The #CandidateExperience is crucial for attracting and #hiring top talent. @CaliperCorp breaks down 5 things you can do to create a more enjoyable hiring experience for job seekers:
Share on X

1. Make Sure You’re Hiring For A Real Need

When hiring for an open role, a clear purpose and a well-defined goal are the pillars of a great candidate experience. Before the candidate ever interacts with your job posting or applies to a job, you need to make sure that the position you’re hiring for fulfills an actual need for your company. Identifying your specific hiring needs before you begin your recruitment process will help you to streamline your hiring pipeline and lead to a more refined candidate search.

Before posting a job description, you should:

• Evaluate and analyze your skills gap within your organization — what skills, talent, or characteristics is your company lacking in? What does the ideal applicant look like, who fulfills these needs?
• Work with your teams to create a detailed job title and description — what can the applicant expect day-in and day-out? Be honest in your details. Job seekers want to know the realities of a job before they apply or interview for a position.

By preparing yourself ahead of time and understanding why you are hiring for an open position, you can reduce the likelihood of second-guessing your new hires or changing your strategy and direction later. When organizations create a straightforward course of action for applicants, the candidate experience benefits.

Did you know: 75% of professionals currently working in their companies were influenced to accept the job offer because of the positive candidate experience they had.

2. Make the Application Process Simple

One of the worst things you can do is make the application process complex or long-winded. In fact, a complex application process is so detrimental to your recruitment strategy that 60% of job seekers will abandon an application if the process is too long. The old adage goes: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Your goal as the hiring manager or recruiter should be to create an easy process that attracts and drives candidates down the pipeline. People are busy, and no one wants to spend hours applying for a role. Some things to do:

• Make sure your job posting is easy to find on career sites.
• Identify clear instructions for each step in the application process. 
• If possible, offer easy application or one-step application processes. 
• Parse through the application process to see what parts you can or should remove.
• Embrace mobile-friendly applications.

Did you know: Before the pandemic, 77% of talent leaders claimed that their candidate experience was excellent, but 84% of candidates stated they had negative experiences while looking for a job. Hiring managers need to create a more simplified and enjoyable experience to attract and retain talent.

3. Provide Consistent Communication

Call me, text me, email me, whatever it may be. Job seekers want nothing more than consistent and clear communication about their application process and the next steps. When this communication lacks, the candidate experience takes a hit, risking you losing out on top talent. In fact, 30% of job seekers ranked communication after they apply as most important to them when it comes to candidate experience. 

When a candidate applies to a job, send a message to notify them you received their application. Let them know a timeline for when they can expect to hear back from you. Have any roadblocks or barriers caused delays in your hiring process? Reach out to the candidate and let them know, and give them an adjusted timeline that accounts for these changes. When it comes to the candidate experience, communication is everything. It is always better to overcommunicate the process to an applicant than to leave them waiting in the dust.

The fight for top talent is gearing up, and @CaliperCorp is here to help you beat out the competition for the best #candidates. Focus on refining your #CandidateExperience with these 5 tips:
Share on X

4. Record and Store Necessary Candidate Information

When recruiting for an open job, hiring managers will need to quickly organize and sort through a lot of information. With multiple applicants for an available role, it can be challenging to keep all this information straight. To have a strong candidate experience, recruiters need to record and store information about candidates so that it can be easily referenced. 

Everyone on your hiring team needs to be able to access and reflect on this information so that your hiring process is consistent across all levels. Additionally, recruiters want to ensure that they are not asking for the same information multiple times, as this leads to a poorer candidate experience. An ATS can help you to track, store, and access candidate information quickly. By leaning on tools to help with data collection and organization, you can take your candidate experience to the next level.

5. Be Honest In What the Candidate Can Expect

Similar to point 3 around communicating during the process, being honest is always the best policy. When it comes to the candidate experience, this is especially true. 83% of candidates say the candidate experience would be more enjoyable if employers provided a clear timeline of the hiring process. Your candidates want to know what to expect before getting an interview and what they can expect from working at your organization. It might seem like a small or simple step, but providing insight into what candidates can expect at each step in the hiring process will help eliminate miscommunications and keep your hiring process moving smoothly.

