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Employee Onboarding Trends That Every Employer Should Know In 2020

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Onboarding Trends|Employee Onboarding Trends That Every Employer Should Know In 2020Human resources are undoubtedly the most vital resource for any organization. A talented and dedicated team can drive success for your business, so it definitely makes sense to go the extra mile with your recruitment process.

Having a good onboarding strategy is equally significant because it ensures retention of the resources you choose with a great deal of hard work. While having a robust onboarding process is the best way to get started, you need to follow the latest industry trends to deliver outstanding experiences to the new hires. Here are the employee onboarding trends that every employer should implement in 2020.

Trend #1: Preboarding

A lot goes on for the potential employee after accepting the job offer. There is stress and anxiety of course, in addition to the fact that they may have some competing job offers. These could lead to the new employees changing their minds and not showing up. No wonder, preboarding is emerging as a key trend in the recruitment industry. The objective of this process is to keep the potential employee engaged for the period between the date of offer acceptance and the first day of work. It involves connecting and reconnecting with the hires during this period so that they feel engaged and excited to be a part of your organization.

Trend #2: Personalization

Another onboarding trend that is making it big for recruiters is personalization. A personalized onboarding experience makes new hires feel connected and builds a comfort level right from the start. Though creating such experiences can take some effort, it pays off in the form of accelerated employee productivity right after joining.

Bringing personalization in onboarding workflows involves consideration of factors such as role, location and seniority of the recruits and designing the process accordingly. You can deliver specialized onboarding material and training sessions that are tailored to the needs and expectations of the recruits.

Trend #3: Automation

Onboarding is a humongous task for HR managers as the process has multiple steps and processes involved. The stress of managing them seamlessly is massive and they can end up wasting their precious time as well. Now is the time to look for an HR platform with onboarding features to automate the entire process. Though you will have to make this one time investment, it can translate into extensive savings in the long run. Automation is one trend that no organization should miss on, regardless of its size and scale.

Trend #4: Socialization

The human aspect is undeniably the most important part of onboarding. Positive social relationships at work should be encouraged as they drive employee engagement and the likelihood of staying with the employer. New hires, in particular, are likely to feel more comfortable in the new environment if they make friends with their colleagues.

It becomes important to embed socialization in the onboarding process and you should definitely embrace this trend for 2020 and beyond. The buddy system is one of the approaches you can incorporate within the program to encourage socialization.

Trend #5: Mentorship

New employees often struggle with finding someone they can turn to for good advice on key matters such as company culture, work expectations and initial stress. Mentorship is a trend that most of the organizations have adopted today to resolve this challenge for the new hires. A mentor is essentially a person in a senior position who can guide and advise the new employee to make their initial journey a smooth one. Since this person knows the company inside out, he or she is probably able to help the recruit to blend within the setup and culture of the organization.

Trend #6: Feedback

Businesses often go a long way with employee satisfaction surveys to get feedback on the existing system and find ways to improve it. In the recent time, feedback has become a significant part of the onboarding process as well. After all, you would want to know how satisfied the new employees are with the program and what is their likelihood of staying with the company and recommending it to others as well. Just building a new employee feedback system will not help; you need to understand the issues and address the gaps to improve the system as a whole.

These innovative trends have huge potential when it comes to improving your onboarding process. Not implementing them can put you behind in the race and you may even lose the best talent out there. So you must make all the efforts to align your program according to these trends.

How to Improve Your Human Resources Department: 5 Key Steps to Success

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |HR Department|How to Improve Your Human Resources Department: 5 Key Steps to SuccessIf you run an organization, one of the most important departments is human resources. The HR department is responsible for all aspects of your workforce, whether it be the hiring process or providing opportunities to develop for existing staff members.

When you consider employees are what keep the wheel turning, their competency and happiness are what determine if a business will succeed or fail. If your staff members don’t possess the necessary skills to do the job, this will impact overall productivity levels. If they are unhappy, they will be less inclined to work hard and may seek alternative employment.

To ensure these problems are limited, you need to maximize your company’s HR. Thankfully, this handy guide is here to help. From applicant screening software to reward programs, here are five key steps to improving your human resources department.

