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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

6 ways to create a more accessible and inclusive hiring process

Diversity matters. It matters so much that 37% of candidates want to know what a business is doing about diversity. If you can’t answer that question, you risk losing out on talent. One of the first steps is to ensure that you have an inclusive hiring process.

So, what can you do to make your hiring process more accessible and inclusive?

Use clear language in job descriptions

The clearer your job description is, the better the fit any candidates who apply for the role will be.

Think of your job description as a way for candidates to self-select. They can use it to decide if it’s exactly what they do—or don’t—want from their next role.

Also consider the fact that most people applying for a job will look at multiple jobs in multiple places.

This can be tiring and stressful.

If you cut the fluff and tell candidates exactly what they need to know in easy-to-understand language, they’re going to associate you with a better experience from the get-go.

This means they’re more likely to apply, and be enthusiastic about working for you.

Be inclusive in your language usage

I was reading a job description the other day that listed the company’s brand values. The first was “diversity.” The third was “craftsmanship.”

While it’s only three letters, the use of “man” inside of the word does influence the connotations of the role—and the company.

Sometimes it’s better to use a few extra words and be more inclusive over choosing the shortest phrase.

HBR found that 40% of employees don’t feel they belong at work. If you want to make them feel like they do from the start, the language you use matters. This is true on both a conscious and subconscious level. 

There are lots of tools out there that you can run your job descriptions through to ensure that they’re aligned with an inclusive hiring process.

Nobody is perfect when it comes to this stuff. What matters is that you’re open to improving and adjusting based on feedback.

Make the application process easy and accessible

The clunkier or more confusing your application process is, the more candidates you’ll lose in this early stage.

And this won’t help you weed out candidates from the start, it’ll just annoy everyone who might be interested. Meaning many will take their valuable time and skills elsewhere.

Does your application process require a resume, a cover letter, and candidates to manually enter their job history? This unnecessary repetition could be losing you candidates. If you have their resume, you have their job history. They shouldn’t need to give it to you twice!

To make for an even more accessible and inclusive hiring process, consider optimizing your application form for mobile. 

If you’re not optimizing for the mobile experience, you’re probably missing out on people. For instance, the ones who may be casually browsing on their morning commute or during a break. 

If they can’t apply on their phone, it may make them question your commitments to accessibility. They may also question how modern and forward-thinking your business is. This could ultimately put them off the role and your business as a result.

Ask for what you need and nothing else

If you’re not interested in someone’s gardening adventures, don’t ask for information on their personal life in the application process. Make sure that in the application, you’re asking for exactly what you need and nothing else.

Almost 60% of job seekers will quit an online job application halfway through if it’s too long or complicated. That’s a lot of potential hires you risk missing out on from one step.

Say you’re hiring a copywriter. Is it more efficient to ask for samples of their writing that you can analyze to see if they can adapt to your company’s tone of voice, over asking about their formal qualifications?

What about some statistics about results they’ve helped businesses achieve in the past?

Sometimes these things can get lost in favor of more obvious criteria that don’t matter when you’ve got proven experience. For instance, someone’s educational background is a big one.

Many people I know who now work in marketing don’t have a traditional marketing background or marketing degree (myself included). Those things can be nice to have but don’t guarantee someone will bring you the results that you want.

Ensuring you’re not eliminating people based on irrelevant criteria is a key factor in building a more inclusive hiring process.

Make the assessment process inclusive

One of my pet peeves is when businesses say they’re inclusive but don’t have evidence to show that they are. More and more people are starting to see through this tokenism.

Saying that you’re inclusive, and actually being inclusive, are two very different things and require two very different approaches.

My friend is job hunting right now, and they were given a choice between an initial phone call or a video interview during the early stages.

In a later stage, the hiring manager sent them the interview questions in advance so that they could prepare.

The company even sent over a flyer explaining their process and sharing tips like how to handle interview nerves.

In the flyer, they also shared that some of their best employees didn’t get the job the first time around!

How can you make this level of inclusive hiring a reality at your organization?

To find ways to implement more inclusive hiring practices, it’s important to consider how other people—including people you haven’t met yet and who have a different background/worldview from you—experience the world.

Explain your interview process upfront

Interviews can be stressful. If you can explain to people what your interview process is upfront, it can alleviate some of that stress.

Another thing you can do to lower interview stress and be more accessible to neurodiverse employees, is provide interview questions before the interview.

Needing extra time to prepare isn’t a reflection of someone’s intelligence, or even how fast their brain works.

Providing the questions allows candidates to find relevant achievements from previous roles, statistics that show what they’re capable of, and anecdotes that showcase their skills.

This extra time to prepare means you’ll get better quality answers and can make a more informed decision. 

Conclusion 

Some of the things on this list may seem insignificant or finicky, but they’re small things that help you stand out from your competitors as a better place to work.

It’s embracing things like inclusive language that will help you achieve your diversity and inclusion targets. You’ll also reap the benefits that you get from having a more inclusive working environment.

Aside from a bit of effort to get there, there’s essentially no downside to transitioning towards a more inclusive hiring process.

If you’re looking for ways to extend your inclusive hiring practices through into your employee experience, Workrowd can help. With a one-stop shop for all your employee groups, programs, and events, it’s easy for everyone to get fully immersed in your company culture from day one.

Plus, with automated data collection and analytics, you always know what’s building real belonging for team members and driving ROI for the business. Check us out online or write us at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Employee Experience

4 ways to deliver a better candidate experience in 2023

There are currently two job openings for every unemployed person in the US. With so much competition in the labor market, businesses need to do more than ever to stand out. This includes delivering a top-notch candidate experience.

Providing the best possible candidate experience makes it not only more likely that you’ll attract the best talent, but that your chosen candidate will accept the role at the end of the hiring process.

Any unsuccessful candidates will also be more likely to come away with a good feeling about your business. This could lead to them leaving a positive review about the process online. They may even reapply in the future when they could be a better fit for your organization.

