Reducing turnover by going back to square one

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Employee retention is a crucial component of a healthy and happy organization. Conversely, a regular cycle of turnover can lead to decreased productivity, increased costs (to replace employees), lowered expertise, and ultimately lower team morale. More specifically: 

  • Turnover is costly! The average cost per employee for turnover is nearly $15,000 according to The Work Institutes 2020 Retention Report. Some of these costs are easy to compute, such as the labor cost of retraining and job advertising. But many costs are silent killers, such as lowered organizational knowledge and productivity.
  • Things almost never go according to plan. Of every 10 people who leave a job, approximately 1 is due to retirement, 3 are from layoffs, and 6 are from resignations. That means that roughly 9 of every 10 people who leave your company are doing so in a manner that was not the original plan of either the employee or the employer. And with each person who walks out, so too does the institutional knowledge and expertise that person has gained.
  • The skills paradox. As the need for skilled employees continues to rise, the availability of skilled employees continues to fall. To put this in context, in the United States, there were over 7 million job openings in 2019 and approximately 6 million unemployed individuals according to the Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report. This means that not only will it become increasingly difficult to retain good employees, since they are in high demand, but it will be hard to find replacements if they leave. 

Fortunately, once an employee is a part of your organization, there are many effective methods to reduce turnover. These include measuring (and working to increase) employee satisfaction, placing a managerial focus on employee engagement, and providing clearly defined opportunities for advancement.

But there is one simple, and far too often overlooked, strategy any organization can immediately take to increase retention. You need to go back to where each new employee started — at the job posting. However, since you likely don’t have time traveling capabilities, what you can proactively do is to critically analyze your up-front recruiting practices to help you attract, and ultimately hire, the best fit applicants you can. 

Here are two simple steps that will help you better align your organization’s needs with those of your next employees, and they both begin at the job posting level. This analysis can help set the stage for a successful, aligned hiring transaction. And alignment, be it cultural, skills, or experience, is critical for long term retention. 

  1. Provide honest job previews and job descriptions

Research shows that presenting applicants with a realistic job preview during the recruitment process has a positive effect on retention of those new hires. An employer is most likely to lose newly recruited employees when their job is not what they anticipated. “I left the company because the job description did not match what I wound up doing. It was not a good fit for me” was a common survey response by workers who quit their jobs in 2019 according to the Work Institute’s 2020 Retention Report.

Being honest in your job descriptions starts the relationship off on the right foot. Candidates apply to jobs based on what they read in the job description. If you’re not honest, or if you’re fluffing up your postings to attract more and better quality applicants, you’re not doing anyone any favors. You will likely end up with a hire whose day-to-day work is nothing like the job description for which they were hired. The result? A frustrated and confused new hire and an increased probability of a short employee-employer relationship.

  1. Align the application with the job at hand

A job application should contain questions specific to the role for which the applicant is applying. This approach benefits both the applicant and the employer.

From an applicant’s perspective, they will know immediately that you are not using a one-size fits all generic job application and that you, as a hiring organization, took the time to craft a job-specific process that is more likely to resonate with the applicant. In addition, the applicant will understand exactly what the job entails (based on the job-specific questions) and will know if they are a good fit for the position and/or your organization.

From an employer’s perspective, job specific applications provide you with better insight into whether an applicant may be a good fit for your team. For example, organizations may want to include specific skill based questions, availability inquiries (if the job contains shift work), situational-based questions, and more.  You’ll know early in the process who is (or isn’t) a good fit. And once you have started to evaluate possible strong-fit applicants, turning to pre-employment assessments can help narrow the candidate pool even further. These can range from hard skills (such as typing and math skills tests) to softer tests (such as personality) that can help determine organizational and cultural fit. 

 

Not magic, but alignment

There is no simple way to reduce employee turnover to zero. However, every ounce of improvement matters over the long term, and one of the best ways to improve a company’s overall retention rate is to improve the company’s hiring strategy. 

