Cytiva Talent Management Software Blog

Talent Management: Are People Your Most Important Asset?

At Cytiva, we sit on a lot of facts and figures that we use in our white papers, webinars, and in generally trying to spread the word of better people practices through technology.

But they tend to exist in silos across our “marketing assets.” How’s that for jargon?

Several days ago, I got inspired to tie many of these talent management facts together to tell the larger story of how business has changed. And how leaders and people managers have to take notice and “change” the way they source and manage their people. 

Many (many) hours later, here it is. 

Whether you’re looking at recruiting software, employee performance management software, onboarding software or none of the above, the fact is you have to acknowledge that what you did yesterday is not necessarily what you need to do today or tomorrow. 

The mission has changed.  It’s a new world with many new players. Technology is blurring the lines between applicants, candidates, employees, customers and, as the video emphasizes, “people.” 

I hope you like it. Consensus and criticism is equally welcomed.

Turn Your Recruiting Software into a Profit Center with Government Tax Credits

Federal, state, and local governments offer an array of lucrative tax credits for one purpose:  to stimulate economic growth.   Tax credits are available for companies based on their geographic location, industry, number of employees, hiring trends, and daily business activities.   These tax incentives can reduce a company’s capital costs, operating expenses, and federal and state tax liability.

Companies of all sizes and all industries can benefit from tax credits.  Tax credit awards may be based upon increases or decreases in employment, job relocations, employee status change from contract to permanent, training or retraining, expansion, relocation, or upgrading of facilities experiencing closures or consolidations.  Many tax credits can be captured retroactively as well.

Point-of-hire Tax Credits are Particularly Prevalent with Governments

Federal hiring credits include the Work Opportunity Tax Credit Program and Long-Term Family Assistance Program with awards of up to $9000 per qualified employee as well as the more recent HIRE Act payroll tax holiday for qualified employees.  Also available are Federal Empowerment Zone (FEZ) and Renewal Community (R/C) Tax Credit Programs, allowing a credit of up to $3000 per eligible employee for employers hiring individuals who live and work in geographically designated urban and rural areas. 

State specific point-of-hire tax credits include such programs as California’s new hire credit of up to $37,400 per eligible employee for the life of the program, the Louisiana Enterprise Zone Tax Credit Program of $2500 for each new hire in specific designated areas, and the New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zone Tax Credit Program with a benefit of up to $1500 for each net new job created.  These types of incentives are common throughout the United States.    

Other tax credit opportunities include: investment tax credits, sales and use tax recoveries, property tax abatements, and research and development tax credits.

These financial incentives can affect a company’s bottom line, by generating cost savings in the company’s operating budget.  By reducing the cost of hiring new employees through tax credits and savings programs, a company’s Human Resource (HR) department can actually generate savings for the company. 

Tax credits are not the only source for reducing HR department costs.  HR departments can be overwhelmed by the paperwork involved in bringing a new hire onboard.  Applicant tracking software (ATS) alleviate the administrative burden and cost for managers, ensure accurate tracking of new hires, and smooth the on-boarding experience for these new hires.  However, many rec solutions do not have value added components such as tax credit services.  These services directly affect companies’ bottom lines, turning HR departments into a source of cost reduction for the company.  

These savings can even be turned around to pay for the ATS services.  With an experienced tax credit and incentive provider and a state of the art applicant tracking software, companies can improve the productivity of their workforces, enhance efficiencies in the hiring process, and free up dollars for investment, savings/liquidity, or debt reduction.

The Cytvia-WMS integrated solution is doing exactly that for our clients:  Turning HR Departments into Profit Centers™.   The WMS tax credit solution, a mixture of leading edge financial incentives technology, 30 years of experience in the industry, and specialized staff, combined with Cytvia’s SonicRecruit is reducing the cost of hiring for its clients.  By screening for point-of-hire tax credits (e.g., WOTC, HIRE Act, geographic zones) through its integrated solution with Cytvia, WMS can immediately determine potential savings for clients in the hiring process through tax credits or tax savings, freeing up dollars that may be used for other HR or company needs. 

At the same time, WMS provides a full spectrum of federal, state, and local tax credit services to capture additional dollars beyond the point-of-hire tax credit programs.  Add these tax credits to the reduced cost involved in processing new hires and HR Departments improve their efficiency and cost savings associated with workforce functions.

WMS and Cytvia have been providing tax credit and recruiting software services for a significant period of time, with the sole focus being these service lines.  As a result, companies receive quality service from experienced staff with technical systems that are the result of focused research and development and knowledge of best of industry practices.  

