Hagel and Company Human Resources Blog - California, Idaho, Washington State HR News

When your company has a job opening, you want to fill it with the ideal candidate as quickly as you can. But all too often, the search process takes much longer than anyone would like. How can you improve your ability to find employees that make a significant, positive impact on the success of your business?

Online recruiting can give you quick and easy access to thousands of qualified candidates. And today, it is so much more than online job boards and resume banks. There are many social networking sites you can use to build your brand and increase your exposure to top talent. Here are five tips to make your online recruiting efforts shine:

Tip #1 – Use a variety of media channels. It is important to keep your open position listings up to date on your company page as well as online job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder. But if you want to really build your pipeline, make sure you cast a wide net. Leverage social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to post openings for your followers. Who wouldn’t want an employee that already likes your brand? You can also use Twitter hashtags to announce job openings: #hiring.

Tip #2 – Know how to search for specific talents. Sometimes your company needs a candidate with a specialized skill set. How do you find a needle in a haystack? Know how to narrow down your search. For example, LinkedIn has a group for almost every industry or skill you can think of and these are great places to find the right candidates. You can also Meetup with potential candidates that meet your skill and location criteria. For example, if you are looking for mobile developers in Brooklyn, try joining the Brooklyn iOS Developer Meetup which has more than 650 members.

Tip #3 – Be an expert and add value. When you use social networking tools, be sure to update your company’s profile regularly and demonstrate its role as a thought leader in your industry. Start a blog, post videos , and visit online forums and post comments or recommendations. These activities enhance your company’s image, build the brand, and make candidates want to work for you. Try joining an online community like Quora where people share expertise in a subject area that aligns with your business needs. Participate frequently and be recognized as a subject matter expert.

Tip #4 – Embrace technology. In order to attract top talent, you have to show that your company can successfully use new technologies.  Look at your recruiting strategy to see if there are other tools you could be using to build your pipeline. Does it make sense for your company to use mobile apps, location-based services, or QR codes?

Tip #5 – Follow up and follow through. Once you have attracted interested candidates, don’t lose them. Make sure you route qualified applicants to hiring managers for timely consideration. Gather immediate candidate-related feedback and keep candidates and referrals informed about where they stand in the process. Use recruiting tools to help automate the follow up process.

With so many sites and options to consider, recruiters need help managing the day to day administrative tasks involved in the recruiting process. The right online recruiting tools can help streamline the recruiting process and allow more time to focus on finding the best job candidates. Recruiting software simplifies the entire process from start to finish—from automatic posting of open positions to your company website and uploading to online job boards to generating offer letters and email communications. With the right software, you can spend more time building your pipeline of qualified candidates and fill open positions more quickly and efficiently.

See also: Hagel Search

Most workplaces make no secret of the fact that employees have no right to privacy when it comes to anything they do at the workplace, particularly when it comes to their computers: According to a 2007 study by American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute, two-thirds of companies monitor their employees’ Internet use to prevent them from visiting unauthorized sites.

Even so, employees often become angry, and may feel violated, if they discover that their supervisors have been monitoring their email messages or the websites that they visit. This can cause serious damage to workplace relationships, and may even lead to a lawsuit in rare circumstances.

In order to make your company’s policies absolutely clear to employees before they do something online that they might regret, try these strategies.

1. Host a seminar to discuss privacy issues in the workplace. If the company makes a habit of monitoring all websites visited or tracks employees’ keystroke actions, clearly explain these situations. Employees may be surprised to learn that even email written from their personal accounts may not be considered private.
2. Let employees know when they’re being monitored. While companies generally have the legal right to track their workers’ on-the-job performance, employees will appreciate it if they have advance knowledge of when the monitoring will occur. If you plan to monitor an employee’s phone calls for several hours, inform him that morning; if your company is planning to track all employees’ online activity, send out a company-wide memo about it.
3. Offer alternatives. When employees are on breaks, it’s important for them to have the opportunity to communicate with friends and family without fear of office interference. In most cases, they will be able to use their own cell phones for this purpose, but it may also be helpful to offer a “non-work” computer terminal that employees can use for personal communications, which will not be monitored.

Everyone can have very strong opinions about privacy. Being clear with all of your employees will make everyone much more comfortable.

If your business isn’t based in New York City or Silicon Valley, your pool of potential candidates for senior-level positions is likely to be much smaller. So what can you do to find the right members for your team? Try these strategies.