So, how do you deliver the best possible candidate experience? Here are four tips:

Be open about your company culture

Your company culture can be one of your biggest selling points. But it can also put people off. In fact, 75% of people wouldn’t take a job with a company that has a bad reputation. This is true even if they’re unemployed.

How your company comes across influences the types of people who apply for roles. You therefore want to make sure that what they see is accurate. The way the rest of the world sees your company should be what it’s actually like to work there.

While we don’t like to believe that people will judge a book by its cover, they definitely do.

As the author of 20 books, and an active member of the publishing community, I should know. It’s hard to overstate the difference a book cover can make to sales.

I’ve seen so many authors experience an increase in sales just because they redesigned their covers. Branding is just as important for businesses as it is for authors.

So, the question is: does your business culture need a cover redesign?

Or does it need a complete rework internally, too?

This is obviously a much more challenging process, but it can pay dividends. Particularly if you improve it for the better, prioritizing employee mental health and wellbeing over a high-stress, high-pressure environment.

Reflect your culture on social media

Social media is one of the best ways to show exactly what your company is like to work for.

The majority of candidates research companies online before applying for a role. So if your content is a ghost town, or your reviews are negative, it’s likely to deter them.

Only 30% of people are actively job-seeking at any one time. This means if you’re not creating content to show off your company culture, passive job seekers are less likely to discover how great working for you could be. That’s a lot of people you risk missing out on.

Some of the things you can share to reflect your culture include:

  • Videos where employees talk about your culture
  • Posts sharing employee knowledge or skills
  • Photos of events employees have attended or organized
  • Employee testimonials

If employees leave testimonials or LinkedIn recommendations for CEOs and HR managers, it says a lot about the type of culture your business has. Assuming they’re positive, this further helps your ability to attract the right types of people.

Ensuring easy access to resources like these can do wonders for your candidate experience.

Communicate clearly and often

It can’t just be me who’s experienced this: you apply for a role, then don’t get an email confirming that the company received your application.

As a result, you forget that you’ve applied. Then, three weeks later, you’re surprised when they invite you to the next stage of the process.

Sure, I should’ve written something down to say what I applied for and when, but it certainly doesn’t hurt your candidate experience to send an automated email confirming you’ve received their application.

Sending email updates to confirm receipt, with details of an upcoming interview, or telling candidates when they’re likely to hear back from you, makes a massive difference to your candidate experience. And it’s one of the simplest things you can do.

It demonstrates that you value communication, which, for some candidates, can be a make-or-break trait.

It’s also a positive reflection of your company culture. It shows that you really do value the candidate experience, and more importantly, them as an applicant.

Train your interviewers

Some interviewers may not be all that comfortable interviewing other people. For them, it may be akin to public speaking, which an estimated 75% are afraid of.

Training them in interview techniques ensures they feel confident and comfortable. It helps you provide the best possible interviews as part of your candidate experience.

A positive interview experience should put candidates at ease, make them feel welcome, and take into account that traditional formats aren’t for everyone.

I’ve definitely seen more of the latter lately. More companies are sending questions in advance and giving candidates a choice between video or phone interviews for remote roles.

Simple things like arriving on time, and leaving time at the end of the interview for candidates to ask their own questions, further improves the candidate experience and helps with your employer brand.

Conclusion 

A great candidate experience is a positive reflection of your business.

The more you develop your candidate experience, the more positive reviews you’ll get across the internet. That way, the greater the impact it will have on your employer brand.

Over time, this will help you attract higher quality candidates, have happier employees who want to stay longer, and therefore make more money.

If you’d like to ensure a great onboarding process, give your interviewers a place to share resources that can improve their interview skills, and even develop a talent pool and/or alumni network, check out Workrowd.

Our all-in-one platform makes it easy to ensure everyone has both the information and the connections they need to thrive. Send us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Employee Experience

6 ways HR teams can support better time management at work

The average worker spends 51% of every workday on low to no-value tasks. If this isn’t a strong case for better time management at work, I don’t know what is.

It’s really no surprise based on this that 39% of employee stress comes from their workloads. Or, that only 20% of employees feel their work is under control every day.

But spending just 10-12 minutes planning their day could save them up to two hours of their time.

So, what can HR teams do to support better time management at work and improve employees’ stress levels as a result?

Create a system

I’ve recently been reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. In it, he talks at length about systems. Goals are great, but you need to break down how to achieve them—and when you’re going to do them.

He explains that an effective habit has four elements: cue, craving, response, and reward.

For example, say an employee wanted to check their emails less so that it didn’t disrupt their work as much. They could pick a specific time of day to open their inbox and reply to people. 

The cue would be the time of day, the craving is to answer emails (like many of us have), the response is replying to them, and the reward can be whatever they like. Maybe it’s just the satisfaction of having written everyone who needs a response, inbox zero, or making a coffee.

This set time when someone checks their emails then means they have more mental energy for other tasks. They’re not constantly being interrupted by emails they don’t need to immediately reply to or that otherwise interrupt their concentration.

Implement the right tools

The right—or wrong—tool for time management at work can make or break our productivity. 

If someone doesn’t understand how to use a tool, they’re never going to make the most of it. Plus, they’re going to lose a lot of time just trying to figure out how it works. 

Offering training, or at least pointing employees in the direction of where to find the help they need, decreases their mental load and helps them understand it quicker.

Seemingly unrelated tools like applicant tracking software or employee engagement platforms can also create efficiencies. These tools give you more opportunities to create a great candidate experience and employee experience.

Streamline processes/minimize steps

So many businesses have old or clunky processes that don’t need to take as long as they do. 

It’s therefore worth periodically reflecting to see if there’s a new software you could benefit from, if you’re better off outsourcing tasks to a freelancer, or if there’s just another way of doing something that would lead to better time management at work.

Make important information easily accessible

Sometimes documentation, advice, or guides, can be hard to find. Especially if they’re old or taken for granted. 

You want to make everything an employee needs to know easy to find and easy to understand.

The more mental load someone has to exert to find and understand something, the more energy it takes up. This then increases their stress levels and makes them more likely to lose time in their day just finding what they need.