This article was contributed by Dawn Vignola, VP Operations, Walton Management Services, Inc.  For more information about their business incentive services, visit their website.

Cytiva Applicant Tracking Software Employees Support WFO

As mentioned in a previous blog post, talent management software vendor, Cytiva, has been doing a lot of work with our adopted charity, Wardrobe for Opportunity. WFO partners with over 100 community organizations to support their work in helping thousands of low-income jobseekers find employment.  WFO provides image workshops, professional clothing, professional image coaching, interview workshops and internships to the men and women of our community.  These programs give low-income jobseekers the confidence, networks, and experience they need to pursue the career of their dreams.

With our SonicRecruit recruiting software as the main focus of our business, we feel a particular affinity for WFO.

Since we adopted WFO as our charity we’ve had a clothing/accessory drive where we donated over 500 articles of professional clothing and accessories. We’ve participated in several interview clinics. We also enjoyed playing bartender at a guest bartending night hosted by Elixir in San Francisco - where half of all tips we made went to WFO – and our CEO, Jason Moreau, graciously matched the amount donated!

The Rummage Sale

So, we were wondering what else we could do to help WFO. What else could be done?

And then one day Merriann brought up the idea of hosting a big rummage sale and donating the proceeds to WFO! We all agreed that it was a brilliant idea, so for our latest fundraising adventure we set about planning a rummage sale! We formed a sale committee and set a goal of raising $1000. We decided to hold the sale on Saturday, July 17, at the home of Jennifer, our Office Manager. We asked the entire Cytiva team - and everyone else we knew - to donate their unwanted, but in good condition, items to sell. For several months the team brought their items to the Emeryville office.

There was so much stuff! The night before the sale we literally filled an entire U-haul truck to the brim with donated items, including an elliptical machine, TVs, small furniture items, art supplies, workout equipment, electronics and numerous household and miscellaneous items. People were still bringing items to sell on the day of the sale! We even had tasty, homemade zucchini bread for sale, courtesy of Carisa and Kevin! In addition to contributing donations; several team members came out to help staff the sale. It truly was a team effort. 

We are pleased to announce that the rummage sale was a huge success! Almost every item was sold and we raised a total of $775! The day after the rummage sale we sent an email out to the entire Cytiva team asking if they could help us meet our $1000 goal.  Once again the Cytiva team came through and the donations received exceeded our goal by more then $175!

We are grateful for our continued partnership with Wardrobe for Opportunity… It is very satisfying to know that the simple act of selling our unwanted, abandoned items can help the people in our community in their pursuit of dignity and gainful employment.

For more information about WFO and how you may contribute, click here.

This article was contrubuted by Jill Connaway, Assistant to the Vice President of Client Services for Cytiva.

SonicWisdom Recruiting Software Tip of the Week

What if... you could automatically send out an email to a Hiring Manager just by changing status on an applicant?
 
What if... you could change status and automatically send out emails to multiple applicants in one step?
 
What if... that email had relevant information in it pertaining to the job and was personalized for the recipient?
 
What if all this (and more) was already in your system and you weren't using it?!

Auto Email via Status Change in Sonic 

• Highlights of Auto Email using Mail Merge
• Based on status changes with option to not send email
• Send anonymously from the General Address
• Send to Applicant, Recruiter or Hiring Manager
• Personalize emails using mail merge codes
• Include HTML and images such as your logo or a map
• Statuses with emails are clearly marked

When you might want to use Auto Email

• Notify HM when scheduling interviews
• Notify HM when a candidate withdraws from consideration
• Notify applicants that the position is filled
• Notify applicants of future interest status
• Request additional information such as references
• Invitation to complete the long application

This article was written by Laurie Tanner, Cytiva Account Manager, and taken from the SonicWisdom newsletter, a free resource to all SonicRecruit clients.  SonicWisdom gives SonicRecruit users regular insight into product tips and tricks.

Does Applicant Tracking Software Have to Suck?

 

I know many recruiters who are stuck with systems they don’t like may ask this question every day, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

I am talking about your lifeblood:  Your candidates.  Your future employees. No matter what you may think of your recruiting software, it pales in comparison to what your candidates think.  And guess what?  For many companies, candidates think you suck.

I see it frequently online.  Blogs spring forth to vent about such things.  Candidates are frustrated with bad application processes and bad/poorly configured applicant tracking software.  Here are just a few comments from sources I came across today:

“Incredibly, frustratingly slow. I have no idea if the irrelevant location questions and teeny tiny job description lists are a result of the hiring company themselves, but it takes hours to submit a resume and letter of interest... that you already had. Absolute crap.”

