Recruit, Hire and Onboard the Right Talent. White Paper. Developing Strategy and Using New Tools Are Critical. Sponsored by

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1 Ventana Research: Recruit, Hire and Onboard the Right Talent Recruit, Hire and Onboard the Right Talent Developing Strategy and Using New Tools Are Critical White Paper Sponsored by 1 Ventana Research 2013

2 Table of Contents Challenges in Finding Talent 3 Creating a Successful Employer Brand 4 Getting the Right Fit 5 Rapid Onboarding and Collaboration 6 Business Value in Proactive Recruiting 8 About Ventana Research 10 2 Ventana Research 2013

3 Challenges in Finding Talent As the economy returns to growth and the baby boom generation retires, businesses face the need to ensure they will have the right talent available for important positions. Competition is especially strong for two key categories: management positions left vacant by the departure of experienced staff and new positions created as the business grows to meet market opportunities. All organizations want to hire the best people for key positions, of course, but many fall short because they are not able to define precisely either the jobs or the competencies necessary to do them well. As a result they are not able to identify, attract and hire candidates who truly fit their needs. The roots of this problem lie partly in the fact that most businesses view recruiting and onboarding largely as the responsibilities of HR; typically, we do not see an active role from the lines of business in which the employees will work. This separation often creates silos of knowledge that can limit the effectiveness of overall talent acquisition because business managers and HR are not collaborating to identify, recruit and onboard the types of talent the business needs. Furthermore, the often outdated recruiting and onboarding systems and tools are not designed to foster collaboration between the lines of business seeking new hires and the HR function. The recruiting and onboarding systems businesses use typically are not designed to foster collaboration between the lines of business and HR. To perform optimally and compete successfully, an organization needs a strategy that enables it to market itself, its culture and the positions it offers. Its hiring processes should provide an engaging and meaningful candidate experience that begins to build lasting relationships. It also needs a method to ensure that applicants are effectively tracked and assessed for their suitability to the job and the organization. Then, once they are hired, it is essential to onboard new members of the workforce smoothly, minimizing their time-toproductivity through effective processes and by providing easy access to information they need. 3 Ventana Research 2013

4 In short, many organizations need to evolve their talent acquisition strategy and process into a system that involves all stakeholders in developing the employer brand identifying their and the company s needs matching them to the available talent closing the hire onboarding the new hires seamlessly to improve time-toproductivity. Creating a Successful Employer Brand Employers seeking the best hires must first create a successful strategy to market the organization to candidates. Doing so starts with understanding what matters most to the type of people they want to hire and positioning how the company is presented to attract them. Managers should identify current employees who are the best fit in the organization, understand what makes them a great fit and work with HR to develop processes to recognize and hire similar people. Our benchmark research on social media and recruiting assessed the importance of an array of metrics used in workforce and hiring processes. Establishing and understanding these metrics are keys to developing a successful employer brand. Metrics can inform managers and HR whether the actions the business is taking in developing its brand are attracting the right kind of talent to the organization. As this chart shows, participants in our research said that the five most important are quality of hire, cultural fit, hiring manager satisfaction, time to hire and cost per hire. 4 Ventana Research 2013

5 An employer also must consider as an aspect of branding where to present itself and its job opportunities. The Internet has become the prime channel for recruiting, so human resources departments must market themselves and create an employer brand presence in a sophisticated external recruiting portal and beyond that on job posting sites and social media; more than half (57%) of organizations in our social media and recruiting research said it is important to use social networking tools, systems and services in the recruiting process. Thus, any recruitment strategy must address how to promote the employer brand on social media channels. Doing so effectively will improve the company s exposure to both active and passive potential candidates. Our benchmark research on social media and recruiting reinforces this point: Better promotion of the employer s brand was the second-most requested requirement for recruiting software used on social media channels, chosen by 80 percent of participants. Getting the Right Fit Tying an effective recruiting strategy into the employment branding strategy is essential to be able to prioritize effectively the positions that the business views as most important to fill. This is a key prioritization because recruiting and onboarding are often expensive, resource-intensive activities. Selecting candidates for critical positions is an activity that the line of business and HR should do in collaboration, guided by a strategic workforce plan for the business. This plan should be revised frequently in response to changes in external business conditions, business goals and the internal makeup of the company s talent resulting from factors such as attrition and movement to other positions or groups. 5 Ventana Research 2013