According to the Harvard Business Review, 80% of turnover can be attributed to bad hiring decisions. Most companies spend their retention efforts post-hire, when the data clearly shows that more energy should be spent on pre-hire efforts. Companies that recognize this and take action will reap the rewards of improved employee retention over time.

The Six Biggest Sources of Friction in Your Hiring Process

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Imagine this: you’ve spent your day perfecting your resume, and now it’s time to upload it to a carefully selected job application. Once you do so, you think you’re about to hit “submit” and move on with life, but then you see it – the manual form fields for virtually everything already included in your resume. You now have to look up the zip code for every school you’ve attended and trace your entire employment history before you’ve officially applied for the job.

We’ve all been there, and it’s time to name the problem. We can do it in just one word: friction. The more steps you add to a process, the less likely you are to keep a user’s attention. And in the digital era, it’s all too easy to bow out and move on to the next best thing.

For you, that could mean lost opportunities for great hires – and added stress for your teams.

There are a million possible points of friction in any recruiting and hiring process. Can you eliminate every single one? Probably not. But being aware of them is the first step to figuring out how to improve. We’ve developed a three-minute  stress test that you can take to understand how smooth or bumpy your recruiting process is. Take it here.

In addition to the quiz, here are the six biggest areas of friction you’ll want to consider when evaluating your organization’s hiring and recruiting process.

Jump Ahead:

#1 Job Advertising & Distribution
#2 Candidate Experience
#3 Applicant Processing & Evaluation
#4 Communication & Collaboration
#5 Reporting & Analytics
#6 Configuration
Take the Quiz

#1 Job Advertising & Distribution

When the proverbial ink has dried and everyone’s feedback has been incorporated on a job description, it’s time to see and be seen in all the right places. You make it easier for the best applicants to find you when you have a streamlined approach to distributing job openings.

What to consider:

Posting

As soon as you post a job, does it automatically show to your careers page or are there extra steps needed (involve marketing or IT or anyone else)?

Popular job sites

Are you taking advantage of the organic feeds to leading job boards like Indeed and Glassdoor as a default advertising source?

Insight tracking

If you want to post your job in more niche sites or places, can you do so using unique links so you know where your applicants are coming from?

New channels

If you wanted to attract applicants using text messaging, could you?

 

#2 Candidate Experience

The last thing you want is for a qualified candidate to throw in the towel on applying for your job because it’s too much of a hassle. How you hire shapes your brand as much as who you hire, so make sure you’re building a strong impression every step of the way.

What to consider:

Saving their time (and yours)

  • How long does it take an applicant to submit an application?
  • Are you asking for information upfront that you don’t need until much later in the evaluation process?
  • Do applicants need to re-enter data even after adding a resume?

Easy applications

  • Can your applicants apply using Indeed Apply natively?

Mobile access

  • Can applicants easily apply via mobile? Or are they pinching and zooming all over the screen?

Timely updates

  • Do your applicants get status updates upon submission and then throughout the process without the need to type each message out?

 

#3 Applicant Processing & Evaluation

How you collect and process information about applicants is perhaps the biggest source of friction in the hiring and recruiting process. Make sure you’re able to ask the right questions and efficiently assess the results.

What to consider:

Tailoring applications

  • Do you have to use one job application for all open positions or can you use job-specific applications?
  • Can you collect information from applicants using common input types like Yes/No, open ended text-based, multiple choice, and more?
  • Is your process iterative so that you can collect only the must-have information up front and then request more information from applicants if qualified?

Organizing information

  • Do you have one centralized place to view and evaluate all applicants?
  • Can everyone involved in the hiring process access and use your applicant evaluation center?

Evaluating candidates

  • Can you apply scores to applicant files?
  • Can you apply sentiment or scores to individual parts of an applicant file (for example, just the resume or just the employment history)?

 

#4 Communication & Collaboration

It’s often said that effective communication is a two-way street. In the hiring and recruiting process, it’s more like an ever-expanding traffic circle. Information needs to flow freely between employers and applicants, within the HR department and across the entire hiring team at varying frequencies. It’s crucial to eliminate bottlenecks and keep the conversation moving forward.