A poor candidate experience can cost you a great hire. By taking the necessary steps to create an enjoyable, efficient, and simple hiring process, you can attract more candidates and beat out the competition for the best applicants. 

With science-backed assessments that enable data-driven decision-making, Caliper Corp can help you to refine your hiring goals and identify qualified candidates early on in the process. Our Selection Report Suite allows you to gain insights into an individual’s traits, behaviors, and personality dynamics as they relate to a specific role, letting you hire more strategically. For more information about how our selection solutions can help you to hire better applicants faster, reach out to our team of experts to see Caliper in action.

Effective leaders believe in the value of coaching, and they think about their role as a manager in such a way where coaching occurs naturally. So, why is coaching so much more effective?

Here are a few ways professional coaching facilitates better results than being a “boss.”

Increased Employee Engagement

According to Forbes, only 34% of employees feel engaged at work. By instilling a culture of effective coaching, it’s possible to overcome this issue. With a coaching culture in play, employees are pushed to do their best and reach their highest potential. When employees are putting out their best work, they’re more likely to learn personal accountability and become more engaged in their career and overall performance.

With a #CoachingCulture in play, employees are pushed to do their best and reach their highest potential. @CaliperCorp offers insight into how you can integrate #coaching into your current strategies:
Share on X

Follow these steps to create a coaching culture and improve employee engagement:

• Focus on your company’s mission and vision. Clearly identifying the mission of your organization helps employees understand the ways they fit into the processes of your team. It can be difficult for employees to be actively engaged without understanding and embracing the vision of the company first.

• Assist employees with defining their personal and professional goals. This step takes coaching a step further, creating an open dialogue with employees about what they hope to achieve out of their job. This includes both professional goals and ambitions outside of the office. Take the time to sit down and find ways you can assist your employees in achieving their objectives.

• Identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses and communicate expectations. Communication is one of the most vital aspects to a company’s success. In fact, 4 out of 5 employees say communication is critical in helping their job success. Maintaining respectful and authentic conversations with employees can increase the accountability and collaboration of your team.

Take the time to lay the groundwork of expectations in the organization. With expectations firmly set, the coach and employee can have a constructive conversation about the overall strategy and goals of their professional development plan. Take the time to ask probing questions such as:

• How do your personal goals align with the goals of our company?
• What do you hope to achieve in terms of professional growth within the next year?
• How best can I assist in helping you achieve these goals?

Use this time to identify a customized strategy for coaching on an individual level. They get the personal development they desire, while aligning to the greater goals and needs of the organization.

Boost Confidence

Confidence in the workplace has resoundingly positive effects. Research has shown people prefer confidence to actual expertise. As competitive as business can be, it is no shock confidence is necessary for success. Without confidence, an employee won’t feel comfortable to take any risk or go beyond basic expectations. Lack of confidence in an employee can result in hindering their professional growth, keeping them from reaching their full potential.

There are many ways individuals can boost confidence on their own, and educating employees on how to practice these techniques can be very beneficial. If an employee feels good about themselves, this confidence at work can help map out the best path for them in their career.

Coaching can help foster confidence by distinguishing the employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Identify areas where employees excel. Highlighting their strengths helps build self-worth and keeps employees from focusing too narrowly on the areas they could use improvement. While identifying weaknesses and improving upon them is necessary for personal development, make sure employees don’t dwell on limitations — instead, find ways to tackle these weaknesses and improve upon them.

Improve Employee Retention

Learning or starting something new can be a nerve-racking feeling. But, having a professional coach who can provide guidance makes a big difference in what an individual is willing to tackle. In the workplace, when employees are on-boarded and coached on new skills, they feel supported and encouraged by their manager.

Showing support for employees leads to higher levels of retention, in turn creating a more positive company culture. Your employees want to feel like a valued and respected member of the team, and effective coaching can facilitate this feeling.

Like with all things, communication is vital, and with coaching, it’s a two-way street. As managers provide feedback to employees, employees are then able to use that opportunity to present their input to the manager. Employees are 4.6 times more likely to stay in their current position when they feel heard. Integrating coaching into your company culture will encourage yourself, and other managers, to be more present among employees, and will open up communication channels across all levels of your organization.