1. Sponsor events in your industry. If you’re hiring for a technology firm, sponsor and attend tech-related business networking events, and be generous in handing out business cards. It won’t be long before the news that you’re hiring gets around.
2. Give referral bonuses to your existing employees. Current employees are likely to know other high-quality candidates, so provide them with a financial incentive to refer their friends and contacts for open positions.
3. Provide a relocation package. Many potential applicants may be interested in the job, but overwhelmed by the idea of packing up and finding a new place to live. Offering several thousand dollars to assist with moving expenses, plus a short-term rental apartment, can make the prospect more appealing.
4. Allow telecommuting. For many positions, an employee can work just as well from a home office as he can from a central workplace. If possible, open the opportunity up to remote workers—it’s a great way to dramatically increase your talent pool.

Recruiting high-quality candidate in a small town may seem more challenging, but with a fresh approach you should be able to fill the position in a timely manner.

Social media is taking the Internet by storm. Most likely, your company has at least a few employees that are using social media on a personal basis. In fact, nearly half of all Americans are active on at least one social network and two-thirds of those aged 25-34. Developing a social media policy for your organization is an important step for protecting both your company and your employees. An effective social media policy can also serve to create a safe and constructive communication channel for your business.

Here are five tips to use when creating an effective social media policy for your organization:

Tip #1 – Establish a team and learn from others. In order to define a clear social media policy, it is important to include a variety of people across your organization. Get input from executives, human resources, IT, marketing, program directors, and other digital experts. You can look at sample social media policies for ideas and as a starting point for your discussions.

Tip #2 –Define your company’s approach to social media and document goals. As the social media landscape continues to evolve, it is important for your organization to provide a clear definition of what is considered social media. Spell out the rules and limits for what is acceptable and what is not allowed. Use your legal counsel to help ensure policies are fair and protect your company against legal ramifications by the National Labor Relations Review Board (NLRB).

Encourage employees to follow established social media cultural values including transparency, consistency, and timeliness. Be sure to document goals and strategies to ensure everyone understands why your company chooses to use social media and what you hope to gain.

Tip #3 – Don’t overlook the big picture policy. Employees need to know specifics about how to effectively use social media. It is important to write out guidelines or policies on how to work with different social utilities such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, but don’t forget about the big picture. The social media environment is constantly changing and you don’t want your policy to quickly become out of date. Make sure your company establishes an overall social media policy that defines roles, responsibilities, legal issues, brand usage, purpose, and values that can be applied to any social media site and then create separate guidelines, if needed, for dealing with specific social utilities.  

Tip #4 – Leverage company policies already in place. Chances are your company has already established policies that protect proprietary and confidential information. Take advantage of the work that has already been done and reiterate these rules in your social media policy. Give concrete examples of internal policies that cover privacy issues and photo, Internet, and mobile usage to show how they also apply to social media. You should also remind employees that government compliance with regulations like HIPAA and fair employment laws must be maintained when using social media.

Tip #5 – Clearly spell out consequences and disciplinary procedures. A policy is a course of action. After you have clearly defined what social media is, and how employees are expected to use it, you must spell out what happens if these rules are not followed. And be specific. You can prevent problems before they happen by ensuring that all employees have a copy of your social media policy. Provide training and education about Internet safety and company policy. Consider having a contact person who can be available to answer questions about social media issues. Add social media training to your corporate compliance training program. With the proper knowledge and understanding, your employees can act as partners to build and protect your company’s online reputation.

After your social media policy is in place, make sure you continue to review the policy on a regular basis. Gather your team and ask questions: Is this still relevant? Have any new issues come up? Are there new laws we need to follow? Always provide education and training to new employees and refresher courses to existing employees as the social media landscape evolves. An effective social media policy prevents problems before they start, supports employees, and provides a valuable communication channel with customers.

Results-oriented workplaces, in which employee productivity is measured in terms of milestones rather than hours worked, are gaining in popularity: Large companies like Netflix and IBM offer many of their employees unlimited time off, judging employee output only on the basis of work performed.

For most job applicants, the opportunity to work somewhere that offers unlimited time off, rather than a standard two-or-three week vacation period, can be a huge incentive.

