The fact is while finding good quality workers can be challenging, software like Jobvite’s fully integrated onboarding platform helps teams set new employees up for success by getting them started on the right foot. A good onboarding process gives both the new hire and company the right tools to build relationships.

Here are some tips to help you create a seamless onboarding process.

Introduce new employees to the company culture and make them feel welcome

Back in the old days, companies weren’t as concerned with making new workers feel welcome. Back then, you got a paycheck and a few grunts from tenured employees. But today, people know what it’s like to be “the new guy,” and want you to feel like you are welcome and part of a team.

Businesses have been making more of an effort to make new employees feel welcome. You don’t have to buy them a fruit basket. But some recruiters find that assigning mentors or peers to new hires is a great way to ensure someone is there to answer any questions and help make introductions.

People who feel welcome during their onboarding experience are more likely to act like a true team member and put more effort into their work. This means that making new employees feel welcome is a vital part of the onboarding process.

Aside from making new employees feel welcome, the key to ensuring a seamless onboarding process is to introduce them to the company culture. The way that a new employee interacts with company culture is a major determining factor in their potential for success.

In other words, hiring managers and HR professionals should pay attention to how new employees react to the company culture as they are being introduced to it.

Most companies have a certain way of doing things and they expect their team members to do things the same way. Ensuring that new workers catch on to how things are done and assimilates with your company culture is paramount to their success in your organization.

Provide new employees with training resources and support

Just because an employee has become familiar with the company culture doesn’t mean that they know how to do anything. It’s perfectly natural for workers to have some confusion after the first couple of weeks or so.

Every new employee should be provided with training resources and support. Keep in mind, it’s worth noting which employees choose to make use of the training resources that are available to them versus those who choose not to.

Workers who choose to utilize training resources are more likely to be productive and committed to company interests. By withholding or neglecting training resources, companies make it more difficult for new employees to adjust to the job.

Make employees feel like they are part of something important

If at this point the people you have hired are embracing the company culture or at least outperforming their peers in the service of your brand, you need to make them feel important. More specifically, you need to make them feel like they are part of something important.

When someone’s only motivation to work is to clock in and clock out, productivity suffers. On the other hand, when you have an employee who is engaged and invested in the quality of their work, you have an asset.

The key to turning new employees into assets starts with a seamless onboarding process. The smoother their onboarding experience is, the sooner they can acclimate to the culture and start becoming more productive.

Whether you’re a biofuel company determined to change the world or a small insurance firm, it’s essential to make employees feel like they are part of something important. You need to make them feel like the work they do makes a difference.

That difference could be something as simple as a smile on a customer’s face or something as noble as the satisfaction of knowing that their work helps preserve the planet. Dressing up an otherwise ordinary job and making it seem extraordinary is easier than you might think. People are easily motivated by all kinds of things.

Start the onboarding process right by sourcing the best candidates

Now that you know more about designing and executing a seamless onboarding process, it’s time to reflect upon the importance of sourcing the best candidates in the first place. In many ways, the key to a superior onboarding experience and higher employee retention rates starts with finding the right candidates.

If you don’t have the right candidates to work with, the onboarding process will be catastrophic, no matter how much thought you put into it. When a new candidate isn’t right for your company it doesn’t matter how much you have invested in training resources, it’s doomed to fail.

Onboarding in recruitment is an essential process that requires proper attention. You should always follow a detailed hiring process checklist. The key to onboarding productive new employees and increasing employee retention successfully is to use the right solution during the hiring process. That solution has a name, Jobvite, the ultimate onboarding platform!

Meet Jobvite, recruitment with purpose!

Jobvite is one of the most innovative and efficient resources available for companies looking to hire the best candidates. We’ll help you fill key positions with key people!

No two companies have the same onboarding process, so it’s vital that you find a resource with ample experience and understanding of the industry.

Get in touch with us today to take a tour of our product and schedule a demo!

The post How to Create a Seamless Onboarding Process first appeared on Jobvite.

Today, the U.S. is seeing a return to early 2020 employment numbers, with the economic recovery allowing many companies to increase staffing levels rapidly. However, priorities and expectations in the workplace have shifted, putting increased pressure on recruiters to adapt quickly and address these industry concerns.

Jobvite’s new Recruiter Nation Report is finally here, providing an in-depth look at the current state of recruiting and the challenges and opportunities facing recruiters today. In this year’s report, the industry is confronting a dramatic shift from one year prior when the world was facing job losses, layoffs, and staffing reductions.