6 HR and the line-of-business stakeholders should engage IT staff responsible for workforce-related systems in identifying and deploying technology tools that can streamline the process of selecting the right people to interview. Such tools can enable Technology tools can streamline the process of selecting the right people to interview through in-depth questions and assessments. them to craft in-depth questions that will help identify candidates with the right fundamental qualifications and facilitate performing a series of knowledge and behavioral assessments to identify those with the mix of personality traits and skills appropriate to fit cultural and job-specific requirements. The rapid penetration of both mobile and social technologies into the recruiting landscape is also forcing a reshaping of the requirements organizations need to consider when evaluating technology tools because onthe-go and collaborative capabilities are increasingly essential. The most direct path to the best candidates today often lies through a website or social media channel. Among social media sites used in recruiting new employees, LinkedIn is the most prominent (identified as very important by 50%) and the most visited on a daily or weekly basis (by 62%), according to our research. Many line-of-business managers have contacts there in addition to sites specific to their functions. Rapid Onboarding and Collaboration Substantial numbers of new employees quit within a year of taking a job. Early experiences shape their opinions about the organization and their loyalty to it. Therefore once candidates have been hired it is important to engage them in the organization as soon as possible. Successful onboarding includes establishing functional collaboration between the new employee, team members and other stakeholders. It also includes getting an employee all the resources he or she requires to become productive quickly; providing connections as needed to formal and informal networks; and helping him or her understand alignment between the employee s goals and the organization s. 6 Ventana Research 2013

7 Effective onboarding involves a combination of established steps and cutting-edge social collaboration. The basic procedures include completing documentation and benefits registration (particularly W-2 and I-9 forms, and payroll and benefits enrollment) and asset provisioning of required business tools such as a laptop and network access, and these days perhaps a mobile device. Onboarding also is about team-building and integrating the individual into work groups so all can be productive. Thus orientation both to the new hire s team and to the company is another essential step, and here social collaboration enables providing several increasingly common forms of assistance: assigning mentors knowledgeable about aspects of the person s job; placing him or her in communities of practice related to the job or group; and providing social search tools to find resources that can answer questions as they arise. Social collaboration technologies are not just intriguing trends but effective tools that can add value in several ways. They connect new employees to the larger organization and can address functional questions to help increase individual productivity. They can increase employee engagement and retention by reducing the sense of isolation that new employees may feel. And from another perspective, they can enable HR to guide line-of-business managers in the process of onboarding new reports. Social tools also can facilitate learning for new employees. Internal social learning tools that are connected to talent management systems communities of practice, for example, or content rating and searching systems increasingly are being embedded within learning management systems. These new tools can help establish collaboration and engagement. Our benchmark research on social media and human capital management shows that knowledge sharing (49%) and collaboration (37%) are the top two uses for internal social media tools in businesses today. 7 Ventana Research 2013

8 As employees come on board they often need to learn companyspecific practices and information or fill in some skill gaps to be effective at their new position. Enabling them to do so improves their time-to-productivity. E-learning courses may provide valuable knowledge, for example about company policies, the company s products, training for new managers (as in how to deal with the culture of their new team and how to be successful as a manager) and sales approaches and techniques. An effective approach can be to integrate learning management into social media tools that new employees use to collaborate. For example, integrating links to the new employee s required learning curriculum into the social portal s home page can reduce the number of places the employee needs to visit to find what he or she needs; in addition, it may help the employee find other resources and content related to specific topic areas as he or she goes through the training process. Our research on social collaboration and human capital management underscores this point, showing that, after HR, the unit most often using internal social media is the one that manages training and learning. Business Value in Proactive Recruiting According to our research, the two most important workforce metrics for HR leaders are employee engagement and retention. Companies that are able to find and hire employees who are a fit for the business and then onboard them smoothly are more likely to achieve those goals than other companies that do not hire and integrate the right fit. In addition, effectively using internal social media tools after onboarding new employees can benefit their careers later. Our research on social media and human capital management found that half (51%) of businesses have 8 Ventana Research 2013

9 identified up to one-fourth of their employees who are selected for promotion by using internal social media software. A proactive talent acquisition strategy is a key tool for creating a more productive workforce that becomes a competitive advantage. It enables the business to grow and seize market opportunities that competitors may not be able to act on because they lack sufficiently capable talent. Taking advantage of such opportunities can further accelerate growth and competitive positioning in the market. 9 Ventana Research 2013

10 About Ventana Research Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected benchmark business technology research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost and risk. Ventana Research provides the most comprehensive analyst and research coverage in the industry; business and IT professionals worldwide are members of our community and benefit from Ventana Research s insights, as do highly regarded media and association partners around the globe. Our views and analyses are distributed daily through blogs and social media channels including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. To learn how Ventana Research advances the maturity of organizations use of information and technology through benchmark research, education and advisory services, visit 10 Ventana Research 2013