Mass Hiring Made Easy?

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In our recruitment and selection studies, we focus on the importance of ensuring that all of the processes we use as HR professionals follow a consistent and well-planned approach to individual hires.

We spend a lot of time, both in theory and in practice, making sure that we use the right approach to select the right person for the right job. The question arises, how does this approach support mass hiring as a recruitment project?

Mass hiring takes place when an organization has to recruit and select numerous candidates for multiple jobs within a very short time frame. This differs from the concepts linked to individual selection processes. Typically, the scope of a mass hiring recruitment plan is based on filling as many positions as quickly as possible with the most likely candidates who fit a broad set of job-related requirements. Call it a bulk, volume, or mass recruitment project, the basic elements of sound human resources practices must still be in place in order to make solid hiring decisions as the end result.

As the time-to-fill-rate for a mass hiring process is critical, the use of technology based tools provide for the elimination of time wasting steps which bring little value to an overall bulk recruitment strategy.  This includes the use of mobile texting to make the application process simpler and faster. The Canadian Home Depot retail chain has recently implemented a ‘Text-to-Apply’ process in order to fill thousands of possible vacancies across the country.

Click on the link to read about Home Depot’s mass hiring process.

As noted in the article, while Home Depot has implemented easy steps for potential candidates to apply, they continue to maintain a standard set of requirements for all applicants.  In order to be considered, candidates must meet at least two fundamental business needs which include the delivery of ‘excellent customer experience’ in a ‘values driven team’ environment.  These business needs are articulated on the company’s website, which also gives us another example of a technology-based tool that is used for effective recruitment practices.

  Click on the link to peruse the Home Depot Careers website.

Mass hiring and open-forum recruitment processes, as implemented by organizations like Home Depot, do not necessarily mean a reduction in the quality of candidate requirements. In fact, these processes appear to require an increase in the quality and quantity of effective human resource management in order to ensure that recruitment and selection is clearly aligned with organizational strategy.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify three potential risks and benefits of using a ‘Text-to-Apply’ process as part of a mass hiring recruitment campaign.
  2. From a Human Resources perspective, what steps or processes would you put into place that assess a candidate’s ability to fit the business needs identified by Home Depot?
  3. What does the Home Depot – Careers website tell you about its culture and work environment?

Talent Shortage or Recruitment Skills Shortage?

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What does your company value more? The potential employee or the recruiting process? All organizations should ask themselves that question? Is there a talent shortage in Canada and the USA? Well, based on the following North America headlines one would definitely think so.

If these headlines are accurate, employers should be raising the alarms and screaming at governments, educational institutions, and HR departments to do something — anything!

However, according to Liz Ryan, CEO/founder of Human Workplace, and author of Reinvention Roadmap, the headlines are all wrong. Her opinion is that there is no talent shortage. Rather, it’s organizations that lack effective recruitment skills.

Click here to watch a short video on the five mistakes organizations make when recruiting.

Could the recruiting process itself be the problem, rather than a lack of suitable employees? Most HR departments pride themselves on their sophisticated recruiting systems. They have often created complex processes, which may include online applications, impersonal advertising, tedious screening tests, and uninspired interviews. HR carries out these screening activities for two reasons: to be duly diligent, and because they believe good systems will hire the best candidates. But, could these HR processes in fact be barriers to finding and hiring the best candidate? Perhaps in some cases the reason the best candidate wasn’t found is because he or she chose not to apply.

HR needs to start treating potential employees like customers, marketing to them, and treating them with respect. Companies need to be convey to prospective employees the message that, “we value you, not our recruiting processes.”

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Think about the last time you applied for a job and you went for an interview. How was the process? What did you like about the process? What did you dislike about it?
  2. If you were an HR consultant called in to assess the company’s recruitment process, what recommendations would you make?

Hiring Today and into the Future

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A Chief HR Officer I knew very well told me, “Once upon a time we used to use shovels to dig a trench because the shovel was the most efficient technology we had at the time; now we use a back hoe because it is available and more efficient.” The traditional process of collecting and screening resumes can be like using a shovel. The question is, has the time come to drop the shovel, and to start being more efficient by using the new technology that is available? In the world of HR, artificial Intelligence (AI) might just be the technological equivalent of the back hoe.

