Employee On boarding – Optional or a Business Imperative

Employee On boarding is a formal procedure to integrate a new employee in the system or culture of the organization. It has many aspects like compliance, culture, communication, goal setting, and trainings to name a few. Why we need a formal on boarding process, can we not just assign a buddy and get away with it. In this article we will focus on the WHY aspect of employee on boarding.

Many of us must have visited local nursery for buying new plants. Being a huge fan of gardening, I always get a lot of plants from nursery. I am always very impressed to witness how all the plants are maintained so well, healthy, lush green and in full bloom. I think it is the outcome of hard work of gardener who has taken care of plants and the plants who have adapted well to that particular environment & flourished. I purchased a very healthy looking plant and bought it home, hoping it will continue to bloom in the same way.

After few days, I observed my healthy looking plant had started shedding its leaves for first few weeks. This got me worried, I continued providing it the right kind of soil, water, sunlight & care.

As time passed, I realized that it’s the old leaves that are shedding and they are gradually replaced by tiny new ones. After few weeks of nurturing, the new leaves started growing larger in size, resembling the ones in the local nursery. Now I was happy to see that my hard work of taking care of the plant had started showing results and plant had started adapting to its new environment. It was now strong enough to take care of itself if provided with the basic needs of right soil, water & sunlight.

“Human Beings are Plants with complex emotions”

Let us compare above episode with employee on boarding. So as they say “Human Beings are nothing but plants with complex emotions”. When we hire a new employee, we are getting a candidate from outside system into our system. The employee on boarding process helps the transition of a candidate into employee first and later on into a team player/contributor.

During the entire on boarding process, we help the candidate to shed his old learning or methods from the previous organization and adapt to the new culture or environment. The new learning are majorly related to compliance, company, culture, new skills & new goals/milestones to be achieved.

Thus, employee on boarding is not something which is optional but is a business imperative. Especially during the covid times a thorough employee on boarding process can prove to be a great boon to the organizations.

To overcome the challenges of virtual team hiring and managing, more & more companies are investing time and efforts in a robust employee on boarding process. If you find today’s article useful. Please subscribe to our blog – https://forms.gle/VHLNYzVoys4HbNfR9 if you wish to receive such articles regularly in your inbox or visit our blog www.acesai.in/blog

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5 Essentials to achieve workforce diversity

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Diversity & inclusion, has many dimensions. It can be diversity & inclusion of different thought processes, inclusion of more women in the workforce or D&I of employees  from diverse cultures, race, geography, country etc. etc. There are many organizations talking about it. However when it comes to implementation, very few who are genuinely doing it. Reason because it’s not easy to develop a D&I culture.  

In today’s article, I’ve listed out 5 steps to follow, in order to  to hire and retain diversity workforce.

“Diversity is mix, Inclusion is making the mix work” – Andres Tapia

  1. Create Organizational Awareness about D&I: Hiring new employees from diverse background without creating acceptance among existing employees can lead to discrimination. Hence it is very important to create awareness about the advantages of D&I among the existing employees. To let this idea sink in across all levels, conduct D&I awareness training by hiring a Diversity & Inclusion Manager/engaging an External Consultant.

 

  1. Revisit the existing HR policy: Sometimes unknowingly an HR policy may have some elements which create bias. Review the existing HR Policy thoroughly to make sure there is no bias in interviewing process, on-boarding process and so on.

 

  1. Include it in your Employer Branding: Let the prospect candidates know that you are an equal opportunity employer that believes in diverse & inclusive culture by including it in employer branding message on all platforms.

 

  1. Create job descriptions that invite applicants from diverse background: A company wishes to hire employees from diverse background. However, the Job Descriptions are designed around technical skills and some generic soft skills. This fails to attract applicants from diverse backgrounds. Modify the JD and eliminate words/points which are unknowingly introducing a bias and preventing applicants from diverse backgrounds.

 

  1. Continuous Improvement: Developing a diverse & inclusive culture is not a quick fix. Like all other good skills in life, its an ongoing process of learning from past mistakes and improving.

 

To survive and thrive in this crisis situation, diversity & collaboration is the key. Companies need diverse clients, diverse products/services, an agile society  and diverse & inclusive workforce. Hope your found today’s article useful.
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Top 5 Pillars to Build a Strong Employer Brand

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Employer Branding, whenever we hear this, we think of a cleverly crafted message to attract talent, fancy videos showing happy employees and happy workplace, career/social media pages on which is in line with the employer brand message, etc.

Employer branding means to be an employer of choice first, to create a great employee experience and later communicating it in a compelling manner via different mediums. Companies who get this right are extremely successful in drawing the best talent towards them and thus creating exponential growth.

There is nothing wrong with the marketing your employer brand, but this activity should be done after /in parallel with building a solid foundation for employee experience. Great branding with a poor foundation is a recipe for failure.

