Now Hiring: A Great Culture Fit!

The Screening Source, LLC.

Candidates choosing between several job offers often base their decision on multiple factors. Salary, benefits, and location are among the most obvious, but company culture also plays an important role. When you are trying to attract the best talent, it can tip the balance in your favor and serve as compensation if you are not able to offer the highest salary.

If you want to entice talented applicants, , you first need to have a thorough understanding of what your company culture is. Important factors include company goals and values, work environment (both literal and social), pace of work, and development or advancement opportunities.

Don’t lie about your company culture in order to attract candidates. You want employees who share your overall goals and attitudes. Scoring a big name or someone with an impressive resume by misrepresenting your business will leave you with an unhappy and potentially very expensive employee.

If you are interested in particular candidates or are in the midst of hiring, you can advertise your company culture directly to your prospective employees. However, there are several ways to give this knowledge to the public and potentially attract even more qualified and compatible candidates.

Here are few ways you can spread the word about your company and all that is has to offer:

Glassdoor.com

Is the next big thing in candidate intelligence. Think of Yelp for candidates. As unemployment rates drop and wage competition rises having a powerful statement about your culture disseminated by real team members is key. Make sure your company is encouraging team members to leave honest feedback about their experience on Glassdoor.com. If you are worried about poor reviews then you should consider finding out why. The bottom line is the dissenters are always more likely to post on these sites and the happiest need a little nudging. For smaller organizations this is a great way to make a big impact on your recruiting efforts.

Your website

Use your website to highlight your company’s culture. You may want to have a page specifically covering the topic or simply include statements from leading individuals and employees. These should be related to your company’s mission or to the work environment you strive for. Appropriate images, including pictures of employees, can add a sense of sincerity and help convey your message.

Videos and social media

Once thought of as an essentially personal and somewhat frivolous platform,, social media is now used by every top company. Even users who don’t engage with you regularly will see your company name more often. Social media presents an opportunity to reach a greater audience and advertise your company culture in a way that may lead candidates to seek you out. Share photos or give employees a chance to participate, by posting their favorite things about working at your company.

Similarly, short videos can allow you to promote your company and its culture in a more visually engaging way. Videos could be strictly informative, feature interviews with employees, or showcase a company event.

Job postings

Take advantage of job postings and include some brief notes about your business, such as a mission statement. However, if you want to highlight company culture, ensure that you actually do so. Simply stating that you aim to be #1 in your industry won’t distinguish you from competitors. Instead, mention that your organization is team-oriented or a place to compete and stand out, if constant innovation is your focus or if you keep clients by staying loyal to your traditions.

Job fairs and other events

Job fairs and community events are a great chance to let potential hires learn about your company culture. It presents an opportunity to talk with potential candidates who want to submit their resumes without having to go through an interview. Those who attend on behalf of your company will be able to present image and answer questions, filtering out people who may be incompatible before the hiring process begins. Having non HR employees at these events can allow potential candidates ask everyday employees about the day in a life at some at your company.

Recruiters

If you use outside recruiters, give them the information they need to know to answer candidates’ basic questions about your company culture. They may also be able to identify better applicants if they are aware of your organization’s style and goals.

Advertising your company culture can increase the likelihood of a talented and desirable candidate choosing your business. It can also improve the chances that the type of employees you are looking for will come to you, allowing you better options when it comes to choosing your next hire.

The Problem with a Slow Hiring Process

Many factors affect the speed of the hiring process. Not all are in your control; everyone knows how suddenly we can get sidetracked.

It is important to do all you can to keep an efficient pace. There is no exact number of weeks that suits every opening or company, but you must avoid excessively slow hiring. Only emergencies and hunts for executive-level positions should stretch past the two month mark.

Why A Slow Hiring Process Is Problematic

Slow hires can be as damaging as hires made in desperation at break-neck speed. Here’s why:

• You can lose top candidates. The best people, particularly for highly skilled positions, are going to have a shot at quite a few jobs. If you drag out the process, you risk losing them to a competitor or to simple frustration. This has long-term consequences for your profits. You are also risking your reputation with future industry players.
• Remaining candidates are less desirable. Not only will you lose highly skilled, in-demand people, but you will lose good candidates for lower level jobs as well. They are even more likely to be applying to multiple positions and even more likely to accept an offer they get – and forget about yours.

