Customization Matters in Hiring Software Tools

Although many businesses within a given industry have similar requirements for hiring and onboarding software, there’s something to be said for having the ability to fine tune an application to precisely meet your company’s needs. Workforce.com has an interesting article available about a major manufacturing and retail firm that discovered every cent spent on customized hiring tools more than paid off in profits. Luxottica Retail (the company that runs eyewear stores such as Pearle, LensCrafters, and Sunglass Hut) found that prehire assessment tests that are aligned with business objectives spell big bucks.


The cost to administer the prehire test is about $10 per candidate, so that’s not a big financial drain. The resources the company invested over the last ten years tweaking and perfecting the test are where the real expense came in. But this employer has found that stores staffed by high-scoring new hires consistently outperform those staffed by run of the mill candidates. On average, each employee in the top quartile brings in an extra $18,000 in sales per year.

Customization Isn’t a One-Time Effort

Luxottica constantly gathers performance information and feeds it back into the test optimization process. This doesn’t just perfect the test and make it a more accurate predictor of future performance; it also accommodates evolution as the marketplace continues to shift. Each Luxottica brand has its own customized pre-hire test to match associates with store cultures and customer demographics. The employer is careful to consult with legal counsel annually to ensure that changes to the assessment tests don’t restrict the hiring process in a way that could be viewed as discriminatory.

Onboarding Can be Tailored Too

Prehire testing isn’t the only type of hiring software tool that can benefit from customization. Acculturation onboarding is another area where constant improvement based on workforce analytics can yield benefits. Since an employee’s experience during the first 60 days on the job often have a significant impact on everything from productivity to retention, having the ability to update and refine an acculturation module could be very beneficial. For example, you might want to have an onboarding process that features different components based on job position. A manager would have additional training and development to complete while an entry level employee might be inducted into a mentoring program. To find out how our Acculturation Portal can help you customize the new hire experience at your company, contact Emerald Software Group today at 770-569-5122.

New Trends in Social Learning & Development Part 4

We’re nearing the end of our journey through the SkillSoft “The Eight Truths of Social Learning. Now.” white paper. Today, we’ll investigate yet another “truth” as it relates to onboarding.

Truth #6 – You Need Multi-Generational Appeal

While you may be focusing a lot of recruiting efforts on Generation X and the Millenials, you still hire and onboard people from older generations as well. These workers may have a lot of experience to draw on that helps them get up to speed fast at a new job. However, the whole point of having a social learning and development program is to encourage people to keep on learning.

Older workers are just as likely as younger workers to appreciate the intellectual challenge of continual workplace education. It keeps things from getting boring. Picking up new information and honing skills also makes them feel that they are being given the same opportunities as young employees – an important factor in minimizing age-related discrimination claims. Any acculturation, orientation, learning, development, and socialization tools you offer in the workplace should take this into account.

Multi-media learning and development software has broad appeal since it lets workers choose their own style and pace for education. For example, someone who grew up in the age before YouTube and podcasts may feel that reading is the fastest way to learn. A 55 year old employee might feel they can absorb 5 times as much information by reading for 20 minutes versus watching a 20 minute video. In contrast, a 25 year old might find an all-text approach to learning too mind numbing to “stick”.

On the other hand, social contact is something pretty much everyone enjoys. It’s just a matter of letting employees have some control over the speed and frequency of interaction. One worker might enjoy a chat forum with instant responses while another prefers private messaging that gives them time to think.

In the final analysis, making sure new hires of every age get the help they need to make the most out of your social learning and development platform is the most important thing. The Emerald Software Acculturation Portal can play a role in helping new employees learn to use your intranet and social networking tools effectively.

New Trends in Social Learning & Development Part 3

This week, we’ll continue our perusal of the SkillSoft “The Eight Truths of Social Learning. Now.” white paper with numbers 4 and 5. How can these “truths” make it easier for you to onboard and develop your new hires?


Truth #4 – Existing Employees are a Great Resource

Formal mentoring programs are a definite benefit to the workplace; but a lot of training happens when coworkers spontaneously step in to help others out. A social networking and learning platform gives these “helpers” an easy way to reach out and connect with new hires (and vice versa). People who are natural teachers enjoy the process of distributing knowledge. When they have an opportunity to do this at work, they tend to become very engaged. At the same time, new hires will feel less cautious about asking questions when they can readily identify coworkers who like being informal mentors.