“Terrible workflow, repellent UI. After applying via (ATS vendor deleted), I always stop a moment to wonder if I'd even want to work for a company that used (them). So many talented people (i.e., people I'd actually want to work with) must just walk away in disgust.”

You get the picture.  The short sighted think, “unemployment is at almost 10%. I am overwhelmed, thank goodness my online application is screening out many of the thousands of resumes I get.”  But wait.  Who is least likely to suffer through a frustrating application?  Your best candidates, that’s who.  They probably already have a job with your competitor and don’t need the aggravation.

But beyond that, the reality is that your entire corporate brand is compromised when your application process sucks.  You may be a hot company with a great place to work, but if your online application makes you look brain dead and uncaring, you might as flush that down the toilet.

And, as I always tell clients, your job seekers are often your customers as well.  If you have great products and services, your customers will want to work for you.  Your applicant tracking system and/or the way you configure it for candidates, can turn brand lovers into haters.

And the world is connected now.  Haters spread the hate very quickly.

So go. Right now.  Apply for one of your jobs, make a list of things to improve upon, and talk with your vendor.  Your ATS could be costing you dearly.

Do you have any online application horror stories? What about great success stories? I'd love to hear.

2010 Talent Management Survey

Cytiva recently kicked off our 2010 SonicTalent Survey.  This 12-14 question questionnaire takes about 3-4 minutes to complete and one lucky survey taker is going to win an iPad for their trouble.

The survey is designed to give us more insight into trends and issues as we continually enhance our recruiting software, our onboarding portal and our performance management software.

A few hundred HR and business professionals have taken the survey thus far, but it will remain open through mid September.  Those are pretty good odds to win an iPad.

If you manage people or are an HR professional, we invite you to take a few minutes now and fill out the survey.

You can access this talent management survey here.

If you don’t want to take the survey, and don’t mind passing up a chance at a new iPad, comment on this blog post.  What do you see as the greatest challenges facing HR in this post recession world?

Tracking Craigslist Applicants in SonicRecruit Recruiting Software

You post jobs on Craigslist right?  Talk about a good return on your investment.  I once got 200 applicants within two hours of placing an employment ad on Craigslist.  The question is... how do you track job applicants from Craigslist using SonicRecruit?  Note: Craigslist currently does not accept batch postings.  
 
Not posting to Craigslist?  What about other niche job boards specific to your industry?  Are you manually posting jobs and then loosing your tracking functionality?  OH NO!

Here is the trick...

In both the "My Jobs" and "All Jobs" tabs in SonicRecruit, there is a link on the far right that says (reports).  In this link you will find one or perhaps if you are very lucky, two URL links.
 
The first URL link is for generating tracking links for standard posting to any site that accepts HTML.  The second link is for confidential postings.

Did you say confidential job postings?

Yes!  If you don't have this link and you need it, contact your account manager.  We can create a special employment application page that is not branded and does not send an email confirmation disclosing your company name.  Once the application page is created you will use this link to pick up the necessary code to post your confidential jobs.  

How do I work this thing?

When you click on the URL link it will open a new window with a list of sources.  Each source has its own custom URL.  Find the appropriate source and you are half way there.  
 
To use the hyperlink URL for sites like Craigslist that allow you to use HTML formatting, you copy all three lines.  This will create a link that leads to your application page and tracks the source accurately in your applicant tracking software.

In the screen shot above I have highlighted the actual link.  If you are using a site that allows you to put in the link, just copy the portion between the quotes starting with "http//.  If you are posting a confidential job to Monster.com for example (and not using the standard one-click cross posting function in SonicRecruit), you would need to manually post the job and enter the confidential link; not the complete HTML string.  (Make sure you click on Confidential URL in the (reports) link.

This article was written by Laurie Tanner, Cytiva Account Manager, and taken from the SonicWisdom newsletter, a free resource to all SonicRecruit clients.  SonicWisdom gives SonicRecruit users regular insight into product tips and tricks.

New Employee Performance Management Report

What are best in class companies doing regarding employee performance management?

• 70% introduce employees to performance goals within the first month on the job
• 100% have formal performance reviews at least annually or on a per project basis
• 50% integrate performance data with other talent management functions
• 69% link employee goals to organizational goals
• 64% hold managers accountable for their employees’ goal attainment

These are just some of the discoveries in the new Cytiva-sponsored Aberdeen Group report called “Employee Performance Management, The Alpha and the Omega of Talent Strategy and Business Execution.”  As an exclusive sponsor, we are making the report available free of charge. You can access this employee performance management report here.

