Good afternoon. Welcome to PCI's webinar series. Today's presentation is Recruiting and Onboarding Best Practices. This webinar is brought to you by Miller Cooper and Company. My name is Nicole Clow, Marketing Coordinator at PCI, and I will be your moderator for this session. Before I turn the controls over to your presenter for today, I have a few introductory items to note. Earlier today, we sent a reminder email to all registered attendees that included a handout of today's presentation. That handout for this webinar can also be found in the handout section of your webinar pane. If you cannot download the handout, please email PCI Marketing at marketing at pci.org. Please note that all attending lines are muted. The GoToWebinar toolbox has an area for you to raise your hand. If you raise your hand, you will receive a private chat message from me. If you have a question, please type it into the questions pane where I will be keeping track of them and will read the questions to the presenter during the Q&A period. Also, a pop-up survey will appear after the webinar ends. Today's presentation will be recorded and uploaded to the PCI eLearning Center. Questions related to specific products or publications will be addressed at the end of the presentation. PCI is a registered provider of AIA CES, but today's presentation does not contain content that has been endorsed by AIA. Today's presentation is non-CEU. Our presenter for today is Sue Wingler, Director of Client HR Services for Miller Cooper. She manages the firm's outsourced human resource services, providing HR compliance and best practice reviews, along with short-term or long-term HR support to businesses and non-profits. She has over 30 years of HR leadership and management experience. The Client HR Services team supports the people side of the business. From conducting a review of the HR function to providing day-to-day dedicated HR assistance, they support this critical function with a wide range of services tailored to the needs of each client. Whether the company has an existing HR infrastructure or needs to enhance this part of their business, they are there to help. I will now hand the controls over so we can begin our presentation. Hi, everybody. I hope you can all see my screen. Based on what I'm seeing, I think I am good to go. And I just want to let you all know I'm excited to join you today. Nicole, thank you for such a nice introduction. This is a topic that has been so top of mind for employers for a long time. There's been a struggle, I think, in a lot of sectors to find people for a number of years. And being able to talk about and explore and take some time to think about best practices in your current processes is such time well spent. So I'm glad that you're able to join us today. So the labor market and situations evolve. It's even more critical than ever to take a step back and just concentrate for the next hour on some of the information that I will be sharing with you. Some of it might be new. Some of it might be things that you had heard before. But it's not often that we have the opportunity to stop and work on the business of recruiting and our onboarding strategies. So I think taking a hard look at some of these key areas, building action plans, being intentional is a way to start to maybe move the needle and create that magic that we're all hoping for in attracting the people that we need for our businesses. I'm also hoping that we'll have time at the end for questions. So like Nicole said, please feel free to put as much information in the chat as you would like, and we'll address as many questions as we can. And there's always an opportunity to follow up on one if that would be helpful. So I always like to start with just kind of getting you to think about a few things. Can you describe your culture? Can you describe your values? And do you know what makes you special? I've asked that question of so many employers over the years. What makes you special? And when I do this live, I ask for a show of hands. And very few people are actually able to answer that question. And yet it's so important for what we're going to talk about today. You really need to have clarity around why you are a great place to work. Being able to express what makes you special, what your values are, is the first step to creating your culture and building the foundation for recruiting and retaining your people. So today, these are the topics that we're going to go through. We're going to talk a little bit about the current state of employees and the current state of candidates. Some intentional actions that you can take before you even start the process of recruiting. Understanding candidate behavior. I think that that's so important as you go into developing how it is that you're going to start to tackle this initiative. Then what's the strategy behind attracting talent? And then we're going to follow up with onboarding. These topics are so intertwined and I love the fact that we're able to talk about both of these things today. Manufacturing is in a very interesting state right now. The sector has shown incredible resiliency and innovation with a growth rate of over 14 percent in the first three quarters of 2022. But as we all know, growth is exciting but it also comes with challenges. So as we get into the state of employees, I want to have a minute to do one poll question. So Nicole is going to initiate the poll for you and I'd love to learn what is your most pressing issue? What is the most top of mind for you right now as you think about your business? One of these four kind of fit that category. I'm sure you can list more than these four. Just trying to get some ideas on what you're thinking about today. All right. So those, the labor shortage and the retaining employees. Well, you are not alone. I do know that those are huge topics. Obviously, it's what we are talking about today and there's a second part in the series of these webinars that I'll be doing. So I hope that you'll all look for the webinar in January, which is going to be specific to that retention piece, right? So we're hitting the really big issues today related to the labor shortage and some things that you can do. I will say that there is, you know, no silver bullet, magic formula, whatever you want to call it. But I really believe that a combination of efforts are what helps us as employers start to move the needle on how we can find the right people to work with. So I'm going to go ahead and start with you, Nicole, and then I'm going to turn it over to helps us as employers start to move the needle on how we can find the employees that we need. I also think it's important to think about where we are today, because understanding the current state is so helpful in being relevant in the strategies that you're going to put into place. So according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, manufacturing job growth is averaging 34,000 per month, which is just slightly higher than 2021. So it's been on a really good pace. The industry is definitely rebounding and is continuing to show growth. Another survey reported that 77% of manufacturers plan to increase headcount in the next 12 months, which tells me that there's a lot of optimism about what's coming. But again, that also comes with some challenges that I hope that we can kind of work through a little bit of solutions today. And you know, the labor shortage is real. People have been quitting jobs in record numbers. We've all heard that, the great resignation, right? That went on for a really long