When it comes to sharing key information with employees, it can also help to provide it in multiple formats.

This ensures that regardless of how someone learns or best retains information, they can get the answers they need.

One way you can make this easier for yourself is to record a video demoing how to use a software. Then, extract that audio to turn it into a clip, and use a dictation software (or even just Microsoft Word’s dictation feature) to turn it into a written guide.

Catering to different learning styles is a frequently overlooked way to improve time management at work.

Minimize distractions

When we’re interrupted in the middle of a task it can take up to 20 minutes to get focused again. That’s a whole lot of time wasted and a whole lot of work that gets delayed.

It’s surprising how tiny things can add up to disrupt us and distract from what we’re trying to do. 

Sometimes it’s nice to take a moment to stare out of the window or play with a pet, but unexpected disruptions can and do make a difference to someone’s concentration and mental health.

Consider ways you can minimize the distractions employees experience to improve time management at work.

If they’re in an office, could you put up barriers to separate people’s desks? That way, they can’t see their colleagues and get distracted by what they’re doing.

Or, if your office has particularly bright lights and you know that you have neurodivergent employees, is there a way that you can reduce the harsh lights so that it doesn’t impact their sensory issues?

For employees who work from home, could you get them noise-cancelling headphones? How about a new desk setup? 

If their home environment is particularly distracting, what about a budget to work in a coffee shop or coworking space?

Give them somewhere to share ideas

Some people absolutely love exploring productivity, mindset, and time management at work.

Creating somewhere they can share things they’ve learned, or ask for advice from other people, is a really great way to show your employees that you do care and you want them to perform at their best. 

One of the ways you can do this is through employee groups, programs, and events.

Employees can learn new things through these initiatives, then share them with their other colleagues. This means more people can benefit from the time management at work tips even if they’re not actively participating themselves.

Conclusion 

These are just some of the ways that HR teams can support better time management at work. 

The more effectively you can help employees perform their jobs, the more productive and happier they’ll be in their roles. 

This means they’re more likely to feel valued and stick around for longer. 

All this reduces your hiring costs, and how long you spend training new employees. Perhaps more importantly, it also creates a happier working environment for every team member.

If you’re looking for tools to support your efforts to improve time management at work, you’ve come to the right place. Workrowd makes it easy for everyone to quickly find what they’re looking for, saving them time and energy.

Our user-friendly tools reduce admin work by automating tedious processes, and real-time analytics ensure you always know what’s driving results. Want to learn more and optimize your employee experience? Visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

10 more ways to support parents working in your organization

In part 1 of our series on how to make life easier for parents working on your teams, we looked at some of the changes and accommodations you can make, such as updating your policies and using inclusive language.

In part 2, we’re exploring some of the day-to-day things you can do to support parents working while juggling childrearing.

Create a group for working parents to connect and share advice

ERGs are one of the best ways to foster a sense of belonging in the workplace. 

Setting up an ERG where parents and caregivers can share their experiences and get advice takes some of the stress away from being a parent working a full-time job. It also means they have people who understand what they’re going through. 

Sharing problems with people outside of a situation can be a great way to work out our problems and feel calmer. That makes us better able to focus and get on with other tasks.

Offer a remote work stipend

Remote working is more challenging for parents working every day as it’s easy to get distracted. This is especially true in a house with lots of other people—or children who may not understand that you’re on a call and shouldn’t be disturbed. 

Remember that professor on the BBC who went viral because his children interrupted his interview? Everyone thought it was cute and could relate.

However, the reaction for women who face similar challenges is often different. Colleagues can perceive it as them not taking their work as seriously. Ultimately though, it’s not their fault and men in the same situation don’t experience the same stigma. 

If parents working at your organization work remotely some or all of the time, offering them a stipend to improve their environment helps them perform at their best. Ensure that their setup isn’t a further challenge they have to contend with.

Introduce parental leave care days

There are some days when a child is sick and there’s only one parent who can look after them. 

It’s important to provide leave where employees can stay with their children without eating into their own wellness or vacation days. This allows them to take care of their child without worrying about work or losing out on time for themselves because of something that’s out of their hands.

Remove the stigma around mental health/sick days

Sometimes people attach judgments to mental health, sick, or wellness days.

Whatever you call them, it should be acceptable for an employee to use the days that are available to them when they’re not mentally or physically able to work.

We all have days where we’re overwhelmed. Offering mental health days where employees can recover makes it clear that you prioritize mental health.

It also means employees don’t sacrifice their health for the sake of their job. Over time, this can lead to burnout and cost you even more than a wellness day or two.

Provide financial support

What financial support could you offer parents working for you? Subsidies, backup childcare assistance, flexible childcare spending accounts?

Including these in your benefits packages not only shows you’re serious about supporting working parents. It also gives them more options for how they spend their paycheck.

Taking these payments out automatically reduces their mental load, giving them one less thing to plan for each month.

Support education

Education can be one of the most expensive parts of being a parent, especially when it comes to college tuition. Or, sending a child to private school to provide them with new opportunities or more help with different ways of thinking, for instance if they’re neurodivergent. 

You could enable employees to use some of their paycheck toward their own tuition fees, their student loans, or even their child’s current or future college tuition. 

Host family-friendly activities

You can support your working families by hosting family-friendly activities like parties with bounce houses or children’s entertainers. These are great opportunities for colleagues to network, children to socialize, and for everyone to get a break from work.

On-site childcare

If you have an office, providing an on-site daycare where parents can leave their children takes a huge weight off them. 

This allows them to get on with their job while knowing their children are in safe hands. 

It also prevents the children from being in the office itself, where they risk distracting other employees from their work.

Implement a happiness fund

A happiness fund shows your employees how much you value them and their mental health. 

Parents working for you could use it to pay for a nanny or babysitter for a few hours so that they can relax. 

Non-parents, meanwhile, could use it for attending a yoga or cooking class. 

Whatever they need to do for their mental health so that they can keep performing at their best.

Conclusion 

Supporting working parents and caregivers creates a happier, more diverse working environment.

