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Phenom Acquires My Ally, Bringing Advanced Automation to Overwhelmed HR Teams

Deal solidifies Talent Experience Management’s role in enhancing recruiter productivity

AMBLER, Pa., Sept. 30, 2020 — Phenom, the global leader in Talent Experience Management (TXM), today announced its acquisition of My Ally, an AI-based HR technology company. Known for its expertise in automation, My Ally reinforces Phenom’s ability to deliver an intelligent, omni-channel interview scheduling experience. The acquisition comes just eight months following Phenom’s $30 million Series C funding round.

“With Phenom’s first acquisition, we are executing on our growth strategy of constant innovation, enabling organizations to deliver the world’s best talent experiences,” said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and co-founder at Phenom. “My Ally has proven that its strong automation technology can scale to provide enterprise-level solutions, and their curious, energetic culture fits well with our own. We welcome My Ally, their employees, and their customers to the Phenom family.”

In today’s talent acquisition environment, recruiters have never been more shorthanded with so many jobs to fill. They are too often occupied with time-consuming administrative tasks such as scheduling—with 56% of recruiters spending more than a full working day scheduling interviews for a vacancy*. My Ally automates email-based interview scheduling, which complements Phenom’s corresponding functionality in chatbot, email, and SMS—reducing recruiters’ time spent manually coordinating with candidates and hiring managers.

“Phenom continues to relentlessly deliver the most advanced AI and automation for HR technology, and this acquisition is a reflection of that,” said Tim Guleri, managing partner at Sierra Ventures. “This deal is made possible by Phenom’s growth and the global demand for talent experience management. My Ally is an excellent addition and generates significant momentum for the next phase of Phenom.”

My Ally automates the scheduling of over 20,000 interviews per month, leading to a significant dataset of interactions and learnings. These insights—along with My Ally’s automation software—will link to billions of interactions in the TXM platform, refining Phenom AI’s precision and efficiency in interview scheduling.

“Phenom accounts for every step along the talent experience journey,” said Deepti Yenireddy, CEO and founder at My Ally. “By joining forces with Phenom, we are poised to take our automation technology to the next level. Customers will be blown away by how productive they can be with a single, comprehensive platform.”

For more information, please visit https://www.phenom.com/blog/phenom-acquires-my-ally.

About Phenom
Phenom is a global HR technology company with a purpose to help a billion people find the right job. With an expertise in building AI-powered, scalable solutions, Phenom Talent Experience Management (TXM) personalizes and automates the talent journey for candidates, recruiters, employees and management with the Career Site, Chatbot, CRM, CMS, SMS and Email Campaigns, University Recruiting and Events, Internal Mobility, Career Pathing, Diversity & Inclusion, Gigs, Referrals and Analytics. As a result, employers improve their talent acquisition and talent management efforts by helping candidates and employees find the right job, recruiters identify and engage the right talent, and management optimize HR strategy, process and spend. Phenom was ranked among the fastest-growing technology companies in the 2019 Deloitte Technology Fast 500.

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Phenom has offices in Canada, India, Israel, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom with over 500 employees. More than 300 global employers rely on the Phenom TXM platform to bring recruiting velocity and create an end-to-end talent experience.

For more information, please visit www.phenom.com. Connect with Phenom on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

About My Ally

Developed for enterprise human resource teams, My Ally is the world’s leading Talent Lifestyle Management platform. My Ally gives complex organizations the tools to discover, hire, and engage the right people to fuel business. Built with the belief that HR needs AI to create great experiences throughout the talent lifecycle, My Ally is one of the only AI-powered solutions capable of human-like communications.

Why AI is your best bet to remove hiring bias

Why AI is your best bet to remove hiring bias 

Hiring is an aspect of the HR process that directly impacts the performance of several departments. HR professionals do not just hold the resumes, they actually hold the choice between productive and unfruitful quarters. So, it is established that hiring is an extremely crucial task that needs to be carried out thoroughly and ethically.

But, as we all know, human beings have certain behaviors and attributes that impact their decisions and choices. These instincts may or may not be conscious, but they sure do affect what you do and do not do! And that is what happens when HRs take interviews.

According to CareerBuilder, 74% of the employers have hired the wrong person for a position. More often than not they are influenced by certain external factors that shouldn’t have been around the ecosystem in the first place.

To combat that there have been a few inventions in recruitment solutions that are supposedly free of hiring bias. But, it has been reported that these systems are built with biases in their sole foundation. HRTech has witnessed tremendous advancement in recent years and one of its allies has been Artificial Intelligence. 

Let us look at the reasons why AI is your best bet to remove hiring bias.

 

1) Prejudice-free algorithm

One thing you can be sure about AI is that it doesn’t have any kind of opinion or concern of its own. It’s pure-play technology that churns and works around statistics and data models to deliver the right decisions. So, with AI, you don’t have to worry about your hirer having had some experiences in the past that may, in a way impact the possibility of a candidate being selected or rejected.

Rest assured that your vacant position will be filled by a person who is best suited for the job, regardless of any external contributions such as past experiences of the recruiter.

 

2) No Nepotism in tech

When it comes to a powerful technology such as AI, you know it won’t be bothered by the fact that an applicant is the relative of an authoritative personality or not. These factors become irrelevant when you integrate AI into your hiring system.

There are times when a recruiter may feel that it’s only fair to qualify someone as the best fit for an opening because they are somehow related to someone influential. These things don’t happen when AI takes over your hiring process.

 

3) No room for error

Haven’t we all known all our lives that ‘To err is human’? This only means that every human being is capable of making mistakes and errors. But, you cannot say the same for AI. AI is very specifically designed to ensure that it makes no mistakes.

There is a reason why AI has attracted all the buzz in the tech town, and this is it! AI won’t make any hiring mistakes and it won’t land you in heavy costs to make up for those errors either. It’s the most appropriate solution to smoothly carry out the hiring processes.

 

4) Analytics and Insights

AI and Analytics have been known to deliver insights that generally go unnoticed. Facial recognition captures expressions and body movements while behavioral science takes care of mannerisms and attitudes. These help you understand what attributes of a candidate make him/her a good choice for the job.

You hire the person and the personality, instead of solely qualifications.

 

5) Perfect Matchmaker

You could name a few sites that can be considered as the ideal matchmaker in the dating world, but in the Hr Tech world, AI is the key player to place all your bets on. AI will back you in finding the right match for your job by running multiple screening and match-making algorithms.

Your candidates will have a seamless experience during and even after the hiring processes are over.

It is safe to say that AI is one of the MVPs in the HRTech arena and will continue to be so until someone can invent something that is more powerful and compelling than AI. Till then, it’s only sane to utilize the functionalities and benefits of AI for removing biases from hiring.

Six Techniques to Address Staffing Challenges in the Midst of COVID-19

Six Techniques to Address Staffing Challenges in the Midst of COVID-19

In my 13-year history as an HR professional, this by far has been the most difficult time in my career. COVID-19 has led many companies to face unprecedented staffing challenges that can be daunting even for a seasoned professional. As a Regional Human Resources Director for a leading addiction treatment provider, American Addiction Centers, we had to get creative and think outside the box to solve these and other staffing challenges because our patients were counting on us.

The stress, isolation, and anxiety were causing more people to relapse or turn to substance use to cope. Shutting down or reducing hours wasn’t an option for our inpatient facilities. Like many companies, people need us now more than ever. 

