, train for skills

You have to like a candidate before you hire them. This sounds highly subjective and unfair to them, especially when the context is strictly professional. However, someone’s ability to blend into your team, get along with you on a daily basis and build up some emotional reserves for tough times will ultimately determine their performance.

Malcolm Gladwell and Tim Ferriss can argue all they want about what and how fast a human being can learn but the truth is that certain human traits can’t be acquired beyond a certain stage in life. Focus on the fundamentals: intelligence, personality, diligence. Instead of testing for specific knowledge, check how a prospect reacts when you ask them to do something they haven’t worked on before.

PRO TIP: Carry out behavioral interviews, in addition to the standard ones. Always have a good store of questions.

Look for things you can’t train

You can teach financial management or how to interpret Google Analytics reports, but it’s probably too late to instil manners, ethics or numeracy. Skills and experience are worthless when not put to use. Knowledge is useless when not shared with others. The smaller your business, the more likely you are to be an expert in your field, so transferring those skills to new employees is relatively easy. But you can’t train enthusiasm or a solid work ethic.

According to a LeadershipIQ study, only 11% of the new hires that failed in the first 18 months did so because of deficiencies in technical skills. The majority failed due to lack of motivation, an unwillingness to be coached, or problems with temperament and emotional intelligence.

PRO TIP: Always ask for references. Poor players struggle to provide solid and believable references.

Return to top

5. Sourcing 101: Passive candidates

Build a profile

Most people don’t know how to fish for talent that’s not looking for a hook. These elusive prospects are known as passive candidates. Sourcing is the process of finding people who are not overtly looking for a job. Your starting point is to know what you’re pursuing and as much as possible about where you’re likely to find it. Think about what the ideal person looks like. What experience do they need to have? What kind of job are they doing now? Which companies must have good people doing this job? Start building a profile. The key to sourcing is figuring out what you’re pursuing and where it lives.

What is sourcing?

Mature companies: You’re looking for established companies doing a great job at what you’re looking for (eg. selling to SMEs, content marketing). You’re looking for people trained by the best, whose options have vested, who are ready to move on to a new exciting gig.

Vulnerable companies: Startups are volatile. When a company experiences a shakeup, there’s a window of opportunity. Signs to look for include the departure of a leadership figure; ventures which have gone 18 months with no follow-up funding or rumors of layoffs. You’re looking for drift and discontent where the talent works so mine the industry reports (Crunchbase, Mattermark, CBInsights, Owler) and listen to the gossip.

Events: Where do the best people on your shortlist hang out? Think about what kind of events they attend and make sure you’re there – be they virtual gatherings or in person. These settings give you the chance to meet people who you may want to approach in the future. When the time comes you will have less cold calling to do.

Universities: The very best talent are only truly unemployed once in their life: right out of college. Universities have structures that help you identify this top echelon. They’re at careers fairs, on internship programmes, or even doing work experience that contributes course credits.

PRO TIP: Look for companies 6-12 months after a seed funding without followup.

Make a shortlist and lean in

Now that we know what to search for, all these sourcing tools (LinkedIn, TalentBin, GitHub, Sourcing.io, and of course, Workable) actually become useful. Start browsing profiles and make a long-list of prospects. Prioritize people who you can reach out to through your extended network. If you can’t get an intro, then see if you can engage them on social media (Twitter) or engineer a chance meeting.

PRO TIP: Attend startup community meetups, design conventions or hackathons.

A courtship doesn’t begin with leaning in, it starts with people getting to know each other. If you do this well the prospect will have already gotten to know you before the conversation turns to a job offer. These are people you may not hire today, or even one year from now. They may also be the key to introducing you to your best hires in the future.

External recruiters

This is where you turn when you’re short on time or confidence to follow the steps above. They can be a fantastic shortcut. It might look simple but there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Look out for recruiters who have hired for small companies before and have a track record of placement in the role you’re looking for. Most startups use contingent recruiters whom you pay only when they deliver someone you hire (typically one-third of the hire’s annual salary).

The upside is that you only pay for what you get. The downside is that your aim and the recruiter’s aim are not the same. You want to hire great people. They want you to hire someone. This subtle difference can lose you time dealing with uninspiring candidates.

PRO TIP: Pay your recruiter more than they ask for. They’ll think twice before referring the next high-quality candidate to another competitor or well-funded company.

A nod to ethics

You need to be competitive but you also live in a community. Employee poaching can backfire on you, especially when you’re just starting out. Getting the balance right can be as simple as being mindful of basic good manners.

Return to top

6. Creating an interview process

One of the biggest mistakes made when hiring for rapid growth in a startup is to think that just because you’re small you don’t need a process. If you think “process” means doing things slowly, think again. Get the right tools, remember to hire as a team and you will stay on track. The selection process is a funnel – you get a lot of applicants, you speak with some of them, you meet a few of them, you hire the one you like best. An efficient filtering process will save you and your candidates time.

Pre-interview questions

This all starts with the pre-interview questions, the questions you ask a candidate when they apply that will help you decide whether to progress with an applicant. Make sure candidates can sensibly weigh themselves against the requirements. Do you know anyone who will say “no” to the requirement “must be hard working”? Neither do we.

PRO TIP: Get candidates to do an assignment or task related to the job as part of the pre-interview.

Pre-interview questions can only get you so far. They weed out the most inappropriate candidates and give you an insight beyond a basic resume. However, a major factor in your hiring decision will be how well a candidate will fit in with your business. It’s personal and you need to get to know the candidates.

Screening assignments / testing

Ever walked in to an interview and known within 30 seconds that the candidate you’re meeting is never going to work out? Sure, most people have been there. The worst thing is that it wastes your time. You can’t just stop the interview after half a minute so you go through the routine and waste an hour of your time. It doesn’t have to be that way. An initial phone call, Skype screening conversation, or asynchronous video interviews will prevent that scenario nine times out of 10. Resumes, pre-screening questions, screens, interviews – we use these techniques to use past performance as an indicator of future success.

But what if you want to better understand how candidates will actually perform in the job you’re hiring them for? One way of finding out is to get candidates to do an assignment or task related to the job – in other words, a skills assessment. Hiring for a customer support associate? Test candidates by getting them to answer some hypothetical customer queries. If you are hiring developers, there are online tools like Codility which can put developers through their paces so you can see exactly how they code.

Interviews

Have a plan. Don’t just ask the same questions over and over. Take the time to know who you are meeting before you walk in. Not just their name and not just the job title of the role they’re interviewing for. Get to know them a little, check their resume and note some questions in advance.

Interviews shouldn’t slavishly follow a script. There are probably some standard questions you want to ask all candidates, such as whether they’re eligible to work in your territory. But these are just hygiene questions – you have to go further. Ask open questions that encourage a discussion, engage with the candidates’ responses and consider follow up questions you want to ask. If it’s boring, it’s not working. There’s nothing worse than the candidate feeling like the interviewer hasn’t read their resume and is just going through the motions: “Tell me about this job, now this job, and now this job…” No one gets much out of this kind of interview.

Interviews work both ways

When you leave an interview you should have a much better understanding of the candidate’s credentials and suitability. Equally, they should leave knowing a lot more about the role and the company. If you’ve screened your shortlist properly then everyone you interview should be a real contender – which means it’s worth selling to candidates in interviews. Chances are you’re going to offer them below market rate if you’re an early stage startup. Generally people don’t like getting paid less so you’d better give them a good reason to be excited.

PRO TIP: Note down personalized questions for candidates before the interview but don’t stick slavishly to the script.

Take a deep breath

If you have a nagging feeling that something isn’t right when you’re making an offer, don’t rush. Take your time to identify where that uneasiness comes from. Talk it through with a colleague. Don’t be afraid to ask a candidate to come for another meeting. Chances are if you have a concern, the candidate will be feeling the same and a quick conversation will iron out any problems. In the long term a bit of caution will pay off.

When you’re hiring for a function where you have little or no personal experience, it can be very hard to assess resumes or know what to ask during interviews. You might want to consider bringing in some outside help. This doesn’t need to be paid help, it could just be a friend or ex-colleague who can help you out with the skills-based aspects of the hiring process.

Keep it challenging

This is where you set the bar and show your rigour and ambition. A challenging interview process is a signal to candidates that your company doesn’t do average. This doesn’t have to mean a drawn-out 15-phase interview – even Google is moving away from the huge number of interviews they put candidates through – but you absolutely should establish a thoughtful pipeline that gives the candidate an opportunity to prove their mettle.

PRO TIP: Level the playing field by posing customer support queries for a tool most people are familiar with or can access easily e.g. Facebook.

Taking references

Not everyone believes references from previous employers are useful way in determining future performance. Candidates are unlikely to provide a reference whom they expect to say negative things about them. And many people don’t want to talk badly about someone so even if your candidate was terrible in a past job their reference won’t tell you.

This is not a reason to ignore references. It’s a reason to work harder at getting them right. Get more references. Successful entrepreneur-turned-VC Mark Suster recommends getting at least five, including people the candidate didn’t propose. If we assume people are smart enough to gather good references, ask yourself: “Are they glowing?” If not, why not? Ask candidates why they chose the referees they did.

PRO TIP: Get at least 5 references and make sure some of them come from people the candidate hasn’t put forward. Read this.

Return to top

7. Workplace benefits and compensation

You can’t pay for groceries with equity

You’re not going to compete on salary with Google and Facebook but you need to get survival out of mind. Even your earliest hires ‐ and that includes you, the founder ‐ will need to pay bills. Some startups go to extremes, trying to make their runway last longer. Don’t build your runway on the backs of an exhausted and underpaid team. You objective is not to delay the next round but to get to it in the best possible shape. Here’s a few things you can do to achieve the right balance.

The power of perks

You’re not going to have the swankiest offices but you can make them reflect why people came to work for you. You don’t need a big budget to create a friendly, informal and energetic work space. Our environment helps to shape our mindset and reminds us who we are. Spend the time to make it attractive to your team, even if you can’t initially spend much money. There are many ways to make your company an attractive place to work – even if you’re in an “unsexy” location.

PRO TIP: Buffer’s emphasis on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative, which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Perks are powerful and cost effective. When you take into account tax and deductions a $10 lunch is worth more to your employee than $10 on their salary. But it’s about more than a free lunch. Taking care of peoples’ needs makes them feel taken care of. This pays off handsomely in productivity and morale.

That shouldn’t mean that you neglect traditional benefits. Before you start on the ping pong tables and games consoles make sure everyone has access to health insurance. When people know the basics like health are covered they’re more prepared to live leaner when it comes to salaries.

Compensating risk

Equity compensates risk. It is a form of deferred reward. When deciding whether to join your startup a prospect is looking at what they could earn at market rates for their skills over the same time period and balancing it against a potential future return that should be several multiples of the income they lost out on. It’s mathematics.

All early employees should have a significant amount of equity. This ensures their sense of ownership and mission. A properly structured stock option is also a commitment on the part of the employee. Equity grants usually vest over a period of three to four years and there’s a “cliff period” (typically one year) before a new employee earns their first tranche of shares.

This way, you’re not giving your company away. Instead, you’re binding the core team to your mission for long enough to make meaningful progress. With that in mind, don’t wait till the best people are restless. The best companies also give retention equity packages to fully vested employees. You need to think about this, before your star performers do.

How to research market rates, equity standards

Knowing the going rate for salaries and equity is notoriously difficult. A good place to get a benchmark is AngelList (for startup equity and salaries) or Glassdoor (for market rates). Make sure to compare yourself to similar companies. For each hire, check what’s on offer for jobs they could take so you know what their other options look like.

Especially when it comes to equity, it’s always better to err on the generous side. Rather than being hung up over a 0.1% more or less, think about whether this employee will improve your chance of success by that amount. A good hire will make it worth your while.

PRO TIP: Wealthfront’s Startup Compensation Tool is one of many benchmarks you can use.

Return to top

8. Recruiting software and tools

You need tools

We consider an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to be the centerpiece of any effective toolkit – especially when hiring for rapid growth. This is why we built one from scratch and obviously consider it to be the best of its kind. When choosing an ATS, ask yourself how well it integrates with other tools that you’ll need. A good one will integrate or at least play nicely with most of the software we recommend below.

Even then, it helps to know which ones are tops in the market. We’ve compiled for you the 12 best applicant tracking systems to help inform your decision on purchasing an ATS.

Sourcing and referral platforms

TalentBin, Sourcing.io, 3Sourcing and Gild are people aggregators with searchable, often pre-evaluated or classified profiles of people. Professional networks or communities like LinkedIn, GitHub, Dribble, AngelList are good places to do manual sourcing. Zao is one of the best referral platforms we came across. It’s made based on best practices, optimizes matches across all companies’ open jobs, has a gamification layer making it fun to participate and allows extended referrals. Another one to consider is RolePoint.

Online interview systems

Interviewing has gone video and this lets you record video questions, invite candidates to submit their responses so you can review them. Set time limits for responses, pause to take notes, tick the ones that are a perfect match, share if you’re not sure to take a second opinion. Workable’s Video Interviews can set you up for success here – particularly if you’re hiring for rapid growth in a short period of time and need to establish a standardized screening process with minimal breakdown.

Assessment tools

Codility is a niche, engineers-only, database. These guys are loaded with millions of engineers — active and passive. Considering the gap between demand and supply then this app is a treasure trove of prospects and a pretty straightforward tool to use if tech job boards aren’t cutting it. You can browse and filter data, collaborate with your team and do social recruiting too.

Smarterer have revolutionized skills assessment. Just give them 10 questions, 2 minutes and voila! you get a quantified skill. It’s basically a skills testing app but different. All of its test content is crowdsourced from the individuals who take the tests.

SHL has ability and personality tests if you need to test for critical qualities. They only offer science-based assessments and benchmark data.

Weirdly has your cultural fit riddle all figured out. It’s a four-step culture assessing recruitment tool. Define your desired cultural profile, publish the vacancy, watch candidates complete the quiz and select the right kind of weird.

Onboarding & talent management

KinHR is probably the best when it comes to onboarding new hires in a comprehensive and thoughtful way. The new employee signs in and reads about the company and the team they’re going to work with and what tasks they should start working on.

Zenefits is good for payroll and benefits management.

The shift to remote work also means onboarding remotely – such that you’re bringing people on board without them having met anyone on the team in person. Learn some tips and tricks of successful remote onboarding for you and your company.

Return to top

9. Where to post your jobs

You know exactly what you’re looking for so what’s your next step? Plaster your ad over every job board out there, right? Wrong. It pays off in time and money to do a little homework. Consider these questions:

• Where does the rest of your industry (in your city or country) post jobs?
• Did you get enough qualified candidates the last time you hit publish on XYZ job board? Did you get any candidates at all?
• Did you get too many candidates, maybe?
• Ask people who already have this type of job, where they first saw it?
• Visit alexa.com to see how popular the job board you are considering is.
• Find out where the audience you want to reach hangs out online
• Study the other job postings on that XYZ job board where you’re thinking of publishing your opening

The job board forest

To facilitate the job board selection process, we brought together a handy list of the top ones (below).

Horizontal

LinkedIn is the leader due to its three-way nature; professional social network/headhunting tool/job board – the biggest of its kind with 760 million members. It enables you to search profiles, pay to post jobs and more besides. With LinkedIn InMail, you can even contact candidates directly.

Indeed is the premier job site globally with 250 million regular visitors. You can post all types of jobs, sponsor the ones from your careers page, pay per click and search resumes.

Craigslist is the site for classifieds. Doesn’t match the traditional job board criteria, is famous for its no-frills user interface but beats everyone for inbound traffic.

Monster is one of the oldest job boards that keeps expanding worldwide. It’s a bit expensive in some countries (unless you post through Workable), has a lot of traffic and loads of resumes and free content.

Careerbuilder operates in the US, Europe, Canada and Asia. CareerBuilder is used by 80 million job applicants and has three million job postings per month.

Stepstone is one of the most successful job boards in Europe.

Beyond automatically distributes postings to niche sites and talent communities based on specific criteria. What’s in it for you? Targeted exposure and more relevant applications.

Tech

StackOverflowCareers is the careers platform of StackOverflow. It’s used by more than 100 million developers and technologists and is the trusted first destination of tech recruiters. If you’re looking for developers, it’s the place to go.

Dice is also a leader in the tech job boards industry. It has a cross-posting network and minimizes unqualified clutter due to its niche nature, with a database of more than nine million members.

Github Jobs taps into developers and engineers by being the place they hang out. Good place to trawl for passive candidates – especially with 50 million developers checking in regularly.

Creative

Behance is where some of the top brands post their creative jobs. It’s also the place where professionals showcase their work enabling you to take a sneak peek before you decide.

Dribbble gives you access to designers’ portfolios and profiles. Workable’s designers are really fond of it. Plus you can post your jobs and connect with top talent.

Authentic Jobs introduces recruiters to creative professionals. Simple and efficient.

Remote & flexible jobs

We Work Remotely is the job board without borders allowing you to narrow down talent without it having to be in the same location as you.

Upwork is free and for freelancers only. If you’re looking for one, check out their well-rounded freelancers’ database.

Flexjobs is free and effective when it comes to flexible jobs job posting. Only applies if you’re in search of part-time, telecommute or freelance employees.