Employees are 4.6 times more likely to stay in their current position when they feel heard. Through #EffectiveCoaching, you can increase employee #engagement while making your employees feel valued. Find out how with these tips from @CaliperCorp:
Share on X

Activate Your Coaching Skills

Ready to improve your coaching skills as a manager? Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Maintain a positive outlook. Positivity in the workplace leads to higher levels of productivity and increased employee happiness. Try to remove negative attitudes in the office, and everyone’s experience will benefit from your efforts. Lead by example, and your employees will follow suit.

• Know how to navigate conversations. Whether the conversation is regarding performance reviews or ways to inspire and motivate employees, there are a plethora of resources with tips and tricks for initiating a productive and respectful conversation. Take time to educate yourself on best practices before talking with employees or managers.

• Ask good questions. Sometimes the most difficult questions to ask are the best ones. The healthiest company cultures are ones where leaders and employees feel able to express opinions honestly without getting defensive.

• Listen to what they have to say and encourage them to share their opinions. Authentic and open communication is vital to success. Encourage your employees to be honest with their feedback so that improvements can be made when necessary.

• Coach in the moment. A willingness to remain adaptable is necessary for success, and being able to customize your coaching strategies will allow for a more individualized approach.

Organizations with senior leaders who coach their employees can improve business results by 21%, compared to those who never use professional coaching. Developing effective coaches is critical to the success of your company. Allow your leaders to thrive and build a pipeline with otherwise overlooked internal talent. Allow Caliper’s Essentials for Coaching report to help you coach, develop, and retain like a pro today! Reach out to our experts to get started.

Before you implement a plan, you need to discover what skill gaps your workplace has. Use these five ways to help determine where those gaps lie.

How to Pinpoint Skill Gaps

Before we jump into how we determine where skill gaps are, we need to set a basic understanding of what they are. While there is no fixed definition, they are deficiencies in performance caused by a lack of skills or development opportunities in the workplace.

Having an employee development approach will help you bridge the gap. In order to determine these skill gaps, you have to take a closer look at the performance of your employees. This requires data on where they are excelling and what areas require some improvement. One significant way to discover these strengths is by utilizing an employee assessment. The Caliper Profile is an employee- and applicant-assessment instrument that accurately measures an individual’s job performance potential.

However, there are multiple other ways to gather employee data. By layering these factors, you can get an even more accurate view of your employees’ performances.

Here are five helpful ways to collect information on your team:

1. Employee Assessments – By using assessments, you can get insight on your employees, and often get actionable items for development.
2. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – KPIs are one of the best sources to use to identify skill gaps. Also, they help determine career progression, compensation, rewards, benefits, and retention.
3. 360-Degree Reviews – 360-Degree reviews provide peer and self-feedback. From this feedback, you can gather qualitative data to use in the development stage. And when you embed the insights of an employee assessment, like the Caliper Profile, into 360s, you get an even deeper look into performance and potential.
4. Observations – As simple as this sounds, observing your team can give you insight on how different factors come into play when there are apparent skill gaps.
5. Benchmarking – Benchmarking builds off of observations. You can identify skill gaps in the workplace by benchmarking the performance of the organization’s top performers. This sets a point of reference on what skills are needed for success in the workplace.

Employee Development Approach

Now that you know how to identify skill gaps, let’s pivot into how we can use this data to build an employee development approach. As a manager, you want to be able to set your team up with the skills they need to be confident in their jobs so you can shift your focus to your other duties. To start a practical approach, you first need to work on yourself. Before you can develop your team, you need to build yourself.

Once you’ve sharpened your development skill, you need to build a basis of trust with your team. If you already have this, great, skip onto the next step! If not, this is important to ensure you and your teammates have trust so they don’t think you’re highlighting their weaknesses.

Now, you’re ready to use the data you’ve gathered on skill gaps in your workplace to begin creating learning opportunities. Coach your teams by delegating assignments in areas where your employees need development, introducing other members who excel in those areas, and turning meetings into learning opportunities. Most likely, they will not succeed their first time around and may need additional help, but this creates a learning experience.

