December 12th, 2008 by khart
One of the areas we always look at when doing process consulting is the structure in the recruitment department. What we often find is organizational growth has impacted the effectiveness of the current structure and that roles and responsibilities have grown over the years. At the same time, assignment of new roles and responsibilities hasn’t been well planned and thought out. Workflow may have increased for the department overall and for certain positions in particular.
If you are a multi-hospital system, is your recruitment structure centralized or decentralized? There is no ‘right or wrong’ structure; but the structure should make sense from an economies of scale point of view, your customers (candidates and internal hiring managers) should be well served, and processes should make sense for either scenario.
Perhaps now would be a good time to take a look at the structure in your department, the roles and responsibilities of your staff, workflow and how all of this impacts your recruitment success. Have you analyzed job descriptions and concluded that they still make sense? (Often as ‘other duties as assigned’ pile up, we find these additional duties are tacked on to existing jobs with little analysis or strategic planning.) New responsibilities often go to the person deemed the least busy and are not necessarily aligned to business objectives. This may lead to everyone on the team doing a little of everything, with overlap, duplication and confusion as to who is responsible for what in the final analysis.
Another scenario is the model where responsibilities are strictly assigned, and there is no deviation or overlap, making communication essential and coverage for absences crucial.
Many organizations went to the ‘generalist’ model years ago before reverting back to having recruiters, employee relations specialists, and even retensivists when recruitment became a major issue again and retention began to get the emphasis it deserves. Some organizations now employ ‘sourcers’, who may actually be screening large volumes of resumes as well as mining Internet databases in search of viable candidates, making calls, etc.
This post is appearing near the end of the calendar year. Perhaps now would be a good time to take a closer look at how you have structured your department, analyze roles and responsibilities and make necessary adjustments to move your recruitment and retention programs to the next level. We wish you much success and welcome your comments.
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December 5th, 2008 by khart
Key to recruitment process and one of the core tools for success in recruitment is excellent communication with your key internal customers, the hiring managers. These individuals can provide you with an unsurpassed worldview of what changes are in the works (rumored resignations, retirements, transfers in and out, expanded or contracted services in their areas, etc.) as well as vital information on what the unit culture is all about and what types of individuals integrate seamlessly into those units.
Recruitment process success involves an efficient requisition and posting process, understanding of position control, rapid and considered response back to candidates, and clear communication as to where the candidate is in the process. All of these items involve communication with hiring managers.
Recruiter/hiring manager partnerships involve frequent meetings to discuss requisitions and postings, position control, openings, candidates and interview results. These meetings can also pinpoint the managers’ views on the quality of hires you are making.
You need a process around who is conducting the interviews, whether or not recruitment screens resumes and conducts a preliminary interview, when (and which partner) conducts background checking and reference checking, who makes the job offer and when the paperwork is begun. Other process issues include who handles transfer requests and who makes the offers to internal candidates. Other shared responsibilities include responding back to candidates who have been eliminated from consideration and communication to candidates in general.
A good partnership and communication with your hiring managers can make the difference between success and failure in recruitment.
Next week we will discuss roles and responsibilities, structure in recruitment and reporting.
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December 1st, 2008 by khart
Do you know what your automated message back to candidates looks like? Is it an auto message that your ATS provider developed or have you actually looked at it recently? Are you comfortable with the tone of this message and confident that it is an extension of your corporate culture? We have been routinely taken aback when we see what these messages look like. They often are ‘from’ DO NOT REPLY and very often do not give the candidate a warm and fuzzy feeling.
And how about this-do you even have such a message, or is the candidate worrying about whether or not the process actually worked or was complete after submitting a resume or online application?
Another question is, how long does it take you to get back to candidates after that automated response? And how do you respond to the candidate? Does recruitment screen the resume/application, then send the viable candidates’ resumes along to a hiring manager and alert the candidates as to what has taken place, what to expect next and time frames going forward? Or does the candidate wait and wait for some type of response, while applying to competitors? We have found in many cases no one ever responds back to candidates who are not a good fit.
We would advise that you develop a ‘form’ e-mail response that in warm but professional language lets candidates know where they are in the process, what to expect next and time frames. Similarly, craft nice responses to those who don’t make the initial cut and for those who aren’t hired after interview. Your reputation in the health care community is at stake when you ignore candidates.
Of course these recommendations assume you have excellent communications with hiring managers, which we will discuss on next week’s post.
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November 21st, 2008 by khart
The good news is there is technology to help recruiters in their every day lives. The bad news is that in many cases this very technology seems to be crippling recruiters’ ability to recruit. This seeming contradiction in terms often results from inadequate recruiter education on how to use the technology (in many cases we have heard of recruiters being given very little to no help in using either their HRIS system OR their ATS). Very often recruiters have no idea what either of these systems can do nor how to use them effectively.
I chatted with a training manager of a large ATS who described the training session for recruiters and noted that after a period of time, she felt there was true information overload. And that recruiters didn’t retain enough from just one session.
So education and re-education is one issue. What are some others?
One, often these technologies do not interface with each other, forcing recruiters to ‘make do’ and ‘work around the systems’. Information must be re-entered from system to system, adding unnecessary work.
