A breakdown of the Sapling-JazzHR partnership

Sapling is a best-of-breed HRIS, delivering a streamlined, automated and consistent onboarding program to new hires, managers, payroll and IT. Through a company-branded, pre-boarding experience, you’re able to give new hires a warm welcome and ensure they are ready for their first day by assigning new hire paperwork prior to day one, and introducing them to your company and culture.

• By syncing JazzHR with Sapling, JazzHR customers can kickstart the onboarding process by automatically exporting candidate data directly from JazzHR into Sapling. Doing so will reduce manual data entry, minimize human error, and increase data integrity.

For JazzHR customers with a global workforce, an integration with Sapling solves the complexity of multi-country payroll and onboarding for international teams. You’ll also save your IT and Operations teams time and money by automating the set up of key systems for new hires such as G-suite and more.

Once you’ve hired a candidate, move them into the Hired Disposition in order to export to Sapling. Information including first and last name, address, city, state, ZIP code, phone number, and email address ware included in the export from JazzHR to Sapling.

Want to streamline your recruiting and hiring processes? Schedule a brief demo of JazzHR today.

If you put the cart before the horse, it could mean lawsuits and liabilities down the road. So before developing the specific tests and interview questions you plan to use to evaluate job applicants, read and follow these keys to basic compliance:

Craft appropriate and accurate job descriptions

Before you accept a single application, you should think carefully about what job requirements are essential to the position. All job descriptions should be in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits companies from disqualifying a candidate because of their disability, provided they are able to perform the essential functions of the job with reasonable accommodation. Make sure the job description lists just the duties required by the position, distinguishing between essential and nonessential tasks. If the job requires any sort of manual labor, it is especially important to spell it out now.

It’s also important during this stage to define the role’s exemption status. If the job is misclassified, an employee who works unpaid overtime could later be entitled to back pay and other damages.

Conduct consistent and accessible interviews

The interview process must also be ADA-compliant, meaning any in-person interview should be held in a location that is wheelchair accessible, and the interviewer must refrain from asking any questions related to a candidates disability.

Hiring managers must be consistent in their practices to avoid any allegation of bias. That means not letting the friend you referred for a job skip the preliminary phone screening step every other applicant is required to take. Additionally, the questions asked of one candidate should be asked of every candidate, and care should be taken to avoid any inquiries that could be construed as discriminatory. Asking about a job applicant’s country of birth and citizenship status, or checking if their religious beliefs would necessitate a lot of time off, is strictly off limits.

Make objective selections

If you are being careful to stay completely compliant during the interview stage, but still keep ending up with a rather homogenous workforce, something may be wrong with your follow through. Train supervisors and hiring managers to take objective interview notes and make decisions that are removed from bias.

Remember to also keep it consistent as you finish up the hiring process. That means the background checks you conduct should be identical for each and every candidate, and you should eventually reach out with a templated offer letter that is the same for all new hires.

Takeaways

In order to stay compliant during the hiring process, employers should always remember to:

1. Write job descriptions that accurately describe the duties involved and avoid potentially discriminatory language about preferred employee “types.”
2. Conduct ADA-compliant interviews that avoid inappropriate questions and are the same for every applicant.
3. Remain objective in your hiring decisions and continue treating all applicants the same, up to and including the offer letter.

To learn how integrated HR software can help employers remain consistent and organized in all of their human resources practices, schedule a free demo of JazzHR today.

Screening Out

This hiring process started with a job analysis, and you’re about to see why. Doing the legwork to analyze the job you’re hiring for provides a certain set of requirements you’re not willing to live without. Perhaps you’re hiring an accountant and you’re only looking for licensed CPAs. Maybe you’re hiring someone to operate heavy machinery and need to see a clean driving record. You might be hiring an educator and aren’t willing to settle for anyone without a Master’s degree. This is also where factors such as salary expectations or location can be valuable. If you have $70,000 earmarked for your new hire and an applicant suggests they’re looking for at least six figures, you’ve just screened out a candidate. If you have an applicant that looks good on paper but lives four hours away, there goes another.

