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To Spark Real Employee Engagement, Choose Your HR Tech Wisely

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On June 28, Paycom and I are collaborating on a webinar about engagement that everyone needs to attend. Why? Because we’re at a standstill in terms of employee engagement, and we’re going to be looking at the most effective ways to break out of it. We’re going past the concept of employee experience to exactly what experiences add up to engagement. The right HR tech includes those experiences as part of its functionality — so it’s optimizing employee engagement every time it’s utilized.

Here’s what we know: Every interface and every touch point either has a positive or a negative impact on the user experience. Judging from recent statistics on engagement, that impact is more on the negative end of the spectrum. Only 34 percent of U.S. employees are engaged, and despite our best efforts, that rate hasn’t trended up since 2014, according to Gallup.

Still, HR tech has been rolling out solutions — and companies have been adopting them — with increasing frequency. Since we started locating work functions in the cloud-based digital space, there are more options than ever for talent management. Kudos for companies getting on the streamlined, cloud-based bandwagon — it’s the right move. But now we need to utilize those tools in a way that pushes that statistic higher. Here’s how.

Make Sure the Tech Will Get Used

One of the key disconnects is that it’s enough to just get the new platform or program — the “If you build it, they will come construct.” It’s not enough. The tech should be more than user-friendly. It should invite usage.

Make Sure the Tech Saves Your Managers Time

Some companies still wind up doing a lot of HR functions manually, such as filling in employee data or creating reports. That requires a substantial investment of time, preempting valuable person-to-person interactions, keeping your managers facing screens instead of their people. Distracted managers create disengaged employees. Look for tech that can effectively take over, automating your core HR functions while providing managers with the full visibility they need.

Look for Tech That Covers All the Bases

The more comprehensive your HR solution, the easier it will be to use it — and generate data from different functions. Look for tech that can help with everything from hiring to onboarding to payroll and management as well as a central database and powerful analytics. It should feel like the backbone of management, not a sidecar.

Choose Tech That Activates Employees

When HR tech is self-service, employees can utilize it when and where they want to. Time-management options, schedule-exchange elements and more enable employees to work more closely with their managers and colleagues, and track any adjustments or shift switches so managers don’t have to. Learning and development, goal-setting — there are so many arenas where employees want to be able to log on and get going on their own. For a great look at the power of self-service HR, see Paycom’s white paper on self-service technology.

Opt for Seamless Solutions

When we consider the tech we use from a consumer standpoint, one thing that doesn’t work is clutter. We all prefer seamless solutions that save time and energy. That goes double for employees, who depend on the tech we provide them with to get their work done. At this point in the digital evolution, employees expect tech to provide a seamless, smooth, and uniform employee experience. If they have to download different apps for every function, that’s a tangible negative. For instance, if you use one company for general HR needs, one for payroll, another for benefits, and another for time and attendance, are they all on different platforms? You may have a big problem with getting your employees to use those apps. We’re all consumers at some level, so this isn’t a hard concept to imagine. (If you need a good metaphor, consider Amazon.)

Paycom has also found that 50 percent of companies who buy HR tech don’t fully utilize the products they buy, costing them in dollars, time and something else valuable: engagement. Millennial and Gen Z employees expect to be able to take care of their working needs — and interface with HR — online, and the prevailing work culture assumes a digital as well as a physical environment.

So, what does it mean to have the means to provide a digitally driven, cloud-based employee experience and yet not be doing so? It may be even worse than not having digital capability at all. But here’s the good news: The opposite holds just as true. Having robust HR tech that activates employees to make it part of their daily work, frees up your managers and tracks automatically is a powerful catalyst for everyone, providing great experiences and unleashing great performance.

Register for the June 28 webinar to continue the conversation.

 

This post is sponsored by Paycom.

Do You Value Your People? Remember to Tell Them

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Many companies claim that they want to be more people-centric. But how many are? Research suggests that it’s fewer than you might think. According to a report by Fairsail, less than half of US organizations could provide basic HR data within a day – even the simple stuff, like flight risks, skill gaps and high-potential employees.

