Resources
3 min read
Communication and the Candidate Experience
It is an interesting time in the employment market. With open positions outnumbering active jobseekers, organizations are looking at ways to stand out as employers of choice. As organizations look to reimagine talent acquisition, candidate experience is emerging as a competitive differentiator. While some may argue that candidate experience has always been key to attracting and hiring talent, the pandemic and resulting changes in candidate behavior have made candidate experience even more important for organizations. Unfortunately, in the quest to automate the recruiting process, the candidate experience is often a casualty. A recent survey found that only one percent of the companies communicated the status of the application to the candidate using email, text, etc. beyond the automated initial email confirming submission. As humans, we crave social connection. It is no secret that candidates want better communication from their recruiters. The challenge is delivering personalized communication at scale. And that’s where text recruiting software comes into the play. Improving the Candidate Experience with Communications: Is Text Recruiting the Answer? The consumerization of technology over this past decade has played a major role in shaping candidate expectations. When candidates have access to instant feedback and communication in their private lives, they expect the same level of personalization and thoughtfulness when applying for jobs. While communication and feedback remain an integral part of the candidate experience, recruiters struggle to respond to each applicant due to a variety of reasons – high applicant volume, understaffed recruitment teams, high-time and effort requirements, etc. Technology solutions like Emmissary.ai offer a powerful solution for talent acquisition teams looking to improve their candidate experience. At its core, text recruiting uses short messaging service (SMS) to inform applicants about open positions, communicate with them, and keep them engaged through the application processes. Text recruiting makes even more sense when you consider the fact that nearly 90% of candidates today use a mobile device to search for jobs. And these people actually read text messages. Research suggests that 90% of the recipients read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it. Texting is clearly one of the most effective ways to engage with active and passive candidates.[image_with_animation image_url=”9944″ animation=”Fade In” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default” img_link=”https://www.bankmycell.com/blog/how-many-phones-are-in-the-world”] 5 Ways Text Recruiting Improves the Candidates Experience Timely feedback: Are you still waiting to hear from that company you applied to in 2019? You’re not alone – nearly 99% of companies fail to communicate with their candidates on the status of their application. Text recruiting software helps recruiters send out automated updates that keep candidates informed about their application status. Omnichannel communication: Candidates land on jobsites or jobs from various platforms – social media, job boards, newsletters, and forwards/shares. Text recruiting tools allow recruiters to connect and engage with candidates wherever they are through direct messaging. Provides better contextual information: Larger recruiting teams often spend a significant amount of time just validating candidate information – multiple recruiters may ask similar questions to the candidate. This leads to a fragmented experience. Text recruiting software has a central record of candidate communications that provides recruiters with all the context they need to have more meaningful conversations with candidates. Drive personalization at scale: Text recruiting platforms offer the best marketing technology has to offer. Recruiters can segment candidates and send out highly personalized and targeted communication to inspire applications or improve engagement. Streamline workflows: The best text recruiting platforms integrate with leading ATS, HCM, and other HR solutions, allowing recruitment teams to streamline their workflows without duplicating efforts and improving team productivity. 3 Best Practices for Candidate Communication Despite the promise of text recruiting, over 65% of companies still don’t have a formal strategy in place to leverage bulk messaging. If you’re looking to add text recruiting to your HR tech stack, you may want to keep these best practices in mind to maximize impact: Keep your messages short and to the point: While mobile phones have done wonders for communication, they are also notorious for shortening our attention spans. Try to keep your messages shorter than or equal to 160 characters. However, we recommend avoiding abbreviations or SMS slang like gr8, ttyl, and brb. Use more characters if you must. Include a CTA: What action do you want your candidate/s to take after they read your message? Include a clear CTA – apply, visit our career site, call me for more details etc. in your text message. Be patient: Text recruiting is asynchronous, and it is very likely that candidates are texting you from work or may be busy. Don’t pressurize your candidates to respond – this might come across as pushy or aggressive. Conclusion Text recruiting addresses a very real pain-point for both candidates and recruiters – instant and accessible feedback. While there is no substitute for in-person communication, text recruiting is the next best thing. You can experiment with use-cases ranging from cold messaging to engagement and nurture campaigns, and even text interviewing. As the world of work transitions to a remote, location agnostic experience, text recruiting is perhaps the most powerful tool at recruiters’ disposal to attract, connect, and engage with candidates wherever they are.