Click here to read Somen Mondal, ideas on AI and hiring process.

Where is the trend of using AI for hiring going? Who is using AI? What are its successes?

The adoption of AI technology is increasing, with many larger companies experiencing success as they use it in their hiring processes. Unilever is an excellent example. Their new process allows for the following:

  • Greater self-selection by applicant
  • Faster decision making
  • Deeper levels of applicant engagement

Click here to watch a short video on Unilever’s hiring process.

Unilever’s hiring process has become more efficient by using AI to screen and rate candidates from video interviews. Their hiring numbers speak for themselves. Unilever has reduced the hiring process cycle time from 4 months to just 2 weeks. It no longer participates in expensive on-campus tours to generate its recruitment pool; it does it all online, making decisions based on algorithms.

AI for hiring is a trend that is not going to slow down. It is the wave of the future in HR recruitment. Therefore, HR professionals should begin to assess, implement, and evaluate AI hiring systems that will work for their own organizations.

Discussion Questions:

Your VP of HR is aware of Unilever’s success in using AI for hiring. She would like you to create a 5-minute presentation reviewing three other organizations that are using AI as part of their hiring process.

What do you think is the greatest benefit of using AI as a hiring technology? What do you think is the greatest drawback of using AI, or an applicant tracking system, as part of your recruitment strategy?

 

40% failure rate! What should HR do?

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If any organization failed 40% of the time with its product launches, or with the quality of its product, it would not stay in business. However, according to an article by Human Resources Director of Canada that is exactly what is happening with executive hires today.

Research shows that 40% of newly hired executives fail in their new jobs within the first 18 months – often citing a struggle to adapt to the new culture and difficulty getting up to speed in their new role.

Click here to read the complete article.

The question the HR department needs to consider is, what is the best practice for hiring? Is it best to h­ire externally or to select from within? Of course, there is no blanket answer to this question. However, the University of Pennsylvania found that external hires get paid approximately 18% more than internally promoted workers, yet they perform worse, based on peer reviews.

Let’s review the numbers. Hiring executives externally, the failure rate is 40% and it costs the organization 18% percent more for the privilege of having someone whose performance is worse than someone hired from within the organization. This does not add up to a successful HR practice.

HR must constantly reflect on all of its practices, from hiring strategies to employee development, and make sure that these practices are not only complementary to each other but the correct strategy to meet their organization’s strategic goals.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. Conduct some research and identify two organizations that primarily use the “selection from within” process. Prepare to present why they have chosen this HR selection practice and what their successes from hiring from within are.
  1. Identify the most significant and compelling reasons why an organization would choose to hire externally for senior executive positions?

Probationary Periods Just Got Muddy

Uncertain stressed woman during her job interview
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Whose probationary period is it, anyway?

The Cambridge online dictionary definition of “Muddy the Waters” is “To make a situation confused and less easy to understand or deal with.”

Well, this is what is happening in Canadian employment law, especially in regards to employment probationary periods. An employer in British Columbia has just been ordered to pay 3 months’ pay in lieu of notice to an employee who was terminated after working for just two months, and he was on a standard probationary period.

What gives? Isn’t the point of an employment probationary period to test or trial a person’s character or conduct, which has been an accepted practice since the early 1500s? Well maybe not anymore in Canada; probationary periods just got very muddy!

Click here to read the latest legal precedent in probationary periods.

In this case, it seems the Interior Health Authority who was the employer failed to meet the test of sufficient feedback to the employee on probation. The employer only met with the employee once about his poor performance, which in fact was the termination meeting. The employer’s conduct did not give the employee any opportunity to improve his performance prior to being terminated, even though the employee was on probation.

Just because the employee is on a probationary period this does not give the employer carte blanche to terminate the employment relationship. All actions in the workplace must be reasonable: the rule or natural justice and progressive action are still required even with a probationary employee. HR Departments must ensure their probationary period contracts will be defendable in court, by ensuring proper HR practices are implemented during the probationary period.

Discussion Questions

  1. Research and identify three different employment probationary period clauses, once you have reviewed them, create your own probationary clause.
  2. After reading the attached case, develop a probationary review program which would avoid paying unnecessary termination payouts.