Some employers think a slow hiring process means a better result. After all, you have more time to go over everything carefully. Know that your best candidates may drop out of the process before you have a chance to hire them.

• Your employees and productivity may suffer. You may not think it’s a huge deal for the project team to be down by one or for your receptionist to take extra calls. However, these things do have a negative effect on the performance of employees forced to shoulder extra duties.
• You incur more hiring costs. More interviews, more meetings, more phone calls, more tests, more travel. It’s going to add up, even if you are not constantly engaged with the hiring process. Make hiring a priority and prepare properly so you get the most information possible out of interviews and assessments.
• You lose immediate revenue. If the position is vacant, it’s obvious you lose revenue associated with the role. You also lose revenue due to the decreased productivity of other workers. In addition, you may be unable to take on more clients or customers, causing them to use other businesses. This leads to significant long-term revenue cost.
• Your reputation may suffer. You may strike candidates as unprofessional. In addition, you might be slower at returning phone calls, finishing up that contract, seeing those patients – depending on the position, you’re making the customers and clients you depend on wait. Don’t risk your reputation.

Slow hiring is harmful, but don’t rush through the process too quickly. Speed can lead to bad hires – forcing you to go through the process again – and creates an unnecessary need for extra interviews and time. Get the most out of interviews and resume reviews the first time and avoid the risks of slow hiring.

The Screening Source, LLC. 

3 Tips to Help You Hire the Perfect Remote Candidates

The Screening Source, LLC.

If you’re hiring an employee for a work from home position, there’s a good chance you’ll be conducting the interview remotely, as well. Often, this means a phone interview, but sometimes it can mean an interview over Skype, or a flight into town to meet the whole team. Since you can’t rely on body language cues the way you might in an in-person interview, how can you make sure you’re hiring the right person?

Here are three tips to help you choose the best candidate for your remote job:

1. Hire a Great Communicator

If the person you’re interviewing has a difficult time expressing him or herself at the beginning, it will be bad news further down the road. Because all later communication will be done via email, phone, chat, or another tech, it’s vital that your candidate can communicate online. He or she needs to have a good handle on proper netiquette, plus have the ability to establish thoughts, ideas, and handle conflict well if your team will be successful.

2. Look for Somebody Who is Self-Motivated

When one person struggles to stay on task, the whole team suffers. It’s important for bosses to conduct surveys to better understand morale and gain an impression of where individual improvements can be made within your remote team. A candidate who can’t set his or her own work goals and deadlines and drive projects to completion is an employee whose poor work will cause other people’s quality of work to decline You’re looking for a candidate who has a proven track record of working from home successfully or successfully leading things like group projects.

3. You Need a Digitally Proficient Candidate

This is not a time to hire somebody who has trouble handling attachments or figuring out new coworking apps, simply because that person won’t have anyone nearby to show him or her what to do! Out of the gate, you’ll need somebody who is comfortable and proficient on the existing types of technology your company uses, and who won’t mind learning new systems. All the great communication skills in the world don’t help if your new work from home employee can’t figure out how to use the company’s chat feature!

Employees are clamoring to work remotely, which is great news for anyone hiring and looking for a high-quality candidate pool! Make sure to look for somebody who is a great communicator, self-motivated, and digitally proficient, and you’ll be well on your way to growing a great team.

Using pre-hire assessments that test for characteristics like motivation, self-confidence, focus, and other emotional intelligence traits will also help you narrow down which candidates are a fit for your remote team. Good luck!

6 Ways to Handle Employee Resignation With Tact and Ease

The Screening Source, LLC.

It’s always a bummer for your company when one of your star employees makes the decision to pursue another opportunity. She’s a top performer in the sales department who always seems to be ahead of her game, zestfully trains the new hires, and regularly boosts office morale. Now what? After you move through the five stages of grief and come to terms with this new change, here are some topics to consider when a top employee resigns.

