How to Reduce Employee Turnover with Stay Interviews

How to Reduce Employee Turnover with Stay InterviewsHow to Reduce Employee Turnover with Stay InterviewsHow to Reduce Employee Turnover with Stay Interviews DeZubeWhats the best time to find out what yur company can do to keep employees from leaving? It isnt during the exit interview by then, its too late to effect change.To influence employee attrition and reduce employee turnover, managers must measure employee job satisfaction and engagement on an ongoing basis.Stay interviews, an interview in which employees discuss what they like and dont like about their current position, can help reduce employee turnover rates.When is the best time to do a stay interview?Experts recommend doing them at least once a year opposite the employee performance review, and twice in the critical period during which your company experiences attrition of new hires (for example the first 40-50 days for um ein haar food, or 90-180 days for engineers).A Source of Top-Level MetricsStay interview metrics can supplement secondary and tertiary metrics such as employee satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. As such, they can be essential part of your recruitment strategy that focuses on employee retention .Stay interviews encourage managers to sit down and have a structured talk with their teams about what works and what doesnt work for them, explains Susan Seip, a human resources manager for Geocent, a Metairie, Louisiana technology company with 230 employees scattered throughout the Southern US.The company includes stay interviews as part of its recruitment strategy. Its a relationship review. Whats your relationship to the company, the project team and your manager and what is within our purview to do to make those better?If exit interviews and engagement surveys arent moving the needle on your organizations employee attrition numbers (or even if they are), you may want to add stay interviews to your list of recruitment strategies.Do Stay Interviews Work? How effectively can stay in terviews help to reduce employee turnover rates? Webroot Software, a Broomfield, Colorado internet security product development company, implemented stay interviews at a time when the 400-employee company was particularly vulnerable to employee attrition the period immediately following a recent reduction in force.Weve done other RIFs and employee turnover has always spiked, says Webroot Human Resources Director Melanie Williams. Since our RIF in August, weve seen our turnover tick down by a steady 1/10th of a percent each month.The information collected by stay interviews is more actionable than secondary source information because its specific and forward-facing, Williams says.Youre not filtering through a survey trying to guess what did they mean by that comment or how did they interpret that question? She adds that, Weve gotten feedback from every individual in the organization. We had a 64 percent response to our engagement survey.Dick Finnegan, CEO of C-Suite Analytics, an em ployee engagement consulting company, and author of The Power of Stay Interview for Engagement Retention, says stay interviews produce data so effective at predicting and reducing employee turnover rates that scores of his clients have abandoned their engagement surveys.Despite the success of stay interviews at Geocent, Seip isnt ready to get rid of her exit interviews just yet. The stay information tells us about things that matter today, the exit interviews are things that are three or four years down the road, she says.What to Expect in Stay Interviews When managers receive stay interview training, the most common fear they express is that employees will ask for raises that arent in the budget. Thats an unfounded fear.Weve had very few stay interviews come in with pay being the thing that makes them stay or want to leave, says Williams. There were not any requests that we havent been able to fulfill.If an employee does bring up pay, a promotion, employee training or something ou t of scope, the manager should answer truthfully, says Beverly Kaye , Co-CEO of Career Systems International, a Scranton, Pennsylvania strategic talent management consulting firm, and author of Help the Grow or Watch Them Go.If you have a budget constraint, say so, she advises. If the person is asking for a job they dont have the skills to do, talk about employee training opportunities you can add during the next budget cycle.You say, Salaries are frozen, or that job isnt open. What I really want to do is find things under my control so I can make sure youre getting what you want and what you need, so what else matters to you? she says. Youll get seven to ten things that are in your control.Addressing Stay Interview Challenges Stay interviews are not without challenges for HR professionals, organizational leaders and managers. Sometimes requests uncover unpleasant truths, such as bad feelings toward executive management, or employees that dont know about career paths because theyve never logged into the HR portal.Accountability for responding to these issues can also pose a challenge, particularly for organizations where employees and managers are physically separated.With the economy picking up and Baby Boomers moving into retirement, employee turnover rates will continue to challenge human resource professionals going forward.Adding stay interviews to your recruitment strategies can help your organization retain critical employees. Its the single best tool you can give managers, Finnegan says.Learnmore 11 Stay Interview Questions to Ask