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3 min read
The 5 Rules of Text Messages for Remote Workplaces
With more people working remotely, communication conventions have also undergone a sea change. Tools like Slack, Teams, and Zoom have become an integral part of most organizations. As organizations look to foster a remote culture the communication tool stack is expanding. From staples like Slack and Zoom, companies are increasingly leveraging text messaging to complement existing solutions. Text messaging has emerged as a crucial solution to fill the gaps left by conventional remote work apps – informal feedback, interview prep, team building and more. Consider the fact that employees spent on average about 56 minutes on their cell phones before the pandemic, and it quickly becomes clear why text messaging is one of the best ways to convey important, time-sensitive information. However, in the era of back-to-back video calls and incessant IM pings, cognitive overload is becoming increasingly common. This risks important communication being swept under a pile of emails, chats, and messages. So, what is the best way to use texting to cut through the clutter and maximize impact? 5 Golden Rules of Texting with Remote Employees One of the reasons why text messages continue to remain the most effective communication tool is that they boast a 98% read rate. At a time when employee attention is elusive (read: digital overload), text messages offer a simple and inexpensive way for organizations to get important communication across. To keep those numbers high, here are our five golden rules for communicating with remote employees via text: 1. Establish Communication Conventions While most organizations have let the unsaid rules of digital communication dictate how employees use emails, IMs, and other collaboration software, texting must be handled with caution. Organizations need to clearly document how and when text messages are to be used. From the organizational/managerial side, text messages should only be used to convey certain types of information – policy updates (with a CTA to read the email), emergencies/alerts, HR updates, rewards and recognition, informal feedback, shift scheduling, expense and accounting, etc. While this is not an exhaustive list of use-cases for texting, you could use these pointers as guidelines to establish communication conventions. 2. Establish and Respect Boundaries Work-life boundaries are hard to discern, particularly with a remote workforce. To succeed with text messages as a communication tool, organizations must recognize the fact that employee cell phone numbers are a private channel to their lives. Which means if you send out an SMS blast just when your employees are sitting down for dinner with their families, you are risking trust erosion. Like most things culture, communication conventions also flow top down. Give your team uninterrupted time away from work. Resist the urge to send out SMS’ at odd hours to avoid making your employees feel like they need to be available around the clock. Remember, healthy boundaries build trust. 3. Avoid Using Texts as a Substitute for Meetings “That meeting could’ve been an email,” is one of the most common workplace sentiments today. However, in the age of remote work, face time is crucial. And overcommunication doesn’t hurt. Avoid using texts as an alternative to meetings. Need to provide feedback? Schedule a video call. While text messages are incredibly effective, they fail to capture the nuances of in-person or face-to-face communication. As humans we’re subconsciously primed to decipher body language, tone, and expressions to fill in the missing bits of communication context. Texting is not a proxy for human relationships at the workplace. 4. Language Keep in mind that for most employees texting is reserved for family and friends, so, texting slang (c u l8r, ttyl, xoxo, etc.) can easily permeate into workplace messaging. It is important that you document the language rules for workplace texting with your employees. Basic best practices like re reading messages before sending should be communicated to all employees. Texting slang could potentially become a compliance/legal nightmare for employers and leaders. 5. Send Consolidated Messages Due to the informal nature of text messaging, many people approach it as spoken conversation in written form. While this practice is perfectly acceptable on IMs, it may deliver a broken and disjointed experience when used in SMS. A series of separate messages can be disorienting and annoying. [image_with_animation image_url=”9947″ animation=”Fade In” hover_animation=”none” alignment=”” border_radius=”none” box_shadow=”none” image_loading=”default” max_width=”100%” max_width_mobile=”default” img_link=”https://www.getapp.com/resources/business-chat-etiquette-rules-for-small-business/”]While the series of messages on the left will likely stress and distract the recipient, the single message on the right is much less likely to cause a disturbance. Unlike IMs, text messages don’t have “typing…” status, so it is likely that the sender may get confused when receiving a string of messages. Next Steps: Use the Right Tools to Perfect Your Text Game The rules listed above can help you create a successful text messaging strategy, and help reduce distractions and digital burnout due to an “always on” remote work environment But knowing what messaging solution meets your business needs is crucial. Check out how Emissary can help. Schedule a demo to learn how to establish and succeed with your messaging strategy.