time. We're not seeing it so much anymore, but now we're hearing this phrase about quiet quitting. So there's a lot of stress on the labor market right now. And this may actually be the most challenging aspect of recruiting. The US Chamber reported at the end of October, and their data shows that we have over 10 million job openings in the US, but only around 6 million unemployed workers. And manufacturing is one of the industries that is searching for these people for sure, because of the growth that the sector is seeing. And we've already been dealing with a shortage of skilled labor. I spent the first 20 some odd years of my career in manufacturing, and I remember way back when that we were still concerned about skilled labor. So the skills gap and different things that are taking place is still a concern. Last year, there were 3.8 million jobs added to the positions, but millions of Americans also left the job market as we've already talked about. So what we're feeling is definitely something that is actually happening. What's causing it? You may have looked into this yourself, but what I found is that there's no one cause. Many people retired early, adding that already existing issue of certain skills aging out in a number of different industries, and not a lot of people coming in to replace those skills. Immigration has slowed for a period of time, which significantly impacted the labor pool for more entry level positions. This is interesting. Indeed, reported in a survey that 92% of workers voluntarily resigned from two jobs in 2021. And the reason that they said that they did that is because life is too short to stay in a job they're not passionate about. I found that to be a really interesting piece of a survey. Burnout is significant for those who are still working because there's longer hours, people are picking up extra work because of the labor shortage. So some ripple effect of this as well. Women are participating in the labor force at the lowest rate since the 70s. I thought that was also very interesting. And unfortunately, wages have not always kept up with inflation and different things. And certainly where we are today, that has become even a more significant issue. Manufacturing has been working hard to respond. Lots of employers have been working very hard to respond to that, but it's tricky and it's not always easy to navigate the wages against inflation and what people are looking for. And the last point on this is just daycare is not recovered. There was a lot that created the situation that we are in now over the last two and a half years and the recovery in that industry is incredibly slow. So that is definitely impacting people's ability to reenter the workforce. There is definitely a high demand, the wait lists are long, but almost 90,000 fewer workers are in that industry compared to February of 2022. So that's a real issue that families are struggling with that impacts our ability to have a more robust labor pool. And of course, supply chain issues are linked to recruiting challenges for sure in warehousing and distribution and logistics and all those other things. So all of this is definitely connected. And we feel like things are getting better slowly. That doesn't help us necessarily find all the people that we need today. In fact, NAM reported that 80% of manufacturers still consider this whole supply chain disruption one of their biggest challenges. Regardless of the challenges, we have work to do, right? We need to go out there and we need to find people and we need to do everything we can to get the people in our doors that are going to be most effective and boost our productivity and become good, valuable parts of our team. So finding the right people is step one. I love this quote. Real competitive advantage in any business is one word only, which is people. There's no question that business is hard today for so many reasons. And we talked about some of them, right? And I won't say that I have all the answers. But like I said earlier, I do hope that there's a combination of activities that you can start to consider and implement that are going to help you move forward and find some processes that are going to be a little bit more effective so that you've got good intentional recruiting efforts. And as I like to say, that you don't lose them at hello, that your onboarding processes are going to bring them into the fold in a way that is going to encourage them to stay and support them to be successful employees. And there are many factors that we can't control. But for the next 40 minutes or so, I really hope that we're talking about everything that you can control. That's what I've tried to focus on, are what are the things that we can control? Because there's other stuff going on that we can't. And so I think that this is where we're going to integrate multiple strategies and hopefully give you that that you need. It all starts with understanding you. It goes back to that first question on the slide about what makes you special. So you may already have your culture defined. But if not, this slide gives you some ideas on how you can get started. Maybe you've grown or it's been a while since you've thought about this. Either way, taking some time to kind of take a fresh look at your culture, why you exist, what the values are at your company, how you see those values demonstrated at work, talking to key people about what this is like for them so that you can get a very clear picture on who you are. I think that that is the best place to start. You need to have your elevator speech to be able to answer that question of what makes you special. Why would somebody want to apply for a job with you? What is it that sets you apart? So that takes some thought. It takes some questions. It takes some discussion to really hone in on what that is for your company. But the effort is so worth it. So use this slide when you get the handouts and things and go through the process and find the pieces of this that really makes sense for you and for your organization. Let this guide the conversations and help you identify and really put down on paper who you are, what makes you special, what are what makes you special, what are the values in your company that you want to see exhibited in your employees. Values and culture can evolve over time. So this is something that I definitely would encourage that you look at periodically. Don't think that you've got to get it perfect right out of the right out of the gates. Just make sure that it's authentic. So this is really the first thing that I would encourage you to think about doing as you look at boosting your recruiting strategy. And then next up is you need to really think about your employment brand. The work you put into understanding your values will absolutely pay off as you look to build this brand. It will help you create the image of your company that is reflective of who you are and what you value. And you may not be able to, you know, impact the whole industry because I do think that certain industries suffer sometimes from, you know, people aren't sure what that work looks like or it may not, you know, be as positive of an environment that they may think it ought to be or, you know, they have some preconceived ideas about that. And I think through your employment brand you really have the opportunity to showcase how cool your company is. And that's something that I think taking a little bit of time to think about how you can boost that brand really makes a difference. Because if you're not defining who you are and what your