Of course, there are smart, forward-thinking companies out there that are ahead of the game in terms of talent management. They’re changing the concept of HR. They don’t think of their staff as human capital. They’re thinking of them as people, both in terms of teams and individuals. And in doing this, they’re becoming People Companies.

But what exactly is a People Company?

Firstly, People Companies understand that their staff aren’t just nameless cogs in a machine. They’re human beings. They’re hugely important to a company’s success. And in a People Company, how they are managed will reflect that.

Secondly, People Companies do everything they can to empower their employees. This means everything going on around their people – leadership, structure, culture, processes, training, technology – is set up so companies can harness their talent, not hold it back.

And thirdly? People Companies use the power of numbers. Not the kind of numbers that reduce staff to ones and zeroes on a spreadsheet. We’re talking about in-depth data analytics that let companies truly know their staff. This is also known as people science. By doing this, they can arm themselves with the information they need to give their people great workforce experiences.

Not only this, but the insights they can get from people science help them make better decisions around HR. It can transform the approach to talent management as well. For example, some of the smarter companies are using Chief People Officers to retain talent and make sure staff are happy.

There are many benefits to becoming a People Company. If you can provide a great working environment, you will naturally end up attracting even more of the skills and talent you need. And if you’ve got the tools to nurture and engage that talent, business growth will follow.

Embracing people data also gives you better visibility over your workforce. It gives you the single source of truth you need to manage your people as people. You can see where staff are struggling and offer extra training. You’ll know when they’re taking more sick days than normal, so you can provide extra flexibility around any health problems they might be dealing with. And you’ll be able to instantly recognize where people are performing above and beyond.

Most importantly of all, you’ll benefit from a happier, more productive workforce.

Want to find out more about People Companies? Then join our webinar “Seven steps to become a best in class employer”, on 13th June 1pm EST. In this interactive session, Paul Burrin, senior executive for Fairsail will be discussing the seven best practices for becoming a People Company with Meghan M. Biro, the CEO of Talent Culture.

This post has been sponsored by Fairsail, now part of Sage.

Photo Credit: H. Caufield Flickr via Compfight cc

The State of Workforce Learning in Our Digital World [Webinar]

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There’s been a profound shift in our world, increasing the need for organizations to beef up workforce learning and development. Technology is constantly advancing itself, and demographic changes are pushing the educational envelope. But in this quicksilver, 24/7, digital World of Work, we’re all after competitive advantage — and that means we’re always hungry to gain the knowledge and skills that drive success.

Employees are looking for ways to up their own game too — learning across multiple channels, from social to mobile to online to traditional classroom. But here’s a big difference: it’s not up the organization to deliver education for its employees. Learning now has to be a partnership between organization and employees. And that, combined with the explosion of platforms for how we learn, is a radical, unprecedented change. In fact, Deloitte’s 2016 Global Human Capital Trends report lists learning among the ten trends reshaping how we work.

That’s why I’m really looking forward to taking part in this webinar, The State of Workforce Learning in Our Digital World, offered by the team at Degreed. This is a vital topic, presented free and on-demand. We’ll be sharing insights about the impact of social, mobile, cloud and collaboration tools on workforce learning, and how digital disruptions continue to transform the modern-day workplace. There’s lots of learning in this one, so you don’t want to miss it. Mark your calendars for October 20, 2016, at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST and register now!

I’ll be talking to the Degreed team about how to:

  • Better understand how social, mobile, cloud and other digital disruptors will continue to change the learning landscape
  • Assess your own organization’s readiness for the digital transformation
  • Plan new learning strategies with digital-related technologies in mind

Learning is a Workplace Partnership

What’s cutting-edge in workplace learning? Tools and platforms that enable us to learn when, how, when, where and what we want to. Powerful educational resources that team up with employers to deliver agile, meaningful and trackable learning experiences to the workforce. Smartly curated content that doesn’t reinvent the wheel. From smartphones to social media, from online sources to traditional classes, learning doesn’t resist digital disruption, it embraces it.

