Does anyone want to guess what happened to that relative?

If you want to guess that she was offered early retirement in lieu of termination for poor performance, you’d be right. (She accepted it and did not sue because she had no case.)

People worry about disciplining or laying off people in “protected classes” because they don’t want to be sued.

Well, I don’t want you to be sued either. So, I’ll walk you through the Evil HR Lady’s guide to firing anyone – even my relative.

Understanding ‘protected classes’

Often, people think protected classes consist of women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, people over 40, the pregnant, and the disabled. But that’s wrong. Everyone on the planet is in a protected class.

This term means that you can’t terminate or punish someone because of their gender, race, gender identity, pregnancy status, disability status, or other protected characteristics. The only group you can (from a federal perspective, but not in every state) are people under 40.

You can’t terminate someone because they are White any more than you can terminate someone because they are Black. And even when people say, “But I’m in an at-will state!” that doesn’t make much difference. First, every state but Montana is at-will.

Second, at-will means you can terminate for any reason or no reason as long as that reason isn’t illegal.

Read that again. As long as that reason isn’t illegal.

Courts have already caught on to this “one great trick for being a racist” where you fire someone because of their race but say, “Hey, it’s at-will, so I just felt like terminating someone, and Jane walked in first!”

They know that’s not true. Courts call this “pretext,” and it gets you in big legal trouble.

But isn’t a minority/LGBTQ+/Pregnant/older person more likely to sue?

Sure – because it’s more likely that you will discriminate on that basis. Plenty of people believe that there are people who are protected and people who are not, so there are people who won’t do anything because they think there is no way they can win.

But, you should not have anyone in a position where they think you terminated them for a protected reason. And it’s not hard to do. It just requires that you do your job and follow best practices.

Here’s how you can fire literally anyone.

How to fire anyone

1. Don’t be a racist/sexist/whateverist

This is the easiest part. If you judge people based on their immutable characteristics, get yourself to therapy to understand what is wrong with you and fix it.

2. Document everything

This is more than documenting when someone does something terrible; you must also note when someone does something good. Why? You need evidence that this person was poorly behaved and that other similarly situated employees were not poorly behaved.

3. Use performance improvement plans and progressive discipline

These provide solid documentatio showing you’ve let the employees not only know precisely what the problem is – but also that you’ve given them ample opportunities to improve.

4. Be consistent

If you write up one employee for being late, you need to write up all employees who are late. If you let one employee print her wedding invitations on the company equipment, you must let all employees print their personal stuff on the company equipment.

5. Conduct neutral investigations

Whether you need to investigate a claim of racial harassment or supply theft, approach it from a position of neutrality. If the alleged perpetrator has authority over the person conducting the investigation, hire an outside person to conduct the investigation.

If you do these steps, and you want to terminate someone for poor performance, a general layoff, or because of rule-breaking, you’ll be set to go. When someone has been on a PIP for 90 days, and you have documentation that they haven’t reached the goals, it’s pretty airtight to terminate them.

When you’re conducting a layoff and have to choose one person from a group to terminate, having years of employee evaluations demonstrating that this person performed at a lower level than their coworkers, you can feel pretty confident.

The court doesn’t require you to be perfect in how you terminate. You just have to act in good faith. These things will satisfy the good faith requirement.

How did the boss fire my 60+-year-old relative?

Naturally, the boss didn’t allow me to see any of the paperwork, but my relative had bragged to me about being untouchable and told me her side of the story.

The boss documented the number of times my relative came in late, left early, and called out ‘just because.’

The boss encouraged the relative to go to the doctor and get an ADA accommodation if needed because the relative complained she was late due to health problems. My relative refused to do that, even after the boss encouraged it.

The boss put my relative on a PIP with clear guidelines for improvement, which my relative should have taken seriously. She did not.

No one is untouchable. At least, no one should be.

The post How to fire anyone without legal repercussions appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But what exactly does FTE mean, how is it calculated, and why does it matter? This article will demystify FTEs so you can leverage this metric strategically.

What does FTE mean in HR?

Full-time equivalent is the long version of FTE, meaning the number of full-time employees a company would have if all employees worked full-time. For example, if you have four employees who each work 30 hours per week, their total combined hours are 120. 120 hours divided by a 40 hour full-time work week equals three FTEs.

In other words, FTE allows companies to standardize headcount and measure workload capacity by converting part-time staff to a full-time basis.

This enables useful comparisons across teams and functions for organizational planning and analytics.

How is FTE calculated?

FTE is calculated by adding up the total number of hours worked by all employees and dividing that total by the number of hours in a full-time work week, which is typically 40 hours.

Let’s revisit the example above: if you have two employees who each work 20 hours per week, their total combined hours are 40. Forty hours divided by a 40-hour work week equals one FTE.

When tallying up hours worked, things like paid time off (PTO) and sick leave are included. However, external contractors and freelancers are generally not included in the FTE count.

Many HRIS softwares can automate FTE calculations by incorporating data on employee hours worked, absences, time-off calendars, and more.

Why FTE matters for HR

For HR professionals, understanding and monitoring FTEs is essential for several reasons:

1. Budgeting

FTEs are the essential data needed to accurately forecast and manage labor costs across the organization. Each FTE represents the fully loaded expense of having one full-time permanent employee on staff.

By multiplying the number of FTEs by the average cost per FTE, HR can predict total labor budget needs more precisely than just using headcount alone.

Tracking FTEs over time also allows HR to identify growing or decreasing expenditure on salary and benefits. Finance teams will also be interested – ånd revenue per FTE can also be calculated from this.

2. Staffing

Analyzing FTE data helps HR proactively identify the need to hire more staff or reduce hours. For example, if team productivity is declining while FTE levels remain flat, it may signal that more staff need to be onboarded to meet workload demands.

On the flip side, a spike in FTE levels without corresponding business growth may indicate a need to realign staffing plans and reduce hours.

Sudden changes or churn in FTE numbers can serve as an early warning for HR of underlying staffing problems or challenges.

3. Productivity

FTEs can be compared to revenue output and other productivity metrics to assess workload balance across the organization.

Employee productivity can be measured to determine how much each full-time equivalent generates for the business.

Trends in this ratio can show which teams are operating efficiently and which may be over or understaffed relative to output.

4. Compliance

Many laws and regulations related to benefits eligibility, overtime pay, and other workforce standards depend on whether an employee is classified as full-time or part-time based on FTE status.

HR must track FTEs correctly to remain compliant and avoid penalties. For example, the Affordable Care Act in the United States requires applicable large employers to provide health insurance to employees working an average of 30+ hours (0.75 FTE).

5. Culture

The ratio of full-time to part-time employees impacts company culture, engagement, and retention. Full-timers often identify more closely with company mission and values.

Declining FTE percentages may indicate problems retaining full-time staff. HR can analyze FTE ratios to ensure the workforce alignment supports desired cultural goals.

FTE trends and statistics

The FTE landscape is being shaped by two trends.

• Hours worked in the US: The average FTE worker in the United States worked 34.4 hours per week in June 2023
• Part-time workforce in the US: About 17% of the US-based workforce worked part-time (less than 35 hours/week) in 2022

In summary, understanding the meaning of FTEs is a key competency for HR professionals today. Knowing how to accurately calculate and strategically apply FTE analysis helps optimize staffing, forecast budgets, align talent strategy to business goals, and support employee retention.

Stay on top of FTE trends and leverage HRIS tools to master this essential workforce metric.

The post The meaning of FTE: a guide for HR professionals appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But ChatGPT and other AI software tools come with their own problems. They’re big enough that the EEOC issued a warning (Select Issues: Assessing Adverse Impact in Software, Algorithms, and Artificial Intelligence Used in Employment Selection Procedures Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

That’s government-speak for pay attention.

The EEOC doesn’t say “Don’t use AI to hire and manage people”, but it does say you’re responsible for what AI does.

A lawyer found this out the hard way when he submitted a brief to the court that contained a “hallucinated” case.

Side note: Hallucinated is the term people use to describe the information that ChatGPT makes up. And it does happen a lot.

In that lawyer’s experience, ChatGPT made up a court case, and the lawyer didn’t catch it. He’s now in hot water with the court.

You don’t want to be in trouble with the court for not knowing ChatGPT can make things up. And when working in HR, you also don’t want to be in trouble because ChatGPT is indeed biased.

How biased? We don’t know the extent of the biases, but we know it has preferences.

Because ChatGPT was trained on the internet and the internet is made up of humans with their own biases, it makes perfect sense that the results will show some of these biases in the output.

Now that this is clear, here’s what you need to know about the EEOC’s warning.

Watch out for disparate impact

Disparate impact is the legal term for when an action looks neutral but results in an unbalanced result.

For instance, you require everyone to have a college degree to work as a barista in your coffee shop, which results in fewer members of underrepresented groups working there. Because a college degree isn’t necessary for the job, that could be considered illegal discrimination through disparate impact.

Ogletree Deakins attorneys explain:

“Specifically, the EEOC reinforced for employers that, under disparate impact theory, if an employer uses an employment practice that has a disproportionate impact based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, an employer must show that the procedure is job-related and consistent with business necessity.”

How could this be an issue with ChatGPT?

Because you can’t see the ‘thought’ processes behind its decision-making, you don’t know what it considers. The requirement is that anything that results in disparate impact must be “job-related and consistent with business necessity.”

The EEOC writes: “The selection procedure must evaluate an individual’s skills as related to the particular job in question.”

When you have a black box algorithm (after all, you don’t see how ChatGPT makes decisions), you cannot say that the tools used to evaluate someone are consistent with business necessity.

But ultimately, you’re responsible for your decision even if you can’t see, like the lawyer who didn’t realize ChatGPT can in fact hallucinate court cases.

Does this mean ChatGPT and other AI tools are banned in hiring?

No! It’s not banned. You can use it to help you do any number of things. Your ATS probably already does. Workable itself uses AI technology, as does just about everyone else.

But, regardless of whether or not you use AI in the hiring process, you remain responsible for the hiring decision.

Here’s how you can check to see if your tools are causing disparate impact:

1. Do your own analysis

Take a look at the results from any AI tool and compare them to the candidate population. If there are substantial differences between races or genders, then you are right to be concerned.

The EEOC uses the four-fifths rule as a rule of thumb. This means that if the difference is bigger than four-fifths (or 80%), then you need to be concerned about disparate impact.

2. Ask your vendors how AI is used

You need to act now if you don’t know if your applicant tracking system uses AI technology. Ask! Ask them how it works. It’s their job to give you all the information you need.

3. Proactively change your processes as needed

If there appears to be a disparate impact, you need to change how your selection process works. If the AI tool you use comes from a vendor, work with them to ensure a better selection process focusing on job necessities.

4. Create and enforce an AI policy

Remember, all aspects of the hiring process can be subpoenaed – including queries in ChatGPT, Bard, or any other AI software. If hiring managers use these tools to compare candidates, you must know how and when they do. Create your guidelines in consultation with your employment attorney.

Better safe than sorry

The EEOC’s new guidance is not binding, but you must pay attention to it and plan your AI usage accordingly.

AI can help greatly, but ensure you don’t inadvertently discriminate against qualified candidates.

The post Avoid unintended bias: learn to navigate EEOC in AI and hiring appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You’re right that Heidi absolutely has the right to tell all her coworkers her salary. And it’s good that you know this because a shocking number of companies make rules forbidding employees from sharing their salaries and then end up in hot water.

But she doesn’t have the right to demand that other employees share their salaries with her. She can ask, but they don’t have to say. And if she badgers them, as you say, it makes for a very unpleasant workplace.

So, how to handle it without stepping over the line? Here are some suggestions.

1. Have a meeting with her and a witness

Sit down with Heidi and make it very clear that she is allowed to discuss her salary but that she’s annoying her coworkers. While she can talk about her pay to her heart’s content, she cannot annoy her coworkers into talking and you consider that behavior bullying.

The reason for the witness is you don’t want her to turn around and claim that you forbade her from talking about her salary. Tell her that some people (most people) are uncomfortable talking about their salaries. Perhaps inform her that about 40% of people don’t even share their salary with their live-in partner or spouse! They of course aren’t going to share that information with a coworker.

She may likely argue that’s all the more reason to encourage her coworkers to talk about salaries. That culture of lips being sealed around salaries does need to change. That may be true, depending on who you talk to. But it’s not appropriate to run that campaign in the office because it’s making people uncomfortable.

Note: Learn more about salary transparency and why it matters.

2. Remind everyone of their rights

Depending on your working environment, you may wish to send out an email to everyone or post a reminder in the break room that states, “Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees are free to discuss their working conditions, including salary. However, you are under no obligation to discuss your salary with anyone and the company will not reveal that information for you. We value your privacy.”

Of course, you can run that by your local attorney to make sure there aren’t any laws you are violating. Technically, you can reveal everyone’s salary, but most businesses don’t want to do that, and most people don’t want their salaries revealed.

3. Follow up consistently

If this doesn’t resolve your issue, you’ll need to readdress the issue with Heidi, but this time around you are not going to talk about salary; you are only going to talk about annoying and bullying behavior. Why? Because salary is simply a red herring. It’s her inability to take no for an answer that causes the problem.

If she constantly asked people about their diets, their personal lives, or where they buy their shoes, it would be equally annoying. Use phrases like, “The other employees don’t appreciate it when you pressure them to reveal private information,” and “Jane said no to your request to discuss salary, so you need to accept that.”

If this doesn’t solve the problem, you’ll need to place her on a performance improvement plan (PIP). Yes, it seems a bit formal, but you’d do the same if it were a different topic. However, because working conditions (and specifically salary) are protected topics of discussion, please consult with your local employment attorney as you write the PIP. You do want to make sure that you are not punishing her for the topic of her annoying questions, but instead, being disruptive to her coworkers and not respecting their wishes to be left alone.

4. Ensure you treat all annoying employees equally

This is a critical step when dealing with situations such as this. If you allow other employees to badger each other or allow general bullying but crack down on Heidi’s request for salary information, she’s going to say her punishment is because it’s about a protected topic (i.e. working conditions) and not because she’s annoying or disruptive.

So keep your eyes and ears open to what else goes on in the breakroom or on Slack or wherever your employees congregate. Make sure you don’t let others get away with bad behavior while you correct Heidi.

And of course, keep good documentation of all this! You’ll need it.

Have an HR or workplace-related question for the Evil HR Lady? Email contact@workable.com with “Evil HR Lady” in the subject heading and it may be featured in an upcoming article!

The post Ask the Evil HR Lady: How do I prevent salary harassment? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here, in a nutshell, are the rulings on each case:

In Biden v Missouri, the Supreme Court held that the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does have the authority to require all health care workers at institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding to get COVID-19 vaccinations, unless they get medical or religious exemptions. If they fail to do either, then they could be fired.