Sharing information with hiring managers can be an issue; some systems don’t allow managers to visualize everything that can be seen by the recruiter related to a candidate. This type of situation can compromise communication. Also, looking at the entry in the ATS does not always easily show exactly where the candidate is in the process. Sometimes notes are not made by all concerned so that the hiring manager and recruiter can tell at a glance where the candidate is in the process.
Secondly, when a successful marketing campaign generates hundreds of resumes, the system (and the recruiters) can be totally overloaded with resume after resume. And depending on how the organization’s policies and procedures work, volume can increase exponentially. For example, if candidates are required to apply to a job number, not for a specific classification of position, they must submit multiple resumes for the same job family. This leads to duplication and confusion for everyone.
Similarly, if there are no ‘knock out’ questions, anyone can apply for any position. So that theoretically, someone with a high school education and no work experience could apply to be a department head.
And then there is the issue of how internal transfers are handled. Many organizations require internal folks to follow the same procedure as external candidates. Thus you have internal candidates using the same application procedure, adding more and more resumes to the mix.
What all of this leads to is a resume database that just keeps growing like Topsy and in most cases, never gets ‘mined’. There may be a stellar candidate already ‘sitting’ in your database, but the sheer volume of constant new resumes means no one ever gets to ‘mine’ that database to see which resumes represent viable candidates. And when posting a position, this valuable source is never consulted before the entire search process begins again.
These are a few of the areas to look at when you are trying to get a handle on your technology tools.
Next week we will look at communications to candidates.
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November 14th, 2008 by khart
One of the most important areas to look at in the process continuum is your website and the impact it has on how a candidate applies online. You would be surprised at the difficulties awaiting the job seeker when he attempts to submit a resume or application online to many organizations.
From the placement of the ‘careers’ or ‘jobs’ button on your main page to the process of hitting the ‘send’ button when submitting a resume, there are countless ways to ‘lose’ a good candidate.
It is always good to remember that not all candidates are comfortable with technology and creating barriers to submitting a resume online may result in the non-tech savvy candidates simply giving up. We had a forty-something, highly experienced RN tell us on one consulting project that she attempted multiple times to submit a resume online to a prestigious academic medical center and became so frustrated, she turned the computer off, grabbed a paper resume, drove to the facility and dropped off the paper resume. She got the job, but in many organizations, dropping off a paper resume is simply not an option anymore. Therefore, it behooves us to create a process that is easily understood and makes submitting online a pleasure, not a chore.
A good idea is to shop your site as though you were an actual candidate attempting to apply online. Because it is difficult to view your site with fresh eyes when you are used to seeing it every day, another option is to engage an outside firm to conduct a Mystery Shop of your site and resume submission process (Hodes Health Care Division has done over 150 of these candidate experience Mystery Shops).
Some things to consider when you are looking at this piece of the process include but are not limited to:
• Does your facility’s site URL appear when your facility or system is “Googled”? If it does, how far down the list is it?
• Is the careers or jobs button clearly and instantly visible on your home page?
• How many clicks does it take to get to the careers or jobs page?
• Are you able to easily (and efficiently) search for a specific position by location, department, professional classification?
• Can candidates attach a resume to your application or can they cut and paste elements of their resume to your application?
• How long is your application? (We have seen the gamut- from a few questions to several pages in our projects).
• What kinds of sensitive information (social security number, professional and driver’s license) do you require?
• How long does the application process take? Our experience has ranged from 15 minutes to over an hour and we are quite experienced at submitting resumes.
• Are there any potential technical glitches (error messages, being timed out) that crop up during resume submission?
This kind of diagnostic can enable you to correct flaws in the online application process, create a better website experience for interested candidates and create a better online candidate flow. Ultimately, the online application process can be a help rather than a hindrance.
For further reading, click here to read my Nursing Economics article, “Evaluating Recruitment Process through ‘Mystery Shops.’”
Next week we will look at your ATS, technology and mining your own database.
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November 7th, 2008 by khart
Another frequent area of concern is the requisition process, which often is convoluted and difficult to manage. From who initiates, how many signatures and how many pieces of paperwork are required (and this can change frequently in organizations depending on financial performance), the requisition trail is often a long and winding road.
Many organizations have electronic signatures and requisitions are generated from their HRIS systems. Copies of the ‘signed’ requisitions are delivered electronically to recruitment so that the posting and recruitment process can begin.
More often, paper requisitions are sent via interoffice mail or hand delivered by hiring managers to HR/recruitment. In some organizations the amount of justification/writing, etc. that has to be done for each position is beyond tedious. And this is for every position, whether it be a new or replacement position. In some hospital systems, the CEO has to approve each and every requisition before the position can be filled.
It has always struck me as incomprehensible that a manager who is charged with running a unit or units, handling the unit budgets and all they entail, and taking responsibility for staff and patient care has to go through these hoops in getting a requisition initiated.
Just keeping physical track of these paper requisitions is a challenge and they frequently fall into the famous ‘black hole’. I am sure there is a special purgatory somewhere with tons of lost HR paperwork.
