New hire: swim or sink

After successful recruitment process an offer was made and accepted. But the first week showed to new hire that this organization is not a right fit for him. He felt that he wasn’t expected to the organization and that he is disturbing his new colleagues with different work related questions. But he decided not to give up so easily and give his new employer a second chance. At the end of second work week he had made up his mind and he submits his resignation note.

Though this is a made up story, I believe that there are people who can relate themselves or their new colleagues with that. New hires are trying to swim so hard, but the waters are strange to them and they sink.

First 40 hours in new job are critical when we are talking of new hire’s perception of you and your organization. Hence it is inevitable to start with induction as soon as the offer to the candidate is made and accepted. .

Organizations are different and therefore they have different induction programs. The length and content of the program depends of the complexity of the role as well as of the organization itself.

The main purpose of induction training is to integrate new people into your organization and make them understand your values, culture, purpose, procedures and programs. Hence, induction training and proper program are the keys when we are talking about integrating new people to our organizations and helping them to settle down quickly.

Want to know more about induction programs? Here are two stories from two different and great organizations:

Disney Traditions

Before new cast members (that is how Disney calls its employees because they want their people to think of themselves as part of a cast that is putting on a show for an audience) actually start at Disney they need to pass their induction training called Disney Traditions. The program is about past, present and future of Disney. During the classroom training the participants will learn about history, benefits and legal information that they need to know, as well as 4 Keys of Disney(or four guest service standards: Safety, Courtesy, Show, Efficiency). After lunch break all participants are taken to the field trip to Magic Kingdom to see how those standards are applied into real life. They will then return to the classroom where a surprise guest will pay a visit to them. A Mickey Mouse himself will meet the new group to give them their brand new Disney’s name tags. What a great ending to the Magical Training Day!

Starbucks' Story

There are several different programs that Starbucks offers to its partners (yes, instead of calling its people employees Starbucks calls them partners because they see their people as partners in shared success). For instance, their training program, which is called „Starbucks Experience“, includes overview of company’s history, culture, CSR programs, but also introduction to the coffee world. „Tell.Show. Do.“ – is the process that Starbucks follows and uses with new partners. Tell is what baristas learn in the training. Show is when Coach shows them exactly how to do something and Do is when the barista did the action with the coach watching to assist, train and praise.

But there are also fun factors in their programs, for instance, they use tool like „Drink Dice“. This is kind of a game where trainees would roll and the dice would come up with a size, iced or hot, a beverage, a syrup, decaf or regular and the new barista would have to figure out how to write and say (Starbucks has their own language) that particular combination.

From traditionalists to Gen Z: what every employer should know when recruiting

Today’s employers are in unique situation: there are five different generations working under one roof. We can find traditionalists, who are already officially retired, but still active employees working together with Gen Z, representatives from our youngest generation, who has just entered (or about to do that) to labor market.

We have seen increase of articles focusing on younger generations (Millennials, Gen Y and Gen Z). But to be honest not many organizations can afford to put all eggs into one basket, i.e. to hire and work with people from one specific generation (for instance only Millennials).

Companies who are willing to hire and work with people from different generations have different advantages. Firstly, they will get wider range and more candidates from whom to choose the best and most suitable employee. Secondly, diverse teams (which includes also people from different generations) generate better results than non-diverse teams. Hence, in case you want to hire the best and be successful you need to have employees from different generations in your organization.

Each generation has their own characteristics: they have been raised in different eras, in different environments, using different technology – which means that their work habits, as well as channels that they trust and use when applying to the job are different. 

Knowing each generation’s characteristics and traditions helps in attracting, engaging, retaining, and developing its members. So what is this that every organization should know when targeting potential candidates from different generations?*

Traditionalists, those born before 1945 (now in age 70+)

The Traditional generation is the oldest generation in the workplace, although most of them are now retired. They are characterized as loyal workers, highly dedicated, averse to risk and strongly committed toward teamwork and collaboration. They value security, comfort, and familiar, known activities and environments.

How to attract traditionalists? It wouldn’t make sense to create a web campaigns to this target group unless the campaign had a title “Bring your grandmother to work”. My experience shows that best way to attract them is by word of mouth; which means that your employee referral program is just the right channel to reach them. But I would also recommend to use traditional recruitment channels (such as newspapers) when attracting traditionalists.   