Perhaps the more talked-about case, National Federation of Businesses et al v Department of Labor, Occupational, Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) et al, led to the opposite conclusion. The OSHA mandate required that employers with at least 100 employees had to require their employees to either receive COVID-19 vaccines or test weekly and wear masks.

Why such diametrically opposite rulings for such similar mandates? It all came down to whether the entity in question had the authority to mandate the vaccine. Regarding the OSHA mandate, the Court ruled OSHA did not have the authority, because, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (which created the OSH-Administration) “empowers the Secretary [of Labor] to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.”

The Court further reasoned that “Although COVID-19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most … COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases.”

Therefore, per the Court’s reasoning, the OSHA mandate would “significantly expand” OSHA’s authority beyond the limits set by Congress in the OSH-Act.

While multiple states argued that DHHS did not have the scope to issue such a mandate, the Court noted that “healthcare facilities that wish to participate in Medicare and Medicaid have always been obligated to satisfy a host of conditions that address the safe and effective provision of healthcare, not simply sound accounting.”

How then, does the US Department of Health and Human Services have the authority to issue and enforce a similar mandate? In this case, the Court cited funding requirements. The hospitals in question receive Medicare and/or Medicaid funding. The DHHS has always had authority to set conditions both for funding and for “the safe and effective provision of healthcare”.

So what do you do as an employer now?

What do these rulings mean for employers? Unless your business is a hospital receiving Medicare or Medicaid funding, the ruling in that case (Biden v Missouri) will have no impact.

Similarly, if your business has fewer than 100 employees, neither ruling impacts your business.

If you are an employer with more than 100 employees, then your business is no longer subject to the OSH-Admin mandate.

That does not mean that you do not have an obligation to take reasonable steps to protect your employees from COVID exposure. Vaccination or other safety protocols might well be necessary to achieve those ends, in which case you might still be obligated to take the same measures, but OSHA will have to jump through more hoops if it wants to take action against your company on that basis.

Need more support? Check out our mandatory vaccination and workplace safety policy template, which is free for you to use and customize for your own organization.

Janette S. Levey, ‘The Employer’s Lawyer’, has over 20 years of legal experience, more than 10 of which she has spent in Employment Law. She is licensed in NJ and NY and also works with employers anywhere in the country on any federal employment law issues to ensure that employers are in the best position possible to avoid litigation, audits, employee relations problems, and the attendant, often exorbitant costs. Feel free to visit Janette’s website or to contact Janette by email, janette@janetteleveylaw.com or phone, 732-902-0728. 

The post US Supreme Court’s mixed ruling on vaccine mandates: What do you do now? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We agree. Employers need to start figuring out their game plan right now.

The challenge of the vax mandate

Every employer who must comply with the mandate will face some sort of difficulty in execution – where testing will be performed, for example, and how to craft the vaccination and testing policies, as well as the downstream impact on productivity.

Some employers will be able to pull it off, but many will struggle to create yet another new process that takes away from revenue-generating activity.

In addition, employers must know:

• if they are going to require vaccinations as an employment contingency or offer weekly testing
• how they will track vaccinations/testing results
• what repercussions will occur when a violation occurs
• how to handle positive testing results
• whether or not to pay for weekly testing
• where and when to perform testing
• and, ultimately, who within their organization will be responsible for administering the tracking and testing within the organization.

The vaccine mandate will, in one way or another, add expense to every organization and very likely to all of us as consumers.

With millions of Americans having dropped out of the workforce since April – the so-called Great Resignation – beleaguered employers are wondering how this mandate will affect their ability to recruit – and keep – talent.

The bad news is that the tight labor market will probably continue for at least the next few years as the major catalysts that led people to leave the workforce – e.g. retirement, early retirement, health concerns, lack of child care – have not and will not change soon.

In other words, the labor market remains an employee’s market and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Agility and attentiveness will win out

More than ever, HR professionals will need to be agile and creative, both in their thought processes and in execution. They must immediately focus on mandatory practices, while over the long-term, they need to be prepared to support employees and the business which will require versatility that may not have been required in the past.

As an executive of a large multinational recently told The Wall Street Journal: “We couldn’t keep employees very long if we weren’t attentive to their personal lives and professional aspirations.”

Welcome to the new deal, or what we’re calling, The Great Reassessment.

The good news is that the vax/testing mandate provides clarity and deflects a major onus from employers. But it requires them to be the enforcers, tracking vaccinations and testing results, fielding complaints from employees, then managing the fallout that comes from a positive test result.

Large employers will feel the pain at scale; smaller ones will struggle to operationalize these new practices in an efficient way. No employer will be immune from the complexities.

The game is on

In other words, the Biden vaccine mandate is a “game on!” moment. The winners will be those employers who create more efficient processes and/or more flexible policies.

For example, if an employee is already on the fence about changing jobs and does not want to follow their current employer’s mandatory vaccination policy, they may opt to leave for a company that offers testing in lieu of vaccination. (Job switchers are reportedly the vast majority of job quitters.)

The reverse could happen too; there are many employees who want to work in the safest environment possible; they will seek out an employer who requires vaccination.

In either case, employers cannot afford to lose employees at a time when there are millions more job openings than workers to fill them.

What can employers do?

So what can the employer do, right now? Ensure that pay is equitable and competitive, for a start. They should also double-check that their benefits are comprehensive and meaningful, and that employees feel a sense of inclusivity and belonging.

In addition to these “big three” initiatives, companies will need to benchmark their offerings and regularly survey their employees in order to know what areas require focus.

Don’t fall behind

This is the most dynamic job market we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Americans are reassessing their priorities on a regular basis. Many want to slow down and be more present in daily life. They’re looking for a way to earn a living while enjoying free time, family, friends, and hobbies. Employees who sense a lack of flexibility or are unable to dedicate time to what matters to them suddenly have a lot of options. To keep them from dropping out, their employers must figure out how to offer flexibility in all types of jobs, even hourly shift positions – and fast!

While we await a final court decision regarding Biden’s vaccine mandate, employers are adding these pending requirements to the long list of people policy, process, and practice changes they have been buried in since March 2020.

Ms. Winans is the Chief Executive Officer and Principal HR Consultant for Next Level Benefits.

The post What the Biden vaccine mandate means for employers – and how to manage it appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

There are three areas of labor law that you need to pay attention to in terms of what’s changing with Biden’s labor agenda, each with important takeaways for you. They are as follows:

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
2. Contractor vs. full-time employee classification
3. Apprenticeships

1. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

In June 2021, President Biden signed a joint resolution regarding The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) conciliation process.

The resolution reverses the changes in the process promulgated by the Trump administration and returns the process to its original state. The Trump rule required the EEOC to provide employers with a written summary of their facts of the case, their legal theory supporting the claims of discrimination, the identity of the reporting party, and criteria used to establish a potential class of affected employees.

These stringent requirements would have removed the conciliation process from judicial review.

Biden’s resolution restores the requirements of Mach Mining vs. EEOC, which provides that the EEOC need supply only the allegations of employer wrongdoing and which group of employees suffered as a result. Limited judicial review, as enunciated in Mach Mining v. EEOC, is now back in the system.

Your takeaway as an employer

You as an employer should keep in mind that the overhauled conciliation process gives significant advantages to the EEOC. The EEOC will provide you with much less information, and you will no longer have the identity of the complaining party.

Read more about common mistakes employers make in responding to an EEOC complaint.

2. Contractors vs. full-time employees

Similarly, Biden is rescinding Trump’s changes to the independent contractor test. Independent contractors and freelancers, long utilized by companies for both their flexibility and lower hiring costs, pre-date the inception of 20th century labor laws.

Some background: as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA) established the rights of private sector employees to form unions and engage in collective bargaining with their employers to determine wages. Similarly, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) created minimum wage requirements and required time-and-a half pay above 40 hours a week for full-time employees.

But: independent contractors weren’t explicitly included in these protections, and the specifics of what entails an employer-employee relationship have been murky.

Throughout the 20th century, domestic staff, agricultural laborers, and other workers have advocated for equitable treatment. During the new millennium, the number of independent contractors increased rapidly, rising 22 percentage points from 2001 to 2019.

This dramatic spike brought government scrutiny to the employer misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The Obama DOL issued guidance intended to restrict employers’ ability to classify workers as independent contractors under the FLSA, prompting more than a dozen states to establish misclassification task forces.

At the end of his term, President Trump’s DOL adopted an altered independent contractor rule. Lauded as a pro-business reform, the test consisted of two primary and three secondary factors to be considered when classifying employees as independent contractors. The first two factors, the level of agency the individual has over his or her own work, and the opportunity for profit or loss due to their own personal investment, were adequate when they could be conclusively applied to the circumstance at hand.

If the first two factors were inadequate, the level of skill needed to perform the work, the duration/permanence of the work arrangement, and the role’s relationship to the overall business operation clarified whether the worker was an independent contractor. In a return to Obama-era policy, the rescinding of this five-factor test largely leaves states to determine independent contractor status.

It depends on the jurisdiction

Still, the definition of what constitutes an employer-employee relationship varies by state. States use either common law – which takes into account behavioral control, financial control, and the relationships of the parties – or utilize an ABC test, which is based on absence of control, usual business, and customary engagement.

Still, various lawsuits and reforms continue to alter the landscape. Notably, California’s Prop 22 allows Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and other gig economy companies to classify their workers as independent contractors, overturning an earlier court ruling that would have forced them to award more employee protections.

However, Minneapolis, Iowa, and New York have increased protections for independent contractors, with new laws requiring written contracts and avenues for redress of grievances.

Your takeaway as an employer

As the gig economy expands and evolves, you should note that the pros and cons of employing independent contractors largely varies by services rendered and duration of arrangement. It is important to remember that state-level legislators are increasingly scrutinizing the independent contractor designation.

3. Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships, seen as a feasible way for workers without college degrees to learn a skilled trade and obtain a well-paying job, are also receiving an overhaul under Biden’s comprehensive infrastructure plan.

Of note to employers, this part of Biden’s labor agenda includes a reversal of Trump’s Executive Order 13801, which allowed for the creation of more Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). IRAPs, developed or delivered by entities such as trade groups, corporations, non-profit organizations, offer work-based learning and culminate with the participant receiving a credential. These programs were lauded for both their flexibility, ability to adapt to changing market trends, and effectiveness in teaching industry-specific skills.

The Biden administration argues that IRAPs lack governmental oversight, are slow to implement wage progression, and fail to standardize training procedures. In response to these issues, Biden’s Department of Labor is allotting $130 million to the reinstatement of Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs), overseen by the National Advisory Committee on Apprenticeships.

The committee will consist of diverse stakeholders from a variety of industries, tasked with expanding apprenticeship programs into various sectors – namely clean energy, technology, and healthcare. The NACA is also spearheading efforts to ensure that women, immigrants, and other minorities have equal access to vocational programs.

Your takeaway as an employer

The bottom line for employers creating apprenticeships is this: with the shift from IRAPs to RAPs, federal policies and procedures will again take precedent over the company’s policies and preferences.

Biden’s labor agenda: pay attention

This much is clear – Biden’s economic decisions mark a dramatic change in course from the Trump agenda.

The overhaul of the EEOC conciliation process favors the rights of employees, allowing for limited disclosure of the complainant’s grievances to the company. Businesses once afforded a looser definition of independent contractors, in line with Trump’s five-factor test, are now under closer state and federal scrutiny to prevent misclassification.

In addition, state lawmakers and advocacy groups are pushing for independent contractors to receive the benefits afforded to private employees.

And finally, with the shift from industry-controlled IRAPs to federally supervised RAPs, companies must abide by tighter training, diversity, and wage requirements.

With Biden’s agenda putting labor rights front and center, companies such as yourself should be aware of heightened regulation and scrutiny when managing and building your employee base.

The post Biden’s labor agenda: what you need to know as an employer appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

As a UK-based employer looking to navigate the precarious immigration landscape post-Brexit, you’re likely wondering how to proceed and how to stay compliant in this new era. Namely: can you still recruit non-UK nationals from the EU? What happens to your current non-UK workforce? Can you keep them? What about international mobility – can your workforce continue moving back and forth? And so on?

To field those questions, we sat down with EU-based legal expert Stefan Nerinckx to get Brexit advice for employers such as yourself. Stefan is a partner and head of the HR Law Department at Fieldfisher Brussels, and a professor in employment law at University College Brussels. He’s been advising companies and individuals on international mobility, immigration, social security and employment law for more than 30 years.

Stefan spoke with us for a full hour. You can watch the full video here, or scroll down through the four major sections below, with each sub-section jumping to the relevant part of the video:

1. Introduction
2. Immigration
3. Social security
4. Employment law

Download the full presentation deck here

1. Introduction: Brexit advice for employers

In this section, which is about 3 minutes long, you’ll learn about:

• Stefan’s related background and what he brings to the table
• What is Brexit?
• The Brexit timeline
• What’s going on now
• The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and its impact

2. Brexit and immigration

In this section, which is about 10 minutes long, you’ll learn about:

• The unique situations facing UK and EU citizens leading up to 31 December 2020 and after 1 January 2021 (including important deadlines to know)
  • Right to reside and work in the EU
  • Right to reside and work in the UK
• The Trade and Cooperation Agreement Impact
  • Specific legislations and definitions for business trips
  • Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) permit (and related residence/visa considerations)

3. Brexit and EU social security

In this section, which is about 13 minutes long, you’ll learn about:

• Brexit and EU social security coordination:
  • Pre-Brexit, up to 31 December 2020, and new situation commencing as of 1 January 2021
• Situation present before 1 January 2021
  • EU Regulations determine the applicable social security scheme and benefits – 883/2004 and 987/2009
  • Cross-border employment situation involving EU and UK
• Situation commencing 1 January 2021
  • New cross-border employment situation involving EU and UK or interruption of an existing situation on 31 December 2020
  • Similar rules to EU Regulation 883/2004 and 987/2009 on the coordination of social security schemes, but important differences to know
  • New:
    • Posting of employees from EU to UK and vice versa is limited to 24 months (no general exception rule in the TCA)
    • Social security benefits (entitlement and export) and aggregation of insurance periods (i.e. healthcare, unemployment, pensions, etc.)
• Tips for HR:
  • Assess whether the situation started prior to or after 1 January 2021 and whether it is interrupted
  • Get your A1 or E101 applied for and by the hand
  • Sort out the social security coverage entitlement for your employee

4. Brexit and employment law

In this section, which is about 13 minutes long, you’ll learn about:

• Trade and Cooperation Agreement
  • The fate of current EU laws after 31 December 2020
    • Impact on labour law
    • EU legislation implemented by the UK is unilaterally modifiable by the UK
  • The fate of new EU laws after 31 December 2020
    • Will not be implemented in the UK
• Employment law within the UK as of 1 January 2021
  • Changes in some areas protected by EU laws may be expected – that would be less protective for workers
    • Transfer of undertaking (dismissal protection, harmonization of employment conditions might be challenged)
    • Working time (maximum 48-hour work week)
    • Interim workers’ protection
• Impact of Brexit on cross-border mobility
  • Rules of Rome I Regulation 593/2008 – determining the legislation applicable to an employment contract with international elements; the UK will continue to follow the principles but for how long?
  • Example scenarios and impact

We hope this Brexit advice for employers has been helpful. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to ask us at content@workable.com, with “Brexit” in the subject heading. We’ll see if we can get them answered for you!