We were faced with navigating multiple issues all at one time. Fear over the virus led more people to call out with little or no notice. Finding and hiring temporary staff to fill the gap became increasingly laborious. Training short-term staff to meet the demand was yet another hurdle.

Not to mention, in-person recruiting and job interviews were replaced with virtual options, a new process on both sides. Plus, every discipline was impacted. No department was immune, from the therapist to the housekeeping staff. 

Our first line of defense was to focus our efforts on retaining the top-notch talent we already had working for us. When you retain a person that’s experienced, they’re an expert at handling challenges, which is critical during times like this.

Here are few strategies I recommend for retaining and recruiting talent during the pandemic:

 

1. Focus on building trust with your staff.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the virus, employees need to trust that their company is being transparent about the safety of the work environment. They need to know it’s safe for them to come to work and that they will be notified if there is a concern.

Sharing your safety protocols with potential recruits can also be beneficial. One of the first questions I often receive from prospective employees is “what are you doing to keep employees safe?” Leading by example also builds trust. If the leadership team is expecting employees to come into the office, it sends a powerful message if the managers are there as well.

This act will reassure your employees that you are in this together. 

 

2. Promote your Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

This is an ideal time to remind employees about your EAP program. People are more likely to call out if they’re stressed, burnt out, or feeling depressed. Letting them know they have access to a therapist can help them address problems head-on before it takes a toll on their mental health.

We’ve found more people request mental health support during these unprecedented times.

 

3. Offer flexible schedules and remote work options.

Many people are dealing with a lack of childcare or remote learning for their children and may require flexibility in their work schedules.

If you can find a way to accommodate their schedule or offer remote options, it will help them feel like their unique situations are being considered and that you understand their needs outside of the workplace. 

 

4. Consider bonus pay for additional hours worked.

You can pay your employees bonuses to work additional hours and close temporary gaps from staffing shortages.  This will be more efficient than bringing new personnel through a staffing agency as your employees are already familiar with company processes.

In addition, many employees may be bearing the burden of going from a dual to single household income so the option to pick up shifts may be attractive. 

 

5. Take a proactive approach to recruiting.

Pay attention to which companies in your industry may be laying off or furloughing staff and reach out to them. Let them know you’d be interested in offering temporary employment to their staff.

This could turn out to be a great option for finding experienced, short-term employees.

 

6. Simplify your application process.

Instead of having prospects fill out an entire application to be considered for a position, start with a resume to make the process as easy as possible for the applicant. It will increase your applicant pool and from there you can filter through which candidates have the credentials to move forward in the process.

Once they reach that next step, you can ask them to fill out the application because they will feel vested in the process as a serious candidate. 

 

In Closing

Despite all of the staffing challenges many companies have faced this year, I do see light at the end of the tunnel. My days are already starting to get easier as we have refined processes in place to ensure employee safety while maintaining a high level of productivity and customer service.

While things may never go back to the way they used to be, we must learn to embrace this new “normal” and find creative strategies to continue retaining our staff and recruit the best talent on the market. We must remind ourselves there is a solution to every problem. If COVID-19 has shown us anything, it’s that we have the ability to be resilient in the face of adversity.

Keeping Positive Vibes Throughout Your Office

Keeping Positive Vibes Throughout Your Office

The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for all of us, to put it mildly. Even if most of us aren’t physically working in offices these days, it’s becoming increasingly clear that keeping up positive workplace vibes is essential, as the world tries to navigate this strange moment in history.

Most business owners and managers know that workplace gossip, toxic company culture, disrespect of boundaries, and more are all quick ways to end up with high employee turnover and sour any positive workplace experiences.

It’s especially challenging to foster a positive work culture in the new world of working remotely. It can be more difficult to spot and halt negative behaviors and actions as they happen.

With that said, when needing to increase and maintain the positive vibes throughout your office, remote or otherwise, here are some great tips worth employing:

 

Look For Warning Signs

A toxic work environment can be detrimental to productivity, efficiency, and overall work culture.

But what makes a workplace toxic, exactly? Some key warning signs to look out for include:

  • High employee turnover
  • Excessive gossip and office drama
  • Lack of feedback
  • Employees regularly being overworked or stressed
  • Lack of professional development opportunities

 

A good motivator for creating a more positive environment is the fact that the happier employees are, the better quality and quantity of work they produce. Additionally, what’s better than an enthusiastic employee bragging up their place of work to their friends, family, and even acquaintances? It’s essentially free marketing. 

And while it is understandably hard to always maintain a perfectly happy workplace, a consistently toxic environment could potentially sink your business. Think about it. If all the best and brightest talent ultimately quit or refuse to work for you, your ability to run a respected, dependable, and productive business goes down the drain.

Consider the next step, customers are often the second ones to “leave” a toxic workplace. Because of this, it’s imperative to keep an eye out and an ear down for any possible signs of a toxic environment brewing. Even if everyone is working remotely.

 

The Positive Effects of Engagement

Employee engagement is a lot different in the remote working world. Especially during this pandemic. As aptly summarized by Benjamin Laker while writing for Forbes,

“Keeping employees engaged during the pandemic comes down to two things: connection and recognition.

With employees at home and most taking on the role of caregiver, teacher, and parent. All while trying to stay productive at work. It is easy for remote staff to begin developing feelings of isolation and disconnect from their organization’s culture. Which can, in turn, contribute to low engagement.”

Even if your offices are open, safety precautions such as social-distancing are likely taking a toll on the way your employees interact with leadership and each other.

Engagement is necessary for a number of reasons when it comes to fostering a more positive work environment. For one, it paves the way for better communication throughout the office, even while working remotely. It’s also a crucial factor in productivity.

The more employees are recognized for their efforts, the more likely they are to be engaged with the company. Which also leads to boosted morale and happiness.

Considering the stress a lot of people are under these days, engagement is likely to fall as everyone struggles to juggle their responsibilities and stay safe. However, with more personal and meaningful interactions throughout the workday, employees can feel supported by their company. And thus generally feel more positive.

Try encouraging virtual 1-on-1 coffee breaks amongst co-workers. Make a point to check in throughout the week to see how everyone is feeling mentally, emotionally, and even physically.

And most importantly, be genuine and compassionate during these check-ins to instill trust and understanding.

 

Find Solutions to Negative Problems

As important as it is to foster positivity, it’s equally important to cut down on negativity as much as you can. Some negative behaviors, such as workplace gossip, are just going to happen whether you want them to or not.

It’s also a bit harder to track down where rumors or gossip might be swirling now that employees are working from home. However, it’s still worth working to combat these behaviors as it can spread negativity internally by reducing morale and values. It can also cause potential future employees to look somewhere else.

Luckily, there are some great workplace gossip resources to help curtail the spread of harmful rumors, bullying, and general toxicity throughout the workplace. While it may not be possible to cover all potential solutions to gossip in just this one article. It is worth noting that honing your methods of providing effective criticism can go a long way in reducing negativity.

Lead by example. Talk with employees directly and privately to address any concerns. And listen closely to what employees have to say.

This has been shown to help with productivity. And, if employees are able to air out their frustrations and general thoughts in a more professional and positive manner, the less like they are to vent to a co-worker. Subsequently, that can lead to the spreading of rumors and gossip.