What can an organization do to make this process flow more smoothly? First investigate to see whether you have a requisition component in your HRIS system. Some automatically post the position after the requisition is approved. Often these modules are available for no additional cost, but just aren’t being used. If there is an additional cost, it would be well worth it to invest in this tool.
If your HRIS system doesn’t have this module or application, investigate other automated options.
If you don’t have an automated way to deal with requisitions and postings, then streamline what you are dealing with so that the chances of paper being lost or communication being an issue are lessened.
When you streamline the requisition process, include the posting process so that you have a seamless method of approving and posting requisitions. Fixing just this part of the process will dramatically shorten your days to fill, as this is one part of the process that really prolongs the entire process.
Next week we will look at your website and how it impacts recruitment process.
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October 31st, 2008 by khart
At the risk of seriously dating myself, I am going to describe the position control process as it existed in the ‘old days’ before extensive use of computers in recruitment and HR. In my last position as Director of Nurse Recruitment for a large Midwest hospital, each nursing manager had a position control book, I had the master book sheets for all units, and we collaboratively reviewed open positions, pending transfers, new hires, etc. on an every two-week basis.
The book was developed from budgeted positions by unit. Each position had a space on the sheet and the position number was indicated. The sheet was divided by shift, so that at a glance, you could see openings by unit and shift, whether they were full time, part time or per diem, and notes in pencil indicated transfers in and out, pending hires, etc.
This handy little tool was my ‘Bible’ as it could be used to run open position lists, and showed clearly what was happening with each position.
Division directors and their managers could tweak their positions if these tweaks maintained adequate staffing. For example, in the ED, we had a variety of 12-hour shifts designed to meet the needs of the busiest times in that unit. We had 10 am to 10 pm, 11 am to 11 pm and other similar positions. Similarly, we were able to develop job-share positions. However, these decisions were made collaboratively, not in a vacuum and careful study was made as to what the impact would have on staffing the unit.
Contrast those halcyon days with the situation in many organizations now.
What we find as we consult with many of our clients is that position control as a tool to assist with staffing and recruitment doesn’t really exist anymore. Hiring managers have a budgeted amount of positions and in many cases, they play with their number to meet the needs of those they want to hire, instead of what they need to staff their units. Sometimes recruitment doesn’t even have access to this information. All recruitment may know is that 6 east has an allotment of 36.5 positions, not which positions are on what shift and what the full time/part time breakout looks like. To say nothing of which positions are open, which filled, where transfers are in process, who are potentially leaving positions, etc.
Kind of like the proverbial blind men trying to identify an elephant. Everyone touches a different part, and thus, their descriptions are totally different. The manager has one view, the recruiter quite another.
Often the recruiter must rely on just the requisitions to fill positions. With no overview of all the positions (filled, open, soon to be open, etc.), no planning can be done and recruitment becomes reactive.
A resume that may be a perfect fit for a position languishes because the recruiter has no idea that particular position is opening.
This situation is a gap crying for a solution and solutions do exist! There are commercial software and web-based applications that will provide position control, and many HRIS systems have a position control component.
The first recommendation is to find common ground. Decide who ‘owns’ position control, then, work together to make sure everyone is on the same page. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Recruitment absolutely needs to know where openings are, where folks are transferring to and from, and what will be needed in the near and distant future.
We may not be able to go back to the ‘old days’, but surely we can make our technology work with us rather than against us.
Next week we look at the requisition process.
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October 24th, 2008 by khart
One of the most common projects we undertake in the Health Care Division is called a Process Diagnostic, where we assess clients’ recruitment processes and deliver gap analysis and recommendations for improvement. Recruitment has evolved in the last ten to twenty years, and the technology we now have at our disposal, new roles in recruitment, more complex and larger health care systems, and the increasing lack of face-to-face communication with candidates, have all coalesced to create a perfect storm.
This perfect storm has led to a lack of customer care (both external customers and internal customers), recruiter frustration (after all, recruiters want to recruit and that means human contact), increased length of time to recruit, and constant churning.
Marketing dollars are being spent to attract candidates and in many cases the volume of resumes resulting from these efforts is crippling recruiters’ ability to sift through the resumes and deliver viable candidates to hiring managers.
Lack of effective processes extends from position control to requisition management, to open position report generation/availability, to redundancies and lack of integration in technology. Recruiters often have to duplicate work because the applicant tracking system doesn’t interface with the HRIS system or they have to develop tracking and sourcing documents in Excel or other applications.
Communication both to candidates and with hiring managers is an issue. In many cases automated communication is fraught with problems.
Recruitment roles and responsibilities are also a huge factor. As systems have grown and expanded, little emphasis has been placed on taking a real look at who is doing what, volume and candidate flow, where recruitment ‘sits’ (centralized or decentralized), duplication of responsibilities, and consistency in sourcing, interviewing and reporting.
Competition is fiercer than ever for health care professionals and the race will go to the swift. Now more than ever, it is vital that all recruitment departments tighten up their processes so that they can stay ahead in this ever-competitive environment and win the war for talent.
In the next few posts, we will examine the process piece from beginning to end and provide some tips for improving your process.
Next week, we take a look at position control.
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