31 Ways to Jumpstart Your Job Search Before the New Year

31 Ways to Jumpstart Your Job Search Before the New Year31 Ways to Jumpstart Your Job Search Before the New YearJanuary 2016 is just a few weeks away, and companies are going to be hiring like crazy. How can you jumpstart your job search? Here is a list of 31 ways you can be ahead of the job search game by the time January rolls around.Re-design your resume. If you are pleased with the content of your resume, but not so sure about the layout, use this time to change up the design. There are more professional options for resume design other than the templates on Microsoft Word.Write your executive summary. By now, youve heard that objective statements are a thing of the past. A three to five sentence paragraph describing your skills, passions, and tangible accomplishments is more effective than an objective statement.Create your elevator pitch. Use your executive summary as a starting point for your one to three minute kampf on what youre about and why a company should hire you. Refre sh your cover letter. Read over your cover letter. If youre bored to tears after the first few sentences, its time to edit it Google yourself. The first thing many recruiters do is google your name, so make sure your google search is clear of embarrassing pictures. It is also informative to know how high your name shows up on the search and if you should optimize your digital presence.Take a professional headshot. A professional headshot might be out of your price range, but at the bare minimum take a picture that is appropriate for work. Use your new headshot on your LinkedIn profile.Create a personal website. A personal website is the best distributions-mix to show off your professional accomplishments. Add your resume, any relevant projects, and maybe a blog if you want to show off your writing skills. Update your LinkedIn profile. Your LinkedIn profile should be consistent with your traditional resume. You can also add more skills and accomplishments to your LinkedIn profile tha t dont fit on your resume. Give out, and ask for, LinkedIn recommendations. If you have a deserving colleague, give them a glowing recommendation. Dont be afraid to reach out to former co-workers and managers you have a good relationship with and ask them for a recommendation.Join a LinkedIn Group. Find LinkedIn groups in your chosen field and see what the hot topics of conversation are. Participate in the conversation to start building a presence in your field.Start a blog. If you havent started a blog on your personal website, consider writing on Medium or LinkedIn. Your post will be more discoverable and shareable with tags.Write out your ideal job description If youre still unsure what youre looking for in a job, daydream and brainstorm what you want to do with your life. Then, write it out like a real job listing and search for jobs that sound the most similar to your dream job.List your top 10 companies. Write down the top ten companies you want to work for, research them, and check out their careers page and social media profiles. Discover the key players in your industry. Research the key players in your industry, and take notes on their career path. It will also be helpful to see the key players at your target companies, too. Utilize Twitter Lists. Twitter Lists make it easy for you to follow your target companies and the key players in your industry.Sign up for job alerts. Make your job search even easier by signing up for job alerts with your chosen specific keywords. Add 5 connections on LinkedIn. Expand your online network by connecting with five connections you know on LinkedIn. You never know who will lead you to your next job lead.Plan to go a professional event. Some face-to-face interaction with others in your field can lead to your next job. Use holiday parties to network. Holiday parties can serve as a time to catch up with old friends, but also time to let them know youre on the market for a new role. Create a networking spreadsheet. Keep track of everyone that youre meeting with a networking meeting. It should have their contact information, but also what theyre looking for or how you can help them. Help someone else find a job. Helping someone else look for a job can show you any gaps in your job search strategy. Check out your college alumni association. Your college alumni association is a great place to start your job search. Look out for alumni mixers and networking events.Use a job search engine. Job search engines like SimplyHired.com gives you access to plenty jobs tailored to what youre looking for and your experience.Scan job descriptions for keywords. Once you find job listings that you love, note common skills and keywords. Optimize your LinkedIn profile and resume by adding in these keywords when relevant.Arrange an informational interview. Schedule an informational interview with someone youve met from a professional or holiday event in a role that youd like to know more about.Buy your next interview o utfit. The hiring process can happen quickly, so you want to be ready for anything. Having your interview outfit ready will cut out extra stress.Ask for feedback. If you werent called back for a job but you felt like you built strong rapport with the interviewer, politely send an schmelzglas to him or her to ask for feedback.Prepare your answers to common interview questions. There are so many resources online to how to answer common interview questions. The better prepared you are for the interview, the more likely youll shine to the interviewer.Read up on a skill, or sign up for a class. Read a book or take a class on a skill that will bring you closer to your dream job. Teach a friend a skill. Teaching a friend a new skill will not only help them, but it will make you even more of an expert.Take on a new project at your current job. Even if youre not at your dream job, you can still take steps towards it at your current role. Ask your manager if you can take on a project that int erests you and will develop new skills.