When you create a welcoming environment to talk, it enforces important workplace boundaries. You keep employees’ concerns in the ear of leadership, instead of everywhere else.

So many people already dealing with the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking away one less worry such as workplace gossip will undoubtedly be appreciated.

Taking extra measures to ensure your workplace is a positive and encouraging place can make life a lot better for your valuable employees. Whether you’re completely remote, open partially, or are an essential business, there are plenty of ways to boost those crucial positive vibes.

 

Hearing Impairment and Employee Experience: What You Need To Know

Hearing Impairment and Employee Experience: What You Need To Know

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Institute on Disability as of 2018, approximately four percent of people suffer from a hearing disability. That’s over 13 million men, women, and children with hearing impairment. On the global stage, meanwhile, The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that disabling hearing loss impacts more than six percent of the world’s population, or 466 million.

Of these cases, 93 percent are adults, and a third are 65 years of age or older. What’s more, the WHO predicts that unless something is done, we could see the number rise from 466 million to nearly a billion.

Hearing impairment is, in other words, a fast-growing problem.

This is not surprising to me. Hearing loss is an incredibly common malady amongst older adults, caused by everything from genetic disease to the simple ravages of time. Beyond that, people today subject themselves to more potential hearing damage than at any other time in history.

We enjoy blasting our music, loud enough that it drowns out the world around us. We are constantly surrounded by the noise of city life, from heavy machinery to large-sized vehicles. And in spite of sound medical advice, many continue to insist on cleaning their ears out with cotton swabs.

You may wonder why I am telling you this.

 

Why is this relevant to you as an employer?

Simply put, if you are to create an environment that is simultaneously more welcoming to and more comfortable for hearing-impaired individuals, you must first understand the context in which you are operating.

You must understand the common causes of hearing loss, and the fact that it is far more widespread than most people are aware.

You must also understand how hearing loss most commonly manifests in the workplace, and of your role as an employer in overcoming the barriers it creates from recruitment, onboarding, through to the day-to-day.

A 2018 research paper hosted on academic database Taylor & Francis provides an excellent framework in this regard. Per the study, the most significant issues are as follows:

Fatigue

The impact of hearing loss on conversational capacity is extremely draining for employees. Accommodations such as telephone aids, assistance from coworkers, and electronic communication solutions were identified by study participants as especially valuable.

Stress

Many employees suffering from hearing impairment must frequently remind coworkers of their condition, forced to self-advocate, and self-manage their condition with little assistance.  An open-door policy amongst organizational leadership and an overall prioritization of employee health and well-being is imperative.

Prejudice

Hearing-impaired individuals typically experience a disadvantageous labor market, marked by the assumption that disabilities will adversely affect productivity.  Education is the solution here. Employees and leaders should be coached on the realities of hiring disabled employees, and the fact that with the right support and workplace culture, their disability need not be an impediment to effective work.

 

Where to start

Your first step should be a thorough examination of your recruitment process with regard to eliminating bias.

Ensure that your recruiters understand not only hearing impairment but also disabilities in general and that they understand that they should not allow their preconceptions to influence hiring decisions.

Staff should always be brought in based solely on their merits. If the best person for the job happens to be hearing-impaired, then you should hire them.

To that end, I would also advise including in your job postings that accommodations will be made for individuals suffering from disabling conditions. Note that you are willing to provide the necessary equipment, adjustments, and assistance throughout both the hiring process and within the workplace.

You may think such support is a given, and its inclusion is redundant. It isn’t.

Most employees looking for work understand that employers are, to an extent, required by law to make reasonable accommodations for disabilities. By noting these accommodations in your job postings, you indicate that they are a priority to you, that you won’t simply be going through the motions as required by law.

 

Distributed Teams

Believe it or not, where hearing-impaired employees are concerned, the business landscape generated by COVID-19 can actually work in your favor. The world has undergone a massive shift from traditional workplaces to distributed, remote work.

More people than ever are now choosing to work from home, and it is highly likely that even once the coronavirus pandemic is over, this trend will continue.

As an employer, this allows you to very easily make accommodations for your hearing-impaired employees. The very nature of remote work doesn’t generally require much verbal communication, with much collaboration occurring via email or within applications such as Slack. And for instances where virtual meetings are required, you can make things easier for hearing-impaired employees in a few ways.

Require that everyone in attendance own a webcam

This will allow your hearing-impaired employee to more easily understand what’s being said via lip reading. You may even consider bringing in a sign language interpreter in cases of complete deafness, or assign someone to transcribe the meeting into the chat.  

Use closed captioning

Believe it or not, Zoom and most of its competitors actually include the ability to toggle speech recognition-based closed captioning for virtual meetings. It’s not perfect, of course — there is likely to be a hiccup here and there — but it can nevertheless be a great help. 

Cut down on the chatter

Group conversations tend to be particularly overwhelming even in minor cases of hearing impairment, as one can often have difficulty sifting through the noise. As such, it’s worthwhile to enforce a policy in meetings that when one person is talking, everyone else is on mute. 

 

Other steps

Beyond that, it is simply a matter of understanding and acknowledging that even working from home, a hearing-impaired employee may be subject to certain time limitations and challenges that others are not.

It may also be worthwhile to speak to an audiologist or hearing clinic and collaborate with them to provide hearing exams and treatment to all employees. 

Hearing loss can be devastating to one’s personal and professional life. In the long-term, the solution is better, more widespread access to affordable treatment. In the short term, however, everyone has their part to play.

As an employer, you are dedicated to an inclusive, welcoming, and understanding work environment.

5 Strategies to Prepare for Post-COVID Recruiting

5 Strategies for Successful Post-COVID Recruiting

As each day brings new challenges for organizations, it can be easy to let recruitment take a back seat. Amid widespread uncertainty, layoffs, furloughs, and closures, the way forward isn’t always clear.

But savvy recruiters are realizing the time to start planning for your post-COVID recovery is now. Do you have a plan and some strategies in place to press “go” when you’re ready to start hiring again? If not, there will be a race for talent once the economy starts to recover. Your organization will struggle to fill critical roles if your competitors are faster to market.

To lay the foundations for future success, organizations will need to adopt 5 key strategies to ensure they’re growth-ready post-COVID-19.

These are:

 

  • Assess skills gaps and talent shortages 
  • Align recruiting strategies with business strategies 
  • Engage and nurture furloughed employees and alumni 
  • Leverage internal mobility to build an agile workforce 
  • Lean on technology to supercharge remote recruiting (with a focus on screening and onboarding) 

 

Let’s look at each more closely:

 

Assess skills gaps and talent shortages

Determine the talent and skillsets you may have lost or gained. Across all industries, there have been hard hits – and in some, huge growth. Online retailers like Amazon have hired 175,000+ workers during this time.

In the US, the unemployment rate in April was 14.7%, the highest it’s been since World War II. This means there’s more talent on the market than ever before. It also means time-to-hire will remain critical when jobs return and competition for this talent is fierce.

The talent you’ve lost is probably the same as the talent your competitors have lost.

Have you considered the type of talent required to help your business succeed post-COVID-19? For example, the skills, competencies, and experience you once required when hiring retail staff may not be applicable if you’ve moved to online ordering and warehouse distribution.

You need a complete view of your current workforce and their bench strength, as well as an understanding of who is sitting in your internal and external talent pipelines. Prior to COVID-19, PageUp research found that only 37% of organizations say they understand current skill gaps and this number is likely to have decreased. 