Screening In

The screening out process eliminated those that don’t meet some base requirements you have for the job you’re looking to fill. Screening in, as the names suggests, takes an opposite approach. Your job analysis may have yielded 15-20 essential skills, and while it’s unlikely you’re going to find a candidate that ticks each one of those boxes, someone who covers most of those bases is likely going to emerge as a strong contender. In some companies, a person who comes up short on the essential skills you listed might be screened out. But screening in is betting on potential.
Are there skills that, while they may seem a bit outside the box, can ultimately transfer to the role for which you’re hiring? Imagine a theater actor who was an economics major applying for a sales role. That person might lack the measurable success of some other applicants, but are they likely to be good at talking to potential customers? Are they going to be persuasive in selling your products?
What if a person has only three years of experience instead of the five to seven your job description stated you’re looking for, but you’re convinced there are intangibles that make them worth a second look?
So how do you identify that potential?
Fortunately, the most effective way to identify potential is also the easiest. And, you’ve probably already collected the data earlier in the process. The answer: Pre-employment assessments. Preemployment assessments like Wonscore offer data-driven, objective insights that can help you screen in the candidate’s most likely to thrive in your organization.
To access the rest of these insights around candidate screening, download our latest eBook with Wonderlic now.

• Why the time of year matters for hiring for seasonal roles
• Why seasonal roles are shifting from dramatically by type
• The seasons for peak hiring
• How to be more flexible for better employee satisfaction

With that in mind, we reached out to several hiring managers at small businesses across industries today to see if anyone had ever experienced a hiring nightmare. Their responses did not disappoint.

13 interview red flags from today’s hiring managers

1) “Years back, after hiring a new staffing specialist, and conducting training with her over her first 30 days, it was becoming evident that she wasn’t able to do the basic functions of the position, and she had poor judgment when interacting with our clients. About this same time, she approached several of her co-workers about where she could procure various illegal drugs, and then asked about networking to hire a hitman to take care of her current husband’s ex-wife, as evidently the alimony thing was a problem for her. She also told her co-workers how she had manipulated her hiring references in order to get the position. I called the police about the inquiries she made about the hitman, and they responded. At the same time I let her go as she was still in a trial period, citing to her that she was unable to perform the basic functions of her position. The day I let her go, I drove a relative’s car to work knowing she wouldn’t recognize the car, and fearing she could retaliate in some way. Although we couldn’t prove it, unfortunately two of the coworkers’ cars were left with flat tires, which we also reported to the police. They investigated and said the tires were ice-picked through the sidewall, and were not repairable. To my knowledge she was never arrested, and moved out of state shortly thereafter.”

2) “We had a new hire who was provided a company direct billed credit card to pay for food and lodging when attending new hire training in another office location. When the bill arrived, there were a number of charges on the card from an adult novelty store located close to the hotel in which the employee was staying. When asked why there were charges unrelated to the food and lodging expenses, the employee stated he did not want his wife to find out about the adult novelty items he purchased because they were for her birthday.”

3) “I was in the middle of an interview and the candidate said he had to make a quick phone call. They didn’t come back for an hour and still wanted to proceed with the interview!”

4) “I have had several past candidates start to look extremely confused mid-interview. When I would ask them what the problem was, they would ask me to tell me who I was and what the company was they were at. Apparently they had applied to multiple jobs and could not keep them straight — they had no idea what company they were interviewing with!”

5) “Shortly after I hired what I though was a top-rated candidate, they began arriving for work later and later each day; up to 4:30 p.m. Their work suffered, as well.”

6) “We hired an employee who seemed like he would be a great fit. Two days before his agreed on start date, he called and asked if his start date could be moved back a week. We agreed. His new start date arrived, but the employee did not. We called, left messages and sent e-mails with no response. We waited an additional week, thinking maybe he miscommunicated, and meant the following Monday. Still no employee. Again, calls, messages, emails with no response. We moved on, interviewed again, hired someone else. Two months later, the no-show candidate called and asked if he could start now, he had to leave the country for an emergency, and wanted to start. He did not, however, have an answer to “Was the destination without cell coverage entirely?” Phantom candidate.”