employment brand is, somebody else will. And so that can be done in a number of different ways by what's posted online, what's talked about in the parking lot. There's lots of ways that your brand can get out there if you're not paying attention to it. And so being thoughtful about how you approach your employment brand and being sure that it's authentic is really important. So as we reflect on, you know, what we're hearing about industry and why people are leaving and we're building our brand, you know, Simon Sinek said something great, which is corporate culture matters. And for those of you who aren't familiar with Simon Sinek, he's a very famous speaker and author, does a lot of motivational speaking. He's great on culture. And I love what he says, corporate culture matters. Management chooses to treat its people impacts everything, for better or for worse, right? So we can impact things depending on how we decide that we want our culture to be. So it's so important that we think about our values, think about our culture, think about our employment brand, and really have an authentic look at that. So as you approach your search, remember that there are also cultures within your culture. This is something that I really encourage you to think about. We're going to touch on this in a few more slides a little bit more. But every manager has their own style. So every department within your company has its own culture. And I think as you go into recruiting for anybody within certain departments, you need to understand what that department culture is like as well. Because what you're trying to find is, what is the profile of the person that I'm looking for who can be successful in my company, who can be successful in that particular department? And so you really need to understand what's going on there, how people work together, how the values are demonstrated, so that you can share that with candidates. We already talked about the defining what makes you special. I know I've said that a number of times, but it is so important to figure out what makes you special. And I think that's so important to figure out what sets you apart. And then the website. This is something that oftentimes gets overlooked, where there's not a robust career page. It doesn't speak to employees, it doesn't speak to values, it doesn't speak to culture. Different candidates are going to look at websites at different moments in time, and some may never look at it. But I will tell you that candidates that do research always go to the company website. And there are a lot of candidates who will look at a company's website and do research on them before they even decide if they want to apply for the job. So taking a look at your website and building that robust career page, making sure that you've got pictures and videos, however you can do that appropriately. I know sometimes we can't always take pictures of what we're doing, but find ways that you can really show people who you are, what it's like to work for you. Think about employee testimonials and things like that. One of the things that I think is a great thing to do is if you have a career page, and if you're able to upload a video, have somebody who's currently doing the job talk about a day in the life of somebody doing that particular job. Videos and images are so engaging to people when they go to people's websites. So use those as much as it's appropriate for you, but real thoughtful about how you develop those pages. And keep them fresh. Look at them once in a while and make sure that they stay updated. You know, over the years I've asked hundreds of clients to google their company name and check out what comes up on the first page. I don't know if any of you have done that recently or have done that at all, but that's basically what a candidate is going to see about you. And I think it's really important that you know what's out there. If you don't quite like what you discover, if there's something out there that isn't putting you in the most positive light, there are things that can be done to try to combat that and to move those further down on the list. But really focus on what shows up on page one. That, like I said, that's what the candidate is going to see when they do some research on you. And I think it's just really important for you to be aware of what that looks like. So above all else, whatever you post, whatever you put on your website, you want to make sure that it's genuine and authentic. It has to be real. It has to really represent who you are, because not only your candidates, but your employees are going to find out pretty quick if what you're saying isn't aligning with what you're putting out. So work that you do on your culture, your values, your employment brand, all of that is really going to pay off big time. You just want to make sure that it is accurate and reflective of exactly who you are. I love to try to understand candidate behavior. I talk about this a lot because it changes and it evolves and there's different things that create what the candidates are looking for. Some would say that we've been in a time and a place where the power has swung to the candidate, right? There's been other times where the power has swung towards the employer and so things change and evolve. Just because we thought we knew what was going on a couple years ago doesn't mean that it's the exact same today. So these five blips on this slide are really what surveys are telling us and I've looked at a lot of data and I've done a lot of research and this is really what is rising to the top of what people are looking for today. So how do you fit with these needs? So understanding the trends, it will help us craft our messaging, it will help us craft some of the information that we need to start to share with candidates. Well-being benefits. This has really been a huge topic in 2022. This looks a little different for different people for sure, but in general this is something that is becoming a major attractor factor for candidates and that ties very closely with work-life balance. And what does that mean for people? Not everybody can have remote work or even flexibility with their work, right? So this is something that I think we need to always be mindful of is that people are looking for some control in their day and so what does that look like for you? What can you offer? I'll talk a little bit about that in I've got a couple of examples that I can share with you, but going back to these well-being benefits, in some surveys that I saw specifically Gen Z, 67% of the respondents reported that well-being benefits are a top priority in evaluating job offers. Financial education. This one's interesting. Financial education has really been something that a lot of people are talking about and the numbers are that 80% of candidates that were surveyed were looking for their employer to support education and that's education around retirement planning, budgeting, just overall financial planning. What's interesting about a secondary study that I saw is that Harvard Business Review took a look at this and what they realized is there was a study where 94% of the employers in this study said that they put in and made significant investment in their well-being programs, but what Harvard Business Review found is that less than 40% of the employees of those companies took advantage of the programs. So what's so important to do when you're looking at well-being benefits or any benefits is there is a cost to doing all of this, right? And it's so important that you know your