Once you’ve discovered the gaps in your workforce, you can start proactively planning to fill talent pipelines for the future.

 

Align recruiting strategies with business strategies

The first step to building a successful recruitment strategy is to re-evaluate your current approach – whether you’re ready to hire or not. 

What are your organizational goals and strategies? It’s crucial to align your recruitment strategies with the goals of the business. Commercially, where does your organization want to be in 6 to 12 months’ time? 

If you don’t know the answer to this question, now is the time to make sure you’re part of the conversation. Have candid and honest discussions with business leaders and hiring managers to understand the skills, behaviors, and experience needed in the future – especially when reimagining or changing the types of roles your organization needs. 

Ask yourself: 

  • Am I freezing, stabilizing, or ramping up hiring over the next 12 months? 
  • What recruitment headcount will I need?
  • Am I ready to start hiring when the time comes?

 

Engage and nurture furloughed employees and alumni

If you’re in a holding pattern and not hiring right now, there are still many things you can do to prepare for future recruitment. 

You need to keep talent pools warm – and in particular, nurture furloughed employees and alumni. These are valuable people that are pre-vetted and already aligned with your organization’s culture and values. 

Keeping this talent at-hand until you’re ready to hire again will make filling crucial skill gaps faster and easier. You don’t want to lose valuable people just because your competitor got to them first. 

Here’s what you can do if you’re not hiring but want to keep talent pools warm. 

  • Identify your most effective sourcing channels: do you know what these are? Do you have a plan in place to tap into those channels?
  • Recruitment marketing strategies can help you proactively tap into talent and build robust talent pipelines by engaging passive candidates, alumni, and furloughed employees, and nurturing talent pools. 
  • Your career site plays an important role here. If it’s set up properly, you can use EOI capture forms to build talent pools even if you’re not hiring. More importantly, a good career site builds your employee value proposition (EVP) and employer brand. Now is the time to refresh these, particularly if you’re tapping into new talent segments. When you’re ready to hire there should be consistency of employer brand. 

 

Leverage internal mobility to build an agile workforce

Don’t forget about the pools of talent you have within your organization. Internally, you should be prioritizing employee engagement and looking for opportunities to redeploy (rather than furlough) talent. 

Internal mobility is a powerful tool to keep valuable employees working, engaged, and supported by the business. If an employee has transferable skills or characteristics, they may not be able to move vertically but they can be redeployed into different teams or divisions in the business. 

 

Lean on technology to supercharge remote recruiting

Of course, all of the above strategies are high-touch in their execution. Talent teams alone cannot handle the workload – or gain useful insights – if they rely on manual processes. 

Technology can streamline communication, track and measure the effectiveness of these strategies, and deliver a great experience for every candidate. 

Applicant tracking systems (ATS), screening and onboarding tech solutions become even more important in a remote world, with limited in-person interactions. Remote work has accelerated the need for HR tech and forced laggards to adopt tech solutions – if you’re not yet implementing HR tech solutions, you’re behind the competition. 

The businesses that are perfecting remote interviewing, screening, and onboarding now, will be well-placed to win the best talent when they’re ready to scale-up hiring again. Those who aren’t will struggle to find the talent they need in six months. 

There’s plenty of tech out there to support you – you just have to find what works for you. 

 

Recruiting: The Ultimate Work-from-Home Role

Recruiting: The Ultimate Work-from-Home Role

Recruiting is an interesting function. One that operates with autonomy while remaining contingent on the parent organization. It is both independent and dependent at the same time: able to adapt to hiring trends and business needs. 

It is rarely, if ever, static. Continually embracing new strategies and solutions to find the best and brightest candidates on the market. So, it comes as no surprise that recruiting is evolving to fit what’s become the “new normal” in pandemic times. For many, that means working from home, discovering new ways to collaborate with candidates and hiring managers, and using technology to bridge gaps and drive outcomes. 

With this in mind, Checkster recently surveyed 400 recruiters and talent acquisition professionals to learn more about the function’s own future of work. And, what things will look like as companies continue to navigate COVID-19 conditions.

Here’s what we found out: 

 

Location, Location, Location

By July 2020, the vast majority of recruiting teams had reached a decision about returning to the office. 72 percent will have the option to work from home permanently. To break that down, 36 percent will stay remote indefinitely, while the other 36 will have the choice to work from home.

Of those surveyed, only 16 percent are planning for everyone to return to the office. While the remaining 12 percent were still mulling things over. The results illustrate a dramatic shift in thinking from life before COVID-19 when only 8 percent of respondents were remote, and 70 percent worked exclusively in an office. 

Of course, there are pros and cons to this new arrangement. As countless companies, including Twitter, Google, Zillow, and more, are bound to find out. Technology certainly makes the transition easier, supporting productivity and communication.

But there’s more to work than efficiency. Recruiters recognize this, too, with survey respondents still deciding how they feel about the change. Especially as it relates to their ideal work setup. 

When asked if they thought it was beneficial to work together at the same location versus separately, recruiters are still making up their minds. When it comes to working with other recruiters, 44 percent prefer being apart, 25 percent see the merits of being in the same place and 32 percent are fine either way. Add hiring managers into the mix and the results become more balanced. With 35 percent in favor of staying separate, 33 percent eager to remain together, and 33 percent feeling OK with either option. 

 

Powering Up

While seemingly flexible, given the circumstances, recruiters know they can’t do the work completely alone. There are internal and external stakeholders to consider. All of whom expect positive interactions and experiences throughout the hiring process.

So, while a physical location might not be seen as an impediment, it does factor into the ability to collaborate outside of shared office space. That’s where technology, tools, and techniques enter into the conversation. Going far beyond the omnipresent Zoom. 

Strategies around these setups differ wildly based on the individual recruiter but mostly fit into a few classification categories. There are standard tools like phone and email, the aforementioned video conferencing platforms, scheduling widgets, and digital recruiting solutions.

Asked about their use of the latter, 72 percent of recruiters said they are using digital interviews more now. The same goes for the 52 percent relying heavily on digital reference checking and 58 percent conducting more digital assessments. This illustrates a move away from manual, in-office approaches as recruiters look for efficiencies while staying remote. 

Survey participants also reported a focus on improving communication – with candidates as well as coworkers. That might mean introducing additional structure and rigor by having regularly scheduled team meetings throughout the week. Or merely talking more during the day over Microsoft Teams, Slack, or even Facetime. Fun events like remote happy hours have become nice to-dos, but clarity and frequency of messaging are the keys to more successful interactions overall. 

 

Going Forward

No doubt that COVID-19 will have a long-term impact on recruiting teams, as the majority continue to work from home. There will be growing pains too, as recruiters trade office wear for yoga pants and master meeting candidates online instead of in-person.

But based on what we’ve seen so far, the function is up for the challenge. Ready to take its autonomy and independence in-house (literally) while still making hires happen.

Automation: What it Is, What It Isn’t, and Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore it

Automation: What It Is, What It Isn’t, and Why You Can’t Afford to Ignore it

We’ve seen the risks become crystal-clear with a global lockdown posed by an unprecedented pandemic, and the meteoric rise of remote work. Firms that fail to leverage the power of automation risk falling behind the competition.