Another way you can develop your teams’ skills is by setting them up in a development platform or by using development tools. Caliper Precision Series aids your team in their specific areas of development through a self-paced, technology-hosted learning experience. This allows your team to work on developing their skills on their own time and schedule.

So in short, here’s how to establish a developmental approach:

• Determine where skill gaps lie.
• Develop yourself before you work on your team.
• Form a basis of trust with your team.
• Create learning opportunities.
• Set your team up in a developmental program.
• Repeat as needed.

Ready to develop your employees, but don’t know where to start? Get started with Caliper Precision Series and empower your team with training on their time.

Show Gestures of Appreciation

It’s human nature to want to know that your work is valued, and a sign of appreciation can do just that. You may ask, “what’s happening on the opposite side of the spectrum?” A lack of recognition can send an employee running for the hills. A stunning majority (79%) of employees even go so far as to note a lack of appreciation as a reason for leaving their job.

Keep your employees happy and engaged by showing them how much you truly appreciate their hard work and dedication to the organization. Of course, grand gestures like a company outing or a delicious catered lunch are nice, but something as small as a “thank you” email or donuts in the morning after a difficult project will go along way.

Embody a Growth Mindset

In today’s candidate-driven market, 86% of professionals would leave their job to explore a better opportunity for professional development. That statistic proves that a growth mindset is critical to keep employees excited about their job.

Housing employees in a dead-end job with no room to learn or grow is a surefire way for them to dread their daily work. Instead, offer these eager individuals the chance to expand their minds and their careers. Career development doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of a vertical jump on the company ladder. While the position on the next rung up is full, offer training sessions in new technology, more complex tasks, and projects, or the opportunity to pass their knowledge onto a new employee.

Promote Positivity in the Workplace

One person’s attitude can impact the whole workplace. That is why it is so important to cultivate a positive work environment. Use a top-down approach to ensure upper management is setting the right example for all employees. Be sure to encourage a respectful, inclusive, and supportive team. Employees will love working at a job where they can embrace an optimistic mindset each and every day.

Plus, when your employees enjoy a positive work environment, your company will reap the rewards. Positivity and productivity go hand in hand. Need we say any more?

Create a Work-Life Balance

Salaried employees are often walking the fine line between work and life. Many times, they feel obligated to respond to emails or take client calls after their 8-hour workday is over. Create an environment where employees feel as though they can leave their daily tasks and projects at the office when they cross over that threshold. Although after work hours communications may be important in the case of an emergency, encourage employees to ignore emails without “urgent” or “emergency” in the subject line once their daily shift is complete.

This is a game-changing attribute that can teeter workers between love and hate of a job quickly. Employees surveyed note good work-life balance as the third attribute they are looking for in an organization, after salary and security. Workers want to feel comfortable leaving their work at the office.

Encourage your employees to fall in love with their jobs – it’ll benefit them and the organization! Use these 4 tips to create an environment that will have candidates loving the company and employees feeling privileged to be working there. Discover how Caliper’s scientifically-validated and data-driven insight can help you navigate a success path. Get in contact with our team today.

Engage Before the Start

Often times, after the contract is signed, organizations disengage from their new hires. New hires are provided minimal instructions beyond their start date. It is extremely important to remain in contact and keep talent engaged until they officially start employment.

Job seekers tend to negotiate between two or more employers to see who will give them the best deal. It would be a challenging to lose a candidate that you have spent time recruiting. Before their formal start date, regularly check with them and help them transition into the new role.

Pair Them Up

Whenever a new hire is brought on board, assign a current employee to offer guidance when needed and help with the transition. When they have questions about everyday life in the office, the best lunch spots or culture quirks, this is the person they should turn to. Workers who feel like they belong, tend to be more motivated, engaged, productive and 3.5 times more likely to contribute fully to reach their potential.

Managers should use this opportunity to coach. Try by using a coaching report. Employees should be encouraged to enhance their performance-improvement and career-development initiatives with an Individual Developmental Guide (IDG). The IDG is a report that presents an individual’s strengths, motivations, and opportunity areas through easy-to-interpret graphs and constructive language. These two aids can help progress these two as individuals and as co-workers.

