This editorial written for the September 2007 edition of HR Management is reprinted here, with the magazine's permission.
Introduction – Employee Engagement Translates to Productivity and Retention
In today’s competitive, global marketplace Recruiting and HR professionals assume the daunting task of delivering and maintaining a productive workforce. It is no small order to attract, engage, develop and retain employees, and few HR professionals or business executives argue the role of employee engagement as a catalyst or propellant of business success. Though the specifics of engagement may vary according to each company’s philosophy or mission, the term can be generally defined as the degree to which employees emotionally and intellectually occupy themselves in their work, and the strength of their commitment to the employer and role (Vance, 2006). The vast majority of discussion about engagement is concentrated on the importance and methodology of actively engaging employees, which results in a long list of benefits. For the employee these benefits include higher job satisfaction and better job performance; for the company the benefits include lower attrition, higher productivity and business profitability. The question of employee engagement is therefore not about its importance to the business, but about the earliest point at which it can be escalated, measured and managed.
Engaging the Prospective Employee in the Pre-Hire Stage
Many HR professionals begin the process of measuring employee satisfaction and engagement levels post-hire, during performance management or employee development initiatives, by administering attitude or opinion surveys. Some common themes explored in these polls include pride in the employer, satisfaction with the employer, opportunity to perform well at challenging work, recognition and support for one’s contributions, personal support by one’s manager, understanding the link between one’s job and the organization’s mission, prospects for future growth with the employer, and the intention to stay with the employer (Vance, 2006). Sample questions include “Do you know what is expected of you at work?”; “Is there someone at work who encourages your development?”; “Does the mission or purpose of your company make you feel that your job is important?” (Bates, 2004). The aggregated responses to such questions are then correlated to business outcomes such as sales volume, profitability, customer loyalty, attendance, and retention.
Such efforts to improve employee engagement can be strengthened, since engagement begins and can be managed far earlier than previously accepted. Consider this: Engagement is a gauge of involvement and commitment based on a person’s attitudes toward and dedication to the work required and people involved. This commitment does not magically manifest the moment an employee starts the job. Rather, the seeds are planted and nurtured in each contact leading up to the hire: when a prospective employee applies for work on a company website or through an external recruiter, she registers early perceptions that affect her level of interest and subsequent engagement in the job. When a job seeker receives communication from the company about the status of his job search, or meets with interviewers in person, he builds on earlier perceptions that support or refine his perception and level of engagement. Regardless of the reason for initial attraction to a job or employer, it is clear that candidate engagement deepens or weakens at each successive point of contact in the selection and hiring process, and sets the tone for retention and productivity measures to come. As gatekeepers of talent flowing into the business, Recruiting is well-positioned to measure and improve engagement at the earliest moments of connection, resulting in new hires with consistently high engagement levels day one on the job.
The quality of pre-hire experience becomes even more important when considering the impact of technology on communication today; Web 2.0 has created a fully-interactive and viral environment where one person’s perception can be viewed, absorbed, and discussed by a wide audience immediately -- and saved in digital format forever. Consumer research shows that people are likely to tell at least 10 others about a bad experience; unfortunately, it is impossible to foresee if the recipients of these messages are potential employees, or even customers who begin to disengage from your company as a result (Edgley, 2006). A prospective employee may be excited about the opportunity at the application stage and then progressively lose interest –– so that if she does proceed to the offer stage she’ll likely reject the offer. Or worse still, if she begrudgingly accepts the offer, despite her internal inclinations to the contrary, she may well start the job but with a sour attitude, low engagement, and a high proclivity to immediately begin searching for her next job. In fact, this latter scenario which contributes to attrition happens a full 15 percent of the time because of negative experiences in the hiring process (Staffing.org).
Objective: “You Had Me at Hello”
Imagine yourself casually perusing the Internet when you land on a company website, the name of which you had not heard before. Compelled by the mission-oriented communication, you wonder about the jobs they are trying to fill and easily find your way to the Jobs section. There, you discover (to your complete and utter surprise) your dream job, which you previously had thought might only exist as a figment of your over-active imagination. Though you are content with your current job, the opportunity is everything you’ve always hoped for: the right blend of people and technology, authority and responsibility, a high standard bar for excellence, and professional growth that will take your career to a new level. You research further and uncover a long list of others who speak highly of the company: customers, employees, and vendors. Intrigued, you return to the job posting; you hesitate to apply, imagining a convoluted process that is painful and time consuming -- but find that it is simple and easy to express an interest in the job. Then, miraculously, a company recruiter contacts you the next day; you have an interesting conversation that felt nothing at all like a phone screen, and you are invited to interview with the hiring manager and members of the team. You are more than intrigued at this point; you are impressed. The interview has been managed professionally: in preparation for the conversations you’ve been given good information about the job’s responsibilities, an interview schedule, information about your interviewers’ roles, and are ready to start the day. The hiring manager arrives promptly and seems genuinely excited to discuss the opportunity with you. He has completely read your resume and even checked into some of your online editorial work; the two of you discuss how your perspective in one article aligns with the company approach on the next critical project. As the day progresses and you meet the rest of the interviewers, each conversation is stimulating and you feel a sense of connection to the team. You leave the company offices genuinely excited: this job was made for you, and the prospect of developing your skills and creating positive impact is irresistible.
