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.
Showing posts with label Workforce Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Workforce Management. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Summer Seasonal Hiring is a Hot Topic
Summer is approaching and lots of businesses are taking steps to cope with the influx of customers that is already occurring. Tourist hot spots around the country are definitely getting ready for the peak season. However, closer to home there are also retailers staffing up. Workforce.com points out that warm weather brings out the DIY home improvement crowd in droves. This means industry leaders like Home Depot and Lowe’s are in the market for lots of new talent. These companies have been planning for the big spring and summer hiring push since last fall. The process of hiring tens of thousands of part time workers began in March and is still ongoing.
Quality as Important as Quantity
Customers who go to a home improvement store are usually not there just to browse. They have at least a general idea of what they need – but not necessarily where to find it and which item will work best for their project. New hires in these stores have to learn very quickly how to assist customers. It’s not good enough to have dozens of employees on the floor if only one or two have the knowledge and experience to actually locate products and help customers make smart selections. Home Depot in particular is taking steps to standardize and improve training for new hires. That way, they can fulfill their role without the customer ever realizing they are talking to a “newbie”.
Online Learning Helps
Virtual training tools are making a huge difference in the efficiency and speed of training. Home Depot claims a 90% decrease in the number of training hours required per seasonal employee since implementing its own customized e-learning program. New hires can access their training materials via the web at home or at work and become proficient in basic job skills (like product knowledge and store layout) faster.
Emerald Software Understands Speed
Our Acculturation Portal and Universal Onboarding modules are designed to achieve greater speed to productivity for new hires. These tools make HR’s job easier – especially during peak hiring seasons when getting part time employees up to speed is critical for capturing seasonal revenue. Fortunately, our products are easily adaptable to any business large or small with pricing that makes it affordable for every client.
Quality as Important as Quantity
Customers who go to a home improvement store are usually not there just to browse. They have at least a general idea of what they need – but not necessarily where to find it and which item will work best for their project. New hires in these stores have to learn very quickly how to assist customers. It’s not good enough to have dozens of employees on the floor if only one or two have the knowledge and experience to actually locate products and help customers make smart selections. Home Depot in particular is taking steps to standardize and improve training for new hires. That way, they can fulfill their role without the customer ever realizing they are talking to a “newbie”.
Online Learning Helps
Virtual training tools are making a huge difference in the efficiency and speed of training. Home Depot claims a 90% decrease in the number of training hours required per seasonal employee since implementing its own customized e-learning program. New hires can access their training materials via the web at home or at work and become proficient in basic job skills (like product knowledge and store layout) faster.
Emerald Software Understands Speed
Our Acculturation Portal and Universal Onboarding modules are designed to achieve greater speed to productivity for new hires. These tools make HR’s job easier – especially during peak hiring seasons when getting part time employees up to speed is critical for capturing seasonal revenue. Fortunately, our products are easily adaptable to any business large or small with pricing that makes it affordable for every client.
Monday, February 14, 2011
HR Tech Best Practices
Workforce.com has a new whitepaper available on Best Practices in HR Technology. It’s free (registration required), so make sure to request a copy. The paper covers different aspects of technology selection and implementation with contributions from major players like SAP, Ultimate Software and Workday. The first segment is about questions HR should ask potential vendors. Not surprisingly, 2 of the 7 questions are about SaaS. Customers expect 24/7 accessibility and selecting a web-based application is one of the easiest ways to ensure this.
Ultimate Software also talks about the latest HR technology buzzword “unified”. So, you can expect to see more discussions comparing pros and cons of unification vs. integration – just like the current discussions about integrating vs. interfacing. Of course, as a suite software provider Ultimate Software has a vested interest in highlighting any problems with integrating applications from multiple vendors. There’s a balance to be struck between the ease of using a unified system and the strategic benefits of selecting and integrating Best of Breed modules. Chuck Ros talks about precisely this topic in his ere.net article here.
A Payroll Provide Weighs In
Perquest offers some interesting insights about the complexity of HR. According to a recent research study, human capital management at many mid-sized companies is as complex as it is for large organizations. The belief that the challenges faced by HR are directly tied to the size of the workforce is widespread but just doesn’t hold true. So, mid-sized employers may be allocating less money than they should to strategic technology initiatives for HR. This can have serious repercussions.
The fact is that a mid-sized company must meet the same standards as a large company for labor law compliance. The actual risks associated with non-compliance in HR may actually be higher for mid-sized businesses than for large businesses. A single costly incident can disproportionately impact an organization with less capital and fewer high-priced lawyers on speed dial.
Perquest noted that the complexity of compliance is one reason employers often outsource various HR and Payroll functions. However, there are some processes such as onboarding that can’t be effectively outsourced (since using a PEO doesn’t necessarily protect against non-compliance penalties). So, HR may want to use a blend of outsourcing and internal process improvements to achieve their compliance objectives. Implementing Universal Onboarding is a good place to start for mid-sized businesses since the costs are low, ROI is swift, and the benefits are easy to communicate to upper management.
