November 2019 - Striven

Month: November 2019

How to Get Employee Onboarding Right

Posted on by Scott Hammer

Hiring new employees is a great feeling, full of promise and added value to your company. While your recruiting team may consider it one of the last steps in their process, it’s the first step for everyone else. That’s why employee onboarding is one of the most important things to get right as you bring in new hires.

What is Employee Onboarding?

Simply put, employee onboarding is the process of helping new hires understand your company’s processes, procedures, and culture. The goal of onboarding, always, is to help employees hit the ground running on day one. 

Onboarding illustration

But it rarely happens that way. Think about your first day at a new job. Maybe even think about your first day of school. At best, it’s awkward. First days, or even weeks, can be overwhelming for new hires. If you don’t have a good onboarding process in place, you risk losing 10 to 25% of that top talent.

Here’s a new employee checklist to help make your onboarding program successful for new staff, managers, and your HR department.

Don’t Overschedule Orientation

We’ve all had orientation schedules that lasted for days at a time, filled with workshops, information packets, and policy docs. For new hires, it’s a lot to take in. If you give employees too much information at once, it’s all going to end up in a blur. And all of those times you thought your new staff was hanging on your every word, they were really just trying to remember where the bathroom is.

erp software time management

It’s okay to spread orientation meeting throughout the first week (or even two weeks) of employment. Your new hires will still be getting acclimated to their surroundings. Acclimation isn’t just about physical space— it’s everything from the software you use to the meetings you hold.

After a first-day orientation, consider just an hour of scheduling each day after that. It’s a great way to let your new employees learn some of the wider company policies as they get used to their specific role and team.

Provide Company Documents in Advance

If you want to ease the burden on new employees during the onboarding process, give them easy access to company onboarding documents. Allow them to read even before they start their first day of work. 

Great employees want to be as prepared as possible for their first few days on the job. Understanding company policies and protocols can help them feel like they’re part of the team even before they walk through the door. If you have a centralized location for company documents, all you’ll need to do is send a link to provide the information.

Create a Company FAQ

erp software faqs

Often, it’s the cultural aspects of your business that are the most sought-after by new employees. They also happen to be the easiest to answer. 

Questions about when teams take lunch or the protocol for reserving a conference room are great things to have in writing. Even if they’re not strictly policy (and therefore flexible), you send a positive message by not hiding information behind the proverbial curtain.

The best way to approach this is to source it directly from your employees. Team leaders can create questions and answers specific to their divisions. But really, any employee should be able to contribute. Also, make it a living document. When things change, update to keep everyone on the same page.

Make New Hire Onboarding Interactive

Employees should not just be passive receptors of information. If you’re onboarding a new group, you likely have a mix of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners (65%, 30%, and 5%, respectively). 

The more you can address multiple intelligences in your employees, the more engagement and investment they’ll have in your company early on. They’ll not only know more, but they’ll also have the ability to contribute at the outset.

Let Current Staff Know Who’s New

Employee onboarding isn’t just about the new hires. It’s also about the people who have worked at your company for years. They need an easy way to know the new faces in the building. 

Don’t stop there. Allow new employees to write their own introduction to the company. With the right software, this can easily be shared through your company’s management system. (*Avoid sharing via email— most employees will ignore it, even by accident.)

Update Your Employee Hub

new employee onboarding with erp software

If you’ve collected candidate assessments or other essential communication during the recruiting process, that information could be very important during onboarding. Make sure your HR team is updating new employee information on the back end.

All assessments, skills tests, and other important information should be transferred from candidate to employee. If you’re using a sophisticated HR software, you can accomplish this with a single click.

Conclusion

Staff onboarding can be incredibly creative and value-driven. It can also be a boring, unproductive exercise. As your HR team works to create, refine, or update your process, discuss these best practices with them. Make sure your programming covers what’s useful, get rid of what isn’t, and automate everything that takes too much time.

After all, you want to keep the people you’ve worked so hard to hire. Show them that the amazing company you promoted is the reality of their new workplace.

4 Ways A Candidate Portal Helps You Hire

Posted on by Scott Hammer

Congratulations, you’ve posted and advertised your next open position. Now you’re ready to sit back and wait for the candidates to roll in. You want the best people for the role, but how can you show that your company is worthy of them? How can you give candidates a streamlined, friendly, and informative application process? It’s simple: you need a candidate portal.

