Nikola Tore

First impression matters.

After spending months investing resources to find great talent to fill a key role within the company, it is terribly disappointing to have the employee resign within a year. This is the case for many companies, which are not able to meet new hires’ expectations and as a result, lose good people. This happens because while new hires join the company with much motivation and excitement, they somehow end up becoming disillusioned often within the first few days itself. (Also read: Why employees frequently switch jobs and how to retain them)

Unfortunate examples of these employers involve superficial employee onboarding programs, unclear communication to new hires prior to the first day, unstructured training, and neglected information regarding the HR’s and hiring department’s responsibilities.

According to TalentWise

• 91% of new hires stick with a company for at least one year if the organization has efficient onboarding processes
• 69% of those new hires stick with a company for at least three years when it has a well-structured onboarding program

Steps to creating your employee onboarding checklist for new employee

To consider the hiring process for a specific position successful, employers need first to make sure that their new hires will not leave the company soon. That said, it is important to show them from day one that you as an employer care about them and respect the fact that these people will be the people who will drive the company’s overall performance in the near future. Thus, you will help them keep alive, and maybe enhance, their excitement and motivation for joining you. (Also read: 7 ways recruiters can increase the offer-to-joining ratio)

When do you make the first impression in employee onboarding?

If you think you will make the first impression the moment the new hire will formally join the company, you have already lost the game!

The first impression will take place at the moment you will contact the candidates. The way you approach them, the tone of your communication, and the overall experience you provide them with are all part of the first impression you are making on candidates you are considering for a key position within the company. Even if you don’t know yet who will be hired in the end, you should know that the “employee onboarding” starts when you approach the candidates. In the end, this is why you approach them because you believe that they could join the company.

There are plenty of examples when candidates were very excited to join a company, but they don’t because of an unstructured and unclear hiring process. They were not impressed with the way the company dealt with the hiring process, and them.

How to avoid such a bad impression:

• Set and communicate a clear timeline regarding the hiring process – Let the candidates know how long it will take, what the steps are, and when to expect what.
• Communicate status update to each candidate at each step – It is important for the candidates to be updated about their application status. They need to know if they made it to the next step or not. Should they start applying somewhere else or wait a bit longer for your decision? They need to know.
• Involve gamification in the hiring process – Gamification of the hiring process is a great way to provide candidates with a great experience— an experience which makes them feel that even if they do not get the position, at least they enjoyed the journey.
• Incorporate Talent Assessment Software – TAS has a twofold goal. On one hand, it helps employers to ensure that the person they will hire will be able to perform well in the new role, and, on the other hand, it helps candidates create a positive impression about the dedication of the company to ensure that it will hire only the best. Somehow, it makes them feel special when they succeed. For example, HackerEarth Recruit is a technical recruitment platform that helps companies assess candidate performance via customized online coding tests.

“Before the first day” to-do list?

After considering the aforementioned practices, you can be sure that the new hire is likely to have the same or even increased motivation to join the company. By providing candidates with a positive experience throughout the hiring process, you (hopefully) convinced them that you care about the people you bring onboard; you want the best, and if they made it they have an extra reason to feel proud to join your family.

As soon as the candidate accepts the offer, you are all ready for the next step of the candidate preboarding process. The best way is to automate the journey using candidate preboarding software. These software help ensure that the preboarding is without glitches and also help in ensuring that the dropoff is minimal.

Create a “Before the First Day” list, and include on this list all the tasks that the employee preboarding team needs to complete:

• Make sure you provide the new hire with some practical and clear information about the first day. Consider the question: “What should they expect on the first day of employment?”
• Make sure all the paperwork has been finished before he/she joins the company. Enter him/her in your HR systems, have the laptop/desktop ready, and create for him/her all the necessary accounts. Show them you are structured and proactive.
• Remind the hiring managers about the new hire a few days in advance, and make sure he/she has scheduled some time in their calendar to introduce the new hire to the rest of the team, and give a contact list. (Also read: 10 ways to build inclusive onboarding experience)

On the First Day – the “Official Employee Onboarding”:

Supposing that you managed to ensure the entire “Before the First Day” list has been checked, now, you need to think of the structure of the “Official Employee Onboarding.” This is the moment when you officially introduce the new hires to the company and make sure they will find the working environment you promised during the hiring process.

