by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 10, 2014 | Featured, Onboarding, Productivity, Sponsored Post
FTC Disclosure: I received compensation for writing this product review listed below as one of the services I offer my clients. I only work with companies I feel have great products, services and offerings. In accordance with my blog disclosure statement, I will only work with and showcase products and/or companies I believe my readers will benefit from. iCims is an ATS provider and I have either reviewed or used their product personally. I have not made any absolute statements about its functionality but endorse the capabilities I have personally observed. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
In recruitment, we try any reasonable tactic to gain the attention of the candidates we seek for our positions. We will do whatever is necessary to attract and hire the right candidate all the way up to the offer. You make the offer with a sense of accomplishment; but further engagement or communication dies with the offer, doesn’t it? Fast forward several weeks into the future. Your prized employee starts orientation day- what has transpired? You haven’t been in touch, not even via e-mail. This employee who is bright-eyed and excited is now made to fill out a bunch of dusty HR new hire forms and sit through a long day of company pitches and presentations on what you expect of him or her going forward.
Great first impression?
Not so much, you had the candidate at hello, but you forgot to keep the dialogue and courtship going beyond the offer. This is where the power of onboarding helps. Onboarding is more than a checklist of household items and tasks you and your employee needs to accomplish prior to the commencement of your official partnership. It is about making sure every new hire is consistently and thoroughly made aware of how they will contribute to the organization and what the organization aims to offer them in return. Being proactive and ready to onboard your employees is a key indicator of the employee’s future productivity, morale, and success. In addition, it is a significant gesture that lets the employee know you are dedicated to their success.
Did you know?
Despite the ongoing discussion about the importance of having a formal onboarding process, only 37% of organizations have invested in a strategic onboarding program for more than two years according to a March 2013 Aberdeen Group report. Taking the time to look at your new hire process and finding areas where you can streamline and automate can only further benefit your new employees and the company.
How do you accomplish all of this?
iCIMS Onboard is an intuitive and extremely versatile platform that not only allows you to automate your onboarding process by allowing new hires to fill out and submit everything from your direct deposit form to I-9’s; but offers a personalized and unique introduction to your company culture. No shock that Aberdeen Group reported that 68% best-in-class companies cited “getting new employees productive more quickly” as a key driver for implementing a strategic onboarding process. iCIMS electronic forms will save you time and effort in both explaining and collecting papers on the first day; giving you more time to spend with your new hires acclimating them to the company and their new work environment.
With iCIMS Onboard, you can set up notifications and tasks through the platform’s task management capability- allowing hiring managers to properly prepare workspaces and other internal clearances so your new hires can be productive day one. Task management is dynamic enough to be set up by department, region, and new hire type so there is a unique experience delivered for the spectrum of new hires that join your organization.
Got video?
The iCIMS Onboard platform is configurable and able to be designed to match your company’s branding incorporating welcome videos or even training videos to further engage and accelerate your new hires assimilation into your organization. Think of your organization as a mini-society, each citizen that joins your society should be socialized appropriately understanding things like mission, values, culture, and ways of conducting business. Using iCIMS video capabilities in Onboard allows you to deliver company messages, communicating business objectives from day one so employees connect the dots.
Onboarding is no longer a nice-to-have but a business imperative for all organizations. This is especially true, if your goal is to retain new hires and truly realize the ROI on your recruitment efforts.
Start communicating and socializing your new hires today with iCIMS Onboard.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Mar 21, 2014 | Featured, HR Technology, Life, Sponsored Post, Talent Acquisition
FTC Disclosure: I received compensation for writing this product review listed below as one of the services I offer my clients. I only work with companies I feel have great products, services and offerings. In accordance with my blog disclosure statement, I will only work with and showcase products and/or companies I believe my readers will benefit from. iCims is an ATS provider and I have either reviewed or used their product personally. I have not made any absolute statements about its functionality but endorse the capabilities I have personally observed. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Image courtesy of stockphotosforfree.com
When we speak about Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) capabilities, we often overlook its impact on the spectrum of users and instead focus on the bells and whistles that tend to be non-essential or less relevant to its primary recruitment function. After all, the purpose of an ATS is to automate and streamline recruitment, hiring and onboarding processes so that it saves time, resources and energy.
The question is: who is really saving the time? Has ATS technology to date been too heavily focused on the recruiter and hiring manager experience?
The gap in ATS technology has been the lack of emphasis on the candidate experience.
2014 is the “Year of the Candidate” at iCIMS. With this initiative, they are refocusing their intentions out of both necessity and utility to better serve the candidate from a technology standpoint. Today’s candidate is on-the-go, always looking for the next opportunity and an easier way of reaching you the employer. With the increased influence of social networks, mobile capabilities and the flattening groups of passive, active and non-active jobseekers, it is only right that iCIMS look at ways of improving candidate engagement.
iCIMS is taking the lead on reengaging the workforce by revamping and developing technology that encourages the candidate to engage with companies and seek out opportunity rather than deter them from the hiring process. In January 2014, The International Labour Organization (ILO) reported a dismal outlook on economic recovery and job creation. In this report, they state that, 23 million people globally have left the labor market due to difficulties in finding suitable employment. Slower job creation can be blamed for that statistic, but I’m sure we can also agree that finding the jobs that do exist has become increasingly onerous as well.
