Sage HRMS I White Paper

Effective Recruiting: Seven Tactics for Building a Better Workforce

Sage HRMS

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1

Tip 1: Plan to Succeed ................................................................................................. 1

Tip 2: Employees Make Good Recruiters, Too ........................................................ 2

Tip 3: Embrace New Tools (But Keep the Tried and Tested) ................................ 2

Tip 4: Interviewing Is a Waltz, Not a Square Dance ............................................... 3

Tip 5: Hire for Attitude; Train for Skills .................................................................... 3

Tip 6: “If You Build It, They Will Come” .................................................................... 4

Tip 7: Take Advantage of Technology ...................................................................... 4

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 5

About Sage HRMS ........................................................................................................ 6

Sage HRMSIntroductionEven after a prolonged economic downturn, employers are still struggling to find, recruit, and retain the right employees. There is no shortage of willing applicants, but the right combination of skills, experience, work ethic, and attitude is an elusive commodity. In fact, a 2011 Manpower Group survey revealed that 34% of employers globally, and more than half of U.S. firms, are having trouble filling positions.1

The success of any organization depends on its people. Employees are a company’s greatest asset—and that asset must be managed to yield positive results. At Sage, we call this the Return on Employee Investment™, or ROEI™. This guide provides tactics and tips to help you improve the effectiveness of your company’s recruiting process.

Tip 1: Plan to SucceedHiring the right people is critical to helping your organization achieve its mission. The stakes are high; a bad hire can be very costly. In tangible terms, the cost of recruiting, onboarding, and training the wrong person, followed later by termination and another round of recruiting, can cost a company as much as three times the first year’s salary for the position. But it’s more than that. The wrong hire can disrupt productivity, sour the attitude of a team, or even cause turnover of other valuable top performers.

The best way to minimize the odds of making a bad hiring decision is to start with as much information as you can gather and create a solid plan for success. Understand the objectives of the organization, its culture, and the working dynamics of current employees. Work with hiring managers. Plan a smooth recruitment process—for both internal employees and applicants.

To plan for successful recruiting:2

• Know your company and its people. Take the time to really get to know the people in your organization. The better you know the company—its products or services, processes, and employees—the better you can see how a prospective candidate would fit (or not) into the organization.

• Meet with the hiring manager. Spend time asking questions about the position. Find out what the hiring manager thinks is needed for success in the position and what types of people he or she likes to have on the team.

• Research compensation. Know what competitors are paying for similar positions, as well as the upper limits that your company could offer a top-tier candidate

• Determine the top three factors needed for an employee to be successful in this position. These qualities may or may not be listed in your published job description. For example, “can work around big egos” or “holds up under intense pressure” aren’t likely to show up in the job advertisement, but may well be critical for success.

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1 Manpower Group, “Talent Shortage Survey Results,“ 2011, p. 12.

2 Jennifer Millman, “Guerilla Interviewing: How to REALLY Hire the Best and the Brightest,” Sage Employer Solutions blog, December 20, 2010.

Sage HRMSTip 2: Employees Make Good Recruiters, TooAn employee referral program can be one of the most successful sources of hire for your organization. Who has a bigger vested interest in the success of both the candidate and the company than your employees? Referrals are usually friends or close professional colleagues, so your employees want to make sure the job would be a good fit. And if the candidate is qualified for the position, your employee will help you sell him or her on coming to work for your company. It’s a win-win.

Steps for creating an employee referral program:2

• Write down and communicate the rules.

• Clarify the benefits or compensation structure.

• Keep it simple—don’t make your referral process difficult or time consuming.

• Remember to thank employees for their referrals

• Track the costs and results of your referral program and compare it to other sources of hire.

Tip 3: Embrace New Tools (But Keep the Tried and Tested)Social media is expanding the tool set available to recruiters—empowering you to quickly connect with a greater number of professionals. LinkedIn is very popular with recruiters and enables you to network with people you know, as well as two degrees of your colleagues’ contacts. Your company’s Facebook page and Twitter account can provide great vehicles for quickly spreading the word about new job openings.

As you explore what social media can offer your recruiting process, don’t cast aside tried and tested methods of sourcing candidates. Continue to attend face-to-face networking opportunities, industry trade events, and recruiting fairs. You’ll still want to advertise open positions in the print newspaper and online at career sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder. Think of social media as another tool in your arsenal. Measure the results you achieve with social media so you can compare it with other sources of hire.

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Sage HRMSTip 4: Interviewing Is a Waltz, Not a Square DanceNothing is more frustrating to candidates or hiring managers than an unorganized interview process. After all, the interview is the first impression for both parties. It’s not only a chance to assess the candidate; it’s also the candidate’s chance to observe your corporate culture. Both potential employer and employee should walk away from the interview knowing if they are interested in continuing the conversation.