Baby Boomers, those born 1946-64 (now about 50-70 years old)

Boomers’ ability to adapt to change of all kinds has been honed by years of dealing with change firsthand. Having to adapt to new technologies has been a necessity and in some cases a challenge, not just the use of these technologies but the impact that they have had on the protocols of acceptable office behavior. Boomers believe they can do anything they set their sights on, and they’re used to working hard and long hours to accomplish it. 

How to attract Boomers? Although you can find representatives of this generation in Social Media, then probably it is not reasonable to build your entire recruitment campaign on that platform when trying to target Boomers. They are using several channels when looking for a job: starting from Job Boards, newspaper adverts and finishing with recommendations from friends/acquaintances’. Which means that Employee Referral program is also something that could be invested in when targeting Boomers. One thing that distinguishes them from traditionalists is this that they are more active when it comes to job search: they use several different channels when looking for a job.

Generation X, those born 1965-76 (now about 40-50 years old)

Gen X is more independent, autonomous and self-reliant than previous generations. They are often characterized by high levels of skepticism, “what’s in it for me” attitudes. Gen Xers are arguably the best educated generation with 29% obtaining a bachelor’s degree or higher (6% higher than the previous cohort). They are entrepreneurial, pragmatic and creative; they have strong technical skills, they are are results focused, and are “ruled by a sense of accomplishment and not the clock”.

How to attract Gen X? They, too, use Job Boards, friend recommendations, but also Social Media (primarily LinkedIn) when are on job hunt. 

Millennials, those born 1977-97 (now about 20-40 years old)

Millennials are known as incredibly sophisticated and technology wise. Their ease with technology allows them to move fast and efficiently, whether they’re searching the Internet, taking photos, sending text messages, watching YouTube - all on their cell phones.

How to attract Millennials?  Thought they do not have favorite channels when looking for a job, they do use Job Boards and friend recommendations, as did Gen X. As they are eager users of Social Media (age 25 to 34 is the most common age demographic of Facebook users) then it would be wise to build your next recruitment campaign to that platform.

Generation Z those born 1997 and later (in the age 20 and younger)

While we don’t know much about Gen Z yet, we know a lot about the environment they are growing up in. This highly diverse environment will make the grade schools of the next generation the most diverse ever. Gen Z kids will grow up with a highly sophisticated media and computer environment and will be more Internet savvy and expert than their forerunners. They are completely digitally native in the sense of being quite helpless in a non-digital world. According to studies, Gen Z is the most socially responsible generation.

How to attract Z-generation? Event thought you might befall them in Social Media and Job Boadrs, there is actually much higher chance to find them and attract in YouTube and thru Mobile Recruitment. Since this is the generation that has grown up as followers of YouTubers then YouTube is possibly the Channel when trying to recruit Gen Z. So upload your next Recruitment Movie to YouTube and/or hire a well-known YouTuber who could promote both you as an employer as well as the job to what you are hiring at.

*Recommendations how to attract different generations are based on a Survey that was conducted at the beginning of 2016 by recruitment blog “Make your job advertisement attractive”. Survey was carried out among 300 Facebook users and studied their recruitment preferences.

Descriptions of different generations are prepared based on following articles:

http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

http://www.hermanmiller.com/research/research-summaries/generations-at-work.html

http://rtc.umn.edu/docs/2_18_Gen_diff_workplace.pdf

Boomerang your former employees back to your organization

The other day I spoke to one HR Manager who had recently changed her job. At her last working day in the company her manager sent her off with following words: „Go, get new experiences, see other companies work, and when the time is right you can always return!“ I am pretty convinced that such farewell speech is not prevalent in all organizations. Many companies often see leavers as traitors who are in search of greener grass. This attitude has been there for long time; but times are changing. Our labor market is changing and it is getting harder and harder to recruit high performers or talents, as we today call them. Most of the companies can’t afford to close the door behind next leaving talent. This fact is also confirmed by the Corporate Culture and Boomerang Employee Study conducted by Workforce Institute at Kronos. In the survey of more than 1800 HR professionals, nearly half of respondents claim that their organization previously had a policy against rehiring former employees. 76 percent of the respondents say they are more accepting of hiring boomerang employees today than in the past.

Those, who were formerly seen as traitors are now seen as desired boomerang employees. There are of course different weaknesses on re-hiring former employees (you know saying, once a cheater always a cheater), but current hiring climate makes us to look past that and concentrates on pros related to boomerang employees, such as:

- Hiring process is faster (especially when you are using headhunting);

- Cost of hiring is smaller (boomerang employee is just a phone call away);

- Speed of induction is faster (they know the procedures, people, culture, etc.);

- Succession rate is higher (we already know the person’s strengths and weaknesses).