What to consider:

Applicant updates

  • Are applicants updated on status changes in the evaluation process?
  • Can you bulk message applicants? Bulk reject?
  • Do you have a library of approved messages so that all applicant communications are on brand and in a similar tone?
  • Can you schedule interviews directly through your ATS?
  • Can you offer several interview slots for applicants to choose from?

Inter- and intra-team communications

  • Can you communicate directly with your colleagues about an applicant in an applicant file or do you need to use external means (email, text, etc.)?
  • Can you share applicant files with anyone you choose to collect feedback on even if they aren’t a regular ATS user?
  • Can you easily add multiple interviewers to the same interview?

Oversight

  • Can you decide which notifications you want to receive regarding your hiring process (new applicants; new @mentions, etc.)?
  • Can you see a chronological list of all events that transpired with any applicant so you know who did what, and when?

 

#5 Reporting & Analytics

It’s difficult to stick to a schedule if you don’t know where you are in the process. And gathering necessary information manually only slows progress. Quality reporting and analytics don’t just empower you to make the best decision. They can also make it easier to arrive at that decision – and make process improvements over time.

What to consider:

Visibility

  • Do you know, in real-time, what stage of your process that each applicant is in?
  • Can you easily see the numbers and flow of all new incoming applicants by job and overall?

Insights

  • Do you know what sources are bringing in the most applicants?
  • Do you know what sources are bringing in the most hires?

Flexibility

  • Can you configure your data as needed to see trends, for example, by department?
  • Can you track your EEO or OFCCP data if needed?

 

#6 Configuration

This may not be the first word that springs to mind when you think about the hiring process, but it’s possibly the most crucial if you use an ATS. If your ATS has not been configured specifically to introduce flexibility, it will create roadblocks at every opportunity.

What to consider:

Cost

  • Can you add as many users as you want (so everyone can use the same system) without worrying about cost?

Control

  • Can you create roles and permissions to control what each group or user can do within the system?
  • Can you control which jobs each user can access?

Customization

  • Can you customize the workflow on a job-by-job basis?
  • Can you model your real world organizational structure (locations, departments, region, etc.) in your virtual hiring system?

We’re on a mission to eliminate friction in the hiring process. Take the stress test now, and contact us to explore how our ATS can create a smoother hiring process for your organization.

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Applicant Tracking System Selection:
“Best-of-Breed” or “Part of the Suite”?

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At some point, most organizations face a decades old decision within their Human Resource department when selecting an Applicant Tracking System: “Best-of-Breed” or “Part of the Suite”? 

“Best-of-breed” is the best product available to solve a defined, specific business problem. The entire mission of that product or company is to solve the exact problem you’re facing. Conversely, larger suites of software often offer a module that might work for your problem, but it won’t be nearly as robust.

There are benefits to using the suite-based approach, such as having one vendor, a common user interface, and one log-in. However, there are negatives to weigh as well: there will be feature gaps; the add-on won’t solve your problem completely; and the product is not likely to have world-class support dedicated to a specific problem. 

The tradeoff in your evaluation is often straightforward: do I want the best product possible to solve my problem, or would I rather have the convenience of all of my department’s software under one vendor? If you want one tool to handle everything in HR, the suite approach might be best for you. But if recruiting and hiring is of critical importance for you, we suggest you would benefit from a product that exists solely to solve that need. Plus, best-of-breed software has additional benefits: 

A company that has developed a standalone ATS will know their software on an expert level and remain dedicated to improving it continuously.

It will have a customer success team dedicated to ensuring you get maximum value from the solution, which can include dedicated account managers to provide support on how best to shape your processes from implementation and training through standard system support.

A best-of-breed Applicant Tracking System should be flexible enough to tailor workflows, user roles, and other features to your desired process (and at times, even expose a better way forward).

The evolution of software as a service (SaaS) protocols and APIs means you usually have a direct connection to any other HR systems you may need, such as payroll or an HRIS.

The product team will be infinitely more knowledgeable on what’s emerging in the industry, as opposed to a company for which recruiting is just one small piece of their overall solution, leading to proactive development instead of reactive patches.