1. Picking the right person for the role

When in the process of hiring, every business wants to acquire the perfect individual for the job. Sadly, doing this is far from straightforward. Browsing someone’s CV and conducting an interview can only tell you so much about a person.

There are, however, certain steps you can take that will increase your chances of securing the right recruit.
This starts with pre-employment screening. With the assistance of applicant screening software, you can easily take a closer look at a potential employee’s background. You gain insight into their possible criminal record, driving history, and so much more. It also provides the ideal opportunity to analyze a candidate’s CV and see if it contains any inaccurately reported information.

The interview process should also be meticulously planned. Ensure your HR department asks all the right questions, and even plan a relatable activity to gain a better understanding of their skillset.

2. Make your expectations clear

Before the HR department brings an employee onboard, it’s important to create a set of rules that each hired person needs to follow. By doing this, you are establishing the expectations of the business from the outset.

Why is this important? Well, sometimes, no matter how refined your hiring process is, a less-than-desirable employee will be brought into your business. If they have trouble following the set rules, you have the grounds to discipline them.

3. Allow employees to grow

If a worker remains in the same position for years and years without any change, their motivation will soon start to drop. One way of avoiding this from happening is to allow your employees to learn and grow.

Your HR department should arrange opportunities that provide the chance for them to develop both their personal and professional skills. This can be done with, say, online courses or local classes.

There are two big reasons why you would want to help employees grow. First of all, your workers will have the incentive to continue to work for your business and climb the career ladder. Secondly, your organization benefits from the added skills they now possess. It’s a win-win situation.

4. Feedback and analyzing performance

If the HR department fails to keep track of your employees and how they’re feeling, this could prove to be a disastrous mistake. They might have concerns bubbling under the surface which are making them unhappy, or their performance might not be matching expectations.

While this could be done by frequently meeting with every employee, this is far from the most efficient option. Instead, specialist HR management software makes the task an easy one. Workers can communicate with ease, and the HR department can keep all information in one place.

5. Rewarding work

Employees like to feel appreciated. While this can be achieved by praising work on a frequent basis, there’s a more effective way to motivate your workforce: rewards.

Your HR department, for instance, might decide to do a weekly competition for the top salesperson. Or they may arrange a group prize for when a department completes a task on time.

These rewards don’t have to break the bank. They could be as simple as free movie tickets or a gift card but it could provide the extra encouragement to work harder.

Conclusion

Your human resources department should never be overlooked. With great HR, your entire organization will function with greater efficiency and productivity. It will also help to retain employees, which means you no longer have to continually hire, train, and familiarize workers with your business. The end result: your business saves money and becomes more profitable.

Employee Benefits: What You Should Know As An Employer

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Employee Benefits|Employee Benefits: What You Should Know As An EmployerAs an employer, one of the smartest things you can do is offer employee benefits in the workplace. Some employee benefits are pretty self explanatory and should come as a standard – such as water, tea, and coffee. Your team shouldn’t have to bring in their own basic refreshments.

However, you should offer more than the bare minimum. You want your workplace to be set apart from others, and your benefits to be a little competitive at least. Benefits vary from company to company, but they can easily make your workplace a more pleasant place to work for your team. Below, we’ll go into more detail on employee benefits and what you should know as an employer:

The Types Of Benefits You Can Offer

There are all kinds of benefits you could offer as an employer. This may include:

  • Health insurance (required to be offered by larger companies)
  • Dental insurance
  • Vision care
  • Life insurance
  • Paid vacation leave
  • Personal leave
  • Sick leave
  • Fitness

There are many optional benefits, and many companies offer the above simply to stay competitive. Extra bonuses, such as stock options, can also be a nice addition.

Employee Retention

Many employers are deciding to increase the use of bonuses, perks, and incentives to recruit and retain employees. Making the workplace more comfortable with benefits can ensure employees stay loyal and stick around in the long term. While you need to stick to a budget and you can’t be frivolous with spending, having benefits, bonuses, and perks that keep your employees happy will ensure more productivity, higher quality work, a more pleasant work environment, and more.

Creating A Nice Work Environment

While the benefits can help to contribute to a nicer work environment, they’re not going to do all of the work for you. Having Payroll HR in place will ensure your employees are paid on time and that everything is kept above board, which should be another concern of yours.