So how do boomerang your former employees back to your organization?

Conduct Exit Interviews. Ask them why they have decided to leave and is there anything that you could do to make them stay (in case you’d of course like to see them stay).

I would recommend concentrating on three areas when conducting the interview: why they leave, would they return, and under what circumstances would they return. In some countries it is not allowed by law to call former employees and ask them to return to work. So make sure that you know local legislation before you crab your phone to make a call to potential boomerang.

Dilemmas that you might be facing when conducting the interviews (but it is really up to you and your organization procedures and culture):

- How: face to face interview or questionnaire, structured or unstructured interviews?

- Who: direct manager or 3rd party (HR, grandfather principle, etc.)

- When: right after receiving note of leaving or during last working day?

However you decide to conduct the interview make sure to listen to them and act on based on their feedback. This way you also show to your current workforce that you actually care and that their views matter.

But exit interview has other purpose: to make former employees your employer brand ambassadors! Today’s leavers might be your tomorrow’s employees, partners or customers! Do you know what they are thinking or talking about your organization? Before you send your employees off you might think about throwing them little farewell party: say some kind words, wish them well, give small company gifts, and so on. Make them feel special and send them off with good memories about your organization.

Use headhunting! Next time, before publishing your job advert, give a call to your former employees. Even if they might decline your offer today they might contact you tomorrow when they are thinking about changing their job.

Please leave your comments and opinions about exit interviews and boomerang employees.

Welcome to the game: your next Employee Referral Program!

Don’t start to argue with me, I am sure that we all like to play games. Some just might love it more than others, but it is in our DNA to compete, play or learn either individually or together with others. You don’t agree with me? Well, here are three examples of well-known games that you might have played

Pokémon Go that drove the world (not only children but adults as well) crazy in summer 2016. In the game, players used a mobile device's GPS capability to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, who appeared on the screen as if they were in the same real-world location as the player.

The Ice Bucket Challenge that was all over the Internet in Summer 2014 and that encouraged nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominated others to do the same. A common stipulation was that nominated participants had 24 hours to comply or forfeit by way of a charitable financial donation.

Or well known card game Solitaire that is one of the worlds biggest video game of all times.
I am sure that if you haven’t played any of these, you definitely have played those „like and share“game in Facebook.

What confuses me the most here is this: in case games and challenges are so popular then why we rarely use them in our HR processes? We do use them in sales, when we organize sales contests for our sales people or customer service employees. This way we are motivating our employees to sell more and reward those who sell the most or reach their goals.

So if we use it in sales, why not to use it in recruitment as well; since recruitment is sales? We, as recruiters, we are looking for potential candidates whom to sell the job.  Why not to use game mechanics here to create a recruitment games?

Work, including recruitment, doesn’t need to be serious. It could be fun as well, so let’s make it playful and use gamification to boost it! But how to do that? Well, for instance, let’s take employee referral program and turn it into game. To do that you need to:

- create a challenge: „recommend your friend to work“. Ask your employees to recommend their friends to work and count points for that. Then create a leaderboard where you are collecting the points of successful hires and/or recommendations. People like to compete and compare their achievements with others. Which means that to have a leaderboard is a must. So have the leaderboard publicly available either on your company intranet, display or mailing list (but you can also use a special app to do that).

- offer prizes. Though the purpose of the leaderboard is to encourage people to compare themselves with others and therefore make even more recommendations you should always have physical award to offer to winner(s). The grand prize depends of how the program is set: do you reward (pay recommendation bonus) for all successful hires or is the prize meant only for the winner. The award for the winner could be either bonus, iPad, family trip or something else that you know would encourage and motivate you employees to join your game and recommend their friends.

- prepare a communication plan. There are different channels that you could use here, starting from SMS and e-mail messages to your people and finishing with messages on digital screens in your office or closed Facebook group for your employees. Message that you are communicating could be written notes or documents, a short video that you have created for the program, a comics – or all three together or something else.

Welcome to the game!