Greet with Excitement

Make their first impression working for the company a positive one. Help the new team member feel valued and well trained or they may be likely to leave for a better opportunity.

Everyone directly involved in your organization has a role in making new hires feel welcome. When new hires feel accepted by their colleagues, their level of engagement increases. First impressions are crucial to show them how excited the company is to have them as part of their team.

Commit to the First 365 Days

The onboarding process should not be confused with orientation. Orientation is a single event which takes place over the course of a few days. The onboarding process is designated to show new hires how they will be integrated through their role with training, support, and expectations to help them succeed in their role.

Within the first six months of a new position, 40% of employees left their jobs voluntarily. The most successful onboarding programs run up to one year, with frequent check-ins and feedback given throughout. Organizations who commit to an extended on-boarding experience accelerate new hire proficiency by 34%.

Plan it Out

Most candidates will be nervous when starting their new position. Having a structured plan can help eliminate some of the anxiety and stress associated with the situation. By being prepared, you are showing the newest team member you care about their time and role and solidify their decision to join your company.

Give them a journey map of how long the process should take and when they should be completing certain phases. Take this opportunity to outline clear goals you want to see them accomplish by the end of on-boarding. This gives them a look into what their future at the company holds.

Schedule One-On-One Time

Scheduling one-on-one time between a new hire and their direct manager is a must. This is the manager’s chance to make a first impression by dedicating time to their new team member. This time is about getting to know the people who the employee will be working with and reporting to.

During this meeting, take time to schedule out check-ins and feedback sessions. Use these sessions to check in on their experience and see how their manager and the team can best support in the areas the new hire is struggling with. You can create a loyal employee customer by genuinely listening to them and giving them what they need to succeed.

Spread it Out

Some organizations bombard their new hires with too much information upfront. The first day of a new job should focus on two things. 1. Validate the employee made a good decision to accept the job. 2. Help the employee with the basics like accessing technology or setting up benefits. Often, a new employee gets everything thrown at their way all at once, with little time to digest the information. On-boarding is an acculturation process that should be spread out over a period of time.

Automate the Process

Automating on-boarding process, including the new hire paperwork, increases productivity for everyone involved. Human resources can put their focus on other important tasks to help support employees. Setting up automated notifications keeps both HR and the new employee moving forward.

Follow these tips to get on the right track. If you need some help getting started, work with Caliper to utilize these onboarding solutions to get your team up to speed faster!

• • According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the price of a bad hire is at least 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings.
  • According to the Society of Human Resource Management, it costs an average of $4,129 to recruit, interview, hire and train someone in America.
  • Nearly 30% of companies report that it takes over a year to bring a new hire up to full productivity.

Ways to Avoid Hiring the Wrong Employees:

• • • Spend more time on the hiring process.
    • Devote resources to quality and proper new hire training.
    • HR and training staff are given attention, guidance and budget to build a productive workforce.

In a market with low unemployment, recruiters are shifting their focus to current employees to build their talent pool. In order to keep those employees that might be at risk of going to a competitor, try some of these New Year’s resolutions focused on employee retention.

Encourage employee creativity

When an employee feels like they’re stuck at work and doing the same jobs tirelessly day after day, it will be an easier decision to jump ship if offered the chance. The best way to help prevent this type of drone-like feeling can be by giving your employees a new project every 6 to 12 months with a focus on something they find lets out their creativity. Establish that a time limit is set on how long it can take them from their work, whether that’s a day each month or a few hours each week. Creating this type of environment is a win-win for both the employee and employer.

Create an environment of positive feedback

Giving positive feedback on a routine basis motivates employees to put their best foot forward each and every time. While constructive feedback is necessary, think about how much positive feedback you’re giving compared to constructive. The first step to providing constructive feedback is being aware of the ratio of positive/constructive feedback and then moving the ratio towards six positive comments for every negative comment in 2019.

• Companies that provide employee feedback have 14.9% lower turnover rates.
• 82% of employees appreciate receiving feedback, whether it be positive or negative.
• Providing feedback improved overall performance, according to 27% of employees.