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Recruiting Trends
3 min read
Workforce Trends for 2022
To say the nature of work is changing is the understatement of the year. Who could have predicted the way the workforce is trending these days with remote work, vaccination mandates and a host of other changes affecting the American worker. According to ADP, the HR payroll company, the transformation of the global workforce accelerated in 2021, driven by the continued impact of the pandemic and strains on businesses amid record labor shortages and shifting worker priorities. It’s a strain felt worldwide. ADP Research Institute found that 64% of the global workforce was negatively impacted by COVID-19, including 28% who lost a job, were furloughed, or were temporarily laid off, and 23% who took a pay cut. These labor market shifts have led workers to reprioritize their needs, further redefining how and where work gets done. As a result, employers face added pressure to adjust to emerging talent demands. To help businesses navigate forward, ADP shares the biggest drivers behind work’s evolution in 2022. “The world of work has been in a constant state of motion,” said Don Weinstein, corporate vice president of global product and technology at ADP. “The needs of the global workforce are evolving in tandem with technology, and the result is transformational. Amid all the change, one common thread has only grown stronger: people power performance. To support and empower their people, employers are rooting their decision-making in data and leveraging those insights to better understand their employees’ needs and what drives their productivity. This increased visibility is fostering a stronger sense of connection and paving the way for greater growth and innovation ahead.” 4 Trends for the 2022 Workforce The Dispersed/Hybrid Workforce As employers explore on-site, fully remote and hybrid workplace models, they will look for new opportunities to increase employee visibility and better understand the needs of a dispersed workforce. According to ADP Research Institute’s “People at Work: A Global Workforce View” study, within a year, COVID-19 has significantly impacted workers’ locations. In fact, three quarters (75%) of the global workforce made changes or plan to change how or where they live, with that percentage even greater (85%) among Generation Z. Additionally, ADP surveyed small and midsized U.S. employers and found 66 percent have a hybrid work model in place. To foster connection in the absence of physical proximity, people data will shed insight into the ebbs and flows of engagement and performance, helping managers pull the right levers to support a high-performing remote or hybrid team. This new dynamic built on mutual trust will help drive employee engagement and performance. ADP Research Institute found that U.S. employees who have trust in both their teammates and their team leader are seven times more likely to feel Strongly Connected to their organization. Mission Driven Workplace Culture As employers look for ways to drive inclusion amidst new work models, connection will become a measurement of workforce culture. ADP Research Institute found that U.S. workers who feel they are Strongly Connected to their employer are 75 times more likely to be Fully Engaged than those who do not feel connected. With connection driving engagement, employers will need to heighten their focus on their people and reflect on the larger purpose that unites their workforce. Workforce flexibility will stretch beyond perceived limits and employers will embrace people-centered initiatives to build a workplace where everyone can thrive. Diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies will additionally evolve to drive true, measurable progress. ADP data shows more than 50 percent of companies that leveraged ADP DataCloud’s DEI analytics capabilities have taken action and realized positive impact on their DEI measures. Better Data Will Power Decision Makers With employees remaining remote and hybrid, operational and compliance considerations will grow, adding to an already complex regulatory environment. In fact, ADP’s HR Survey Series with HR Outsourcing found nearly 20 percent of U.S. companies with 25 to 99 employees admit they are currently facing challenges with compliance and regulatory issues, which may increase as regulations change. To navigate forward, leaders will rely more heavily on real-time data to tackle compliance proactively and guide decision-making. Quality data will be key in providing businesses with the confidence they need to act. As an example, to better manage return to the workplace policies including vaccination tracking and testing, employers are turning to timely people data. Through its ADP Return to Workplace mobile solution, ADP reports workers have completed more than three million health status surveys since the tool’s launch. Digitization Will Change the Employee Experience As business models evolve amid global shifts, businesses will turn to technology to drive efficiency and expand capabilities by eliminating task work and refocusing efforts on strategic growth initiatives. According to ADP data, monthly users of its ADP Mobile Solutions app increased over 25% from last year as workers leverage self-service tools, helping to remove administrative tasks from HR practitioners’ plates, enabling them to focus more on their people. This digitalization will benefit both employers and employees, as employees seek greater flexibility and control in their employee experience. ADP believes also that a surge in skills-based hiring will drive innovation further. Their research institute’s “People at Work: A Global Workforce View” study found more than one-in-four workers (28%) report having taken on a new role or changing role due to pandemic labor market shifts. The number increases to 36% for Generation Z workers. Following a period during which employees were forced to reskill, people will continue to prioritize their skills and pursue opportunities to apply their unique strengths. To accelerate performance, employers will need to focus on those individual strengths and provide opportunities for employees to develop new skills or embark on a new career trajectory with more opportunity for growth. Additionally, employers will also rely on helpful technologies like machine learning to identify workers with the right skills in unique places, such as pools of former applicants who previously applied for other roles.