It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Companies that use flawed arguments to push off adoption of the technology that will improve efficiency, open new markets, and boost client satisfaction are jeopardizing their competitive edge.

That being said, embracing automation can be daunting, and at times confusing. Let’s walk through what it is, and what it can and cannot do for your business.

 

What is automation?

Historically, the recruitment industry hasn’t always been known for embracing technology, but that is changing fast for most firms.

Automation—the integration of innovative technology into all areas of the business for the purposes of improving operations, executing tasks, increasing efficiency, and streamlining processes to deliver more value to clients and candidates—has emerged as a widely embraced strategy to drive forward-looking profitability.

 

Why do I need it?

One of the most common arguments of those unwilling to embrace automation is “recruiting technology tools would distract from customer intimacy…we’re a boutique firm and pride ourselves on customer engagement.”

This is flawed logic. Automation streamlines operations to the point that there’s more time than ever before to interact with clients. Today’s sophisticated tools deliver relevant, contextual messages. The other most common reason for not acting on automation is cost, but the effective deployment of automation pays for itself!

The results are clear. Embracing automation in staffing is both a positive development and an essential one. Recruiters are continually faced with the pressure to perform.

Leaders are measuring their teams through KPIs including time to submit, time to interview and time to fill.

Speed and quality of hire are very important and both can be significantly improved through automation without adding headcount. The end goal is to increase placements without increasing the size of the team- scale the business.

Desired growth will push progressive companies to explore the range of solutions available to accelerate everything. Including service level, customer satisfaction, and employee morale and retention.

 

How does this help make a recruiter’s job easier?

Recruiting organizations that are successful over the long haul maintain relationships with clients and candidates. Automation tools use a series of actions – almost like a flow chart – augmented by artificial intelligence to engage the client base and candidate base.

Programmed actions and artificial intelligence may sound intimidating. But, really, we’re talking about using clicks not code when it comes to setting up an automation flow.

The power lies in its simplicity. Artificial intelligence comes into play, for example, by matching resume data, credentials, education, prior work experience, and keywords including skills to quickly identify optimal candidates for open jobs.

When automation tools are put into practice and woven into the operational fabric of recruiting firms, the impact can be profound.

Imagine the following scenario: a candidate starts work for your firm and you send out a day one personalized text message welcoming the employee to his/her new assignment and confirm that everything is going smoothly.

Perfectly timed and personalized content has shown to improve loyalty among contractors. Moreover, when it comes to retaining the candidates you are managing, an automation engine has the capability to line up the next assignment just as the current job is winding down.

Redeploying candidates saves time, money, and improves efficiency as one assignment rolls to the next seamlessly.

 

How can automation make recruiters more effective and more human?

It might seem counterintuitive, but relying on technology to automate a base layer of mundane tasks frees up time, resources, and energy for recruiters to focus on what they do best – creating trust, building rapport, and finding the perfect match.

On average, it takes six to eight touches to build enough rapport with a new client to win an order.

Let’s face it, most recruiters/salespeople lack the bandwidth to connect with clients and new prospects in a consistent and professional manner week in and week out.  Automation tools allow prospective clients to be “added” to an automation stream.

From there, the solution takes over. Newsletters, invitations to webinars, relevant content, check-in emails can all be delivered in a highly personalized way informed by artificial intelligence. The outreach frequency is optimized and the net result is clients coming to you – the firm that’s always top of mind – when they are primed to act.

Recruiting teams can stay focused on placements and billings while old clients are kept warm and new clients absorb targeted, relevant content.

 

Don’t get left behind

Automation in the recruiting industry is not reserved for a select few deep-pocketed giants of the industry. Every firm can take steps to implement proven solutions to dramatically improve the bottom line. With low technology risk, manageable expense profiles, and user-friendly interfaces that can be mastered with basic training.

Most importantly, don’t sell yourself short. As a recruiting and staffing professional, you understand the needs of the business so don’t get left behind. While you debate whether now is the time to invest in automating non-value-adding processes, your closest competitor will have probably already made the leap.

The recruiting industry has reached an inflection point where there will be winners and losers. Winning firms with the brightest future will be those that unabashedly welcome automation as a primary vehicle to grow the business.

The Next Frontier: Elevating Employee Onboarding and Performance with Virtual Reality

The Next Frontier: Elevating Employee Onboarding and Performance with Virtual Reality

Effective employee training is as critical as it’s ever been for corporations of all sizes. Yet today, it has become increasingly challenging for a myriad of reasons. Companies continue to need to quickly and efficiently train frontline workers but are faced with new COVID-related health and safety risks and procedures.

At the same time, the rise of remote office work is creating new onboarding challenges for companies looking to maintain a sense of workplace culture. Even amongst physically dispersed teams.

Meanwhile, with social distancing and new health guidelines in place, traditional learning methods that rely on physical modes like in-person classes and role-playing are more difficult (if not impossible) to conduct.

Although e-learning solutions like online webinars and video seminars might appear to be the obvious answer, they lack critical elements for effective long-term learning. Because of this, more companies are turning to virtual reality (VR). A proven and effective method of training that offers the flexibility of e-learning, the interactivity of in-person classes, and a more immersive, data-driven learning experience for employees.

 

How VR Training Works

A lot of traditional training methods utilize passive learning techniques like reading through handbooks, watching videos, or clicking through presentations. While this type of training may give employees basic vocabulary and knowledge, it doesn’t actually familiarize them with new skills. Furthermore, these mediums are very “passive” forms of learning. Versus “active” learning that can help simulate what the real-world job will actually be like for an employee.

Virtual Reality-based Immersive Learning, on the other hand, allows employees to practice and execute new skills in real-world situations. New hires can simply put on a VR headset and practice their new role over and over again, with immediate feedback on how they did and no negative consequences if they make a mistake.

For example, retail workers can practice de-escalating a difficult conversation with customers in a virtual replica of a store and see how their decisions and actions unfold from a first-person perspective. No matter the topic being presented to the employee, Immersive Learning affords the learner a “flight-simulator-like” experience. Such that they can engage in a more “active”, learning-by-doing experience.

Not only does Immersive Learning make the individual training experience more potent, but it also allows companies with employees spread across different cities or states to deliver the same training. Regardless of location.

Immersive Learning has also been shown to help save on training costs and time. Not only have studies shown that employees are more engaged and retain more information from Immersive Learning. But VR modules can also improve efficiency to such a degree that an hour of training can be cut down to just ten minutes.

 

Shaping First Impressions

Using VR technology as part of the onboarding process can also help create a better employee experience and more excitement for the organization. Since VR is an emerging technology, it provides a ‘wow’ factor for many people who have never used headsets before and can help showcase a company’s innovativeness.

VR training can provide a scalable solution by creating immersive and interactive scenarios to instill company values and work mentalities. For example, retail workers have used VR to learn how the value of “customer first” is exemplified by practicing conversations with customers in a virtual store.

This not only helps employees better align and understand their company but also gives them practical skills to bring these values to life.

 

Create Lasting Impact

The next generation of employees value L&D (learning and development) heavily, with 58% saying they are more likely to switch jobs for better learning opportunities or better work/life balance. Rather than higher pay.

Immersive Learning is not only a tool for new workers but also has a lasting impact on L&D programs. It works to collect insights on how employees are performing over time. This helps guide managers to offer more individualized advice and improvement plans.