Startups

AngelList ‐ you probably already know it if you’re a startup. Candidates get to apply privately and see salary and equity up front and startups get to access a huge list of developers and designers actively looking for a job. On top of that, it’s free!

Startuply is a free job listing site aimed mainly at small startups, which find it rather difficult to attract engineering talent. Startups can create a detailed company profile to give prospect candidates a sense of what it’d be like working for them. You should definitely give it a shot.

StartUpHire lists hundreds of jobs, but only for venture capital backed companies. It also comes at zero cost and has a widget that enables you to automatically add your open positions to your website

The Muse lets job seekers look behind the curtains of great companies. You can “showcase the heart and soul of your company” in 500 words, videos and photos and then display your job openings.

The post The Startup Hiring Guide: Hiring for rapid growth from 5 to 50 appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But how can you choose who to move to the next phase based solely on those criteria? Even though you have some evidence, it’s easy to get lost in translation, especially when you have numerous applicants to screen.

That’s where Workable Assessments can step in and do the trick.

First, you’ll get a better overview of each candidate’s skills on different cognitive areas that you define as important to thrive. Second, you’ll learn more about their workplace personality and behavior to see if they’re a good fit for your current team and workplace.

Certified by psychometric experts and designed within the Workable platform, the Workable Assessments feature is not only credible, but also a handy solution for hiring teams. With easy access to performance insights and a user-friendly interface that enables collaboration, it’s an asset for organizations who want to introduce pre-employment testing into their screening process.

Inside Workable Assessments: Understanding different test types

Here’s a brief breakdown of Workable Assessments: the cognitive part consists of four tests measuring different types of mental skills – abstract reasoning, numerical comprehension, verbal comprehension, and attention & focus.

1. Cognitive Assessments

Abstract reasoning: This looks at the ability to logically analyze multiple information that are presented in a more abstract form – usually not numbers or words. For example, software engineers and researchers often need to think abstractly and out-of-the-box to recognize patterns and resolve problems in a resourceful way.

Numerical comprehension: This assesses how candidates handle and analyze numerical data in order to reach appropriate decisions. For example, an accounting candidate should have a high degree of this skill in order to perform their daily responsibilities. Overall, positions in Finance, Banking and Audit require a high numerical comprehension level.

Verbal comprehension: This measures the ability to understand and analyze verbal information, such as arguments and written statements, e.g. reports. For instance, it’s a critical skill for lawyers and journalists, among others.

Attention & focus: This assesses abilities that require observation and acute working memory. This is vital for roles that require a high attention span or switch often between tasks, such as content editors and data entry agents.

The jobs mentioned in the examples above are indicative. Every company shapes their roles based on its business needs and for similar job titles, requirements may vary. Once you define the mandatory skill set needed, you can hand over the related assessments to candidates.

2. Workplace Personality Assessment

Workable’s personality assessment is based on the Big 5 Model and unveils how people behave in a professional setting. More specifically, they measure the degree of the personality traits below – and 23 related factors, that define their workplace personality:

• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness
• Emotional Stability
• Openness to Experience

Before you administer the assessment, determine what traits the ideal candidate should have based on the role, responsibilities, and current team dynamics. For example, if you’re looking for a salesperson, then a high extraversion level would be an asset, but it’s not the same if you’re looking for a content marketer.

Even though Workable’s cognitive assessments are targeted to white-collar professionals, the personality assessments benefit all types of companies and roles. And remember, you don’t have to provide all tests in bulk; it’s up to you to decide what’s best for your hiring process.

About candidate experience

As with every other Workable product, this is designed with candidates and hiring teams in mind. We understand that pre-employment assessments could be stressful for candidates, so we made sure to provide an easy-to-navigate experience in an intuitive interface.

Before the assessment starts, candidates learn how the tool works. They have time to warm up, get comfortable with the instructions and answer a few practice questions.

In addition, we’ve introduced adaptive technology, which means that the difficulty of the provided questions varies and adjusts to the candidate’s ability. This minimizes the time needed to complete each test and makes candidates feel more confident throughout the process with their performance.

So, these are Workable Assessments, everyone. We’re thrilled to offer you this hiring solution – we hope you are, too.

The post Introducing Workable Assessments: Make data-driven hiring decisions appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Gender, sex, and sexual orientation questions

Gender:

1. Select the gender that you most identify with:

• Cisgender
• Transgender
• Non-binary
• Genderqueer or genderfluid
• Agender
• Two-spirit
• Questioning or unsure
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

Sex:

2. Select your sex:

• Male
• Female
• Intersex
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

Sexual orientation:

3. Select the sexual orientation that best suits you:

• Asexual
• Bisexual
• Gay
• Straight (heterosexual)
• Lesbian
• Pansexual
• Queer
• Questioning or unsure
• Same-gender loving
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

Race and ethnicity questions

Race:

4. Select the race or ancestry that best describes you:

• East Asian
• South Asian
• Southeast Asian
• Pacific Islander
• Black / African American / POC
• Native American / First Nations / Indigenous
• White / Caucasian
• Multiracial / Biracial
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

Ethnicity:

5. Select the ethnicity that you most identify with:

• Australian / New Zealander
• Arabic
• South Asian
• East Asian
• Middle Eastern
• Mainland European
• British / Irish / Scottish / Welsh
• North American
• Central American
• South American
• Hispanic
• African
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

Religion questions

6. Select the religious group that you most identify with:

• Christianity
• Islam
• Judaism
• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

7. How religious do you consider yourself to be (especially in terms of observances, etc.)?

• Not religious
• Moderately religious
• Very religious
• Prefer not to disclose

Disability questions

8. If you have a disability or impairment, please select the challenge facing you:

• Hearing
• Vision
• Cognitive
• Communicative
• Neurodiversity
• Physical mobility
• Mental health
• ‘Unseen’ disability (i.e. diabetes, asthma, epilepsy)
• No disability or impairment
• Not listed
• Prefer not to disclose

The post Candidate survey template appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #1: Remote onboarding appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #3: Tips from a remote work trailblazer appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #4: The talent market is changing and recruiters need to evolve with it appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #5: Remote work and what it means for work culture appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

So can you break through the screen and bring your company’s story to life? Find out in our chat with Elena Valentine, CEO & Co-Founder of Skillscout. She’ll guide us through steps you can take to level-up your employer brand strategy with video.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #8: How to attract, engage, and retain talent with video appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #6: Hiring in another country appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #2: The New World of Work appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Subscribe to the podcast for more ways to move your hiring forward.

The post Podcast episode #7: How to build a sustainable DEI strategy appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Get more out of your job offer strategy
2. Writing the offer letter
   
3. How to speed up the offer timeline
   
4. Navigating offer negotiations with candidates
   
5. Measure your offer letter strategy success
   
6. How Workable helps you optimize your job offer process

1. Get more out of your job offer strategy

Making a job offer is one of the most emotional parts of the hiring process. You put yourself out there by asking someone to join your organization. You’ve disqualified dozens of candidates. You’ve found the one. You want this person to say yes, because you’ve spent a lot of time, and presumably money, to move them through your recruiting process. Naturally, the offer stage should be light at the end of the tunnel.

Except when it’s not.

Almost half of employers in a recent recruiter sentiment study said their offer rejection rates range from one to 10%. Top reasons candidates turned down offers included: accepting another job, insufficient compensation and lengthy hiring practices.

How do you counter these challenges? In this guide, we’ve compiled resources that provide an overview on how to write, optimize and measure your offer letters and job offer strategy. We’ll also walk you through how Workable can help you track and manage your offers, all in one place.

Return to top

2. Writing the offer letter

You don’t need to be Hemingway to write a compelling offer letter. All you need is:

• A welcoming email to introduce your offer; and,
• A formal offer letter document to attach to your welcoming email

Your welcome email can be casual and short, but make sure to include all essential job information in the formal offer document. Include:

• Position details (job title, who your hire will report to and their working schedule)
• Compensation
• Bonus or commission, if relevant
• Employee benefits and perks
• Privacy policies
• Termination conditions, if relevant
• E-signatures from managers
• Date the job offer expires

Tip: Templates make the writing go faster. Once you’ve decided on a style you like, save it to use for later.

Communicating the job offer

Make sure to both call and email candidates to announce you’re extending a job offer before you send the formal letter. When you send your offer letter via email:

• Use an email subject line that clearly states this is a job offer, for example, “Job offer from [Company_name]” or “Job offer for the position of [Job_title] at [Company_name]”.
• Keep the email body text brief and note that the candidate can find the detailed job offer letter attached.
• Set a specific timeframe for when you would like to get your candidate’s final response.
• Personalize the email body text and tweak the tone to match your company culture. But, try to keep the language in your employment offer letter formal and clear, as it’s an official document that describes employment terms between you and your future hire.

For more offer letter templates, visit our Resources library. Here are some samples to check out: part-time to full-time offer letter, contract employee offer letter, informal offer letter sample and job offer email.

Return to top

3. How to speed up the offer timeline

Time is your competitive advantage in today’s candidate-driven market. Your best candidate is likely to be another company’s best candidate too, and odds are they’re juggling multiple offers. To hire talented and qualified people, create an offer process that moves as fast as they do.

Here are a few tips to consider when thinking about how to speed up your offer process:

Establish your offer approval process before you open a job

Ask the following questions so that when you are ready to offer a job to your best candidate, you’ve got all the information you need to move swiftly.

• Who should approve your job offer?
• Who should sign off on your job offer document?
• Who does this role report to?
• What is the pay range for this position?
• What will the final compensation package depend on?
• Are there any bonuses associated with this position?
• What kind of benefits will you offer?
• How many days should you wait for a candidate to accept your offer?

Take a look at overall time to hire

Where else might your recruiting process lag? A patchwork offer approval process can add weeks to your hiring. But if you’re struggling with lengthy hiring already (for example, too many candidates, multiple interviews, navigating a sea of spreadsheets), stand back and eye your entire hiring process. Is it as efficient as it can be? Are you:

• Including knockout questions in your application form?
• Actively sourcing passive candidates?
• Posting targeted ads to the right job boards?
• Moving qualified candidates through your pipeline by using a solid set of screening questions?

Your ATS can enable you to do all these things, saving you a lot of time toggling between multiple tools and platforms. Learn how Workable can help you create custom applications, post jobs for free, screen candidates and source passive talent.

Automate your offer process with software

Recruiting software can help you speed up your overall hiring process through features that automate time-consuming tasks. Applicant tracking systems store email templates, enable you to exchange comments about candidates with the hiring team and help you extend and approve job offers.

Here are ways an ATS helps you streamline your hiring and offer process:

• Track all back-and-forth emails with team members during the offer approval process.
• Create offer letters that are error-free, engaging and on-brand. Craft offer letter document templates to ensure all the details are included and correct.
• Track candidates’ answers and negotiation requests. Enable candidates to accept an offer fast (through desktop or mobile) via e-signatures.
• Gain a clear overview of who has taken action and who hasn’t, so you are able to follow up with team members or candidates.
• Keep all candidate information in one place for easy reference.

Workable’s Offer Letters and Offer Approvals feature streamlines and automates key stages in the process, making it quicker to write, approve and send your offer. It also includes e-signatures, making it easier for candidates to accept, and your hiring team to keep track of the details.

Return to top

4. Navigating offer negotiations with candidates

You’re almost there. Your best candidate is interested in your job offer, but they might want to negotiate key terms — most likely compensation. How much wiggle room do you have as a recruiter, hiring manager or employer? And how do you negotiate between all parties tactfully?

Here are three tips to set offer negotiations up for success:

a. Establish salary ranges before you advertise the role

For each position you’re hiring for, be sure to have a budgeted lower and upper band to orient your approach to the salary negotiation. Your lowest offer should still be in line with industry standards and be attractive to your candidate. When you talk to candidates early in your process, make sure you tell them what the budgeted salary range is for the position. This allows them to self-select out if your range doesn’t meet their expectations, saving you time later on.

b. Ask candidates what they want early in the hiring process

Put people first and numbers second. Asking candidates about their desired compensation plan positions you and your employer brand as helpful and consultative. And, by understanding what’s important to your candidate you’ll better understand how to appeal to their needs during negotiations. This approach also sets you up to create a talent pipeline with qualified candidates who might not be a good fit now but who might be interested in a future role.

c. If you can’t offer more money, consider non-cash benefits

Get creative with perks and benefits. Flexible work time is one of the most important perks to most job candidates. If you offer some other non-salary benefits and perks, like stock option plans, free snacks and beverages, fitness memberships — consider including those, too.

When candidates decline your job offer

Offers still get declined, even though you’ve done everything you can to get candidates to say yes. Every hiring process is an opportunity to learn. No matter what happens, you walk away with more knowledge about the market you’re recruiting in. And rejection is a good opportunity to learn how to optimize your methods.

Here are some ways to deal with offer rejections from job candidates:

Document what happened. Whether it’s through a candidate experience survey or a phone conversation, find out why your best candidate said no. After a while, you might begin noticing patterns. Are you always losing candidates because you don’t offer a a 401(k) retirement plan? Is salary consistently a sticking point? Or does your process need to be faster, because candidates accepted another offer while you were waiting to get back to them? These are all valuable insights that you can do something about, but only if you document them.

Revisit your recruiting pipeline. Always have a Plan B. Create a structured recruiting process that is constantly moving talented candidates forward. If Candidate A rejects your offer, Candidate B should be just as qualified and ready for a final interview with your hiring manager. Good interview scheduling software that integrates with your calendar and ATS can do this for you swiftly and seamlessly.

Be flexible enough to modify your offer. Offers fall apart when both sides are inflexible. So what can you do to meet somewhere in the middle? Savvy candidates who know their market worth will often counter-offer if your original offer doesn’t meet industry standards. If you’ve established salary ranges early in the hiring process, try to negotiate within the range to a place all parties are comfortable with. Or, take another look at your ranges to make sure they’re market-rate.

When candidates accept your offer

If your candidate accepts your offer, congratulations! The next step is to set your new hire up for success. Make sure to:

Write a welcoming offer letter. Follow up a verbal offer with a written one. This can be formal or casual, depending on your company culture, but make sure to be clear about the position details. Convey that you’re excited about your new hire joining your team.

Encourage the hiring team to get in touch. Make sure the hiring manager and all stakeholders in the hiring process have the new hire’s personal email. Urge them to contact the new hire and congratulate and welcome them to the team. This sets the stage for a friendly and warm first few days at work.

Create an onboarding plan. If your hiring process gets rave reviews from candidates – great. Follow it up with a structured onboarding process. Send new hires a detailed onboarding plan, which should cover what their first week at work will look like. Include meetings with managers and team members, a welcome lunch, orientation and any other events.

Return to top

5. Measure your job offer strategy success

Much like other parts of recruiting, your job offer strategy needs to be tracked. How else will you know if it is effective? There are a few KPIs you can measure to take the pulse of your job offers:

a. Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR): This metric tells you what percentage of candidates accept your job offers. It indicates how attractive and competitive your job offers are. If your OAR starts declining, then your team isn’t hiring the candidates they want. A low OAR could lead you to rethink your jobs’ salary ranges or try new ways of communicating with candidates.

Here’s the formula to measure your offer acceptance rate (OAR):

b. Reasons Offers are Being Accepted: This metric tracks the primary reasons candidates give for accepting your job offers. To measure the Reasons Offers are Being Accepted metric, ask your new hires why they accepted your job through your candidate experience survey. It’s best to use an open-ended question to gain more personalized insight (for example, “Why would you choose/not choose to apply for a future opening at our company?”) When you have enough data, group answers under a few useful categories (for example, competitive salary, challenging job).

c. Reasons Offers are Being Rejected: This metric tracks the primary reasons candidates give for rejecting your job offers. It provides insight into what you can do to ensure your best candidates accept your offers. You could measure the reasons offers are being rejected in various ways:

• Check your candidates’ communication with your hiring team. Some candidates may state a reason for rejecting your job offer in their rejection email or mention a concern during offer negotiations.
• Ask candidates to complete an anonymous candidate experience survey. Use open-ended questions to get the most descriptive responses (for example, “What are the two most important reasons for you rejecting our job offer?”)
• Track feedback online. Pay attention to your company pages on sites like Twitter, Glassdoor and Facebook. Candidates might be inclined to leave public feedback there on why they rejected your job offers, or on any other aspects of your hiring process. Compile comments to gain actionable insight, and consider any ways to improve your brand.

Return to top

6. How Workable helps you optimize your job offer strategy

The offer is the most significant part of your hiring process, yet it is one of the easiest to get wrong. That’s because most job offers require a lot of data entry and virtual (or manual) flagging down managers for approvals. This leads to longer time to close hires, and a prolonged time to fill.

Workable helps you get offers out faster

Workable’s offer feature is designed to keep your Offer Acceptance Rate (OAR) healthy. It streamlines and automates key stages in the process, making it quicker to write, approve and send your offer. It also includes e-signatures, making it easier for candidates to accept, and your hiring team to keep track of the details. Here’s how:

A library of templates

It’s easy to build up a library of templates for every role. Upload your own template or use one provided. All you need to do is decide on the unique information you want to include in each offer. Choose from a list of variables, such as start date or salary, to customize every document automatically. These are displayed as placeholder text, and will be automatically replaced with the appropriate data per candidate. Once saved, your templates are available for key members of the hiring team to use for successful candidates in the future.