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Human Resources
2 min read
Employee Benefits Packages Being Challenged
With the quit rate at record highs and employers struggling to find and retain talent, many organizations say it’s nearly impossible to offer enough benefits to satisfy their employees. According to a new survey from The Harris Poll published by Express Employment Professionals, nearly 1 in 3 companies that have experienced an increase in employee turnover this year (32%) point to better perks offered elsewhere (e.g., Summer Fridays, unlimited vacation days) as the reason for the higher turnover, which increased from the second half of 2020 (26%). Almost 1 in 5 companies report some of the biggest hiring difficulties their company will face over the next twelve months are that their pay is not competitive (18%) and/or their benefits are not competitive (17%). However businesses seem to realize the importance of competitive pay as the majority (63%) expect the average wage at their company will increase in 2021, while 28% expect no change to wages. Notably, the proportion expecting wage increases has been steadily growing over the past year (52% in the first half of 2020, 58% in the second half of 2020 and 63% in the first half of 2021). Further, 43% of companies expect their employee benefit packages to increase in 2021 as compared to 2020, and around half (49%) expect their benefits to stay about the same. “Competitive pay and employee benefits have never been more important,” said Greg Sulentic, Express franchise owner in Lincoln, Nebraska. “It’s not about pulling people into the workforce; it’s about stealing employees from your competitors. Staffing recruiters often feel like sports agents trying to put the best offer out there just to pull a welder or CNC operator from their current job to ours. Hourly wage rules all, but sign-on or retention bonuses can be a draw.” As to what extra perks businesses are using to entice workers, Sulentic says it’s all about time off and travel. No limit on paid time off, true “forced” sabbaticals of month-long vacations or vacations paid for by the company. Flexibility for employees is something more leaders need to offer. In Michigan for example, Express franchise owner Reggie Kaji has some clients paying employees for a full 40-hour workweek, but they only work 34 hours. “It’s shocking considering this would have been absolutely unheard of in the past,” he said. “We also have another client offering bonuses of $1,000 per quarter for retention and good attendance. “Turnover is happening across the board for compensation purposes, not benefits, but actual pay. Honestly, it’s the ‘Wild Wild West.’ I really don’t see the tight labor market cooling down for at least a year.” Sulentic also doesn’t see much hope on the horizon for labor shortages and competition to ease up as long as employees are unavailable. “Labor participation is remarkably low, and we don’t anticipate a major improvement,” he said. “People are just not coming back into the workforce.” For the overall health of the economy, we need those who are on the sidelines to rejoin the labor force and the sooner, the better, Express CEO Bill Stoller said. “It’s a job seekers’ market right now, and when you find the right candidate, businesses should be prepared to make them an employment offer as soon as possible,” Stoller said. “Any delay and you risk losing top talent altogether.” Competitive pay is just part of the solution, employee benefits packages need to be boosted and adjusted much more quickly to avoid an increase in turnover.