7) “A recently hired team member insisted they move the desk in their cubicle. Of course, there is only one way for the desk to fit comfortably in the space. So, he blocked the entrance and had to climb under his desk anytime he needed to leave his cube.”

8) “Recently hired team member decided they were allergic to carpets, air system, and their desk. They asked multiple times for everything to be replaced.”

9) “While recruiting for a medical group in a Health System, I once recruited the son of a well-known Physician within our Health System. Although this candidate didn’t quite have the hands on experience we were looking for, it was one of those hires that we had to handle carefully. Long story short, the gentleman interviewed really well and appeared to be very coachable so we found a home for him within the medical group. After conducting a drug test, we found traces of marijuana in his system. While this may be normal in some states, it is not permitted in ours and a certainly not permitted within a health system. I’m sure you can imagine how awkward it was trying to explain to a physician why we could no longer hire his son.”

10) “Mid-interview I thought I had the perfect candidate for the position. As I was about to extend the job offer, he began to sweat profusely. I offered water, turned the air conditioner to a lower temperature as he began to mumble. I thought,Oh No, I’ve got a medical emergency on my hands.” He excused himself to go to the restroom but didn’t return after 15 minutes. I asked a male staff member to enter the men’s restroom to check on him. The door was somehow locked and barricaded. The applicant wouldn’t answer our calls to open the door but began rambling aloud. I called the fire department and after another 20 minutes the applicant emerged totally intoxicated (empty bottle in hand) and possibly under the influence of “something” else. The next day his wife called me requesting to know when his start date would be… no job offer was extended to this candidate!”

11) “Spooked by an assistant in the dark. I had obtain a temporary Administrative Assistant with the intent to eventually hire her. I was in my office and I knew she was in the leasing office. I needed something in the filing cabinet in the leasing office, when I entered the office the lights were off, it was before lunch, so I thought it was rather odd that she was nowhere around and the light was off since I didn’t see her leave. I proceeded to turn the light on and walked towards the filing cabinet, when ALL OF A SUDDEN the desk chair moved. Talk about scaring the heebie jeebies out of me, the temp proceeded to climb from under the desk. I when I asked her why she was under there, she proceeded to inform me in a very calm and even voice that she was taking a nap.”

12) “I phone interviewed a candidate and ultimately ended up not advancing him to the in person interview stage. I sent him an email to tell him that his qualifications did not meet what the Company was looking for. When I explained that there was another candidate who was a closer match he started leaving voicemails and sending emails demanding what he was missing. He also accused me of hiding something from him because I rejected him so early on in the interview process. On the 3rd or 4th voicemail he said that he hoped it wasn’t because I Google searched him and found his hacked Facebook page with pornographic images. As if the voicemail wasn’t enough, he proceeded to send an email with a screenshot of the hacked Facebook and explained that he was trying to regain control of the account, but it wasn’t working.”

13) “I made a job offer to a candidate, then he ghosted for 4 days. Then he reappeared and said he’d been camping and accepted the offer to start in 2 weeks. Then 10 days later he contacted me to say he had a doctor appointment on his first scheduled day of work, and also would it be okay for him to leave early every Tuesday and Thursday for the next few months? Needless to say, he did not end up working here.”

But what result characterizes success for a diversity program? According to experts, businesses should be trying to increase the number of women and minorities in management, as well as reduce biases throughout the company. It’s likely that major companies are aware of these goals, yet they rarely reach them. Instead of using the goals to draw a blueprint for their diversity efforts, it’s commonplace for businesses to choose diversity programs without researching their effectiveness, and furthermore fail to track the progress of the programs they’ve implemented.

How To: The Three Step Approach to Long Term Diversity

The ubiquitous “Diversity Training” programs are the most noteworthy examples of programs that are chosen without being researched. For decades, these have been the most widely used diversity programs in the United States, yet they’re only effective if implemented under specific guidelines, and quite often have negative effects on biases. But many of the companies employing them never know the damage they’re inflicting because they fail to monitor the results of the program.Luckily, for businesses that take a comprehensive approach to diversity, there are a number of programs that have been proven to increase the number of women and minorities in management, and reduce bias – leading to a healthy and diverse culture that can last for decades.