Truth #5 - Searchability is Key

The downside of having an expansive resource library, an active forum, and lots of internal experts is that it can become difficult for new hires to find exactly what they need without wading through a lot of info. Indexing content and profiles so they can be searched by keywords/topics is essential for efficient use. Fortunately, today’s social platforms are designed to support keyword searching. This means you may just need to train/encourage users to tag their profiles and discussions to make them easy to find when a new user starts poking around to find useful information.

Our Acculturation Portal can be used to introduce your new hires to your team and show basic examples of how to use your company’s social network for a variety of self-led learning activities.

New Trends in Social Learning & Development

What’s going on with social learning right this very minute? SkillSoft offers some answers to this question in a recent white paper “The Eight Truths of Social Learning. Now.” It explores what the company has found in developing and implementing its own InGenius® platform along with practical suggestions for making any system function more effectively. Let’s look at the first of 8 “Truths” and how it might apply to a social platform used as part of acculturation onboarding.


Truth #1 – Social Learning Requires 3 Elements

According to SkillSoft, you need a solid platform, great content, and a thriving community to make this type of initiative work. This combination of infrastructure, information, and individuals is the three legged stool upon which social learning rests.

Infrastructure

The platform is the foundation. If your application isn’t easy to use, no one will want to spend time engaging with it. You may want to use a module that meshes with your current HR suite, or one that relies on an established, external social network. Cost and ease of implementation aren’t the only factors to consider. Your decision might depend on how much inside information might be revealed in the discussions that take place between coworkers. For a social platform that meshes with an advanced learning and development system, you might even go with a custom application.

Information

Content is the next stage – and this is where you have to look within your company to find talent. An outside vendor can set up your software, but only those who are embedded in your organizational culture can provide the “wetware” to make your site interesting. Don’t expect your employees to grow the network on their own. You have to lead the way. HR and managers may well have to generate 75% or more of the content during the initial phases. This is an ideal time to set the tone by focusing on business and employee development related topics rather than social chit-chat.

Individuals

A great deal of the community building happens organically once you have the first two legs of the “stool” in place. However, HR should also ensure that new hires are given an extra incentive toward participating. This can be done as part of acculturation onboarding by assigning social learning tasks. Virtual meet and greets are also a great way to generate content and discussion. If you have relevant educational information hosted on your platform, new hires will quickly learn that this is the place to go to learn how to fit in with your organization.

Why HR Analytics Matter Part 2

This week, let’s continue perusing the Oracle/CedarCrestone whitepaper on HR Analytics. We’ll pay special attention to the ways onboarding practices and software relate to workforce data analysis. At the most basic level, analytics help organizations make better decisions. Information alone doesn’t provide this benefit. The data has to be packaged and presented in a way that makes sense. Otherwise, it’s just numbers.

Efficient Reporting is Essential

That’s why reporting functions play an important role in analysis. With a tool like Universal Onboarding, identifying bottlenecks in the forms completion process is possible because the amount of time new hires spend on each screen is documented. HR can view this information in aggregate and drill down for details to identify places where forms may require additional instructions for faster completion. On the acculturation onboarding side, analytics can be used to show everything from the success of orientation and training initiatives to which socialization activities are most popular with new employees.

The Oracle paper points to several areas of workforce management that are impacted by analytics. Here are a couple that matter most in onboarding:

Acquisition: Best practices in recruitment and hiring form the foundation of a strong workforce. Applicant tracking that highlights which recruiting sources consistently deliver quality talent is one example of HR analytics. In onboarding, analytics support decisions that speed new hires to productivity and lower costs. For example, an analysis might show that training and acculturation through the use of e-learning and other web-based tools is the best choice for a large workforce.

Compliance: Oracle’s focus on compliance deals with diversity and licensing. These are important metrics, but most non-compliance in onboarding is due to incorrect or incomplete forms and missed deadlines for completion/filing. Software such as Universal Onboarding not only allows HR to see that forms are completed fully and on time, it also enforces rules for compliance. This is the logical next step after analyzing current compliance levels. Since adherence to state and federal laws is built into the system, HR can easily compare it with old, paper based practices to see an immediate improvement in administrative processes.