population, you know your people and what this means to them because the last thing I would ever want to see a company do is invest in putting a benefit in place that misses the mark because then it's just going to fall flat and there's a lot of work that was done to put something in place, a lot of resources that were used and if it's not meeting the needs of employees it can really be almost a disincentive. So it's just so important when you look at well-being benefits and those types of activities that you're really honing in on what it is that you're that your workforce means by looking for well-being benefits. And you can ask candidates specifically those questions. Okay, what is important to you? What does this mean for you? And then be able to answer their questions with what you're able to do to align with that. So work-life balance, we touched on that already, but some ideas on getting creative because like I said most jobs in this country cannot be done remotely. Most of them cannot and so how can we impact this work-life balance that people keep talking about? Some ideas could be just allowing a little flexibility with an employee to be able to cut back hours for a period of time if they need to do something like that. I know some clients have looked into this condensed work week, right, where they're looking at a four-day-a-week schedule instead of a five-day-a-week schedule. Years ago we started talking about job share options. Well, maybe that's something that comes back again where people are looking to do split time on a job. Shift swapping, if you're a multi-shift operation, sometimes people they don't want to lose a day of pay or use a PTO day or something. Maybe there's an opportunity to swap a shift so that they can attend an event at their child's school or whatever it might be. And then core hours is another one that a lot of companies are considering. Again, some of these may not work for you so these are just some ideas that I came up with. The idea is to just be creative but the core hours concept is everybody's quote-unquote on from say nine to three and then you've got some flexibility on the front end of the back end of the day. So just put a little thought behind it. See what could work for your business and maybe give it a try. You can always pilot something and see if that does the trick and starts to meet some needs of people so that they feel like they've got at least a little bit of control back in their schedule. Alignment of values. I said earlier that that one report out of Indeed was that people voluntarily left two jobs because they just weren't passionate about what they were doing. So aligning with values helps people feel connected and passionate about the work that they're doing. So this is something that really is starting to surface as a big thing that you want to be able to speak to during the recruiting process. And then opportunities for growth. I think that there are many industries that have a lot of opportunity for this because we need people with a certain skill set. We're losing people that have those skill sets and we don't know how to replace them. So talk about just a built-in opportunity for growth that you can talk about with candidates. But remember not everybody is looking to climb the corporate ladder. So sometimes I worry that the messaging is everybody's going to move up or everybody's going to learn this. Well everybody may not want to. I mentioned that I spent a lot of time in my career in manufacturing and I remember I was so grateful for the people who just wanted to come in on third shift and work a molding machine. They didn't have aspirations to move to another shift. They didn't have aspirations to learn more, to become a supervisor. I love the fact that we had this core group of people that that's what they wanted to do. So that is just as valuable as the people who are looking for opportunities to grow. So it's just important that you know your people and how to how to message this and how to address that. Again you can ask candidates what this means for them and what they would be looking for. When you've given some thought to what opportunities you can provide, you can help to fill the blanks for them on why you could be the employer of choice for them. Pay is still a priority and I think it always will be. Somebody who I have a great deal of respect for has said pay is never the the issue and it's always the issue, right? And it's one of those things where we can't ever take that out of the equation. It's trickier today because of inflation because of inflation increasing minimum wages. Many hourly positions have not kept up with inflation so there's this struggle to try to figure out what do we do next. But candidates are tending to look for a way to improve their economic economic situation and that's just kind of always been the reality I think. It just maybe looks and feels a little bit different today. But what is really important with this is that you know your market and what your jobs are worth. Monster put out a report that they saw a 30% increase in applies from views when the wage was noted at the top of the job post. So if depending on where you are with that and I want to spend a little bit of time just talking about the posting of wages in your job post, but there's no question that that can have an impact. Is it right for everybody to do? Not necessarily. That has to be company to company unless you are in a state that requires it. We are starting to see more states require the sharing of the compensation information in the job post. So make sure to check your state rules on that to be sure that you're compliant when you have your job post out there. The other thing though if you're not required is you do have to be aware that once it's out there it's out there right. And what is happening with where compensation is today is we've got wage compression issues. We've got pay equity issues. There's all sorts of things that are out there. So I never would say just go blindly forward and post the wages that you're willing to pay. I think you need to be thoughtful about it and make sure that you know what your jobs are worth. You know what impact if any that information could have on your existing workforce and that you do that with intention. All right so we've covered a lot of ground already but there's still more that we've got to figure out. We really have to know our needs. It's pretty logical right. We need to know what we're trying to recruit for and with that comes a lot of requirements. But one thing I will encourage you to look at is is the requirements that you have on your jobs. It makes a lot of sense to me when I say you know the more requirements you have the fewer candidates you'll have right. The more you require the fewer people will feel as though they're qualified to apply. So I really encourage taking a hard look at the requirements because there's other ways that you can put that information in your job post that gives you the ability to hopefully broaden your candidate pool, attract a broader range of candidates, and then give you a little bit more flexibility when you're actually hiring somebody. And so that's something that you just need to be thoughtful about and this is something that I've been talking about for a long time because one of the big things that's out there is the requirement of a college degree. Some positions and some jobs absolutely may need it but I've seen studies that would say you know 67 percent of the jobs in this country don't require that. That's kind of shocking