Don’t Worry

There will be others! Break the news to your team in a diplomatic and respectful manner. Acknowledging the loss of your employee helps to begin the transition and allows everyone to process the change. Reassure your team that you will all manage the transition phase together in a way that is productive for everyone and the company.

Accept and Reflect

Take this time to reflect on the impending change happening in your company and evaluate areas for further growth and opportunity. As a business leader, look toward this as a chance to build upon the key strengths of your other employees and communicate this as an experience in which positive movement can be drawn from.

Manage the Transition

Transitions can be a challenge for a company when a top employee resigns. Who will take over Mr. Employee’s clients moving forward? What do we do with the existing open accounts that he’s working on? Who will bring donuts from now on?!

Typically a top employee will provide significant notice before departing and will take of closing out ongoing projects so as not to leave customers hanging. If this is not the case, you may have to attend to damage control with haste.

A great way to effectively manage the transition period is with collaboration amongst the team. Evaluate what’s most important and consider moving team members around to address the most pressing tasks. Take care not to overload a departing employee on the last two weeks of his job, instead have him help with his departure. You’ll also want to encourage him to work with his colleagues to manage taking over tasks that he’s got on the table.

Explore the Advantages of a Counteroffer

A healthy counteroffer should be used to keep a top employee from resigning if the costs of him leaving outweigh allowing another employee to take over.  While this is a very grey area that oftentimes comes down to salary negotiation, best practices in regards to counteroffers warn against getting into a compensation tug of war and instead suggest focusing on the true wants and needs of the employee. Research shows, time and time again, that the main reason employees leave is for a better opportunity anyway, and not necessarily just an increase in pay, so why even go there.

Make Exit Interviews Standard Operating Procedure

If you’ve developed a culture of communication within your organization, you probably can have an honest conversation with your employee about their reasons for leaving. Of course, if you’re one of the reasons your employee has decided to bail, this task is easier said than done! Make it a practice to include another distanced employee or supervisor as part of the exit interview to help elicit honest feedback.

Again, use this opportunity to hone in on the reasons for your employee’s intended departure and evaluate if you may be able to accommodate those wants and needs. Allow yourself to be open to suggestions and use what you learn moving forward. This can serve as a good time to re-evaluate roles and challenges in order to better forecast for the company’s continued growth.

Well Wishes

Lastly, you want to make this time as positive of an experience for everyone as possible. Your top performer is likely excited about taking on new challenges, and while you and the team are sad to see him go, it’s best to maintain an air of respect and gratitude for the time spent together. Remember, you want an ambassador for your company, so don’t burn any bridges! You never know when your paths might cross again and this once top employee can serve as a catalyst for future business opportunity.

8 Highlights of a Great Resume

The Screening Source, LLC.

How You Know You’re Looking at a Stellar Resume?
Resumes are fun to read, aren’t they? But what makes a resume good? What makes a resume so good that you want to contact that person out of the sea of other resumes from eager and hopeful candidates?

Quantified Effort
Sure, you led a team and increased profits. But this other guy managed, trained, and coached a team of supervisors-in-training and increased quarterly profit margins from 25k to 45k in less than a year while also reducing costs by 30%. Pretty impressive, no?
Candidates who are able to quantify their efforts help paint a clearer picture of their actual on-the-job effectiveness. While it sounds great that candidates are able to increase profit and lead a team, it sounds even better when you can actually get an idea of how much and how well they did this.

It’s Original and Interesting
Lots of candidates write down their interests or objective in their resume. There’s nothing worse than reading how much someone wants to “contribute to the company’s overall success” or “utilize my skills to help your company.” ZZzzzzZZ.
Tell me about your pet kangaroo or how you’re the jalapeno popper eating champion in your hometown. Something original goes a lot further to describe your personality and what that might look like in the workplace than a generic description that sounds copy/pasted from a resume writing tutorial.

It’s In Reverse Chronological Order
The most important positions and projects should be listed first, as they’re the most relevant and pertinent to what a candidate has been up to recently. Resumes that list important positions starting from the earliest and ending with the most recent can be pretty confusing to follow, and that never makes a good first impression.