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Recruiting
2 min read
Job Application Process Still Frustrating Candidates
Despite employers complaining about a lack of applicants, a big reason why appears to be their frustrating job application processes. InFlight Corporation, maker of the employee experience platform, recently announced a new study of the job application process and related opportunities for improvement. The findings reveal significant gaps between the expense of attracting a candidate and diminishing engagement due to friction in the online application process. They “mystery shopped” the career sites of Fortune 500 companies, using the search term “software developer,” a hard-to-fill role that is consistent across all organizations. The process started on Google, where nearly 70 percent of all job searches commence and followed the number of clicks it took from the first click of “Apply Now” through the application submitted confirmation page. InFlight’s Founder and CEO, James La Brash, said, “When it comes to the candidate experience, the promise of a quick and easy apply process starts with the ‘Apply Now’ button. The reality is quite different: Our research shows that two-thirds of candidates are made to click ‘Apply Now’ three or more times, and an average of 51 clicks are required to get through an application, which is time consuming and undermines the desired outcome.” Given the recruitment marketing expenditure involved in attracting qualified talent – especially in a highly competitive labor market – having unnecessary roadblocks in place is counterintuitive and creates friction in the apply flow. The job application process is often a rapid barrage of questions, fields and clicks that candidates need to navigate to advance through the process. Additionally, as soon as a candidate starts the apply process, InFlight learned that 48 percent of the Fortune 500 are sharing brand positioning with their applicant tracking system’s logo, creating confusion on the part of the candidate as to where their information is going. In addition to the discovery that “Apply Now” experience is far from prompt, the research uncovered a disconnect between the people who are designing the experience and the people who buy and configure the technology. Expecting to see a stronger correlation between employer branding and application experience quality, it was apparent that the candidate experience suffered in the process. Even when organizations were savvy about including recruitment marketing visual brand elements, the corresponding technology experience wasn’t configured to support positive impact and high application completion rates. La Brash concluded, “Designing and executing a quantitative study of your company’s apply flow is a complicated undertaking. Many organizations have pieced together in-house and external systems to achieve their intended goals without considering the overall quality of the candidate experience. With so much competition for workers, organizations cannot afford to have systems that provide a candidate experience that undermines their talent attraction goals.” It is remarkable that in 2021 we are still talking about frustrating the candidates with unnecessary clicks and barriers when it comes to the apply process. Leaders need to demand better from their HR tech staff when it comes to implementing any kind of software that touches the candidate experience. They need to hire more usability experts that bring a candidate focused mindset to the implementation. Any employer that doesn’t take the apply process seriously is putting themselves at risk of not filling roles quickly enough. “Easy Apply” should become the norm in our industry, not the exception.
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Human Resources
3 min read
How to Use Talent Assessment Tools
In the fierce competition for talent today, companies are turning to talent assessment tools to give them a leg up in hiring and promoting workers who not only have the skills for the job, but who will also be a good fit. Recruiters use talent assessment tools to test the extent of a job candidate’s know-how, learn their work style and see if their personality is a good match for the company culture. These tools help predict a candidate’s performance in the job, providing both recruiters and hiring managers greater insight into a candidate than a resume and interview alone can. Recruiting may be the best-known use of talent assessment tools, but it’s far from the only way these tools help companies made smarter workforce decisions. A report by the Society for Human resource Management says machine learning and artificial intelligence have broadened the reach of the newest talent assessment tools. Beside hiring, SHRM says these tools today are used to “evaluate current employees for different roles, identify employees with high leadership potential, compare talent within an organization against industry or geographical benchmarks, understand talent strengths and gaps, and develop employees’ long-term value.” The SHRM practice report details a dozen different types of assessments beginning with the more common and familiar job knowledge and personality tests to such specialized ones as writing and physical fitness, which, the report explains, “require candidates to perform actual work tasks to determine whether they can meet the physical requirements of a job.” 5 Types of Talent Assessments The most widely used assessments fall into four or five broad categories: skills specific to the job, personality and behavior, cognitive which covers critical thinking and communication, and integrity, which is just what it sounds like. There are talent assessment tools designed to test each of these areas. Many are intended for specific job types. A Google search for “talent assessment tools for customer service representative” turns up dozens, with several specific to individual industries. The hospitality industry alone has multiple generic talent assessment tools available, while most of the largest hotel groups have their own customized tools Before deciding what talent