Here are some highlights from this year’s report:

It’s a workers’ revolution
Companies are experiencing a new kind of worker revolution where candidates and employees are energized to choose a job where they feel supported and valued. As workers’ confidence continues upward, recruiters face new challenges to win over top talent.

• 47% of recruiters struggle from a lack of skilled/qualified candidates, while 40% face competition from other employers
• 65% of recruiters report increased stress levels, with one in five reporting a drastic increase
• In addition to facing higher turnover (59%), 39% of organizations are also increasing staffing levels and hiring rapidly–a 13 percentage point jump since last year

Recruiters are becoming more agile
With millions of unfilled jobs in the United States, organizations are reimagining recruiting processes to hire top talent more effectively.

• 80% of recruiters’ priorities have shifted over the past year, and 40% have increased recruiting budgets
• Outsourcing additional work to freelancers (35%) and making more internal hires (40%) is helping companies meet hiring needs
• 70% of recruiters plan to take additional professional courses, earn certifications, and continue their education to enhance their expertise

Social media continues to go viral
Social media continues its upward trajectory in the recruiting space, with more hiring teams leveraging social channels in their efforts to engage and attract high-quality candidates.

• Social media topped the list among recruitment investment focuses for the next year at 51%–an increase of 10 percentage points since 2018
• 45% of recruiters use Instagram–an increase of 28% over the past four years
• TikTok usage among recruiters has doubled since 2020, and more than 20% of recruiters are using Snapchat, which is up 15 percentage points since 2017

Diversity & inclusion (D&I) initiatives are essential …
More organizations realize the importance of building a diverse workplace.

• 61% of organizations are putting more emphasis on diversity than they did in 2020
• Nearly 70% of recruiters believe that diversity will be a priority for TA professionals in the next year
• 49% of recruiters report that job seekers are inquiring about D&I initiatives more than they did in the previous year–up 16 percentage points from 2020

However, 20% of organizations have no goals for improving diversity in the workplace. This could lead to challenges for attracting talent, as 44% of recruiters surveyed said candidates have turned down an interview or job offer due to a lack of diversity.

…So is remote work
Workers are making it clear that they want flexibility in the workplace, and companies are granting their wishes. While 70% of companies plan to offer a hybrid workplace, a lack of remote work options could also hurt companies hiring rapidly or facing staffing shortages.

• 54% of recruiters have seen candidates turn down an interview or job offer in the past year due to a lack of flexibility and remote work options in the workplace
• 57% of recruiters believe the lack of work from home policies makes it harder to attract potential candidates
• 60% of recruiters think organizations will lose employees if they do not transition to a remote-first culture

Download the full report for more

Based on this year’s findings, this new reality has made it clear: agility is the new essential ingredient to successful recruiting. To better understand the current state of recruiting and the challenges and opportunities in recruiters’ midst today, download the full 2021 Recruiter Nation Report. With hundreds of additional statistics and insights, learn how your hiring team can reimagine recruiting processes and become more adaptable to labor market trends.

The post Agility and Adaptability, the Key to Successful Recruiting first appeared on Jobvite.

Unfortunately, onboarding isn’t free! There are plenty of costs that go into hiring new employees beyond the obvious payroll increase. The average company spends over $1,500 on a new hire before they’re ready to be considered a fully integrated employee. As you pull more employees into your business, here are some of the costs to remember.

Paperwork and onboarding time

Paperwork feels like it wouldn’t be expensive, but the average employee takes at least an hour to go over the necessary information they need to read before getting hired. This time and paperwork can make costs add up over time. The more employees you’re onboarding, the more apparent this cost will be.

To avoid this, consider pre-onboarding. During pre-boarding, the company sends out vital information and forms ahead of a new employee’s first day. This allows a new hire to fill out and submit documents on their own time through an onboarding website. This saves time physically scanning and walking through paperwork with each new hire and also allows them to learn about their job on day one.

Cost of loss from turnover

Unfortunately, over a quarter of the employees that most companies hire will quit before they’ve been with the company for a full week. This means wasted resources and a loss of time and energy for any role that has turnover. When employees leave early on, it’s often because of poor training, poor cultural fit, or the role didn’t match up to their expectations.

Some of the top reasons for employee turnover are:

• Poor training
• Unorganized onboarding with no onboarding solution
• Earning less than the industry standard
• Management or supervisors don’t listen to employees
• Being overworked or not getting the hours they were promised
• Lack of recognition for their hard work

To avoid this cost, the best thing a company can do is be thorough with onboarding new employees. Ensure that they’re well trained, help them understand their importance in the company, and show them their growth path to show them the benefits of working for your employer.. Employee turnover isn’t something that can be completely avoided, but you can cut down on it by investing money and time into new hires.