Candidate portals centralize communication and information exchange. That means you provide candidates with an inside look at your company, a great way to vet them, and a simple way to contact you. In turn, you get to handle the back end of applications much more easily and respond more quickly to prospective employees.

Streamline the Application Process

erp software HR

When promoting a new job opening, it’s important to consider what the candidate application experience will be like. A frustrating application process shows a lack of professionalism on your part. That matters: according to iCIMS, 78% of candidates agree that the professionalism of a company’s candidate portal is moderate to highly important in their decision to apply.

Your application process is also the first message you send about the way things work at your company. Therefore, it’s incredibly important to streamline it.

Allow Candidates to Contact You Directly

Often during the application process, candidates feel like there’s a giant wall between themselves and the company they’re hoping to work for. They wait to receive messages from the HR department. (When they’re applying, wait time can feel like forever.)

If those candidates have specific questions about the position, it’s rarely clear to whom they should be directed. That’s why having a messaging system built into your HR software is a great idea. It helps build a bridge between your company and candidates before you officially reach out to them. 

Each time you respond to candidates’ questions, you send the message that you’re interested in helping them learn (a good sign for the future). You also show them that you’re organized, with a system in place to field communications easily. Candidate portal messaging also keeps your candidates coming back and engaging with your HR system in a way that email doesn’t.

Provide Easy Document Uploading (and Collection)

erp software hiring portal

Do candidates have an easy easy way to upload their resumes, cover letters, and supporting documents? The steps to uploading should be clear, versatile, and give candidates an easy way to put everything in one place.

But what happens to those documents on the other end? In many cases, they get attached to emails, left for members of the HR department to download. When those people are dealing with multiple candidates, applications and documents get lost. Just one lost application can seriously delay response time, or make it so that you never respond to an ideal candidate. 

Having an HR system that lets documents uploaded by candidates populate in a centralized location ensures that the application process goes more smoothly on both ends. Candidates upload efficiently, and you organize docs for faster response times.

Assess Candidate Skills

erp software hr software

Depending on the job role, you may want candidates to complete a skills test. Whether it’s a writing sample, a math-based quiz, or a scenario-based evaluation, it’s important to see how candidates measure up. Your candidate portal should help make this process both easy and possible.

Your system should have the ability to create custom assessments and to send and receive them through the portal. Sometimes, simply offering an assessment can help you weed out the serious candidates from those who are just applying as an afterthought. Because you’re looking for the best people, your assessment process can help get them on board.

Conclusion

Having a candidate portal is a great thing, but it’s only one piece of the larger hiring process among your recruiting and HR system. Your goal should be to think beyond just applications, moving toward fully streamlined hiring and onboarding.

Stay tuned here. We’ll be covering the entire candidate-to-employee journey, and how your company can do it right.

3 Smart Accounting Moves That Will Boost Your Cash In 2020

Posted on by Gene Marks

Move #1: Stop Monkeying With Your Suppliers

Whenever some financial expert advises me to “use your suppliers for financing” I cringe.  Why would anyone do that?

small business accounting software

Sure, it’s probably easier to extend payments with your suppliers rather than, say, increase your line of credit with your bank.  But your suppliers are your most important partners. These are the people that you’re relying on to deliver you the necessary products and services you require to run your business and service your customers.  And you’re going to annoy them by monkeying with your payments to them? Bad idea.

Here’s a better idea: pay them early. If they’re still offering discounts for early payments, take them.  If not, ask. You’ll find that a 2% net 10 discount will make you much more money than leaving your money in the bank at close to zero percent interest. You’ll certainly generate more cash that way. But you’ll also be doing something else: building stronger relationships with important people.  Because think about it: which customers get your best attention? The ones who are nice to work with and pay on time (or early)? Or the ones who monkey with your payments?

You know the answer. And so will your bank account.

Move #2: Pay Just Twice A Month

payment schedule on calendar with erp software

My smartest clients have a firm control over their cash. They strive to create organization over chaos. And one of the biggest ways to create chaos is to let cash fly out of your business without any process.

So here’s what you should do: pay your suppliers only twice per month. That’s it. Pick the first and last Tuesday.  Or maybe the 10th and 25th of each month. Stick to that schedule. Do not make exceptions. Freeze all payments except on those days. Trust me, your vendors will get used to it.