assessment tools to use SHRM says, “The first step in selecting an assessment tool is to understand what the target job or role requires the employee to do by conducting a job analysis that focuses on identifying critical work activities and/or competencies.” This may seem obvious, yet as the example illustrates there are any number of different types of customer service jobs. Generic talent assessment tools abound, however their predictive value for a specific job and industry will be limited. Knowing not just the broad job category, but what the specific role entails and how it’s to be performed is essential to selecting the right talent assessment tool. The next steps in choosing the right tool, as the SHRM report explains, is to determine the validity of the test and its potential for adversely and unfairly impacting protected groups such as those over 40, minorities and women. In addition, how will those being tested react? And, of course, what’s the cost? Talent Assessment Validity SHRM’s practice guide goes into detail about each of these decision points. Briefly, what you need to consider are: Validity: Does the test reliably predict performance? Criterion validity is the relationship between scores on the test and actual business outcomes. Content validity means that what the assessment tests for is directly relevant to the job or the desired behaviors. Adverse impact: Consider whether the test leads to a disproportionate hiring of a majority group versus the minority group. Says SHRM, “If an assessment produces an adverse impact, the only way to defend its use is by showing that it is a valid predictor of performance and that alternative measures are not feasible.” Candidate reaction: Especially in pre-hiring assessments, the test-taker reaction is critical. A negative experience can be expensive to the company, causing it not only to lose the job applicant, but others swayed by reviews posted online. Test-takers have a more positive reaction to talent assessment tests that measure work behavior via simulations and work samples versus abstract and hypothetical multiple-choice tests. Costs: Off-the-shelf talent assessment tools will cost less than those built specifically for a company or job. Technology has reduced the overall cost substantially. Most tests are talent online with scoring and ranking automated. There are many excellent, valid assessments available today for nearly ever industry and job. Whether customized or off-the-shelf, talent assessment tools can help recruiters and managers – and individual employees themselves — make better, more informed workforce and career decisions. ### Contribution by John Zappe ###
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Recruiting Tactics
2 min read
Subject Lines Guaranteed to Work
As recruiters, we love a great subject line! We love them because we have this belief that the subject line of our email or another type of message will get a candidate to open and reply. And actually, that’s true! There’s a lot of marketing research around why someone opens a message. The chart below shows why an individual makes the decision to open a message: This data makes complete sense, right? If you know the person, you are much more likely to open a message, and after that, the next main reason is what is being told to you in the subject line. The subject line should tell the recipient exactly why they should open the message or quickly just delete and move on. Scientifically based on the data above, I think I’ve created the most responded to subject line of all time! But it only works for me, I’m doubtful it would work for you! What is it? “Sackett” Yes, my last name in the subject line is by far the best subject line for a response that I use! Why does it work? Well, if you know me, then the data gives me a 45% shot you might open it. Also, if you don’t know me, someone just sent you their last name, which makes you think like you probably know me, but you forgot! Either way, the response rate I get with this super simple subject line is over 80%! Does this work for straight recruiting? Yes, but not at the same level as I’m getting, but it is worth you testing it out. This simple subject line works because it’s probably the opposite of what most people send. We put so much thought and effort into the subject line that often they sound like a recruiter or marketing or sales or mostly just something too close to spam! What are my other favorite recruiting subject lines? “Go Green!” – Okay, I’m a Michigan State Spartan fan, so if someone sent me a message with “Go Green,” I would 100% open it. So, “Go Green” isn’t really your subject line. It would be something similar for whatever college or sports team your candidate supports. How do you know what team they support? You do a bit of recruiting due diligence and figure it out! “I’ve got an outstanding career opportunity for you!” – Just kidding, this subject line sucks! Never use this! “This job pays $87,000” – This one works because even if the person makes more than $87,000, our curiosity wants to see who is paying this salary and where it’s at because we might know someone who isn’t making that much, and we want to pass it on to them. Famous song lyrics, movie quotes, etc., that the candidate would most likely recognize. – Again, takes a bit of recon work, but let’s say your candidate is a Star Wars fan. Use the subject line, “Do or do not. There is no try!” “I was referred to you by “pick a name” – Okay, this isn’t my favorite of the favs, but it works! Again, a quick social search of a candidate and you can easily come up with some names of friends, family, co-workers to make this a bit more personal. But, only use first names. So, “I was referred to you by Tim” can be really effective if they have a friend or associate named “Tim.” Now, when the person asks, which “Tim” referred you, you just say, “Oh, Tim in my office, a fellow recruiter I work with, found your profile.” Personalization is the key to great subject line open rates! It takes a little more work, but great recruiters put in a little bit of extra work to get great candidates to respond!