Learning works best when employers and employees collaborate — and that’s going to matter even more in years to come. A recent Degreed study found that 60 percent of employees would spend more time learning if they received some kind of credit or recognition for it. But they’re learning anyway, and spending money on it: 75 percent invested their own money on career-related development ($339 on average). So now’s the time to get on board.

Tune in to this exciting webinar on The State of Workforce Learning in Our Digital World. From where I sit, it’s a no-brainer.

This post is sponsored by Degreed.com

Photo Credit: elearningsmansara Flickr via Compfight cc

How Employee Communication Impacts Culture [Webinar]

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We need to talk — about communication. We all know communication is key. In fact, it’s never been more important. The new World of Work is continuously connected but often across generations, locations, media platforms, intra and inter-webs, and social and mobile. Communication has simply never been more of a critical skill. Good or bad, it drives organizational culture more than ever.

We’ve all been there, felt the galvanizing impact of a brilliant presentation; the drag on everyone wreaked by a maze of emails. The toll of head-shaker moments in a meeting, the fist-pump after a meaningful conversation. The effect is profound and direct. Unlike some other systems in the workplace, how we communicate — among leadership, employees, partners, candidates or other key audiences — has an instantaneous effect.

So I’m thrilled to be part of this webinar, How Employee Communication Impacts Culture, offered by my friends at CultureIQ. It’s free, on-demand, and packed with savvy insights and workable strategies on taking a hard look at your organization and finding powerful ways to make it better. You’re going to want to be in on this hot topic. Register today —and mark your calendars for October 13, 2016, at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST.

I’ll be talking to the CultureIQ team about how to:

  • Audit your organizational communication tactics, and glean what’s working and what’s not
  • Spark better communication techniques on all levels of the organization
  • Curate the best, most effective communication tools across the board

Communication Makes or Breaks Culture

Today we communicate faster and across more channels than yesterday, and tomorrow it’s going to be even faster and more complex than it is today. That means the effect of communication on culture is just as constant. And its vital importance in the workforce should never be overlooked. Among millennials, 47 percent report that open and free-flowing communication is a key factor in their staying in a job for more than five years, according to Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey. Among those who leave within two years, 26 percent cite poor communication as a reason.

Shape your communication to inspire trust and engagement, to be consistent no matter which platform you use, to grow connection and build relationships — between leadership and employees, across teams and departments, into audiences and markets — and your culture will thrive, along with the people in it. I know you hear me on this. So tune in to this exciting webcast on How Employee Communication Impacts Culture, and let’s talk about how to do it right.

This post is sponsored by CultureIQ.

Photo Credit: MBA Lounge Flickr via Compfight cc

Using Data to Link Talent Decisions to Business (Webinar)

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The HR industry talks a lot about analytics and data. Yet are we using data to link talent decisions to business? Not as much as we could be. There are many things to measure and a whole host of ways to measure them. The connection between the people in our organizations and the success of the business are so intertwined that it’s hard to believe that we ever separated the two. But even with powerful data readily available, are the majority of organizations using applicable information to their advantage? Maybe not. Are most HR departments just skimming the top of the analytics iceberg? Unfortunately yes.

We all know that talent acquisition, training and onboarding is time consuming and expensive. The figures vary across industries and titles, but selecting employees who are knowledgeable, trainable and a good fit for the workplace culture is a fine art. But once that person is a full-fledged member of the team, how are we retaining him or her? And even more importantly, how are we aligning people to the bottom line? It can be simple or incredibly challenging, depending on how the business sets up an analytics dashboard.

Let’s take a deep dive into a few HR metrics that truly matter to the business (and these are just a handful). Let me also acknowledge that these metrics don’t just magically bubble to the surface. Workforce planning, applicable processes and savvy tools are necessary to reveal the truth.

Engagement Scores

Employee engagement. It’s almost become a buzz phrase in the HR world, but that’s because it matters. Let’s look at this in a linear fashion. Effective leaders are driven to engage their employees. Engaged employees tend to be happier. And what do happy employees do? They produce great work and they stay. Everyone wins! Engagement scores can be calculated from survey scores about the supervisor-employee relationship. In my opinion, high engagement should be taught to managers and required as a success metric. Consistently low engagement on a team should be addressed with the leader and a remediation plan should be put into place. It’s costing the business money and change needs to happen.

