Outsourced Exit Interviews, Stay Surveys, Leadership Assessments and so much more.
More than one-in-three American workers are Millennials, and in 2015, Millennials supplanted Generation X as the largest generational group in the American workforce. Already 53.5 million-strong, the Millennial working population is only expected to grow.
Find Trends In Your Employee Satisfaction With Stay Interviews In large companies, where there are multiple teams that work together daily, it can be difficult for employees to find opportunities to socialize outside of their team or department. What do your employees think about your company culture? Stay interviews help employers learn the factors that influence employee retention within their company. In an age where employee satisfaction is a prominent focus in the workplace, the need to identify trends and areas for improvement has become invaluable for employers. For the results of stay interviews to be accurate and credible, stay interviews must be conducted confidentially, objectively, and in a low-pressure setting. For an employer, it can be difficult to implement these interviews in an unobtrusive, natural way. For a better grasp on employee perception of the company atmosphere, some employers try to conduct stay interviews on their own. However, stay interviews conducted internally run the risk of lost objectivity — employees can feel that the process is less anonymous and fear their name might back it back to their employer. For this reason, many employers find greater success in conducting stay interviews with a third-party provider. Outsourcing stay interviews can help employers objectively identify trends that work well within their company and create an actionable plan that will improve employee retention. HSD Metrics objectively conducts interviews to generate honest employee feedback and gain accurate data that reflects employee perception of management trends. To provide the best results, HSD focuses on security and employee completion to accurately measure against internal and external benchmarks. If you are looking to improve your company and identify trends in employee retention, contact us today.
The specifics of ban-the-box laws vary by state. Learn how these laws affect your hiring practices as they are passed and developed. What are Ban-the-box Laws? Legislation is changing the way that companies hire their employees. “Ban-the-box” laws, also called “fair chance” laws, remove the checkbox that asks if an applicant has prior criminal convictions. This change was born in 1998 when Hawaii introduced a state-wide ban-the-box law. These laws give applicants the chance to show their qualifications for a position before their criminal record is added to the conversation. In theory, this gives a better platform for applicants to win jobs despite a previous conviction. To date, over 150 cities and counties have adopted these policies across 25 states. While there are fewer examples of its implementation in the western US, the geographical spread of ban-the-box laws is wide. That being said, its iterations are as varied as its geography. This map breaks down the laws state by state and shows each city, county and state’s regulations of the ban-the-box law. And while these laws can prove beneficial for job seekers with a criminal record, it also creates a tough line for employers to tread. Dangerous Assumptions and Misinformation These policies are making employers take a hard look at the way they hire employees. An experiment conducted through the University of Michigan showed an increased disparity in racial discrimination after ban-the-box laws were passed in New Jersey and New York City. 15,000 invented applications were sent to companies in both of these zones before and after the laws were passed. The applications were sent in black/white racial pairs, and before the ban-the-box laws, white applicants were 7 percent more likely to be called back. After the ban-the-box law, it was 45 percent. With criminal record left off the application, it appeared that some employers were relying on their assumptions and stereotypes rather than a person’s qualifications or references. As the ban-the-box laws continue to develop and grow, employers will be pressed to avoid this discrimination. Know How to Avoid Unintentional Bias This study can be used as a cautionary tale; most employers do typically hire in good faith. But for larger companies with a high hiring rate, ban-the-box laws promise to be challenging. It is difficult to find and hire the right people when some of your applicant’s information is unavailable to you. For over two decades, HSD Metrics® has provided HR outsourcing services and guidance to companies. One such service is gathering New Hire Feedback, which focuses on new employee recruiting, orientation, and entry experience as a whole. Leave nothing to assumption when it comes to hiring; contact us today, or call 877-439-9315.