It discourages a culture of people being superglued to their desks at the cost of their mental health. Instead, it focuses on employees leading balanced lives where they don’t neglect their families for their careers. 

This sets a better example to the next generation, too, about not being stuck to their desks. It is possible to have a balance of work and family time without damaging one’s career prospects or work quality.

Once again, if you’re looking to better support parents working on your teams, equipping them with the right tools can help. Workrowd makes it easy for caregivers to connect with what’s important to them at your organization from day one.

If you want to level up your employee experience and better support both parents and non-parents alike, drop by our site to learn more. Or, feel free to send us a note directly at hello@workrowd.com. We’d love to hear from you.

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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

7 ways employers can make life easier for working parents

Recent figures show that 96.5% of married-couple families with children have at least one parent who is employed. In 62.3% of these families, both partners are working parents.

McKinsey estimates that global GDP could grow by $12 trillion if women were able to engage in the paid labor force at the same rate as men. But, due to family commitments and the cost of childcare, they’re often unable to do so.

A part of this support has to come from governments willing to subsidize childcare. That’s not to say there aren’t things that employers can do too, though.

Working parents can bring huge strengths and benefits to your business, regardless of your industry. This includes the people management skills that come from dealing with children, and the diversity of thought that it can provide.

Here are just some of the ways your organization can make life easier for working parents:

Talk openly

Previously, and perhaps still in more old-fashioned businesses, some working parents might’ve felt unable to talk about their home situation. It would be hard or impossible to ask for accommodations to help them better manage their family responsibilities. 

Hiding this huge part of their life from colleagues can be emotionally draining. That’s especially true if it means missing out on family events because of how it would look at work. 

Women, in particular, experience more judgment when family demands conflict with work expectations. At the same time, they’re often seen as bad parents if they prioritize work over family. On the flip side, males are typically seen as better providers for doing the same thing. 

Talking openly about their personal lives and interests is a good way for employees to bond. It’s important for them to understand each other’s perspectives as working parents.

Use inclusive language

The language we use is hugely reflective of our mindset and beliefs. The nuclear family may have been normal decades ago, but we live in a world that’s more diverse than ever. 

To ensure your organization benefits from the knowledge and skills that diversity brings, you need to use inclusive language, too.

For instance, saying ‘maternity leave’ only reflects the needs of the mother. 

What about the father and if he becomes the primary caregiver? 

What about LGBTQ+ couples or non-binary individuals? 

Using terms like ‘parental leave’ instead is more inclusive for all working parents.

Update your parental leave policies

Do your parental leave policies use inclusive language?

Do they include adoptive or foster parents?

What about non-binary folx?

Or equal time for parents of any gender, regardless of if they’re the one who gave birth? 

Sometimes the parent who gave birth isn’t the primary caregiver. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve plenty of time with their new child to adjust to their new situation, though. 

Big life changes are challenging. Having more time to get used to them without the stresses of work boosts new parents’ wellbeing. It also means they can be more present at work when they do return.

Consider your pregnancy and healthcare policies

What are your policies for employees when they need to visit the doctor? 

What about medical emergencies? 

These should clearly be in place so that if something happens during working hours, employees know how to respond. They need to know what’s expected of them. 

For instance, if a pregnant employee takes time off to visit the doctor, do they need to make it up? 

Or do they have a set amount of time they can use for doctor’s visits? 

Likewise, what are your policies on employees going with their pregnant partner to appointments?

The clearer your policies are, the more you reduce your employees’ stress and anxiety. That way, they know how to navigate being working parents at your organization.

Welcome flexible hours

I’ve spoken to many working parents over the years who’ve stayed at a job they didn’t necessarily like—and that didn’t pay them as well as another job would’ve—because it offered them flexible hours that allowed them to take their children to and from school. 

This saved them money on babysitters and made morning routines easier. It also allowed them more time with their families, something which is important however old children are.

Luckily, since COVID, more companies understand the benefits of flexible working opportunities.

Allowing employees time to pick up and drop off children from school, and attend sports events, plays, or other activities their children are taking part in, boosts the morale of working parents and shows how much you value the next generation.

At the end of the day, does it really matter if someone isn’t working every waking hour if they’re hitting their deadlines and their quality of work is what you expect from them? 

It’s much more productive for someone to deliver what they need, then spend time with their family, than for them to sit twiddling their thumbs at a desk just because they feel obligated to work a set amount of hours that don’t make them better at their job.

Send surveys to find out what they need

Surveys are a great way to find out what working parents need from you and what their priorities/challenges are. 

It’s important to approach these with an attitude of curiosity, not judgment. That way, parents don’t feel you’ll reprimand them for sharing their situations or suggesting ways you could support them.

Introduce checkpoints

Checking in with employees after big life changes shows that you value them and their mental health, as well as what they bring to the company. 

You can work together to find any accommodations they may need, whether that’s flexible hours, new equipment or tools, or the ability to work remotely. 

Distractions are everywhere when working from home, particularly if there are other people in the house. Maybe they need noise-cancelling headphones to make focusing easier, or a better-quality microphone so that call participants can hear them more clearly.

Conclusion 

When an employer is willing to make adaptations and accommodations after big life changes—like a new child, a child suffering from health issues, or just the extra challenges that come with being working parents—it shows employees that they’re valued members of the team who aren’t seen differently because they have children or are about to have children.

Stay tuned for part two next week when we’ll share even more tips. That said, if you’re ready to start better supporting working parents now, equipping them with the right tools is a great first step.

Workrowd makes it easy for working parents to find the information they need when they need it. Plus, the platform empowers them to connect with fellow working parents at your organization from day one. And with real-time analytics, you always know what’s driving impact for them and where you can improve.

Sound interesting? Drop by our website to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

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Employee Retention

7 important touchpoints for your employee listening strategy

There are some milestones within your employee lifecycle when it’s important to check in. Implementing employee listening efforts at these key times can provide you with new insights. You can then use this info to improve your workplace culture, your employees’ working lives, and your retention rate. 

