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For retail-based organizations, the reality is that turnover is rather high. Unfortunately, this can be a frustrating reality to organizations. Often it seems the second a new employee is trained, they are already out the door. What is it about retail employees that causes high turnover? Continue Reading →
Guest Author: Maggie Coffey, marketing intern for Hireology
Before you know it, the job market will be replenished with the latest set of recent college graduates. We’re eager, we’re dedicated and we’re picky. Even with a bleak job outlook and the impending repayment of student loans, millennials aren’t going to settle. Continue Reading →
If I were to ask someone to name 10 brands, it would likely be an easy task. Brands are all around us and so deeply engrained in American culture (as well as many other cultures) that naming 10 brands would be simple for most. Not only can many individuals name multiple brands but describing attributes and key characteristics of those brands comes easily as well. People like easily recognizable brands and can even feel attracted to organizations and products because of the feeling they get when associating with the brand. Moreover, individuals are more likely to be attracted to companies and products that are consistent with how they perceive themselves. For example, if I wanted to buy a new car, as an eco-friendly individual that values preserving the environment, I would be more likely to buy a car that fit with that self-concept than a car that did not. Continue Reading →
It is well known that there are many options for hiring new employees. Based on previous research, we also know that some methods are much better than others. For example, we know that structured interviews are much more effective than unstructured interviews for reducing interviewer bias. This is because the extra care taken to standardize interviews across all candidates and by including rating scales completed by multiple interviewers actually reduces the biases and heuristics that humans tend to develop about others.
One method that is useful for improving the validity for predicting top performers in selection is known as the Weighted Application Blanks method. This method allows employers to still use a very common hiring tool while simply adding weight to certain fields. This weighting ultimately adds to an overall score for each applicant making comparisons between applicants more fair and unbiased than mere gut feelings of a hiring manager.
How does your organization hire new employees? If care is not taken to ensure that human error and bias are not influencing the hiring decision. Failure to do so could result in problems with discrimination and possible legal action, so it is imperative that the best (that is, most reliable and valid for predicting job performance) selection tools are used.
Have you ever experienced what you felt could have been unfair hiring practices?
References:
Allen, D. G., Bryant, P. C., & Vardaman, J. M. (2010). Retaining talent: Replacing misconceptions with evidence-based strategies. Academy of Management Perspectives, 48-64.
Suppose you have decided that it is time to move on from a current position to a new one. There are countless reasons for this, from finding a better opportunity for advancement, better pay, more convenient work location, to avoiding bad qualities of the old job like a bad supervisor, or a culture that doesn’t fit your values, and the list goes on. Despite the reason, when you choose to end your current employment you are deciding to begin employment elsewhere.
Typically, a 2 week notice period is most common for giving an advanced resignation notice, but is this really the best way to communicate to your employer that you are leaving? The answer, as in most areas of Industrial/Organizational Psychology issues, is: it depends. It is dependent on the amount of time needed to fill your position, how many people report to your position title, and what kind of relationship you hope to maintain after you leave.
First, check your current employee handbook. Your company probably has a policy that states the amount of notice they would like to receive before termination of employment depending on how long it typically takes to fill the position. For many upper-level jobs, two weeks may not be nearly enough to time to conduct a full recruiting plan and to effectively review candidates’ qualifications.
You may also consider providing your current employer more notice as an additional courtesy. If you hope to maintain a connection with your supervisors and the organization as a whole, this is probably a wise idea. Not only will you be ensuring that you receive positive references from them in the future, but you never know when the networks you’ve built at your current job will prove useful for your career in the future.
Résumés to be Reviewed in 2016
What if applications for the US President’s position had to go through a Human Resource department instead of being elected by the people? As we know, a US president is elected into office by our popular and electoral votes. But what if one day that ritual is changed? What if the United States Officials decide that the office of the president is too important and should no longer be decided by its citizens? What if every four years, all candidates have to apply for the position like any other job and then be offered the position by a QUALIFIED, bipartisan Human Resource Panel?
As a former HR intern, I learned quickly that job candidates who have had many short-stint jobs within only a few years is highly undesirable to hiring organizations. Why? To recruiters looking to fill positions with motivated, trustworthy, and committed individuals, seeing a six month position as an Administrative Assistant followed by a four month position in sales, then a year long position in marketing might raise some red flags, even if it doesn’t hold any further implications.
A person with many short-term positions across a short time frame is often known as a “job hopper.” Job hoppers can come in all forms, from young professionals who continuously seek out new opportunities for advancement to employees that simply cannot hold onto a job for an extended period of time, to those individuals lacking commitment but who enjoy seeking out new situations and environments. While we see that there are several reasons for a job candidate to have multiple positions within a short period, it is not uncommon for a hiring manager to assume the worst and move on to the next resume.
To a recruiter, numerous short-term positions on a resume may appear as though the job candidate lacks persistence when a job begins to become routine. While this may not necessarily be the case, it’s important for job candidates to be aware of how their career path appears on paper when viewed by a HR manager or recruiter. Job hopping is also more common among younger employees than an older demographic. According to a TNS Employee Insight recent global survey, it was found that 60% of individuals aged 20-29 thought they would be working in the same organization a year from now while adults aged 40-49 and 50-59 were 67% and 73% respectively. These statistics indicate that as age increases, intentions to leave an organization decreases. This effect could be due to many reasons, one of which may include the increasing social acceptability of job hopping.