Decreased productivity from training

Many companies skip any formal training and have their employees learn on the job or through job shadowing. Unfortunately, this is a quick way to lose money through a lack of knowledge of processes and best practices. In addition, experienced employees that have to take the time to train and talk through processes and procedures can slow down their own job responsibilities and frustrate them.

The best way to avoid this issue is to train new employees as thoroughly as possible. Receiving a hands-on education that’s well thought out from a trainer whose job it is to teach can ensure that your employees all have one uniform way to do their jobs. Although you may feel like you’re dodging a financial bullet by avoiding paying for a specific employee to train new employees, your company loses out through a lack of uniformity in training and production losses.

Cost of additional HR if you hire often

If your company has a call center or is in another industry with a high employee turnover rate, you aren’t a stranger to the cost of onboarding a new employee. This type of constant hiring might mean that you need an employee specifically for hiring new employees – also known as a recruiter.

This pro will be in charge of finding new workers, onboarding new employees, and reducing employee turnover. Although they’ll raise your costs because of their salary or hourly wage, they’ll be able to turn it around by ensuring their hiring process checklist can help them find the best employees possible.

This is a place where you want to invest and find the best employee possible since they’ll be directly responsible for future employee turnover and helping keep the average cost per hire lower. These employees can also help retain long-term employees by performing exit interviews and catching why some workers chose to leave to prevent this in the future.

Price of training and onboarding material

Whether your training requires a dummy version of a program your employees will use every day, or if it’s going to waste products as they learn to create whatever items the company produces, there will be financial loss from training. Although the minimum amount of money most companies spend is around $1,500, if your training material is more in-depth and needs more of an eye for detail, the training per employee can rocket up to over $4,000.

Onboarding is an unavoidable expense

There’s no way to avoid the costs of onboarding unless you never hire again. The best thing you can do is to find a way to make the onboarding experience as affordable as possible by training and working on retention. Poor training will increase your turnover rates and frustrate your current employees.

Take the time to ensure that every employee is the perfect match for your company, and invest the time and energy necessary to train them. The better you hire, train, and the more of a team you make the company seem, the lower the turnover rate.

More on employee onboarding

Jobvite offers a comprehensive software suite to help recruiters to bring on the best employees in the most efficient ways possible. We’re happy to be your partners in this endeavor. Contact us now for a product demo!

The post Hidden Costs of Onboarding a New Employee first appeared on Jobvite.

Although every company should customize its onboarding to its own needs and the needs of its employees, if your process includes any of the following, it shouldn’t be a surprise if your retention rates aren’t doing well.

Top five employee onboarding mistakes

5. Relying too much on job shadowing

Employees come to their first day to be trained and to learn what the company standards are. It may seem obvious that the best way to offer this is to have new hires shadow the top employees. Unfortunately, this can come with a lot of flaws, such as:

• No clear standard practices. Many employees who have worked for a company long enough develop their own way of completing work. Although this is commendable, if new employees are training by job-shadowing several top employees, they may get confused when nobody does the same position in the same way.
• Even the best employees may come off as disgruntled or show disinterest in the company. Although it’s difficult to change their attitude after working for the company for an extended time, if a new employee catches a whiff of that attitude, they may think they’ve joined a toxic culture and start planning their exit.
• Everyone learns in different ways. Some learn by doing. Others learn by observing. Many also learn by breaking a problem down into abstract ideas. If you only offer to shadow for training, you’re assuming that’s going to work for everyone. And we all know what happens when we assume.
• This puts pressure on current employees and may hinder their ability to do their job. Having a job shadow takes time and effort to be done right. If a worker is busy on projects, they may feel disgruntled at having to do the extra training or put in minimal effort.

Although it’s advised that some degree of employee shadowing be included, it’s not an effective onboarding program on its own and would be better if used minimally.

4. Avoiding looking at employees’ emotional needs

It may be easy to ignore an employee’s emotional needs and focus solely on how informed employees are of the company’s needs. Yet, remember that most companies lose almost a third of employees before their 90-day mark, meaning their employee satisfaction is nowhere near where it needs to be.

Your company doesn’t have to make every moment of formal onboarding into a therapy session, but it should focus on creating a dialogue where employees feel comfortable communicating their needs. For example, this could be a space where they can talk about what they’re nervous about with the new job, or it could be a way to increase employee engagement by helping them see what other employees felt at the beginning and how they’re succeeding now.

Nobody wins by having an almost sterile or clinical employee onboarding program. Instead, have human resources available and ensure there’s the opportunity for a dialogue on what each employee needs.