More HR Tech Best Practices

Last week we looked at a couple of items from Workforce Management’s latest technology whitepaper (go here to get your free copy). This time, let’s explore a few more concepts from the paper’s contributors and how they relate to onboarding practices and HR software.


Virtual Learning for Leadership

John Ambrose from Skillsoft points to the benefits of using online training to develop new leaders within an organization. The lower cost and higher convenience level of web-based education make this a popular option for many employers. It’s a particularly helpful technology for newly hired managers who need to get up to speed quickly without spending too much time away from the workplace.

From the perspective of social support, virtual interaction can be helpful in mentoring employees at every level to encourage leadership growth. Online training and skills testing implemented during acculturation onboarding can also make it easier for employers to identify high-potential employees early on. Emerald Software’s products support integration with virtual training vendors and internal social networking platforms to help achieve these objectives.

HR and Employees Benefit from Tech Trends

Sumtotal Systems offers a roundup of 6 trends that can dramatically increase strategic performance for HR. The move toward software that captures information for analysis is one of the most interesting. HR needs solid business intelligence data to boost productivity and decrease operation costs. In onboarding, this type of data can be collected and used to measure the average time to productivity for new hires and areas for HR process improvement.

Another trend is the implementation of employee self service portals. Putting an onboarding module in place is the logical first step for organizations that want to make workers more self-sufficient and ease the burden on HR. A well designed onboarding application can be set up to automatically distribute error and omission free new hire data to an ESS platform. From there, it can be updated by the worker as changes occur over time.

Why SaaS Is Working For HR – Part 2

In this second blog post about how HR is utilizing SaaS solutions, let’s take a look at another article that talks about our current topic. This is a piece from 2008 which may seem like eons ago in the fast paced world of technological evolution. However, it still makes some points that are relevant in 2010. Author Cindy Waxer at HR World contrasts the previous dearth of niche solutions with today’s array of choices for every application. There is really something for everyone, from performance management to new hire onboarding – any process HR wants to focus on improving can be addressed by a specialty program.


ERP vendors are struggling to keep up since rolling out upgrades for fast implementation by end users is not exactly their forte. However, some major players are offering more “off the shelf” functionality than before that permits HR to add on features as needed when their current suite falls short. Unfortunately, for clients using older versions, implementing these newer solutions can still be a very lengthy process.

That’s one reason newer businesses sometimes choose to build their HRIS from the ground up using SaaS solutions rather than investing in a system that will be outdated almost as soon as it is up and running. Companies with existing ERP systems are also choosing to add new features using products provided by SaaS vendors rather than launching extensive projects to revise their legacy software.

Will On-Site Licensing Persist?

In the future, a non-SaaS performance management solution outside those sold by the really big name vendors in HR software may be hard to come by at all. According to Waxer (quoting an IDC study) over 80% of vendors in that niche are already using the SaaS model to deliver software services to their HR clients. This doesn’t mean SaaS is always the best way to go. But as it becomes more prevalent, the momentum of the movement is likely to convince more and more employers that this type of solution has merit.

SaaS for HR Is Expanding in Scope

While SaaS has long been viewed as the province of niche software suppliers (including Best of Breed providers like Emerald Software), some vendors are beginning to expand their offerings to become more like traditional suite providers. It will be interesting to see to what extent these companies maintain their agility as their portfolio of product offerings grow. These vendors will need to remember that ease of integration with other solutions is still critical.

The more collaboration and cross compatibility we SaaS solution architects can generate, the better our chances of survival in a world where HR clients have an ever growing array of options. The days of crowding out everyone else are over – even for the giants in the HR software industry. This is why we focus strongly on building strategic partnerships. In the end, it is likely that those who cooperate the most effectively will be the most successful.

Who Should Be On Your Acculturation Team?

Workforce.com has an article up this week that is very relevant to acculturation onboarding. Author Kris Dunn (from the HRCapitalist website) has figured out the number one question to ask on employee engagement surveys to improve your corporate culture. It cuts through all the obfuscation and gets right to the heart of the matter. That $100,000 question is basically:


“Other than your current manager, if you could pick any manager in any department in the company to work for, which one would it be and why?”

Dunn speculates that the information you collect from this survey question would be a real eye opener. Coworkers talk amongst themselves and they all know who has the reputation as being the best boss to work for. However, what they value in a manager may be totally different from what business owners think of as most important. Getting a solid read on what rank and file workers want to see as far as management style and behaviors go offers insight into how to train current and future leaders for your company.