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Recruiting
3 min read
Holiday Hiring Is Setting Records This Year
Holiday hiring will top 1 million this year, with Walmart and Amazon together accounting for more than a quarter of the total. The global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said retailers, grocers and logistic firms, including Fed Ex and UPS have announced holiday hiring plans of 939,300 workers. That count, which was as of mid-October, was already the largest number of workers to be announced in the 10 years the firm has tabulated holiday hiring plans. Since then, Big Lots said it would add 15,000 seasonal workers and several retailers increased their holiday hiring goals. Amazon, Walmart and Macy’s now are expected to hire 561,000 workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported hiring by the private sector in October surged to 604,000. Among the key sectors for holiday hiring, employers in retail and logistics brought on 141,300 new workers. Bars and restaurants, which have struggled for months to hire workers, added 119,000 workers, partially in anticipation of the seasonal surge in holiday parties and events. To lure workers companies are offering all sorts of incentives. To encourage workers at its distribution facility in Southern California, the discounters Dollar Tree and Family Dollar dangled a $1,000 bonus as well as flexible schedules, healthcare insurance and an extra $2 an hour for peak season work. Holiday Hiring Goals To meet its holiday hiring goal of 90,000 Kohl’s is offering bonuses of up to $400. Competitor Macy’s is paying a $500 bonus to employees who refer workers. Amazon’s holiday hiring bonuses range as high as $3,000 with hourly pay that averages over $20. As attractive as these offers are, the additional incentive is the permanent hiring of some of these seasonal workers. In announcing its holiday hiring plans in September Target said, “When the holidays are over, many of those team members will have the opportunity to stay onboard.” UPS pointed out in its holiday hiring announcement that it has a “track record of turning seasonal jobs into careers.” A third of its workforce began that way, according to the company. In years past the holiday hiring push would begin in August and September. This year, because of worker shortages stemming from the Covid shutdowns, hiring by some companies began as early as July. Incentives also are richer. Retailers like Target promised their existing workers greater flexibility in scheduling, more hours for those who what it, and premium pay. Attracting workers has never been harder, which is why so many companies are hoping to fill permanent positions from among the seasonal workers they hire. Money.com said of the 561,000 holiday positions Amazon, Walmart and Macy’s have, 37% of them are permanent. To meet holiday hiring goals, recruiters pull out all the stops. Besides the incentives and an early start, companies host multiple job fairs and post openings on every major job board and on those targeted to workers looking for temp and part-time jobs. Their ads prominently feature the signing bonuses, improved pay and other incentives. Social media ads extol these incentives and encourage sharing the job postings. Most of these high volume employers also turn to staffing companies to help recruit workers or to have them supply the workers directly. Weeks before launching full-scale recruiting campaigns, recruiters contact seasonal workers from years past hoping to rehire them and, as Macy’s does, asking current staff for referrals. With so many companies competing for workers, speed of hire is paramount. UPS said that of the 100,000 holiday hires many “will have an offer in hand within 30 minutes of applying.” All high volume employers have tools that make it possible to interview, assess and hire workers within hours or even minutes of receiving an application. Holiday Hiring Solutions Indeed.com, the largest and most heavily use job board in the world, has Indeed Hiring Platform, which allows recruiters to post a job, screen candidates, schedule and conduct online interviews, including by video, and make an offer in hours. Most other major job boards have some sort of similar high volume solution. Many of the biggest employers will use two or three of these sites. Smaller companies need to use some of these same tactics to meet their holiday hiring needs. Nationwide, the insurance company, suggests turning to staffing companies as a first choice. It will cost more to bring in seasonal help that way, but the workers will be vetted, are likely to have experience in the particular line of work and all the paperwork and onboarding will be handled by the staffing firm. Nationwide also suggests contacting local schools, “But don’t wait to recruit workers once (school) breaks hit