Now let’s pause for a moment. Even if the offer and onboarding experiences are factored out, you already see in these earliest stages of application and interview the growth of candidate engagement. The scenario described is reminiscent of a scene from the 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire,” starring Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. Toward the end of the movie, Cruise tries to woo back Zellweger after a period of separation. He finds her at home among friends, and awkwardly says “Hello.” In front of this room full of people, he opens his heart, telling her all of the reasons why he needs and wants her in his life. At the end of his monologue, in a line that captures the message of the entire film, Renee quietly replies, “Stop. You had me at hello.” We aim for a similar response when it comes to candidate engagement; the energy required to enhance positive perception from the earliest point of contact is infinitely less than that required to overcome negative perception.
Find Out: Measure Candidate Engagement
Clearly written job advertisements with compelling challenges for learning and growth help companies to attract suitable talent for the position; they can also encourage candidates who are not interested in those attributes to opt-out of the application and subsequent hiring process. Respectful, productive interactions between the candidate, recruiters and interviewers can also entice engagement early in the hiring process. But how can a company know if it is building or deteriorating employee engagement levels in the pre-hire and onboarding stages? The solution lies in capturing and measuring feedback. Feedback closes the gap between intention and delivery in all areas of candidate outreach, and provides an external point of reference to determine if results are meeting expectations.
Solicit feedback from job seekers about both experience and perception as they navigate your selection and hiring process. Gather quantitative and qualitative data from internal and external candidates at critical points such as application, interview, offer, and onboarding. By tracking the resulting scores over time, you can view satisfaction scores increase or decrease as an indicator of early engagement. Tracking these metrics can also help you monitor and improve the recruiting and onboarding processes, and gauge the job seeker response to newly implemented program improvements (such as applicant tracking systems, career websites, or hiring manager interview training). For example, if you measure the degree of agreement to the statement, “This job opportunity is more attractive to me than others I could have in other companies” at the apply, interview, offer and onboarding stages, and agreement increases as the job seeker moves through the hiring process, then you know that the experience is consistently building candidate engagement. Conversely, if the scoring trend is reversed for the question, or drops at an interim point, you’ve got work to do to correct the situation.
In addition to process improvement, candidate engagement is a strong indicator of your company’s ability to compete for talent in the marketplace. Since the triggers that foster engagement vary across age, gender, ethnicity, industry, and education levels (to name only a few factors), it is important to collect and apply demographic filters to the resulting data to segment and isolate aggregate preferences and trends when creating or improving targeted outreach programs. This demographic information and accompanying feedback also help you understand the gap between your intended employer brand and how it is actually received, and allows you an early prism to view the patterns of attrition as employees voluntarily or involuntarily exit your company.
The Improved Experience Solution: Get Better Hires
As an independent research firm for HR and Recruiting, Improved Experience offers solutions to measure real-time candidate experience, job seeker demographics, and employer brand. Get Better Hires is an automated, online feedback portal that captures and benchmarks candidate feedback at four critical stages: application, interview, offer, onboarding. The subscription service offers a library of more than 400 standard questions across 15 feedback categories, such as: job opportunities, business reputation, company culture, pay and benefits, experiences with interviewers, experiences with company and third party recruiters, internet presence, facilities, and the recruiting process. As a third-party service provider, Improved Experience invites your job seekers to take a survey that is designed for maximum feedback in the shortest amount of time, and quickly identifies actionable feedback from the survey taker. The patent-pending system then analyzes, aggregates, benchmarks, and reports the feedback to you in a secure, real-time dashboard. For a deeper, more granular look at the results, your dashboard also includes a robust data-mining function so you can analyze feedback at the question level and apply demographic filters. For more information, contact us today at 877.344.4300, or visit our website at www.improvedexperience.com.
References
Bates, S. (2004). Getting Engaged. HR Magazine, Vol 49, No. 2, http://www.shrm.org/hrmagazine/articles/0204/0204covstory_factors.asp
Edgley, J. (2006). Six Degrees of Candidate Care. HR Management, Vol 1, No. 3, 60-61.
Staffing.org website: www.staffing.org
Vance, R (2006). Employee Engagement and Commitment: A Guide to Understanding, Measuring, and Increasing Employee Engagement in Your Organization. Alexandria, VA: SHRM Foundation, http://www.shrm.org/foundation/1006EmployeeEngagementOnlineReport.pdf
Technorati tags: employee engagement, candidate experience, employer brand, retention, recruiting and hiring, recruiting intelligence.
Recent Comments