for a lot of people and I understand that but I think it's important So there's three categories that you can be considering. What is required is required right? Just be thoughtful about what you are requiring. You can prefer something and that would be wow this would be really nice to have. This could just add a little extra element to the skill set and the critical thinking and whatever else it might be. So if you're looking for something that's going to make you feel like you're going to be able to do a lot of the things that you're um to the skill set and the critical thinking and whatever else it might be. And then you've also got this category of desired and desired would be wow that would be really cool if we could get that experience here right. Let's put it out there maybe we'll get somebody that that knows how to do that. That would be your desire so use these three words to better define in your job post exactly what it is that a candidate must have walking in the door that you're required. What must they have walking in the door versus what's preferred or desired. This is so critical to look at before you ever start a search. I've talked with a number of companies who over the years have said you know what I just pull the old job description and I just put it into play and we just can't do that anymore because the market is too tight. You have to really be able to speak to what the job is. People aren't necessarily looking for just any job. There's specific things that they're looking for and the more clear you can be in your job post and and what your requirements are and what the skills that you need are the better alignment that you're going to have. I love to talk about transferable skills and transferable industries. So there's this group of people out there called stars. Those are workers who are skilled through alternative routes rather than formal education. Some believe that this group of adult workers is more than 70 million strong. Forbes put out a study on this group and they said that they are still underemployed in many ways. I would say think of the possibilities if you can figure out how to tap into that group of people. They have gained experience first you know through work versus experience through education but that maybe opens up a whole opportunity for you to find some very very talented people just taking a different look at that college required college degree requirement. I would also encourage you to target people with experience in different industries. There are some industries that would that have been experienced some really high turnover. Recent data from the U.S. chamber listed transportation, construction, and mining as having a labor surplus. Wow that's crazy today right that anybody's got a labor surplus. There are more experienced unemployed workers from those industries than there are open jobs. What can you do to target those candidates? What skills do they have that would be transferable to the work that you need done? Can that create this foundation for easier learning? What can you build off of that they would be coming to you with from those industries? So take an intentional look at transferable skills and industries and really think about how you can target the group of people that you're going after. So clearly defining the qualifications will not only broaden your candidate pool, it can help with diversity initiatives, it can provide growth opportunities, it can give you a clear profile of what a successful candidate possesses, support a more consistent accurate objective selection process. And I love this quote by Jim Collins I think it just really sums it up. We talked about compensation and different things and benefits as far as what people are looking for but it's really important that you take that information you really say okay what is it that we can offer? It's why are we why should we be the employer of choice? Why would somebody want to work for us and what can we do for that person once they are employed? You know McDonald's has taken a really interesting approach to defining what kind of sets them apart. Their brand and message they're committed to being America's best first job. I thought that was so cool. So think about what can you commit to what is it that you want to be as far as an employer and then how do you pull that into your recruiting strategy? Regardless of what your brand message says it should help candidates see that the opportunity is more than a job. Be able to define what success looks like so you can explain exactly what a job looks like to candidates and what the purpose of the job is. Like I said we've spent some time already on pay and benefits but you really need to know going in what this looks like. You want to have a solid compensation philosophy. You want to be able to speak to when reviews come in. Can you do an accelerated review today or not? Can you give them certain markers early on in their journey with you where they can start to see some pay increases? More and more non-professional levels are seeing signing bonuses, attendance bonuses, and things like that. Those are almost becoming everyday conversations now. Every company is going to be different and I know that there's only so much money to go around and I get that. My encouragement is just be thoughtful about what makes an impact and what is it that you can do and how does that work. When it comes to pay an interesting approach I heard from a client is for their hourly positions especially if there is reliable overtime. They don't just post the hourly rate or talk about the hourly rate. Talk about the anticipated gross pay that includes that overtime. I found that to be really interesting and they said that it really did make a difference in their ability to attract people. Just want to throw that out there in case that's something that would make sense for you. Again, you want to focus on this career path in a lot of cases. Not all cases like we already talked about. An opportunity to grow. Join a great company and grow with us. Those are the types of things that people want to hear. Being able to speak to what opportunities can come forward based on them being successful in the job that they're entering could be very helpful to be able to define and include that as part of the communication in your process. Clear you can be with candidates related to work-life balance, pay and benefits, growth opportunities, and their ability to feel aligned with the culture and values. Those things that they are looking for. The better decision they can make and it's so important that the candidate has good information and you have information in order to make the best decision. When you build your strategy, these are all the things that you want to be able to think about. You want to be able to identify your target audience. Who is it that you're going after? How do I craft a job post? How do I select my posting sites so that it can be reflective of this target audience? Be very thoughtful about that and make sure that you are creating a job post that is really going to engage the people that you're targeting. Really take the time to really take the time to revisit your process. There's a few things that I want to touch on. I put basically the process down on this slide, but there are a few things that I definitely would like to touch on. Be sure that you have put some thought behind all of these different steps because everything needs to feel consistent and everything needs to feel like it's aligned. So bottlenecks and streamlining the