Yet, the issue of job hopping is not necessarily an old one; with many organizations looking to effectively manage multiple generations of employees, the topic is more important to consider now than ever. Since it is much more common to job hop now than it was compared to 20 years ago, should hiring managers avoid selecting job hoppers in an effort to retain talent longer? If this is the case, organizations may actually miss out on hiring a great deal of valuable talent in Generation Y in which job hopping is quite common.
What do you think? Are job hoppers worth giving a chance if otherwise qualified for a position or are they too much of a threat to organizational turnover and retention?
References:
When applying for a job, it seems that professional references are always requested. If you’re like me, you sometimes may wonder why it is even requested because most of the time your references are never contacted. I always let my references know that I have put them down, but have rarely heard that they have actually been contacted. Continue Reading →
During networking meetings, one particular question is always asked of me: “What are your target companies in your job search?” I have found that people want to tell you as much as they can about XYZ Organization to help you decide if it would be an organization worth looking at. After all, no one wants to end up at an organization that does not fit his or her personality or core set of values. Continue Reading →
Think about how we all typically prepare for a formal job interview. We wear our best business suit to “dress the part.” We arrive with a padfolio in hand looking very sharp and professional. While it is very important to have the first impression with a recruiter be very strong, we tend to forget that the process does not end after an interview. Continue Reading →
Organizational branding is very important for an organization to remain competitive in the market. The image that individuals portray is also very important. Organizational branding comes with the way in which employees portray the desired image. Why does your personal brand say about you? Continue Reading →
Facebook has received a lot of attention in light of the hiring trend. Some organizations are asking for employee login information so that they can look at a candidate’s Facebook profile, messages, and pictures. Some candidates have withdrawn from the hiring process because they do not feel it is okay for a potential employer to snoop around and look at their personal lives. What does this mean for the hiring process? Continue Reading →
Wellness programs have been all the talk recently as organizations have discovered the true advantages to promoting healthy decisions in the workplace. Healthy employees contribute quality work and experience a higher level of satisfaction. Continue Reading →
Recruiting the best employees is an important focus for organizations. Organizations invest time and money into making sure the top candidates apply to positions at the organization. What organizations sometime forget is to focus on the target candidate. Continue Reading →
The workplace of the future is constantly being shaped. Every day we experience breakthroughs in technology, social media trends, and the convergence of employees from various generations. If we hope to compete effectively in this global marketplace, it is imperative to identify the tools and approaches needed in our business-minded arsenal. Such strategies will then be able to increase innovation, improve customer relations, and engage and retain talent.
Jeanne Meister, an internationally recognized leader in innovative operations, identified three major contributing factors to this shift, in her closing keynote speech during the final day of TNS and JWT INSIDE’s Engagement Summit. Naming globalization, changing demographics, and the emergence of social media and technology, it seems Meister’s research can augment an organization’s approach to achieving compelling business results for the future. Continue Reading →
While most of us wish our commute to work was ten minutes or less, the truth of the matter is that is unrealistic. Depending on the city in which you live, you may experience a longer or shorter commute. The average commute for Americans is about thirty minutes or an hour total in a day. With a commute of about an hour every day, there are observed consequences. Our health, mentally and physically is negatively affected by the amount of time most of us are driving to work. There is also the impact on family life that research has not examined as in depth.
A couple of summers ago I interned at a company about forty-five minutes from my apartment given there were no accidents or heavy traffic. I had to be at work at 7:45 a.m., which meant I had to leave my apartment at about 6:50 a.m. in case there was bad traffic on the way. As a female, it takes a bit of time to get ready in the morning and sneak in breakfast, so I was getting up very early. As I mentioned in my night owl post, I am not a morning person. Continue Reading →
As my graduation date in May 2012 draws near, I will begin the search for a full-time job. In speaking with many of my mentors, one piece of advice seems to come up time and time again: Network. A key to getting a job in our tough economy comes down to who you know. I have heard success stories from many peers who had a friend of a friend working at a particular company that eventually led to a job offer. What does networking look like in 2011? Continue Reading →
Human resource departments are responsible for some of the most important decisions made in organizations. When job applicants apply for a job, there is a process that occurs in every human resource department that eventually leads to an applicant being offered a position at the organization. Every organization may have a slightly different process for deciding which applicant(s) will be offered jobs. Continue Reading →
What is your ultimate dream career? What is your passion? Is your current job fulfilling this? If not, ask yourself why not?
It is never too late to change your career. Today’s society allows us all the opportunity to change our work situation if we are willing to invest in our future. Unfortunately, most people unhappy in their current situation are subject to excuses. The idea of changing careers is too scary to most people and they are afraid they will end up in a situation worse than their current one. But, until you take that leap of faith, you cannot change the present. Continue Reading →
How many interviews have you had in which the interviewer has appeared to ask random questions? I’m sure most of us have had an interviewer ask questions off the top of their head that may seem out of place or unusual to us. Unstructured interviews are often still used by many organizations despite the research indicating the lack of reliability in using this form. The biggest problem with the use of unstructured interviews is the reliance of our gut instinct rather than a consistent, reliable, and valid measure of job candidates. Continue Reading →
