November 16th, 2009 by khart
In a recruitment era increasingly geared to the digital experience, your new recruitment front office is your careers website. Gone are the days when applicants would routinely drop by the recruitment office to submit a resume. Instead, they now submit those resumes online via your careers website.
When you really did have a busy recruitment front office and that office was the face you showed the world, you made every effort to ensure that office reflected your company brand. You took care with décor and arranged furniture to provide a welcoming experience for the applicant. Staff was trained in customer service.
And while that real front office probably still exists, increasingly your ‘virtual front office’ is the first contact an applicant will have with your company. Have you been as mindful of what the virtual experience will be like and how that experience reflects the brand you have so carefully nurtured?
Start with how your site ranks when you do a Google search. Are you king of the hill or somewhere far down on the totem pole? Can your site be found at all when searching? If you find your site does not pop up with a search or is far down the list, you will need to get serious about search engine optimization as candidates often find potential employers via a Google or other search. There are many health care organizations and systems that have similar names, so you will also want to make sure your location is included on the results of the search.
Now, when you enter the company site, where is the link to careers? Is it placed in a prominent, easily found place? How many clicks does it take to get to your career page(s)?
When you get to the careers section, how easy is it to find and sort open positions? Are the job descriptions reflective of ‘generic’ jobs or are there codes, numbers, internal abbreviations that an external candidate would not understand? (Example, 6 NW1 for a nursing unit).
Is there information about your town or city, links to Chamber of Commerce, realtors, schools, and state professional licensure organizations? Don’t assume only local or in state job seekers are looking for information about your organization.
Are benefits clearly described and is the unique culture of your company represented honestly? Can you sense what it is like to work there from the information on your site? Are the photos engaging and do they show your own employees as opposed to stock photographs using models?
Now to the application process itself. You might want to go through the process yourself to see what this piece is like and to troubleshoot potential impediments to the process. Or consider hiring an outside firm to do this for you through a mystery shop. You will want to see how long the process takes, whether there is duplication (application and resume information), if there are glitches like the form timing out or information not auto-filling properly when cut and pasted from a resume. Can you upload your resume or do you have to enter all the information? Are you asking for sensitive information better left for a later stage in the process such as social security, license numbers and other sensitive data? Are applicants required to give reference names and telephone numbers at this stage of the process? Are there forms that have to be ‘signed’ or agreed to during the process?
Finally, is there any recourse for someone having difficulty completing the resume submission? A phone number clearly indicated, a virtual recruiter, something? Remember many older workers are not as comfortable as younger ones completing an application online.
All of the comments and questions above will enhance your employment brand and extend your real front office to the virtual one being used by the majority of your applicants. Nothing can replace the wonderful receptionist and the offered cup of coffee, but a seamless online process and a user-friendly site that shows off your company in the very best light go a long way in providing excellent customer service online.
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November 9th, 2009 by cswenson
This past week, the Bernard HODES Group exhibited at the annual conference of the American Society of Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) held in Chicago, Illinois. This year’s conference theme was New Heights for HR Leaders. Due to the economically challenging times in the health care industry and for that matter, every other industry, many associations and conferences have experienced at least a 20% decline in their attendance. In light of these statistics, ASHHRA Board of Directors was thrilled with the number of attendees this year. While normal attendance for ASHRRA is 800+, attendance for this year’s conference was 633. Dan Zuhlke, President, ASHHRA, commented in his opening remarks about the attendance, along with the continued support of vendors during these lean economic times. Exhibitors included companies providing partner services, ranging from retirement companies to concierge support services. Judy Russell, Cathy Swenson, and Sean Broderick manned the Hodes exhibit booth and attended some of the sessions.
Many of the attendees who dropped by our booth were concerned about how to enter the social media space. They don’t want to just put up a Facebook page without really researching what is working and what isn’t or fully understanding potential pitfalls. They want a complete strategy for entering this new arena of communicating with passive candidates and sourcing candidates.
Other topics of concern for these healthcare human resource executives centered on their reduced budgets and how they will be able to plan for what may be the worst “healthcare war for talent” in history!!! They described severe cuts in their budgets and concerns in general about the HR landscape.
Buzz Aldrin, the first man to walk on the moon, presented the opening keynote session. Mr. Aldrin walked the audience through President Kennedy’s vision to be on the moon, the preparation of the team and the entire space program. Inspiring yes. Can we utilize these same principals today? Absolutely!
Messages to ponder:
• Think beyond the reality of today.
• Do your homework.
• Prepare.
• Push beyond challenges and barriers.
• Taking risks can provide rewards.
Mr. Aldrin’s story is one of preparation and vision. Following in his father’s footsteps as a pilot, serving in the military and following up with an extensive education, Mr. Adrin was one well-prepared astronaut. Even with the preparation and the support of the President of the United States, naysayers, specifically one scientist, predicted the mission would result in the ship actually sinking into the moon, burying the ship and its passengers alive.
While health care and Human Resources professionals are challenged by many variables in today’s environment, opportunities abound. We can approach these challenges with a mentality of glass half empty or glass half full. Had President Kennedy and Buzz Aldrin practiced glass half empty – we would not have this historic event as part of American history or been able to follow the American dream of further space exploration.
Just two of our VIP visitors to our booth!
Gary L. Pastore
Chief Human Resources Officer
Banner Boswell Medical Center
Shirley Barnes
VP of Human Resources
Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, CA
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November 2nd, 2009 by pdaurizio
Have you ever gone online and taken a look at job postings on websites — or better yet, when you are trying to fill a position, taken a look at the job descriptions from your own organization? At times they are filled with initials and acronyms that are facility specific and unknown to anyone outside the specific organization, or they have so many requirements that one is exhausted just reading them.
Job descriptions, which become the blueprint for our postings and employment ads, should be concise and accurate.
When someone reads a job posting they should be able to get a solid idea of what the job responsibilities are as well as what the qualifications are that are required to perform this particular job.
Here are a few tips for writing job descriptions:
• Keep sentences as short as possible; omit words that are not necessary.
• Leave out technical language whenever possible; explain the duties, responsibilities and requirements in a manner that even a layperson would understand.
• Use short, concise sentences or bullets points. Avoid using a narrative structure.
• Write in the present tense and use active verbs.
• Be consistent with your job descriptions; do not change the requirements for similar positions. Hiring managers at times have a person in mind for a position and want to craft the job description to match that individual’s qualifications. Internal and external applicants read these and can identify when there are discrepancies. This can lead to charges of discrimination and legal consequences.
• Focus on the essential functions of the job, not necessarily the frequency of the task.
• Avoid vague terms like facilitate, interface, may, occasionally. Use accurate terms.
• Describe and define responsibility as concretely as possible.
• Try to list responsibilities in a logical sequence.
• Use” preferred” instead of “required” for qualifications like years of experience or degrees, unless otherwise stipulated by regulatory bodies. This will allow for flexibility without being viewed as discriminatory if you alter the qualifications and repost at a later date.
If you follow these simple steps, you will be amazed at how much easier it will be for those applying for positions in your facility or system to really understand the responsibilities for the positions that are available and for which they will apply.
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