1to1 - Spring 2009 - (Page 11) best practices Smarter Recruiting Equals Happier Employees Employee engagement needs to start before employees are hired. e valuating employee performance and assessing HR programs are important steps in the talent management lifecycle, and ultimately in ensuring a positive customer experience. But so is engaging with employees prior to them joining the company. Gary Ellis, vice president of human resources at Fox Filmed Entertainment (the home of 20th Century Fox Studios and 20th Century Fox Television), says the company now uses an onboarding strategy to communicate with new hires during what had been a tell you how many people we hired who were excited, but didn’t quiet period from the time Fox makes an offer until an employee’s include their spouse in the decision-making process This makes start date. for an easier transition,” Isaacs says. The company uses an online tool from Enwisen that candidates Insurance company Esurance’s onboarding approach starts even visit before their hire dates to get them excited about the company earlier in the hiring process—relying less on the résumés received, and to educate them about benefits and upcoming studio events. and instead actively focusing on finding the most qualified candiThe website also provides new-hire forms, which are dates before they even apply. automatically transferred to payroll and HR. Ellis Sandy Hynes, vice president of HR at Esurance, says says that now an employee’s first day of employthat during the company’s high growth period a few ment becomes a celebration rather than a years ago, Esurance became undisciplined with its “The more we can procedure. “The more we can touch our hiring process and it showed in turnover rates. touch our employees employees at the beginning of employment, “Our recruiting strategy is about quality,” Hynes at the beginning of the higher rate of engagement we get early says. “Unfortunately, we compromised on that.” employment, the higher on,” Ellis says. Now Esurance uses a system from ICIMS that rate of engagement So far the company is getting “rave reviews” allows it to pull from a broader pool of applicants. we get early on.” about its onboarding experience from payroll and For example, if Esurance needs to fill an actuary the hiring managers, Ellis says. In addition, retenposition, the hiring manager can easily access infortion has increased and there’s a higher level of satisfacmation on and contact an applicant who visited the tion among new hires. “They can be more productive to company’s job board nine months ago. the company faster than they were before,” he adds. Fox is now Analytics help to determine the sources of candidates that deliver looking at ways to further improve the onboarding experience by employees with the highest performance and lowest turnover. For introducing a mentor program. example, Hynes has determined that referrals yield the best Mortgage company Residential Finance Corp. takes a more unconemployees, and candidates who apply from newspaper ads have ventional approach to hiring employees: It hires people with little to higher turnover than those who come from radio ads. no mortgage experience. Instead, the company looks for people with This deep analytics approach has helped Esurance cut turnover “good moral character,” says Michael Isaacs, president and CEO. dramatically. Two years ago the contact center reported 40 percent According to Isaacs, it take a great deal of up front work to deterturnover. Now it’s less than half that. “I’d like to think some of the mine a person’s attributes, including administering a battery of tests hiring practices we’re employing in HR are making the difference,” like personality profiles. If a candidate passes the tests and then the Hynes says. “Companies that aren’t using data to do this are initial interview process, which Isaacs describes as rigorous, he is shooting in the dark.” > Mila D’Antonio introduced to the sales team for a group interview. If the group likes the candidate, he spends three hours on the sales floor to determine ONLINE EXTRA: whether the job is right for him. If the candidate passes the sales Read about Verizon’s “Stay-ducation” program for employees at floor assessment, in many cases the hiring manager conducts an www.1to1media.com/links/verizon.html informal lunch or dinner interview that includes the spouse. “I can’t www.1to1media.com Spring 2009 11 http://www.fox.com/ http://www.fox.com/ http://www.esurance.com/Welcome/Home/HomePage.aspx http://www.1to1media.com/View.aspx?BioID=24403 http://www.1to1media.com/links/Verizon.html http://www.1to1media.com
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