Developing Effective Onboarding

The “popular” managers are also the ones you want working with HR to develop your acculturation onboarding program. These talented and skilled individuals have created loyalty among their direct reports and gained the admiration and respect of employees who don’t even work for them. That’s the spirit you want new hires to get a sense of even before starting their first day on the job. The people your employees identify as top managers can be involved in everything from designing welcome materials to suggesting improvements to the mentoring program. Take a look at the features available in our Acculturation Portal to start brainstorming ways for your team of top managers to get involved with this onboarding creation process.

It Doesn’t Stop with Onboarding

Kris makes an excellent point that once you hand a new employee over to his/her manager you lose control over the acculturation process. You can do your very best to make the experience in HR wonderful, but it’s no good if the freshly hired employees get a rude awakening when they reach their department. So, once you have figured out what your best-liked leaders are doing right, it’s time to develop your other managers to meet this higher standard. If you want to turn great onboarding into great long term retention, that’s an essential part of the picture.

The Benefits of Interactive Acculturation Onboarding

During training and development, the more tools you have at your disposal the better. Videos, audio, and other media are easy to integrate with a truly universal onboarding system. Of course, multi-media is just one of the features you can incorporate into our AllegroHR Acculturation Portal. You can also activate live chat. This is an ideal solution for organizations with employees at multiple locations.

Often, in-house HR experts are centralized at corporate headquarters. There may be an on-site HR rep available to handle basic inquiries. However, new hires often have questions that go beyond the knowledge level of an HR generalist. In the past, getting these queries answered correctly might take days of emailing back and forth through a traditional helpdesk.

Now, your freshly hired employees can speak with a benefits specialist or other experienced HR professional at your central location without any hassle. The conversation happens in real time so any clarifications and further questions can be handled in a single conversation. When new hires can get immediate, comprehensive answers to their questions, this builds trust and speeds the acculturation process.

Training Partners

Emerald Software Group's onboarding system provides a perfect interface with training and development programs at companies like ExecuTrain and i3Logic. Your new hires can access these company's excellent training classes through our acculturation portal using a single sign-on. You can choose the best combination of virtual orientation and interactive employee development modules to meet the needs of your workforce.

For example, you could select an ExecuTrain team building workshop. This might be used to introduce your new employees into the existing collaborative process within their department. Or, you could ask i3Logic to create a custom training program that quickly socializes workers who need to be integrated into your organization after an acquisition. Of course, if you already have an acculturation portal or ESS (employee self service) system in place, our software blends seamlessly with these options as well.

Acculturation Onboarding and Your Intranet

Do you ever get the feeling that every vendor on the planet is trying to sell you something you don't really need? In the case of some acculturation portals, your instincts may be right on target.

When you socialize your employees, you want them to get comfortable with using the same communication platform and information resources as all your other workers. They don't need to be segregated into one program and then have to acclimate to another structure later on. That would be obviously counterproductive. But this fact doesn't keep software vendors from promoting just such an approach!

Work with What You've Got

If you already have your intranet up and running, there's often no point in setting up an additional program that duplicates capabilities you already have. Organizations that use solutions like the SharePoint platform from Microsoft don't need to buy redundant software. Certain employee self-service portals may also offer acculturation potential without the need for a separate system.

The more flexible your current solution is, the less sense it makes to add yet another program that you will have to manage and maintain. Instead, you can simply work with what you have to meet the changing needs of your company. You should only invest in an acculturation portal if it offers you something really special.

MS SharePoint

When your organization is a Windows Server user, you get the SharePoint program as a freebie. In this case, free doesn't mean low-quality. You can actually use this information management system for a huge number of applications.

The document-enabled characteristics of this program alone make it remarkably useful. As HR or other departments make changes to company documents (such as policies or training materials), the links in your onboarding portal are automatically updated to show the latest version to your employees. That's certainly simpler than having to get IT involved in every little tweak you need to make in your onboarding modules.

Windows Workflow Foundation is now part of the SharePoint package. The WWF can be integrated with your existing Business Process Management (BPM) system. This provides yet another opportunity to seamlessly connect acculturation and transactional onboarding functions. For example, you can encourage employees to become socialized by assigning them the task of filling out their personal profile in the SharePoint network. Then, your workflow rules can be set up to prompt the employee again later if needed.