Real-time offer tracking and notifications

Live status tracking on a candidate’s profile makes it simple for the hiring team to follow the progress from offer to acceptance. By glancing at the timeline see the current status of an offer (pending approval, sent, accepted, declined) and receive automatic notifications when the status changes. With real-time updates you can react quickly if an offer is declined; review your original offer, submit it for approval and send a counter offer.

E-signatures

Integrated e-signatures make it simple for candidates to accept – all it takes is two clicks. As well as saving valuable time (reducing back-and-forth emails) it also makes for a stronger candidate experience. Onced signed, a copy of the document is available on the candidate’s timeline. You can also choose to include a company e-signature on your offer document.

Optimized for mobile

Candidates can read and sign your offer document from any device (desktop or mobile). So wherever candidates are when you send your letter (in the office or on the train) they can accept quickly and easily.

Automated approval workflow

When you’re juggling multiple offers for different hiring managers, getting fast approval is a challenge. Workable’s Offer Approval feature is designed to support larger companies with complex workflows, by automating the approval process.

It shortens the time it takes to get an offer to a candidate. Just create an approval workflow for each template and add the people you need to sign-off each offer. Approval requests will then be sent automatically to each approver. This means hiring teams are free to focus on other tasks while the approval process runs its course.

Restricted access rights

For large organizations, there’s the option to save templates so that only people associated with specific departments and locations have access rights to the content. This enables you to maintain appropriate levels of privacy and control over access to potentially sensitive information.

Get the content right

Offer letters set the tone for the ongoing relationship between your company and your future employee. As an official document, a good offer needs to tick a number of different boxes. From showcasing your company’s brand and culture to accurately reflecting all the relevant job details, getting the content right is key if you’re to move quickly and seal the deal.

Having a library of offer document templates ready to go means that anyone in
your hiring team can make an offer confident that all the right information has been included. And because the format is standardized, your hiring team’s approach will be consistent across all of your job offerings.

When you’re ready to make an offer just select the correct template for the job. Then add in the details unique to each offer (for example, the salary offered). Every offer letter comes with a pre-drafted covering email, which your hiring managers can edit to further personalize their approach.

How the offer and approval process works

Build a library of templates:

• Create templates for each job – upload your own or select a pre-prepared version.
• Choose the variables you want to include.

Make an offer:

• Select the relevant template.
• Add in the details unique to each offer (for example, the salary offered.)
• Wait for feedback or offer approval, if appropriate.
• Once approved, review your offer, editing the covering email if you want to.
• Send to the candidate.

Create a positive candidate experience

Directly linked to recruiting performance, the candidate experience you provide can mean the difference between an offer being accepted or declined. By managing the entire offer letter process inside Workable, candidates will receive seamless and timely communication from the moment they apply to the day they start their new job with you.

This is crucial when it comes to building a positive candidate experience. And enhancements designed to speed up the process (e-signatures, mobile optimization) show you’re serious about securing their talent and want to make it as easy as possible for them to accept. Another tick in the box.

The post Designing a successful job offer strategy: a definitive guide appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The transferable skills that traditional media professionals possess are being recognised by a wider variety of industries. A journalist brings editing, writing and research skills, and a sense for what’s newsworthy, as well as experience with digital communications. These smart, versatile, deadline-driven employees will improve your content, mentor your colleagues, and in some cases, boost your brand’s visibility.

Here are some things to keep in mind when hiring a candidate with media experience:

1. Search in the right places
2. Battle for the best
3. Proof of skills
4. Ideology checkpoint
5. Case study: HubSpot

1. Search in the right places

When you’re searching to recruit talent with media experience, you should place your ads in niche job boards, not only Indeed or Glassdoor. Social media is another place where you can find the ideal fit for the role. It’s also common for people with media experience to host their own blogs or vlogs, so keep an eye open for that too.

Here you can find a list of job boards where you can post your job ad:

• JournalismJobs.com
  Journalismjobs.com is one of the oldest job boards, founded back in 1998, and has over 2,5 million page views per month.
• JournalismCrossing
  Journalism Crossing is a searchable database including more than 2 million job postings worldwide.
• Mediabistro
  Mediabistro is another option, especially if your searching for media and content professionals.

2. Battle for the best

Corporate newsrooms provide top talent with the opportunity to continue to produce quality written work while enjoying the benefits of a corporate job.

The arrangement is mutually beneficial, as corporations then gain the substantial skills and added oomph of a recognized journalist’s personal brand. There are fierce bidding wars for candidates who have proved their worth in their new environs. “We were not the only people offering Dan [Lyons] a job. I can tell you that for sure,” said Mike Volpe, former CMO of Hubspot. “When we get further along in the process of hiring more journalists, I do expect there to be competition.”

To beat the battle for talent, make sure your company has competitive benefits and compensation and highlight them in the job description.

3. Proof of skills

Recruiters who target journalists agree that it isn’t enough to review a writer’s work samples. It’s not unusual for even an experienced and high-ranking journalist’s work to undergo heavy edits prior to publication. For best results, recruiters must assign short writing, editing, and proofreading tests with a deadline appropriate to what candidates would experience on the job.

Pro Tip: Ask references what your candidates’ first draft copy is like.

4. Ideology checkpoint

If you’re interviewing a media professional for a position in advertising, marketing, or PR, it is important to discern their ability to adapt to a different mindset. Many journalists believe that newsgathering should be completely separate from other communications fields. To these candidates, reporting means serving the general public by delving for the truth and keeping companies and governmental bodies in check.

Make it clear that they can still create compelling, delightful, and valuable work–but that this work must now align with commercial goals. If your company needs a ghostwriter, ask them if they’re okay with not seeing their name in lights. If you sense that they feel they’re leaving the “sacred” for the “secular”, ask them to explain why they are doing so and why they would be happy with this job in the long haul.

5. Case study: HubSpot

HubSpot has turned content marketing into big business. They were among the first companies to evangelize a now popular practice of attracting customers with content that predicts and addresses their needs. They help other businesses do the same with their software product, a platform that streamlines and automates the content development and promotion process.

HubSpot leads by example. Their commitment to producing high quality, well-researched, and thoughtful content is reflected in their hiring. They modeled their content team after the media newsroom, with a few tweaks. Their core team members are:

• CMO/Publisher – Responsible for aligning content production with business goals.
• Editor-In-Chief – Responsible for overseeing all things editorial.
• Writer – Responsible for producing content and contributing content ideas.
• Copy Editor – Responsible for correcting errors, checking for libel, proofreading.

HubSpot hires people who understand how their work supports the overall business goals of their company. HubSpot recruits highly adaptable, creative people with a track record of pitching fresh ideas and creating new initiatives. Hiring managers at HubSpot will want to see work samples and independent projects such as a blog. If budget is a concern for your company, HubSpot’s brand journalism guide suggests hiring recent graduates from journalism and communications programs, or even interns from local universities.

HubSpot’s commitment to company culture supports their efforts to attract great talent. Their Company Code, the blueprint that shapes their culture, is available online for all to see and is a respected example of employer branding.

The post How to master recruitment in media appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Obstacles to remote work

In response to the question, “Of your workforce that can’t go remote without disruption to workflow, what’s stopping them?”, logistical challenges and willingness to work from home were common refrains:

• “Not having the space for working at home uninterrupted.” (Marketing, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Some don’t have a great setup at home – some people are struggling emotionally from isolation, WiFi, comfortable workspace, noise, family, living in small spaces.” (Healthcare, Middle East & Africa, Service/Support Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Remote working is very much a personal thing. The office is a controlled environment. Home is very different for different people.“ (Staffing/Recruiting, UK & Ireland, Recruitment Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “No space at home to work remotely.” (IT/Tech, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor, 50-99 FTEs)
• “They prefer to work from the offices.” (Education, Multinational, Product VP/SVP, <50 FTEs)
• “They do not want to work remotely.“ (IT/Tech, Multinational, Office Administration Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)

The value of being physically together in a workspace also came up:

• “There is still value in being present. We are a route-based business and some staff must still report to the physical location. We want to avoid creating a disparity between job roles.” (Landscaping, US & Canada, Owner/Executive, <50 FTEs)
• “Lack of team work experience/stand-ups, spontaneous interactions, etc.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “The fact that we’re solving very tough problems and we believe in people having a chance to discuss how to solve them.” (IT/Tech, Continental Europe, HR Individual Contributor, <50 FTEs)
• “Easier to collaborate in the office.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, HR Individual Contributor, 50-99 FTEs)
• “We like being together.” (Accounting/Finance, US & Canada, Office Administration Entry Level, <50 FTEs)

And overall lack of buy-in, especially among management, was a major sticking point:

• “We could offer all our team remote working, but it won’t work for us.” (IT/Tech, UK & Ireland, HR Individual Contributor, <50 FTEs)
• “Employer not in full support of remote work/flexi-work.” (Accounting/Finance, Middle East & Africa, HR Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Mindset of leaders who cannot trust people working from home.” (Accounting/Finance, Continental Europe, Manager/Director, 500-999 FTEs)
• “Managers not really happy with having people in full remote.” (IT/Tech, Continental Europe, HR Individual Contributor, <50 FTEs)
• “CEO does not like it.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, self-described sole Talent Manager reporting to CEO, <50 FTEs)
• “Managerial trust.” (Salon, US & Canada, Operations Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Team leads want their teams to be physically in the office saying that it’s more effective.” (Accounting/Finance, Continental Europe, HR Entry Level, <50 FTEs)
• “CEO opinion on WFH.” (Consulting/Business Services, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor, 50-99 FTEs)

Hiring challenges during COVID-19

In response to the question, “If your business is continuing to hire during the COVID-19 crisis, what are the top three biggest challenges in filling job positions?”, the following challenges were cited:

• “Candidates unable to apply for visas/permits due to a temporary freeze from certain countries (in this case Switzerland).” (Publishing, Multinational, Recruitment Entry Level, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Difficult to find qualified engineers.” (IT/Tech, Americas, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Small talent pool of profiles we are looking for.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, HR Executive, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Coordinating remotely with hiring teams.” (Consulting/Business Services, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Uncertainty of permanent job location.” (Nonprofit Publishing, US & Canada, IT Support, 100-499 FTEs)
• “People extending their notice periods of termination as mutually beneficial due to economic uncertainty – thus feeding into hiring freeze.” (Education, UK & Ireland, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Restrictions to travel/relocate.” (Gaming, Europe/UK & Ireland, Recruitment individual contributor, 500-999 FTEs)
• “Candidates unwilling/unable to relocate despite generous relocation offers.” (IT/Tech, Continental Europe, HR Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Candidates accepting the first offer they get, so we need to be quick. And passive candidates not wanting to change roles for uncertainty and new probationary periods.” (Education, Continental Europe, HR individual contributor, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Candidates not wanting to work at specific sites” (Security, US & Canada, HR Entry Level, <50 FTEs)
• “Unsure if candidates truly want to work for us, or if they are applying due to a layoff and they just want any job.” (Consumer Packaged Goods, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor. 50-99 FTEs)
• “Initially, we had many people looking for positions as they were out of work. As more areas open up in our state, we have seen less availability. Healthcare is very busy.” (Healthcare, US & Canada, Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Not being able to hire internationally (can have temp visa holders enter Australia).” (Education, Asia, Recruitment, 1000-4,999 FTEs)
• “Reduced recruitment pool due to border restrictions.” (Science/Research, Oceania, Operations Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)

Hiring challenges after COVID-19

In response to the question, “If your business plans to hire in the future after the crisis passes, what do you anticipate to be the three biggest challenges in filling positions?”, diluted talent pools and hiring in a distributed fashion were listed as top challenges:

• “Candidates requesting total remote working options from countries where we don’t operate offices in.” (Publishing, Multinational, Recruitment Entry Level, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Coordinating with hiring teams remotely.” (Consulting/Business Services, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “With an increase of job-seekers, quality of candidates may lower and sifting through ‘qualified’ applicants will be time consuming.” (Facility Management, Multinational, Marketing Manager/Director, 5,000+ FTEs)
• “Increased supply of candidates but finding right/good people and not excited by all who present well but are not who they seem.” (Consulting/Business Services, Multinational, Recruitment Individual contributor, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Too many candidates for some roles, not enough in others, highly specialized high tech positions may be hard to fill.” (IT/Tech, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)
• “Onsite interviews during a slow re-open process.“ (Accounting/Finance, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, US & Canada, <50 FTEs)

Ending quotes from respondents

The most comprehensive responses were reserved for the end, with more than 90 of the 350+ adding their own insights, commentary and opinions on completion of the survey.

The question was as follows:

Any additional thoughts or comments on what you think the world of work will look like after the COVID-19 crisis? No right or wrong answers here – we just want to hear your perspective.

The overall themes were clear as seen in this word cloud generated from the responses.

Even then, the answers were broad, insightful, and varied.

The ‘New Normal’

Many respondents highlighted huge changes going forward, with “new normal” being a popular catchphrase throughout.

• “New normal, more remote work and virtual meetings, less unnecessary face to face activities.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Service/Support Manager/Director, 500-999 FTEs)
• “More tech/digital adoption; More WFH opportunities: More need for employee engagement and employee monitoring.” (IT/Tech, Asia, Recruitment Individual Contributor, 50-99 FTEs)
• “I think that it will change a lot in the world. Adapting as we have gave us knowledge to be more flexible and change to remote working. I think many people will adapt more wellness programs and education.” (Human Services, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor, 100-499 FTEs)
• “The new normal will change definitely our lives especially in work perspectively. We need to follow set of rules, guidelines for you to be able to move on forward.” (Healthcare, UK & Ireland, Service/Support Entry Level, <50 FTEs)
• “Businesses will hire less workforce as they adjust to the new ‘normal’. Some businesses will definitely adopt a virtual platform that will see shift in work schedules. New policies adopted should ensure that the workforce is confident in how the businesses will treat them in psychologically, professionally and financially.” (Consulting/Business Services, Multinational, Operations Manager/Director, 500-999 FTEs)
• “People are adapting to the new normal. That means, industries and businesses are going to adapt to using digital platforms to deliver their work and product. People are adjusting to social distancing and embracing the technology to meet people and make their daily earnings.” (Education, Entry Level, <50 FTEs)
• “Remote and flexible working will be the new reality.” (IT/Tech, Asia, HR Individual Contributor, 5,000+ FTEs)
• “After COVID-19 crisis, everything will change, industry, leaving environment, job opportunity in market and unemployment will increase.” (Education, Asia, Sales Owner/Executive, 500-999 FTEs)
• “Less social interaction, business travel, longer work hours.” (Energy Commodity, Multinational, HR Owner/Executive, 100-499 FTEs)
• “All of us will need to adapt to the new normal. Travel and work will be planned differently. BCP-DRP will be looked at differently.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Engineering Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Remote working will be the new normal with great flexibility, greater international opportunities and life balance.” (Fashion, Continental Europe, Service/Support, Owner/Executive, <50 FTEs)
• “Remote jobs will increase. Companies will adapt to remote working patterns, this will be the new normal even with the invention of vaccine. As people become used to work from home, meeting physically will be only a matter of necessity.” (Consulting/Business Services, Service/Support Owner/Executive, <50 FTEs)
• “In our industry, it will never return to before COVID-19. We will need to change our focus to marketing to consumers within our own country, province or within driving distance. The visitors from around the world will be minimal. This means hospitality won’t be big employers any longer.” (Hospitality, US & Canada, HR Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Company headquarters will transform to be brand builders, places to develop company culture, drink the Kool-Aid, for candidates, employee training/gathering and customers. Think McDonald’s Hamburger University meets Google headquarters.” (Healthcare, Multinational, Marketing Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)

Some respondents highlighted the lack of clarity about the road ahead:

• “There is no standard to go off of. My company is in tech/software and it is far more about what the competition is doing than what is a good idea for our business and population. A small start-up of 60 is trying to set precedent based off of Twitter going 100% remote. That does not seem reasonable to me.” (Consulting/Business Services, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Everything is still unclear… No visibility of what tomorrow will look like…” (Logistics/Supply Chain, Middle East & Africa, Marketing Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “It is a road that has not been walked, i honestly dont know what is ahead, one is only just willing to explore many different strategies, until they find one that works.” (Hospitality, Sales Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “I’m not even sure. It’s scary to think that the covid will never go away and that at any given time you could run into someone who is infected but not showing any symptoms and can infect others.” (Substance Abuse Counseling, US & Canada, Senior Counselor, <50 FTEs)

A few suggested it’ll eventually return to the norm that we always knew:

• “Things will go back to normal, businesses will operate like how they used to.” (Education, Office Administration Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “This time shall pass. Social distancing will end. We will all be back to being regular humans again.” (Telecommunications, US & Canada, Finance VP/SVP, <50 FTEs)

Technology becoming a necessity

The emphasis on tech as part of a company’s business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DRP) was clear:

• “The world of work will be focusing on new technology to make work efficient and boost collaboration in virtual ways, more adaptive to remote working style, the expenses for office rental, travelling will be cut as well, more creative ways in employee engagement events.” (Healthcare, US & Canada, HR Individual Contributor, <50 FTEs)
• “Asian work environment was still very much conventional where employees are expected to be in office. Covid-19 has shown the Asian business owners that weak link where they refused to even contemplate a more modern outtake in workplace practice (i.e. have flexi-working arrangement, therefore reduce office space or have office suites), being penny wise but pound foolish when it comes to technology adoption. During the shutdown, those who spent on technology was able to be ‘business as usual’ where workforce worked 100% remotely.” (IT/Tech, Asia, Operations Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “It will have to be very flexible and open to new and unprecedented measures in allowing productivity to flow despite the new office norms. There will be a greater need for technology and its various intents and purposes so that operations can still continue despite physical limitations. What humans or live personnel cannot do, technology should cover.” (Staffing/Recruiting, US & Canada, Recruitment Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Technology constantly changing and updating. Need training for new tech that changes constantly. We all work with different ideas and really don’t train to work as a team. It would be helpful if we all worked in a similar manner – using similar styles for best in class work.” (Staffing/Recruiting, US & Canada, Recruitment VP/SVP, <50 FTEs)
• “I think it will be vastly different dependent upon the sector. My company is in the technology sector so I expect there will be minimal disruption to productivity and team engagement (if the past few months are any indication) but other sectors that are not so conversant with technology may have a much more challenging experience in shifting to new models of work.” (IT/Tech, UK & Ireland, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Innovation cycles in our (conservative – mechanical engineering) will be faster, customers are more used to digital technologies and will ask for that, e.g. IoT.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)

Challenges are unique and varied

Managing a business through this time and in the future had challenges specific to industry:

• “Universities’ revenue model has to change. Will people be more inclined to become self-employed?” (Entertainment and Telecommunications, Multinational, HR Individual Contributor, 5,000+ FTEs)
• “Hopefully more UK manufacturing as reliance on manufacturing from abroad has been a huge issue.” (Staffing/Recruiting, UK & Ireland, Recruitment Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Working in a preschool environment, we found it challenging to meet the needs of our families remotely. We were able to deliver a quality educational experience, but families really missed the childcare component of our program. They are not interested in a remote alternative to preschool and would accept it only as an emergency measure.” (Education, US & Canada, Office Administration Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)

Logistics and operations were affected as well:

• “It’s difficult to enforce policies that aren’t government mandated, like mask wearing, to non-employees, such as drivers coming to the warehouse. Then a decision has to be made to refuse that person into the building and potentially delay customer orders? The variety of how much people care on an individual level makes it impossible to modify everyone’s behavior the same way.” (E-commerce/Online Store, US & Canada, Operations Manager/Director, 50-999 FTEs)
• “In our region, we struggle with our labor legislation – more employers are looking at new ways of working and that impacts every aspect of our work , from remote teamwork to sales and customer service, critical cloud infrastructure and security. We need to be 100% focused on keeping our employees safe and serving our customers the best way we can ever be.” (Food Industry, LATAM, HR Manager/Director, 500-999 FTEs)
• “I guess my only anxieties are: When we partially reopen the office how much everyone will stick to the new rules we’ll need to have about hygiene. When we partially reopen the office if will this impact presenteeism (i.e. my boss has gone in today so I feel I should go in even if I don’t feel safe, or have to take a busy underground train, etc.)” (IT/Tech, Multinational, HR Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “Overall, adjust of employees to the new normal will be a challenge. As once in the office, most of them will easily forget the distance measures or to continuously wash hands. But looking forward to have operations and sales increase, having Clients confidence.” (Consulting/Business Services, Multinational, Sales Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)

And sadly for some, the challenges were insurmountable:

• “This is all so sad. Very very unnecessary. I lost my business because of a dishonest political agenda.” (Education, US & Canada, Office Administration Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)
• “It has completely destroyed a business that I have worked 38 yrs to build. I do not see how I am going to be able to stay in business with the new guidelines.” (Education, US & Canada, Office Administration Executive, <50 FTEs)

It’s not just about business

For many, the crisis has a political or social component to it:

• “It feels like the politicization of the pandemic can’t be avoided. if you wear a mask or insist on 6ft distancing, some people treat you differently. this is a much larger issue obviously, but the lack of empathy for immunocompromised/at risk individuals is sad, and it’s hard to empathize for those who think I’m brainwashed by the CDC, WHO, etc.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Service/Support Individual Contributor, 500-999 FTEs)
• “Instead of thinking it is a post-COVID, we need to think that this is the balanced and readily available economy. Gap between rich and poor has to come to a point where both can meet. Only poor feeds the rich.” (Hospitality, Middle East & Africa, Finance Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)
• “More remote working. Increased tech. Increased tracking. Less personal contact. More depression and mental health issues. The phrase ‘New Normal’ was thought up by Communist China. I wish these phrases were not adopted along with assuming everything is all new. Critical thinking is key as is compassion and kindness. Adopting new slogans and so forth sweeps people along but at a cost.” (Consulting/Business Services, multinational, Recruitment Individual Contributor, 100-499 FTEs)

The human factor

People are at the core of the crisis and its impact on business, and many respondents were quick to highlight the changes in how colleagues approached their work – and how that fit into their personal lives:

• “Workers will care a lot more about their loved ones than ever before; work will be secondary…” (Staffing/Recruitment, multinational, Recruitment Executive, <50 FTEs)
• “There will be more focus on the person rather on what the person produces. Companies will start asking why people do what they do before asking them to just do their job.” (Education, LATAM, HR Entry level, 50-99 FTEs)
• “Basically this Covid has made us realize that people can work remotely with the same efficiency and giving extra time to their family as well. So we can keep or introduce a few new policies in our company where each of the employees can get an opportunity to work from home for particular week or days, which will make them more happy as their willing to spend time with their family will be fulfilled during their work.” (IT/Tech, Asia, HR Executive, 50-99 FTEs)
• “On the positive side: People will be more aware of self and growth which will lead career stability and as an organization attrition can be controlled. On the other side: there may not be enough opportunities for those who are laid off – as most of the work would be automated or virtual. We need to create more jobs … that is something which will take time.” (Consulting/Business Services, Asia, Recruitment Manager/Director, 50-99 FTEs)
• “I have been amazed at how well our team have adapted to working from home. We have all acknowledged that we miss the team interaction, but I really feel we’ve got to know each other more, we’ve had daily calls since the lockdown, which has helped our split site company (some on Isle of Man, rest in London) I think it will take time to accept the new normal, but we will get there. My feelings about travel certainly feel different, I live on the Isle of Man, but travel to London to see our team there, and I don’t feel comfortable being on a busy tube right now, so I think it will all just take time. I hope that we take all the learnings we’ve acquired during this lockdown and bring these forward. Our air is clearer, our seas are cleaner, we recognise the importance of being connected after being so isolated for so long, we appreciate the small exercise time we’ve had outdoors. The world will be different, but so much potential to be better too.” (IT/Tech, UK & Ireland, HR Individual Contributor, <50 FTEs)
• “New life and new way of living is happening now, the most important is to adapt and find the right way to work and to improve.” (Retail, Middle East & Africa, HR, Individual Contributor, 100-499 FTEs)
• “It’s very ambiguous how the world of work will look like after the COVID-19 crisis. What I’d like to see though, is to make adjustments which benefit employees and define new standards which will make employees feel safe. There are so many things going on around us as a covid-19 effect, that make mental health quite fragile. And this is something very crucial we should focus on.” (IT/Tech, Multinational, Marketing Manager/Director, 100-499 FTEs)
• “It’s going to look very different without a doubt. However, we are a resilient species and will adapt to this like we did other situations. Personally, I think it will be good for us, we were starting to lose focus of who we were, it was becoming less important to talk to people face to face and more important to stare at phones. People are now more aware than ever about the importance of family and friends, and less people will take that for granted. Yes, we will be using technology more in our day to day lives due to Covid-19, but now we are focusing more on what’s actually important.” (Mining/Exploration, Oceania, Operations Manager/Director, <50 FTEs)

The post New World of Work survey report: In their own words appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The majority of respondents were from companies in the 100-499 employee range, in IT/Technology, operating in the United States or Canada, in HR, and at the manager/director level.

Number of full-time employees:

Main industry:

Region of business operation:

Primary function of department:

Job level:

The post New World of Work survey report: Methodology and firmographics appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are also many ways in how Video Interviews may be helpful to you and your company. Instead of going into detail about what those benefits are and why, we thought we’d make things more fun and interactive for you with a Video Interview Quiz. In this quiz, you’ll learn how one-way video interviews can be one of the most important tools in your recruiting toolbox.

There are no right answers or wrong answers here – every answer is actually “correct”, but you’ll get a different piece of information or an interesting fact or statistic with each answer. And the best part? You can take this quiz again and again and pick up something new every time.

Whether it’s for your own convincing or for someone else’s buy-in to get Workable Video Interviews to optimize your recruitment process, there’s a lot here for you. Ultimately, this is purely for your own educational entertainment.

Without further ado, here’s the Video Interview Quiz!

The post Take our Video Interview Quiz – and optimize your hiring appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

NOTE: Those tools marked with an asterisk (*) are seamlessly integrated with our recruitment solution.

CONTENTS:

1. 1. 1. Tools for the recruitment process
      2. Tools for HR
      3. Tools for overall communication
      4. Tools for projects involving multiple people
      5. Tools for organization
      6. Tools for compliance/security/legal purposes
      7. Tools for finance

Tools for the recruitment process

Your recruitment process can be a huge beneficiary of your digital transformation. Learn more about how and why.

1. Virtual recruiting/screening/hiring

Hiring remotely can be a challenge at times, but with the right software in place, it’s a very easy process even if the final hire is someone you have never met in person. Workable’s own ATS – with its new one-way video interview feature – is equipped with all the tools you need to build teams virtually.

• Workable

2. Assessment tools

Assessments are an integral ingredient in the hiring process, to help you identify the best candidates for the position. Workable has numerous integrated tools that will help you along the way – the full list is here, and some top tools are below.

• HackerRank* (technical skills assessments)
• Hireselect – Criteria Corp* (aptitude, personality, skills)
• Bryq* (cognitive skills, personality traits, job match, etc.)

3. Onboarding

Just as hiring can be done entirely remotely, the onboarding process can be done via an online platform as well to bring your new hires to full production mode. These tools will help you get there quickly.

• Rippling*
• Click Boarding*

4. Background Checks

The background check is an integral part of the recruitment process.

• Checkr*
• InfoMart*

Tools for HR

5. HRIS

Benefits, payroll, compliance, all these things that are part and parcel of human resources management can be done entirely via digital tools such as the following.

• BambooHR*
• Bob*
• Namely*

6. Training/Knowledge Base

Upskilling and retraining your workforce is a crucial part of company success. Also, all company-wide documents, policies, know-hows, etc. need to be accessible by everyone at any given time whether it’s for training, best practices, or other purposes. These tools will help you get it done.

• TalentLMS
• Confluence

7. Employee feedback

When you’re not regularly mingling with your colleagues, it’s hard to gauge employee engagement or happiness. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it at all.

• Chimp or Champ

Tools for overall communication

8. Email communication

Obviously this goes without saying. But if you’re in a company that operates largely in face-to-face communication and paper-based processes – and not email – it will be a good idea to quickly get your team signed up with email accounts so you can share crucial documents in a pinch.

• Gmail*
• Outlook*

9. Online chat functions

Sometimes it’s cumbersome to write out an entire email. Quickly pinging a colleague with a pertinent question can save a lot of time. Think of it as texting via your computer.

• Slack
• Microsoft teams

10. Virtual Meetings and presentations

When everyone is working remotely across locations or checking into meetings from home, a virtual meeting platform will work wonders for having everyone together in one place. Many platforms have options for you to share your screen to assist you in your presentation to the team.

• Google Hangouts* (available when sending interview requests within Workable)
• Zoom
• Zoho Remotely

Tools for projects involving multiple people

Note: You can see a full list of collaboration tools here.

11. Documents

Many of us need to collaborate within a single document, which is easy enough when you’re sitting together in front of the same computer or a single paper document together. You can still work together in the same document online from different locations.

• G-Suite
• Office 365

12. Cloud Storage

It can be a nuisance when colleagues update a document and then email it around as a new file, making it hard to track which one is the most updated. Why not save it in an online drive – in other words, cloud storage – so everyone has access to the same document at any time?

• Google Drive
• OneDrive
• Dropbox

13. Project management

Seeing a big project reach completion requires clean collaboration and careful planning between individuals and teams. This is especially challenging when teams are distributed across locations, but these services can help you keep watch from the big picture down to the granular level to ensure things keep running smoothly.

• Trello
• Asana
• Jira
• Wrike
• Jell
• Podio
• Project Manager

14. Timezone management

Many companies work across different time zones, which does make collaborating on projects somewhat of a challenge. Face it, it’d be incredibly useful to be able to see what time it is for each colleague in each location so you can better align efforts.

• TimeZone.io

15. Screen sharing

Sometimes you don’t need full video integration to make presentations – you just need to be able to share your screen so you can walk colleagues through something. These will do the trick.

• Join.me
• TeamViewer
• ScreenLeap

16. Dev & design

Your dev and design teams are unique such that simple document collaboration won’t cut it. They’ll need more specialized software to continue working together at peak performance – these softwares should do the job.

• GitHub
• Cloud9
• CodePen

Tools for Organization

17. Calendar Management

A work calendar is crucial not only for your own organization, but also for aligning your efforts with others via mutual touchbases, meetings, 1-1s and other purposes. Also, with the right integration, you can see how busy your colleagues are at any given time during the work day without needing to walk by their work station.

• Google Calendar*
• Calendly
• Schedule Once

18. Time management tools

When a portion – or all – of your staff is contracted or paid by the hour, tracking their time when they’re on the clock is a must so you can ensure they’re paid appropriately.

• Teamwork
• Hubstaff

19. Notetaking apps

Having a notebook handy is always useful for keeping track of what you’re doing. You can also do this digitally as well – and even invite others to collaborate in team notetaking sessions.

• Evernote

20. Social Media Management

Social media isn’t just about tweeting photos of your dinner. It’s integral to external business communications. It’s easy enough to go directly to Twitter, Facebook or LInkedIn to push out your latest news, but it’s much easier to do it all via a single portal.

• HootSuite

21. Business Intelligence

Tracking and reporting is essential to business success. Fortunately there are great tools to help you take a deep dive into your business processes to fine-tune your processes to maximize your results.

• Tableau* (can be used with your Workable data)

Tools for compliance/security/legal purposes

22. E-Signature

There really is a digital tool for everything – even signatures for contracts if you can’t be in the same room at the same time to sign those urgent papers to keep things moving along.

• HelloSign (native integration with Workable’s offer letter feature – no separate HelloSign account needed)
• DocuSign

23. Password Management Solutions

Password management is an absolute must when it comes to IT security and compliance. Data breaches can happen via hacking, but sometimes all it takes is for the wrong person to have the right password for things to go haywire. Keep it all contained using a centralized password management system.

• LastPass*

Tools for finance

24. Receipt & Expense Management

Collecting and processing receipts from your team can be a nuisance. It’s also a pain for your colleagues when they need to pull it all together into a report for you. Not to mention – finance has to process this stuff. You can manage all this in one place via these tools.

• Expensify
• Rydoo

25. Accounting Software

Accounting is a real part of business. Manage and keep track of it all in one place, so you can keep those books balanced.

• QuickBooks
• Xero

26. Billing Tools

Billing and invoicing goes without saying. In a remote environment, those paper invoices don’t go very far even if your postal delivery system is great. These tools will help you manage invoicing virtually – for tracking who’s paid what, and collecting on those outstanding.

• FreshBooks
• Bill.com

27. Financial Dashboards

Optimize your business plan so you can get off on the right foot during your growth and expansion initiatives, and line up your expectations with industry benchmarks while consulting with experts.

• LivePlan
• InDinero

28. Budget Management

Manage your budget in every area, from cash flow expectations to real-time financial performance – so you can make quick decisions to capitalize on current trends and mitigate what might come ahead.

• Float
• Scoro

The post Best tech tools for the virtual workplace appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The post COVID-19: All the resources you need to survive and succeed appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We’ll talk through each integration here, but as always, if you’re already using Workable, let us know if you need help.

1) LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC)

As part of LinkedIn’s Preferred Partner Program, this integration brings a host of advantages to Workable:

Accurate, up-to-date candidate data
If a candidate or prospect updates their profile on LinkedIn, it’s now reflected immediately inside Workable. See when the situation has changed for prospects in your Talent Pool or recruiting pipelines and reach out with a timely email.

Effortless collaboration
Your entire hiring team now has more access to candidate information – regardless of which tools they use.

Inside Workable, you’ll be able to:

• Import limited LinkedIn profile data to create and refresh records
• See your InMail conversations and notes from LinkedIn Recruiter
• View applicant’s LinkedIn profile via live LinkedIn profile widget, which appears next to your candidate data

Inside LinkedIn Recruiter, you’ll be able to:

• Identify previous applicants and the disposition reasons
• Filter and prioritize past candidates who applied and were uploaded to Workable

An improved candidate experience
With everyone on the hiring team up-to-date, communication with candidates improves. Nothing is lost just because someone is out of the office or on vacation. Everyone remains up to speed, and can communicate from the place that suits them best, whether that’s LinkedIn or Workable on the desktop or mobile.