Happier employees are more likely to stick around. So, it’s no wonder that 60% of employers have improved their employee listening efforts. However, only 31% of businesses conduct employee surveys, and only 13% of them use focus groups.

58% of employees wish their employer sent employee engagement surveys more often. And there is a clear connection between their frequency and employee engagement. Yet only 21% of companies conduct surveys three or more times per year.

An always-on employee feedback tool can help you get vital data from your team. In fact, 64% of HR leaders believe an always-on feedback tool is an essential part of any employee listening strategy. But only 20% of them have this kind of tool in place.

The more often you connect with your employees to find out what’s going on with them, the more likely they are to feel listened to, valued, and like they truly belong. It’s especially important to get their feedback when big changes happen, either in their own lives or within your business.

So, where are these crucial touchpoints for your employee listening strategy?

During onboarding

When employees experience a great onboarding process, they’re 18 times more committed to their employer. Those kinds of numbers can do huge things for your business’s productivity, retention, and revenue. In fact, effective onboarding improves retention by 82% and productivity by 70%.

If your onboarding process is poorly organized, badly explained, or your people aren’t made to feel welcome, they’re much more likely to leave in the short-term. This means you’ll need to repeat the hiring process all over again.

Understanding what your employees think during this stage is therefore key. You can find out what they need from you, if they’re understanding all the new information that’s being sent their way, and how they’re getting along with their colleagues.

Employee listening efforts will give you crucial insights to improve their onboarding process and update it for future hires, too.

When changes occur

Change is scary. It’s even scarier if you feel like your voice isn’t being heard.

Even if your employees don’t get a say in the final decision, they should still feel like they’re being listened to and that their opinions are valued. This is good for their mental health and good for your workplace culture.

If they’re concerned about a restructure or layoffs, there should be someone they can talk to who can answer their questions empathetically. This will help remove some of the stress around the changes and provide them with the answers they need.

When an employee program launches

New employee programs can be exciting. However, if you’re not communicating with employees about how to make the most of the new offerings, they’re less likely to take advantage of them. 

If they may perceive the changes as negative, you want to get their opinions as well. That way, you can allay their concerns based on what you learned from your employee listening efforts.

If there are benefits changes

When any employee benefits change, people need to understand what the changes are and how it will affect them. 

Everyone will be impacted differently depending on their role, what benefits are changing, how much they’re paid, etc. So giving them detailed information is important.

Once they’ve got the right information, it’s important to check in with how they’re feeling. What do they think about the changes and how are they processing them?

Through employee listening, you may find that there’s a better way to communicate changes with the team. Or, that you haven’t shared enough information so the rumor mill is in full force.

When they experience a big life change

When experiencing a big life change, it can sometimes feel like your world has stopped while everyone else’s is still spinning. It can be hard to articulate what you’re going through. Unsurprisingly, this can significantly impact your daily life.

Big life changes can be lonely. Connecting with employees going through these types of life events is really important. That way they know you’re there to support them. 

Knowing that their employer supports them helps employees to feel less alone. Your employee listening efforts can enable you to take some of the stress away from their situation. 

If the changes require accommodations, such as more flexible working or different office equipment, employees will feel much more able to approach you about it if you already have an employee listening program in place.

After performance reviews

Performance reviews can be an uncomfortable time for some employees. This is particularly true if they had a negative experience with them in a previous role. 

Checking in with employees after a performance review helps them process how they felt things went, the decisions that were made, and the comments they were given. 

They can also provide feedback on the person they had their performance review with, helping that person improve, too.

At the end of the year

A lot can happen in a year. Checking in with your employees at the end of each year, whether that’s the calendar year, financial year, or whatever other year your business runs on, allows you to reflect on the last twelve months and how things have changed. 

You can take stock of successes, mistakes, and failures, so that you can move forward together productively.

Conclusion

Employee listening needs to be continuous and happen at a multitude of touchpoints. It shouldn’t be just once per year or when there’s a problem.

It’s about so much more than the business deciding to conduct an employee experience survey. It’s about making sure employees feel heard.

If you want to level up your employee listening approach, Workrowd can help. Our always-on feedback tool automatically collects data about what’s driving impact for employees, and solicits their thoughts after important events and initiatives.

When you’re ready to just ‘set it and forget it’ on employee listening, drop by our website to learn more, or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

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Employee Experience

Designing a digital candidate experience that attracts top talent

Your digital candidate experience is a window into what it’s like to work at your company. It plays a huge role in the type of person who finishes the application process. Obviously, this then determines which individuals you get the opportunity to interview. 

Old-fashioned technology, a clunky user experience, or complicated application forms can be really off-putting when someone applies for a role.

If you provide a poor digital candidate experience, the highest quality job seekers will take their time and skills elsewhere. 

The best candidates are off the market within 10 days. The better your digital candidate experience is, the more likely your business is to be the one that hires them.

Despite this, the hiring process takes an average of 36 days. The longer your hiring process is, the lower your chances are of getting those top-quality candidates that bring you greater ROI. 

It’s not just that, though. Bad hires can cost you up to $15,000!

The best way to mitigate that? Invest in your candidate experience—it improves the quality of your new hires by as much as 70%!

So where should you start? What should you consider when evaluating your digital candidate experience?

Start with your website

If your website is ugly or hard to navigate, it will make your business look old-fashioned, too. It’ll put off younger or more technologically savvy candidates because user experience matters to them. They’ll probably switch off before they’ve even started the application process. This shrinks your candidate pool and loses you those great-quality hires you need.

Your website should be easy to navigate. You should also make sure it’s easy for anyone interested in working with you to find the careers section. 

If they can’t find that, unless they really want to work with you, they’re not going to dig for it. 

Instead, they’ll take their skills and perspectives that you could have benefited from to one of your competitors.

Shorten your application process

68% of recruiters believe investing in new technology is the best way to improve hiring performance. Which backs up the statistic we saw at the start, about how investing in your candidate experience improves the quality of your hires by up to 70%.

It starts with simple things. For instance, if you’re asking someone to upload a resume and a cover letter, you don’t need to ask them to manually fill in their job history in an application form too. 