3. Offering as little training as possible

Of all of the mistakes to avoid, this is a major one. Companies that rush through their onboarding orientation checklist and avoid spending much time on training are far more likely to have a high turnover rate. Employees have to be confident in what they do to want to keep a job. If they feel that every day they’re just barely getting by, or they fear mistakes because they don’t completely understand the program they’re working in, they could be set up for failure.

Effective onboarding should create confidence in employees and open their eyes to the possibilities the company has for them. If you plan this poorly or avoid having informed employees, you could risk losing them.

2. Refusing to change or improve the process

Formal onboarding may feel like something that can be ageless, but it’s not. If you notice that parts of the internal onboarding process aren’t working for your company, and you stick to it anyway, you aren’t giving your company the chance that it deserves and you’re failing your employees.

At least once every year, human resources should review the onboarding experience and decide if the process is still benefiting the company. Everything should be discussed, from the utility of the hiring manager, to how thorough the training process is.

The best way to give your company a leg up in this process is to put in the time to gather anonymous surveys from everyone who has completed the employee onboarding program to gather their opinions on what should be changed and what works.

1. Waiting until their first day to begin onboarding

Many companies wait until employees are officially working for them before they start the onboarding process. This leads to a day of scanning and filling out boring paperwork that could have, and should have, been handled beforehand. If you avoid handling this early, you’ll make the onboarding process take longer than it has to, and your employees will remember their first day as being uninteresting.

On the other hand, you want to wow them from the start, so get the boring onboarding parts completed before new hires walk in on their first day.

Onboarding employees is the first step to their careers

Onboarding a new employee can be thrilling for both the employee and the company! There’s the promise of a new career and the hope that this will work out for both parties involved.

But, you must not underestimate the importance of onboarding in recruitment. The mistakes laid out here should serve as lessons on what employees want and need from their employers. They need to feel listened to, be genuinely trained at their speed and in their own style and they need to know that the company respects them and wants them there.

Jobvite wants to be there to help, too. Our talent software suite makes the hiring and onboarding process easy and efficient. Request your product demo today!

The post Top Five Employee Onboarding Mistakes first appeared on Jobvite.

No matter how strategic a TA team is, there will always be turnover in any company. For the recruiters that find themselves constantly filling the same roles, we’ve compiled our top tips for a better evergreen recruiting strategy.

Evergreen recruiting tips for high-volume hiring

1. Proactively engage candidates in your talent pool

The best resource to manage the revolving door of talent is a recruiter’s network of candidates. Starting from scratch every time a position opens isn’t possible for busy TA teams – and there’s a better way. Utilize a candidate relationship management (CRM) system to engage contacts and keep your brand top-of-mind when they decide to look for work.

For example, send targeted messaging campaigns to passive talent or invite them to apply for roles that they might be interested in. Silver medalist candidates are a great place to start when sourcing applicants for an open role.

2. Use automation to save valuable time and energy

Consistent waves of turnover bring nonstop sourcing, screening, nurturing, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding of employees. Automated tools can help recruiters increase efficiency and improve candidate experience in high-volume hiring. TA teams can adopt tools like texting and chatbots to automatically take applications, screen candidates, schedule interviews, and answer questions in one platform. Another time-saving win for recruiters is asynchronous video – which automates the screening process by taking high volumes of applicants by allowing them to record and submit themselves answering screening questions.

When time is tight, automation and AI eliminate tedious tasks to increase efficiency. These tools help recruiters create a proactive strategy for high-volume hiring.

3. Improve onboarding to reduce turnover

Even though turnover is unavoidable, recruiting teams have the power to slow it down. Companies can reduce turnover by providing a thorough onboarding program for new hires. No employee wants to guess their responsibilities and job tasks after a few vague training sessions! Develop a robust onboarding program to set employees up for success.

Start new hires off on the right foot by providing forms for them to electronically sign before their first day. Simple changes like this can save time during orientation and make room for training to start on day one. Assign new hires a dedicated trainer who shows enthusiasm for the role as well as knowledge of company processes. Don’t forget to ask the tenured employee if they’d be willing to train new hires! Frustration from lack of communication on teams will be apparent to new hires right away and can affect how they view their role.

4. Offboard to learn more about the employee experience

An employee leaving is a great chance to see what didn’t work for them and how your company can improve. Recruiters are conducting exit surveys and offboarding tasks to gain valuable insight into employee experience. Ask exiting employees some simple questions to learn about their experience in the role and how your team could improve things like onboarding, communication, or benefits. Use these sample questions to build a quick exit survey.