2) Apply with LinkedIn

Apply with LinkedIn makes it fast and easy for candidates to apply to open positions on your careers site. It improves applicant conversion by enabling candidates to start an application using their LinkedIn profile data.

When complete, their details are gathered as a candidate profile in Workable. Should the application remain incomplete, the potential candidate will be surfaced as an ‘Apply Starter’ in Recruiter.

LinkedIn Apply Starters
75% of people abandon job applications for all sorts of reasons. LinkedIn Apply Starters makes it simple for a candidate to share their LinkedIn profile before completing the application – just in case something comes up. What’s more, you can build your candidate database with candidates who have shown that they are interested in your company.

It’s known that reaching out to these candidates is 2x more likely get a response than the average candidate.

3) Easy Apply

Finally, in the spirit of improving candidate experience we’ve also integrated with LinkedIn Easy Apply. This enables the increasing number of mobile job seekers to search for jobs and complete their application using their LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn Easy Apply adds an apply button directly to your job ad on LinkedIn. The key benefits are:

• 2x more applicants per job
• A reduction in the number of candidates that drop off on mobile

Preparing for the new year

Consider this an early gift for the holidays. We’re excited about launching this, especially now. New year provides a fresh new start for many, and chance to rethink their situation. People search for jobs, switch jobs, and are more open to new opportunities. Take some time to explore these features and get ready for a very busy new year!

…And if you’re not using Workable yet, schedule a demo to see these features in action.

The post Workable launches three new integrations through the LinkedIn Preferred Partner Program appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Get the right work done, faster

As soon as you open the app, you’ll see a smarter way to sift through your candidates. See which candidates you need to evaluate, which candidates you have yet to review and the ones you’ve viewed most recently (so you can access them faster).

You’ll also see the candidates who are waiting for your response to their email.

In addition, monitor your Workable account activity with categories like New candidates, Unscheduled candidates and candidates who are Slipping Away. We’ve also added a ‘Popular’ segment, with the focus on qualified candidates that have a ‘yes’ or a ‘definitely yes’ evaluation, to help you make sure the process keeps moving in the right direction.

Keep an eye on the Pending category too – these are the candidates who have yet to accept any formal offers that have been made.

Easier candidate communication

From the Agenda, see all your meetings that have been scheduled via Workable, and the tools you need to act on them. Access the meeting details and contact the candidate directly through SMS, phone, email or Skype.

Before an interview, jump straight to the candidate’s profile for reference and head back there to complete the interview scorecard when you’re done.

Find the right information, fast

Use the app’s Global Search to access Candidates or Jobs using any relevant keywords. Search by name, job location, keywords in cover letters or CVs.

What’s coming next?

Our goal was to save you time, and help you focus on the more important aspects of your job. I hope we’ve succeeded, but as always we’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks so much to our excellent team of beta testers who have helped out so far.

If you’d like to get started now, download the app from the Google Play Store.

If you’re an iOS user, please hold on just a little longer. The Workable iOS app is on the way! If you’d like to be a beta tester and get a sneak peek of what’s to come, please get in touch.

The post New release: Workable for Android appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is a coworking space?

A coworking space, for those not familiar, is a large office that houses many companies. Typically you’ll find small businesses with up to 20 employees, and startups that are growing but are not ready to invest in their own dedicated office space. Each company has its own office or desk, but neighbors other companies.

An affordable launchpad

If Workable had decided to move into our own office right away we would have been looking at a  3-6,000 square foot office that costs upwards of $40 per square foot in our current neighborhood. Additionally, there would have been tens of thousands of dollars in upfront costs for the buildout. We would have been paying $10,000 a month from the very beginning on the monthly lease alone, just to have space for three employees, not including the build out. That is a major commitment for a young company that can’t predict how many employees it will add over its first few years, and is just starting out in a new market

A recruiting asset

The coworking space has been a great recruiting tool. Our shared office center in Boston, WeWork Fort Point, offers great amenities, contemporary meeting spaces, and access to fun events. When you’re young, you still want your working space to have a nice buzz. Three people sitting at desks in the corner of a 4,000 square foot place can seem daunting. With a company that size it’s tough to stay on top of amenities such as coffee, water, and snacks. Coworking spaces are well-designed and have a modern feel that improves the candidate experience.

A community

A lot of the coworking spaces pride themselves on the community. That is not some BS they make up just to sell more units. WeWork has a ton of events going on and we have been able to meet a lot of like-minded people. There are people from other startups, law firms, marketing services, and other companies that have been useful for us to get to know. We found SocialFulcrum, one of the marketing agencies that we have hired, through the coworking space. That’s good for them and good for us.

WeWork also hosts several vibrant networking events that are relevant for small businesses. They have vendors who bring lunch, VC’s come in to talk about pitching, and other educational sessions. Community events make the workplace upbeat and are not something most companies have access to until they get bigger.

A chance to learn the city

While coworking, we were able to get a lay of the land in our Boston neighborhood and figure out where we want to establish our office for the long-term. Although our customers are all over the world, our goal is to create a presence in Boston for recruiting. When moving into a new market, it’s important to get a good hold of where your potential employees want to be, what the right neighborhoods are and what’s convenient in terms of transportation, parking, and other amenities.

Feeling disconnected as a team

One of the downsides that we started to feel as we got bigger was that the people in our Boston office started to feel disconnected. When there were six of us we all fit in one space and it was fine. At some point on the way to 15, where we are today, things started to feel disconnected. People from sales and support didn’t meet the new people coming into marketing and vice versa. We have four offices, and what we found was there wasn’t a reason to go into the other offices, so we didn’t.

Buffer time for your moving schedule

Another thing we learned about moving into a new office is that you need to schedule in some buffer time to make sure you complete the process on time despite any obstacles. It takes about six months from start to finish of the process. To find the right office space, it might take up to two months, one month to finish the lease, a couple more weeks to finalize design and build out plans, and finally a couple of months for build out. When we opened up our Boston office, it would have been impossible to get started running our business to even start without renting a shared office space. I don’t know how startups did it before coworking spaces were an option.

Today, Workable moved into our new Boston headquarters. That’s over a year after we opened up in Boston. Since moving we’ve raised $27 million in venture funding, and have gone from 30 employees to over 80. In Boston, we’re on pace to grow from 15 employees to 50. The biggest coworking space benefits have been the ability to grow the company significantly while searching for the right workplace location for the foreseeable future.

The post What a year in a coworking space can do for your company appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Time is of the essence
   Being out of the office for a day, or even just a few hours, can be enough to lose a great candidate. By accessing Workable on your smartphone you have all the information you need to get moving with a good candidate from wherever you are. Get back in touch on time and ensure the candidate experience is everything that it should be.
2. Flexibility gets the job done
   It’s not all, you, you, you… When hiring is your full time job, you’re on top of it but sometimes you need to give your hiring teams a little nudge. The flexibility mobile recruiting gives is provides that nudge.  Your hiring managers can review resumes and leave evaluations from anywhere, at any time, via their connected smartphones.

So let’s look at the new features and see how they can help.

The Agenda

This is something we’re really excited about, as it makes great use of the medium. We all use smartphones as pocket computers or cameras, but it’s worth remembering they’re still communication devices, too!

The Agenda has been designed to show the information you need the most:

…and give you the tools you need to act on that information:

Held up on the way to a meeting with a candidate? Find the event and contact the candidate by SMS in one easy action — no digging around for that number. Heading from one interview to another with barely a chance to catch your breath? Check the Agenda, get the meeting details and remind yourself of the candidate’s history as you go. Everything’s in one place.

Of course the calendar view will also give you an overview of upcoming events when you need it.

Global Search

One of the key points about using Workable on your mobile is having the information you need at your fingertips. It’s a small(ish) screen, so access should never be restricted, but it should be focussed. While the Agenda handles scheduled tasks, the rest of the mobile updates help narrow the focus on the more routine aspects of day to day recruiting, making it more manageable.

Global Search is the ability to search for information about candidates and jobs. Access it from your homescreen, or dashboard, as soon as you log in. You’ll see one simple search box, but we’ve divided the results neatly into two tabs.

Search for candidates by the department or location to which they applied. Or you could search their name, work experience or education, skills, summary… the whole lot. Search for jobs by title, location (country, state, city) or department.

Candidate Access

In this release we’ve also provided a smarter way to sift through your candidates. Now when you move from your mobile dashboard to the candidate view, you’ll see the option to view all candidates, or view candidates by job.

Of course, viewing all candidates would be pretty heavy going on a mobile, so we’ve added some smart segmentation. This helps target your activities so you’re making the right kind of contact with the right people, at the right time. Here’s how it breaks down:

Unread candidates:
This group shows qualified candidates across all jobs, whose profile has not been viewed or opened on any of your devices.

Unrated candidates:
If you’re working with a hiring team, this is a handy segment to know. When Workable is used to schedule on site meetings, screening calls or interviews, this segment is automatically populated with the candidates in question. Direct your hiring managers here to leave their evaluations and ratings. Evaluations are easy to do on the go—a simple rating system qualified with a comment.

Unscheduled:
Another time-saving segment for admins and hiring managers, this shows every qualified candidate at an ‘Assessment’ stage in the hiring pipeline. This means candidates could be at Phone screen, Assessment or Interview stages, but nothing has been put in your Workable calendar yet. Work through this list to plan the week’s hiring activities.

Slipping away:
When you’re hiring for multiple positions, often in multiple locations, it can be easy for candidates to slip through the net. This segment shows qualified candidates who have been engaged using Workable at least once, but there’s no recorded activity over the last seven days.

View candidates by job:
And last, but by no means least, we’ve updated the option to view candidates by job:

Selecting a job from the list shows all the candidates, neatly divided into their pipeline stages.

Looking for a mobile recruiting app? See how our industry-leading iOS and Android app compares to other applicant tracking systems, like Lever and Greenhouse.

Access all areas

These latest updates are all about access. Getting to the information you need in the quickest way possible. Slice and dice your candidate database to work the way that suits you best. Use Workable to track and manage your candidates as you would a regular ATS. Or use Workable more like a CRM; keep in touch with your prospects and candidates at the right time to build stronger relationships for the future. It all helps to make mobile recruiting genuinely useful.

If you’ve made it this far through the post, thanks for sticking with us! It’s a big release, so there’s a lot of ground to cover. As I mentioned right at the beginning, this is a work-in-progress release. There’s lots more to come — but we’d love to hear your feedback in the meantime.

The post New features for mobile recruiting! appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

When you create a job in Workable, we walk you through the process step by step. From writing the job description and requirements, to creating an application form and advertising the job on multiple job boards.

If you’re familiar with the Workable interface, when you next log in, you’ll notice that the navigation to take you through each step has moved from the left, to the top of the page:

The keen-eyed among you will also spot two new tabs!  But let’s keep this simple – I’ll walk you through the changes one by one.

The job

If you’re a regular Workable user, the only change you’ll see here is that the panel to add extra details to boost job visibility has moved to the right of the page:

Everything else remains the same; add the name, department and job location. Enter the job description, requirements and benefits. Don’t forget you can also upload images to enhance your job ad — and if you’re wondering what to write our job description library, and guide to writing a job description will help.

Application form

Again, the change here is minimal – we’ve just increased the width of the page:

Decide which personal information you require, and whether that’s optional or mandatory. Include screening questions with yes/no, multiple choice or free text answers.

The entire application form is shown in basic preview on the right of the page. For a full preview, click the arrow in the circle towards the top of the page.

Advertise

For regular users, this is the first page where you’ll notice a real change. Posting to free and premium job boards is the same, but you’ll see a new panel on the right:

This panel contains options that were previously hidden under a ‘Share’ button at the top of the page. They’re super-useful, so we thought we’d make more of them – let me explain:

Website Connect: if you have an existing careers page and someone on your team is comfortable with code, Website Connect is a widget that keeps your careers page updated automatically. Every time you post or update a job in Workable, it will be reflected on your careers page. Choose which information to display and style it using our default options or add some customization with basic CSS.

Job shortlink: if you’re advertising on specialist or local job boards, you can still collect candidates in your Workable account. Use the job shortlink when you post a job and candidates will be directed to your Workable-hosted job description and application form.

Job Mailbox: as the name suggests, this is an email address created specifically for this position (whether it’s published or for internal use only). Share the address with recruiters, who can use it to submit one or more resumes for review, or with your team, who can use it to upload resumes directly to the Workable pipeline from their desktop.

Your Network

This is a new tab in the interface. It covers different options for sourcing candidates from your broader network. You’ll notice it’s divided into three separate ‘sub-tabs’: Referrals, Social Media, Recruiters.

Referrals
Referrals are one of the best sources of quality candidates, so it makes sense to ask your co-workers to get involved. The new interface makes this much easier — sending the email request is just part of setting up the job. You’ll see a default email message, which will be updated automatically with the job title and your name, or you create a message of your own.

Social Media
This is where you’ll find the options to publicise the job on your social networks; Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. Click any of the options to see a pre-written but editable message, containing the job shortlink.

Recruiters
This tab is the new home for adding recruiters to the job. You can invite existing recruiters to submit candidates, or add new recruiters to your Workable account.

Hiring team

Regular Workable users will see that there are no changes here. This is still the place to choose the co-workers you’d like on the hiring team for the job. Decide who should be a hiring manager – with access to confidential comments, and who should be a basic member.

Interview Kit

Last, but by no means least, this is a brand new tab housing everything you need to create an Interview and scorecard! A new feature, this has been requested many times by our users:

When you’re hiring as a team, a structured interview generates clear, actionable feedback. Every candidate is asked the same questions, and evaluated using a consistent scale. Click the ‘interview kit’ tab to find everything you need to prepare a structured interview. Add custom questions for every role, import sections from the job requirements, templates you’ve previously saved or other kits you’ve created for different positions.

When you’re done, Workable will automatically generate a scorecard for use by every member of the hiring team. See the results individually, or compare them via the aggregate view. Read more about the launch of interview kits and scorecards.

A speedy overview

This is just a quick overview of the changes – as usual, everything will become clearer when you jump in and start using the tools! We hope you find everything you need, but should you need a hand, please let us know.

The post The new look job editor appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

When you’re hiring as a team, structured interviews provide actionable feedback. They ensure that every candidate has an equal opportunity to shine, and that they’re assessed accurately and consistently.

Here’s a speedy overview:

So how does it work?

When you create an interview kit with Workable, a scorecard is generated automatically:

This helps ensure that:

• interviewers are well prepared to assess the skills required
• all candidates are asked the right questions
• responses are evaluated using a consistent rating scale
• feedback is gathered in one place, ready for the next action by a hiring manager

I’ll give you a quick rundown of the details here — but do get stuck in and make some Interview kits of your own. It’s pretty hard to break something in Workable, and practice makes perfect…

Create the kits you need for each stage

Each company has their own way of hiring. You can create an interview kit for each assessment stage (phone screen, first, second, third interview), to ensure that every candidate is assessed consistently.

Create templates to assess shared needs

Companies have shared sets of values, departments have shared sets of needs. Workable account admins can create templates to be used company-wide, or per department. Share these with hiring managers as they add custom questions for the role, and keep a more consistent approach to the questions that you ask.

Automatically share scorecards with the hiring team

Scorecards are great – but not when the team can’t find them. Workable takes care of this automatically. As soon as candidates reach an assessment stage with a kit, the scorecard is added to the candidate’s profile, your Workable Agenda (which has your upcoming event schedule) and your Inbox. No need to hunt around for a printout, or something someone sent you six weeks ago by email.

Interview the way that suits you best

Everyone likes to interview differently. Some people prefer to take notes with a pen, others are happy to tap away on a keyboard. Some will write extensive notes while others feel confident leaving only a rating. Use Workable in the way that suits you best:

• Print the scorecard out, take notes on paper and add them to Workable when the interview is over
• Work online and add ratings — or add ratings and notes

Find out more about the pro’s and cons of interview scorecards and how to use them.

View the resume and scorecard side by side

When you’re filling in the scorecard online, make the most of Workable:  view the scorecard and resume side by side, and keep everything you need at your fingertips.

See individual or combined results

As soon as scorecards are complete, they’re available for review by the hiring team. View each scorecard individually, or see an aggregate view.

One member of the team unable to make the interview – but still has feedback? Ask them to switch to a basic evaluation, and that’s included on the group scorecard too.

Flexible, editable, fast

One of the most important things about designing interview kits was giving you the flexibility you need. We hope you’ll find that they match your process. As you build up a library of kits, the creation of a new kit gets faster. Import sections from other jobs, from the job requirements or templates — just create new sections when you need them. As always, let us know how you get on.

One final thing – if you are a regular user, you’ll spot that the job editor has also had a refresh! Don’t panic. I’ve written an article to guide you through the changes.

The post New release: Interview kits and scorecards! appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

• Time to fill: The planning metric
• Time to hire: The efficiency metric
• Qualified candidates per hire: The sourcing metric
• Interviews per hire: The process metric

As well as the standard suite of reports, Workable also provides direct access to your raw recruiting data via Amazon Redshift. This allows you to create custom reports to track the metrics most relevant to your team, and combine data from different sources.

A partnership with Tableau

We’re delighted to announce that we’ve recently established a technical partnership with Tableau. This allows our common customers to utilize a Tableau dashboard template to visualise their Workable hiring data that lives in Redshift.