That said, consider the following practices, inspired by companies such as Google and Netflix:

• Present your company’s policies and values; while doing so, try to reference specific examples. If you reference a story or a real example, they’ll be more likely to relate and understand.
• Encourage open dialogue.
• Discuss their responsibilities and be prepared to answer any questions.
• Introduce them to the rest of the team.
• Assign a dedicated mentor to each new hire.
• Provide them with a schedule and timeline regarding their training.
• Google employee onboarding program suggests that when training new hires, define success for each. Put together a roadmap to success based on the way you perceive it and expect it to be. Present them with as many KPIs as possible. Thus, you will help them have a clear image of what is expected of them.
• Netflix onboarding program suggests you let new hires tackle huge projects from the beginning. It makes them feel like you trust them and believe in their knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Successfully ending the employee onboarding process

For some organizations, the official employee onboarding program, including the training, ends within three weeks, and for other companies after 2 or 3 months. There is no standard timeline on this. It always depends on the company culture, size, structure, and goals. What is important to make sure that you successfully end the employee onboarding process is that you (HR, IT, Facilities, and the Hiring Team) ensured that the new hire received well-structured training which will help him/her feel part of the team, perform as expected, and align personal goals with the overall company’s goals. The hiring manager should hold several feedback meetings with the new hire. In these meetings, the purpose should be to make sure that the new hire is ready to perform “independently.” If you are already there, then kudos on your well-structured onboarding program. If not, then it is time to review and adjust it according to your company’s needs and resources. (Also read: How to write an employee handbook)

“Success is dependent on effort” – Sophocles

Two variables, one relationship. The more effort you put, the more successful you will be.

This is what Sophocles, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians, said. He believed that people control their own success.

In real life, of course, success is an objective term and different people define it in different ways.

Moreover, external factors which can affect this relationship may occur and success may be delayed.

These factors may include unexpected events or miscalculated risks which have the power to prevent people from reaching their goals.

In this blog, I discuss 6 key points to success for employees to help people secure their trip toward successand help HR professionals realize how improving their employee value proposition (EVP) can help people become more successful while impacting the company’s overall performance positively.

Create a “blurry” vision

Everyone talks about how critical it is to “know what you want” in order to succeed, but no one talks about how you can get there.

How do you make it clear to yourself what you want? “If you love what you do, you will succeed,” they say, but how do you define what makes you happy by doing it?

Well, to answer all these questions you need first to try and fail; and then try again and fail again, and maybe also try something else.

You need to keep an open mind!

In high school, I used to participate in different math-based inter-school competitions, and I always won.

Years in a row, I was first in the city I represented and that made me think that my future should be related to numbers.

Honestly, I enjoyed the numbers, but at the same time I enjoyed helping people, and I hated listening to stories where people were not treated well by their employers.

In the final year of school though, I had a great experience involving consultancy meetings, managing people, and hiring people for a purpose, and this experience made me realize that as much as I enjoy numbers, I enjoy people-related projects at least twice as much.

It was then I decided to focus on HR. I had a blurry vision of my future, but trying different things actually helped me realize what matters to me.

Now, creating a “blurry” vision of success as a first step is not a bad thing. It gives you the opportunity to make mistakes and try new things.

Wanting to succeed in two or three things instead of one means that you do not have to stick with the one thing even if you are good at it; if you do not really enjoy it, then at some point, you get bored of it.

Instead, you have the opportunity to try something else which is still within your “blurry” vision. Therefore, do not be afraid of having a blurry vision when starting your career.

Have several goals and try to figure out which one most fits your needs and ambitions. Explore what makes you perform with a purpose.

Set short-term goals for success and always keep your bigger goal in mind

If you only set long-term goals, you will likely get tired of putting so much effort and not seeing any results yet.

On the other hand, by setting short-term goals you get the opportunity to celebrate your achievements every once in a while, thus keeping yourself motivated to continue your efforts for your bigger long-term goal.

Achieving something every now and then makes you feel you are on the right path; it makes you believe you can achieve even more.

To help you with the goal-setting process, Edwin Locke suggests that your goals need to be “SMART”:‍

Specific – After your blurry vision helps you decide what matters to you and what makes you happy, it is time to set specific/clear goals to know what you are working for.‍

Measurable – Your goals must allow you to demonstrate and measure the results to decide which behaviors you need to reward

‍Attainable – You need goals which are achievable. Unachievable goals will only bring you disappointment. You will not meet your own expectations. Therefore, make sure you know what you are capable of. Be honest with yourself.‍

Realistic/Relevant – You need to ensure that your goal is realistic, within your reach, consistent with other established goals, relevant to your life purpose, and fits in with immediate and long-term plans. Are you willing to commit to your goal

‍Time–bound – Your goals must have a defined time frame which includes a start date and an end date, otherwise, there is no sense of urgency to start working toward your goals.

Communicate; build a reliable network

Networking is free, most of the time. It gives you the opportunity to meet like-minded people and people who come from different backgrounds.