Setting Up Flexible Spending Accounts

Many employers set up flexible spending accounts, and these accounts are regulated by the government. The accounts allow you to set aside pretax dollars, and these dollars pay for things like daycare and medical expenses. They will decrease your taxable income as well as give more freedom to your team, so you should take advantage of one if possible.

Caring About Your Employees

Of course, providing benefits gives you the opportunity to actually make things better for your employees. The benefits should come from a genuine place of wanting to help them and caring for their wellbeing. An employer that shows they care will always stand out from the rest, and your team will be far more likely to stay loyal to you. Even offering things like verbal praise and support can go a long way to making the work environment nicer for them and encouraging them to keep going.

Many employee benefits are not compulsory, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer them. Wanting the best for your employees will go a long way. And that includes oral care for your employees with reputable dentists like the Dentist In Grand Blanc.

How do you make exit interviews count?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Exit interview|How do you make exit interviews count?When an employee decides to move on, you should be seriously curious about the reasons why. Understanding why employees leave is gold dust in your hand – uncover a problem in the workplace you weren’t aware of, and you gain the insight to do something about it.

It may be too late to save your impending leaver, but if you really listen and can avoid seeing employee exit feedback as criticism, then you have valuable information to prevent other employees following suit.

So, when an employee leaves, how do you make the exit interview count? Here, I’ll be looking at the purpose of an exit interview, why it is important, and how you can use the information to improve employee churn.

The purpose of an exit interview

The whole point of an exit interview is to find out the real reasons your employee has decided to leave, what the employee considers to be the company’s problem areas, and how the company can improve. It is the perfect opportunity to get some frank feedback about the day-to-day operations in your business.

While a resignation letter may give you some indication of the reason an employee is leaving, employees (particularly in businesses with a poor culture) often don’t feel comfortable telling the real truth about their departure.

Leaving for personal reasons is a common cover for dissatisfaction at work. If you think it doesn’t matter why your employees are leaving, think again. The cost to your business is huge and letting good people go is potentially damaging. An exit interview is a real opportunity for learning and employers would be wise to listen and act.

Why is an exit interview important?

In todays’ economy where skilled workers are hard to come by, replacing a valuable employee isn’t easy. According to Breathe HR, over a third of employees leave their jobs because they don’t like the company culture. An employee is unlikely to tell you all of the reasons they are actually leaving in a resignation letter, or even in an informal chat.

But, ask them to give you some honest feedback as you would like to understand why they are leaving and be able to learn from it, and you are much more likely to get them to open up and tell some truths.

The best procedure is to ask your employee to complete an exit interview form and to attend an exit interview with the HR manager. It’s not a good idea to have an exit interview set up with the person’s line manager. This just isn’t good protocol if you really want honest feedback. If an employee is leaving because of poor management, they are unlikely to reveal that if the person they are dissatisfied with is the person conducting the exit interview.

How to make an exit interview count

An exit interview with a departing employee is only useful if the information gleaned doesn’t just fall into a black hole. Candid opinions should be considered in confidence by leadership and not shared to bad-mouth an employee once they have gone – this will only add to poor culture, not fix it.

The whole point of an exit interview is to improve your staff retention rates. Here’s what you need to do to make an exit interview count.

Look for patterns

When people leave your business, are they all giving the same feedback in their exit interviews? If so, it is extremely costly to ignore them – according to Accounts and Legal, the average employee costs SMEs £12,000 to replace.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) estimate the cost of replacing an employee at a whopping £30,000, which they say includes £25,000 in lost productivity caused by the time it takes to get a new recruit up to speed.

If you don’t fix a problem, the likelihood is that more people will leave.

If more than one employee is telling you something is fundamentally wrong, then you need to do something about it. A small few changes in the workplace could make all the difference to the happiness of your existing employees.

Let your employee vent

An exit interview isn’t the time to argue against every point that is made and justify company actions. Let your employee have their say. Of course, there will be bitter employees along the way. Some of them will have genuine gripes, others will be disgruntled employees that can’t be pleased no matter how great your culture is. It’s up to you as a business leader to use your integrity to recognise when they have a point.