Ultimate Software also talks about the latest HR technology buzzword “unified”. So, you can expect to see more discussions comparing pros and cons of unification vs. integration – just like the current discussions about integrating vs. interfacing. Of course, as a suite software provider Ultimate Software has a vested interest in highlighting any problems with integrating applications from multiple vendors. There’s a balance to be struck between the ease of using a unified system and the strategic benefits of selecting and integrating Best of Breed modules. Chuck Ros talks about precisely this topic in his ere.net article here.
A Payroll Provide Weighs In
Perquest offers some interesting insights about the complexity of HR. According to a recent research study, human capital management at many mid-sized companies is as complex as it is for large organizations. The belief that the challenges faced by HR are directly tied to the size of the workforce is widespread but just doesn’t hold true. So, mid-sized employers may be allocating less money than they should to strategic technology initiatives for HR. This can have serious repercussions.
The fact is that a mid-sized company must meet the same standards as a large company for labor law compliance. The actual risks associated with non-compliance in HR may actually be higher for mid-sized businesses than for large businesses. A single costly incident can disproportionately impact an organization with less capital and fewer high-priced lawyers on speed dial.
Perquest noted that the complexity of compliance is one reason employers often outsource various HR and Payroll functions. However, there are some processes such as onboarding that can’t be effectively outsourced (since using a PEO doesn’t necessarily protect against non-compliance penalties). So, HR may want to use a blend of outsourcing and internal process improvements to achieve their compliance objectives. Implementing Universal Onboarding is a good place to start for mid-sized businesses since the costs are low, ROI is swift, and the benefits are easy to communicate to upper management.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Is Fast HR Software Right for Your Business?
Workforce Management has an interesting article online about the ways HR gets bogged down when it comes to software development. The piece focuses on a new concept called “Fast HR”. This approach to the development of training materials and other HR applications is based on the idea that it’s better to have something usable in a short time frame than something perfect that takes so long to complete that it is outdated by the time it goes live.
One software expert interviewed for the article noted that it can take almost a year of preparation to create a 1 week instructional course. That’s just too long when an organization’s needs change rapidly. In another example of the snail-pace of some HR processes, survey data collected from employees at large organizations may take months to analyze. By the time the results are turned into a final report, they are no longer representative of the current opinions of the workforce.
Fast HR Requires Clear Thinking
The key to shortening the time required to roll out new processes involving customized HR software is to focus on what’s important. In the software development industry, there’s a project management method called Scrum that offers a peek at how this works. This process includes making a wish list of required items, prioritizing them, and working in short bursts on the most critical pieces. This ensures that no matter when the project ends, it has resulted in the production of a useful solution.
For this approach to work in HR, an organization must be very clear on the goals of its software. That’s because it simply isn’t possible to include everything when using this agile development method. It also isn’t realistic to expect the results to be error free. This means that HR has to have a platform in place for receiving feedback about any issues employees experience in using a particular tool. Then, there has to be a commitment to follow up and fix the problems.
Pros and Cons
The benefit of this continuous approach to software development for HR is that it provides a solution quickly to move an organization toward achieving its objectives. The downside is that it is requires ongoing resources and attention. It will never be truly “finished”. Of course, with a field that keeps changing as fast as HR, no application ever outgrows the need for revision and updating.
Emerald Software Solutions
Both the Universal Onboarding and Acculturation Portal we offer lend themselves to ongoing customization. HR can add panels on an as needed basis – starting with the most important. Typical times to implementation are in line with Fast HR methodology while still promoting a high level of compliance.
One software expert interviewed for the article noted that it can take almost a year of preparation to create a 1 week instructional course. That’s just too long when an organization’s needs change rapidly. In another example of the snail-pace of some HR processes, survey data collected from employees at large organizations may take months to analyze. By the time the results are turned into a final report, they are no longer representative of the current opinions of the workforce.
Fast HR Requires Clear Thinking
The key to shortening the time required to roll out new processes involving customized HR software is to focus on what’s important. In the software development industry, there’s a project management method called Scrum that offers a peek at how this works. This process includes making a wish list of required items, prioritizing them, and working in short bursts on the most critical pieces. This ensures that no matter when the project ends, it has resulted in the production of a useful solution.
For this approach to work in HR, an organization must be very clear on the goals of its software. That’s because it simply isn’t possible to include everything when using this agile development method. It also isn’t realistic to expect the results to be error free. This means that HR has to have a platform in place for receiving feedback about any issues employees experience in using a particular tool. Then, there has to be a commitment to follow up and fix the problems.
Pros and Cons
The benefit of this continuous approach to software development for HR is that it provides a solution quickly to move an organization toward achieving its objectives. The downside is that it is requires ongoing resources and attention. It will never be truly “finished”. Of course, with a field that keeps changing as fast as HR, no application ever outgrows the need for revision and updating.
Emerald Software Solutions
Both the Universal Onboarding and Acculturation Portal we offer lend themselves to ongoing customization. HR can add panels on an as needed basis – starting with the most important. Typical times to implementation are in line with Fast HR methodology while still promoting a high level of compliance.
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