At KeldairHR, our sole reason for existing is simple: we are here to give you a modern and intelligent approach to recruiting and hiring so that you can find the best person each time you need to hire. Though you may be tempted to settle for the add-on module, in the end, you’ll be sacrificing quality for convenience, and that’s no way to build your team. 

 

The Cost of a Bad Hire and the ROI of an ATS

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Each time a company adds a piece of software to its operations, it should solve a defined problem for the company. But solving a $1 problem with a $100 solution doesn’t make sense. A beneficial software decision will solve a problem, improve the company in its intended way, and do so while providing a positive return on investment. 

As a purveyor of HR technology, and specifically Applicant Tracking Systems, we are often asked, “does an ATS provide a positive ROI?” And since you probably need to know that answer in order to make a decision, or get a new platform approved, we are here to help. 

Return on Investment calculations can get very nuanced, very quickly. Each individual company has an almost infinite combination of inputs: How many people are involved? What process is used? What is your job advertising budget? How many hires do you make? 

But much like our approach to designing software, we try to distill complex processes and questions to the essentials. So how many hires does it take for an ATS to provide a positive ROI? For most companies, the answer is one. Just one? Yes. If an ATS can help you replace one “bad hire” with a “good hire,”  it will more than pay for itself, and likely several times over.

How can that be? Well, the costs of a bad hire, both direct and tangential, are much higher than most think. 

The direct, hard costs of a bad hire are scary.

By now you may be wondering if we are oversimplifying the issue at hand, and to show you we are not, here are a few eye-popping estimates of what a bad hire could cost your company:

    • According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings. 
    • CareerBuilder says 74 percent of companies who made a poor hire lost an average of $14,900 per poor hire. 
    • According to a survey published by Society of Human Resources (SHRM), forty-one percent of hiring managers estimate the cost of a bad hire in the thousands of dollars.

The tangential soft costs of a bad hire are just as scary, and might be worse.

If the hard cost figures aren’t persuasive enough for you, what about the additional ancillary impacts of a bad hire? Surveys and studies have also found that:

    • Chief financial officers rank a bad hire’s morale and productivity impacts ahead of monetary losses.
    • Supervisors spend, on average, 17 percent of their time managing poorly performing employees.
    • Sixty percent of hiring managers report that bad hires don’t get along with co-workers.
    • Over 80% of employee decisions to quit have been directly caused by other employees, causing increased turnover.

An ATS should be able help

Will an ATS magically remove all chances that you make a bad hire? No. But can an ATS increase your odds of making a good hire? Yes. Here’s how. An ATS:

    • Helps you provide a great applicant experience and increases the odds of applications being submitted.
    • Removes applicant friction, which reduces drop-off rates of applications.
    • Streamlines your applicant processing funnel from receipt through hire, reducing the time from application to hire.
    • Ensures no applicants slip through the cracks.
    • Provides an easy way to communicate and update both applicants and colleagues.
    • Allows hiring teams to work seamlessly together to choose the right candidate
    • Quickly separates unqualified candidates and prioritizes the qualified ones.
    • Easily determines which applicants are qualified by using job specific questions for each position

Bad hires don’t just cost your organization money. Bad hires can kill your team morale, destroy productivity, suck up unnecessary management oversight, foster negative relationships among colleagues, and increase turnover. Bad hires can destroy you.

If an ATS can help you make your next hire a “good hire” instead of a “bad hire,” it has already paid for itself.  

 

Goldilocks & The Three Bears: How a great ATS helps you no matter how hot your applicant flow is

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Hiring can often resemble the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Much like the way the porridge in the story fluctuates between too hot, too cold, and just right, sometimes you get too many applicants, sometimes you don’t get enough applicants, and sometimes you get just the right amount of applicants. But is there a way for your organization to increase your odds of successfully hiring no matter which bowl of porridge you’ve got? Yes. Implement a modern Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

“This bowl is too hot!”