Understand psychological safety

How willing your departing employees are to share how they really feel will depend upon their personality, how psychologically secure they feel in your organisation, and whether they think you will actually be bothered to listen, take notice and act.

If your culture is toxic and an employee is leaving because they feel bullied, it is unlikely they will spill the beans. If lots of your people are leaving, yet they are keeping schtum, you may want to address any issues around psychological safety.

Employee engagement surveys

As most exit interviews happen when an employee has already disengaged (usually in the last week of their employment), it can be difficult to get a true picture of how most employees in the business are feeling. If you really want to understand your employees, why wait for them to give feedback when they leave?

Conducting regular employee engagement surveys serves the same purpose as an exit interview, but helps you to quickly pick up when employees are unhappy at work and take action to prevent people leaving. Let’s face it, exit interviews have a sense of ‘closing the door after the horse has bolted’.

Summary

Far too many companies follow good exit interview protocol but don’t utilise the information effectively. Feedback gets filed and not acted upon, or inappropriately shared to discredit an ex-employee, and then business leaders wonder why more people leave.

Making an exit interview count means acting on the information you glean from your leavers to improve your organisation and make it a better place to work. Don’t try and fight good feedback, especially if the same messages are being heard over and over again.

Be grateful for feedback that is difficult to hear. Interpret, reflect and understand the issues your leavers are sharing with you. See them as strategic improvement opportunities being handed to you on a plate. Remember, employees are your greatest asset. Learn from them, don’t lose them. Ask them to fill in the blank, “I don’t know why the company doesn’t just …..”

The effectiveness of an exit interview can be measured by the positive change it instigates.

Why Acquiring Background Checks – and Waiting for the Result – is Imperative for Helping Keep your Workplace Safe

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Background Check|Why Acquiring Background Checks – and Waiting for the Result – is Imperative for Helping Keep your Workplace SafeWhether you are a small business or a corporate giant, the need for placing security as a priority for your employees goes without saying. The very first step employers should take in providing a safe work environment is to screen all possible new hires through a quality background check. By “quality” I mean “thorough.”

Yet, as a security expert (and a former Public Officer / Detective specializing in violence prevention), I often see employers who are more interested in the speed and cost of a background check rather than the quality.
However, I would go so far as to say that employers can’t afford NOT to run a thorough background check. The threat of workplace violence is a continuing problem that will not be blunted by cheap and incomplete (or inaccurate) background checks.

Due to the frantic world we live in, too many employers and HR professionals believe that a comprehensive criminal record check can be completed instantly. But unfortunately, it cannot.

To buy into the INSTANT or “FAST FOOD” variety of background checks will not create a safe environment that every employer and employee needs and desires.

When You Use a Quality Background Check You MUST Wait for the Results before Hiring

It is an HR manager’s dream: the perfect candidate walks into an interview with a superb resume, terrific qualifications, and great interview responses. It’s a “no-brainer” that this is the right person for the job. Yet the dream can easily turn into a nightmare when the candidate is offered the job position BEFORE HR gets the results back from the background check.

The new hire starts work, and things are progressing well until a week later when HR receives the individual’s background check. Reality hits. Besides many red flags, there are also prior convictions that leave the employer no other choice but to promptly fire the employee.

In this case, the new hire is terminated and must be escorted off the company property. It is a scenario that no business wants on its hands. Besides being an awkward situation, it puts the work environment of other employees in a compromised position rather than one of safety.

The Takeaway

Background checks are important in detailing an individual’s history and play a big role in narrowing candidates. Depending on the type of background check, it can take some time for the results to return to the HR team.
Although waiting for a check to clear may seem like an inconvenience, it can’t compare to the problems created by an ill-informed job offer. The screening process should not be overlooked or rushed.

It is far better to invest the time needed to secure a comprehensive background check and wait for the results before offering a job candidate the employment position. By doing so, you show your fellow employees that providing a secure work environment is your greatest priority.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Mike McCartyMike McCarty is Founder & CEO of Safe Hiring Solutions with thousands of clients such as Liberty Mutual Insurance, Kiwanis International, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, and more. Mike has more than 25 years of violence prevention experience that includes being a violent crime detective with the Metro Nashville Police Department, and a violence prevention consultant to organizations such as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Justice, National Sheriff’s Association and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.