Toolbox: metrics for recruiters

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time there lived a recruiter, let’s call her Jane. She was constantly looking candidates but with poor success. She created job adverts, posted them on agreed channels, conducted interviews – but nothing changed, there were still so many vacancies to fill. She tried to convince herself that she is doing the best that she can. Each time when she was posting a job advert she prayed for candidates. She prayed for second time when she presented candidates to hiring managers. Each evening when she went home she felt desperate. But then on one day she learned that you can’t expect different results when doing the same things over and over again. So she made some changes in recruitment decisions. She also started to use metrics and benchmark activities with others.  And she became one of the greatest recruiters in her world.

In case you would also like to be one of the best recruiters in your region then here are the metrics that I would recommend to use.

Firstly; keep track on the number of your vacancies. I’d recommend having weekly, monthly and yearly overview. Even when you are one of those small companies who don’t need to recruit people on everyday bases, you still need to know where you are standing. But you should also know how other employers are doing: how many vacancies they have and how fast they are capable to fill them. Remember: in most of the cases recruitment is the result of employee turnover. Which means: if you have too many vacancies you should assess different HR procedures not only your recruitment activities.

Quality of recruitment channel is other metric that one should have. You may have a very attractive job advert or innovative recruitment solution, but when publishing it in wrong channel, you may end up with zero applicants. This would mean: wasted time and money for you. So, how do you know is the channel right or wrong? There are several ways to do that by collecting an assessing different data starting from applicants per channel finishing with quality hire per channel.

Recruitment is always associated with different recruitment costs, including creating a job advert, publishing it, etc. But we often forget that there are also several other costs that are related to recruitment such as salaries of recruiters and hiring managers, costs of different recruitment materials, lost working hours due to the fact that the positon is vacant and so on. You should measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment channels and activities and then based on that information make the investment decisions.

You can also assess your employer brand. One way to do that is to measure the efficiency of your (recruitment) marketing. For instance, you can screen the traffic on your career page, count the likes, shares or retweets on your social media page or analyze the results of your employee referral program.

And finally, assess the quality of your recruitment process. There are several metrics that you can use here, such as quality of candidates and employee turnover among new hires. For instance, what is the attrition rate of new hires, how many employees leave within 1st year of service, etc. But do not forget to ask also for feedback both from hiring managers as well as from candidates and new hires. How would they rate the full recruitment process, starting from the quality of job advert finishing with the speed and quality of the full process?

Be like Jane, and don’t forget: you can’t expect different results when doing the same things over and over again

Road to 2017

It’s year 2017 and recruiters are under the pressure: day by day it’s getting harder and harder to attract, recruit and hire good people. Which mean, if you are also one of those who needs to hire in year 2017 you need to focus on recruitment more than ever before.

You need to become professional recruiter, know your labor market (read: the whole word) and recruitment trends.

Here are my thoughts what to consider in recruitment in 2017:

Employer Branding plays even greater role than ever before. Why should anyone apply to your company if they do not know anything about it? Or if this that they know is what keeps them away instead of attracting? We are in the war for talents and if you want to be one of the winners you need to act. You need to fight for your employees, keep them motivated and engaged. Only then you can become the employer of choice and attract those whom you need and want.

There are tens of thousands employers looking for employees. There are hundreds of thousands job advertisements on job boards. How to attract the attention of potential candidates? Answer is, you need to do something different. One possibility to do that is to create innovative job advert and get people attention with that. You can for instance upgrade your employee referral program; create your own recruitment game or recruitment campaign. Whatever you do you need to touch the ones you are targeting. For instance, you can put human touch to your next job advert by telling your story or asking your employees to tell their stories. I would even go so far and say that storytelling is the new black in recruitment world.

There are different challenges that are waiting for us at our workplaces already today. Five different generations working together in one company is for instance one of those challenges. Which means: if you want to be successful when recruiting and retaining your people you need to be more flexible. Only a few companies can afford to have only one target group specific recruitment strategy. Other must be ready to revise their HR strategies and make them flexible and suitable to different target groups.

Last, but not least: if you want to be successful in 2017 then you need to be socially responsible. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is no longer the playground of only big corporations. Every employer who wants to attract and retain talents must become socially responsible. This means that CSR must be encoded to your company’s DNA, starting from recruiting different target groups (such as different generations, people with disabilities, etc.), participating in joint charity projects (such as ''Let’s donate time''), developing your organization as well as your people, and etc.

Innovative recruitment ads

Looking for some ideas how to differentiate from other recruiting employers with your next job ad? Well, on following video I am sharing 5 different examples from Estonia. Enjoy!

Please feel free to send me examples from you country!