and students leave town for vacation or are hired by other businesses prepping for a seasonal surge.” Some small businesses have had success asking their customers for referrals. As the biggest companies have demonstrated, holiday hiring requires much more than simply posting job openings and waiting for applications. Employers have to use all their tools and techniques to attract candidates and make hires. You can’t expect to compete for workers by doing what’s always worked in the past. This year, holiday hiring is tougher and so highly competitive that, like as many companies have found, it takes competitive pay, flexibility, cash bonuses, speed and incentives such as the possibility of permanent work, to make a hire. John Zappe Contributed
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Human Resources
2 min read
The Importance of Employee Perks
Not that long ago employee perks were those extra benefits employers gave their workers. Retailers give workers a discount on store merchandise. Airlines grant free or deeply discounted airfare to their employees. In restaurants, the employee perks include free food and leftovers. Undoubtedly, in the past some job seekers were attracted to an industry or a company because of these types of employee perks. Rarely, though, were they a job’s selling point. Workers signed on because of the compensation, the type of work, and the medical, dental and retirement benefits. That started to change with the rise of the tech industry. Companies began providing free food, installed foosball and ping-pong tables and on-site workout rooms. As the competition for workers grew ever more intense, tech professionals came to expect these employee perks. Companies then began offering more meaningful and more popular perks such as paid time off and paid family leave, flexible schedules and even unlimited vacation. Today, companies that don’t offer at least some of these employee perks find themselves at a disadvantage in the war for talent. Yet companies are going beyond those employee perks to offer a broad and unexpected range of employee perks. Ben & Jerry’s (and many other companies) allow workers to bring their pet. Oracle provides on-site dry cleaning, auto detailing and oil changes. Abbot and Fidelity Investments and others provide help paying off student loans. Airbnb gives its workers $2,000 to stay at any one of its listings in the world. The five most popular employee perks, according to a survey by benefits provider Unum, are paid time off, flexible and remote work, paid family leave, fitness or wellness incentives and personal financial planning. Employers mostly agree. The Society for Human Resource Management found well over half the HR professionals in a recent survey saying family friendly benefits, wellness, flexible work and paid leave were extremely or very important to them and their workers. Insurance benefits such as medical, dental, vision and disability are so important and so much a part of a compensation package that few workers think of them as nice to have perks. A Fractly survey published in the Harvard Business Review, found that 88% of workers would give at least some consideration to accepting a lower paying offer if the medical benefits were better. These employee perks have become table stakes in the competition for workers, which may be why 90% of the employers in the SHRM survey consider health care benefits very or extremely important. But as the SHRM and Unum surveys show, other employee perks are growing in importance. The Covid experience of working from home convinced many workers that’s a perk to be highly valued. The global business consultancy McKinsey found that before the Covid shutdown, 62% of employees preferred working on-site. When the firm conducted the survey again last December and January, only 37% wanted to return to an office; 63% preferred working in the office two or three days a week (a hybrid work model) or working remotely full-time. Forcing workers to return to working on-site full time will lead some employees to quit, McKinsey’s survey found. 12% said they would be “very likely” to find another job; 16% said they were “likely” to. Driven in part by the pandemic, which prompted so many workers to reassess what’s most important to them, and by the years’ long difficulty in hiring workers, the employee perks offered by employers continues to grow. Melanie Tinto, CHRO at the global financial technology company WEX told HRExecutive last spring that businesses are revaluating their employee perks to focus on those that support and enhance worker wellbeing. “The pandemic has shown me that flexibility is impacting every part of the way we work, and our benefits packages are going to need to be just as flexible going forward.” Written by John Zappe
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