Data can be collected through different methods such as eye-tracking and head tracking, which can show where employees are focusing in a certain situation. Voice recordings can also help trainees and managers identify mistakes and areas for improvement.

While the data can be used to improve feedback, it can also be used to help a company identify problematic areas or complicated procedures that need changing. VR-training can be repeated indefinitely while retaining its usefulness through collecting individual data. So, the end result is not only higher engagement, preparedness, and knowledge retention, but also an increase in employee satisfaction and overall retention rates.

 

A Comprehensive Toolkit

Training and onboarding is more challenging than ever before as many traditional training methods are less effective or more impossible to perform. While e-learning excels in providing information, it lacks the ability to provide employees with engaging experiences and the ability to practice skills in a realistic environment.

VR-based Immersive Learning serves as a complement by providing employees with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with likely workplace scenarios and practice various skills with timely feedback.

Not only does the immersion help give new hires and remote workers a more exciting and personal onboarding experience, but the ability to collect data for L&D programs creates a long term impact on their happiness and retention rate.

VR training is not the ‘end all’ solution for employee training. However, it can be a cutting edge tool alongside other learning methods to help companies create a better employee experience from the get-go.

Source Candidates within a Targeted Network using Twiangulate

Let’s take a look at a free web-based tool called Twiangulate. It is a Twitter tool that allows you to look at connections between different Twitter profiles. There are a few different search options you can do within the tool.

Use it to discover new people to follow, influencers, or you can add some relevant keywords to a search and source some great candidates.

 

Followed By/Following

Use it to see who is following or is followed by two different twitter names. This can help you identify people that are interested in a specific company or influencer, for example, people who are following both @RecruitingTools and @DeanDaCosta are probably interested in Sourcing.

 

Reach

Enter one or two Twitter names, and Twiangulate will show you the 100 most influential profiles following those accounts.

 

Keywords

What’s even cooler is the keyword search. Pop in some keywords (something like Java AND Developer) and the search results will show who is talking about that topic. Find 2 accounts that are leading the conversation, and see who is following them both. Some of them will be companies, some of them could be potential candidates. You can look at who’s following them with Twiangulate. Add these people to a list and then from there, use a scraping tool to pull out contact information.

Happy Sourcing!

 

Swordfish adds Domain Finding

Swordfish adds Domain Finding

 

In the last update from Swordfish, they added business email enrichment. This allowed you to upload a file with a contact name and a company name, and the tool would find the business email for you. Well, we have another upgrade from Swordfish! They have added domain finding.

What does that mean? Before, you needed to provide the domain. Now you don’t. This is going to save a ton of time, since as you know, the domain is not necessarily intuitive. It can take some time to determine what it is, especially if the email domain is different from the company website.

Swordfish is really a one stop shop for finding people.

 

~ Noel Cocca

 

Look inside with Dean Da Costa:

Why You Need Digital Assessments Now More Than Ever

Why You Need Digital Assessments Now More Than Ever

The times are changing. The USA has never seen an increase in jobless claims like it’s seeing now. In Europe, the situation is a little less grim for now, as governments react differently to the crisis, and labor laws are much different. But there too, the jobless claims are rising and will rise even further.

In countries without a social net like India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippians the situation is even worse.

digital assessments

 

We are not in a candidate market anymore. Although many blue-collar workers will probably argue it never was, especially in the USA. The problem isn’t attracting applicants, it’s selecting them and treating the rejected well as they might be future customers.

The BBC recently reported on 1,000 applicants in 24 hours for a Manchester restaurant looking for a receptionist and many more stories of low paid part-time jobs getting hundreds of applicants in just a day in the UK as well.

In a recent case study from Captiva on using Game-based assessment technology, they said they got in as many as 12,000 applications on one customer service role.

Another supplier told me that in the Philippians recently one contact center job for 25 agents had 400,000 applicants. Yes, you are reading that correct 400,000 people replied to one job advert.

 

Pre-Screening Technology

In order to sift through that many applicants, you will need technology to help you.

The good news is: this technology is available and ready to go.

The bad news is: you’ll need to know what you are actually looking for in terms of skills, traits, and cognitive abilities.

 

A Few Case Studies

As I’ve been consulting on this for years, I’ve seen many case studies. Some published, others in my own practice. I know Foot Locker increased sales and customer satisfaction and decreased attrition in its U.S. stores a few years ago.

The case was presented at Unleash in 2016. Foot Locker then had 1.5 million applicants a year for its stores and decided to do a 200 question based voluntary assessment for current store employees. The results of the 55% of employees that responded were correlated with performance data, from sales to promotions.

Using this data they were able to determine top performers per role in the store and start hiring on both sales as well as growth potential. As the pilot was done in about half the stores, chosen on store manager’s willingness to try the system, they were able to see the actual results by comparing them to the stores using the old system.

Those stores had a bigger growth in sales and customer satisfaction than the ones that relied on the old resume based approach. They also had 10% less attrition, the number of candidates a store manager interviewed went from 8 to 3 per hire and the time for onboarding someone, the time before a new hire was productive was also reduced (in 2015) by giving all applicants a simple questionnaire-based assessment.

 

Judgment testing

Albert Heijn, The biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands, recently presented this case study. They reduced the time store managers spend on hiring with 30% and reduced time to hire from 15 days to one week by implementing a game with a situational judgment test in their application process.

 

Contactless Recruitment

Blue Cross, an Australian elderly care organization, recently presented on Next Wave talent an awesome case study for contingent workers during the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. They had to quickly double their care employees because when someone tested positive on the virus, this person was of course not allowed to work anymore.

They actually managed to get their digital assessment center online within 24 hours and set up a completely contactless recruitment process. I admit they already had paper-based assessments, so it was more digitizing it than figuring out the traits.

They also managed to fit the mandatory training/onboarding in the system and the worker just showed up for his or her shift at the right location at the right time. Joel Broughton, their Head of Talent Acquisition, told me hiring manager feedback has been overwhelmingly positive on the quality of the applicants that arrived.

 

Pre-screening with cognitive games

Dutch air traffic control started using a cognitive game as a pre-screening assessment a few years ago. Although they already had some screening work sample tests in place after initial cv selection, this game allowed them to lower the drop out rate in their traineeship by over half.

They were able to lower the educational requirements from university to high school diploma, as you don’t need to be good at learning for this job. It turns out stress resilience is the most important trait, combined with following procedures.

 

Aptitude testing

The UK arm of accounting firm Grant Thornton changed its hiring policy for trainees in 2013. One of the most important changes is they dropped the demand for academic requirements and replaced them with aptitude testing.

This resulted in hiring a lot more people from a very diverse background that had all the qualities to become a good account, just not the right education or even the right grades. School grades also depend on the hours you can spend studying. Something that’s a lot easier when you don’t have to work two jobs to pay for college and when you have a safe home environment.

Grant Thornton measured the results of these ‘diversity hires’ and it turns out they stay at the company longer and have more billable hours per year. In 2018 Grant Thornton won the Queen’s Award for improving social mobility.

 

Questionnaire-based assessment

A Belgium transport company presented a case study at Talent Acquisition Live in 2017 on reducing the number of accidents by truck drivers by administering a questionnaire-based assessment.

I’ve heard of several case studies increasing sales by over 30% for either hospitality sales and even car salesmen. I’ve seen the attrition in contact centers drop from over 100% to 20% with situational judgment games.