Absentee Rates

It’s simple to track how many days an employee missed during a certain timeframe. But if you aren’t taking a hard look at why certain teams have a higher rate of absenteeism, you are deliberately missing the boat. Is the manager working the team too hard? Is the team under-engaged? Pinpointing teams with high absenteeism and exploring the reasons why this is the case is another wise business move.

Resignation Rates

Most organizations can provide a number of resignations in the last year. They may even be able to provide some explanations for an increase. But with the right tools, patterns can be revealed that aren’t all that obvious. I could geek out talking about patterns and predictive analytics for who may resign in the future – it’s fascinating. I mean, Debbie is still a human and how we treat her is way more important than a computer’s prediction for her summertime resignation letter; but if we can see it coming and make wise business decisions to hold onto key employees, why not?

Money, Money, Money

When HR was asked to justify an expense or explain budgetary decisions, it used to be awkward and embarrassing. Compared to the finance or marketing department, HR was often seen as a black hole. Well that just isn’t the case anymore. Or at least it shouldn’t be in your organization. With the ability to align costs with output, people with profits, hires with increased productivity, pay raises with palpable potential, HR can and should show any executive or money cruncher that we know how, when, where and why money is and will be spent. There are former HR executives that would kill to have had this data at their fingertips. In fact, be sure not to flaunt it in front of a retired HR pro. He or she may have a flashback and lash out at you.

Just kidding. Well, kind of.

There are so many HR metrics out there that are dying to be used to make wise business decisions. So quit reading about them—imagining how nice they would be. Find out how to weave them into your workforce planning and be amazed at how easy they are to access. I will be talking more about this topic on a webinar with our friends at Visier January 21 at 2pm ET. Join us!

Image : NegativeSpace.co

How to Succeed at Talent Acquisition in 2016: The Empowered Recruiter [Webinar]

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To stay competitive in 2016, your talent acquisition success will depend on a combination of effective recruitment marketing strategies, increased speed, and quality hiring processes.

All of which looks good on paper but can feel overwhelming.

Finding the right candidate is often like searching for a needle in a haystack. Your recruitment marketing strategies deliver new volumes of candidates for open roles, using various channels to attract that sought-after talent. And your optimized career page, social sources and job board listings engage candidates better than ever before.

Now what? Are you essentially creating a bigger “haystack” that those elusive “needles” are buried in? You don’t have time for that.

As recruiters, your fundamental responsibility is to find the best people for any given job as fast as possible—regardless of the complexities you face with sourcing, hiring processes or volume of candidates. You need faster and easier candidate identification. You need tools that make you more productive as a recruiter.

What if you could actually create smaller “haystacks” for each open requisition you have, and be automatically presented with a handful of potential “needles”?

You can. With a next-generation ATS (Applicant Tracking System) – a platform that brings candidate intelligence, analytics, integration, and automation right to your fingertips, strengthening your ability to derive actionable insights from the database.

Become an empowered recruiter and succeed at talent acquisition in 2016! Join PeopleFluent and Meghan M. Biro, on December 10, 2015, at  2PM EST for our webinar: “Talent Acquisition Success in 2016 Part 1: The Empowered Recruiter.”

Here’s what you can expect to learn:

  • The imperatives of robust, dynamic talent pipelines
  • Specific opportunities to simplify complex sourcing requirements
  • How to build and manage recruiting analytics that empower you
  • How mobile capabilities accelerate and amplify some of the most core functions of modern applicant tracking databases

You’ll also learn more about next-generation Applicant Tracking Systems, like PeopleFluent Recruiting, which are purpose-built for enterprise recruiting by simplifying complex recruiting processes, accelerating candidate identification, and engaging candidates, recruiters and hiring managers.

This valuable information will help you find, attract, hire, and align the best candidates in 2016 and will give you a critical edge over your competition. Click here to register today!

photo credit: Cross Processing Experiments via photopin (license)

 

PeopleFluent is a client of TalentCulture and sponsored this post. 

