Tips for Effective Employee Engagement and Appreciation

If you think that a monthly pay cheque is all that it takes to keep your employees engaged at work, then you need a bit of a reality check. It takes an awful lot more than money to motivate staff and if your workforce are becoming disengaged, it’s time to assess the reasons behind it, before it has damaging consequences.

Employees want to feel valued and know that they are appreciated within the business. If their hard work goes unnoticed time after time, it can become incredibly disheartening; not to mention that it can feel like a bit of a waste of time and effort. So if you want to build a happy and productive workforce, it is essential that you recognize and praise good work from your staff.

Here you will find some of the key reasons why employee recognition is essential for building an engaged workforce and a few simple ideas about how you can praise and reward your employees.

What is employee appreciation?

Employee engagement is the appreciative acknowledgement of a person or a team’s efforts, that exceed the expectations of their role, or behaviors that benefit the success of the business. This can be done formally or informally, as long as the employee feels valued.

Does employee appreciation matter?

• The top reasons that employees leave their job is that they don’t feel appreciated.
• Companies who have a strategic employee recognition program in place report 70%+  higher engagement levels among their staff, than companies without a program.
• Disengaged workers cost the economy tons of billions a year.

What are the benefits of employee appreciation?

1) Motivation –

60% of best-in-class organizations reported that employee recognition drives individual work performance. Motivated workers put more time and effort into their work, as they feel they have a purpose and play an important role in the company meeting its goals.

2) Improved work culture –

Employee appreciation creates an environment that employees want to work in and make a difference to their business.

4) Employee retention –

Companies scoring in the top 20% for employee appreciation have a 31% lower turnover of staff. Well appreciated staff stay at the organization longer.

5) Better teamwork –

Employees work better not only when they feel appreciated by their employer, but also from their peers.

6) Improved customer satisfaction –

Customers are 41% more likely to stay loyal to a company if they experience and good attitude from the staff.

How can you show employee appreciation?

1) Instead of employee of the month awards, recognize all staff when they deserve it.

Many companies are replacing gift cards and “employee of the month” with hand-written notes and direct praise for commendable behavior.

2) Focus on peer to peer recognition

Peer to peer appreciation seems more genuine as colleagues are better acquainted with personal efforts than supervisors.

3) Public praise is more effective than monetary rewards

40% of surveyed felt that increased salaries and bonuses were ineffective in reducing employee turnover.

4) Keep recognition programs simple but frequent

Employees not recognized are 3 times more likely to leave in the following year. Frequent recognition motivates staff to achieve their best every day.

5) Be strategic

You must take a strategic approach towards your recognition program, so that you have a thorough understanding of what methods will fulfill the needs of your employees.

AppliView will be the value addition in the hiring process and gives best result in recruitment life cycle

Most Common Complaints of Applicant Tracking Systems

It’s no secret that applicant tracking systems improve the hiring process. But what do you have to be aware of when you’re comparing systems? While doing research into each option you will be overloaded with features here and features there, but what about specific issues that users encounter on a regular basis? No worries, we have come up with a list of the most common complaints for applicant tracking systems.

Errors
This can be a frustrating one. You’ve input the information necessary or you’re trying to get to a particular candidate profile then you get a big fat ‘ERROR’ or ‘The action cannot be completed’!!! These glitches can be costly because of the loss of time. You may also lose your sanity. Choose wisely.

Slow and Lazy

 Pretty straight forward. Going from screen to screen or action to action stalls and takes up more of your precious time. This is can be a sign that the applicant tracking system isn’t built well and could have more issues down the road. These issues can be fixed, but see what the history of the product has been, if possible, to spot any trends.

Non Appealing

 If something isn’t visually appealing, it can be a huge turnoff. Much like that weird print, 50 shades of mustard yellow chair sitting in the corner of your grandmother’s living room, a lot of applicant tracking systems aren’t very kind to the user’s eyes. The functionality may be there, but a poor user interface hurts engagement.

Not user friendly

 This is one of the top two complaints I came across as well as one of the top two most damaging faults of some applicant tracking systems. This includes both sides of the software; the candidates trying to apply for a job and the recruiters using the system to track the hiring process. This complaint gets a big ‘Buyer Beware’ stamp.

Customer Support

Only two words, but it separates applicant tracking systems by miles and miles. Customer. Support. We have seen this as the biggest complaint and for good reason. The reps from these different solutions are very responsive when they need something (contract, payment, etc.), but become nonexistent when you have an issue. Make sure you find a system that will be there for you and won’t charge an arm and a leg (and your first born) to get that support.

But you guys don't need to worry about this as AppliView is error free, fast, efficient, user friendly and comes with the best support team.

Just try AppliView for a month free of cost and fill.

How Applicant Tracking Systems Helps Employers and Job Seekers

These days, it isn’t enough to create a resume that can catch the eye of hiring managers. Today’s resumes must also satisfy the increasingly effective screening process of applicant tracking systems (ATS) designed to weed out gaudy resumes with little real substance. The trick is, sometimes developing a resume for one purpose can neglect the other.
            This trend is ultimately a plus for both employers and job seekers. No longer will you have to convince hiring managers of your prerequisites or overwhelm them with boosted anecdotal evidence. Meanwhile, employers can trust the resumes that do make it through the ATS screen will be up to par and worthy of consideration. It’s a win-win—as long as both candidates and employers keep a few points in mind.
 