• What is your reason for leaving?
• Do you feel your job training properly prepared you for your daily responsibilities?
• How can training for this role improve?
• Did your manager clearly communicate your responsibilities? How could they improve?

5. Use data analytics to predict talent shortages

Recruiters that use advanced analytics tools get crucial information about their candidate experience. Measuring key recruiting metrics like time-to-fill, application conversions, and even employee turnover gives the big picture of overall employee satisfaction. Utilize the data collected to spot trends in employee turnover and predict times of shortage in talent.

TA teams have found that they can use analytics to project staffing needs over time, allowing them to proactively engage candidates before they need them. Recruiters can create targeted messaging campaigns at key times in the job search process. This keeps time-to-fill short while still finding the best employees.

6. Make your apply process as easy as possible

Candidates are too busy to spend 30 minutes on a job application – no matter what the role is. In order to recruit the best talent for evergreen roles, you need to have the easiest application process available. Recruiters that focus on high volume hiring utilize tools like text to apply, chatbots, and one-click applications to capture the busy candidates that they want.

An application should be easy to complete – this means you shouldn’t require a log-in or too much information to complete it. Be sure to optimize applications for mobile users in order to make applying easy on-the-go.

More on evergreen recruiting

These tips will help any recruiter save time and effort when hiring in high volumes. Build a strong talent pool that’s always ready for hiring by using automation and AI in your evergreen strategy.

Read about hiring top talent quickly, recruiting in a candidate’s market, building a great employer brand, and more in our blog and resource library. Let Jobvite help improve your evergreen recruiting strategy! Watch a product tour to learn more today.

The post Six Tips for Evergreen Recruiting first appeared on Jobvite.

Hiring, even at a senior level, doesn’t have to be expensive these days thanks to advances in the recruiting process through automation and artificial intelligence (AI). Unfortunately, bad hiring practices are just as expensive as they’ve always been. Having a key position unfilled–or filled by the wrong person, which is even worse–is profit-margin poison.

It’s also unnecessary. Even though recruiting today is more competitive than ever before, it’s still possible to get the right people into your organization quickly. The trick is to have the best possible hiring process in place, and that’s something that companies should be constantly refining, even when they’re not recruiting.

Here is a checklist to ensure you’re doing all you can to get the best talent out there. 

Work on your employer branding

Whether you’re actively hiring or not, it is important to give thought and time to your employer brand. What does your company stand for? What are the values that new staff will be expected to share? What is your value proposition to potential employees?

Potential hires are watching and these days they are more likely than ever to assess your culture through social media, Google searches, online review sites like Glassdoor, and your company career page before applying for a job. Use polls to gather feedback on the effectiveness of your social output and use that data to guide your employer branding strategy.

Develop an effective mobile strategy 

In a world where beginning a relationship happens online at the swipe of a finger, why are we still trying to connect with talent over missed calls and crowded inboxes? Make a good first impression by meeting candidates where they are – on the phone that’s always in their pocket.

Stand out from crowded email inboxes with one-to-one or one-to-many recruitment text messages that empower candidates to send quick responses at their convenience. After all, text is the preferred communication channel for 60% of candidates and the open rate of texts is 98%!

Don’t forget silver medalists

In your journey to hire the right candidates, you’re going to have ones that didn’t make the cut for a role. But you may still want to keep them in mind for future roles. This is a great chance to engage these silver medalist candidates and keep them interested in your company for future recruiting.

The better a candidate’s experience, the more likely they are to apply for other open roles or even refer their colleagues to your company. Utilize your communication and recruitment marketing strategies to keep silver medalists engaged and updated on your company and open positions that would suit them. Staying in contact with these candidates will allow you to keep the door open with them as well as expand your talent pool – so invite them to subscribe for job recommendations, join a mailing list for your company newsletter, or follow you on social media.

Optimize the onboarding process for new hires

Recruitment doesn’t end with the acceptance of an offer. It’s an ongoing process that also involves looking at development and retention of existing staff. One of the weakest points in the chain is the on-boarding process.

You are assessing the new hire during the probationary period, but they are also assessing you. It is important to get them settled into their role as smoothly as possible, and that means having a robust strategy for training, mentoring, and offering support. If this strategy isn’t in place, you may find yourself putting the Help Wanted sign back up in the window and starting the recruitment process all over again. Work with the new hire’s manager to perfect the onboarding strategy, and perform regular reviews to ensure that targets are being met.

Gather feedback and recommendations from new hires

Each time a new staff member joins the team, you get a chance to gather vital information about the recruitment process they have just come through. Were they impressed by your branding and advertising? How did they find the interview process? Has the role met expectations? Having an open dialogue about this can give invaluable insight and highlight areas requiring improvement.