An interview is much like dancing. It can be awkward and uncomfortable or flow smoothly in conversation. Is your interview process like a finely choreographed waltz, engaging the candidate and giving him a chance to whisk you off your feet? Or is it more of a chaotic square dance, forcing candidates to turn in endless circles (do-si-do and around you go!) as interviewer after interviewer asks the same tired questions and receives the same rote answers?

Ways to orchestrate more effective interviews:

• Create interview questions. Though some of your questions can be about specific skills for the open position, make sure many questions probe qualities and attributes that reveal how a candidate works and how he would fit into a particular work group and the overall company culture.

• Ensure that each interviewer has different questions to ask.

• Create points of comparison by asking every candidate to answer the same core set of five to ten questions.

• Interview in groups. How better to see how a candidate contributes to a team than by having several interviewers meet her at once?

Tip 5: Hire for Attitude; Train for SkillsIn today’s rapidly changing world, finding a candidate with the right work ethic, brains, and attitude may be more important than specific skills. The technology in use today at your organization may not be used next year. It may be more important that the candidate you choose is good fit for the team and the company culture. Specific skills can be obtained on the job or through outside education, but a personality rarely changes. So if you find a winner, make the investment in training.

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Sage HRMSTip 6: “If You Build It, They Will Come”3

Ultimately, the goal of any HR department should be to help their company become an “employer of choice.” It’s not easy and doesn’t happen overnight, but any company can build a reputation as an employer of choice. You’ll need leadership and vision at the top of the company and active effort from everyone. But the reward is worth the effort—employers of choice tend to have more engaged employees and better recruiter results.

It’s easy to recruit the best and brightest if everyone knows your company is an excellent place to work. Like Kevin Costner’s “Field of Dreams” attracted baseball fans from far and wide, your company will draw in top talent from across your industry.

Employers of choice:

• Encourage big ideas from employees.

• Listen to and give out constructive criticism.

• Offer their employees opportunities.

• Create a positive, enthusiastic work environment.

• Embrace diversity.

• Hire and train great managers.

• Are willing to try new things to improve employee engagement.

Tip 7: Take Advantage of TechnologyRecruiters stay busy because they are always recruiting—at work, during social gatherings, and everywhere else. Your success as a recruiter hinges on your spending more time with people than paperwork. Take advantage of software solutions—including a Human Resource Management System (HRMS) and a recruiting tool—that can automate your recruiting process, so you can focus on the human aspects of recruiting including relationship building, interviews, and negotiations.

Automated recruiting solutions can help you:

• Create job descriptions.

• Automatically route resumes and hiring paperwork to managers for approval.

• Post job openings online.

• Accept applications and resumes online.

• Screen candidates with assessments.

• Search for candidates based on skills and qualifications.

• Schedule interviews.

• Prepare offer letters and onboarding forms.

• Keep records for compliance with employment laws

43 Universal Studios, Field of Dreams, motion picture, 1989.

Sage HRMSConclusionEffective recruiting is vital to the continued success of any organization. Just as the right people can drive a company to the height of success, the wrong hires can disrupt productivity and lower the organization’s overall Return on Employee Investment (ROEI). Therefore, it’s important to refine your company’s recruiting and onboarding process wherever possible. If you find things that aren’t working, throw them out. If you like some of the ideas in this guide, give them a try. Keep making improvements and measuring results.

If the HR department can work with executives and managers to create a work environment that offers opportunities and challenges that engage your employees, word of mouth will help deliver great people to your organization. Positioning your company as an employer of choice can provide many benefits, including lower recruiting costs, stronger candidates, and a higher ROEI. A good ROEI can make the difference between a thriving company and one that struggles for survival. As a recruiter, you are the architect of your company’s future—building the workforce needed to create new innovations and outsmart the competition.

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About Sage HRMSAn industry-leading, customizable HRMS solution, Sage HRMS helps companies optimize their HR business processes as well as maximize their Return On Employee Investment (ROEI)™. Developed by HR professionals for HR professionals, Sage HRMS delivers a tightly integrated set of comprehensive features and functionality that increases efficiency and improves productivity at every level in the organization.

With Sage HRMS, you can successfully meet and respond to the HR management challenges you face every day in the areas of payroll, benefits, employee self-service, attendance, recruiting, training, workforce analytics, and more. By automating and streamlining your day-to-day HR business processes using Sage HRMS, you and your staff are freed up to spend more time and energy on the business asset that is most vital to your company—your employees.

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