What will the results be? You will have more control over your cash. You will be able to better forecast when your payments will be. You won’t be surprised when it comes time to pay bills and there’s less cash on hand because other payments were draining your bank account. You’ll be able to make sure you have enough available cash to meet your obligations. You’ll then make better decisions over your cash flow and, as a result, you’ll see an improvement in your cash flow.

For good cash flow, order is good. Chaos is bad. Start by taking control of the money going out of your business.

Move #3: Do A Quarterly Forecast

accounting erp software

The smartest business owners I know are always looking ahead. They don’t like surprises, especially when it comes to their cash flow. That’s why so many of them forecast.

Forecasting isn’t as hard as you think. Just take your year to date results from your accounting system and add them, by line item, on a spreadsheet. Then go through each line item and think ahead 90 days.

For the most part, most expenses won’t change. You should have a backlog of sales or at least have a good idea of what revenues will be based on the past. You know your payroll, your rent, your overheads. But there will be other cash requirements that will come to mind. Maybe an estimated tax payment due. Or a large payment to a supplier. Or a debt payment, equipment purchase or bonus check.

Do this quarterly. Once you’re in a groove, you’ll find it takes about an hour. The time will be worth it and you’ll longer be guessing about your cash. You’ll have a much better idea of how much cash you’ll have in the future. From there, you’ll be able to make better purchasing, investment, and management decisions. Don’t get surprised. Take control of your cash flow by forecasting it.

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These are just three proven ways to increase your cash flow next year. Want more? Then stay tuned!

5 Things All In One Business Management Software Does Better

Posted on by Scott Hammer

As your business grows, your processes become more complex. Spreadsheets just don’t get the job done anymore. And separate software subscriptions tend to tie up processes more than they tie them together. Here’s what all in one business software does better than any other ERP solution on the market.

Data Flows Are More Intelligent

All in one business management software handles data better than separate applications, documents or spreadsheets. The reason is simple: if all core business functions are connected, information flows freely throughout the system. Imagine financial data natively working with sales, project, and inventory data. 

When you have a single data source, information never gets lost. That’s a far cry from the typical office scenario: your accountant “owns” your financial data in one system, while your project manager “owns” project data in another system. How easily can those two work together if they use completely separate systems, with different interfaces?

All In One Software Means Native Integration

While there are software products that claim to be all in one business solutions, the reality is quite different. Most products assembled to be comprehensive business software are actually cobbled together from systems that have been acquired or adapted. 

If your software systems have been developed in silos, how can you possibly expect it to break down the silos in your own company?

True all in one business software means that every line of code was developed by the same team. It means the interface is the same, so every employee in your company can use it, regardless of job function. When your project team needs support, they’re not calling someone completely different than your accounting department called the week before.

Saves You Money

When your business can no longer run on spreadsheets or filing paperwork, you have two choices: move to a single system or purchase upwards of ten different software products. (If you’ve done the latter, go ahead and count how many you’re currently using).

As the products pile up, so do your subscription costs. As you count the number of software products you’re using, it might be worth adding up your total monthly payment. When you’re done, do some comparative pricing and see how much an all in one business software can save you.

Support is Actually Supportive

When you use all in one business software, you can ditch your list of phone numbers and emails for every software you use. You can stop the live chats, support tickets, and any other method you use to seek help from the many different groups that support your products.

all in one business management erp

Having software vendors with in-house support means you only need to rely on them for anything you need. It’s especially helpful to have an advisor assigned to your account who understands any support issue you could possibly have. That way, you won’t get passed around between support departments. You won’t speak with someone who lacks information about your support history. The best software support is there for you, 24/7.

Offers More Coherence

Coherence in what, exactly? You name it.

Document storage, internal communication, scheduling, user experience… the list goes on. It doesn’t take a team of IT experts to use a great all in one solution— this type of software is designed for every employee. The interface is simple, and so is the way data passes through it. 

Imagine how much more helpful your employees could be with any team in the company when they use the same software to perform their job functions. That value goes way beyond time saved. It’s also about team building and coherence in company culture. After all, your employees spend a lot of their day using software. Make it an outstanding experience.

Conclusion

As your company searches for ways to handle a growing workload, customer base, and data complexity, consider your options. You can pay more for software, only to end up with more confusion. Or, you could house all of your company data in a single solution. 

The truth is, there are very few actual all in one business solutions out there, especially at a price point that will generate a quick ROI. But they exist, and a little searching and comparison will go a long way in easing the growing pains of your business.