Also, the new hire will know lots of people from their old job who may be interested in joining you. If you have a staff employee referral program, be sure to make them aware of it. If you don’t have an employee referral program, get one.

Improve your hiring process before you need to hire

People are the heart of every business. Getting the best, brightest, most innovative, and the most committed can mean boundless success for a company. Conversely, bad hires or no hires at all can mean a loss of productivity and a costly cycle of hiring and training as you struggle to get the team right. Don’t wait until it’s time to start looking for people. Review your hiring process now and ensure that you’re set up for success.

The post The Essential Checklist to Improve Your Hiring Process first appeared on Jobvite.

Here are the top onboarding trends companies are using this year to ensure that they don’t fall into the 40% of businesses that are understaffed this year. Using these ideas will make it so any employee you hire will stick around for as long as they’re needed.

When you are ready to hire and ideally keep employees, Jobvite’s talent software will be here to help.

The pre-boarding before their first day

If your company’s introduction to your new employee happens on their first day on the job, your company is already falling behind. Preboarding allows companies to gather any personal information needed ahead of time so that on their first days in the office, employees don’t have to spend a lot of time waiting for their data to be scanned and processed.

Preboarding should allow for small introductions to the company’s culture while also ensuring that new employees feel welcomed and appreciated. Although this happens before they officially start their job within the company, employee retention must begin here. You should wow these new workers and get them excited to start their careers within your company.

A focus on employee mental health and needs

As an employee’s first few days at the company start, the new hires themselves will be taking in a lot of information. If they’re on-site, they’ll have to learn how to get into the building, what to wear, where to park, and where to report every day. If they’re remote, there’s even more to figure out, since they have to learn everything through a phone or computer screen.

Help lower their stress levels and ensure that they feel welcomed and taken seriously. It’s natural to feel anxious and unsure about a new job, especially if this is the first job they’ve held since the beginning of the pandemic, so work with them on lowering stress and nerves. The onboarding portal shouldn’t overwhelm them with information instantly, and every step should be able to be taken at the unique pace of each employee.

Onboarding is more than just technical information

Although employees need to understand the companies they work for and the work they’re expected to do, there’s more to a business than the numbers. Help employees understand the value of working for this business through its culture and by going into details of what their daily lives will be like working there.

Onboarding new employees should be an introductory course to the business itself. The process should contain information on what the workers’ jobs will entail, whether it’s remote work or not, and what the company wants to do for them individually. Everyone was hired for a reason, something stood out about their application above so many others, so it’s good to be honest and admit that. Show them they’re appreciated!

Helping new employees see upward mobility

A fantastic trend many companies are forming this year is boosting employee retention by showing them how their roles can evolve and grow over time. Use the employee onboarding process to look at a timeline of how other employees have succeeded within the company, and let them view what types of promotions and internal job transfers they’ll be eligible for eventually.

Of course, it’s impossible to predict the future and know if they’re going to work out, but helping them build an image in their mind of working for the company in the long-term can help develop an emotional connection. When people can visualize a future for themselves, they’re more likely to work subconsciously to reach that future, making this career planning both a pep talk and a legitimate plan.

Leading employees to feel like a team sooner

No amount of employee onboarding programs will work if you can’t help these new employees feel like part of the team. Giving them their place in the business allows them a better understanding of how their work affects others and helps move the business forward. A fantastic way many companies do this is by having a mentor program.

This program works by onboarding new employees through pairing them up with employees who have been with the company for a couple of years. You should ensure their mentor is someone who enjoys working for the company and has a lot of promise for what the employees need to achieve. If you don’t pair carefully, you might send the wrong message to the new hires. Seeing the work through the eyes of someone who’s been doing it for a couple of years can be inspiring to new employees who want to be that skilled as well.

Not allowing remote onboarding to be less rewarding

Remote onboarding is often overlooked, with some companies simply sending out a slideshow of talking points. This is an enormous missed opportunity to show new employees that their work matters.

New employee onboarding metrics can be improved if you help them see a future at the company. Don’t give these new hires a reason to think that the company cuts corners or avoids doing the most it can do for them, even if you can’t hype them up in person.

Onboarding is more than simple job training

Many people struggle to see the difference between recruitment and onboarding and the difference between onboarding and training. There’s only one thing onboarding has to achieve: create excitement for the employees to work for the company. If well done, a great onboarding process can ensure that employees stay for their full career, but if poorly done, they might not make it through the first thirty days.