Bringing new hires into the fold takes work. New faces shift the office dynamic at first, and you’re leading the charge in their on-boarding. How do you use open communication and expectations to give your new employees a good start? Here are some ways that feel small, but set the bar high. Greet Your New Employee This is a simple but important way to establish open communication with your employee. If you walk past new employees without acknowledging them, they could feel underappreciated. You should always greet your employees when you see them in the morning. This is one small step that makes them feel seen and heard. Even if they seem engrossed in something, a quick wave or nod their way conveys your recognition. Teach Them Your Language You should encourage your employee to ask questions about the workings of your company. If you don’t, they may feign understanding, which will slow their productivity. Your new hire won’t know the ins and outs of your company acronyms, for example. Be conscious of this and explain terms as you go. And until your new hire gets to know the others in the office, names can be as abstract as acronyms. When your new hire sits in on a call with Aaron, they may be thinking: is he a client or a coworker? Which office is he in? Will I be working with him a lot or a little? It’s better to give your employee too much information. To help them even further, give them a notebook so that they can keep their new work information in order. A quickly jotted note about an unfamiliar term can be a great reference point down the line. The first few weeks of any new job are information overload; give your new hire a place to parse it. Be Transparent Transparency is a favorite company buzzword—but is your team acting on its promises of transparency? You want your employees to rely on you. But if you project the persona that you have every answer, you’re breaking trust rather than building confidence. You are more knowledgeable than your new employee—and they know that. Your new hire will already be looking to you for guidance, both about the position and the company in general. In return, you should let them know your goals as their manager. Show them that you want to foster their growth at your company, and tell them about your plan to do so. Transparency can avoid unruly expectations and distance; you aren’t superhuman, and mistakes will happen. By being upfront with your plan of action, you encourage more open conversations across the board. Challenge Them to Think About Your Performance Having one-on-one meetings with your employees is an excellent way to keep communication open. As you both prepare for these meetings, ask your employee to think on your performance as their manager. If you pull out the “What can I do better?” card during a one-on-one, your employee is going to be hard-pressed to voice their thoughts. Instead, ask them to bring one positive and one negative for you to consider. If you’re open to this and don’t go on the defensive, you’ll be in a great position to get feedback. Additionally, by reacting positively in these situations, you give your employee the confidence to talk about difficulties without the threat of backlash. Keep Your Finger on the Pulse of Sentiment Even with these habits of open communication in place, your employee can feel intimidated—it takes time to feel accepted in an office space. Most new employees will say “yes” more often than “no” in order to prove their worth. You should give them a space to voice their concerns to someone outside the company sphere. By gathering third-party feedback from your new hire, you can improve your onboarding process and reduce new hire turnover. Call 877-439-9315, or contact us, at HSD Metrics® to learn more about how onboarding surveys could help your business.
Your employees are getting job offers in their inboxes as you read this. LinkedIn’s emails are listing other companies where your top performers’ talents are desperately needed. If your employees delete those emails without a second thought, you’re truly succeeding as an employer. When your employees say “No thank you, LinkedIn, I’m where I want to be,” you’ve probably created a nurturing environment that creates opportunities for engagement. But when your employees linger on those emails, you’ve got some work to do. We work in a digitally connected world; transparency and a diverse workforce are the standard. Your employees researched your company during their interviews, just as you pulled information on your candidates. Once they were hired, you put in the time to interact with them – over emails, calls, video chat, and correspondence. But it’s not enough to stop there, especially if your company is growing. To develop open communication with your team, you need to be present. Particularly in service-oriented industries where employees interact face-to-face with customers every day, showing your staff the same attention pays dividends. Focused, standardized feedback mechanisms open the door for better conversation. Learn about your employees’ professional and personal aspirations. Learn what makes them tick – and makes them ticked off. Not only can you tailor their work to fit these goals and traits, but you’ll build their trust in the process. If your employees see a purpose in your interactions with them, they’ll come to you with problems – and speak highly of you to other potential talent. And if you can get your employees talking positively about you in the digital space, all the better. We all know that our reputations precede us in the connected world. LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, and similar sites create a digital reputation with every review. If you visit these sites’ pages for your company, you may be shocked by what you find. People are generally blunter under the guise of anonymity, after all. By making stay interviews purposeful and productive for your employees, you’ll know the precise steps to take to retain your talent. Let HSD Metrics help you improve your business and give your employees an avenue for their opinions – contact us today, or call 877-439-9315, to learn how we can get you started.
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