For human resources professionals, unlimited vacation time policies can be a great tool for recruiting top applicants—but they may also be a hassle to keep track of. Here’s how to manage an effective program:

1. Create a policy based on employees’ roles within the company. It may not be feasible to offer unlimited time off to everyone within your company: For instance, you’ll likely want your customer service representatives to immediately respond to customer concerns, which means that their job duties cannot be handled on a more flexible schedule. In contrast, the flexible-schedule policy may work well for sales staff, who will simply be asked to meet a set monthly sales quota.
2. Track department calendars carefully. Require employees to give substantial advance notice when they plan to be away. The employee should also provide contact information and tell the company how often he plans to check in on assignments while out of town, if at all. His manager is responsible for making sure that he will be able to meet the work milestones that have been set for him.
3. Train employees to take on multiple roles. Months in advance of an employee’s scheduled trip, work with his manager to identify other staff members who can take over the tasks that he generally performs. If the fill-in needs training in order to take on the work, coordinate with the manager to come up with a comprehensive training program, using both in-person training and e-learning as necessary.

Recruiters are never off the clock. Every chance meeting, every new introduction, every unexpected phone call is chance to help someone find a job. Maybe not today; but it’s an opportunity. And good recruiters always take advantage of every opportunity.

There are a few other tips we can take from the lesson book of outstanding recruiters:

Tip #1 – Check your rear view mirror. Good recruiters know that you can learn from both your successes and your failures. The recruiting process isn’t over just because the candidate is now in place. If this candidate is a huge success, having a significant impact on the work team, department or overall business, it’s important to know why this worked out. Is it cultural fit? Is it due to the specific work experiences of your new hire? Maybe it’s a result of the specific education and training the person received? In any case, a good recruiter wants to know, so when a similar vacancy arises, the blueprint for success has already been designed.

Tip #2 – Hire for Attitude, Train for Skills. Attitude can look like team spirit, customer service, confidence, or energy. It can look like a lot of things but it’s not something you can train into someone; it’s something they bring to the table. Businesses can train people on computers, how to use a new software, they can train in company procedures but they can’t train for attitude.

TIP #3 – Past Performance Predicts Future Behavior. Overlooking a past performance issue in lieu of obtaining certain difficult-to-find skills is the kiss of death in the recruiting business. The interesting thing about performance is that it is directly linked to attitude (TIP #2). It’s our attitude that determines how we get up in the morning; it sets us apart and defines our motivation to perform. Always use performance based questions in the interview process. When an answer doesn’t give you enough information, drill down with more questions until you are satisfied you have enough information to properly evaluate the candidate.

Tip #4 – Become the employer of choice. Now, this may not seem the responsibility of the recruiter, but being the employer of choice is directly related to the employees, management and staff within the company. There is a significant correlation between those who work in the company and the recruiter who helps find them. Best and brightest means many different things to many different people. A very talented IT person who doesn’t work well in highly structured environments won’t be very successful in a “big brother” type work environment. The recruiter’s responsibility is to know the work environment and bring not just the best talent, but the right cultural fit to the table for consideration.

Tip #5 – “Hire hard, manage easy” This is a quote from Alan Davidson. Alan’s philosophy is, if you spend your time and effort in the researching the attitudes, skills and abilities needed in the best-fit candidate, the end result is an employee who is easy to manage, productive, and adds value to the company.

With the essential responsibilities to hire the best employees for the job and the company sitting on their shoulders, recruiters appreciate any help they can get. A significant tool in effective recruiting can be an automated applicant tracking and recruiting software.

By eliminating repetitive administrative tasks, the right software can allow recruiters more time to focus on their core recruiting responsibilities Recruiting software streamlines the entire process with a paperless process that improves communications. Managers create their requisitions on-line, track correspondence, review resumes, and even approve offers all from their desktop. Resume searches can be adjusted to meet defined needs. Candidates can be screened with weighted questions derived from the initial requisition. The entire process is robust and meets EEO reporting responsibility standards, leaving time for the most important interpersonal ingredients of the recruiting process. It’s a must-have tool for today’s busy recruiter who is always seeking opportunities to find the right person for the job.

When people work in a small office together nearly every day, it’s inevitable that conflicts will arise. Sometimes, they make it impossible for employees to work together productively—in which case, you may need to come in to diffuse the situation. If you’re asked to mediate a dispute between employees, here are a few ideas for how to cool off the situation.

1. Speak with the conflicting parties in a private conference room. You want them to feel safe to discuss their feelings with one another and with you.
2. Guide the discussion, but don’t take sides. Keep your contributions to the discussion focused on the issue at hand, and don’t offer your own opinion on matters.
3. Focus on resolving the conflict. Ask each party what actions they would like the other party to take in order to make things right. Don’t allow them to insult or place blame on one another, or the session will turn into a fighting match instead of a constructive meeting.
4. Write down a list of steps that must be taken. Ask each party to commit to improving the relationship, and schedule another meeting several weeks later for a progress review.