Too often, a rough onboarding can be the difference between new employees staying for a long time and leaving after just a few months. Jobvite’s talent software can help you create and sustain that new employee engagement right from the get-go. Contact us now for a product demo.

The post Top Onboarding Trends in 2022 first appeared on Jobvite.

In an increasingly complex and competitive marketplace, TA professionals need the right skills and technology to succeed. Without these resources, your company may lose out on recruiting top talent. Jobvite Academy can help your team strengthen talent acquisition skills and create actionable plans to optimize your organization’s recruiting strategies. Best of all, Jobvite Academy is open to all talent acquisition professionals regardless of the TA technologies they use every day.

How does Jobvite Academy work?

With Jobvite Academy, your team can complete courses and gain certifications in a variety of TA concentration areas. Learn about creating an audience-based marketing strategy, develop actionable plans, and expand on valuable skills within the Jobvite Academy curriculum.

Your courses will include workbooks that provide tips, checklists, templates, and more. Complete course modules and take a final exam to obtain your certification that can be downloaded and added to your LinkedIn profile. Start by enrolling your team in the Recruitment Marketing course, available now!

Current and Upcoming Certifications:

• Recruitment Marketing (Available now!)
• Applicant Management (Coming soon)
• TA Operations (Coming soon)

Jobvite Academy enrollment benefits

Jobvite Academy’s curriculum is designed to provide targeted and relevant training to improve overall daily performance for your TA team. Allow your team to upgrade their skills and broaden their training on critical recruiting skills, key competencies, and proven industry best practices.

Each program can be completed at your own pace, includes seven learning modules, and qualifies for SHRM and HRCI credits. We want you and your team to shine for your organization!

More benefits to training at the Jobvite Academy:

• Drive retention on your team by showing that your organization cares about their professional development and continued learning
• Create actionable plans and optimize existing recruiting strategies for business growth
• Allow each team member to gather insights about the complexity of today’s marketplace and gain competitive advantage in your industry

A team needs the right technology and knowledge to perform its best and compete for top industry talent. With strong training, your team can become specialized experts and create actionable plans for recruiting strategies. Upskill your recruiting team and improve execution to hire with confidence leveraging your learnings from Jobvite Academy’s curriculum. We’re so excited to help propel talent acquisition teams forward—get started today!

Enroll in Jobvite Academy Today

The post Jobvite Academy is Open for Enrollment first appeared on Jobvite.

This just in! Jobvite’s 12th annual Job Seeker Nation Report has been released, uncovering a profound change in concerns, challenges, and priorities for workers while navigating the job seeking process amidst COVID-19.

At 6.2%, the U.S. unemployment rate today is lower than it was in April 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic; however, it remains well above its pre-pandemic level of 3.5% in February 2020.

The pandemic has greatly altered the dynamics of the U.S. labor market, bringing about what we believe to be the rise of the optimized workforce. COVID-19’s significant impact on the workforce has made it evident that employers and recruiters must have a complete understanding of how to adjust efforts to meet the demands of varied realities—for individual work experiences of today and tomorrow.

To little surprise, the job market shift has led stress levels, job insecurity, and financial concerns to skyrocket, especially among working parents. In contrast, purposeful awareness of social and racial justice issues has drastically altered job seekers’ expectations of employers, particularly when it comes to COVID-19 safety measures, diversity initiatives, company culture, and remote work.

The 2021 Job Seeker Nation Report offers an in-depth look at the behaviors, views, and preferences of the modern workforce.

About the Job Seeker Nation Report

Year after year, Jobvite surveys hundreds of U.S. workers for its annual Job Seeker Nation Report to better understand the realities and preferences of today’s job seekers. In 2020, Jobvite conducted two surveys. The first was pre-pandemic (February) and the second was in the beginning days of the health crisis (April), with the data revealing a dramatic shift in the job climate.

As a follow up, the 2021 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Report surveyed roughly 1,500 adults in the U.S. to gain awareness of the current state of the workforce roughly one year since the onset of the pandemic.

Here are a few of the big highlights from this year’s report!

State of Job Seekers Today

The challenges of the past year have resulted in a growing fear of job loss.

• 41% report that they, or someone in their immediate family, is afraid of losing a job – a 13% increase compared to 2020

In addition to concerns over job loss, the leading stressors in the job seeking process include:

• Catching COVID-19: 40%
• Mental health struggles: 38%
• Long work hours: 34%

With an increasing number of remote interviews, 36% of job seekers, unfortunately, could not participate in a video interview due to a lack of adequate access to technology or Wi-Fi.

Remote Work

With millions of U.S. job seekers moving to working remotely over the past year, continuing to have a choice of work environment and location is now of utmost importance to job seekers.