The dashboard has been designed by Workable and focuses on key hiring perspectives such as a geography, departments, hiring funnel and candidate movement across hiring stages.

Are you interested? If you’re already using Workable, find out more about how to visualize your hiring data with Tableau, or talk to us about custom reporting. Not using Workable yet? Find out more about reports, and how they can answer key questions about your recruiting process.

This post was written by Lefteris Mantelas, find him on twitter as @MantelasL.

The post Understand your Workable hiring data with Tableau appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Fixing this is a lot simpler than you might think. Google already provides us with two ways of improving the sign-in experience in our apps.

Google Sign-In (previously known as Google+ Sign-In)
and SmartLock

The majority of users download an app and want to interact with it quickly – especially if it’s a productivity tool or some kind of a social network.

What a better way of helping them by letting them sign-in with just one tap?

Almost every Android user adds his/her Google account during the setup process. Most of the time this is their primary email address, which means it’s the email they use when they sign-up on various services. But usually, people tend to add more emails and Google accounts on their phones, for example: their work email.

This is something we can leverage in order to ease the sign-in process. To achieve this, we will use the Google Account Login package,

compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services-auth:x.x.x'

from Play Services, which includes Google Sign-In API, as well as the Credential API for SmartLock. For the needs of this article we’ve also created a demo app which is available on Github.

So without further ado, let’s dive in the actual implementation.

Google Services Configuration File

To start using Google Services we first need to create a configuration file. This process has also been streamlined and it’s just one click to download it. You can find detailed instructions here. After downloading it, place it inside your “app” folder and you’re good to go.

Google Sign-In

Google Sign-In was previously known as Google+ Sign-In, back when Google required every new user to also create a Google+ social profile.

After Google dropped that requirement, all of their services were rebranded to plain ‘Google’, like ‘Google Sign-In’, for example.

As you can see at the bottom of the screenshot, this is the rebranded Google Sign-In button offered as a standalone view from Google.

<com.google.android.gms.common.SignInButton
        android:id="@+id/sign_in_button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

Google Sign-In button (XML)

Now that we’ve added the Sign-In Button we need to configure it on our activity as well.

private lateinit var signInButton: SignInButton

override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)

    setContentView(R.layout.activity_sign_in)

    initViews()
}

private fun initViews() {
    signInButton = findViewById(R.id.sign_in_button) as SignInButton

    signInButton.setSize(SignInButton.SIZE_WIDE)

    signInButton.setOnClickListener {
        initiateGoogleSignIn()
    }
}

Google Sign-In button configuration

We also need to configure the GoogleApiClient, which will handle the Google Sign-In API and Credentials API requests:

private fun initGoogleApiClient() {
    googleApiClient = GoogleApiClient.Builder(this)
            .addConnectionCallbacks(this)
            .enableAutoManage(this, this)
            .addApi(Auth.GOOGLE_SIGN_IN_API, googleSignInOptions)
            .addApi(Auth.CREDENTIALS_API)
            .build()
}

Google API Client initial configuration

Let’s explain what these lines do:

1. addConnectionCallbacks → Makes the current Activity aware of GoogleApiClient connection lifecycle.
2. enableAutoManage → Lets GoogleApiClient “hook” on the current Activity in order to manage the connect-disconnect operations based on the Activity’s lifecycle.
3. addApi(Auth.GOOGLE_SIGN_IN_API, googleSignInOptions) → Here we’re declaring that we will use the Google Sign-In API, with the GoogleSignOptions we’ve already created.
4. addApi(Auth.CREDENTIALS_API) → We will also use the Credentials API for SmartLock, so we’re declaring this one as well.

We’re finally ready to proceed with the normal Google Sign-In flow. First step is to startActivityForResult with the Sign-In Intent when tapping on the Sign-In Button:

private fun initiateGoogleSignIn() {
    val signInIntent = Auth.GoogleSignInApi.getSignInIntent(googleApiClient)
    startActivityForResult(signInIntent, RC_SIGN_IN)
}

Initiate Google Sign-In

After that we’re ready to handle the result in onActivityResult:

override fun onActivityResult(requestCode: Int, resultCode: Int, data: Intent?) {
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data)

    when (requestCode) {
        RC_SIGN_IN -> handleGoogleSignInResolution(resultCode, data)
    }
}

Google Sign-In Resolution handling

We can now process the result of Google Sign-In in order to update our UI. Depending on the result, we either sign-in the user or present them with a sign-up screen. All of these cases are implemented in detail on the demo project accompanying this article.

SmartLock

SmartLock is a powerful password manager that Google provides through the same Google Account Login package in Play Services.

But what does SmartLock offer for us as developers and for our end users?

SmartLock allows us to:

1. Ask users to save their credentials.
2. Request those credentials when opening the app.
3. Use credentials saved on Chrome, if we declare that our website and app can share credentials.
4. Display email hints in case we want to help the user in the sign-in/sign-up process.
5. Finally and most importantly, all of the above are stored on Google’s servers and users have complete control over what is saved/deleted.

We’ll cover all these cases in detail below, but if you think there might be something missing, please make sure to check the demo project on Github.

1) Ask users to save their credentials

First, we check to make sure the email address and password are valid for our business logic (this is a quick implementation for the purpose of the demo) and after that, we create the Credential object. Finally, we invoke the Credentials API in order to save the previously created Credential. Below, you can see how that is presented to a user.

private fun saveCredentials() {

    val emailInvalid: Boolean = emailAddressTextInput.editText?.text.toString().trim().isNullOrEmpty() ?: false
    val passwordInvalid: Boolean = passwordTextInput.editText?.text.toString().trim().isNullOrEmpty() ?: false

    if (emailInvalid) {
        emailRequirementError()
        return
    }

    if (passwordInvalid) {
        passwordRequirementError()
        return
    }

    val credentialToSave: Credential =
        Credential
            .Builder(emailAddressTextInput.editText?.text.toString())
            .setPassword(passwordTextInput.editText?.text.toString().trim())
            .build()

    Auth
        .CredentialsApi
        .save(googleApiClient, credentialToSave)
        .setResultCallback({
            result ->
            handleCredentialSaveResult(result)
        })
}

A quick implementation of a Credentials save procedure

Credential is a key element of the SmartLock domain. It holds all the credential information (either account type or password, a name and a profile picture URI) related to an E-mail address. Credentials can either have an Account Type or a Password.

We can also see that the credentials we just saved are available on passwords.google.com for the E-mail address we previously selected:

2) Request credentials when opening the app

After saving the aforementioned credentials, we can now request them when opening the app in order to automatically sign a user in, or give them the ability to use them for instant sign-in.

In order to request Credentials we need to create a CredentialRequest that specifies what kind of Credentials we want. You can declare that the Credentials you want should contain a password or their type is one of: Google, Facebook, Twitter etc.

private fun initSmartlockCredentialsRequest() {
    smartlockCredentialsRequest = CredentialRequest.Builder()
            .setPasswordLoginSupported(true)
            .build()
}

SmartLock Credential Request configuration

After creating your CredentialRequest object, you pass it to Credentials API and you handle the result:

private fun requestCredentials() {
    Auth
            .CredentialsApi
            .request(googleApiClient, smartlockCredentialsRequest)
            .setResultCallback({ credentialRequestResult ->
                handleCredentialRequestResult(credentialRequestResult)
            })
}

Request Credentials

private fun handleCredentialRequestResult(credentialRequestResult: CredentialRequestResult) {
    if (credentialRequestResult.status.isSuccess) {
        proceedOnMainScreen(credentialRequestResult.credential.id)
    } else {
        resolveCredentialRequest(credentialRequestResult.status)
    }
}

Credentials Request Result handling

private fun resolveCredentialRequest(status: Status?) {
    if (status?.statusCode == CommonStatusCodes.RESOLUTION_REQUIRED) {
        initiateCredentialRequestResolution(status)
    } else {
        credentialRequestFailure()
    }
}

Resolve Credential Request

private fun initiateCredentialRequestResolution(status: Status?) {
    try {
        status?.startResolutionForResult(this, RC_CREDENTIALS_REQUEST)
    } catch (sendIntentException: IntentSender.SendIntentException) {
        credentialRequestResolutionFailure()
    }
}

Start resolution for Credential Request

One thing you should consider here, is that the Credential object retrieved does not have an “email” field. Actually the email on the Credential is named “id”. Another strange thing is that if you’ve requested Credentials of specific Account types, you need to have in mind that they will not contain a password, due to the fact that Account type and password fields can not co-exist.

3) Use Credentials saved on Chrome, if we declare that our website and app can share Credentials

User Credentials saved on Chrome can be very valuable for our case as well. Well, SmartLock offers Credential sharing between Chrome and Android applications. All we need to do is:

- Create a Digital Asset Links JSON file (assetlinks.json)
- Upload it on our server, under "/.well-known/" directory

On this link you can find detailed steps on how you can create the Digital Asset Links JSON file and add it to your app.

The last step to enable this integration is to fill out an Affiliation Form, which usually takes 2 or 3 days to be accepted.

At this point, we have to thank Steven Soneff  from Google’s Identity team, for his valuable help on this process.

4) Display email hints in case we want to help the user in the sign-in/sign-up process

As a nice fallback when a user does not have any Credentials stored for our app, we can display some E-mail hints, in order to help the user choose an E-mail to sign-in or sign-up.

So how can we do this?

The steps are pretty much the same for it as well.

Google Account Login APIs are quite identical which helps us easily bootstrap the requests.

private fun initHintRequest() {
    hintRequest = HintRequest.Builder()
            .setHintPickerConfig(
                    CredentialPickerConfig.Builder()
                            .setShowCancelButton(true)
                            .setPrompt(CredentialPickerConfig.Prompt.SIGN_IN)
                            .build()
            )
            .setEmailAddressIdentifierSupported(true)
            .build()
}

Email Hint Request configuration

Let’s explain this code a little bit: We set the HintRequest to support email addresses and we also add a HintPicker configuration, which allows us to show a cancel button and also have a prompt as the dialog’s title. In our case we chose to show a sign-in prompt. Google also provides a sign-up prompt.

Afterwards, we need to invoke startIntentSenderForResult:

private fun requestEmailHints() {
    val intent = Auth.CredentialsApi.getHintPickerIntent(googleApiClient, hintRequest)
    try {
        startIntentSenderForResult(intent.intentSender, RC_HINT_REQUEST, null, 0, 0, 0)
    } catch (e: IntentSender.SendIntentException) {
        emailHintRequestFailure()
    }
}

Request Email Hints

And to follow, we handle the result:

override fun onActivityResult(requestCode: Int, resultCode: Int, data: Intent?) {
    super.onActivityResult(requestCode, resultCode, data)

    when (requestCode) {
        RC_HINT_REQUEST -> handleEmailHintRequestResolution(resultCode, data)
    }
}

Result of Email Hint Request

The result on this case contains a Credential object including the email address that the user has selected:

private fun handleEmailHintRequestResolution(resultCode: Int, data: Intent?) {
    if (resultCode == AppCompatActivity.RESULT_CANCELED) {
        emailHintRequestCancelled()
    } else {
        emailHintRequestSuccess(data)
    }
}

Handling of Email Hint Request Resolution

private fun emailHintRequestSuccess(data: Intent?) {
    val credential: Credential? = data?.getParcelableExtra(Credential.EXTRA_KEY)
    credential?.let {
        proceedOnMainScreen(it.id)
    }
}

Email Hint Request success

Conclusion

Google Sign-In and SmartLock possible outcomes can produce a lot of boilerplate code, as well.

To help you with this task and allow you to focus on the engineering process of your business logic, we’ve created a module, named AuthManager. AuthManager handles all of the cases and their outcomes, described above, while providing a fluent API. AuthManager is also written 100% in Kotlin.

You can find AuthManager on Github.

Feedback and PullRequests are always welcome.

This article was written by Pavlos and Vasilis, as part of a series of posts explaining how we created  Android and iOS apps for Workable recruiting software.

The post Android: Improving the sign-in experience with Google Sign-In and SmartLock appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

“That is why we liked FbStart and why we were one of the first companies to support the program. It offers timely and sensible assistance to mobile startups in a very pragmatic way” said Workable’s CEO, Nikos Moraitakis moments after the announcement of the FbStart program today at f8 in San Francisco.

Recruiting is one of the biggest challenges startups face. In those small, often overworked teams, every hire is critical and tools like Workable can go a long way in getting it right.

All startups admitted in FbStart will have free access to the same technology used by hundreds of hyper-growth companies like Intercom, Vend, Declara, Invision and Transferwise, who rely on Workable to build great teams.

We can’t wait to see new and exciting companies flourish with the help of FbStart, and we’ll be all the more proud knowing that Workable is part of their success.

To find out more about FbStart

The post Workable teams up with Facebook to help mobile startups grow appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The Developers’ API

Today we are excited to announce the launch of our latest APIs for providers of Skills/Behavioral Assessments, Coding Challenges, Background Checks, and Video Interviews as well as multiple updates to our existing APIs that make it even easier for providers of HRIS/onboarding and Sourcing solutions to build integrations directly with Workable.

In conjunction with this API release, we’ve also created a new Developers site where customers and vendors can find the resources needed to build these integrations. Whether you’re a Workable customer who wants one of your external services to build a custom integration, or a provider who wants to enable your services for interested Workable customers, we invite you to review the documentation.

Launch partners

As excited as we are about announcing these updates, we are even more excited to announce our initial partners who will be releasing their integrations in Q2 2017.

Assessments

CriteriaCorp is a leading provider of online pre-employment aptitude, personality and skills tests. The partnership brings the power of their intuitive testing platform, HireSelect® , to Workable customers. The integrations allows customers to quickly identify top talent by deploying assessments directly through the Workable Platform, and viewing test results right in the Candidate Timeline.

Video interview

Conducting video interviews has become an essential tool for many employers and Workable customers who use Spark Hire or HarQen will now be able to coordinate these interviews and review the recorded sessions from inside their Workable account.

Coding challenges

Recruiting great technical talent can be one of the biggest challenges companies face. Codility makes assessing coders a breeze – even for those without a technical background. Their integration with Workable will enable recruiters and hiring managers to seamlessly use Codility assessments and interview tools within the Workable interface.

Sourcing

Without great candidates in the pipeline it’s impossible to make a great hire. With our updated and improved APIs for managing external candidates, Workable customers can now integrate with the sourcing tool of their choice including our latest partners: Hired and Yborder. Workshape already integrates with Workable, as recently announced.

HRIS/Onboarding

A new employee’s journey is just beginning when an offer is accepted. The critical activities that occur between accepting an offer and their first day can be the difference between an employee hitting the ground running or being left bogged down in paperwork in their first days. Workable customers can start the onboarding process and create a new employee record the moment a candidate has been hired via the Onboarding integrations with Sapling and Click Boarding and the HRIS integration with bob in the UK.

As you can see we’ve been very busy behind the scenes at Workable to create an ecosystem that brings all of your most valued tools recruiting tools into the our platform. Continue to watch this space for more partnership and integration announcements in the near future. Solutions providers who are interested in building an integration of their services for all Workable customers can apply to be an official Workable partner via our Developer site.

The post Announcing the Workable Developer Partner Program and developer APIs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you already have an account with Criteria, activating the integration is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the test and the type of test that you send. The process is seamless – everything can be done from inside Workable, including reviewing the test results.

If you’re new to pre-employment testing, here’s a quick rundown of ways it can help:

Assess candidates more objectively

If your candidate has performed well at the phone screen stage, well designed assessment test from a specialist provider will help you to draw objective conclusions before you reach a structured interview.

Pre-set tests have the advantage of being standardized and administered in the same way to every candidate. By selecting a test according to job-related criteria, you’ll give everyone the same opportunity to succeed.

Save time on interviews

Interviews are stressful for candidates and take time for your hiring team to prepare and complete. Some of the basic requirements can be assessed through pre-employment screening before you get to the interview stage. Save time for both your candidate and the hiring team, and create a better candidate experience.

Make decisions based on quantifiable data

Companies are becoming more aware of the value of building diverse teams, and hiring methods that directly tackle unconscious bias will help improve your hiring process. Test results enable you to be specific about your reasons for rejecting or progressing a candidate. Rely less on ‘gut instinct’ and stay inline with EEOC regulations by using tests created by professionals, for the professionals that you want to hire.

If you’ve yet to use an assessment test provider, find out more about Criteria and sign up for a free trial.

More integrations coming soon

This is the first of many integrations that we have planned, so please keep an eye here and on the newsletter for our latest releases. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable integrates with Criteria appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You can select a trigger (for instance “anytime you get a new candidate”) and an action (“send a personalized email through Gmail to each new applicant) to make a zap.