The mobile advantage
Two in five candidates say that their perception of a company is hurt if a company career website is not optimized for mobile. iCIMS has created an extremely responsive career portal that is optimized for candidates to utilize on mobile devices and tablets of all screen sizes. The clean and simple look and feel of the career portal is enhanced with intuitive navigation, making it easily accessible for candidates-on- the move.
Candidates that have embraced using “the cloud” for document storage, will find ease of use in being able to upload their resumes from their Google Drive or Dropbox accounts. In addition, the more social candidate can reap the benefits of iCIMS social integrations which allow candidates to submit their resume for a job with their social accounts like LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google+. Social capabilities also ensure that candidate applications that reach recruiters are as up to date as the news feed on their social networks.
Another convenient capability is the location based job search tool which uses GPS technology to search for positions within a specific radius of the candidate’s location. The ideal situation for any candidate is pursuing a job within a reasonable commute. This technology allows candidates to focus on opportunities in their area. This also benefits employers as it allows them to target candidates looking specifically for opportunities in the markets where the business is located. The “Year of the Candidate” is all about connecting the dots and creating a “fit” for both the candidate and employer.
Video as the rule
Video is no longer the exception, but rather the rule. Increased time constraints, diminishing budgets for travel reimbursement or coverage for out-of-state candidates, coupled with a glocal (global +local) candidate ecosystem makes video not only cost-effective, but practical. Video is the shining star across the iCIMS Talent Platform whether it is as a branding initiative on the careers page or part of the real-time Skype integration for interviewing candidates remotely.
Their newest and most exciting feature is the video cover letter. The video cover letter is one of iCIMS newest candidate screening tools that allows the candidate to showcase their skills above and beyond the parameters of what a normal resume can tell the employer. The candidate can record a short video to be submitted for consideration with their application from a computer webcam or mobile device. Rather than submit the same old cover letter that recruiters have seen for years, they get to truly understand from the candidates’ point of view why they believe they are qualified- while gaining an opportunity to assess how they communicate orally.
HR technology takes the guessing out of recruitment; while reallocating power to the candidate, in an effort to allow them to put their best foot forward as they pursue new opportunities with you. Start simplifying recruitment today and make 2014 the “Year of the Candidate”
Company Bio
iCIMS, is a leading provider of innovative Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions, is an Inc. 500 and Software Satisfaction honoree focused on solving corporate business issues through the implementation of easy-to-use, scalable solutions that are backed by our award-winning iCARE Customer Support.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Feb 4, 2014 | Employment Branding, Featured, Recruiting, Recruitment, Snippets, Social Recruitment, Talent Acquisition, Talent Management
Image courtesy of PushandPullsigns.com
Hello HR Aristocrats! Today you can find me on the iCims Hire Expectations Institute blog with a brand new article called: ” The Push and Pull of Recruitment”. iCims is a strategic partner of my business Talent Think Innovations, LLC and a supporter of “The Aristocracy of HR”. This article is the first of many collaborations you will see with iCims and I in the future.
FTC Disclosure: I received compensation for writing this article listed below as one of the services I offer my clients. I only work with companies I feel have great products, services and offerings. In accordance with my blog disclosure statement, I will only work with and showcase products and/or companies I believe my readers will benefit from. iCims is an ATS provider and I have either reviewed or used their product personally. I have not made any absolute statements about its functionality but endorse the capabilities I have personally observed. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.
Here’s a snippet of the post:
“The Push and Pull of Recruitment”
Those of you that have been in recruitment long enough remember a day when we used to be able to post to a job board or two and receive a bevy of resumes. I’m talking posting jobs before we had to pray that anyone would be interested in our opportunities. A lot has changed since that time, and yet I can be assured that every month of every new year there will be some focus on the methods we utilize to attract candidates.
Some say we need to focus more heavily on big data and analytics. Others say attracting top talent is near impossible because we are experiencing a talent shortage. Whatever your opinion on the subject, I think we can all agree that spending your recruitment budget on job board advertising alone is probably not going to cut it that much longer. We are looking at a new frontier of the modern workforce- where a specific and targeted mix of advertising is utilized to get the word out about open positions.
Along with the specific and targeted mix of advertising is a continued emphasis on company’s having a consistent and attractive digital presence.
What does this mean?
It simply means that organizations need to become clear about who they are and what value proposition they are offering candidates for joining their company. In the past, the candidate-employer relationship was guided by what the employer wanted and most experts urged candidates to yield to the company’s wants rather than encouraging them to fulfill their own wants and needs read the rest of the post here.
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