Yet there are still some businesses that do this. It’s repetitive, annoying, and pointless.

If your job application process is overcomplicated, applicants will wonder what other systems you have that are pointless or repetitive.

If you want to ask questions during the initial application process, focus on things that won’t be on their resume or cover letter. For instance, why they want to work for your business, examples of their work, or when they used a skill that’s key to success in the role.

Be accessible

What can you use to make your digital candidate experience more accessible? 

Maybe you can make sure that any step in your application process is optimized for screen readers. 

If applicants need to read something, is it easy for them to adjust the font size of your website? How does this impact the design?

If they need to complete tasks as part of the application process, do you offer both written and spoken instructions? This ensures it’s easy to understand no matter how someone learns.

These may seem like minor things, but they add up. They’ll improve your digital candidate experience and make your business more inclusive from the very start.

Keep applicants in the loop

There’s nothing worse than applying for a role, then not knowing if anyone has even received your application. Or never hearing back from them. 

Most systems now allow you to send a confirmation email, so that candidates know you’ve received their application. This is a common courtesy that helps reduce some of the anxiety that comes from the job application process.

81% of job seekers feel that employers who send status updates improve the candidate experience.

You could even allow candidates to track what stage in the application process they’re at through your applicant tracking software. Having a progress bar on the candidate side means they can visualize how far into the process they are. 

You could also show them what’s coming next. For instance, if they’re shortlisted, they’ll have a phone interview, then an in-person interview or a task, etc. The more transparent you make things, the less stressful it is for candidates and the better they can prepare.

If a candidate hasn’t heard from you, but they can see in the portal you haven’t reviewed their application yet (for example, because the deadline hasn’t passed), this further reduces some of the nerves they may feel about applying for the role. It also saves you time because anyone who wants to chase you won’t have to.

Conclusion 

Your digital candidate experience is a reflection of your business. Having an amazing website but a poor candidate experience makes it look like your business focuses solely on appearances.

If you truly care about the people who make your business the best it can be day in, and day out, the digital candidate experience has to reflect that. It’ll bring in more awesome people who can help you get the sales your brand deserves.

One way to ensure you have an amazing culture to showcase as part of your candidate experience is to rally everyone around a central hub. With one place for all your employee groups, programs, and events, it’s easy to highlight what makes working for your organization so great.

If you’re ready to elevate your employee experience and streamline the transition from candidate experience to team member, see if Workrowd could be a fit. Drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com to learn more.

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Employee Experience

Digital employee experience management tips you need to know

Digital employee experience management is key to helping your employees work effectively, connect with colleagues, and enjoy their jobs. 

Poor digital employee experience management leads to frustration, slow processes, and increased churn rate.

Despite this, only 13% of employees are fully satisfied with their employer’s digital employee experience. This shows a huge disconnect between what employees need and what their employers are providing.

Here are some best practices to help you level up your digital employee experience management efforts.

Establish a baseline

What’s the minimum your employees need to succeed? Is it a laptop? Home office equipment? Tools like a CRM for salespeople or accounting software for finance?

Providing these must-haves as soon as your new employees start streamlines employee onboarding and offers a better experience to your new hires.

Many businesses give employees an office budget, allowing them to customize their setup to suit their needs. This helps them feel more comfortable in their surroundings and more able to do their jobs.

Designing a form where employees can request new equipment means they can easily choose what they want based on their individual needs. 

Pay attention to employee feedback

That really great tool you think will change everything? Your employees might hate it.

What you want to provide, and what they need, aren’t always the same thing. 

Paying attention through employee surveys or regular chats helps you look for patterns. It means you can spot the challenges people are facing and then find software they might even enjoy using. This is much better than purchasing something you think will work, but that you can’t guarantee will succeed.

Review your policies

If your business didn’t start out as a remote or hybrid employer, you’ll need to review and update your policies as part of your digital employee experience management process. 

The rules for remote and hybrid workers are different from those who are office-based. You want to make sure they’re clearly communicated in any employee guides or handbooks and that you aren’t still sharing information from 2005.

Do you still expect employees to work 9-5? What time zone? How will these rules be enforced? What are the consequences of breaking them?

The more clearly you explain things, the better it will be for you and your employees. Clarity is one of the cornerstones of effective digital employee experience management

Prioritize employee experience alongside customer experience

Focusing on providing a great customer experience is a given in any business. But how many value their employee experience just as much?

You want your customers to say great things about you and have a seamless experience. Why should it be any different for your employees?

After all, they’re the ones in your business day in, and day out. They’re the ones keeping things running smoothly for your customers. 

If things are difficult for them because they have the wrong setup, they’ll feel more stressed. That will impact their productivity, their quality of work, and how they deal with your customers.

On the flip side, if the tools they use enable them to do their job better, and they’re happy in their roles, they’re going to provide a better customer experience. This will then bring in more return customers and spread more positive word of mouth.

Document processes

Organizing a process starts by writing down as much as possible. 

While this can sound like a chore at first, the more you document processes—how to do things, what’s expected of people, where things are—the easier your employees’ jobs will be. Which also makes them more efficient in the short- and long-term.

Thinking strategically is key to other areas of your business, like marketing and sales. Why should digital employee experience management be any different?

Start by making a list of things you might need to document. Ask your employees what they’d like to know, too. 

Then, you can assign the guide-writing to the employees best suited to each topic. Make sure they’re reviewed by someone else before publication to ensure they’re clear and easy to understand.

Offer training for new and old tools

Providing training on tools—whether they’re new or old—is key to getting employees to use them. Otherwise, they’ll only use them when they really have to, if at all.

Learning portals where employees can study at their own pace, and refer to information when they need it, is one way to do this.

Training days, particularly on a more complicated tool, can be useful to provide time for focusing on the benefits of the new tool and how to use it. 

For some employees, this may be too much time to concentrate on one thing or impact their ability to do their job. 

That’s why offering different learning methods is an important part of digital employee experience management (and your new tool’s adoption rate).