The post Brexit advice for employers from a legal expert appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The voice in our survey data is clear – there is considerable support for DEI initiatives both at a personal level and at an organizational level. We have a destination in mind – but we just don’t know how to progress in DEI-focused areas in the same way that other business operations are carried out.

In this chapter, we address the following questions:

• What are the top takeaways from Workable’s DEI survey results?
• Which DEI initiatives are top priority, and which ones are not?
• What’s the difference between diversity, equity and inclusion?
• How do you build a DEI action plan?

Your DEI action plan

Including a DEI action plan as part of a company’s overarching vision, mission, and values is fairly straightforward in abstract terms, but it gets murkier when you get down to the granular details that are so critical to all areas of business: Who should own that strategy? How should they carry it out? What are the DEI action items? What are the target metrics? How do you measure those metrics? And so on.

That lack of deeper understanding of DEI actionable steps – and the lack of a clear road map, even – is confirmed by significant numbers of respondents saying that they don’t yet have a plan in place or don’t know how to proceed, and even larger numbers saying that establishing a sustainable, long-term DEI action plan and strategy is a leading challenge.

Also, our survey found that diversity and demographics are a clear area of focus for many respondents. Equity and inclusion aren’t as highly prioritized. We also noted the higher percentage of respondents who say there are no plans in place for affinity networks and mentorship programs as action items. We also recognized the lower scores placed on inclusive teams, inclusive leadership, and inclusive benefits and perks as areas of focus in DEI initiatives.

We also saw that some segments in the dataset feel more strongly than others about DEI progress – as indicated in the answers for male vs. female and minority vs. non-minority categories. Perhaps personal experience is a factor in their answers. Perhaps some segments do not feel as included as others think they are.

“From my understanding in my workplace and some of my peers in other organizations, DEI only became a priority after the current events in the media. Previously, there have been a handful of executives all over the media that have been removed for not being compliant with DEI standards […]. But it was not until the more recent events that every company now has some kind of DEI in place. Overall, as a minority, I felt like it should have been addressed a long time ago and now it feels disingenuous, just a reflex to what is happening across the United States.”

Finally, a fifth of respondents say their company only started considering DEI in 2020. It’s uncharted territory for many, and it may be that the surge in interest means a much steeper learning curve in building a thoughtful, sustainable, long-lasting strategy around DEI. Perhaps the spirit of English business mogul Richard Branson’s quote applies here: “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later.”

“As important as DEI is to organizations, most are just giving lip service to it. It’s the cool thing to say currently and it’s certainly more acceptable than it was 18 months ago. Companies are still under the illusion that it’s a position for White women or a position that pacifies people of color, and so they’ll put a powerless person in as a figurehead. This survey proves a bit of what I’m saying with all of the softball questions.”

Our own lesson is that we must understand diversity, equity and inclusion as three separate elements of the bigger DEI picture, and that we should establish specific metrics and action items for each, while understanding that there will be many overlaps between them:

Diversity

Diversity is tangible and measurable – X% of your company’s workforce is A, while Y% of your workforce is B, Z% of your workforce is C, and so on, based on protected characteristics as well as other areas including class, academic history, etc. This is relatively easy to identify and track through company audits, recruitment strategies, and candidate / employee surveys.

Equity

At its most basic level, equity is also measurable in a DEI action plan in terms of salary, advancement, benefits and perks, and so on. However, when we start looking at individual contribution, distribution of responsibilities, assignment and ownership of tasks, and treatment of colleagues, that becomes a little harder to concretize and track – but not impossible. One can establish action items here such as targeted development and mentorship, management training, a more diverse and self-aware leadership, and operation audits.

Inclusion

Unlike diversity and equity, inclusion is more abstract than concrete. It’s the sense of belonging, value, support, and respect that one feels in society and in a company – and that’s largely impacted by individual behavior and collective company culture. While difficult to tangibly measure beyond employee surveys, inclusion can be augmented through inclusive leadership, psychologically safe work environments, affinity networks, sensitivity and management training sessions, company language audits, and other items in a DEI action plan.

The explosion in DEI as a topic of interest in 2020 has resulted in a vastly publicized wealth of actionable lessons from experts and influencers in the space that we can and should start working on right now to truly define DEI in tangible business terms. This means thinking about your company mission, vision, values, and positioning statement, followed by identifying areas of priority and defining data points to monitor progress, and finally, implementing clear action items to hit those goals.

The commitment is clear. The information is readily available. There is work to be done – and it involves every one of us. Real, tangible action speaks louder than words and statements, and your employer brand may depend on it. With time and business smarts, and a well-thought-out DEI action plan, we’ll all get there.

“I believe [2020] will be pivotal in future talent attraction success. Companies will be challenged by candidates with the question; ‘How did your company change after the [Black Lives Matter] Movement in 2020?’ and they better be ready with a game-changing answer! Similar questions are to be expected around LGBT, the #MeToo movement and how we treated parents during COVID who had to deal with juggling lockdown, WFH, and childcare.”

The post Time for a DEI action plan: We’ll help you get there appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In this chapter, we address the following questions:

• How many companies have initiatives in place for a DEI recruitment strategy?
• What are the most popular measurable data points in DEI recruitment?
• What are the top action items in DEI recruitment?

Do you have a DEI recruitment strategy?

Across the board, 56.1% say yes, they do have initiatives related to DEI in recruiting and hiring, while an additional 23.9% say they didn’t have initiatives yet, but plan on it.

When breaking down the numbers by industry, we found that 28.7% of those in IT / Technology / SaaS are more likely than average to not have hiring-specific DEI initiatives but plan on it, while those in HR / Recruiting (67.7%) and Consulting / Business Services (66.1%) are more likely than average to have a DEI recruitment strategy in place.

The numbers also differed starkly by company size and geographic area. Those in the 500-999 FTE (71.2%) and 5000+ FTE (62.5%) buckets stated that they have initiatives in place, while multinational companies are far less likely than overall to not have DEI initiatives in their hiring and recruiting (15.4% versus 20% overall).

Measurable data points

When asked about top measurable data points for measuring progress in their DEI recruitment strategy specifically, the top data points were all based on demographics, with demographics in final pool of candidates / actual hires (46.6%), demographics in existing workforce (43.8%) and demographics of applicants beyond compliance (43%) highlighted.

Demographics in hiring teams is further down the list at 24.8%, while feedback from employees (31.9%) and candidates (12.2%) is also not as highly rated.

Again, the numbers differ starkly by industry. Those in Accounting / Finance are more likely to look at demographics of applicants (56.7% compared with 43% overall), while those in Manufacturing are much less likely (30%) to prioritize that as a metric. Strikingly, those in Manufacturing (40%) highlighted demographics in hiring teams as much more of a priority than overall (24.8%) in a DEI recruitment strategy.

Action items

When it came to identifying action items supporting DEI initiatives in recruiting and hiring and when those were implemented, benefits / perks / policies led the way in already-established items before 2020 with 66.8% of respondents checking that box. Training for hiring teams was a leader in action items planned for future (17.1%).

“It’s [about] sourcing out of my network to ensure it’s diverse. We are a seed company and don’t have a HR team that can recruit.”

Leading the way in terms of “no plans for this item” are AI-driven shortlisting (56.6%), talent market segmentation (43.9), and blind evaluation (41.7%).

2020 saw a significant paradigm shift towards remote work as a result of COVID-19 as found in our New World of Work report published in August 2020, and that was evident in a very specific area: remote hiring. Perhaps concurrently, two out of five respondents (39.7%) in our DEI survey cite remote hiring to broaden their talent pool as an action item that had been introduced in 2020.

Promoting a DEI company culture (28.4%), training for hiring teams (24.8%), and diverse hiring teams (24.2%) are other popular action items introduced during the course of 2020.

However, when breaking those numbers down by industry, the numbers differ from the overall baseline. Those in Accounting / Finance are more likely to have already established action items in place before 2020 on average (55.1% vs. 43.3 overall), whereas those in IT / Technology / SaaS are more likely to have no plans for specific items on average (26.9% vs 23.3% overall).

 “I think putting a number on it, a percentage, or offering ‘perks’, is the wrong way to look at it. People should be treated equally yet completely differently at the same time. I believe people should be treated with respect and as equals and, as far as recruitment goes, the person best equipped for the job should be successful.”

Again, those in Manufacturing have very different priorities than others in their DEI recruitment strategy: 24.1% introduced blind evaluation in 2020 compared with 13.4% overall, and 27.6% plan to have more diverse job sites going forward compared with 13.9% overall. They are also much less likely than the overall to pick AI-driven shortlisting (34.5% vs. 56.6% overall) and talent market segmentation (36.7% vs. 43.9% overall) as non-action items.

At the other end of the spectrum of non-action items, IT / Technology / SaaS are much more likely to have no plans for AI-driven shortlisting (67.2% vs. 56.6%) and affirmative action (43.2% vs. 32.6% overall).

We hope you find our survey results on DEI at work to be helpful to you both professionally and personally. Any thoughts or questions, please feel free to share them with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, or direct email (with “DEI report” in the subject heading). We want to hear from you!

Check out the other excerpts from our survey report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

1. DEI at work: It’s time to take a deep dive
2. What does DEI mean for you and your business?
3. Is there meaningful progress in DEI? Depends on who you ask
4. DEI leadership – and who’s actually doing the work?
5. Your DEI strategic plan: The road is fraught with hurdles
6. What are your top DEI initiatives for the workplace?
8. Time for a DEI action plan: We’ll help you get there

The post Your DEI recruitment strategy: What are your action items? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Stating intent and amplifying the importance of DEI initiatives in the workplace is significant in itself, but a common refrain is that it’s not enough. Talking the talk is easy enough, but people want to see action and results.

That means in order for an organization to see progress in a DEI strategy, there needs to be clearly defined and attainable goals, and tangible action items to reach those goals. That’s the nature of running a business. So, in our survey, we wanted to learn what DEI initiatives, goals and action items you can tangibly pursue to succeed in your DEI strategy at work.

In this chapter, we address the following questions:

• What are the top areas of priority in a DEI strategy?
• What are the most popular measurable data points in DEI?
• What are the top action items in DEI?
• Which industries struggle with the “know-how” in DEI initiatives?

Areas of priority

When it comes to areas of priority in a company’s DEI strategy – which can help a company define measurable targets – two thirds of respondents (64.8%) highlighted diversity throughout the entire company as an area of priority in its DEI initiatives, followed by equity in opportunity, contribution and advancement at 45.3%. One quarter (25%) of respondents listed diversity at the executive / management level as a priority.

In terms of inclusion, inclusive teams is the third-most popular area of priority at 26.4%, while inclusive leadership (16.8%) and inclusive benefits / perks / policies (12.4%) are further down the list of areas of priority in DEI strategy. Just 6.4% cite having an inclusive product or service as a priority DEI initiative.

“[It’s about] creating a company culture that provides an equitable work experience for everyone including employees in minority groups.”

Measurable data points

When respondents were asked about measurable data points used to track progress in DEI initiatives at work, demographics throughout an entire company (53.4%) far outranked demographics at the executive / management level (23.6%) as leading metrics.

Adding to the earlier point that the prioritization of DEI is democratically driven, 34.7% of respondents cited employee feedback as a leading data point to measure progress towards DEI goals.

Action items

To ensure progress, it’s essential to have clearly defined areas of priority and measurable data points when executing on DEi initiatives in the workplace. So we asked about the actual action items in our survey respondents’ DEI strategy, and when they started to apply them.

First, 61.6% of respondents say having DEI-friendly benefits / perks / policies – i.e. flexible working hours – was already established prior to 2020, and 51.5% of respondents say sourcing and recruiting more diverse candidates was an existing practice in their company before 2020.

“Moving forward, we will adopt more company-wide data that, when separated by minority groups, show declining or ideally no statistical difference amongst groups to measure our progress.”

The most popular action items introduced during 2020 are training sessions (25.7%) and sourcing and recruiting more diverse candidates (25.5%). Mentorship programs and targeted development are most likely to be planned in the future (21%). Affinity networks (33%), company audits (29%), and mentorship programs / targeted development (28.8%) are top choices by respondents as having no plans in place for those items.

By industry, we found that those in Accounting / Finance had the most action items in place prior to 2020 on average (53.5% compared with 43.4% overall), with those in Manufacturing most likely to not have plans for each action item on average (29.7% compared with 21.5% overall).

But there’s a lack of real ‘know how’

Despite all of this, what really stands out is an overall need to learn more about how to build a strategy with tangible DEI initiatives at work and putting those in action.

As stated above, nearly a fifth of respondents say that they are interested but either don’t know where to start or hadn’t started yet (17.6% combined). Combine that with the two out of five respondents (39.1%) who cite “creating a sustainable strategy that lasts over time” as a major challenge in their DEI strategy (leading all other challenges, including talent and buy-in), and it is clear that lack of “know how” is a significant hurdle in pursuing DEI initiatives.

When we broke down the state of DEI by industry, we found that those in Manufacturing are significantly more likely to be interested in DEI but don’t know where to start (22.4% versus 9.1% of all answers).

In short, our respondents say that they’re ready and willing, especially in making diversity, equity and inclusion a permanent, sustainable business strategy – but they also indicate that a playbook or road map would be helpful in building a playbook loaded with actionable, results-driven DEI initiatives.

We hope you find our survey results on DEI at work to be helpful to you both professionally and personally. Any thoughts or questions, please feel free to share them with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, or direct email (with “DEI report” in the subject heading). We want to hear from you!

Check out the other excerpts from our survey report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

1. DEI at work: It’s time to take a deep dive
2. What does DEI mean for you and your business?
3. Is there meaningful progress in DEI? Depends on who you ask
4. DEI leadership – and who’s actually doing the work?
5. Your DEI strategic plan: The road is fraught with hurdles
7. Your DEI recruitment strategy: What are your action items?
8. Time for a DEI action plan: We’ll help you get there

The post What are your top DEI initiatives for the workplace? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We determined in the previous chapter that there are disconnects in terms of who should actually be in charge of your company’s DEI strategic plan. Some say it should be the executive leadership. Others say it should be HR. Others, still, say it should be everyone.