From both groups, you have a lot to learn. Like-minded people can probably help you with advice and stories on how to reach similar goals, and people with a different mindset will most probably help you become aware of the threats and risks involved in your decisions.

This can help you avoid mistakes and protect your efforts toward meeting your goals.

Networking is a great way to market yourself, and it can always lead to future opportunities for both parties.

As some people say, “your net worth is only as good as your network.”

Be your own evaluator

Most companies have yearly appraisal programs to evaluate their employees. In this kind of appraisal, employees get evaluated by their manager for their performance during the year they left behind.

Based on this evaluation, together with their manager, employees set goals for the next year.

It is a good way to keep personal and team goals aligned with the company’s bigger goals and to identify what kind of value each employee can add to the company.

But is it enough for you as a person to identify your strengths and your points that you need to improve?

Of course not!

You should not wait for this yearly evaluation to tell yourself what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.

Take time yourself every week or even every day and think about what have you done, what have you achieved, and what you would change with regard to a particular behavior or situation to have achieved better results.

You can’t be in the tech community without realizing there is a shortage of talent – Mitch Kapor, Entrepreneur

While talking about the talent shortage, the IT industry is one of the most mentioned! Living in the digital era, more and more organizations decide to invest in their digital presence every day.

Most of these organizations face obstacles in identifying and attracting tech talent.

Especially, if an organization does not operate in the IT sector, but aims to focus on its IT department to compete with other market players.

In this case, it makes it even more difficult for these companies.

Tech talent knows that out there is a huge demand for them. Therefore, they take advantage of the situation, and they aim to secure a place among big companies.

They are more motivated, and it gives them more pleasant to work in a company which solely focuses on IT products rather than in a company which operates in consulting and needs its IT department just to ensure the smooth operation of its processes and systems.

Knowing what tech employees are looking for, organizations need to focus more on some specific steps to attract and secure motivated tech talent for their department (even if they can’t be called an IT or a software company…that’s not the case if you play it smart)

6 steps guide to tech recruiting for dummies

Define your needs (Be realistic with yourself)

Having built (or not) a strong employer brand, the first contact you will have with candidates is the job description that you will present them. Make sure you create an attractive job description without going too far.

Present the company’s mission and focus on why someone should consider a position in your company.

What do you offer?

Is there any opportunity to make the new hire feel he/she will have an impact on the company’s achievements?

Is there a specific “cool” project you are working on? What makes you different from other companies?

To answer all these questions you first need to do two things:

• define your needs
• be realistic while defining your needs

Recruiters and hiring managers together should take some time and discuss a team’s needs and how they are or can be aligned with the company’s bigger goals.

Try to identify why you have this position and define the tasks the new hire will be expected to take on.

Do not look at blogs and websites which offer you ready job description templates and just copy-paste.

If you want to use them, that’s ok, but use them only as a template which will help you to develop your own specific job description.

My job description is…being enthusiastic – Dhani Harrison

In your job description, you should focus on what set of skills and knowledge you are looking for in candidates who will apply.

If you provide candidates with real examples of how their skills and knowledge will be utilized aiming to achieve a bigger goal or to work on building a vision, candidates will understand that they will be part of a team which performs with a purpose; they will appreciate it and even the top tech talent will be willing to work with you.

Highlight your strengths

Focus on your cool project/product/service

Bet it a big or a small company, a start-up or a well-established company, each has its own strengths. A big company can be good at easily approaching big clients and selling to candidates thanks to its brand and exposure, but a start-up can be good at working on very cool projects which are expected to disrupt markets.

Because you are not big (yet) it does not mean that you can’t be attractive to top tech talent.

If you present to candidates an interesting project that you will be working on for the next few months or if you present them with a new product/service which is about to launch and is expected to change the way we used to see what it replaces (think of Apple launch and Nokia’s “death”), then yes, you give them a huge reason to join your team.

Therefore, be encouraged to include a detailed description of the project that the new hire will be working on.

Do not solely focus on a generic description of the team and its goals, but provide candidates with information about the impact that their work is expected to have on the final product/service.

Tell them about the tools and the systems you use, and let them know that you are open to new ideas/suggestions on improving your processes. Tell them you provide them with ownership.

Over half (54%) of the organizations say the digital talent gap is hampering their digital transformation programs and that their organization is losing competitive advantage because of a shortage of digital talent.

– UKTN

Make your employees your “EVP” ambassadors

Another strength of your company could also be the company culture and the flexibility you offer at work. Think of LinkedIn, Netflix and Google.

Despite the success they have because of their products/services, they are well known for their employee-friendly programs and processes.