“Strong Foundation = Strong Brand “

In this article, I will highlight the 5 pillars of building a foundation for a strong and long-lasting employee experience/employer brand.

  • Solid HR Systems & Processes: Employee experience starts with a candidate who decides to apply for a job with your company. A systematic process designed keeping in mind employee experience, without losing the sight of the company’s vision is very important. Strong HR systems and processes right from hiring, onboarding, performance management system, etc is the first pillar for a strong employer brand.

 

  • Meaningful Employee Engagement: This involves meaningful involvement with peers and seniors to foster a culture of innovation. Top employers like Toyota, Google, etc have a system of discussing and documenting innovative ideas right from senior management, middle level to Front liners. They have a system to document, implement, and appreciate the innovative ideas of front liners. Of course, not all companies have a budget to support innovation on that scale, however meaningful employee engagement activities, where they get a sense that they are contributing to the larger vision of the company, increases employee satisfaction index to a great extent. Meaningful employee engagement which leads to growth and learning of both employee and employer is the second pillar.

 

  • Transparency in Communication: A Company is an ecosystem, with a variety of employees coming from different backgrounds. Every employee has something unique to offer to the company based on their education, background, experience, culture, etc. Open door policy where an employee can voice their ideas and concerns without the fear of being judged is the third important pillar.

 

  • Creating awareness about the vision of the organization: Clarity of company vision to the entire team up to the frontline staff. When the employees are aware of how they are contributing to the greater vision of the organization, there is a sense of belonging to the organization and greater satisfaction. Thus leading to achieve the company’s vision and mission.

 

  • Team bonding & Appreciation: This is little more than team building activities like learning together, playing together, etc. and employee awards. It is about developing a culture that encourages appreciation/ empathy/teamwork instead of blame/gossips/denial. This is a two-way thing; management cannot develop a culture of gratification without support from the team. Do not underestimate the power of a sincere Thank you from a colleague, boss, or family member. It instantaneously elevates your satisfaction and happiness. So a company where people are frugal in blaming/gossiping/denial and generous on appreciation/empathy is undoubtedly the best place to work.

 

I hope you find today’s article useful.  If you’d like more tips on building your Employer Brand, then please feel free to subscribe to our blog – https://forms.gle/VHLNYzVoys4HbNfR9 or visit our blog www.acesai.in/blog.

We’ve helped organizations right from startups to Multi-National Companies, build their employer brand. Contact us with your queries on contact@acesai.in, our HR experts will be happy to help.


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Gap in the CV-Should I hide it?

The is the most common thought job seekers come across, “I have a break in my career, should I disclose it on CV or  hide it ”

Last week while hiring for one of our clients, two candidates made it to the final round of interview. One with consistent experience and other on a career break due to valid reasons.  They made an offer to the candidate who was currently on career break. Thus, hiding a break on CV is a short term fix, but it can cost you dearly in long term. Today we will look at some common career breaks in India and what can be done about it.

  • Maternity Break/Break after Marriage: Most women employees are required to take this break at some stage of their career. Reason can be geographical move due to marriage or maternity break. 
  • Layoffs/ Made redundant: Layoffs due to change in external or internal changes in the business environment. This is a common reason for a forced career break.
  • Further Education: Employees take a break and pursue higher education mostly a Master’s Degree or some specialization in the current domain/acquire a new skill.
  • Family Reasons: Sometimes employees are required to take a break to nurse a sick family member/ spend some time with family / improve or mend a broken relation.
  • To recover from illness: Taken a break to recover from illness and improve health.


The biggest apprehension of the interviewer while hiring someone who is currently on a career break is that whether the candidate is not updated with the skill/technology. Will the candidate be able to contribute as productively as before? In the following ways we can help them overcome this barrier in decision making.

  • Be Genuine and Honest: Be as genuine and honest as possible. Explain the reason of taking the break in brief, in CV as well as during the in person interview. Presenting supporting documents in some cases wherever applicable.
  • Duration of Break: Just make sure the duration of the break is optimum, not very long, of course based on the reason of taking the break.
  • Acquire new skills & Stay updated: Stay updated with the skills and technologies during the break, by working on consulting projects, freelancing, attending industry events or reading industry magazines.
  • Network: Keep in touch and network with your old colleagues and people who can help you make a comeback.

 

There is no need to hide the career break or feel uncomfortable talking about it during the interview. Answer honestly & confidently with concrete examples how you proactively made most of the time outside office, by acquiring new skills/contributing to the community .Most important why you are excited about the position you are applying for and what value you can offer.

 

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5 Quick Fixes to Speed up Slow Hiring Process

Slow hiring does great damage to your business.  As discussed in our article (http://acesai.in/5-ways-slow-hiring-is-hurting-your-business/ ), it results in losing top candidates, poor quality of hire, and an increase in indirect costs. All this caused a great impact on your client servicing and employer brand.