process, that seems so simple, but it really isn't because we want to be able to move quickly, but recruiting is one of a thousand things that we all have on our plate, right? I think what's most important is you move as fast as you can and get candidates in the fold as fast as you can, but don't make quick decisions. Make sure you have the information you need. Make sure they have the information they need. You know, I've talked with some folks and it's like, oh my gosh, that was a 15 minute interview and they made me a job offer. How does anybody know if that's the right job or not, right? So I think it's important that we move quickly, but we don't move too fast that we don't take the time to make sure that we have the information that we need. So be thoughtful about how fast you're moving. Too fast is definitely going to cause problems. Job post is one of the most critical things that you can put together. And so many times I talk with clients and they just take the job description and that's what they post. It is so important to put together a thoughtful job post. This is a marketing piece. It needs to be exciting. It needs to be interesting. It's like that great essay. How do you connect them? How do you use that first sentence to get them engaged? That is what is so critical for you to think about. In fact, I saw one report that candidates looking at job posts are going to read, hopefully they're going to read the title. So be very thoughtful about your title. Make sure that the title resonates with people so that they can find the job that fits their background easily. And then it's really the first five words. What are you doing to make it interesting? Make it easy for them to read. So many people are looking at this stuff on their phones now. If you've got paragraphs of information or 25 bullet points, they're just going to move on. So keep it short. Keep it sweet. Share the good stuff about you. Share the good stuff about what you can offer. Make sure to hit the key highlights. And I say that very intentionally, the key highlights of the job so that they know essentially what the job is about. And keep it as engaging as possible. It's not the time to get into every single detail of the job in your job post. So remember, think of this as a marketing piece. The other thing that is super critical is this realistic job preview. I have talked again, just in my experience, I know I've been saying this a lot, but I just see this happen and I just want to encourage you to do this differently. I know companies who they're hiring for warehouse or manufacturing or something like that, and they don't ever take people back to see the area that they're gonna be working in. They don't even show them pictures or videos of the area that they're gonna be working in. Is it hot? Is it cold? Do they need to stand all day? What are the things about the job that they need to know? I know for a fact that people come in, work for four hours and walk out at lunch and never come back. That's happened to so many companies. And the one thing that we can control in that process is make sure that people know what the job is and what the job is not. What we may think is an awful part of the job may not be awful to somebody else. So share all of it when you're interviewing people. Make sure that you've provided time for them to see exactly what this job looks like. Create questions, make sure that you have a consistent process. Be sure to ask them what they're looking for and be able to speak to how you align with what they're looking for. And make sure that there's a partnership between HR and the hiring team. Make sure that there's alignment on what everybody is looking for and that everybody's got a consistent approach to the search. Many times that communication can break down. So it's really important that you have those conversations before starting a search. And implement or revisit a referral bonus plan. Our people sometimes know people that could be really good at doing the job that we do. And referral bonus programs can work really, really well. And I know that they have been super popular recently. And that's one that you can also take a look at either just refreshing a little bit, talking about differently. Make sure to share that with your employees if you have that in place. Now we're going to move into onboarding. Like I said at the very beginning, let's not lose the met hello. What we just went through is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. So let's make sure that once we get that accepted offer that we don't stop the work because in reality, the work is just beginning. Look at turnover that you might be experiencing. At what point do you feel like you've got people? A client I worked with, they did this and they found, wow, if I can get somebody to stay for six weeks, I've got them. And so they put a huge effort into that first six weeks of that process. So understanding what you're experiencing with turnover of new hires is really important. There's other ways that you can get some information too that we'll touch on as well. But it's just super important that people feel as though you're ready for them to show up on their first day, that they feel welcomed and that they're excited to be there and that you have been able to demonstrate your excitement for them coming on board. Putting time into your onboarding process is just good business. Turnover is costly, recruiting is costly, training new people is costly. One study reported that about 20% of new hires resign within their first 45 days. So any positive impact you can make to reduce new hire turnover will more to the bottom line. But there's another side to it, which is the people around the people that are coming and going and coming and going and coming and going, right? That doesn't say a lot to the people that are there. So it does have an impact on morale when you have that taking place as well. Gallup Poll said that only 12% of employees think that their companies do a great job at onboarding a new person, only 12%. Another survey that came out said that onboarded employees when that was handled well, and they didn't even say exceptional. They were just saying, if onboarding is handled well, we have a 58% higher likelihood of having that person still in that job three years later. That's pretty cool. That statistic alone says, you know what? It's pretty, it's worth investing in this. So these are the steps to building a robust onboarding plan. It's way more than paperwork. Certainly there has to be some things where you get the required paperwork and you go through the required training and you do things like that, right? But it actually begins with that very first candidate interaction back when you first introduced yourself in the recruiting process. Your recruiting process shows people how they're going to be treated at work. So your onboarding actually goes back to that very first time that you met them. So think about that as you're building your recruiting process as well. So these key components take some time to think about how are we doing in these different areas? Do we have some of these? What can we do? You don't need to create this every single time you hire somebody, right? You can build a template for different positions and then just pull that off the shelf and dust it off and freshen it up when you hire somebody. If you're doing a lot of recruiting and a lot of hiring, this becomes super easy, right? Because you've got this thing and it's a well-oiled machine. And this is what we do when we have somebody new