That’s fine. Responsibility and accountability can be a complicated thing, even in a smoothly operating business. Let’s say you do have someone in charge of executing on your DEI strategic plan – even then, our data finds some pretty clear challenges that make it difficult to attain results in your DEI strategic plan.

In this chapter, we address the following questions:

• What are the major obstacles to meeting DEI targets?
• What are the top challenges to a DEI strategic plan in recruiting and hiring?

Buy-in is a challenge

While the number of respondents saying that a DEI strategy is not a priority in their company is relatively small (just 11% overall), we did ask them why it isn’t a priority. The vast majority say there is no interest or buy-in from the executive level (45.3%) or from anyone in general (41.9%).

We also found that those who identify as female are much more likely to say lack of interest from executives (60.5%) was a reason for non-prioritization of a DEI strategic plan in their company, compared with those who identify as male (39.5%).

Again, there’s a major discrepancy here. Is it due to a correlation with a greater proportion of employee-level respondents identifying as female? Or is it due to underrepresentation of females in executive / senior-level / managerial positions?

Or is it because when DEI is emphasized as a topic by a respondent, there’s more resistance to someone who identifies as female? There are numerous potential variables here that deserve to be explored in greater depth.

Diversity is limited to available talent

Diversifying one’s workforce often starts with sourcing, recruiting and hiring more diverse talent – and that is cited as a significant hurdle in a company’s DEI strategy. Respondents say that the available talent pool in their industry (37.1%) and their location (25.7%) are major challenges in attaining stated DEI targets.

“I’ve never seen any minority or female candidates denied or taken less seriously, but the simple fact is that there just aren’t as many female, Black, and Hispanic CS [computer science] grads as there are male, white, Indian, and east Asian CS grads.”

While diversification efforts are limited to talent availability across the board according to our respondents, Manufacturing led other industries here. For those in Manufacturing, the available talent pool in their industry (48.3%) and in their location (34.5%) are cited as major challenges in a DEI strategic plan when recruiting and hiring.

One explanation might be that the manufacturing sector appeals to a specific demographic of the population that isn’t as diverse as the status quo. Perhaps it’s a more male-dominated sector for a variety of reasons – traditionally assumed physical labor requirements, for instance. An explanation for location-based challenges is that manufacturing may involve more physically present work than other sectors – and thus limiting the option to hire remotely to broaden one’s available talent pool.

The ability to operate remotely with distributed teams deserves attention here. Two out of five respondents (39.7%) did say that hiring remotely is a DEI initiative introduced in 2020 – which coincides with the significant shift to remote work in 2020 as a result of COVID-19.

Overall, the limitations are clear. To actively pursue a DEI strategic plan, you need people on board, both in opinion and in availability.

“As a White woman working on a team with 90% men, most of whom are White or non-Black, DEI is an extremely important initiative that needs to be nurtured and facilitated actively. From a hiring perspective, it can be difficult to make progress on DEI efforts when the talent pool largely consists of non-Black & White males. We do make an effort to seek out individuals who would diversify the workplace as this is something we value greatly, however the hiring decision normally comes down to talent, experience, and fit.”

We hope you find our survey results on DEI at work to be helpful to you both professionally and personally. Any thoughts or questions, please feel free to share them with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, or direct email (with “DEI report” in the subject heading). We want to hear from you!

Check out the other excerpts from our survey report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

1. DEI at work: It’s time to take a deep dive
2. What does DEI mean for you and your business?
3. Is there meaningful progress in DEI? Depends on who you ask
4. DEI leadership – and who’s actually doing the work?
6. What are your top DEI initiatives for the workplace?
7. Your DEI recruitment strategy: What are your action items?
8. Time for a DEI action plan: We’ll help you get there

The post Your DEI strategic plan: The road is fraught with hurdles appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Business logic suggests that progress in DEI is dependent on proactively building and executing on a sound DEI strategy. So, we wanted to learn which industries put priority on DEI and which of those industries weren’t able to simply because they didn’t know how to proceed with such a strategy.

In this chapter, we address the following questions:

• Are companies making meaningful progress in DEI?
• Who thinks there is meaningful progress in DEI, and who doesn’t?
• Which industries put higher priority on DEI in business, and which ones don’t?
• Which industries want to progress in DEI, but just don’t know how?

Is there meaningful progress in DEI?

When we asked respondents if they feel their company is making meaningful progress in DEI – a clear majority (73.4%) answered “Yes”.

However, again, there are significant differences when breaking down the respondents across specific demographics. First, 71.4% of females think their company is making meaningful progress, compared with 77% of males who feel the same way.

The dataset also finds 71.1% of those who identify as a minority in both their work and home communities think their company is making meaningful progress in DEI, compared with 74.6% of those who didn’t identify as a minority.

We also identified differences in answers when breaking responses down by industry. Those in Accounting / Finance are much more likely to answer “Yes” with 85.2% seeing progress in DEI, while those in Business / Consulting Services (67.9%) and HR / Recruiting (67.7%) are less likely to answer “Yes” than overall.

Different companies, different priorities

While it’s generally agreed that DEI is the right thing to do, that people are the drivers behind that sentiment, and that progress is being made to some degree, the level of prioritization differs especially across industries or company sizes.

For instance, those in IT / Technology / SaaS are the most likely of the seven industries with a significant sample size to say that “DEI is not a priority for my company” (13.3% versus 11% overall). Those in Education, albeit a much smaller sample size, are the only ones with a higher percentage to not consider DEI a priority in their company, at 15.2%.

Those in Manufacturing are much more likely (22.4%) to report that they are interested in DEI, but don’t know where to start – more than double the percentage of any other sector.

When breaking the numbers down by company size, the disparity between numbers is more striking. Nearly one quarter (23.5%) of those in companies with more than 5,000 full-time employees say DEI is not a priority in their company, while nearly half (47.2%) of those with 1-9 full-time employees report that DEI is a permanent part of their mission / vision / values.

This doesn’t necessarily suggest that enterprise-level companies are less interested – perhaps it’s that the approval process for new initiatives takes longer or is more convoluted in a larger organization, while smaller companies are more nimble in making new decisions.

It’s also noteworthy that exactly one-fifth (20%) of those in companies of 5,000 or more FTEs report that they didn’t know what the current state of DEI is in their company, while 22.6% of those in the 1-9 FTE bracket answered the same.

“[We’re] currently in a state of exploration. We’re investors with a global portfolio, so [we’re] looking at DEI both internally and […] what it means for the companies we’ve invested in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.“

Local and regional companies (28.1% combined) are more likely to report DEI as not being a priority than their national and multinational counterparts (18.1% combined).

We hope you find our survey results on DEI at work to be helpful to you both professionally and personally. Any thoughts or questions, please feel free to share them with us via Twitter, LinkedIn, or direct email (with “DEI report” in the subject heading). We want to hear from you!

Check out the other excerpts from our survey report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

1. DEI at work: It’s time to take a deep dive
2. What does DEI mean for you and your business?
4. DEI leadership – and who’s actually doing the work?
5. Your DEI strategic plan: The road is fraught with hurdles
6. What are your top DEI initiatives for the workplace?
7. Your DEI recruitment strategy: What are your action items?
8. Time for a DEI action plan: We’ll help you get there

The post Is there meaningful progress in DEI right now? Depends on who you ask appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Join our expert, Stefan Nerinckx, Partner, Head HR-law department Fieldfisher Brussels & Professor, Employment Law University College Brussels, for Part 1 and 2 of “Breaking down Brexit”.

Part 1 was recorded in Dec 2020 before the Brexit split took full effect. Watch Part 2 below for a brief recap of Part 1 and a current update.

The post Breaking down Brexit appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In 2020, talent teams were looking for ways to diversify their sourcing channels and methods. With AI Recruiter, we helped customers immediately source 50 passive candidates from outside their existing network for every job.

Many companies faced unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 crisis. Unfortunately, with the pandemic came layoffs and furloughs at many companies. For customers trying to help former employees find a new job, we built Bridge, a tool that connects former employees with employers actively looking for candidates. 

The move to remote work made it harder for candidates to get a feel for company culture, meaning employer branding and careers pages became increasingly important in showcasing your company. With Branded Careers Pages, we help you put your best brand forward: flexible templates and customizable sections are included right in the Workable platform. 

As remote work opportunities increased, companies continued to attract talent globally. With language options, we made it easy for you to localize the entire candidate experience in the languages of your choice, available in English, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

Many HR leaders looked to advance diversity, equity and inclusion as their organizations continued to navigate the new world of work. To address customer requests and needs, Workable released anonymized screening: the ability to anonymize your screening process by hiding details like candidate name, background, and gender. Anonymizing this data in applications can help companies decrease inherent bias and increase inclusivity in their hiring practices.

To help customers connect with candidates more easily, we introduced two premium features: Video Interviews and Texting. Video Interviews streamlines remote screening efforts, helping candidates record responses to interview questions at their convenience. Personalize the experience with a welcome video or pre-record videos with prompts. It’s a flexible process proven to help you screen more candidates, faster. Texting encourages recruiters to message candidates directly from the Workable platform or app and track responses in real time on the candidate timeline, just like with email.

With updates to our hiring plan, you now have the ability to filter by hiring manager, requisition owner and status for more granular reporting. To make company growth simple, we introduced Department Hierarchy. Department Hierarchy offers centralized department management with hierarchical structure, meaning as your company grows, your hiring structure does too. 

Speed up executive sign-off and get candidate signatures faster with updated offer letter templates, approval workflows, e-signatures and more, right within the platform. We take compliance very seriously and make it easy for your teams to stay compliant, adding CCPA to our existing suite of EEO/OFFCP and GDPR features. 

What’s coming in 2021

We’re building out our product roadmap based on customer feedback, market research, and our overall product vision. With that in mind, we wanted to give a sneak peek at what’s to come in 2021.

We will continue our focus on DEI with the release of a native Assessments feature and customizable surveys for candidate experience and diversity metrics. We’ll introduce automation to current communications, meaning you’ll be able to automate emails and text messages based on hiring stages. We’re bringing a slew of enhancements to our current candidate database, and we’ll focus on developing a number of additional features based on your feedback. We’re thrilled for what’s coming in 2021 to Workable, and we hope you are too.

Questions? Don’t hesitate to contact us. 

The post 11 efficiency-boosting releases from Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Get all the right data, skip all of the manual admin.

This new automation will eliminate manual admin and avoid costly data errors, freeing up valuable time and resources to focus on other pertinent tasks in your work without worry. Eight fields can be automatically transferred from Workable to ADP, including: First & Last Name, Email, Phone Number, Start Date and more.

Get started, quickly

Like everything with Workable, getting started only takes a few clicks. To get started, simply:

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This call to action can and does trickle down to you in HR. The impact in the workplace is multifold. Office spaces are a hotbed for contamination – whether it’s due to sealed ventilation systems, open-office environments, employees going on work trips and coming into contact with others on a regular basis, and so on.

But guess what? Not everyone realizes this. “While 62.6% of office workers are concerned about COVID-19, it’s also interesting to see that only 41% feel their office will be a hotbed of infection,” says Gabrielle Ayala, principal of Propeller Insights.

However, it’s an inevitability: as the coronavirus crisis continues to grow, your colleagues in your organization – and even your CEO – will be turning to you for direction and support.

This is your time to step up and show that you’ve got this. You need to take leadership in HR and implement a quick coronavirus HR response. It’s also essential to your company’s overall health.

“Perhaps [office worker] awareness and sensitivity to this public health concern will drive proactive measures to keep the virus from entering their work environment,” Ayala continues. “More than 50% say they believe the COVID-19 outbreak will lead to more companies adopting a virtual office environment and are also in favor of using preventative measures [such as face masks], at the office.”

To help you with coronavirus HR response planning, we’ve pulled together the key takeaways on what you need to know and how you can act to build out your own response in your workplace.

1. Stay compliant

First of all, compliance is key. Sure, you’re fine if you address this as a company looking to take care of employees, but as Katie Clarey warns in HR Dive, businesses need to take careful steps to avoid the slippery slope to discrimination. It’s commonly understood that the virus originated in Wuhan, China, and that can lead to dangerous assumptions about people of Chinese origin – a clear rights violation.

Better to be safe in your communications and language, and address actions rather than people – for instance, you can say: if you’ve been to China in the last XX days, then we recommend working from home for a specified number of days as a precaution.

If you’re not sure what to implement, you can look at two federal laws that protect workers in the US: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The key is to not overreact as that could become a compliance issue.

2. Scale your response

Cathy Reisenwitz, head of content at Clockwise, a San Francisco-based calendar SaaS company, told us about three scenarios that their CEO Matt Martin presented during an all-hands meeting:

Level 1: Where we are now

• Wash hands
• Stay home if feeling “off”
• No international travel, etc.

Level 2: If the virus hits around 1,000 people in the area

• No more office visitors
• Cut down on travel to breakout areas
• Plan commutes to outside rush hour, etc.

Level 3: If the virus hits around 5,000 people in the area

• Mandatory work from home across company, etc.

Cryptocurrency trading website Coinbase has publicly released their communications outreach, including a clearly set-out plan for actions in response to specified triggers and benchmarks (at the bottom of the document). Its strategy is similar to that of Clockwise, plus restrictions on meal delivery and contingency plans for managers and teams.

It’s a good idea to outline all this in one place so everyone has the same information and they know what to expect in the short and long term. Having a scaled response plan in place also avoids having to bring out all the stops at once – which could induce unneeded panic in your workforce.

3. Adapt WFH and sick policies

The option to work from home is a common perk offered by businesses. This option can be an especially pertinent tool now. If you don’t yet have a WFH policy, you might want to build one out. Colleagues can also be reminded of the company’s sick-day policy – and especially, the option to work from home if you’re feeling OK to work but not quite well enough to come into the office.

Twitter and Square – among many others – are doing it already. A widely circulated memo from Microsoft has set down clear guidelines for working from home along with other essential information:

David Reischer, CEO of the legal advisory website Legaladvice.com in New York City, is encouraging some of his sales teams to start working from home as a precautionary measure, acknowledging the inevitable spread of COVID-19 in NYC’s large and very transient population.

“We would rather our workers start thinking about the idea of working from home now so that they can transition before the eventuality of the coronavirus arrives,” David told us.

“I think we will be ready when coronavirus becomes more widespread in NYC because of our early preparations.“

Andrew Discolli, HR editor of career service The Corporate Con/noisseur, emphasized loosening up existing WFH policy:

“I would recommend that all employers institute levels of flexibility across their workforce. This means allowing employees to work from home or utilize sick days as needed and in a manner that will maintain the health and level headedness of all staff.”

