Twenty percent of turnover happens within the first 45 days, here’s how to get through this delicate period with optimum retention!

Bad hires are more than just a drain on company morale (which by the way is a big deal). Bad hires are estimated to cost several times that person’s first-year salary. In fact, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh was quoted as saying that his own bad hires had cost the company well over $100 million. In almost every industry, salaries and variable costs related to the workforce are, by far, the highest costs of doing business. Point blank, hiring the wrong person should be avoided at all costs. What happens, however, if the hiring decision process is being blamed for a poor or non-existent onboarding process when the problem lies with poor onboarding?

Why your poor onboarding process could be your company’s biggest threat:

Imagine the time, effort and money put into recruiting, interviewing, vetting and hiring the best candidate for your team only to have that investment squandered as they walk through your doors. This is an all-too-familiar tale in companies where onboarding is not done right or not done at all.

• Retention starts day one. The job market is competitive. Recruiting and retaining good employees is more important than ever. The September jobs reports that announced a decline in the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage to 3.7 percent; the lowest seen in the U.S. in decades. Fewer job seekers are actively looking, and in certain fields like tech, finance and medical, these sought-after pros can pick and choose where they land.  
• Culture is contagious. Culture is a recruiting competitive-edge that wins top talent to your team. Lack of communication, poor training, and high turnover rates not only cost your business money, they negatively impact your culture.
• Your brand is on display. What happens inside your company, no longer stays inside your company. With online networking on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and other platforms, new candidates now have the ability to learn what truly happens in your organization. Make sure what they see is positive!

Four ways HR tech solves your onboarding conundrum:

So, if you recognize your human resources and onboarding weaknesses, you’ve made a great step toward identifying the problem. And, no need to panic, you’ve got a bevy of tech tools that you can easily tap into to help you get your onboarding up to snuff ASAP!

1. Reach remote teams. The number of remote workers in the U.S. workforce has been trending upward for the last ten years. While offering remote work options is a great recruiting tool, it can create some training and communication challenges. Technologies like enterprise chat and robust, cloud-based project management systems are readily available that allow new team members to stay connected, get face-to-face training (even if it’s screen-to-screen) and provide visibility to progress.
2. Dot Is and cross Ts. Compliance is an ever-evolving area of human resources. When hiring new employees, it’s important to comply with federal, state and local regulations and document that compliance. By using HR tech tools to digitize the entire paperwork process, you can protect your company from risks of non-compliance or poor record-keeping. And the new hires will love you for streamlining this not-very-exciting-but necessary part of the onboarding.
3. Communication flow demystified. Your current employees, as well as your new employee, need a constant flow of communication. In fact, a top complaint of unhappy employees is that their company did not let them know when things changed. Transparency, easily accessible communication, and consistency are the keys to keeping your workforce (both new and existing) feeling in-the-know.
4. Gain key insights. HR tech tools can also provide you with insight as to what’s working with your onboarding efforts and what’s not. Using qualitative tools (like creating confidential feedback channels) and quantitative tools such as performance metrics or training follow-up surveys.

Your company only gets one chance to make a first impression with your new hires. And up to 20 percent of turnover occurs within the first 45 days of employment. The good news is there are countless technology tools to help support and grow with the demands of your unique team.

Here’s what the TA industry should learn from NPR’s “Fresh Air” host as she lays out her conversation fundamentals for the New York Times.

Recruiting is all about conversations – with candidates, hiring managers, leadership, you name it. As a whole, recruiters tend to be an outgoing bunch, but there’s more to quality conversations than not being shy. That’s where Terry Gross comes in.

After 40 years in radio and thousands of interviews, Gross has learned a thing or two about talking to people. Her catalog includes famous personalities like Stephen Colbert, reclusive celebrities like author Zadie Smith, and interesting unknowns like Marine Corps Mortuary Affairs officer Jessica Goodell.