Start with your candidate experience

Digital employee experience management doesn’t start once someone joins your organization. It starts when they’re considering applying. 

How easy is it for someone to navigate your website? How easy is it for them to understand what you expect of your employees? What about the application process?

The more laborious this is, the more likely you are to lose great candidates. It’s not just the bad candidates who get put off by this clunky process—the great ones do, too. They know their time is precious, so they’d rather spend it applying for roles at businesses that make a better first impression.

Make collaboration easy

Successful collaboration helps businesses be more creative, solve problems faster, and achieve their goals. 

When teams work remotely or hybrid you need to find ways to make collaboration as easy as possible. 

This includes choosing communication apps that are efficient and user-friendly, conferencing tools that enable effective meetings, and creative tools like whiteboards and mind maps. 

These tools allow your employees to visualize what’s happening, provide feedback, and work together on projects.

Conclusion 

Digital employee experience management affects how people see your organization. It has a dramatic impact on your employees’ abilities to do their jobs. The wrong equipment can lead to miscommunication, stress, and tasks taking longer than they should.

Providing employees with the right equipment makes them happier and better at their roles.

If you’re looking for ways to make digital employee experience management easier, consolidating tools can make a big difference. Giving employees a one-stop shop for important information, programs, events, and more, means they always know where to find what they need.

Workrowd’s platform reduces admin time and gets everyone on the same page from day one. If you’d like to learn more, drop by our site, or send a note to hello@workrowd.com.

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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging

7 DEI best practices every company should implement

Companies with more diverse and inclusive workforces are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors. Not surprising when you consider that diverse leadership teams deliver 19% higher revenue. So, if you’re not already implementing these DEI best practices, now’s the perfect time.

Education, education, education

It’s only through knowledge and understanding that diversity, equity, and inclusion can truly grow within a business. 

You could expand your employees’ understanding through workshops, webinars, books, mentorship, or other means. 

Offering a variety of formats will help you educate more employees in a way that works for them. In doing so, you can increase the likelihood of success for your DEI program. It’ll also help with employee engagement because people will feel valued.

In addition, you have to educate the outside world about your practices. This is particularly true if you’re an older business that isn’t known for its inclusivity. Anything that gets you out into the community, talking about what you do and how you’re different from your competitors is a good idea.

Similarly, you could interview employees from underrepresented backgrounds and share their stories on social media. This gives them a voice, grows their personal/professional brands, and shows you appreciate them. Make sure it feels like an integral part of your business, though. Tokenism certainly isn’t on any DEI best practices list.

Recruiting initiatives

Over 75% of job applicants feel a diverse workforce is an important factor when deciding where to work. Being truly inclusive starts with your recruitment process.

A lot of recruiting practices just aren’t all that inclusive. They can be stressful, especially for people who are neurodivergent or who belong to a community more likely to face bias.

People who experience the world differently can lead to new ideas you may never have considered before. Not making your business attractive to them means you’re never going to benefit from those different perspectives. 

Instead, you run the risk of groupthink, fewer creative ideas for new products and services, and fewer opportunities to solve problems. 

Cognitive diversity enhances team innovation by 20%. Bringing in people from different backgrounds is key to business growth.

Some businesses have started to realize they’re missing out on a very large talent pool and have chosen to do something about it. 

For instance, extended interview processes can give candidates the opportunity to show off their unique talents while assessing the employer at the same time.

Managerial involvement

When managers actively support DEI best practices through their actions, not just their words, it can have an even bigger impact. 

That said, open communication is a huge part of any successful business. Holding regular check-ins with employees mean managers can deal with challenges before they arise or turn into something bigger. 

They can also learn about other ways the business can be more inclusive and accessible. Obviously, this helps the organization, and the people within it, to grow and further embrace diversity.

Employee groups

Employees who have a greater sense of belonging and inclusion at work report 167% higher eNPS scores. 

A strong sense of belonging also results in a 50% lower turnover risk and a 56% increase in job performance.

Employee groups are a powerful way to build these levels of inclusion and belonging. 

They empower employees to connect with people who have similar interests or backgrounds to them. 

Without these communities, it’s harder for employees to build real relationships with their colleagues, particularly those from other departments in a remote or hybrid business.

Employee groups are easy to set up but can be a challenge to manage. Incorporating some relevant tools can help make them one of the most effective DEI best practices you implement.

Mentoring and sponsorship

Mentoring can be a positive way for someone to find, and lean into, their strengths. 

We often don’t realize what or where our own power is, but it can be obvious to other people. 

Having a mentor who can nurture our skills and help us grow is a huge part of developing in the workplace. It can go a long way towards speeding up our growth trajectory.

Mentoring and sponsorship also open up opportunities to employees that they may not have otherwise had. It’s one of the time-tested DEI best practices you should definitely have in your toolkit.

Physical visibility

Seeing is believing, as the old saying goes. Employees, and outsiders, need to see you being inclusive to believe that you really are. 

If you say your business is inclusive and accessible, but your office is on the third floor with no elevator for anyone who can’t use the stairs, it sends a conflicting message that reflects badly on your business.

True inclusivity isn’t about expecting everyone to achieve the same thing with the same resources. It’s about adapting the resources so that everyone can achieve their goals.

Workplace policies

Having policies in place to deal with problems before they turn into bigger issues ensures employees know what their rights are when something happens, whether that’s a new pregnancy or a chronic illness flare up.

It also shows candidates and new hires that you take DEI initiatives seriously. You don’t just talk about DEI in your job descriptions as a way to pay lip service to a trending topic or legal requirements.

Even if you’ve never had an employee go through a particular situation—like menopause, for example—while at work, creating a policy in advance means everyone knows how to handle it when it does arise. 

This results in less stress because everyone knows where they stand. Plus, you’re not scrambling to put something together to retrospectively fit your needs.

Conclusion 

Businesses that implement these DEI best practices are more profitable, have happier employees, and do more good in the world. There’s really no downside to creating a more inclusive business. 