Simon Hansen, founder of a website dedicated to home brewing and winemaking called Homebrew Advice, adjusted the required hours put in by his colleagues:

“We now have lesser work hours in order to make sure that everyone gets the right amount of rest in order to recharge and strengthen our immune systems.”

Even country governments have stepped in to advise work from home. Authorities in Japan have advised companies to allow working from home to stem the spread of the virus, normally taboo in this notoriously work-conservative culture. Japan has already shut down their schools, followed by Italy, and WFH flexibility will be helpful to parents who have no other option but to stay home with their children.

Meanwhile, HR expert Suzanne Lucas advises taking a good look at your sick leave policy, because an overly regimented system can actually contribute to the outbreak rather than help contain it. She suggests opening up the allowed number of sick days, allowing for greater flexibility, and dumping the “doctor’s note” requirement.

4. Reduce or eliminate travel

A Reservations.com survey found that 43% of those surveyed would definitely cancel an international business trip, and 63% would “probably, very probably, or definitely would cancel” any business trip whether domestic or abroad.

Many employees travel – be it to sales pitches, meetings, other offices, conferences, what have you. Right now, with the emphasis on cutting back on travel, there’s likely to be understandable anxiety around business-trip planning within your workforce. Make it easy on your employees. Don’t put them in the difficult position of having to make that decision for themselves. Put in a clear policy with clear black-and-white decision-making protocols and stick to it.

The same can apply to personal travel either by the colleague in question or someone in their immediate family. The above survey finds that 66% say they’re not likely to cancel a vacation – which heightens the importance of clear policy.

Many companies are doing it. Take it to the next level by outlining clear scenarios, such as the following, to help your colleagues decide:

Scenario 1: I went to Lombardy for work on February 17.
Scenario 2: I’m planning a trip to China in mid-March. It’s for a sale that will be huge for our company.
Scenario 3: My spouse is coming back from a trip to Singapore.
Scenario 4: I booked a trip to visit my family in Tokyo in March. This was months in the planning.

A potential answer to any of these scenarios could be: “Contact your manager and be prepared to work from home for two full weeks on return. No entry to our offices or meeting with colleagues in person until after that.” You’ll also want to include information about absolutely necessary travel tips that apply regardless of whether the trip is for business or pleasure.

Andrew at the Corporate Con/noisseur has adjusted travel policy in his own company: “Unless approved by senior management, all non-essential travel to any location is currently on pause.”

And what if your company’s survival depends on travel? Lauren McAdams, HR manager and recruiter at ResumeCompanion attested to that:

“Our office has a number of employees who regularly travel to China and Taiwan for business trips. While most of these employees haven’t been abroad in the past 15 days, we still want to be as safe as possible. As a result, we’ve requested that anyone who’s recently flown abroad work from home for the following week while they self quarantine.”

5. Enable your employees

Many colleagues – and people in general – will be frustrated with their existing health support system wherever they are. For example, this recent Twitter stream from a physical therapist in Seattle who exhibits all the symptoms of COVID-19 – as of March 5, it was retweeted more than 120,000 times. As she tells it, she’s had to navigate the frustrating bureaucracy of the US healthcare system to not much avail.

You can enable your employees with clear and empathetic messaging on WFH and sick leave (as in #3 above) and allowing for greater flexibility in options and better enable them to seek out healthcare in a situation such as mentioned above. It will go a long way in showing your employees that you care about them.

6. Equip your employees

“The unknown is so much more frightening than the known,” says Canadian medical historian Heather MacDougall in the National Post on the heightened worldwide response to the crisis.

Nothing quells fears better than information. Educate your workforce on what they specifically can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to themselves or others, and you’ll assuage much of the potential panic. It helps to know that this is not an entirely uncontrollable situation.

For instance, encourage vigorous washing of hands. Buy hand sanitizer for every desk. Have a handful of thermometers at the ready (but being sure they’re not shared once used). Share updated information in regular memos via email, online chat channels, and notices posted in prominent locations online and around the office (e.g. the aforementioned Coinbase document).

Atilio Spaccarotella, CEO of travel insurance firm Rene Health in California, told us that at Rene, “we are following the WHO’s guidelines of practicing good respiratory hygiene, like sneezing or coughing into a flexed elbow [the ‘Dracula cough’] and washing your hands regularly with either alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water.”

7. Keep your office (even) cleaner

Adam Povlitz, president and CEO of commercial office cleaning service Anago Cleaning Systems offered some best practices on maintaining a clean office space, citing his company’s focus on healthy workspaces around the world – which will help you in your own office sanitation initiatives (as well as those of your employees):

• Read the label of your cleaning supplies so you know what’s in them.
• Check the websites – many cleaning supply companies are updating their sites with information specific to COVID-19.
• Know your cleaning supplies – hydrogen peroxide with a dilution ratio of 7% or more will kill the virus. Most household cleaners are 3%, so you’ll need commercial-grade materials.
• Disinfect and wait. All disinfectants take time to take effect, i.e. left on the surface for a period of time. Spraying and wiping will have no effect. And do not use bleach.
• Time parameters also apply to:
  • Washing hands: 20 seconds or more using soap and water.
  • Alcohol-based hand sanitizer: rub solution in for 30 seconds and even up to 2 minutes to be effective.

You’ll especially want to maintain high sanitation in a sealed office space or an open-office environment or, obviously, both. “Open office spaces are among the worst for COVID-19, particularly if they are sealed office spaces without open ventilation and the air is just recirculated within the building,” says E Hanh Le, M.D., senior director of medical affairs at Healthline.

People are understandably nervous about this – a Bospar survey finds that 50.6% of Americans are worried because they work in an open office.

8. Educate yourself

The aforementioned Bospar survey finds: “A majority of Americans (52%) say the media is overhyping the coronavirus and 60.9% believe the media can help ease fears about the coronavirus by educating members of the public about how they could fight the spread of the disease.”

Andrew at the Corporate Con/noisseur says as much:

“Day-to-day, there appears to be a level of confusion and fear throughout our offices. Our primary concern and focus is on the health and well-being of our employees.“

Since you’re in HR, many people in your company will be turning to you for advice and answers. What you can do to help them is brush up on your real knowledge of the virus, how it spreads, where it’s spreading to, and so on. That way you can sift through the online noise and know what’s real and what’s just hype.

Some pages to get you started:

• US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Coronavirus
• World Health Organization Q&A
• World Health Organization public advice
• World Health Organization Coronavirus homepage

9. Tech is your friend

Companies worldwide are understandably nervous about impact on the bottom line in a shutdown scenario. But technology can help you do business as usual – it can continue in a virtual environment.

Computer viruses notwithstanding, it’s impossible to contract sickness via the Internet – so meetings and presentations can still happen via video tools such as Google Hangouts or Microsoft Zoom. Communications can take place via online chat channels and email. Legally sensitive documents can be, at the very minimum, faxed (yes – fax is still a thing). There are also phones, of course.

Bospar’s survey finds that this is understood and expected: “51.4% believe viruses like COVID-19 and the flu will lead to companies adopting virtual offices.”

Michael Alexis, CEO of Teambuilding, talked about how his company launched a new wing of the business in less than 24 hours – enabling team building activities that can be facilitated virtually via online calls. “The expectation is more people will be working remotely, and still need ways to connect and bond,” he says.

Even your own work in recruitment can benefit from technology here. Numerous companies – including Amazon, Facebook, VSCO, Twitter and more – are utilizing video interview tools for candidate interviews.

10. Everyone calm it down

Finally, whatever the level of the situation, panic will not help matters. Staying calm is essential, and because you’re leading the information brigade in your coronavirus HR response, it’s up to you to ensure that everyone feels relatively confident and informed – and safe.

Andrew of The Corporate Con/noisseur, says: “We are looking to remain calm and ensure that our employees have access to the supplies and information they need. Keeping calm and understanding the guidelines of the CDC are our best bet.”

Many notable companies are even going fully transparent with their internal communications and policies in response to the virus. If you want to see what they’ve got, more than 100 company policies have been collected in this crowdsourced Google doc.

People are scared and unsure of what’s going on. This is your chance to help quell those worries with clear policy and clear directives, step by step, with full transparency and uniform messaging and implementation. Your employees – and management – will be grateful.

The post Your coronavirus HR response plan: 10 things to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Also, those HR limitations are set to expire at the end of 2020 and the more robust rights the CCPA provides to consumers will kick in for HR data subjects as well unless there is a further amendment to extend the limitation.

In everyday terms, you have a bit of a breather compared with other functions when it comes to CCPA in HR – but:

1) Your HR work is still impacted to a degree

2) CCPA will start to impact you more from the end of 2020 onwards.

So, to find out what you do need to worry about, we got in touch with BakerHostetler consumer data protection lawyer Alan L. Friel who brings decades of consumer law to the table.

Mr. Friel spoke at length in a Workable webinar on this very topic on Wednesday, February 19. Watch the webinar here:

The way Mr. Friel puts it, there are only two major provisions you need to be aware of in HR for 2020:

• The pre-collection notice
• The private right of action for data security breach.

But again, that doesn’t mean you can sleep at night without worry. You still need to stay on top of five major aspects of CCPA in HR to stay on the compliant side of the tracks:

1. Provide pre-collection notice

To be clear: this applies to all information you’re collecting in an HR context, including from job applicants and existing employees.

The CCPA requires that businesses that collect a California consumer’s (defined as California taxpayers) personal information must, at or before the time the personal information is collected, clearly inform consumers on:

• The categories of personal information to be collected
• The purposes for which each of the categories of PI will be used

A pre-collection notice must be included at the point of collection of employment-related information. Learn more tips on staying compliant with CCPA in HR:
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In the HR context, this means that employers must give this type of notice at the point of collection of employment-related information, including on a job application. Be clear and up front about the types of personal information you’re collecting from the job applicant as well as the purposes for which you’re collecting it. You’re not just asking for the candidate to fill out the requisite fields – you will be using the collected information for certain business and, potentially, commercial purposes.

Even if it’s clear you’re just gathering information because you’re collecting applications for evaluating candidates for a job, you need to say so up front. You also will need to be sure to give additional pre-collection notice if you onboard the candidate.

2. Clarify what you’re collecting and why

To be clear: Simply posting a notice is not enough. You also have to specify what data you’re collecting and why.

What are you collecting?

To make sure you’re compliant, list in your pre-collection notice each category of personal information that you’re collecting. The following 11 enumerated categories of personal information are set forth in in the CCPA, with common HR-specific examples (not limited to):

1. Identifiers – name, address, email, SSN, DL number
2. Personal records – phone number, education/employment history, bank account details
3. Personal characteristics and traits – sex/gender, marital/veteran/familial status, race, disability
4. Commercial information – benefits records, records of reimbursement of expenses
5. Biometric information – finger/voice prints, retina scans
6. Internet usage information – browsing and search history
7. Geolocation data – physical location/movement, travel patterns (i.e. company tracking devices)
8. Sensory data – audio/visual recordings (i.e. security cameras)
9. Professional or employment information – resume, background checks, references
10. Non-public education records – educational institution transcripts and records
11. Inferences from public information collected – profiles reflecting abilities and aptitudes, aptitude testing results

Why are you collecting this information?

You also must fully disclose all business and commercial purposes for collecting the personal information. The first set of regulations of the CCPA – in HR or otherwise – specifies that the business and commercial purpose must be clearly outlined for each of the aforementioned categories you’re collecting for.

This means you can’t simply say you’re ‘collecting data for your records’ – you need to go into detail. The CCPA requires being specific about what data will be used for which purposes. Because of the amount of detail required – which may not provide any materially better information to the job applicant or employee – this may result in a lengthy document. You might be better off building out a full notice in a separate page and linking to it from the pre-collection notice itself – which is permitted in the proposed regulations. Alternatively, you can link to a privacy notice including this information.

The modified draft of the regulations still under consideration require less granularity by removing the requirement to disclose on a category-by-category basis the purposes for collection of the personal information. However, we will have to watch the rulemaking process to see where it lands.

For offline pre-collection notice, an example of sufficient notice provided by the regulations is “prominent signage directing consumers to where the notice can be found online.” Again, accordingly, it should suffice to provide a pre-collection notice as simple as: “For details on what personal information we collect and for what purposes visit [URL],” assuming that URL resolves to a notice which includes all of the detail required by the regs.

As for data sharing, for notice at collection of employment-related information, you do not need to include a link to a “Do Not Sell My Personal Information” page – at least in 2020. This may change for 2021.

3. Clear language from the get-go

The proposed regulations require that pre-collection notice must be plain and straightforward. Legal jargon is prohibited. Job applicants and employees don’t necessarily have a degree in law, nor are they well-versed in legal jargon. So, consequently, you are required to communicate what you’re doing in everyday language.

If you’re working with a legal document, don’t copy and paste – be familiar with the content itself and be ready to communicate it both verbally and in writing in such a way that job applicants and employees can fully understand what information you’re collecting and for what purposes.

4. Don’t do anything you didn’t say you would do

The CCPA specifies that a business cannot collect additional categories of personal information without providing the consumer with notice – replace “consumer” with “job applicant” or “employee” or “contractor”, and that’s how it applies to you in HR and to the person whose personal information you are collecting.

If you needed extra information on a job applicant or employee and you didn’t include a precursor in your pre-collection language about it, it’s better not to do it without giving notice to the job applicant or employee. The proposed regulations suggest that only registered data brokers are relieved of pre-collection notice when the collection is other than directly from the person. Also, keep in mind other laws like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which require consent for background checks and give applicants the right to review the results.

5. Even publicly published information is protected

Many ATS solutions – and any software in general – can and do collect personal information automatically. Much of this is public – for instance, on LinkedIn, company pages, or any other public webpage – but nevertheless, even that ‘public’ personal information is covered by the CCPA.

However, data publicly available from a government publication is excluded from the definition of personal information.

Better safe than sorry

This doesn’t seem like a lot, but remember, it’s still early stages. The CCPA will get more complicated as it continues to take effect, and there are other states considering robust privacy laws. As said above, human resources isn’t nearly as impacted in 2020 as others are – but that can change as we go into 2021.

The spirit of “better safe than sorry” very much applies here – it’s best to get ahead and pre-empt any potential problems that may arise by following these five rules.

Related content:
AB25: How CCPA affects employers and recruiters
CCPA: Frequently Asked Questions on California’s new privacy law

The post CCPA in HR: 5 things you need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Once you’ve answered all questions, check your total score to see how you’ve done. We’ll provide you with feedback for each question and give you alternatives for the risky ones. Note that we won’t share your answers with anyone (we’re not collecting the data).

Below the quiz, you can also find some useful tips and resources that’ll help you improve your interview process.

Good luck!