1. Unqualified applicants need not apply
The ATS makes it difficult to fudge work experience. If you don’t have the prerequisite five years in the industry, for example, your application probably won’t make it past the initial screen. However, lying on your resume doesn’t make you look any better. Candidates who lack proper credentials would be better off reaching out directly to the hiring manager and explaining themselves. On the other hand, applicants with the necessary credentials can be confident they’ll have a fair shot at the job.
 

2. The same goes for keyword-suffers
Some ATS can rank resumes by examining them for certain traits, as indicated by keywords chosen by the user. The best resumes will highlight certain attributes like “improved,” “achieved,” and “managed,”. Having said that, keywords aren’t enough to land the job—resumes loaded with optimized phrases but little evidence or anecdotes might get past the software, but not the hiring team. Use a few well-placed keywords, but don’t lean on them too heavily. The right ATS will prevent an employer from receiving applications that are full of keywords and little else. Candidates should learn how to optimize their resumes for applicant tracking systems. 
 

3. Unnecessary info is no longer a distraction
It’s time some applicants face the cold, hard truth: Your high school debate team victories may not have much bearing on your resume ten years later. Additionally, candidates who try to boost themselves up by listing every odd job, volunteer hour, and random connection may find those methods are no longer effective. Employers—and their ATS—will assume latest three positions reflect candidates’ experience and trajectory. Mashable pointed out that chunky graphics, unconventional markers like arrows, and non-standard fonts can also cause an otherwise solid resume to fall flat. The ATS prevents those unwieldy resumes from ever getting to the hiring manager—and compels applicants to step up their game.
 

4. Important traits rise to the top
Unnecessary information gets in the way of the items that matter: the actual list of skills. A candidate’s skill set is the thing that can separate him or her from the rest of the pack, both for an ATS and an employer. Anything that can be considered a skill, from speaking a foreign language to familiarity with HTML to command over Microsoft Office, will stand out on resumes vetted by an ATS.
 

Think of an ATS as an extra set of eyes on your resume—one that won’t let mistakes slide. Now, it’s even more important to optimize a resume so it can reach the employer’s desk.

Try AppliView for free and see how the automated resume parsing works

Things To Consider While Hiring Leaders

One of the things many of have noticed over the years is that most medium and large organizations have a process for hiring their highest volume positions. Not surprisingly, this means that the effort to develop processes and standards typically goes into “entry-level” positions. Sometimes there are also processes for higher level positions but it almost always breaks down once you get toward the top of the organization (e.g., VPs, Directors, and C-level hiring processes).

                     Why does it break down? We have a number of reasons and theories as to why this happens. But at the core of all of thoughts is the fact that the CEO’s of the world who are involved in hiring don’t particularly enjoy being handed an interview guide and asking structured questions to a candidate. Don’t try to hide! They are usually more interested in just having a conversation and get a feel for the candidate. We actually think there is a place for this in the hiring process. In this fictitious example, the CEO is really just trying to get a measure of job and cultural fit. And that can be a good thing. However, there needs to be structured, behavioral-based interviews conducted at some point in the process.

                     In all honesty, the behavioral-based interview is just one piece of the puzzle, though. I believe there are 5 key areas that need to be considered when hiring leaders.

1 - Study the Position

Before building any selection system, you need to do your homework and find out the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA's) needed for successful performance in the role. This is just as important for leadership positions. Knowing the dynamics of the workgroup that the person will lead can help you identify the candidate who is the best fit for the position.

2 - Build the Process

Every position within the organization needs a hiring process or there will be chaos! We know high-level applicants walk away from potential employers because their hiring process was a mess or it just took too darn long. Here are a few tips to remember when devising the hiring process steps…

1. Only include steps that add value and measurement in the process
2. Measure the critical skills and abilities uncovered in Step 1 multiple times throughout the process
3. Make sure everyone involved in the process (particularly your C-level stakeholders) knows the process and their role within that process

3 - Use Reliable Assessment Tools

This is an easy one, and most organizations have done a good job of incorporating assessments into their processes by this point. If you haven’t you should strongly consider it. Using structured, online assessments adds a tremendous amount of value in the form of predicting future behavior. Assessments consistently outperform and out-predict all other aspects of the hiring process. If you don’t already have an assessment in place this is an easy one to fix.

4 - Behavioral Interviews (even at the executive level)

The number 1 thing we hear from top level leaders is that they just want to “get to know someone”. That is great and probably not a terrible way to assess cultural fit, but also a very bad way to conduct an interview. The research shows that unstructured interviews are 2 to 3 times less reliable than a structured process. Structure is the only way to ensure you are obtaining reliable information. It is arguably even more important when you get to high-level leaders because they can have a greater impact on the organization as a whole.

5 – Measure Motivational Fit

Frequently organizations miss this very simple step. Companies should be measuring motivational fit (or job fit) as part of the hiring process. This is as simple as ensuring that the candidates likes and dislikes are in alignment with the organization and its values. This seems like a no-brainier, but most organizations forget about this and don’t measure it as part of the process.

               Seriously, don't forget about the hiring process for leaders. They're some of the most important people in your organization. If you stick to these five steps, you'll be much more likely to hire leaders who will be effective in your organization. Good leaders will make your lower level employees better too!

AppliView will be always there for your type of hiring tool needs.