Comedian Marc Maron named Gross as “the most effective and beautiful interviewer of people on the planet” and, in 2016, former President Barrack Obama awarded her the National Humanities Medal. Yet, Gross’ career started humbly back in the 1970s when she landed a job with the Buffalo radio station WBFO after struggling to find her way in post-collegiate life.

Through Gross’ many-many encounters with the wide spectrum that is humanity, she’s walked away with several tenets to live by, and though you, as a recruiter, may never find yourself interviewing foreign dignitaries or movie stars, conversations are key to good recruiting!

Follow along with Gross to see what your interactions are missing!

*Photo via Terry Gross’ Twitter

Be funny, and if not, be organized

“A good conversationalist is somebody who is fun to talk to,” says Gross. Yet, not everyone can be humorous all the time. When gravity is the order of the day, organized and clear communication is a close second to levity. This is especially true for interviews where clarity is key.

Know who owes you an answer… and who doesn’t

Gross makes the comparison between a politician and an artist; the former “owes” the public answers, while the latter doesn’t. Before pushing on a question, ask yourself under which category this person belongs, and if the question you are asking is ‘need to know’. Let’s look at two examples:

A hiring manager passes on a stellar candidate and is evasive about why.

Push! This is a colleague and the information is pertinent to your job… check out below to learn how to push like a pro.

You ask a candidate why they left their old job and their answer is vague.

Move on! A vague answer doesn’t necessarily reflect negatively on the applicant. Perhaps they are nervous to say anything bad about their former employer, or they could have experienced harassment or bullying. Either way, a better question to ask is why they applied for the job they are interviewing for now.

Here’s how to get an answer when you need it

If you already have determined that this question should—and must—be answered, then keep asking. “[I] keep asking and re-asking and asking,” says Gross, “and maybe I’ll ask it in separate ways, and maybe I’ll point out that they haven’t yet answered the question.”

If you don’t want to seem too pushy, explaining why you need an answer is a good strategy. Referring to the above example, you could inform the hiring manager that you need a specific reason for why they rejected the candidate so you can refer stronger applicants in the future.

Prepare, preferably overly so

“It helps to organize your thoughts beforehand by thinking about the things you expect you’ll be asked and then reflecting on how you might answer,” says Gross.

Applied to recruiting, this advice means having a clear idea of what you need from the conversation, the relevant role-criteria, and a concrete value proposition for the candidate. Having structured questions, i.e. a predefined list of questions you asking each interview helps to avoid bias, so win-win.

Curiosity killed the cat, not the interviewer, so get interested

Gross says the key to engagement is “being genuinely curious, and wanting to hear what the other person is telling you. I can respond to what somebody is saying by expressing if I’m feeling sympathy or empathy, and explaining why.”

Another way to describe this is “being present”. As a recruiter, you may talk to 20 candidates in a day about the same job. It may begin to feel like a repetitive factory line. To avoid checking out, practice mindfulness and be keenly aware of the present moment, paying particular attention to the person being interviewed.… they’re a beautifully complex and infinite human being after all.

End the conversation gracefully

If you are trapped in an endless conversation Gross prescribes some sugar-coated honesty. For example, “Well, there’s the truth, which is ‘I’d love to talk some more, but I’m really late.’”

“Late” is not a great excuse if you are at a networking event. In this case, using the restroom, needing to call home to check on the kids, or introducing a third person into the conversation are all tactful exits.

“Tell me about yourself”… a.k.a. the ultimate icebreaker

Gross recommends this simple phrase for any awkward conversation. Say you’re driving cross-country with a friend’s boyfriend – à la When Harry met Sally – or stuck in a broken elevator with a coworker, these four words will carry you through any situation.

Gross points out that it’s one of the few questions (though not technically a question) that make no presuppositions. Even the classic “what do you do?” query assumes the person has a job or profession that defines them. “Tell me about yourself” allows the responder to guide the conversation and set their own boundaries.