come on board. Our managers need to be on board with all of this and even the teams need to be on board with this. So think about these different components, what you're currently doing and come up with strategies that you can use to try to enhance these different areas. I want to talk a little bit about the checklist. Onboarding checklists are super important because you make sure that you've got a consistent process and you're not going to skip steps. So the first engagement, like I said, is really back in the recruiting process, but this is really when, you know, you've got that accepted offer letter. And one of the things that is so critical to remember is there is this time between when somebody says, yes, I want to come work for you and the time that they walk in the door on the first day. Many times there's no conversation or communication in that period of time because you're moving on to the next recruiting step and you're moving on to the next people that you need to hire, right? It's like, phew, we got one. Okay, let's move on to the next one. Well, that is such a vulnerable position for people to be in. If you're not talking to them, their current employer might be talking to them. They might be entertaining multiple job offers. So find intentional touch points during that period of time when somebody has accepted the offer up until their first day. And so this is really what this first engagement is about. Find those touch points. Okay, we're getting the signed offer letter. We're going to share a job description. We've got some information that we've got to pull together related to agreements. We're going to send them a welcome email or maybe that welcome package. And the welcome package could be a simple card in the mail. It doesn't have to be elaborate. If you do have some money to spend on welcome packages, there are certainly things that you can do. I love the idea of sending something to somebody's home because that engages the family, right? And it gets them excited. And use these touch points in between the time they accept the offer to the time they walk in the door to build that anticipation of that first day of work. Obviously, you do some other things that kind of have to be done, but part of it too is getting that person engaged. Make sure people know that a new person is coming. I can't tell you how many times I hear, I had no idea a new person was starting. So important that you engage the team and engage the people that are going to be working with the new people on who's coming in and what day they're starting and all of that good stuff. So make sure that that is part of your process. If they do have equipment that needs to be set up, if they need to have a key fob for the door, whatever it might be, make sure that that is set up and waiting for them when they walk in. And then of course, your first day, orientation and welcome, right? There's always that component that we cover the paperwork, we cover some of the key policies and HR will spend time going over benefits and different things along those lines. So make sure that you've got your full checklist of all the different forms and documents that you need so that you don't miss anything. And that becomes then your full checklist. So this is just kind of a start at it because you're going to take what you do and fill in the gaps with this. Then I'm going to encourage you to take it one step further. The onboarding is beyond the tactical, right? Take time to talk about company culture and mission. You put so much energy into aligning people with this, reinforce it when they come on board with you. People love to know what kind of company they work for. Who are your customers? What's important to your business? How does their job fit into the company goals? What's their stake in the game? When we help employees see that they're contributing to a bigger picture, it helps them find their purpose and their pride in their work. So identify a few things that you can share that onboarding process. You can even have senior leadership do videos of messages that they want to have to greet new people. If you're a smaller organization or everybody's in one location, sometimes you can actually set up a monthly meeting with the owner or something like that where new people have the chance to just sit for a half hour and talk with the owner. Those things go a long way to help people feel connected in a part of what's going on. And to do that early on just helps them even more so get acclimated to the work that you're asking them to do. And build a plan. I would say at a minimum, focus on those first 48 hours. Day one, everybody kind of knows, right? I show up, I do my paperwork, and I'm probably going to talk to my manager. Not everybody knows what to do on day two. And how good would it feel to be handed a piece of paper that says, hey, we're so excited that you're with us. Okay, for the first couple of days, here are some things that we just want you to be aware of. Here's where you need to be. Here's what time we need you to show up. Give them very clear expectations and don't make them guess. Now for some positions, you may have an onboarding plan that goes six months or a year. For higher level positions, that's not unusual. So you might have a couple of different plans that you can execute on, depending on the position that you're hiring for. So that gives you a few ideas on the slide on what can be included into that plan. The base system is phenomenal. It gives somebody an instant relationship, an instant buddy, an instant connection that they have. So really think about who can be a buddy in different departments, and who can really be that mentor for new people. And give them a place where they can ask questions, follow up on information without always having to go to their manager. Think about different traditions that you can start. Everybody gathers for lunch when people start. And it doesn't mean that you have to buy lunch, but maybe the tradition is, is that everybody sits at a certain table in that department so that the new person can start to meet people. Scheduling regular check-ins is so important. How are people doing? We can't just bring them on board and then not ever check in with them. Who's ever handling your HR should check in with them. Your hiring manager should check in with them both formally and informally. And only you can decide what the right cadence is for your organization, but definitely using that combination of formal and informal and giving new people the opportunity to get more information, to ask questions, to know that they're supported, to build connections, that's really, really important. And I will encourage you one more time to take it to the next level. Culture boarding is something that becomes so important to be able to accomplish early on. This is about facilitating relationships between the new employee and others in their department and within the company. And this really does take a planned strategy. And there's some things on the slide that this can include, but this is about helping people feel part of the team as quickly as possible. This is where you walk the talk, all the things that you put on your website, all the things that you talked about in the interview process, all the things that you hopefully have communicated through clear expectations and what values look like and what success looks like. This is where it really comes into play because you want people to feel that they are part of your organization and that they have made a great choice. So this next, this