 

Fair Hiring Leads To More Diversity

The amazing thing is there are two really great side effects to using pre-screening technology instead of a resume as early in the process as you possibly can.

  1. It will increase diversity
  2. It will increase the quality of hire

Everywhere where these tools have been properly implemented I have seen an increase in diversity. I do want to emphasize the word properly here. Properly means no black-box algorithm, but based on a serious analysis of the skills and traits needed to do a job.

If you want to increase diversity, start hiring on quality. Because that’s what going to happen as well, the quality of hire will increase too. It turns out talent doesn’t run by gender or racial lines and someone’s religious views or sexual orientation tells you nothing about their ability to do a job either.

 

Personal Story

I want to end with a short personal story. I got a letter from the Dutch IRS recently, telling me I was going to get some money from them. Turned out I hired a ‘vulnerable’ person last year. She had been unemployed for some time and as I paid her above minimum wage, I got compensation for that.

I didn’t know that, as all my applicants do three cognitive tests. Based on those results I give them the job. She aced the tests and excelled at the job.

Would I have hired her if I had known she had been unemployed in the thriving labor market we had for so long? Probably not.

Why was she unemployed? My best guess she was a terrible applicant as she was introverted and insecure. Being terrible at being an applicant doesn’t mean a person can’t be a great employee.

Fun fact, I asked her to work for me again this summer. She declined, she found another job. Guess she had a better resume and more self-confidence now.

 

Conclusion

With everything that will be coming your way during the great rehiring after the pandemic, and the emphasis on fair hiring that will be even greater with the Black Lives Matter movement right now. I would strongly encourage everybody to start investing in pre-selection tooling as fast as you can.

It makes perfect business sense. Hiring better quality while spending a lot less time on it.

One last request, please don’t let the best sales pitch win. Make sure you know what you are buying and that the implementation is done properly.

If you don’t have the knowledge of how it should be done, find someone who can help you with that.

 

Revisiting Employee Benefits, Perks, and Incentives in the Remote Work Era

Before the pandemic, Silicon Valley giants such as Google, Apple, and Facebook set a high bar for what the top end of company perks could be. Their suite of in-house perks ranged from free on-site meals to personal training, on-site dentists, and even free masseuse access.

These alluring perks not only encouraged employees to spend more time in the office, but they also inspired companies across the globe to become more creative with ways to attract and retain talent.

Today we are living in a very different reality. In the midst of uncertainty regarding what work will look like in the months to come, it is time for companies to reevaluate how they compensate their workers. Particularly when it comes to benefits, perks, and incentives that were centered around the traditional office environment.

Companies face a unique challenge in looking to modernize benefits as millions of employees continue to work remotely, whether that’s until the beginning of next year, next summer, or indefinitely. The obvious question is, where do companies start in reimagining initiatives to support greater job satisfaction?

 

Evaluate the usefulness of pre-pandemic perks

Benefits and incentives improve employee happiness and productivity in every workplace. Examples include paid time off, company ownership and profit-sharing, retirement savings plans, training and development, wellness benefits and programs, and other initiatives focused on an improved work environment.

In reviewing your current package for workers, reassess all benefits initiatives to ensure they still serve their purpose in a remote-first world. Benefits and rewards should reflect the values of an organization as well as speak to the majority of people who work at the company.

A simple way to conduct this assessment is to create a spreadsheet or document that tracks all benefits, incentives, discounts, and miscellaneous perks. The document should also cover details of how often employees use these perks and how significantly different perks have been impacted by COVID-19 and work-from-home mandates.

From here, consider replacing offerings that no longer make sense — but don’t start without input straight from the source.

 

Listen to your workforce

A recent survey by Remote found that since the pandemic, employees are rethinking which benefits and perks they prioritize. For example, while the most important benefit continues to be access to healthcare (48%), 38% of employees want their company to offer a home office allowance, and 38% want personal development plans or learning development allowances.

The seriousness of the pandemic has most of the world thinking about health, wellness, and alternatives to heading to doctors’ offices and emergency rooms outside of real emergencies. Companies that want to meet the moment and address employee worries would do well to look at supplemental telemedicine services for both physical and mental health.

Mental health is often overlooked in the grand scheme of medical benefits packages but is especially important now because people working at home are stressed. Career platform Monster found in a July survey that 69% of remote employees have burnout symptoms.

This stress is increasing the longer the pandemic persists, as that figure is up almost 20% from similar survey results in May.

At the onset of the pandemic, some companies offered employees stipends to set up their home offices. Often these stipends ranged from $200-1,000, depending on job requirements and prior work-from-home enablement. For companies that have yet to establish this practice, now is the time.

Meanwhile, consider whether additional annual stipends to keep up with printer maintenance, paper supplies, and even home WiFi and energy bills could be tacked on to help offset new expenses. Residential energy usage has increased by as much as 20% in California, compared to the same time in 2019, according to Columbia University research.

Additionally, while allowances for continuing education have been a common perk in many corporate offices, the turbulence that has come with financially difficult times has a lot of workers looking to hone their talents and upskill for job security and personal fulfillment.

A recent study from LinkedIn found that employees are spending 130% more time learning. While 64% of L&D professionals said that reskilling is more important than ever before as a consequence of COVID-19.

 

Tie perks to company values

Moving beyond the basics that most employees seek (healthcare services, home office expenses, learning opportunities) companies may also want to think creatively about what speaks to their workforce.

In the past, catered meals and hosted happy hours were a typical activity for office-bound workers. With social distancing rules in place, a weekly or monthly credit for employees to use for delivery services may make sense.

If there are a lot of active people on staff, online workout memberships, gift certificates for home gyms, or reimbursements for outdoor wellness pursuits may be met with approval.

Parents are having an especially challenging time since many schools have moved to a virtual or hybrid learning model. Some parents may appreciate help with child care options, while more flexible schedules could allow parents to manage employee and home teacher responsibilities more easily.

More companies are going for the unconventional in their remote work perks, with offerings such as virtual ukulele classes, language lessons, and more. While not every company needs to venture into quirky and obscure benefits, organizations should stay focused on addressing the challenges of the moment to make their teams happy and keep performance levels high.

Your greatest assets are the people who make your business run, and establishing the right benefits and perks now will lead to a stronger remote work environment where employees can thrive in the long term.

Working in a World without Walls

Working in a World without Walls

The Covid-19 quarantine, which required many employees to work from home has led the global workforce to the realization that we’re now working in a world that is one big office without walls, planet earth, the largest and least expensive workspace on the planet. For purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the US.

From a talent acquisition point of view, this is ‘the major milestone” in eliminating the competitive advantage of acquiring talent. This quarantine event begs the question of how necessary is it, that an employee must work in a centralized location to perform the job effectively and be a productive team member.

Over the last century, location mattered, it’s where we wanted to live or settle down with our families, where our kids attended grade school, and where we straddled the line between finding happiness and achieving a work/life balance.  Many of us have relocated to different geographic areas to seek a better life, find affordability, enjoy ideal weather, and attend better schools.  For most of us, these focal points were dependent upon where we landed a job opportunity.

We’ve hit the tipping point, the future of work moving forward has a new reality.  This pandemic, for better or worse, has made it easier for employers to hire talent and has enabled talent to find work anywhere.  It no longer matters where someone is physically located.  Of course, there are always industry exceptions (eg. manufacturing and onsite healthcare), but in the corporate world, work just became a lot more flexible.