So whatever industry you’re in, consider adopting these practices so that your employees know what to expect from you. New recruits will feel more welcomed into your environment, and you get to reap all the business benefits.

If you want to put some supports in place to help you achieve these DEI best practices, consider implementing an inclusive employee experience platform.

For instance, Workrowd makes it easy to manage DEI programs, groups, and events, and enables you to easily track their impact with real-time analytics. If you’re interested in learning more, visit us online or send us a note at hello@workrowd.com.

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Company Culture

The importance of work friendships, plus 10 ways to foster them

Just as in other areas of life, work friendships can drive a wealth of positive outcomes. Unfortunately, only 20% of US employees strongly agree that they have a best friend at work. 

This is a missed opportunity, because 21% of people believe that work friendships make them more creative. 22% feel more productive with friends, and 57% feel it makes work more enjoyable. So why do so few of us have work friendships nowadays?

It’s not always easy to foster work friendships in the modern world. This is especially true if you have a remote team or distributed workforce. So here are some strategies to support work friendships and reap the benefits for both employees and your bottom line:

Employee groups

Employee groups are one of the best ways to connect your team members with like-minded people. 

You can set up a group for anything. Whether that’s a location, a skill, a favorite TV show, pets, or something else. 

It’s then up to the group’s organizer(s) to set up activities and discussions for members to take part in. They’re totally flexible, which means there are infinite possibilities for you and your employees.

These communities can also go a long way towards furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion. For instance, employee resource groups are a great way to create spaces for team members with shared backgrounds, ethnicities, and/or life experiences to connect.

Pairing people for one-on-one chats

One-on-one chats are another easy way for people to get to know their colleagues. 

There are lots of approaches you could take to organizing this. From having an employee experience manager who connects people with similar interests, to a chat channel or krowd where people can request meetups, or even having managers play matchmaker.

Team activities

No, I don’t mean those terrible ice breakers that cause everyone to panic because they don’t know what to say, so they pay no attention to what anyone else is saying and it defeats the point of them. Instead, I mean fun activities that encourage teamwork and out-of-the-box thinking.

To find something that will resonate with your team, ask them what they’d like to do. 

Maybe it’s axe throwing, or darts, or archery. Or something that doesn’t involve sharp objects. (I keep getting ads for axe throwing at a new venue nearby, which is why it’s on my mind, in case you were worried about me for a minute.)

Providing opportunities to bond around shared experiences is a standard approach to fostering work friendships.

Book or film club

When we love something, we want to share it with others. Book clubs or film clubs are a great way to share those things with other people. I’ve made many friends from sharing a love of a particular book series, TV show, or film.

You could offer clubs for specific platforms or genres. That way employees know the people in that group are exposed to similar things and can offer other recommendations they may enjoy.

Watercooler chat

Talking about nothing in particular is often underestimated, but it can be an effective way to get to know someone. 

It doesn’t have to happen around a literal watercooler anymore, either. It can be a virtual one, in a digital space that’s designed for thoughts, observations, or anything else that’s unrelated to work.

Beyond collaborating on projects, simply chatting is the way work friendships have always formed.

Pet chat

Our dog is almost always present when I’m on a call because she gets FOMO if I close the door on her. As a result, she usually makes a cameo and says hi to everyone, particularly if she hasn’t met them before. 

Including her is a great ice breaker that puts everyone at ease. 

It’s a nice reminder that, no matter what the topic, we’re all human. And it doesn’t matter what your job is, your pet will never care so long as you can give them attention and food.

Providing a place for people to share about their pets is a great way to give colleagues insight into each others’ personal lives. This type of sharing that extends outside the bounds of the workplace is a great way to support work friendships.

Parenting chat

Parenting is hard. Having people who get it, who are going through it, or who’ve been there, can be key to staying sane. 

Why not put together a parenting affinity group? Or have regular conversations set up for people who want to discuss parenting life with other parents? 

You could take it one step further and have spaces for adoption, fostering, pregnancy, etc. These all come with unique challenges. Knowing you’re not alone when battling them can ease some of the strain and stress involved. This can make not only people’s work-lives easier, but also their home lives.

Health chats/talks

Being ill all the time—or even temporarily—really sucks. And most of the time, we don’t want to bog our colleagues or loved ones down by whining about how we’re feeling. 

Or, we get stuck in a negative cycle about our situation and end up feeling like we’ll never get better.

Having a safe space where employees can talk about their health challenges can really help them connect with people in similar situations, easing some of the emotional burden. 

With the right people in charge, it can encourage a positive atmosphere where employees can seek support and solutions, rather than spiral in their helplessness. 

The atmosphere is key, because long-term health challenges can eat you up inside if you’re not careful. 

But, if you can encourage people to treat each other with kindness and respect, it can be rewarding and insightful. And of course, work friendships can bring both mental and physical health benefits!

Hackathons

These can be really good for meeting new people. A team organizes it, explains the rules, then splits everyone up into small groups of no more than five people. 

Then, everyone gets to share a little about themselves and any challenges they may be facing, before deciding what problem or solution to work on. 

This encourages cooperation between teams, gives employees insight into other departments, and generates ideas that may not have otherwise appeared. Plus, the creation and collaboration process can build work friendships that extend beyond the surface.

Internal networking event

If in doubt, why not set up a good old-fashioned networking event at your HQ? Or somewhere near where many of your employees work?

They don’t have to be huge and expensive to put together (although they can be if you prefer). You don’t even need a speaker if you don’t want one. 

The key is to find somewhere with a comfortable atmosphere, some munchies, and a diverse group of people.

Conclusion 

Work friendships are hugely powerful. The more you encourage employees to develop them, the happier they’ll be in their roles. And, the more your business will benefit as a result.

The world of work has changed, leaving many people feeling isolated. Accordingly, we need new ways of building up these connections.

An all-in-one platform like Workrowd gives employees a central place to connect across an array of interests and activities. Plus, real-time analytics make it easy to see what’s driving belonging and work friendships.

If you’re ready to tap into all the benefits that come from a more connected workforce, visit us online or drop us a note at hello@workrowd.com today.

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