Here’s some simple zaps we’ve made:

1.   Gmail
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Gmail Sends Email
   Usecase: Send a personalized email to every candidate who applies for a position
2.   Slack
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Slack Sends Message
   Usecase: Receive a notification in Slack when a new candidate applies to a position in Workable
3.   Hipchat
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Hipchat Sends Message
   Usecase: Receive a notification in Hipchat when a new candidate applies to a position in Workable
4.   Google Sheets
   Trigger: Add New Row in Google Sheets
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Upload candidates from your Google Sheets into Workable
5.   Google Contacts
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Google Contacts Creates New Contact
   Usecase: Create a contact from new applications to your positions in Workable
6.   Typeform
   Trigger: Add New Submission in Typeform
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create your own application forms in Typeform and have submission create a candidate in Workable
7.   Zapier
   Trigger: Forward New Email to Email Parser
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create a new candidate in Workable by forwarding your conversation with them to Zapier Email Parser
8.   Mailchimp
   Trigger: Create New Candidate in Workable
   Action: Mailchimp Adds Subscriber
   Usecase: Add a subscriber to your ‘New Job Alerts’ mailing list in Mailchimp each time a candidate applies to a position in Workable
9.   Gravity forms
   Trigger: New Submission
   Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
   Usecase: Create your own application forms in Typeform and have submissions create a candidate in Workable
10.   Gmail
    Trigger: Gmail New Email
    Action: Workable Creates New Candidate
    Usecase: Create a candidate in Workable by tagging an email from a candidate

Zapier integrates with more than 400 different web apps, which means most recruiters or hiring managers are bound to be able to find at least a few ways to use it to work smarter, not harder. To get started on your own zap, check out the full list on Zapbook.

Now do it yourself

• Define a trigger: The first event that instigates another action. The trigger might be something like “Send a new email in Gmail” or “Create a new candidate in Workable.”
• Define an action: An action is what happens after the trigger. It might be something like “Create a Contact in Google Contacts” or “Get a message in Slack.”
• Ensure your Zap works and then you are set. Zapier will await the trigger and complete the actions you’ve set up.

Need a little help? Check out our support section on our most popular zaps.

The post New Workable-Zapier integration saves time with automation appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The clock on my laptop tells me it’s 6:37 p.m. The image of my title slide on the big screen confirms that the projector is working. Another projector shows our Twitter feed. I’ve tested it more than once. Can you tell that I’m nervous?

I inspect the neatly arranged seats laid out before me, there are 80. I’ve counted them. Practically all are empty apart from a few early arrivals. But there are voices, more people are trickling in. I’m relieved.

I’d been toying with the idea of a meetup for over a year until I finally decided to take the plunge. So here we were, after a couple of months’ preparation, at the first Data Science Athens Meetup.

If you were being kind, you might use the word “nascent” to describe the meetup scene in Greece. We’d booked a spacious conference room at one of the handful of startup incubators in Athens. Pizzas and drinks were due to arrive towards the end of two carefully planned presentations, one of which was my own. Yet this wasn’t a typical evening of fun and relaxation. The highlight would involve Bayesian statistics. So the fact that 300 people had signed up seemed incredible.

Who were they and why did they care?

This is what I learned and I think it’s pretty much true for all meetups (a lot of people fit in more than one category):

1. Practitioners

• Learn from experts
• Maintain link with academia
• Find others with whom to collaborate
• Find professional mentors

2. Entrepreneurs

• Find talent to hire
• Find inspiration for a new startup
• Learn about a new field from experts
• Promote their own product or company

3. Researchers

• Find applications in industry
• Find collaborators for a paper
• Learn about industry needs
• Practice presentation skills
• Get out of the lab!

4. Educators

• Promote their school, program or seminar
• Attract students to their research group or lab
• Promote their research and published works

5. Students

• Learn real world applications
• Form study groups
• Secure internships and industrial placements

Ten minutes into our debut event more than 100 people inundated the room. I left the event energized and very positive about what the future holds. For me, creating this community is really about enabling people to connect with each other outside the confines of their quotidian environment, be it corporate or academic.

Here at Workable, I am constantly inspired by the level of drive and intensity behind the engineers that work alongside me. Each of us strives to achieve immersion in our respective field, contributing to open source projects, organizing and speaking at events, winning competitions among other things. My own favorite related hobbies are teaching and writing. I’ve been teaching data science to graduate students at the Athens University of Economics and Business for three years now.

Last June, I also became a published author with my book Mastering Predictive Analytics with R. More of my colleagues, like our lead designer, Zaharenia Atzitzikaki, are also writing.

There’s a crucial element to professional immersion that I think some of us tend to forget. This is the importance of being active within an established forum of peers. No matter how great of an environment your workplace is, and how much personal effort you invest in your own development, there is a much larger community out there that can help you grow and progress in a myriad of different ways.

A credible local community

An overlooked aspect of meetups, however, is the creation of a credible local community. I’m willing to bet that Athens is probably not your first choice when you think of centers of excellence in a field such as data science or even technology in general. I am on a mission to change that. Now there are some other people with me on this mission.

Granted, much has to be accomplished in order for perceptions to shift but I believe that a vibrant and outspoken community that works together to share knowledge and opportunities can be a potential catalyst. With the help of startups like Workable, which incidentally sponsors our meetup, we can give back to the local community and encourage other startups to follow in our footsteps.

Last month Workable announced a funding round of $27m, raising the bar in product design, engineering and customer service within the human resources space. This achievement not only sets a standard for other startups here to pursue, it has also given many people hope. In our meetup, we’re taking this hope and turning it into a community that will inspire excellence while learning a lot in the process.

In our next blog post, we’ll look at how meetups make sound business sense and provide rich recruiting grounds.

The post The Magnetism of Meetups appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In our last post, we announced the launch of our first aptitude assessments partner and continuing with that theme, today we announce our first integration to assess the skills of tech candidates via our partnership with Codility.

Recruiting and identifying the best talent for your open roles can be difficult, no matter what the position. However, that challenge is even greater when you’re trying to find talent for hard-to-fill tech roles such as software developers and engineers. In the past, often the only way to evaluate a candidate’s coding proficiency was to have existing programming staff on hand, to sit with each candidate individually and assess their fit for the role.  This is not just  time-consuming, but difficult to standardize, causing some of the best talent to slip through the cracks. With Codility, Workable customers can automate this process early on in the hiring pipeline, and ensure that each candidate is being assessed against the same criteria. This means that your already busy hiring team see only the most viable candidates at interview stage.

If you already have an account with Codility, activating the integration is simple. Once complete, you’ll be able to specify at which stage in the pipeline you’d like to send the test and the type of test that you send. Of course you can send specific tests for the different roles you’re hiring for. The process is seamless – everything can be done from the Workable platform, including reviewing the test results.

If you’re hiring people for tech positions in your organization and looking for a better way to assess their technical skills, find out more about Codility and sign up for a free trial.

More integrations coming soon

We have more exciting announcements coming up! Stay tuned for our upcoming integrations for video interviews, onboarding and new additions to our HRIS providers. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program.

The post Announcing our new integration with Codility appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Today we’re excited to announce our latest integration partner, Namely, an all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits platform.

We know that valuable time is lost to manual data entry. This integration helps bring that to an end. Connect your Namely account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in Namely as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable.

The data transferred into Namely includes:

• Photo or avatar (depending on your account settings)
• First name
• Last name
• Personal email address
• Job title
• Start date
• Candidate resume
• LinkedIn url (depending on your social profile privacy settings)
• User status

Find out more about setting up the Namely integration. We hope you find this useful – look out for more integrations in the future.

The post New release: a partnership with Namely appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The smart people know that it’s easier to be productive with the right kind of help: productivity is a team sport.

Our aim at Workable is to make sure that your recruiting process runs as smoothly as possible, so we go the extra mile to provide the help you actually need.

Workable for mobile recruiting

As the Product Manager for Workable mobile, ‘going the extra mile’ is more than a figure of speech. We now offer a complete mobile experience in all major platforms (iOS, Android, Web). If you’re using Workable on mobile, you’ll get a smarter approach to recruiting tasks. The chances are you’re travelling, out of the office or between meetings. Time is precious, the screen is small, and real productivity requires the right kind of focus.

We’ve spent a lot of time defining and segmenting tasks to complement your mobile recruiting strategy and workflow. Yes – we’ve started with lists, but they’re automated in order of importance to save you time. If you only have three minutes between meetings, we’ve made it easier to make those minutes count.

Your Workable account to-do list

Workable has a full suite of recruiting reports, which is great when you’re at your desk with time to review them. But if you’re on the move you still need a fast way to check that everything is running smoothly.

The account overview for mobile helps you spot possible problems with your hiring process and catch problems before they arise.

Are you getting enough candidates for the job?

New candidates lists every candidate that has been sourced or applied over the last seven days. If you’re an account admin or a hiring manager, keep an eye on this list. If the number is below your target it could be time to improve your job ad, or advertise on a niche or specialist job board.

Are your team progressing candidates fast enough?

Unscheduled lists candidates that are waiting at the Phone screen, Assessment or Interview stages who are yet to have an event scheduled. Candidates stay on this list for 30 days, so it’s an easy way to spot candidates that you need to act on. Remember, the two day rule of recruiting – if you don’t snap up the talent, someone else will.

Are you about to lose a great candidate for the job?

Slipping away is a list that includes candidates that your team hasn’t discussed or contacted for more than a week. Great candidates can get lost because different members of the hiring team think someone else is taking action. Double check your best candidates don’t end up on this list – and if they do, use the Workable mobile app to take action fast. Taking too long to respond to a candidate can be the beginning of a poor candidate experience.

Are you engaged in the right conversations?

Popular covers the candidates that you and your team are talking about. The candidates with an evaluation of ‘Yes’ or ‘Definitely Yes’ and the top number of comments in the past seven days are included on this list. Catch up with the comments from the team and make sure the right conversations are happening.

Is it time to send a personal follow-up email?

Pending gives a fast view of candidates who have not yet accepted your offer of employment. This is important to track to make sure that your recruiting efforts don’t go to waste. See if it’s time to send a follow up email, or schedule a call to allay any fears.

And finally…
All candidates is, of course a list of every candidate that has been sourced or applied. Just because you’re out of the office doesn’t mean you’re out of touch.

Your personal to-do list

A macro view of everything is great, but of course you’ll also need to get into the details. Workable helps get the jobs done faster with personal to-do lists, segmented by type:

Unread candidates: a list of new candidates that have either applied or been sourced and are waiting your review. They’ll stay here until you’ve had time to read them.

Unrated candidates: these candidates have all had an event scheduled via Workable. Whether it’s a phone screening or an interview, as soon as the event has happened and requires your feedback, you’ll find the candidate in the ‘unrated’ list – no need to track them down in your candidate database. Leave a quick evaluation, complete an interview scorecard or disqualify the candidate. If your team is waiting for your feedback so they can move forward with a candidate, this is your first port of call.

Recently viewed: a list of up to 60 candidates you’ve personally viewed in the last seven days. This is a fast way to find that one person you’re looking for without having to remember their name, or every detail of their resume.

Waiting response: a list of candidates that have contacted you by email and have been waiting for your response over the past 7 days. Sorry to nag, but these things need to get done…

So there it is.

We’ve tried to make sure that we have everything covered to help you get things done at your ideal pace, and in a way that suits the way you like to work. But this is a team effort! If you have any thoughts or feedback to share on your own mobile workflow, please do get in touch.

Not tried Workable on mobile yet? It’s available on the App Store and Google Play Store.
Not tried Workable at all, but now you’re intrigued? Sign up to Workable first – you need to set up an account to access it on mobile, then it’s all yours, free for 15 days.

The post Tackle more with our smarter mobile recruiting app appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The first presentation was from our own Nikos Dimos (Linkedin) and Rui Miguel Forte (Linkedin), who lead the Sourcing and Data Science teams respectively. Nikos talked about how the Sourcing team at Workable moved to Microservices architecture. He started with some basics, like defining a Monolith and Microservice architecture, and explaining when each is a good fit. He then drilled down to specific problems that kept cropping up with our old, monolithic architecture, and how they were mitigated by moving to Microservices. He showed how the new architecture relies on Rabbit MQ for inter-service communication, and employs tools like Apache Kafka to keep track of what service invocations took place and how. Key takeaways were understanding the tradeoffs when selecting between the Monolith and Microservices, how testing becomes easier and the fact that when moving to a Microservice architecture you need to embrace working asynchronously and make the most out of it.

Miguel (who is also the leader of the Data Science Athens group) carried on with an introduction on what Data Science is and the kind of problems we use it to solve, and went on with tools that his team frequently uses. The first tool is Apache Tika, a toolkit that extracts text and metadata from multiple file types. He also demoed (code available to play with on Github – branch develop) some more advanced tasks, such as image and links extraction. The presentation went on with PMML (Predictive Model Markup Language). A common problem our Data Science team has is that predictive models are easier to develop and train in languages like Python or R, but then those models need to be ported to Java for production. PMML is a – surprisingly old – exchange format allows us to transfer (export and re-import) the models from from one platform to the other, so that the model doesn’t need to be developed and trained from scratch (which may take days, depending on the model).

The second presentation was by Marios Kogias (Linkedin), who talked about Code Maintainability. The talk was based on the book Building Maintainable Software by Joost Visser and others. As Marios pointed out, the methodology promoted by the book is not written in blood, but is essentially a set of best practices which can make our life easier in the long run. Essentially, the talk highlighted three simple day-to-day habits, like keeping methods at most 15 LoC, duplicating code wisely, and keeping method signatures simple using encapsulation. Marios also described which refactoring operations (most IDEs have them out of the box) are appropriate for each case. Finally, the presentation mentioned code analysis tools like Better Code Hub, PMD and the fantastic SonarQube.

The third presentation was by Thomas Pliakas (Linkedin), who talked about Garbage Collection (GC) performance tuning. We all know that GC is something taking place in the background, and we don’t worry about it often. When we do though, it is useful that we know at least which are the basic garbage collectors, what algorithms they use and the phases of their execution. Thomas began with the presentation of the sub-regions of what we see from the outside as Java Heap (Eden, Tenured, Permgen), and why GC revolves around the age of objects. He then went on to explain what Minor, Major and Full GC are, as well as details of common garbage collectors. Thomas explained factors to take into account before tuning GC (latency, throughput, capacity) and continued with tunings for the G1, which is going to become the default. The presentation finished with references which are a very good starting point for people diving into the interesting world of GC.

All in all, it was a great meet up. Thanks to everyone who came, and of course, Nikos, Miguel, Marios and Thomas for presenting!

This post was written by Markos Fragkakis, find him on twitter as @fragkakis.
Photos by Markos Pitsilos.

The post Workable hosts the latest JHUG meet up appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But making the hire is just the first step in the journey of a new employee. What happens between the offer acceptance and the new employee’s first day on the job can be the difference between an engaged new team member or the one in five who quit their job within 45 days.

Onboarding is more than paperwork

To create a successful onboarding experience, it’s important for companies to start showcasing their culture before day one. That’s why today we are excited to announce the launch of our latest partner, Sapling, who empower companies to solve and automate the onboarding challenge.

Sapling create structured and repeatable onboarding programs that promote new hire success. From introductions to fellow team members to the distribution of important documentation, and setting up the new hire’s environment.

Data entry? Done!

If you’re already using Workable for applicant tracking and Sapling for onboarding, you’ll know that with the joy of every new hire comes the drag of data entry. This new integration fixes that.

Connect your Sapling account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in Sapling as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable.

The data transferred into Sapling includes:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Job Title
• Department
• Personal email address
• Personal phone number

Once the information is transferred, you can start making your new employee feel right at home.

More integrations coming soon

It might be summer, but our work is not yet done. We have more exciting announcements coming up! Stay tuned here and in the newsletter for details of our expanding ecosystem. If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved.

The post From new hire to engaged employee: our integration with Sapling is live appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Last week we released our Pay Per Applicant job advertising model for Workable customers in the US and now it’s time to show the love to Workable customers far and wide.

In the last month we’ve released integrations to help Workable customers attract new candidates on a variety of specialty and diversity sites including Mashable, SHRM, Dribbble, and HireAHero. We also partnered with Looksharp to allow customers to specifically target new grads and college interns.

This week we’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded our job posting options for our international customers. In partnership with Beyond, we’ve added 55 new job posting sites, providing even greater reach to target the right candidates in 130 countries.

From Bumeran in Central and South America to TotalJobs in the UK, Stepstone in Germany to Bayt in the Middle East, Naukri in India and Jobstreet in Singapore, our latest release spans the globe.

We’re committed to making the job posting process as smooth and effective as possible, so you can expect more partnerships over the next few months. However, if there’s a site that you’re using that you think could be off our radar, please do get in touch.

If you’re on the other side of that equation – a job board with services to offer – and would like to discuss partnership opportunities, we’d love to hear from you too!

The post Find your next great hire on our 55 new international job boards appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve been named a Gold level Preferred Partner by Glassdoor.

Getting the right candidates is always the most effective route to making a great hire. Workable’s seamless integration with Glassdoor provides the option to distribute all your open jobs automatically from within the Workable platform. Log in once to Workable, and perform all your hiring tasks in one go; no links to copy and paste and no data entry. For those hard to fill roles, we also provide the option to sponsor your jobs on Glassdoor — again, straight from Workable.

A better candidate experience

Getting your open jobs in front of the right candidates is one of the missions of Workable. Getting those candidates to apply is the next biggest hurdle, and Workable has always strived to make the application process as pain free as possible.