This is the third time Cytiva has worked with Aberdeen Group and each time, the research has yielded very useful information.  For any company that is interested in how their processes and strategies stack up against what Aberdeen calls “Best in Class” companies, this report is ideal.

The report is especially timely now as organizations look to leverage performance management to help align their workforces and achieve better results in the wake of the current economic unrest.  This is a topic Cytiva has tackled in a recent free report.

I highly recommend the report to organizations that either have, or are planning on implementing employee performance appraisal software.  Performance management software makes implementing a best practice performance evaluation system much easier, but like anything else it’s “garbage in, garbage out.”  The Aberdeen report, “Employee Performance Management,” is a great resource to help benchmark the very processes you are automating to ensure you’re getting the most out of your system.

And what do Best in Class companies achieve with their efforts?

• 81% of their employees indicate they are engaged
• 58% of their employees exceeded performance goals or expectations according to their last performance appraisal
• They experienced a 22% improvement in customer satisfaction

There’s much more in the report. You can download a free electronic copy of “Employee Performance Management, The Alpha and the Omega of Talent Strategy and Business Execution” here.

Talent Management Software at the SHRM Conference

What to write about the 2010 SHRM Conference in San Diego? Don't get me wrong, I love the conference. See my other posts about past SHRM conferences.

But I have already written about why I like SHRM. This year I will be critical. As I have written before, the SHRM conference is a great glimpse into real world HR. The day to day blocking and tackling of getting people paid, staying out of legal trouble, providing benefits, recruiting and so on.

The problem is that the content and the constituency of the conference remains too tactical, too amorphous (sure we should focus on maximizing talent, but what are leading companies doing to achieve that) and not strategic enough. I attended a session where the speaker referred to a quote that he picked up at the conference six years ago. The quote was: "You are not HR people, you are business leaders who have a specialty in HR." That's the crux of my disappointment. That quote was from six years ago and I don't talk with enough "business people with a specialty in HR" at SHRM.

I know SHRM is trying to bring the level up, but again, that same session (which was really good), featured a speaker who had expertise in a lot of other areas, but he (jokingly) lamented that he keeps getting brought back to do the same low to mid level session on business cases and technology (Joe Rotella is the speaker and he was very entertaining and brought good content).

I put the challenge out to SHRM and to all you strategic HR "business people": Take over the conference. SHRM: Build a high level strategic HR track, and high level HR Execs: Come to the conference.

SHRM does a great job serving the low to mid level HR practitioner, so extend that to HR leadership and make at least part of the conference compelling enough for chief HR officers. Your membership will appreciate it, vendors will appreciate it and you will be actively helping the profession you serve rise to relevancy in the organization of the future.

I believe SHRM can do this without alienating the line HR practitioner that seems to be the core customer for their conferences, books, and membership.

To be fair, I believe SHRM is trying to do something like this, it just wasn't real obvious to me as an attendee and as a vendor just where this higher level track sat in the deep agenda of conference sessions.

Now as a vendor of applicant tracking software, onboarding software, and employee performance management software, I definitely have a bias toward technology occupying a very high priority in HR's ability to be strategic. That's because it plays a huge role in businesses being strategic (Remember? Business people with an expertise in HR).

Therefore, I challenge SHRM to bulk up on the technology content. There is an undeniable link between strategy and technology. In today's world, execution of business strategy is largely accomplished through people and technology, so I say SHRM is light on the strategy content and way, way too light on the technology content.

The nexus of strategy, people and execution (with an emphasis on technology) is the future of HR. Or should I say the future of business professionals with an expertise in HR. I look to SHRM to kick it up a notch on the execution.

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SHRM Conference: Recruiting Software, Performance Appraisal Software and iPads

Cytiva is packing up and heading to the SHRM Conference in San Diego this weekend and we are bringing and iPad to give away.  Well, we are not bringing it, but we are giving it away in a drawing to held in the days following the conference.

It's well documented that Cytiva pioneered the recently popular, but now passé Kindle give away.  For SHRM 2010, we abandon the cutting edge and join the crowd.  I expect most companies will give away iPads, but hey, that's what everyone wants. So give em what they want is what I always say.

BUT, if you come by booth 1543 you'll not only get a chance at an iPad, but you'll meet a fun crew and you'll learn about some of the best applicant tracking software, onboarding software and performance management software available.