Challenge your employees and encourage failure

This year, push your employees outside of their comfort zone. When the right situation arises, challenge your employees beyond what they’re used to doing at work. Allow them to see failure as a learning opportunity and give them a chance to take a risk. The idea of finding a balance between supporting what they do and challenging them is not an easy task, but by starting with small projects outside an employee’s wheelhouse can help retain employees and create growth opportunities at the same.

Make your employees feel like their input matters

Every employee wants their voices to be heard and want their work to be recognized. At the end of the day, they are there to help the business achieve its objectives. Instead of employees being another cog in the wheel, sit down with each of your employees and have a conversation about their duties and role within the company. Recognition is the number one thing employees say could inspire them to create great work. 78% of employees who are recognized are more engaged, compared to the 33% who are not. Use this meeting to determine where employees might fit in on a more strategic basis and if they even want a more strategic voice within their role.

Foster better work-life balance

The work-life balance is a topic that is surfaced frequently, but not easily implemented. While expectations are high for most employees, it’s important to make sure team members have adequate time to take care of themselves and enjoy what life has to offer.

It’s important to make sure employees take the time to reset, recharge and take advantage of the “me time.” Another way to achieve a better work-life balance is to learn to say no. Not having the ability to say no to some things that stress you out might take a toll on your health in the long run. Stressful duties and working more than 55 hours a week puts employees at a higher risk of coronary heart disease and stroke. With the abundance of technology in our world today, it can be close to impossible to unplug. 57% of employees say that technology has ruined family dinners because of the expected responses from their employers.

These five employee retention resolutions are high-impact and low-cost, but take some conscious effort on the part of the company to implement. With any resolutions, it is important to walk before you run. Survey your employees this month and see what is most important to them and take action based on the results. This will ensure you’re offering perks or growth opportunities that are important to your employees.

Not sure where to start with creating your New Year’s resolutions? Let us help! See how we can help you increase employee engagement while retaining  your top talent.

A manager stands before his 15-person team at a morning meeting, displaying a printed document to the group.

“This is an email from corporate,” he says, “about a new flexible-scheduling initiative.”

He smirks, rips the page in half, and tosses a piece over each shoulder. The scraps flutter ignominiously to the industrial-grade carpet.

“That’s what I think of flex scheduling. You all have a choice: You work when I tell you to work, or you can go flip burgers at Burger King across the street.”

Believe it or not, this is a true story (the title of which is “How Not to Manage Anyone”). You’re probably not surprised to learn that turnover was high at that particular place of business. The manager didn’t last, and the business itself went the way of the triceratops. I wish I could say this event took place 65 million years ago rather than just 16, but your humble blogger was there to witness it.

Since then, the term employee engagement has become part of the popular business lexicon. For the sake of morale, retention, productivity, innovation, customer satisfaction, and profitability (the little things), it’s critical that employees are engaged and that managers remain focused on individual and team development. Managers who read this and think, “How dumb. People get paid to work. They should work,” are doing a grave (and costly) disservice to their employer.

Today’s top managers understand that leading people effectively is both an art and a science. As an artist, would you use fine sculpting implements to free your masterpiece from its marble cage… or a sledgehammer? As for the science part, well, dinosaurs belong in museums, not in the workplace like our morale-destroying friend in the anecdote above.

But what does “employee engagement” really mean in today’s World of Work?

It’s not about perks, parties, and bonuses. While those things can be positives if doled out appropriately and wisely, it’s meaningful work that truly keeps people engaged. We can’t all work for non-profit organizations and charities, but we can be productive and committed when we know our work:

• Plays to our skills, strengths, and motivations
• Measurably contributes to and supports shared goals
• Earns us recognition from management and peers

As a manager, you can help raise engagement levels by setting clear, attainable objectives; defining the role of each team member; providing meaningful support; and following through to show appreciation, provide feedback, and constructively address opportunities for improvement.

Most importantly, today’s leader must recognize that each employee is unique and will respond best when managed in accordance with individual strengths and limitations. The only thing that should be torn up and thrown away is that prehistoric, one-size-fits-all management approach that merely engages employees in the act of looking for a different job somewhere else.