Disclaimer
To create this quiz, we took into account the labor legislation of the majority of countries around the globe (for example, Equal Employment Opportunity laws in the US, EU directive, etc.) The examples that we use in the quiz may not be illegal per se, but they could raise legal risks for your organization. When interviewing candidates, we recommend checking local labor regulations and even consult a lawyer to ensure you ask questions that are fair and don’t discriminate against candidates’ protected characteristics.

If you have 0-4 correct answers:

Uh oh! In between looking for the perfect candidate and trying to understand complex labor laws, it’s easy to fall in the trap of unintentionally asking illegal interview questions. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get into legal trouble. You could, though, lose qualified candidates who might get offended by what you or your team asked. And even if that doesn’t happen, many of these questions indicate that interviewers’ criteria are not entirely job-related and objective. Check below for some useful tips that’ll help you be compliant and free of biases when you interview candidates.

If you have 5-8 correct answers:

Good job! You managed to identify many of the potentially illegal questions. There are still some tricky ones, though; at first glimpse, some interview questions seem innocent but could raise legal risks. Or, they could hurt your company’s reputation if candidates suspect that you evaluate them based on subjective criteria (e.g. whether they live close by) as opposed to job-related requirements. Scroll down for some useful tips and resources that’ll help you build a bias-free (and legal!) hiring process.

If you have 9-10 correct answers:

Congrats! Looks like you’re an expert interviewer – or have studied labor legislation really hard! Keep up the good work and make sure to avoid interview questions that despite seeming innocent, have nothing to do with evaluating candidates’ skills. Also, remember that hiring is not a one-person job. Your communication with candidates should be professional and compliant with local regulations throughout the hiring process; from a simple email or quick phone call that a recruiter makes them to the final interview that they have with one of the company’s executives. Sync with everyone who’s involved with hiring to ensure you build a positive candidate experience. Have a look at the interviewing tips and resources below.

Making sure you don’t ask illegal interview questions

Here are a few quick ways that will help avoid asking illegal interview questions that – even subconsciously – discriminate against candidates:

• Write down and review your questions before going into the interviews. Are all questions strictly job-related or should you skip some of them?
• Include specific requirements (e.g. availability to work during weekends or physical abilities) in your job ads. This way, you’ll minimize the number of non-qualified applicants. During interviews, confirm that candidates are aware of and can handle these requirements.
• Limit small talk with candidates to safe topics; interviews are your way to learn whether candidates have the skills to perform their job duties and not to discuss their personal background, family status, religious beliefs, political views or any other irrelevant to the job matters.
• Background checks, references from previous employers and drug tests are legal ways to get useful information about candidates that can help you decide whether to extend a job offer or not.

In case you’re not sure whether you have the legitimate right to ask something during an interview, it’s best to consult a lawyer first. Also, coordinate with the entire hiring team to ensure you all understand what’s acceptable to ask during an interview and what’s not. Start by sharing with them this quiz so they can see where they stand!

Useful resources:

• Alternatives to illegal interview questions
• 5 common myths when interviewing candidates
• How to be the worst interviewer
• A guide to structured interviews
• How to follow EEOC regulations
• How to ensure EEO-compliance with Workable
• Legal interview questions to break the ice with candidates
• Real interview horror stories from candidates
• Diversity in the workplace: why it matters
• How to boost D&I with Workable

The post Which interview questions are illegal? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But, as a company that has worked hard to comply with privacy laws (like GDPR), we know it’s hard to digest all this information and formulate your action plan. That’s why – while we have a window of opportunity to ensure compliance with CCPA before fines kick in later this year – we present you with a CCPA compliance checklist. This will help you identify what areas you’ve covered and where you lag behind.

But first, let’s remember which companies CCPA applies to:

CCPA applies to business inside or outside of California that collect personal information of California residents and meet at least one of three conditions:

• Annual gross revenue of more than $25 million.
• Handles (buying, selling, etc.) personal information of more than 50,000 CA-based consumers, households, or devices annually.
• Gets at least 50 percent of annual revenue from selling CA consumers’ personal information.

With this CCPA checklist, you can check how ready you are for CCPA. Ideally, you should be able to answer all of the above questions and requirements. If not, gather what you’re missing and ask your attorney what moves you can make to be compliant by January.

Please keep in mind: Workable is not a law firm. This CCPA compliance checklist is meant to provide general information and should be used as a reference. It’s not a legal document and doesn’t provide legal advice. Neither the author nor Workable will assume any legal liability that may arise from the use of this article. Always consult your attorney on matters of legal compliance.

The post CCPA compliance checklist: Are you ready for CCPA? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A stark reality for companies operating in today’s economic environment is the need – or opportunity, rather – to establish an international presence in the marketplace. This means, of course, starting a business in another country.

There are different motivations for such an expansion. Perhaps there’s a strong market or local talent base that you want to tap into. Or, perhaps, there’s a steady stream of import/export happening between your company’s location and that other location, and you decide it might be more cost-effective to simply put boots on the ground there.

Whatever your reason for it, there are a few things you need to keep top of mind when opening a business in a foreign country. We asked employers who’ve been there and done that, and pulled together five main takeaways for you based on what they had to say:

1. Know the cultural norms

This may be obvious, but it bears repeating: doing things the way you do things in your own country won’t always mesh well with the cultural norms in your new office.

People work together differently

Charlie Marchant, a general manager at Exposure Ninja, a UK-based digital marketing agency, talked about her experiences working with employees based in Asia. As she says, those employees tend to avoid asking questions to managers and are more indirect in sharing their feedback and concerns.

“In comparison,” Charlie says, “our British and European teams are much more likely – and this is a behaviour we encourage – to question and [give] feedback to the management team.”

To a lesser extent, she pointed out cultural differences in the way American and British colleagues work together.

“Often in American culture and schools, you’re rewarded for speaking up and sharing your opinions and ideas, even if you may not necessarily have new insights to add. Whereas, in British culture, we tend to be more introverted and quieter with our opinions in group settings preferring to [share] feedback more openly in smaller groups or one-on-one.”

Charlie noted that none of these are right or wrong, or better or worse. It’s more important, she adds, “to understand the nuances of their team member’s communication and ways of working to ensure they’re getting the feedback and input they need from them, and that they feel confident and comfortable [giving it].”

Yuval Shalev, currently co-founder and CRO of Hunterz, has an extensive track record in penetrating new markets and territories across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in previous capacities. One such instance called for expansion to Romania, where Yuval noted the stark differences in managerial culture, which led to issues between teams – listing examples such as micromanagement and favoritism. While those aren’t necessarily indicative of Romanian culture, Yuval’s challenge was to remedy that without looking like his company was trying to “fix” the culture.

His solution in the end was to standardize operating procedures across cultures, but more so, train staff to communicate performance feedback differently: “Romanian culture is proud and steeped in tradition so any issues had to be addressed carefully and diplomatically. We shifted to a constructive criticism format to foster a positive, productive workspace.”

Local values differ a little – or a lot

Polly Kay, currently a marketing manager at UK-based blinds manufacturer English Blinds, made what she called “some major errors” in establishing a previous company’s presence in the Middle East.

“My greatest personal mistake involved picking one of our most popular product lines in the US to offer to our Dubai audience – a branded product featuring a cartoon pig. I knew that the largely Muslim Dubai community didn’t eat pork, obviously, [but] it never occurred to me that this would also translate as not wanting to have anything to do with pigs in general, including children’s toys!”

“I was then left with two shipping containers’ worth of stock that was worthless within the target market, and that I had to offload across more appropriate areas of the company serving other markets.”

Kristina McDougall who works at Artemis Canada Inc. in recruiting for American startups expanding to Canada, is quick to remind readers of the nuanced differences between the two countries beyond their obvious similarities in culture and language.

In Canada, Kristina says, “[there is] a sense of collaboration and mutual success that can be a surprise for tech companies based in Silicon Valley.”

She adds: “Canadian tech companies typically help each other, working together to compete with global companies.”

This also impacts recruitment, making it a “delicate business”, Kristina says. “One of the things that foreign-owned companies are surprised with is the need to be an active part of this community. Giving back through participation in local philanthropy and arts and culture and also lifting up the local startup and tech community, with education oriented events and mentoring, will help these companies to be embraced.”

Kristina also warns of aggressive recruitment which may rub Canadians the wrong way: “Companies need to consider how they are developing the local skill base and also avoid overtly predatory practices. Targeting entire dev teams or blatantly offering inflated salaries that would upset the local ecosystem would make you appear a parasite.”

However large or small the cultural differences are, do your homework and learn about what works and what doesn’t work in the new environment you’re about to operate in. It’s no accident that locals appreciate it when you make the effort to work with them in their “language” – be that in words, gestures, culture, gesticulations, feedback, commentary, conflict, or anything else.

Employee motivations count no matter what

One thing remains consistent – people are people everywhere. They’re motivated by many of the same things regardless of background, culture, language, etc. This includes benefits, perks and other potential motivators in the workplace.

Yuval noted that stock options and tools for career development are effective. “Good employees are interested in growing, so I encouraged them to move between departments. […] We adjusted salaries to the highest tier of the local market rate and made an effort to understand cultural norms.”

“If a post-lunch nap is common for the culture, embrace it! Set parameters, of course, but something about it must be working.”

Ted Rollins, founding partner and chairman of Valeo Groupe, which develops and builds student and senior housing communities in the U.S. and Europe, attested to growth opportunity as a universal motivator while adhering to your core company values: “Adapt to and blend in the various cultural values and norms, but do not stray from your core. Let the energy and passion lead the process and keep people at the center of what you do and the international distinctions become less challenging.”

2. Know the local laws

Whatever the country you expand to, it’s essential to know the local laws because the consequences can be dire if you run afoul of compliance.

It’s more than just signing contracts

David Jackson, CEO of software development agency – and Workable customer – Fullstack Labs in Sacramento, California, took note of some of the legal requirements during his introduction to business as done in Colombia.

“They have a lot of unique rules that you would never think about in the United States. For all new employees on their first day of work you have to send them to the doctor and get a physical,” he says, noting that this dates back to times when Colombia-based workers were primarily in labor-intensive jobs that required medical clearance.

Even finding an accountant was difficult due to local legal requirements in Colombia.

“There’s only one or two accounting systems you’re allowed to use in Colombia and they have to be approved by the government. Because of that, this one company has a monopoly, so it’s really expensive to buy the accounting software. And the software is really old and outdated. And then I don’t know how to use it. It makes it difficult for reporting.”

David notes that this continues to be a challenge. “You can’t just sign up for QuickBooks like you would in the United States.”

Everything is regulated

Kristina at Artemis Canada emphasizes that while at-will employment can be a standard in many U.S. states, it’s actually illegal in Canada. She adds, “we also have different norms for vacation and benefits – which is important in the competitive market for technical talent.”

Law is a minefield, no matter where you go. Of particular relevance is the “right to disconnect” – in other words, the right to not deal with work-related emails and other communications outside of normal work hours. France’s precedent-setting El Khomri law, adopted in August 2016, offers employees and employers the opportunity to set expectations in regards to off-duty communications prior to tenure, with many other countries and U.S. states considering similar legislation. This especially becomes pertinent when a company goes international, with employees working across different time zones.

Beyond legislation, it bears noting that some countries are accustomed to long work hours whereas others are more inclined to clock out entirely at the end of the day – which could lead to miscommunications and misaligned expectations within remote teams. So, it’s best to implement a standard expectation across the entire company when it comes to communications outside of normal work hours, regardless of location.

3. Know the logistical challenges

It’s not just nuances, legalities and stigmas. Working on the same projects across offices poses logistical challenges as well.

Building bridges between distributed teams

Communication becomes an issue because it’s not like going to someone’s desk or office to ask them for a quick favor. The difference in time zones poses an additional problem, particularly when the overlap in working hours is reduced to just a couple of hours every day.

Darko Jacimovic, co-founder of e-learning company Whattobecome.com, pointed to technologies that enabled his colleagues to overcome the physical remoteness between colleagues:

“We use Slack for all internal communication and Hubstaff for tracking hours and productivity. Team building [events] take place once a year, with big company gatherings that include all the international offices.”

Timing is of essence

Sometimes, as much as it should be avoided, one needs to be flexible, as Yuval found in building markets in other time zones: “It’s never easy – we all like to sleep – but it is considered acceptable to take a call during the night or on a weekend to accommodate a U.S. or China client or international team.”

Time differences were a consideration for David at Fullstack Labs as well: “If you build a team in Eastern Europe or in India or in Asia there’s a 12-hour time difference, that makes it really difficult to work together. But in Colombia, they’re an hour or two ahead of us, depending on the time of year. And it allows us to work with them throughout the day.”

Bias can be a challenge

Even stigmas can get in the way of normal logistical processes such as recruitment and team building, as Dmytro Okynyev found in expanding his Ukraine-based company – Chanty, an AI-powered chat solution – to the United States. Not only did it take several months to set up the company in the U.S. in the first place, the hiring process hit some snags because of a lack of trust of the employer from potential applicants, Dmytro found.

“[The challenge was] coming from a country that has a bad rap for being financially unstable and our salaries, in general, are not that great. We had a hard time getting a good reputation in the U.S. where we could attract good candidates.

“Very few people wanted to work for a Ukrainian company […] with no employees and no physical office. We set up a virtual address and even then, we had to find someone based on recommendation and word of mouth, rather than getting candidates from job boards.”

4. Know why you’re doing it

Often, the motivation to expand to a new country goes beyond market considerations. There are advantages to that location that can be integral to business success.

A huge pool of local talent

Kristina at Artemis Canada noted the expansion of companies north of the United States: “Typically these companies are based in California or New York, and their primary reason for expansion is access to a talent pool that is highly qualified, culturally similar to their U.S. counterparts and English speaking. There are cost advantages as well.”

Instead of bringing talent to where you are, go to where they are.
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Similarly to Canada, Colombia has a deep pool of talent that appeals to American companies, says David at Fullstack Labs: “They also tend to have a good education system down there for computer science. […] And a fair number of them speak English. So that also makes it easy to build what we call blended teams. […] And you get the safety and security and convenience of having a lead U.S. developer with some of the cost savings of having a nearshore development team.”

Cheaper isn’t always better

But, David warns, that doesn’t mean that you can just go into a new country and take advantage of cheaper labor there. You still get what you pay for.

“The best developers and the best professionals in Colombia are more expensive than you think,” David says.

“It’s just like the United States where everybody’s getting recruited to death and there’s a lot of competition between companies for hiring. And people are moving around and getting better offers all the time.”

“Just because you’re a U.S. company, you’re not going to come riding into town and have your pick of the litter or anything. It doesn’t work like that.”

In short, don’t focus solely on how much you can save by opening a business in a new country, based on assumptions of lower wages. The nuances of finances go deeper than that – think about the skill sets available there, the competition for top talent, and other expenses associated with setting up shop in the new location.