While remote working offers many cost-saving opportunities, it also poses challenges as we transition to a different model in which ‘local’ now means ‘nationwide’.

 

Employers: The Pros & Cons

Flexibility

Companies of any size now have a choice: Onsite vs Remote vs Telecommute or Open to All (ie Flex Location Policy)

Greater Access to Talent

Companies of any size now have realistic access to anyone in the US. US Talent pool now has many, many choices.

Scalability with Ease

Being a Fortune 100/500 company is no longer a competitive advantage. Any size company can compete in any town without a physical location or real estate.

Time zone coverage

Companies can now embrace 24/7 support.

Business expenses

Travel, relocation packages, mileage, meals, and entertainment may be a much smaller burden, or a non-factor moving forward.

‘Ping Pong Perks’ (eg onsite perks)

Leveraged to retain employees, build loyalty, and enable max productivity. Companies enabling employees to be remote ‘forever’, Ping Pong Perks (free food & drink, happy hours, laundry, gym memberships) no longer hold weight or value as a deciding factor; Remote perks are nice to have, but won’t be enough to draw & retain loyalty.

Location, Location, Location 

No longer applies to the corporate world – companies can now hire anyone, anywhere, and scale companies without geo-restrictions.

Employer Brand

Critically Important, must be able to separate the company from any other. Company Mission Must be Strong and Well-defined.

The opportunity to learn and grow/advance is more important than ever.

The caliber of the team and dynamic is still very important for attracting and retaining.

WFH has been proven 

It Works, whether employers wanted to explore this avenue or not, these last few months since COVID restrictions were enforced have proven feasible.

If Employers fight it, they will lose.

The tipping point is here, the employee population (which exponentially outweighs # of employers) has many, many choices and will leave to work elsewhere.

In making decisions, employers must always ask themselves – What’s in it for the employee?

The second that becomes a secondary focus will be detrimental to the growth and success of the company

Compensation

Being that employees can now WFH and/or WFA (work from anywhere) poses significant challenges around pay scale (pre-COVID, geographic location played a major factor in determining salary bands, cost of living adjustments, etc.) It will now be much more difficult to determine where someone spends their time (even if they have a home address).

 

Employee: The Pros & Cons

Happiness

Location doesn’t always have an effect on our headspace, however now having a choice on where we reside and the flexibility to move anywhere at any time and maintain our jobs, certainly empowers us to have a more positive work/life balance. Giving us more control.

Pay

Being in a decentralized employment environment (ie ‘nomad’ status), should help normalize and even out pay discrepancies between urban/rural locales.  

Equal Opportunity

Challenges will arise based on employers encouraging onsite vs WFH/WFA. 

The comfort level amongst the workforce will vary depending on the individual, which may create bias and discrimination in hiring decisions.

 

The Silver Lining in all of This

As we like to acknowledge, everything happens for a reason. Our hope is that today’s future of work, the ‘now’, will create more opportunities to grow, learn and succeed as we overcome this bump in the road.  On a grand scale, whether you consider yourself an employer or amongst the talent pool, we all experienced and learned through this ordeal that compromise is the best compromise.

 

What if HR Became a Force for Good?

What if HR Became a Force for Good?

 

“But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there ought to be a man in black.” – Johnny Cash

 

We know things are not alright in our workplaces.

Someone must stand up and be the (wo)man in black. But who?

When it comes to creating human-centered, equitable workplaces, that person should be you and me. It should be Human Resources.

What is holding us back?

Maya Angelou once said: “I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”

Let’s examine her quote in its component parts:

 

Empathy.

Earlier this year, I had an opportunity to introduce the concept of design thinking to students at DePaul University’s Master’s in Human Resources Management program. When I asked the students what they thought prevented HR from becoming human-centered, their unencumbered minds came up with these “3Ps”: Profit, Policy, and Process.

I venture that most of us entered the Human Resources profession aspiring to be advocates for our employees. Then, reality hit, and many of us got sucked into the HR of yesteryear, prioritizing the bottom line, compliance, and rigid processes.

Whenever I tell HR professionals that my mission is to “bring the HUMAN back to Human Resources”, I see their eyes light up and a glimmer of hope and excitement emerge. Most of us in HR have empathy; we just have forgotten how to tap into it.

Why does empathy and an employee experience-centric approach matter in times of record-high unemployment? As the economy turns around, employees and prospective candidates will most certainly judge organizations by the way they treated employees during the crisis. Empathy is also a pre-condition to psychological safety which in turn fosters the innovation needed to re-imagine our businesses.

 

Courage.

When I interviewed Halima McWilliams, People Operations and Culture Leader at Corgan, for a recent Talent Tales episode, she brilliantly stated that courage and fear can exist together. But fear should not keep us from doing what’s right.

Those of us who hold HR leadership roles or are otherwise privileged need to lead by example as we wield more influence in the organization. The more power we have, the more we need to think about how we might use it as a force for good.

I know this is not easy. I have been in your shoes. There are probably plenty of instances when I should have stood up more forcefully or more often, but I did not. I am consciously working toward getting better, and so can you. When you encounter a situation that does not sit well, reflect on it, research it, and discuss with a trusted peer. Every time you do this, you will grow your courage till you are ready to act.

Some acts of courage are more subtle than others. It takes courage to admit that we all have biases and blind spots and that we might need to ask for feedback from others to overcome them.

Need a nudge to get started? I find Brené Brown’s work inspiring and instructive in the way it tangibly connects vulnerability and courage.

 

Action.

Gianpiero Petriglieri, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD, stated in a 2019 MIT Sloan Management Review article on organizational learning that “nothing truly novel, nothing that matters, is ever learned with ease.”

Adults learn best by doing. When it comes to acquiring new skills, collaborating with peers and exploring unfamiliar concepts in community through the process of practical inquiry have also proven effective in changing behavior and unleashing meaningful action.

That’s why I am so enthusiastic about the transformative potential of design thinking for our function.

In 2019, I founded the HR.Hackathon Alliance as a way for Human Resources professionals to safely experiment with the design thinking method while tackling real workplace problems.

Then 2020 hit and I felt a moral obligation to use our HR.Hackathon Alliance platform to benefit the social good.

 

These are three examples of social impact initiatives we recently launched:

1. #HRvsVirus

Our April 2020 #HRvsVirus Hackathon provided a virtual forum where an interdisciplinary group of 130 global problem solvers – from HR professionals to design thinkers and coders – came together united by a shared purpose.

2. Career Hackathon

In July 2020, we piloted Career Hackathon, a concept designed during the #HRvsVirus Hackathon. The solution aims to address the record high unemployment caused by the crisis.

3. #HRvsRacism

In August 2020, we launched #HRvsRacism, an ongoing initiative that aims to help HR professionals recognize and address racial inequities and racism in the workplace.

 

YOUR TURN:

  • How might you practice empathy, unleash your courage, and start championing employee-centric workplace practices?
  • How might you experiment with design thinking methods such as HR Hackathons to co-create change with your employees and leaders?
  • How might you turn change efforts into sustainable movements?
  • How might you work out loud so you can learn with and from the HR community?

I believe Human Resources can become a force for good. I am looking forward to the day when we will “wear a rainbow”. But first, let’s rise together as the (wo)man in black.