A proper approach to long term diversity is to bring in diverse talent, ensure that such talent is provided the means to thrive and thus be promoted, and lastly, the entire effort needs to be overseen to ensure effectiveness. Here you’ll learn about three programs that will help you do just that.

Targeted College Recruitment Programs

Targeted college recruitment programs help companies recruit diverse talent for entry-level positions. Taking deliberate steps to enhance your College Recruitment Program will give you a serious advantage in the realm of diversity recruiting. The businesses that do it best use these programs to do two things: stack diverse candidates in departments that are historically homogenous, and set up diverse candidates for long term success within the organization. They do this by inviting managers to attend recruiting events. Having a manager in person to recruit makes it easier to secure top candidates and it provides diverse employees with a relationship in management from the very beginning of their time with the company. This connection significantly increases their chances of reaching management roles.

Formal Mentoring Programs

It won’t matter how many women and minorities you hire at entry levels if you can’t retain them. They’ll want the same opportunities to be promoted as white males, and they won’t stick around if they’re not getting those opportunities. A formal mentoring program is the leading cure for this industry illness. When diverse employees and their mentors in management forge bonds, the employees become more skilled at their jobs, but also, the managers see them as prodigies and vouch for them when promotion opportunities come around. Formal Mentoring Programs are not always easy to implement, which is why diversity experts recommend companies craft them in-house. But one that is well drafted and well supported can do amazing things for your employees and your work culture.

Diversity Task Force

Setting up a diversity program without a way to monitor its effectiveness is like shooting in the dark – you might connect with your target, but you may also completely miss the mark (and waste a lot of time during the endeavor). Among other things, Diversity Task Forces help ensure that diversity programs are being run properly and that they’re producing the intended results. A Diversity Task Force might assess a company’s mentoring program to make sure that participants are being matched effectively and fairly. Task Forces keep their eyes on the company’s diversity efforts on a broad statistical level all the way down to the smallest promotion discrepancies. Every business needs to take the time to assemble the type of Diversity Take Force that fits their structure, but it’s usually best if the Task Force is made up of employees from various career levels and departments.

Conclusion

The biggest obstacle to long term, vertical diversification is simply being deliberate about reaching goals and regularly evaluating them with key performance indicators. If businesses want to promote women and minorities, they need to ask themselves: which programs can take us there? And how can we monitor our progress to know when our efforts are effective? Companies that answer these questions will be bounds ahead of their competitors.
 

Bio

Peter Scorzetti is a writer for LatPro, Inc. and DiversityJobs.com, an award-winning employment website network working to connect talented job seekers with employers who value diversity. He holds Bachelor Degrees in Management and Philosophy from Penn State University, has ten years of experience working with small businesses, and is always striving to understand more about the dynamics of the workplace.

Here are a couple of creative ideas to refresh your company’s hiring process.

Set Up Hiring Events

Companies have been attending career fairs for years. They present an opportunity for employers to meet, inform and interview hundreds of potential candidates. Not only do recruiters gain access to a large number of candidates, but companies are also able to market their brands. Some, such as Taco Bell have taken these events to the next level by creating “hiring parties”. This eliminated some employer competition because the candidates who attended these events were clearly indicating interest in working specifically for the Taco Bell company. These are similar to job fairs except they have a more casual feel and attract more than the obvious candidates; some people come dressed in professional attire, ready to interview while others stop by for the party and then later decide to apply for a job. People play games and enjoy food while mingling with employees who are able to answer questions, conduct on-the-spot interviews and make immediate hires. “The tight labor market has made it necessary for companies to shake up some of their internal practices in order to better attract and retain workers,” says Jim Stroud, global head of sourcing and recruiting strategy for Randstad Sourceright.

Create an Employee Referral Program

One of the most convenient and honest resources for finding quality talent is your own network. More often than not, the people you know in your professional and even personal life (such as friends, colleagues and former colleagues) are able to refer you to talent that matches your company’s needs! One way to take advantage of these personal networks is to incentivize current employees to refer new talent. Employees connect potential candidates to the company and get a reward if the referred candidate ends up being hired! By doing so, companies can ensure hard-working candidates that would fit the company culture are being presented. This also gives people the opportunity to use social media to tap into a broadened personal network. Companies can encourage employees to spread the news of a job opportunity on social platforms. Informal and brief messages can often interest people who weren’t already actively seeking a new job!