On your road leading to the destination of correct hire, there are many speed breakers. Slow down at the speed breakers and apply the given quick fixes. This will help you reach your destination at the earliest and most efficient way. Following are the major speed breakers in the hiring process:

Speed Breaker 1-Lack of clarity of the position to be filled Technical team, Hiring Managers and Recruiters have a different understanding of the job role, which is due to their inherently different perspectives. Resulting in a lot of miscommunication and delays.

Quick Fix Job Description, an hour spent together by the technical team, hiring manager, and recruiter writing a detailed Job description, will ensure everyone is on the same page and will avoid future delays due to unrealistic expectations from each other.

Speed Breaker2-Candidate No shows  Candidates drop the last minute during the initial round of interviews. Thus resulting in repeating the entire sourcing, interview cycle.

Quick Fix: Video interviews, for initial screening and schedule in-person interviews of only the ones shortlisted for the final interview.  There are 80% fewer chances of candidates dropping in the final round of interviews.

Spread Breaker 3-Wrong Hiring Strategy Too many interviews by too many interviewers, leading to the dropping of good candidates from the funnel and delay in hiring.  

Quick Fix Most of the top employers in the world follow the rule of 3.  No candidate to be interviewed more than 3 times.  If more than 3 interviewers are required to get involved. It can be a panel interview (video interviews recommended to avoid no shows).

Speed Breaker 4- Delay in decision making Delayed decision making is also one of the major reasons for losing top candidates.

Quick Fix Provide Decision making checklists (Job Description) and hiring deadline to the technical team, hiring manager, and recruiters.

For less complex roles walk-in interviews/recruitment drives help close multiple positions in a single day. For niche or hard to fill roles, above quick fixes can help reduce the hiring time substantially.  

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Post Covid Interviews, Real or Virtual- a Headhunter’s perspective.

Thank you very much for your encouraging response to the previous articles. With the recent Covid19 situation and social distancing scenario, most of the businesses across the world have adapted themselves to survive the crisis. Last couple of months we have witnessed a huge shift in the way companies doing business. Most of the business processes like are shifting from Real to Virtual platforms.

 

The hiring process is no different. Question is, will companies continue Virtual Hiring after the crisis is over? Well, we don’t know, however, one thing is definitely sure, life is never going to be the same again. My perspective as a Headhunter is that the post Covid19 crisis, cost, and speed are going to be the most critical elements of hiring than it has been ever.  Post Covid hiring is going to be of past ways of hiring(In-person interviews)  and new learning acquired due to crisis(virtual interviews), to optimize the hiring process and make it more effective.

In today’s article, I’ve summarized the pros and cons of Real Interviews and Virtual Interviews and how we can use the best of both worlds to adapt productively for the long term.

 

Real(Inperson ) Interviews

 

Virtual (online) interviews
Pros:             

1.       More personal Touch:

Important in the final round of interview with senior management, where critical discussions related to salary negotiations and company future plan/vision occurs.


2.       Opportunity to see future employer premises:  

 An in-person interview gives an opportunity for candidates to see the office/manufacturing facility, that establishes trust in the company.

3.       No additional employer branding  required:

Since the company already has the setup in place, no additional employer branding is required.

 4.       No Software security measures/firewalls required:

 

 

 Cons:

 1. Geographical Limitations: It is more time consuming considering the travel time required and also the travel expenses incurred either by the company or candidate.

 2. High Candidate no shows: There is a high last-minute Cancellations/rescheduling of Interviews.

 

 

3. Cost of recruitment high: Time is taken to close a position if high as a result cost per hire also goes high.

 

Pros:

1.       No Geographical Limitations:

An employer can interview candidates from multiple geographical locations on the same day. This avoids a lot of hassles like candidate unavailability due to leave issues, travel delays, and other similar logistic issues.

. 2.       Convenience to attend for candidates:

Candidates are not required to take leaves for interviews and it comes easy for them to attend.


3.      
Significant Reduction in no shows:
Because of convenience, the interview attendance rate is higher compared to in-person interviews.


4.       Fast and cost-efficient: With large talent pool available and fast process. The recruitment time and

5.       cost is significantly reduced.


Cons:

1.       Absence of personal touch:  Candidate does not get a chance to see the office/factory premises in person and employer doesn’t get opportunity to meet the prospective employee in person.


2.      
Investment in a secure video-conferencing application:
Company needs to invest in a secure video-conferencing application. However this cost is not very high and is a one-time expenditure.

3.       Decision-related to cultural fit can be tricky:
There is a great deal of difference in the body language you see in in-person and online.

 

The use of Virtual interviews for initial screening and technical assessment and in-person interviews for behavioral assessment and negotiations can have a great impact on long term cost and time.

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