It Contains Pertinent Keywords
All recruiters know that a resume is only as good as its keywords. Important keywords are crucial to describing a specific role or set of tasks that candidates were/are responsible for in their previous or current position.
If you’re searching for an engineer candidate, chances are your results will be flooded with various resumes with that keyword. Using specific keywords, such as “audio engineer” and experience with “architectural acoustics” and “electroacoustics” that can be found more easily and weeded out from the rest is key to good resume content.

Company Description
It can be very helpful when a candidate provides a brief description of the company or type of company they’ve worked for. Unless it’s Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, many hiring managers have never heard of “So-and-So Incorporated” and if this candidate was the VP of development, it leaves many to wonder what exactly he/she and company developed. When your candidate provides a (brief) description of the company or industry they’re in, this can provide some context from which they are coming and help in deciding if this person is an experience or culture fit.

Bullet Points
Let’s face it. A resume should be a breakdown of the most important tasks a candidate has performed or accomplished within a job. No one wants to read a 5 paragraph essay! Bullet points should be brief, listing important keywords and quantified accomplishments within the position to be most effective and have the greatest impact on a hiring manager.

White Space
Similar to using bullet points, utilizing white space is more of a cosmetic preference but does help the document flow. White space on a resume indicates that only the most important topics, bullet points, and positions are highlighted, and the information is to the point.
Resumes should not be entirely full of text or pictures and should not be difficult to read or follow. Resumes should flow smoothly and transition nicely between positions and responsibilities.

No Objective, but Maybe an Executive Summary
Including an objective in a resume is almost redundant. It is assumed that the objective is to sway the hiring manager enough through the viewing of the resume to contact the candidate and offer an interview and then the position to which said the candidate has applied. Pretty obvious, right?
An executive summary, on the other hand, can be a brief paragraph that highlights select accomplishments and responsibilities throughout the resume in one succinct fashion. This allows the reader to decide right from the beginning if they’re interested in reviewing the rest of the document.
Resumes come in all shapes and sizes. You can be sure that you’re viewing a good resume when it contains enough important information (in bulleted form), with specific keywords and quantified accomplishments and still has some white space left on the page to ensure easy readability.

On Squirrels Crossing the Street and Assessment Testing

The Screening Source

When it comes to hiring a new candidate, you have a lot of options. Assessment testing, for example, is one of those options. Testing candidates is a great way to assess your talent pool to further gather information about your candidates and make the most informed decision possible.

Choosing the Right Assessments for Your Company

Choosing the right pre-employment assessments for your business will ultimately depend on the type of roles you are looking to fill and what you are looking to measure in your potential candidates.

Before selecting you pre-hire assessments, take an inventory. What are the most important skills, experiences, or aspects of the position? How are these things usually measured?

Ability Assessments

Ability assessments are great when you want to know more about whether your candidates have a specific level of competence to manage a job or task. You might seek out information about a candidate’s people or interpersonal skills, communication skills, and sales or management know-how.

Ability measures allow you to identify areas where your candidates excel and where there may be room for improvement if you’re willing to train. These are also great for identifying skills in younger employees or recent graduates who have little to no work experience.

Personality Assessments

Having the right personality fit for a position is crucial to long-term success and employee engagement. If someone enjoys the work they do, they’re more likely to stay in the job for an extended period and, although not always, are usually pretty good at whatever they’re doing.

When you measure a candidate’s personality fit before hiring, you gain insight into where this person will fit within your company, how they might get along with others, and how they will contribute to your company’s overall culture.

Emotional Competencies or “Soft Skills”

Emotional competency is one of those things that you can’t touch or see, but know it’s extremely important and related to success. Emotional competency suggests that your candidates have the motivation, drive, and focus for high-level achievement. Emotionally competent individuals operate efficiently, understand others, and then use that understanding to get things done. If they don’t see a way or solution, they make one. The rise to the occasion, whatever the occasion may be.