Leverage Social Media

Depending on the skill level and age group you may be targeting to fill a certain role, keep social media in mind. These channels are a preferred method of where to get the latest information, and fast. If you’re not advertising your jobs on these channels, it’s time to start! Read more about our latest integration with Facebook jobs to tap into the world’s biggest network.

Using some of these techniques can help your company hire top talent efficiently while also creating brand awareness! To learn more about how to improve your recruiting techniques, launch a free trial of JazzHR today.

Here’s how to calculate the value of your recruiting efforts:

Understand cost-per-hire

Cost-per-hire is a good way to gauge the financial value of your recruitment efforts. CPH offers a standardized way of measuring the value of recruitment. In its essence, CPH is the “mean average of total costs divided by the number of hires,” according to a guide by An American National Standard for Human Resource Management and the Society for Human Resource Management. But what do these “total costs” entail? Simply put, this is the sum of external costs plus internal costs. Let’s break this down a bit. External costs are those that represent spending outside of the company. Examples are fees paid to advertising agencies or the expenses related to a job fair. Internal costs cover everything that goes on inside of the company, including the salary and benefits of the new employee. It also includes time costs, such as the time needed to draft job postings and conduct interviews. The final component of the CPH equation is the total number of hires. Consider the hires made only in a certain time period for greater clarity and better insights. In summary, CPH is total costs divided by the total number of hires in a designated time period. Use this metric to help calculate the value of your recruitment efforts. Read about CPH in more detail in the Cost-Per-Hire: American National Standard guide.

Other ways to identify recruiting value

CPH is the main way to measure the value of your recruitment efforts. There are other approaches that can help you gain other useful insights too. Analytics in HR mentions figuring out an employee’s lifetime value – a highly qualified candidate with the right skills for the job will generate more value for the company than someone who only has some of the qualifications. Calculating lifetime value takes into account all the resources HR used to find and bring the candidate on board, from the time it takes to fill the position to attrition in the first-year. For even more detailed insights, you can break down each component of the recruiting process to determine return on investment, as Recruiter.com noted. The categories you can measure include the speed with which the hiring manager provides feedback on candidate’s as well as the “interview-to-offer” ratio. Determining HR value in financial terms can seem overwhelming, but luckily there are several ways you can go about gaining insights in this area. Try the methods above to make a stronger business case for in-depth recruitment efforts at your company.

Clear and Constant Communication

Remote workers can feel overlooked because they are not someone you see every day. Lack of communication between teams can cause major issues. To combat this, there are plenty of ways to keep lines of communication open. For remote employees, it’s key to be candid about your workload and be honest about any roadblocks. This helps you stay top of mind with supervisors so as not to be overlooked for promotions or important meetings. According to a study from Harvard Business Review, 84% of remote workers said the concern dragged on for a few days or more, while 47% admitted to letting it drag on for weeks or more. And for employers? Have regular check-ins with remote workers. Make sure you schedule a time for them and invest a bit in their personal lives. It’s important to make up for a loss of the water cooler type conversations remote workers miss out on.

Personal Touch in a Digital World

Most interactions these days seem to be online. With many options for communication, it can be tough to disconnect. At the same time, remote workers often feel a lack of connection with team members. They miss out on a traditional office life – the physical presence of coworkers, inside jokes, being first to hear about a new process, etc. When interacting primarily through email and messaging systems, it’s critical to word things correctly. Things can easily get lost in translation or taken the wrong way through an email or messaging system because all tone of voice is lost. In order to bridge that lack of connection or dodge any miscommunications, try to use video chat whenever possible. Create a team or office-wide communication channels on Skype, Slack, or your preferred messaging system. If the budget allows, get groups together as often as possible. This could be in the form of team outings, quarterly in-person team meetings, or holiday parties/summer outings. Set your remote workers up for success. Fostering an atmosphere of inclusion promotes productivity, collaboration, and overall growth.