Social Influence and Your Brand: Connecting the Dots [Webinar]

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“Don’t try to invent a tribe. Show up to lead one that exists.”
—Seth Godin

Today’s hyper-connected digital world has opened the door to a whole new era in brand development.

Employers, HR professionals and job hunters, alike, are rapidly embracing digital channels to elevate their market presence and amplify their share of voice.

With proactive players setting a torrid pace, no one can afford to stay on the social media sidelines. But social networking doesn’t guarantee influence — and activity without strategy can put a brand at risk.

Join the Experts

So how do you create a digital brand roadmap that makes the most sense for your goals? What’s the best way to ignite your social agenda? And how do you measure its impact?

If you’re looking for expert guidance, you won’t want to miss this very special webinar event:

“Using Social Insights to Build Your Brand”
February 27, at 2pm Eastern Time / 11am Pacific Time.

LeadTail webinar CTATalentCulture founder, Meghan M. Biro will join forces with the social marketing and insights specialists at Leadtail to talk about how top HR and recruiting influencers are driving market awareness and engagement through social channels.

You’ll learn how social media best practices can move your brand forward and how data-based insights can inform your strategy.

For example, the session will focus on questions like these:

• What elements define a personal brand?
• Why are social channels ideal for brand building?
• Who influences the HR and recruiting community today — and how?
• How can you successfully apply these social techniques?

In addition, Meghan will reveal how she has leveraged social media to become one of the most recognized experts in the HR and recruiting space.

“Social channels have created a phenomenal opportunity to reach, engage and influence all the constituents a brand must touch — business allies, customers, prospects and employees,” Meghan says. “I’m excited to team-up with Leadtail, as we empower brands to expand their connections and strengthen their business relationships.”

Throughout the webinar, attendees are invited to join members of the TalentCulture community on Twitter, as we share ideas and questions using the #TChat hashtag.

Don’t miss this dynamic informative event! Register now, and join us February 27th.

Participating Organizations

Learn more about Leadtail, and connect with @Leadtail on Twitter.
Learn more about TalentCulture, and connect with @TalentCulture on Twitter.

Register now for this webinar: Using Social Insights to Build Your Brand.

Image Credit: Pixabay

The 3 "Rs" of Hiring "A" Players

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Recruitment + Referrals + Retention

If you want to attract top talent, and keep those high performers on your team (as I assume every employer does), it’s important to create a virtuous cycle. You’ll find it in cultures driven by passion, where employees are treated with respect, and candidates are treated like employees. There’s a continuous loop of positive reinforcement.

It sounds simple enough. So, when companies miss the mark, where do they go wrong? I think many organizations approach recruiting as an isolated objective. But the most effective talent strategies are built on three components that work together to complete the loop:

1) Recruitment

Today the employee experience starts long before the first day at work. With the growth of Glassdoor and other “talent marketplace” sites, anyone can comment about you as a prospective employer, even if they never receive or accept an offer. Your reputation is critical in attracting top talent, so it’s essential to treat candidates with the same level of attention and respect that you extend to employees.

2) Referrals

Unhappy, disengaged employees typically don’t refer friends to their employers. On the other hand, smart employees won’t refer weak candidates to an employer they like. That psychology naturally favors referral programs for organizations devoted to employee success. With the right structure and nurturing, a referral program can help develop a vibrant culture, where people are committed to working toward a common purpose. You can empower your workforce to select for cultural fit, while dramatically reducing recruiting costs, and decreasing the time needed to help new employees achieve peak performance.

Check out the SlideShare presentation below for more insights about the power of referrals.

3) Retention

When building your recruiting strategy, don’t neglect your organization’s current workforce realities. For example, is your employee turnover rate unacceptably high? If your company faces a retention problem, accelerating recruitment is like shoveling water out of a sinking boat. It’s smarter to focus on plugging the hole. If you address the problems that cause employees to leave, you’ll not only have fewer positions to fill, but you’ll also attract top performers more easily. Savvy candidates quickly sense a toxic or chaotic culture. On the other hand, passion and engagement are contagious, and will draw qualified candidates to your door.