Sometimes you get a lot of applicants for your open jobs. When that happens, you may want to look at certain areas of your hiring process, such as:

  • Is your setup organized so you know immediately which applicants have applied to each job and at which stage in the process each applicant is sitting?
  • Do you have an easy way to communicate with your hiring team to keep the process moving without internal resistance and bottlenecks?
  • Do you have a direct way to view which applicant sources are working and which aren’t (and to adjust accordingly)?
  • Can you process candidates quickly and move them from application to interview to background check to offer quickly, or is the process like walking through mud?
  • Do you have an easy way to communicate with applicants at each stage of the process so that they are engaged and informed throughout?

“This bowl is too cold!”

Unless you are a world-famous company paying above market rates and with benefits beyond compare, you will experience periods during which you will wonder where all of the applicants have gone. 

You still need to hire, but the applicant flow just isn’t there. During these periods, a different set of challenges and variables present themselves, such as:

  • Is the application process intuitive and painless for applicants? You want to ensure that once you’ve got an applicant’s attention, they are going to submit an application. Don’t force them to set up an account to apply. Don’t force them to download a file to apply. Don’t force them to send an email to a generic inbox. Don’t give applicants any off-ramps. Make it simple. 
  • Is your employer brand well represented throughout the process? Quite simply, does the application process represent your company well and provide a great first impression? Is your application mobile optimized, or are applicants pinching and zooming? Does the application process look like it’s a computer program from the mid 1990s, or is it well designed?
  • How complicated and long is your application process? Today’s applicants do not want to spend 30 minutes applying to a job. And let’s be honest, do you really need 16 sections of questions and references to decide if you want to set up a phone screen? Leverage an iterative application process.
  • Do you have any alerts or monitoring set up around unopened applicant files? In other words, once an applicant does apply, are you ensuring that not a single applicant falls through the cracks? 
  • Are you communicating with and updating applicants throughout the process? Good applicants aren’t going to sit around and wait for you to update them. Once you’ve got a quality applicant, you need a streamlined way to communicate with them.

There will always be fluctuations in the number of people applying for your jobs. Sometimes there are world events causing the change. Sometimes you will see differences on a job by job basis in your company. Sometimes, you might not know exactly why things aren’t lining up perfectly. But with KeldairHR’s Applicant Tracking System, you won’t need to worry if the bowl is too hot, too cold, or just right. Our ATS can help ensure your company is attracting, identifying and engaging with the best applicants out there no matter what.

 

Top 8 Myths about Applicant Tracking Systems that First Time Buyers Should Know 

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“Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest,” is one of the foundational laws of motion discovered and published by Sir Issac Newton in 1687. But these laws don’t only apply to the natural laws of physics, they also apply to companies putting new software systems in place. In other words, companies without systems in place tend to stay companies without systems in place. 

In today’s world, there are certain tools you need in order to do your job and stay competitive. One of those tools is an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Implementing any new system can be a daunting task, and we all defer to the status quo (objects at rest…). However, if you are considering an Applicant Tracking System for your company, it’s not nearly as complex as you might think. If you are considering one for the first time, we have come up with a list of the Top 8 Myths about the ATS world to help you through the process. 

Myth 1: An Applicant Tracking System is time-consuming to implement

Yes, getting started with any new system will take time, but you should make time for tasks that will deliver a 10x return on your recruiting and hiring process. A good ATS shouldn’t be that difficult to implement. First, make sure the system has a modern User Interface, which will dramatically reduce any learning curve. In addition, since you will not be able to drop everything else to implement an ATS, be sure to choose one that offers the training and support your HR team needs, as this can vary greatly between providers. Any ATS provider that wants you to succeed will include a dedicated Implementation Specialist who will guide you through the process. In most cases, you should have your ATS up, running, and live within a week.

Myth 2: An Applicant Tracking System will force us to change everything about our HR processes

A well-designed ATS can work within the boundaries of your typical hiring process, including your hiring workflows. Some processes will shift from manual to digital, but that’s the entire point, as the world is now digital. A first rate ATS should be thought of as an accelerator: it helps your team accomplish the job you’re already doing more quickly and efficiently. 