5. Hire local experts

Many emphasized the need for local representation, when opening a business in a foreign country, to guide you around the potential pitfalls and misunderstandings. More importantly, they’ll help you ensure full compliance in every aspect of local business – be it financial in terms of reporting, taxes, etc., and legal in terms of labor and trade laws.

Recruitment, especially, is a major consideration and a challenge. Darko at Whattobecome.com attested to the importance of having a local team involved in the team-building process:

“We’ve overcome that challenge by hand-picking the core team and establishing a strong collaboration with the team. The core members have later gotten the task of recruiting the locals.”

“The key to success is that the local core team has ownership over the company’s success, which boosts their enthusiasm.”

Expats can be a valuable cultural bridge

Polly explained how a local, or someone who’s familiar with the country, can serve as a cultural consultant. In her case, she brought in an expat from the United States who had lived in Dubai for two decades, spoke fluent Arabic, and had an established business presence in the UAE.

“This helped us to make the most of our opportunities, understand the various cultural, bureaucratic, and logistical differences between Dubai and the U.S. and how they applied in practice on the ground, and to target our market much more effectively and profitably.”

Polly continues: “We [avoided] a huge range of problems in this way. [We ensured] that our U.S. workers knew that smoking in public during Ramadan is forbidden even if you’re not a Muslim, that the weekend days are Thursday and Friday, not Saturday and Sunday, and just in time to stop one of our big bosses potentially being arrested. […] If you want to talk business with the owner of a women’s beauty salon, you send a woman negotiator as such a business is a female-only space.”

Locals know logistics best

Yuval agreed: “For startups, the best strategy for recruiting [is] to find a local partner who [understands] the landscape, including wages, labor laws, and a typical office environment. […] They help us navigate everything from renting office space to contract norms for employees.”

David at Fullstack Labs admitted to the ease of business in the United States – for instance, you can simply go online to set up an LLC and it’s ready to go – and the differences in doing that in Colombia that required bringing in local support:

“We hired a big international law firm, which seemed to be the only choice to form an entity down there, for us. […] In Colombia it’s very involved. You have to get an attorney, it takes a long time. […] They’re a quasi-socialist country, and so the government has a lot of control over the free market. And they just have a lot of rules that you have to play by. […] We wanted to follow the letter of the law and make sure that we got off on the right foot and we didn’t have any sort of regulatory issues.”

It goes beyond establishing a legal business – which took Fullstack Labs eight weeks. Employment compliance was also a major consideration for David: “They have a lot of rules around how you could hire employees and they have a lot of employment law that you have to comply with. So we had to hire consultants to build our employment contracts. And then make sure that we are in compliance with myriads of employment law and all types of filings and stuff.”

“The best advice I would give in terms of getting started is to get a good attorney. […] [And find] a good accounting firm and a good bookkeeping firm to make sure you’re in compliance with all the tax laws.”

Before opening up shop in a new country, know that: People work together differently. Local values matter. And hire local experts.
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Necessity is the mother of invention

The advent of technology in our work enables us to work more internationally as organizations, and global expansion of companies likewise prompts further evolution of existing technology. For instance, Slack allows for quicker one-off communications between remote employees. Google Hangouts and Microsoft’s Zoom enables colleagues to have some type of face-to-face interaction, plus the ability to make presentations across different offices. And Workable’s international presence, of course, allows for an international hiring strategy to flourish.

David at Fullstack Labs signs off with a hat tip to Workable’s recruitment solution: “One of the things that’s really nice [about Workable] is we manage all of our Colombia job postings in the same way we do in the United States. So we go in and we create a new job, we publish it to Indeed and to LinkedIn.”

“We get a lot of inbound applicants in Colombia from LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent Indeed. And then we run them through the same candidate pipeline and the same in the hiring process. It was a nice surprise when we were expanding down there. It was nice to see that Workable worked in Colombia. And then we’ve also used the sourcing tool to find candidates down there and contact them. There’s a surprisingly good database of candidates in the Workable sourcing tool in Colombia.”

The post Starting a business in another country: Learn from those who did it appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

First, the nuts and bolts: the FLSA overtime rule (Fair Labor Standards Act) clarifies which workers are eligible to receive payment for overtime work. Exempt employees aren’t eligible for overtime pay, while non-exempt employees are. Non-exempt employees must be paid time and a half for any hours they work that exceed the standard 40-hour work week.

Please keep in mind: Workable is not a law firm. This article is meant to provide general guidelines and should be used as a reference. It’s not a legal document and doesn’t provide legal advice. Neither the author nor Workable will assume any legal liability that may arise from the use of this article. Always consult your attorney on matters of legal compliance.

Who is exempt from overtime pay?

The FLSA overtime exemptions include executive, administrative, professional, computer and outside sales employees. Highly compensated employees are also exempt if they “customarily and regularly perform at least one of the duties of an exempt executive, administrative or professional employee.”

There are certain criteria – such as the duties test and the salary threshold – that determine whether an employee falls under each of these exempt categories. For example, in order to determine whether an executive employee is overtime-exempt, they need to satisfy the salary threshold, i.e. they need to be salaried and paid above a certain amount per week.

Blue collar workers are never exempt from the FLSA no matter how much they make.

How does the overtime rule work?

The salary threshold is the most significant change: the minimum threshold was previously $455 per week, but the new overtime law raises this to $684 (or $35,568 per year for a full-year worker).

The raise in the salary threshold means that employees who are paid between $455 and $684 per week – and thus were previously exempt – will now be eligible for overtime pay. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the number of employees nationwide who’ll benefit is around 1.3 million.

Another change is the salary threshold for highly compensated employees, which rises from $100,000 to at least $107,432 annually.

Also, the federal overtime law allows employers to count a portion of non-discretionary bonuses and commissions toward meeting the salary level (up to 10%) to reach the exempt status for employees.

The duties test doesn’t change with the new law.

What’s the controversy about?

In a nutshell, the new overtime law is less generous than the now-invalidated Obama-era law, which tried to bring employee compensation levels up to speed with inflation.

The overtime law signed during the previous administration aimed to double the existing salary threshold of $455 to $913 (or $47,476 per year). This meant that a much greater number of employees would have seen their paychecks increase, had this law not been eventually struck down by the United States District Court.

Also, the new law doesn’t provide for future automatic revisions once every four years, as in the original proposal. This means that any adjustments to the overtime law to the cost of living aren’t guaranteed, even despite the DOL’s commitment to start revising these guidelines (29 CFR Part 451) more often.

What does the new overtime law mean for employers?

Well, you’re likely to start paying overtime to some of your employees. Generally, if you employ previously exempt workers who are getting paid under $684 per week and work overtime, you might need to start preparing bigger paychecks.

Of course, there are things that some employers might do to avoid paying overtime, such as strictly limit their employees’ work week to 40 hours or raise salaries above the threshold. While some of these measures might have a positive impact on employees, too, (for example, by helping them achieve better work-life balance), make sure your solutions are viable and justified, instead of an attempt to game the system.

For example, calculate the costs involved in raising salaries and compare them with the costs of paying overtime to newly non-exempt employees, and how each scenario could affect employees. Morale may also be impacted if a more regimented timing system is introduced (i.e. requiring employees to submit regular work hour reports and/or finish their job within the allotted time even during high-intensity periods).

Paying overtime might also be good for business

Granted, added labor costs are a challenge for employers. But, paying employees for the work they’re doing is hardly a bad strategy; if workers receive more money for their effort, productivity and morale can increase.

And, if you’re in retail, hospitality or similar industries, you might even see a rise in revenue – after all, your workers are customers, too, and they might use some of the extra money to buy your services or products.

What should you do as an employer?

Here are some actions you can take to make the transition to the DOL overtime rule easier for you and clearer for your employees:

1. Consult an attorney

You can find helpful information online and on the DOL website, but a qualified lawyer can explain the details and provide useful advice. Remember that individual state overtime laws may have different thresholds, so look into those as well.

2. Revise employee classification

Many employers may unwittingly misclassify their employees as exempt or non-exempt (sometimes even as contractors instead of employees). Make sure your employees are correctly classified based on the exemption criteria by reviewing job descriptions (remember that job titles aren’t sufficient to determine exempt status.)

3. Communicate clearly

It’s good to have both an overtime and attendance policy to communicate guidelines to your employees. For example, you could inform employees about your approach to overtime (frequent/occasional, voluntary/mandatory, etc.) and explain how you’ll compensate voluntary overtime. Schedule trainings or meetings, too, to help workers adjust to timekeeping responsibilities.

If you already have these policies, ensure they’re updated with the new overtime law.

All in all, any legislative changes that bring about additional labor costs can be disruptive. But, the sooner you adapt, the better it’ll be for both your business and your employees.

If you do business in California, you should also pay attention to CCPA, the new privacy law. See our CCPA FAQ.

The post New overtime law: How it works and what changes for employers appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The challenge: Planning and tracking recruitment across a network of 100+ sites

Experts in environmental research, national security and nuclear nonproliferation, government contracts form the bulk of Navarro’s customer base. From the Department of Energy to NASA, it’s successfully delivered turn-key projects for high-profile clients valued at $300M. Operating from 21 main offices and 90+ individual project sites across the US, planning and tracking the details of job openings across its network put pressure on its small 3-person HR team.

“We had an ATS we’d been using for 15 years,” says Jason Lesher, Navarro’s VP of Talent Acquisition. “But it was a closed system. Our hiring managers couldn’t use it, and there was no effective tool for managing the details associated with job openings.”

Unable to use its ATS to log and track the different roles they were hiring for throughout the year, the team relied upon a manual approach.

“We had a spreadsheet of job IDs and would use this to register and monitor each particular job,” says Jason. “This was time-consuming and, without any automated checks in place, stressful.”

The additional reporting requirements associated with being a federal contractor were also draining resources.

“As a federal contractor we’re under more responsibilities than the normal public company,” says Jason. “We have to comply with Affirmative Action Plans for veterans and equal opportunity. And we have a whole slate of rules through the Office of Federal Compliance Program that we have to comply with. I also deal a lot with the FLSA, determining exempt status and nonexempt status of our employees.”

The solution: Find a hiring platform that’s more than an ATS

Hiring at pace across over 100 different sites, Navarro needed a better way to engage its 100+ hiring managers.

“What Workable offered was an applicant tracking system all of our hiring managers could and would engage with,” says Jason. “Well-designed, easy-to-use and with great collaboration tools.”

Workable’s reporting toolkit provided a powerful solution to its relentless reporting schedule.

“I have to submit daily reports,” says Jason. “And I could quickly see how Workable’s suite of reporting tools, covering everything from requisitions to EEO compliance, would make my life so much easier.”

But, just as importantly, Navarro discovered it could transform its planning process too.

“As soon as I heard about Workable Hiring Plan I knew we’d also found a game-changing, automated solution to our slow, manual approach to requisition planning,” says Jason.

The outcome: Engaging hiring managers in recruitment frees up time for strategic planning

Six months, 150 new hires and a 50% reduction in time to hire later, and Navarro’s requisition planning balances a more granular approach to individual jobs with a wider perspective on overall hiring.

“Using Workable Hiring Plan we can manage our job openings in a more detailed manner. And, because it tracks all the jobs that we deal with—past, current and future—I can see at a glance how we’re doing in terms of our global hiring strategy.”

Data housekeeping is also faster and more accurate.

“We need set job IDs for our EEO plan,” says Jason. “Keeping on top of those using a spreadsheet was time-consuming. The pressure was on me to get it right every time so I’d check and double check. Hiring Plan generates them automatically which gives me peace of mind and some valuable time back.”

With a centralized reporting dashboard, reports are easier to access and to share.

“I view and export Workable reports on a daily basis,” says Jason. “I do the activity report to show people in the reference check stage and the offer stage. And I look at hires for that week. I also regularly look at candidate sources and productivity. Downloading and sharing data and bespoke reports with all of my stakeholders is also so much easier.”

And, because hiring managers are integrated in the process, its small HR team has more time to focus on planning and compliance.

“We’ve been filling positions a lot faster because our managers are now involved in the hiring process. So far we’ve made 150 hires in 6 months and we’ve reduced our time to hire from 50 days to 26. With managers engaged in recruitment, I can focus on using Hiring Plan to support our compliance and reporting requirements.”

The future: The right tools to power a growing portfolio

Powered by Hiring Plan, Navarro’s better-placed to scope out and track future job openings across its growing portfolio of projects and contracts.

“We need highly skilled workers to deliver for our clients,” says Jason. “With Workable we can manage and monitor capacity planning so we find and hire those workers as, when and where we need them.”

It’s also equipped with the right tools to handle the increased compliance and reporting requirements that come with a growing customer base.

“Our reporting remit’s only going to get bigger,” says Jason. “And I’m confident that, with Workable, we’ve got it under control.”

The post Navarro tames planning, compliance & reporting using Workable Hiring Plan appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Please keep in mind: Workable is not a law firm. This article is meant to provide general information and should be used as a reference. It’s not a legal document and doesn’t provide legal advice. Neither the author nor Workable will assume any legal liability that may arise from the use of this article. Always consult your attorney on matters of legal compliance.

What constitutes an independent contractor in California according to AB5?

Until now, workers would be classified as ICs via the Borello test (S.G. Borello & Sons, Inc. v. Department of Industrial Relations (1989)). After AB5 goes into effect, companies and courts will mainly use the “ABC test” to properly classify workers.

The ABC test has three qualifiers, each of which have to be satisfied in order for someone to be classified as an independent contractor. A worker can be an IC if:

(A) they’re free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of their work; and

(B) they’re performing work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and

(C) they’re customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business.

Workers are presumed to be employees, unless a company can prove otherwise via this test that a worker qualifies as an IC.

Exemptions to the AB5

The law exempts several professions including but not limited to the following:

• Licensed insurance agents, lawyers, architects, engineers, private investigators, or accountants
• Certain licensed health care professionals, such as physicians, surgeons, dentists, podiatrists, psychologists, or veterinarians
• Securities broker-dealers or investment advisers
• Direct sales salespersons
• Commercial fishermen working on an American vessel

However, these exemptions from AB5 apply only to the ABC test. This means that an exempt worker still has to pass the Borello test to be classified as an IC.

Contracts for some professional services are exempted from the ABC test, too, but there are some additional factors that need to be satisfied along with the Borello test. These factors are clearly listed in AB5. “Professional services” in this case includes some creative professions (e.g. designers, writers, fine artists), travel agents and more.

There are other exemptions as well, so consult an attorney to get comprehensive information as needed.

Do independent contractors have any rights?

Yes. ICs have full control over how, where and when they work. They charge their own rates and aren’t bound to one employer. This flexibility is a strong motivation for workers to become independent contractors.