We don’t believe that a candidate should be required to enter page after page of details just to let you know they’re interested in your job. So for us, integrating with Glassdoor’s Easy Apply functionality was a perfect fit. Now, candidates can review a job posting, submit their resume and profile, and answer your prescreening questions straight from the Glassdoor site. It’s a near frictionless process—and it works! Since launch, our integration with Glassdoor Easy Apply has increased the number of successful applies for jobs posted on Glassdoor by nearly 300%.

Better data, better decisions

It was once written that no man is an island – and neither is the recruitment process for most companies. We believe that meaningful analysis of past recruitment activity will help you make more informed decisions about the allocation of future resources.

We’re working with Glassdoor to bring those insights directly into the Workable platform. Our next launch with Glassdoor will provide access to real-time data on the Cost Per Applicant, Cost Per Hire, and additional advertising metrics. Make data driven decisions to improve your job advertising spend and increase your ROI.

The post Workable becomes a Glassdoor preferred partner appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Last month when Google announced its new Google for Jobs search tool, it wasn’t long before our customers were all asking the same question: “How do I get my jobs to show up in Google search results?”

It’s a good question – and we’d already started working with Google on the answer. That’s why we’re excited to announce that jobs posted through Workable in the US and the UK (plus a number of other countries) are now automatically recognized, and will appear in Google job search results.

What is Google for Jobs?

Aimed at making the job search easier for candidates, Google for Jobs is an enhanced search feature that aggregates listings from job boards and careers sites and displays them prominently in Google Search.

Now when you search for jobs in using the Google job search engine, you’ll view job listings in a dedicated space at the top of the search results, like this:

When job seekers click to find out more, they are taken through to the source, to read the full job description and apply.

Looking to get your job advertisement in front of the right candidates? See how Workable compares to other applicant tracking systems, like Lever and Greenhouse.

I’m a Workable customer, how do I get my jobs to appear in Google for Jobs search results?

Getting your jobs to appear in search results has never been easier. Workable customers in the US or the UK simply need to publish an open job on their careers site. Google prides itself on providing the most relevant information for any search or query, so, to attract the most relevant candidates, complete the job targeting options at the bottom of the Workable job editor when you post the job. These fields highlight the information that candidates are most likely to be searching for:

The more detail you add, the more relevant information Google has to match you to your ideal candidate pool. This is especially beneficial for those targeting niche or specialist roles.

The jobs you post will then be indexed by Google’s search engine and appear in search results automatically.

Interested candidates can view the job details and begin the application process via Google for Jobs. Easy for you. Easy for candidates.

Not a Workable customer yet? Discover why we’re the leading ATS for ambitious companies. Sign up for our 15-day free trial and start hiring better people, faster.

The post Workable makes it easy to get indexed in Google for Jobs appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Today we’re excited to announce our latest integration partner for our customers in the UK and Israel. bob, is an all-in-one HR, employee engagement and benefits platform.

We know how often valuable time is lost to manual data entry – especially when it comes to moving employee data through different, but related systems. This integration helps bring that to an end. Connect your bob account to Workable and an employee profile is created automatically in bob, as soon as a candidate is moved to the ‘Hired’ stage in Workable. The information transferred includes:

• First name
• Last name
• Email
• Phone
• Candidate source
• Resume
• Avatar/Photo (depending on your preferences)
• Job title
• Job department

Find out more about setting up the bob integration.

Stay tuned for many exciting new partnership announcements over the coming weeks! If you’re a software provider, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and get involved.

The post Workable integrates with HR and benefits platform, bob appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Today we’re excited to announce the launch of our first video interview integration with our latest partner, Spark Hire.

Spark Hire is an easy-to-use video interviewing platform with 3,000+ customers in over 100 countries. It’s used by organizations to make better hires, faster than ever before.

Why use video interviews?

If you’re new to video interviews, these are some of the reasons why their uptake is gaining momentum:

More efficient candidate screening
With a full candidate pipeline and a busy hiring team, interviews can take not just time, but resources. Juggling interview schedules with multiple candidates and a busy hiring team is tough. The higher the volume of qualified candidates, the more complex this becomes. Video interviews with a tool like Spark Hire help you screen and evaluate candidates at a time that works for everyone.

After receiving your interview request, candidates can answer your questions on their own time. When they’re ready, you can review the completed video interviews at your convenience. This makes it easy to screen candidates prior to an on-site interview, and to compare candidates early in the hiring process.

For candidates who are applying remotely, video interviews can also save on budget by avoiding costly travel expenses for early round interviewing.

Better collaboration with the hiring team
It’s important to get feedback from hiring managers early on in the process. Workable already makes collaboration easier, with trackable communication on the candidate profile. Now with Spark Hire, Workable also keeps a record of the interviews sent and received. Share the candidate profile with your hiring team, and they can review everything from the resume and application form to the pre-recorded video in just a few clicks.

If your team is busy at certain times, or even out of the office, Spark Hire eliminates the issue. Hiring Teams can log in from anywhere to review the videos and leave their feedback.

A fairer, more consistent process
It’s well known that a structured interview is almost twice as effective as the common unstructured interview. Workable already provides interview kits and scorecards to help structure your process, and Spark Hire follows the same principles. By pre-setting your interview questions, every candidate has the same opportunity to succeed, by answering the same questions, in the same order. This makes it easy to compare interviews – and unlike a regular conversation, the recordings are available to re-watch when you need them.

Making the connection

Connecting your Spark Hire and Workable accounts will enable you to send one-way video interviews to candidates as they move through your hiring pipeline. When a candidate arrives at an assessment stage, you can send the video request directly through Workable. After the candidate completes the interview, you’ll receive a notification and you and your team can view the video directly from the candidate’s profile in Workable.

Wondering what questions you should ask? Our Guide to Structured Interview Questions could help.

More integrations coming soon

We have many more exciting integrations to announce in the coming months. Watch this space to learn more! If you’re a software provider and would like to integrate with Workable, find out more about our Developer Partner Program and apply to be a partner today.

The post Announcing our new integration with Spark Hire appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Candidate profiles emerge as the key points of reference throughout the hiring process. They keep track of how far along the pipeline the candidate has progressed, they store the resume, and they keep a full record of all the team feedback.

In short, Workable’s candidate profiles free hiring teams from the tyranny of the email inbox. Trying to remember who was really positive about a candidate and who had a few more questions? It’s a comment on the candidate’s profile. Not sure when the candidate said they could start? It’s on the job application form – available on the candidate’s profile. Need a link to their portfolio? Yep. Candidate profile.

And yet… email and calendars are still vital tools for hiring managers and recruiters. Why? Because the primary communication with a candidate usually takes place via email. And because your time is contested – you’re not just scheduling interviews with candidates, but meetings with your boss, calls with your team, clients and more.

Our latest updates tackle this brutal truth: you still need your external email and calendar when you’re recruiting. These apps are not dead yet.

Workable offers Google Apps integration

Our integration with Gmail has been online and live for a long time. If you’ve not used it yet, it enables you to reply to candidates from the place that suits you best – Workable, or Gmail. The two are synced, so that every email with a candidate is automatically tracked on the candidate’s timeline. You’ll also remain up-to-date whether you’re sending or receiving on desktop or Workable’s mobile app for iOS or Android.

A few months ago we launched an enhanced integration with Google Calendar. Now, when you’re inside Workable getting things done, you can check team availability (and your own), book a room, and schedule an interview time that works for everyone using your Google Calendar directly inside Workable. No need to switch apps and waste valuable time.

We also provide the option to customize your Google Calendar view inside Workable. If you’re not working weekends, and you have preferred office hours, customize your calendar to weekdays and your specified hours only. Reduce the clutter and focus on what matters.

We’re a busy team, you’re busy people – we don’t always shout loudly about every new feature. However, you could call our Google Calendar integration the big sleeper hit of the summer. With little promotion from us, it didn’t take long for the Microsoft Office 365 users among you to say, ‘Hey! We’ve heard these Google integrations with Workable really work! What about us?!’

Workable now offers Microsoft Office 365 integration

We take your feedback to heart, so we’re pleased to announce that Workable now offers a Microsoft Office 365 integration too.

The release includes two parts: Office 365 Outlook and Office 365 Calendar.

As with Gmail, the Office 365 Outlook integration allows for seamless communication with candidates via Workable, using your company Outlook email account. Activated by an administrator for your Office 365 account, again, this integration also includes the automatic 2-way sync between Workable and your Outlook inbox. This means that you can send an email from Outlook or Workable, but a full record is kept automatically on the candidate’s timeline in Workable and in your Outlook Inbox. Your hiring team stays up to speed, and everyone can see the information they need. You can work from Outlook or Workable and rest assured that you have all the information you need.

The Office 365 Calendar integration enables faster interview scheduling. Check up on your own calendar, see the availability of your hiring team and schedule interviews faster inside Workable. And just like with email, we offer calendar sync so that events created in Workable are also synced back to your external Office 365 Calendar.

We’re really excited about these updates. The feedback we’ve had so far about our Google Calendar integration has been fantastic. Scheduling interviews and calls is one of the main headaches for hiring managers and recruiters, so anything that can help numb the pain has to be good!

Let us know if you need any help, and how it’s working out for you and your teams.

The post Email and calendars for hiring: not dead yet appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A range of coding assessments

Coding assessment tests from Qualified cover a broad spectrum, from CS algorithms to specific technologies and frameworks like Node.js and Ruby on Rails. They use real testing frameworks—frameworks developers are familiar with—for evaluating results. Choose between their pre-made assessments or customize them to meet your specific needs.

Improve hiring workflow

Process candidates faster and without bias using Qualified’s automated assessment workflows. Their software weeds through the applicant pool at your assigned stage in the interview pipeline, objectively comparing test scores to eliminate weak candidates. This leaves you free to focus time and energy on your most promising candidates.

Insight into cracking the code

How candidates approach coding assessments can be just as revealing as the end result. By integrating Qualified with Workable you can identify engineers who have the skillset and thought processes that align with your intended goals. Using their code playback feature you can see how a candidate approaches a problem and the steps they take towards a final solution.

Get integrated

If you’re already using Workable and Qualified, see how to activate the integration and make Qualified an embedded part of your recruitment process.

Once you’ve activated your Qualified integration, you’ll be able to send an assessment from the candidate’s profile. When the results of the assessment are available, you’ll receive notification via email and your Workable Inbox, along with a link to log in to Qualified and view the results.

If you’ve yet to try Qualified, find out more with a free trial.

Interested in sharing your product or service with Workable customers? Take a look at our Developer Partner Program.

The post Workable partners with coding assessment provider, Qualified appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

1. Introduction to Applicant Tracking Systems
2. Overview of Applicant Tracking Systems
3. Is an ATS the Right Choice for your Growing Business?
4. Benefits of Applicant Tracking Systems
5. Choosing an Applicant Tracking System
6. Keys to Recruiting
7. Managing the Hiring Process
8. Optimizing Your Company’s Career Page
9. Managing the Interview Process
10. Assessing Your Requirements
11. Checklist of Applicant Tracking System Features

1. Introduction to Applicant tracking systems

The first applicant tracking systems (ATS) evolved to help employers take that old standby, the paper resume, and scan it into a database. Like most technologies that emerged to replicate analogue ways of doing things, they left a lot of room for improvement.

The processes were bureaucratic, unwieldy and complicated. The aim was to mirror old world paper and filing processes in a custom database. The word “clunky” was often overheard. In its formative years the ATS was similar to basic customer relationship management systems (CRMs), that sought to offer very basic resume screening and trace an applicant’s path through the hiring process.

Just like the CRMs, which began life as digital rolodexes and turned into the current cloud-based powerhouses, the ATS has evolved. Today, there are a wide range of ATS software options, some that concentrate on automating as much as possible of the hiring process and others that help the hiring manager to make their own decisions.

The ATS has become an integral part of every aspect of hiring from building an employer brand and smarter application forms, to resume parsing, automatic retrieval of candidates’ public profiles, and scheduling interviews. Recruiting analytics and reporting tools can now help companies get a clearer understanding of the hiring process and make improvements that have a real impact on the business.

The purpose of this applicant tracking system guide is to help you understand your needs as clearly as possible in order to make an informed choice of recruiting software.

Return to top

2. Overview of applicant tracking systems

The quality of a company’s hires are the single best predictor of its future success. Even though this is widely understood, hiring is still seen as frustrating and messy by many business owners, HR Directors, hiring managers and recruiters who grapple with it. But now, better software is righting this wrong.

Human Resources has been poorly served by technology for too long, when compared with the pioneers in sales, but we are seeing a renaissance in HR software, thanks in large part to the potential unleashed by cloud-based computing. At the heart of all of this is the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

What is an ATS?

What is an applicant tracking system (ATS)? In its simplest form, it offers relief to these commonly acknowledged pain points in recruitment:

Pain: Submitting the same job ad to multiple job boards costs time and money.
Relief: An ATS integrated with these listings sites can post to a wide range of free and paid job boards with a single submission.

Pain: Building and maintaining a careers page takes up valuable developer time.
Relief: An ATS can make managing a careers page as simple as changing your background image and bio on Twitter.

Pain: Recruiting triggers an avalanche of PDFs and emails.
Relief: ATS recruiting means you collect, organize and show job candidates in the same way LinkedIn or Facebook show your contacts or friends.

Pain: Resume styles are nearly as various as the people sending them.
Relief: Recruiting software can parse these resumes, break them down and present the data they contain in a standardized format where it can be quickly reviewed.

Pain: The absence of standardized information like “how many years of work experience has she got?” add to the time burden.
Relief: Applicant tracking software mines the resumes you receive and presents candidate data in a way that makes comparisons fast and simple.

Pain: Precious time is routinely wasted on irrelevant applications.
Relief: ATS recruiting offers the facility to automatically filter dud applications from job candidates or highlight 3-4 priorities on the application form that enable human judgement to be swifter.

Pain: Using email and spreadsheets to track candidates with a hiring team quickly becomes overwhelming.
Relief: An ATS can enable you to add notes to candidates just like you put comments on Facebook.

Pain: External recruiters remain a great resource for high value hires, but they shouldn’t be a necessity for businesses.
Relief: An ATS can provide recruiting tools that let you fill a talent pool and save your recruiting dollars for the tougher hires.

This kind of pain relief is only part of an applicant tracking system definition but it points to what you can achieve with ATS recruiting. The right applicant tracking software is a major step towards creating a repeatable, systematic hiring process, from posting a job to having an offer letter accepted.

Return to top

3. Is an ATS the Right Choice for your Growing Business?

Whether you are looking for your first applicant tracking system (ATS) or considering investing in an upgrade, the best starting point is a clear understanding of your needs. The first step to achieving this is to map your existing hiring process.

Questions to get started with evaluating applicant tracking software:

• How do you do your hiring planning and budget costs?
• How are your job ads written?
• How and where do you post your jobs?
• How do you currently collect applications?
• How do you progress candidates through from applied to hired?
• Do you use pre-screening questions or job-related assignments?
• Do you work with external recruiters?
• Who is on your hiring team (this may differ from one position to another).
• How many steps does a candidate go through prior to a final interview?
• Do you conduct background checks prior to a final offer?
• What kind of data and reporting do you use to improve your hiring process?

Now step back and think about how this could be improved. What are the pain points? How do you cope with the volume of applications, how are communications between your team during hiring, how well does your interview and call scheduling work?

The point of this exercise is to identify the gap between how things are done now and what your ideal recruiting process would look like. If you sailed through the 11 questions and liked your own answers you’re in a happy minority. Most companies, of all sizes, find recruiting challenging, in one way or another.

The vast majority of small and medium-sized businesses are still using email and spreadsheets to run their recruitment. Less than one in five SMBs has switched to applicant tracking software, according to most estimates. But the big switch has begun.

Larger companies have long since adopted software for their ATS needs but many of the enterprise solutions adopted by Fortune 500 firms have inherited the same bureaucratic dysfunction they were meant to cure. It might seem sensible to cram in features for all eventualities but feature-heavy applicant tracking software can be both expensive and unwieldy.

Hiring processes are not the same at an organization with 2,000+ employees as they are at a firm with 250 employees, or one with 25. By being clear from the outset over your real hiring needs you can eliminate the prospect of paying for features you don’t need and concentrate your investment on an ATS that does the best possible job on the features that you do need.

Return to top

4. Benefits of Applicant Tracking Systems

Most recruiters report that at least 50% of job hunters don’t possess the basic qualifications for the jobs they are pursuing. Applicant tracking systems came about when employers needed a way to deal with this flood of irrelevant resumes.

Today’s ATS systems are developed to scan for keywords, employment history and college records to identify viable candidates. The best ATS now available will take the data entry out of your hiring and leave you time to concentrate on the chewy human question of who you should hire and work with.

Using recruiting software means you don’t have to stitch together spreadsheets, email and elaborate filing systems. The advantage of an applicant tracking system is that it provides seamless and customizable collaboration features so that you’re always in the loop.

Applicant tracking systems help employers by providing a business process to follow during recruiting:

• Save time recruiting by automating job board posting, resume submission, and pre-screening
• Open the way to better candidates with standardized metrics and access to a pipeline of previous successful applicants
• Standardize your hiring so you don’t have to reinvent the process each time
• Keep you compliant with hiring laws
• Give you a headstart on employee retention with better screened and qualified candidates
• Ensure a striking and personalized candidate experience