Myth 3: An Applicant Tracking System is too expensive

An ATS streamlines your entire hiring process, modernizes your approach, and saves significant time for your HR staff. Organizations can experience substantial savings after implementing an ATS, such as a reduction in time to hire and cost per hire. Many organizations also reduce their turnover simply by hiring more effectively using an ATS. A system’s pricing model should align with your hiring needs, and pricing should scale with your growth. Often, you only need to make one good hire in a year by using an ATS in order for it to pay for itself. It can do so by keeping things from slipping through the cracks during the hiring process and by providing an immediate and professional way to communicate with your candidates.

Myth 4: All Applicant Tracking Systems are the same

There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ Applicant Tracking System, but there is a plethora of HR systems on the market today, making it difficult to find the best one to suit your organization. But that isn’t necessarily a negative. The number of systems on the market can work to your advantage. It ultimately takes time, research, an understanding of the needs of your company, and an understanding of what features you need in order to address the challenges that you are experiencing to find the best fit for your organization. A starting point when researching an ATS, is to ask the possible ATS providers what size companies they support. A company with 300+ employees will have different needs than one with 25 employees. 

Myth 5: Applicant Tracking Systems are only built for huge businesses

As an HR professional working for a small or medium sized business, you may get frustrated by the number of potentially unnecessary features of some Applicant Tracking Systems. You need something that will make your job easier, not more complicated. The good news is that there are plenty of options out there for all sized businesses, small and medium included. Make sure an ATS has been designed with your company’s current characteristics in mind and that it can grow with you if your company needs it to. 

Myth 6: Applicant Tracking Systems take jobs away

An underworked Human Resources team is like a pack of unicorns roaming an enchanted forest–there’s no such thing. Every HR professional has more things to accomplish than hours in the day. Applicant Tracking Systems don’t encroach on anyone’s job. Instead, they should do the exact opposite, and should perform automated processes that let your team focus on other matters. If you only take into account the number of automatic tasks an ATS can do, it will free up hours per week. 

Myth 7: An Applicant Tracking System dehumanizes the hiring process

Rather than removing the human aspect of hiring, Applicant Tracking Systems can increase the personal touch. Since an ATS should be designed to organize processes and promote collaboration, they can make it easier for hiring managers to communicate with applicants and keep them updated on where their application stands. The best ATS is going to be the one that allows seamless communication both internally among colleagues and externally with your applicants. 

Myth 8: An Applicant Tracking System requires an IT staff to support it

With technology shifting to the cloud, you can choose, implement, and operate an ATS with zero involvement from your IT staff. If you want to involve your IT team for advanced benefits, an ATS should support this, but you should not need major involvement from your IT staff. Make sure your ATS partner will have everything you need out of the box in the cloud. In addition, you shouldn’t need to worry about involving IT staff for upgrades. Your ATS provider should update your system with new features automatically as they are released.

Everyone remembers the first part of Newton’s law, “Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest,” but most people forget the second part, “unless it is acted upon by an external force.” Be that force for change in your company and start hiring smarter and faster today. 

 

KeldairHR Application Grader

How strong is your Applicant Experience?

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There’s a critical moment in which each potential applicant who comes across your job posting decides whether to take the next step. Do they want to learn more? Are they going to apply? Can they see themselves working at your company? The applicant’s decision has many contributing variables, but there’s one concept that encompasses them all: the Applicant Experience.

There are many different segments in the entire recruiting, hiring, and employing lifecycle. It starts with the Applicant Experience, then the Candidate Experience, then the Onboarding Experience, and finally the Employee Experience. 

But the Applicant Experience is the first step in the cycle and is an employer’s first chance to make the right impression. It’s where everything starts, and, since it is critical to getting applicants for your job postings, it deserves your attention. First, what is the Applicant Experience? The Applicant Experience is the perception that a job seeker has about the hiring company during the entire application process: from searching through applying for a job. 

If your company provides a poor Applicant Experience, will you still receive applicants? Probably. But will some applicants decide not to continue based on this experience? Of course. If you have abandoned an online shopping cart because you were frustrated, or hung up after listening to fifteen minutes of hold music while trying to place an order, you know that providing a sub-optimal first impression lowers your chances of success.