As big companies they may have already built their brand, and you may not be there yet, but that’s OK! Not everyone has a strong employer brand, and it takes time, effort, and financial investment to build one.

What you can do is show your candidates your ambition and how serious you are about becoming the best in your industry; show them also how you plan to achieve that.

Show them your commitment to invest in their learning and development; after all, investment in learning new skills is related to the company’s overall performance.

While keeping the aforementioned in mind, it is important to make your employees “Employee Value Proposition” (EVP) ambassadors. Who can promote your company to candidates better than your own employees? Exactly, no one!

Your employees’ happiness and willingness to share the open positions, along with the positive impact that the company culture may have, can be your best employer branding strategy. And the best…it will cost you nothing!

Choose the right sourcing channels

Now that you have defined your needs, and you have created an appealing but realistic job description focusing on your needs, projects, and strengths, it is time to make the decision where to look for top tech talent. Your career website and LinkedIn are two of the most well-known platforms to post your new open positions, but think a bit further and take the next step.

When you post a job on LinkedIn ask your hiring manager and other team members to share it as well. Thus, “taking advantage” of the hiring manager’s and other team members’ network, you will be able to reach out to even more relevant talent (Word of Mouth). [Read – What is social HR? ]

I know someone who knows someone who may know someone else. – The Pooh Sticks (edited)

Build a partnership with strategic universities

Think of relevant universities. University job boards do not exist only for entry-level positions. Remember that most of the universities have also alumni groups.

Candidates with experience could be found there as well. If not, if your job description manages to gain the attention of one of the other members, be sure that he/she will share it with others. That’s the purpose of an alumni group, to help each other grow in their career by sharing knowledge and opportunities.

Be proactive and start building partnerships in advance with universities where top tech talent study(ied). Make sure you hold a presentation in front of students and make sure you involve students in different case studies or coding exercises which will challenge them and convince them that you are an employer worth working for.

Take advantage of talent pools (use hackathons, talent assessment software)

“By 2020 1.3 million new U.S software jobs will require tech talent. But there will only be 400,000 new US computer science grads.” – Indeed blog

Supposing that you have followed all the steps mentioned above, your only remaining task now is to ensure you approach candidates with relevant experience, skills, and knowledge.

One way to do this is by taking advantage of existing talent pools. You may have your own talent pool, but sometimes it is not enough on its own. You can partner with third-party organizations which provide you with a platform where you can reach out to tech talent.

Companies such as HackerEarth can help you organize different hackathons where people from all over the world can participate and only the best ones will go into the remaining steps of the recruitment process.

What does it mean for you? It means a bigger talent pool with no boundaries; all candidates will be tested and assessed on their skills about a specific project or about using specific tools or programs, and it also means that you will be guaranteed a shortlist of qualified candidates for your open position.

Hackathons are not the only way, of course! You can also ask candidates to participate in finding a solution to your case study or for a specific project that you create for them. To be more practical, you can give to your potential candidates a “work sample test” (tasks that the candidate will be performing in the job if hired). This method is the best indicator of future job performance.

To summarize, taking care of these steps is expected to make it easier for employers to approach top tech talent even if the company does not operate in the IT/Software industry. In any case, today when technology is taking over everything, every organization has a digital side, and therefore every company is somehow an IT/Software-focused company.

The way you approach candidates can make it even more clear for them the fact that how serious and ambitious you are to take your IT/Software department to the next level.

Finally, if you make sure you provide candidates with the correct information about the position and the company, and if you use the right channels and tools to approach and assess these candidates, then what is left for you to do is celebrate with your team members about the new hire, because you have already ensured that you will onboard the best one! 😉 ( Also read: How to hire the best developer talent at your next career fair )

You can find some more statistics about top tech talent

75 percent of hiring managers report that the time it takes to fill IT positions has increased over the past three years, with the No. 1 reason being “inability to find qualified candidates.-WilsonHCG

Only 36% of people working in tech feel that they have a clear career path, versus 50% of people working in fields such as marketing and finance, according to a survey from TINYPluse.

83% of employers support that the tech talent shortage had hurt their business through lost revenue, slower product development, and increased employee burnout. – Indeed blog

28% of techies said they understand their companies’ vision compared with 43% of non-techies. – The Economist“

47% of techies said they had good relations with their work colleagues compared with 56% of non-techies. – The Economist

Top technical recruiting platform comparison

We decided to compare the 8 most common recruitment software platforms as per the number of users. These comparisons have been made from an external source.

(Read – Top 10 recruiting software platforms)

All platforms have been compared based on price, number of users (admins), number of assessments and 9 other criteria.

Download full comparison by filling the form below –