Measuring emotional competency in your pre-hire testing program is a great way to identify those individuals who will push the limits, think creatively, and ultimately help take your business to the next level.

Skill Tests

Skill testing is a quick and inexpensive way to screen candidates. You can find skill tests that measure attention to detail, sales knowledge, logic and critical thinking, computer skills and programs like Microsoft Excel and Outlook, data entry, math, and reading and writing.

Utilizing these tests before spending the time to interview someone is a great way to narrow down your candidate pool so you know you’re only meeting with people who are at the skill level you want them to be, and not spending time with those who aren’t.

In other words, don’t make bad hiring decisions when it’s so easy to make good ones. Don’t be the squirrel who waits until a car comes to cross the street. Interested in exploring how pre-hire testing can help you hire better employees? Get in touch with us today to try out a demo.

Hiring Insight You Can Use Today

The Screening Source, LLC.

By Stephanie

If your company does not already have a robust employee referral program, you may be missing the boat in terms of recruitment resources. Statistically, the best recruitment tools available in the business world today are already at your disposal in the form of your own employees. In studies of the employee recruitment process, a whopping 88 percent of employers name employee referrals from existing employees as their best and most cost-effective recruiting secret.
Here are a few reasons why:

• Employee referrals represent the highest application-to-hire conversion rate
• According to JobVite, a social media recruiting system, employees who are hired from employee referrals stay with the new company longer than others: 46 percent stay over a year, 47 percent stay over 3 years. Employee longevity, of course, is money in the pocket of the employer. No new recruitment costs, no learning curve, and better productivity.
• Employees referred by other employees have a higher rate of job satisfaction
• Employee referral-based employment takes place more quickly resulting is shorter down-time. Fifty-one percent say the process is less expensive.
• Because your rock-star employees are each likely to have 150 social media contacts, your recruitment outreach magically gets broader every time you engage your employees in the process. Think of it this way you have 20 employees each with 150 social media contacts, if each employee broadcasts your new job opening you have sent a credible job advertisement to 3,000 people for FREE.

You already know that your people are the company’s the best assets. It makes good sense to tap into the rich reservoir of talent to which these folks have immediate access. These talented individuals are people your employees knew in school or at a former job. They are likely to have similar work ethics, similar training and common goals. In these ways, they are already pre-qualified to fit into your company culture. That you don’t have to spend money advertising for these applicants, makes them even more attractive.

7 KEYS TO A GREAT EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM:

1.  Do set reasonable rules.
There are lots of well-written models for an effective employee referral program available online. A great beginning place is ERE.net which provides excellent information on the recruitment process.

2.  Do talk it up.
Make the employee referral program an integral part of your company culture. By highlighting and emphasizing the fact that your superstars are bringing future superstars on board, your employees feel more valued and will continue to build your company’s employment brand.

3.  Don’t allow the program to get stale.
Always remember to include praise for this  employee referral program in your regular communication with employees (and those in your recruitment pipeline,) by way of emails, newsletters and on your website.

4.  Do offer meaningful cash incentives.
Think about the fact that you’re not spending as much as your valuable time in the recruitment process. Evaluate the potential savings in light of the stats above. Something along the line of a $500.00 prize for a new hire, is not unreasonable.

5.  Don’t forget to reward successful approximations.
You should also have a “consolation prize” in place for those whose referrals made it to a second or third interview but were not hired. New computer tablets or tickets to sports events would be great suggestions. Gift certificates for dinner out or gift cards are also great little recognition gifts for enthusiastic participants. A raffle for all those who referred people is a good way to do this as well.

6.  Do provide feedback.
If an employee refers an unqualified applicant, give him the information he needs to better select the people he sends your way. Do it with a smile and a pat on the back for being a part of the program.

7.  Don’t forget to set goals.
Remember to include quantifiable goals in your program. As an example, you want the program to provide 75 percent of your new hires for the year. Create a chart where it is visible so the employees see it every day and are reminded of the goal.
An employee referral system, when well done, can be the source of not just excellent employees, but also significant savings of time, money, and other resources. Perhaps the best saving of wear and tear on members of the human resources and management teams.