There are four main areas you can examine when evaluating your Applicant Experience:

Your Careers Site

The Careers Site on your website is often where interested applicants will go to learn more about your company, and it helps form their impressions of what it might be like to work for you. Some variables to consider include: 

  • Do you have a clearly labeled Careers Site? 
  • Is it easy to find on your website or is it buried under levels of menus? 
  • Are the job postings on your Careers Site up to date or are they dated? 
  • Can applicants learn about your culture and benefits to help them make decisions?

Job Posting Details

The structure of the Job Posting itself, including where applicants can find them, is vitally important. If the applicant doesn’t know what the job is and what you are looking for in an employee, there could be a mismatch from the start. Some areas to analyze: 

  • To which sites are you posting your open jobs? 
  • Are your job titles direct, clear, and universally understood? 
  • Are the main components and expectations of the job clear? 
  • Are you overwhelming applicants with too much information or too many nitpicky details about the job, or do you provide the most important information needed to make an informed decision?

Mobile

Job applicants aren’t going mobile–they are already there. Your application process must be as mobile friendly as possible.

  • Are your job postings fully mobile-responsive?
  • Can you apply from a mobile device with ease?
  • Do your postings leverage mobile-first extensions, such as Indeed Apply?

Your Application Process

At this point, applicants may be ready to apply. Don’t give them any reason to drop out!

  • Are you forcing applicants to create a username / password before applying?
  • How long does your typical application take? 
  • Are you asking for too much information? 
  • Are you communicating with applicants immediately upon submission?

In order to hire the best people, you should do whatever you can to maximize your odds of receiving the best applicants. 

Performing this evaluation will not only lead to increased applicant satisfaction, it will spark new ways to think about how you recruit and hire, improve your employer brand, and even help improve your company’s reputation. 

One last tip: put yourself in the shoes of an applicant. Search for your jobs as though you are looking for a position such as those offered at your company. Go through the process of applying to various job applications you have posted. Consider all of the above steps from the vantage point of an applicant. You may be surprised at what you find. 

If you’d like to receive a complimentary report on your Applicant Experience, you can get started here. 

 

Tools Matter

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The primary implication of the saying “a good carpenter never blames the tools,” is that you can, and should, get the job done regardless of the resources at your disposal. However, despite how often it is cited, the quote is wrong. Tools do matter.

Let’s say you need to drive in a slotted screw (the screws with one groove across the top). You open the drawer, and happily find a screwdriver. But this screwdriver doesn’t have a straight tip. Instead, it’s got a cross — a Phillips head screwdriver. You can try to push, twist, and turn the screw all day long. You may even get it to move a bit, but ultimately you are going to end up in a worse place than when you began. The screw will be stripped, your hands will be sore, and you won’t have accomplished your goal. A  screwdriver was the correct tool, but the Phillips head was not. Right church, wrong pew.

Just as certain screws require certain screwdrivers, certain tasks in your organization require their own set of tools. And unfortunately for some, the solution to everything is not the spreadsheet (a.k.a. the Swiss Army knife of business processes).

In the world of Human Resources, the tools of choice aren’t screwdrivers or Swiss Army knives, but software. But there are a million types of HR software designed for a million types of HR duties. Where should you begin to find the correct tool? We don’t have a junk drawer full of screwdrivers in the HR kitchen.

Start by identifying the main process you are trying to improve or fix from among your HR categories: Payroll, Time and Attendance, Performance Management, Benefits Administration, Learning Management, Recruiting and Talent Management, etc. Which can be improved? And which can be most impactful? 

To add an additional layer of considerations, try to identify the specific requirements for each process, which will be unique to your organization. These include the overall size of your company, your geography, your industry, your group’s technical proficiency, and how deep your HR team is. 

There will be tools which claim to solve everything. Almost always, they can’t. And what you’ll find is that quality was sacrificed for convenience. Organizations benefit from having the right tool for the job. And once you’ve got the proper (quality) tool in hand, you’ll be on your way to building the best team.