is the last level of onboarding, but this is such a critical piece to really be thoughtful about, how are we helping people be comfortable just working together? So don't overlook how important some of the soft skills are. It's so much more than doing the tactical aspects of the job. It really is about, are they fitting in well with their team as far as are they working well together? Do they know what the manager is expecting of them? Has the manager set those expectations and followed up on that? Do they feel as though they have a place that they can ask questions? Are they starting to get to know people and hang out with people and feel that connectivity? I think that companies that work on site have a huge advantage to companies that work with remote employees because when we are together, we build connections and culture boarding is all about building connections. So I just wanted to do a quick summary slide and then Nicole, if we've got any questions, we can certainly address those. But hopefully this slide kind of just gives you the highlights of what we talked about today and can start you down that path of really exploring your recruiting and your onboarding processes. Keep an eye on what's going on with candidates. You know, the economy might be changing. You know, there's all sorts of things that are gonna influence what happens with candidate behavior, but understanding that is super important. So take time to look at that once in a while. Be sure to take a fresh look at your job requirements and those job descriptions. Take a look at your processes. Be clear about what you can and can't offer and then invest in that robust onboarding process. Nicole, are there any questions that have come through? Thank you, Sue, for a great and informative presentation. We do have a couple of minutes available for questions. Our first question is, what do you see as the biggest challenge to implementing these strategies? Oh, boy. I think the biggest challenge is really time. Taking the time to be able to work on the business doesn't come easily. You know, I think I said at one point that, you know, there's lots of different responsibilities that we all have and competing priorities. And I really think it's being able to carve out the time to have these intentional conversations and be very clear about what you are looking for in a candidate and then finding the right way to be able to communicate that through your process. So I think that that is the biggest challenge. Wonderful, thank you. We do have another question. What could be the biggest issue to be aware of when building your recruiting strategy? I think it's being clear about expectations. And, you know, I've talked with a lot of new hires. I do a lot of, you know, the new hire check-ins and have for a long time. And I get really surprised sometimes at what their take on how they were onboarded and how they were welcomed is. People didn't know that there was 60% travel and they showed up, they put a month in and then they realized how much they needed to travel because that was something that was never communicated to them. That's just one example. I just think that it is so important that we know exactly what these jobs are like. We know exactly what the environment is like that we're asking people to work in and that we can clearly communicate that. Because when you've got alignment there and clear understanding there, they're going to make the right decision for them. And it's much better to have them, I'll say self-select out early on than take all the training time and take all of the time that you invest in them once they've come on board to just find out that this isn't really what they were looking for. So I think that that's, if I can say focus on one thing, I think that would be what I would really encourage you to focus on is, what does the job look like? And what does it look like to be successful in that job? And just be sure to really clearly communicate that. Great, thank you. We do have time for one more question. So what do you do if you're given the opportunity to employees to grow and gain experience in training? And after this left for more money, is a contract a good solution to keep them on board? So here's the way that I look at that situation. It's interesting because I just was talking about this and I'm not kidding, like an hour and a half ago, I had the same conversation. So this must be something that is becoming more top of mind. People, excuse me, people are looking to grow, right? And so we wanna invest in training. It depends on the level of investment that you're making is the way that I would look at it. Because there are times that companies will invest pretty significant dollars in what they're doing for different people, right? Paying for graduate school, for example, or paying for an undergrad degree where the dollars are much more significant. What I've seen in those cases is they will craft an agreement with the employee that either says, you have to stay for X number of years after completion of the courses or the degree program. And if you don't, then you're gonna owe us some prorated amount based on when you actually leave. And those would be a document that I would ask you to talk to an attorney about to make sure that they're crafted properly. But there are things like that that you can put into place. But on a day-to-day basis, when it comes to training programs and things like that, as hard as this may sound, think about what you're comfortable with because tying a contract to everything can sometimes be counterproductive to your culture. And so, I guess my encouragement would be, think about the training that you're approving at a level that you say, you know what? I feel good about what I'm doing as the employer. I'm willing to invest $1,000, $2,000, whatever the number is, to help somebody gain some additional skills. Maybe it's only gonna be applied to classes and skills that apply to my company, not just in general education. And then, I guess in a way, be okay if they leave. And like I said, I know that that's really hard to hear because you are making an investment, but the hope is that people will see the value of that. But it really comes down to what's important to that person because if they're gonna leave quickly for more money, maybe the training wasn't as important as we thought. And so, I think it really comes down to, this is something that we'll talk about in January, but these engagement interviews and really knowing your personnel and knowing what they're looking for can maybe help in some of those cases. But if you're gonna offer training programs for people and you're gonna reimburse them for different classes at a certain level, at some point, you almost have to kind of be okay with it. But again, you can use these contracts if that's something that's really important to you. I just always say, don't go into it so easily because there's a lot more to that than just what may be on the surface. Sorry, that was kind of a long answer, but it's a little bit of a complicated one. No, that was a great answer. That does conclude our Q&A portion of today's presentation. So, on behalf of PCI, I'd like to thank Sue for a wonderful presentation. If you do have any further questions about today's webinar, please email marketingatpci.org. Thank you again, have a great day, and please stay safe.

recruiting

onboarding

candidate behavior

well-being benefits

work-life balance

opportunities for growth

job requirements

transferable skills

employee engagement

retaining top talent