• 35% have declined or would decline a job offer that required them to work full-time on location, in an office, or at a worksite
• 74% said remote work figures in their decision to reject or accept a job offer

Yet even with an increase in remote work, company culture remains important.

• Despite the rise in remote work, 86% say company culture is somewhat important or very important to them, up from 37% in 2019. Yes, as workers, we are still social beings and want to feel connected and part of a great company and team

COVID-19 in the Workplace

The pandemic has drastically altered the expectations employees have of their employers.

• 60% have inquired about current or prospective employer’s COVID-19 safety measures
• 49% think employers should require employees to get the vaccine, while 36% disagree, causing a challenge for employers as they navigate varying opinions on the topic and manage employee relations appropriately

COVID-19 and the rise in remote work has resulted in 42% of employees working more hours since the onset of the pandemic.

Additionally, 25% of workers have taken advantage of their employer’s mental health benefits more since COVID-19 hit. We are so happy to see workers prioritizing their mental health, taking care of themselves, and reaching out when they need help.

Download the Full Report for More

These are just a few of the key takeaways from the 2021 Job Seeker Nation Report. Download the report today for hundreds of additional statistics and insights to help talent professionals understand how adjusting efforts to meet the demands of the job market today will progress into the future.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT

The post 2021 Job Seeker Nation: Key Findings from This Year’s Report first appeared on Jobvite.

My experience is one that so many organizations have faced over the past year given the shift to remote work caused by Covid. What most learned, some the hard way, was that technology and a formal onboarding process are essential requirements to delivering a valued, positive experience for new hires. Hiring and onboarding go hand in hand. There is nothing a recruiter hates more than spending the time and effort to attract, interview, and hire a new employee only to have that employee leave within their first 3 months due to a poor onboarding experience. In fact, research shows that 20% of all new hires leave in the first 90 days. That turnover is costly in time, productivity, and hard dollars. To ensure this is not the case at your organization, there are a number of things you can do to provide a smooth transition from new hire to productive and engaged employee. The secret is a well-designed and executed onboarding process.

Onboarding vs. Orientation

For many companies, onboarding means getting your paperwork distributed, filled in, and signed. This thinking is incredibly short-sighted, especially in a remote work environment. If you are using your onboarding process only as a document management solution, you are destined to fail. The most successful HR teams have clear and comprehensive onboarding objectives. They include:

• Easy access to new hire paperwork (e-signature capabilities are table stakes today)
• Onboarding checklist for new hires to refer to as they move through the onboarding process
• Introduction to the company’s mission, vision, and values (extension of employer branding)
• Facilitate introductions to their department colleagues (begin team building efforts)
• Resource center for “everything you need to know” for Day 1 and beyond
• Begin the learning & development process (if there are critical skills or certifications required, make training available)
• Provide a resource center for all questions
• 30-60-90 day plan for the new employee

It is important to remember that the selling process does not end with the accepted offer. Most of us are anxious when we make a major change like a new job. Providing a clear and inclusive onboarding process helps ease that anxiety and allows the new hire to focus on the excitement of starting a new position. A disjointed onboarding experience will only heighten that anxiety and potentially lead to a change of heart by the new hire.

Let Technology Carry the Weight

Most HR organizations have onboarding solutions built into their Recruiting or Talent Management software. The question to ask yourself is, are you utilizing it to its full capacity? Again, if it is only a document management system, you are missing a significant opportunity. Automate the system and personalize it wherever you can. The more time spent developing a world-class onboarding program leveraging your technology, the faster you will transform a new hire to a productive employee. More importantly, you will retain the majority of your new hires because they believe your company is invested and committed to their development, growth, and success. If you don’t have access to an onboarding platform, now is the time to start looking for a partner. Many new hires are onboarding remotely which makes it even more important that you have a modern onboarding experience.

Jobvite Can Help You Deliver Successful Onboarding

As I mentioned, Jobvite has an onboarding platform that made my experience smooth. It was personalized to me and the role I was starting within the Marketing Team and it helped me internalize the new culture I was joining. It was all delivered with Jobvite’s Onboard solution, so I had a portal that gave me access to everything I needed for Day 1 as well as some resources I have turned back to over my first few months. I joined a great organization and an amazing team. Fortunately for me, I knew that before I started thanks to the hard work, commitment, and technology provided by the HR team at Jobvite. If you are interested in learning more about how Jobvite’s technology can help your organization evolve your onboarding in a remote world, visit our website at www2.jobvite.com/products/onboard or request a demo here.

The post New Hire Onboarding is the Key to Retention first appeared on Jobvite.