Integrated Approach = Business Benefits

WR_247Recruit_SM_404x404

Attend the on-demand webinar now

In HR, we know better than anyone that the quality and commitment of people on your team are the foundation of business success. If your talent strategy considers what happens before, during and after every hire, you’ll create a sustainable framework for top performance.

For more talent acquisition and retention advice, listen now to Achievers’ recent “24×7 Recruiting” webinar, featuring TalentCulture founder Meghan M. Biro.

Image Credit: Stock.xchng

The 3 “Rs” of Hiring “A” Players

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Recruitment + Referrals + Retention

If you want to attract top talent, and keep those high performers on your team (as I assume every employer does), it’s important to create a virtuous cycle. You’ll find it in cultures driven by passion, where employees are treated with respect, and candidates are treated like employees. There’s a continuous loop of positive reinforcement.

It sounds simple enough. So, when companies miss the mark, where do they go wrong? I think many organizations approach recruiting as an isolated objective. But the most effective talent strategies are built on three components that work together to complete the loop:

1) Recruitment

Today the employee experience starts long before the first day at work. With the growth of Glassdoor and other “talent marketplace” sites, anyone can comment about you as a prospective employer, even if they never receive or accept an offer. Your reputation is critical in attracting top talent, so it’s essential to treat candidates with the same level of attention and respect that you extend to employees.

2) Referrals

Unhappy, disengaged employees typically don’t refer friends to their employers. On the other hand, smart employees won’t refer weak candidates to an employer they like. That psychology naturally favors referral programs for organizations devoted to employee success. With the right structure and nurturing, a referral program can help develop a vibrant culture, where people are committed to working toward a common purpose. You can empower your workforce to select for cultural fit, while dramatically reducing recruiting costs, and decreasing the time needed to help new employees achieve peak performance.

Check out the SlideShare presentation below for more insights about the power of referrals.

3) Retention

When building your recruiting strategy, don’t neglect your organization’s current workforce realities. For example, is your employee turnover rate unacceptably high? If your company faces a retention problem, accelerating recruitment is like shoveling water out of a sinking boat. It’s smarter to focus on plugging the hole. If you address the problems that cause employees to leave, you’ll not only have fewer positions to fill, but you’ll also attract top performers more easily. Savvy candidates quickly sense a toxic or chaotic culture. On the other hand, passion and engagement are contagious, and will draw qualified candidates to your door.

Integrated Approach = Business Benefits

WR_247Recruit_SM_404x404

Attend the on-demand webinar now

In HR, we know better than anyone that the quality and commitment of people on your team are the foundation of business success. If your talent strategy considers what happens before, during and after every hire, you’ll create a sustainable framework for top performance.

For more talent acquisition and retention advice, listen now to Achievers’ recent “24×7 Recruiting” webinar, featuring TalentCulture founder Meghan M. Biro.

Image Credit: Stock.xchng

Recruitment Insights Webinar: Join Us!

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What does it take to recruit top talent in today’s business environment? Is a nonstop employer commitment essential? And how can companies link recruiting and retention more closely, for better business results?

Learn from the experts at a very special webinar this Thursday, July 25, at 1pm ET/10 am PT. At 24×7 Recruitment TalentCulture CEO, Meghan M. Biro, and Achievers Talent Acquisition Manager, Kate Pope, will engage in a dynamic discussion about the factors that make or break recruiting strategies.

WR_247Recruit_SM_404x404-001“I’m passionate about exploring best practices in talent management — and forums like this create an opportunity to share ideas with a broader community” Meghan says. “Earlier this year, TalentCulture and Achievers joined forces to help generate conversations that elevate the future of work. This brings that concept to life in a way that can make a real difference for talent-minded professionals.”

Throughout the webinar, members of the TalentCulture community are invited to share highlights and questions on Twitter by tweeting with Achievers’ #A_Chat hashtag.

Register now at Achievers.com, and join the discussion this Thursday!

Participating Organizations

Learn more about Achievers, and follow @Achievers on Twitter.
Learn more about TalentCulture, and follow @TalentCulture on Twitter.