Answering Interview Questions About Health and Safety

Answering Interview Questions About Health and SafetyAnswering Interview Questions About Health and SafetyMost employers are concerned about worker stahlkammerty since injuries or other workplace incidents can impact productivity, morale, and insurance rates, while also leaving the organization vulnerable to lawsuits. Accordingly, it is no surprise that interviewers will ask candidates about their track record of employee safety, particularly when interviewing candidates for management positions. How to Answer The first step is to think about occupational health and safety in a comprehensive manner.Consider all the possible threats to the well being of workers in your past workplaces. Of course, physical safety in settings like production, construction, agriculture, mining, and transportation comes to mind since accidents are common. You should also consider environmental and health threats in industries like healthcare, research, and pharmaceutical/biotechnology, where exposure to disease agents and harmful chemicals can endanger workers. If you worked in a typical office environment, behauptung issues might not be so relevant. However, there are many other factors to take into account. For example, musculoskeletal damage can occur when workers perform awkward or repetitive motions and other physically demanding tasks. Improper posture while sitting at a desk can also be physically detrimental. Dont forget to consider psychosocial factors like emotional stress in fields like air traffic control, deadline-oriented pressures in areas like publishing, or occupations where employees must cope with the stress of irate patrons or unruly students. Sexual and othertypes of workplace harassmentcan have a profound impact on the well-being of employees. And, of course, there are the little things that matter too, like smoking, drinking too much coffee or soda to stay awake at work, or eating healthy and getting enough exercise. In your answer, you might be able to in clude something as seemingly minimal as encouraging coworkers to take a walk with you during a break or to bring in a healthy homemade lunch rather than ordering out. Prepare As you formulate your response, the next step is to itemize the actions that you took to address any of the threats to employee health in your past work environments The best approach is to think of three or more scenarios where you addressed workplace safety or health issues.Describe the initial extent of safety issues or baseline status of worker safety.Then outline any interventions that you made to increase employee well being and any impact that your actions had on the frequency or severity of problems. Interventions can take the form of worker education, training programs, workplace safety displays, a communications campaign, establishing new policies and procedures, repairing or replacing machinery, requiring protective equipment/clothing/barriers, rewarding safe behaviors, sanctioning offending staf f, providing ergonomic devices, or incorporating more breaks to workers schedules. Sample Answers When You Have Direct ExperienceFor example, you might answer the question as follows As you can see from my resume, I currently work as a production manager for a meat packing plant. I discovered shortly after taking on the job that there were several hand injuries from one of the packing machines. I learned from Human Resources that six workers in the past twoyears had received medical attention or missed work time when stationed in that area of the assembly line. HR staff had interviewed the workers in question and believed that fatigue was a contributing factor. I decided to decrease the amount of time between five-minute breaks from 90 minutes to 45 minutes, placed a safety reminder sign in easy view, and personally reminded the workers stationed in that area before each shift about the need for optimal concentration. During the next year, there was only one incident of worker i njury in that area. I also researched an alternative machine that would perform the same function with less risk, and upper management is currently considering my proposal. When You Havent Had Direct ExperienceIf you didnt have the opportunity to increase employee health in a previous work environment, whether that was due to lack of internal resources or lack of approval from a supervisor, you can still use the question as an opportunity to impress your interviewer. In this case, think of problems you noted and strategies you would have enacted if you had been able to. Explaining the issues you observed and the responses you came up with shows a high level of organizational engagement on your part, which your interviewer will see as an asset to the entire team.