Employees not getting along can be uncomfortable for everyone. Hopefully using these steps you can diffuse the situation quickly and get your office back to normal.

If you’re responsible for hiring employees for your company, you may want to implement policies to verify that they’re telling the truth about everything on their resumés. But how can you safeguard your company without snooping too heavily into people’s personal affairs, and potentially violating laws?

Here are a few tips on how to handle a background check:

1. Don’t run a background check until you’ve made a conditional job offer. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and intrusive to run a background check on an applicant who may not even accept the job. Wait until the applicant has accepted your job offer, but make it conditional on positive results of a background check.
2. Make sure to comply with all state and federal regulations. There are several regulations in place to protect individuals from privacy violations in background checks. Brush up on the rules before you begin the process – see the guidelines here (your state may have additional laws – consult with a lawyer for specific details).
3. Don’t discriminate. Your department can make a policy of subjecting candidates for a specific position to a background check, but it’s not legally acceptable to single out a specific candidate. Create a policy that makes it clear when applicants will be subject to further investigation, so all candidates will understand the selection criteria.

Recruiters sometimes miss the trees when they are looking into the forest. In order to be the best at their profession, recruiters know they need an inventory of the skills for each position within the company. In addition, exceptional recruiters place significant importance on defining exactly which experiences and what personality types will be the best fit for their organization.

The trick is finding the people who have this unique set of attributes, skills and abilities on their resume. Most often, recruiters look outside the company, overlooking an opportunity for recruiting from a very cost effective source…right within their own business.

Organizations hire and work to keep good people—employees who have already proven their value to the company and their managers. Managers work double time to keep platinum performers happy, and they know the resume these employees are creating. But does HR?

HR needs to know the skills and abilities of internal talent

Tasked with organizational oversight, building the right team, filling openings with the best talent, and keeping those platinum performers happy is a monumental task. On a daily basis, the recruiters and HR professionals aren’t always aware of the skills and abilities internal employees are building and developing. It may be because the organization is so big, because the quiet ones often get overlooked, or because a manager is trying to keep his ‘best kept secret’ out of the mainstream. Whatever the reason, it’s critical that HR and especially recruiters know the skills and abilities of internal talent. Not only do your premium performers want to be recognized, they want to be challenged with new opportunities. When those opportunities arise, it’s up to HR to maximize on the company’s investment and give internal folks the opportunity to excel.

But who has time to read every employee’s personnel file to check up on their performance evaluations, recognitions, rewards, training and certifications? Fortunately, this time-intensive task is no longer necessary. Technology, once again, has an effective solution: succession planning software. A study published by the Aberdeen Group in 2006 stated that 87% of Best in Class companies are implementing succession planning programs and 60% of those companies are using technology.

Technology has an effective solution

Succession planning enables businesses to retain skilled talent, reduces vulnerability to talent shortages, generates larger pools of promotable employees for all key areas, and improves the link between performance management and employee development. Utilizing this technology, businesses can leverage performance management to deliver better business results.

Instead of just planning to replace someone, succession software can help you address not only your current needs but direct your attention to future needs as well. Some models actually create a vision of the skills and competencies required to support strategic plans for as many as 5 years out. HR can use this information to align their recruiting and succession planning efforts more closely with the overall strategic goals of the company.

Changing strategies to track market conditions is a must in today’s business world. A responsive Human Resources function will be prepared to quickly respond with staffing and human capital management systems that are flexible in a dynamic economic environment. Succession planning software is an effective tool, designed to empower businesses with time-saving tools by producing information critical to success just-in-time, with accuracy and definitive information. 

Halogen Software can help your company discover the hidden talent.

Chances are, there are a few office romances going on at your company: a recent survey from Glamour Magazine and Lawyers.com found that 41% of employees between 25 and 40 had dated a co-worker.

So do you need a workplace policy to make sure the romance doesn’t interfere with the workplace atmosphere?

Probably not: Only 13% of companies surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management claimed to have a formal policy in place relating to workplace romances. In most cases, HR managers seem to take a positive approach to workplace romance, stating that it often increases productivity and leads to marriage. They also regard a formal policy as being too intrusive towards employees’ personal lives.

Still, there are a couple of steps you can take to ensure that workplace romances don’t cause problems around the office. First, provide training to managers and other supervisory staff on how to address sensitive issues like PDAs. Additionally, publicize your company’s sexual harassment policy to ensure that employees are not being made uncomfortable by unwanted advances. By putting appropriate measures in place, you can help ensure that workplace romances don’t cause distractions around the office—but be careful not to get too involved in employees’ personal situations.