On the other hand, independent contractors aren’t entitled to unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation claims, minimum wage, overtime pay, rest breaks, working condition standards, and other benefits and privileges that traditionally are seen – or in some cases that are required by law – in full-time employee status. Consequently, many gig workers don’t have the leverage to negotiate their pay or living conditions, so, as misclassified employees, they are compromised.

Under AB5 law, these workers may benefit. And, the law will also protect companies that usually employ workers as employees against competitors that are trying to cut costs by misclassifying employees as independent contractors.

But, the road to AB5 is no bed of roses

The controversy around employee vs. contractor has lasted for decades. For example, the IRS once audited Microsoft for open tax years 1989 and 1990 and found the tech giant had misclassified its employees as freelancers. In 2013, the IRS estimated that employers misclassify millions of workers. Before Dynamex, there were many relevant cases in recent years – for example, the company Uni Floor had to repay significant sums in back pay in 2017 because of misclassifying its workers. On the flip side, in 2018, delivery company Grubhub won the case against one of its delivery drivers who the court found was properly classified as an independent contractor.

All that aside, AB5 is expected to have an impact on companies that consistently depend on independent contractors. That’s because the ABC test is stricter than the Borello test and its three conditions are much harder to satisfy. Hundreds of thousands of workers in California could be reclassified and many companies are likely to see a jump in employment costs.

Some employers object

The expected increase in costs is mainly why many employers are campaigning against AB5. For example, trucking company Western States Trucking Association (WSTA) had filed a federal lawsuit against AB5 which was dismissed in early 2019. Gig companies Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash started working on a ballot initiative for 2020 that will cost around $90 million. Their purpose is to earn an exemption to the law, providing some benefits to their independent contractors as a compromise.

But, their efforts have drawn fire – in a Vox article on the topic, Art Pulaski, executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation said:

“No corporation should be above the law, no matter how much they spend on political campaigns to rig the rules in their favor.”

The outcome of this campaign remains to be seen.

What could an employer do to comply with the law?

If you have even one independent contractor in California, you need to pay attention to the AB5’s requirements. Consult a legal expert who specializes in employment law in California – and make sure not to misclassify them (um, pardon the jest).

With their guidance, you can learn whether some workers as exempt or not, and you can start auditing your employment relationship with your independent contractors to determine whether the ABC test is satisfied. If it’s not, you need to change your workers’ status to employees as soon as possible.

If you’re interested in this, you’ll also want to know about other recently enacted laws in California, such as the CCPA. See a basic CCPA FAQ and a comparison of CCPA vs. GDPR.

The post Do you classify employees correctly? California’s law got stricter appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What does AB25 do? AB25 mainly provides employers a one-year exemption from their CCPA obligations (a “moratorium”) with respect to information collected by a business “in the course of a natural person acting as a job applicant to, an employee of, director of, officer of, medical staff member of, or contractor of that business.”

So, via AB25, CCPA doesn’t apply to employees and job applicants

In other words, as long as employers are collecting the data of its employees and job applicants solely for purposes relating to employment, the CCPA generally doesn’t apply to the collection of that information.

This is why recruiters can breathe a sigh of relief: employees and job applicants aren’t considered to be “consumers” under CCPA. Therefore, they don’t have the same privacy rights, such as right to deletion and opt-out.

But, you’re not completely off the hook

First, this exemption would remain in effect only until January 1, 2021. It’s a “sunset” provision that will expire on that date.

Also, AB25 upholds some rules under CCPA. These are:

Disclosure requirements

Employers are still obliged to inform people (including employees and job applicants) of the categories of personal information they collect – and the purposes for its use – at or before the point of collection.

This is usually done via a CCPA-compliant privacy policy. Recruiters will need to send it to candidates or feature it in a prominent place in their job ads.

Private right of action for data breach

Natural persons exempted via AB25 still have the right to a private civil action. For example, if your business is hacked and the personal information of job applicants is compromised, then a job applicant has two options under CCPA:

• File an individual claim. This means that you may be liable to pay damages to that individual person because of the data breach.
• File a class action suit. This means you may have to pay potential damages to all people affected by the data breach who are included as members in the suit.

Of course, it will be interesting to see whether class actions may end up being rare when it comes to privacy breaches – but it’s not a consequence you want to face anyway. We’ll see how this plays out, since the private right of action is available under CCPA.

The same penalties stand under AB25

AB25 doesn’t modify the penalties and fines inflicted on a business in the case of a CCPA violation. Your company can receive a fine from $2,500 to $7,500 from the competent authority, and you may also be obliged to pay $100 to $750 per consumer per incident if found to be in breach of your obligations in a civil action.

For example, the minimum amount you may be required to pay for violating CCPA after being found liable in a class action of 1,000 job applicants is $1,000 multiplied by 100 = $100,000, plus a minimum of at least $2,500.

Preparation is key

The numbers speak for themselves: to avoid the potential for expensive fines that could break your business, having a CCPA-compliant privacy policy is a priority. You also need to be sure that you use secure and CCPA-compliant vendors to collect or store personal information of consumers.

CCPA security and compliance are both measures that Workable, as a recruiting software provider, is planning to help its customers with. Stay tuned for more!

Also, keep in mind that there’s expectation a privacy law specifically applying to employees will be enacted in the year to come (possibly at the federal level). This means that there might be compliance obligations similar to those in CCPA that cover personal information of employees and job applicants.

See how CCPA differs from GDPR.

So, while AB25 softens the burden of CCPA for recruiters and employers, you aren’t necessarily in the clear. You need to take steps to ensure absolute compliance with CCPA by January 1, 2020 and any future laws as well as implement best practices. But, if you stay informed of changes and proactively implement measures, you should be in a good place going forward.

The post AB25: How CCPA affects employers and recruiters appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

If you have questions on this particular law (including basic, but important ones like “what is CCPA?”), here’s a short FAQ to help you understand it better:

What does CCPA mean?

“CCPA” stands for California Consumer Privacy Act.

What is the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018?

The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, is a privacy protection law voted in by California lawmakers in 2018. Its purpose is to protect the personal information of California residents (“consumers”).

When does CCPA go into effect?

CCPA goes into effect on January 1st, 2020.

What does the CCPA do?

To protect the personal information of consumers, CCPA places requirements on businesses for collecting, sharing or selling that personal information. It also restricts the sale of personal information of minors.

CCPA gives privacy rights to California residents, too. These rights include the right to disclosure, the right to deletion, the right of data portability and the right to object to the sale of their personal information.

Who does the CCPA apply to?

CCPA protects California residents (whether they’re currently in the state or not) and refers to them as “consumers”.

CCPA places obligations on “businesses” headquartered inside or outside of California, which collect personal information of California state residents and satisfy at least one of three conditions:

• Annual gross revenue of more than $25 million.
• Handling (buying, selling, etc.) personal information of more than 50,000 CA-based consumers, households, or devices annually.
• Gets at least 50 percent of annual revenue from selling CA consumers’ personal information.

What personal information is protected under this law?

Under CCPA, “personal information” refers to information that identifies, relates to, describes, and is linked to or associated with a consumer or household.

Based on this definition, information covered by CCPA may include name, address, social security number, email address, search history, IP address or geolocation data (this list isn’t exhaustive).

What are the main CCPA requirements for businesses?

The main CCPA requirements for businesses are:

• Disclose collection. A business must disclose the categories and purposes of collecting personal information. When receiving a verifiable consumer request, they must also disclose the specific pieces of personal information they have collected.
• Provide the right of deletion. A business must inform consumers of their right to request the deletion of their personal information the business has collected and comply with such a request
• Give consumers the opportunity to exercise their rights. For example, the business must provide two or more designated methods for consumers to submit requests. It must also include a “Do not sell my personal information” link on a prominent place of the website’s homepage.
• Have a CCPA-compliant privacy policy. This policy must include a description of a consumer’s privacy rights under CCPA and a link to the “Do not sell my personal information” page.
• Comply with consumer requests. A business must comply with a verified consumer request within 45 days. If the business can’t comply for some reason, it must inform the consumer.
• Respect consumers’ rights under CCPA. This includes the right to access, the right to deletion, the right to data portability, the right to opt-in (for minors) and the right to opt-out.

Can a company refuse to comply with a consumer’s request?

Yes, under certain conditions. CCPA obliges businesses to comply with consumer requests unless certain criteria are met. For example, a business isn’t required to comply with a consumer’s request to delete their personal information if it’s “necessary for the business to maintain the consumer’s personal information”. The law lists the criteria that make it “necessary” to keep a consumer’s information (e.g. to comply with a legal obligation, detect security incidents and more).

To be on the safe side, consider all consumer requests via the method you’ve established. Consult with your legal counsel to ensure you’re allowed to refuse to comply on a case-by-case basis.

Are there exceptions from this law?

Yes, under Assembly Bill 25, there’s a one-year exemption from the CCPA obligations for businesses that collect and process data for a natural person acting as a job applicant. This means that for one year (until Jan 1, 2021), job applicants don’t have the same rights as other consumers.

There are expectations for specific privacy laws regarding employees. (Workable is planning to publish an article on AB 25 in the future, so stay tuned!).

What’s the CCPA-GDPR comparison?

Generally, while the two laws have some similarities, they may present also some differences. For example, GDPR has extra-territorial effect and under certain circumstances it can apply to companies that process EU data whether they’re established in the EU or not. CCPA can also apply to businesses headquartered outside California which collect personal information of California state residents and which satisfy certain criteria.

Learn more about the CCPA vs. GDPR comparison.

Does this California law place requirements for security like GDPR?

This is ambiguous. GDPR clearly talks about having in place “appropriate technical and organizational measures”. CCPA contains language that could point to security guidelines.

Generally, it’s good to consult attorneys and security experts to ensure you protect the personal information of consumers as much as possible.

How to implement CCPA

Each business might need to follow a tailored plan of action to achieve compliance with the CCPA, but generally, you could follow this CCPA compliance checklist:

1. Read about the law yourself. If possible, read the actual CCPA law to see the requirements and collect questions you may have.
2. Consult with your attorney or legal counsel. Legal counsels can answer your questions and explain the requirements of the law, as well as any controversy around it.
3. Compare and contrast with other privacy laws. If you comply with other privacy laws (e.g. GDPR), see if there’s any overlap in the requirements – it’s possible that you already comply with some aspects of California’s privacy legislation.
4. Create a plan for CCPA compliance. You should do this jointly with your legal experts to make sure you implement the right actions (e.g. methods to verify consumer requests, updates on the website or privacy policy) before CCPA goes into effect in January 2020.
5. Keep abreast of changes. Laws can change, especially via assembly bills. For example, job applicants and employees are likely excluded from the definition of “consumer” via Assembly Bill 25.

What are the consequences of violating this law?

Under CCPA, each business has 30 days to cure violations and inform consumers that they have done so. After these 30 days, if the business still doesn’t comply, it can receive a fine from $2,500 to $7,500. The business may also need to pay $100 to $750 per consumer per incident after civil action.

For example, the minimum amount you might need to pay for violating CCPA for 1,000 consumers is $1,000*100= $100,000, plus a minimum of at least $2,500.

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Many of the privacy regulations spawning all around the globe have numerous similarities (including the ostensibly similar acronyms) and several key differences. If you’re wondering about the CCPA and GDPR comparison, let’s take a look.

First, what are GDPR and CCPA?

CCPA

Recently, California passed its own privacy law, CCPA or the California Consumer Privacy Act, set to take effect in January 2020. The CCPA law gives rights to consumers regarding how their personal information is collected, sold or shared by organizations.

GDPR

One of the most discussed – and possibly stricter – privacy laws, the EU GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, has been in effect since May 2018. To strengthen people’s privacy rights, it restricts the collection and processing of personal data by organizations.

To help ensure GDPR compliance, check out our GDPR privacy policy template.

CCPA vs GDPR

Let’s start with the similarities: both laws oblige organizations to follow certain guidelines when handling personal information of natural persons; namely, being transparent and acting to the best interest of the people whose information they collect. For example, both involve following disclosure requirements such as informing people about what personal information they collect and about their rights according to CCPA/GDPR.

But, how is CCPA different from GDPR? Here’s a breakdown of basic differences (note that this list isn’t exhaustive):

Scope

Privacy rights

Specific regulations

Fines & consequences

Terminology & descriptions

CCPA-GDPR comparison:

• If your company complies already with the GDPR, you might find it easier to comply with CCPA as well (although companies shouldn’t assume that their GDPR compliance efforts will necessarily satisfy the requirements of the CCPA).
• CCPA places criteria based on the ‘gain’ companies get from consumer’s personal data or their overall revenue.
• CCPA applies to households and devices as well as natural people, unlike GDPR
• Both CCPA and GDPR can protect consumers or data subjects regardless of where they are at any given time.
• Both laws protect the same types and categories of information of natural persons. CCPA may protect more information such as information linked to a device (e.g. browsing activity).
• Both laws have disclosure and transparency requirements.

If you liked this CCPA vs GDPR article and would like to learn more about commonly compared terms, see our HR terms section.

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This deadline is for data on wages and hours from the 2017 and 2018 reporting periods. Employers that employed more than 100 employees during the 2017 and 2018 “workforce snapshot periods” need to submit component 2 for each reporting year and for all full-time and part-time employees. (Note: the “workforce snapshot period” is an employer-selected pay period between Oct.1 and Dec.31).

Contents:

• Recent history of EEO-1 component 2 data
• Component 2 vs. Component 1
• EEOC will not renew data collection

Any other employer (including federal contractors with fewer than 100 employees) isn’t obliged to submit component 2 data in their EEO-1 report.

Recent history of EEO-1 component 2 data

The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) had decided to ask employers to start submitting paydata for the 2017 EEO-1 reporting period on. However, that decision was then stayed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In the beginning of 2019, that stay was in turn overruled by Judge Tanya Chutkan in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. The EEOC was ordered to collect component 2 data after all.

Component 2 vs. Component 1

After paydata collection was ordered by Judge Chutkan, the EEO-1 report consisted of two components: component 1, or demographic data (employees broken down by gender, race/ethnicity, job category), and component 2, or paydata (employees’ W-2 income information broken down by gender, race/ethnicity, job category).

Employers needed to submit component 1 by May 30, 2019, while September 30, 2019 was set as the deadline for component 2.

EEOC will not renew data collection

Because of the Paper Reduction Act (PRA), the EEOC needs approval from OMB to continue collecting data in EEO-1 reports. While the EEOC decided to ask OMB to renew approval for component 1, it announced that they won’t submit a request for approval for component 2 data: “the EEOC is not seeking to renew Component 2 of the EEO-1”.

The court’s approval for Component 2 collection will expire no later than April 25, 2021. The stay of the OMB is now pending on appeal (National Women’s Law Center, et al. v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Case No. 19-5130 (D.C. Cir.).)

None of these affect the upcoming deadline for component 2 data for 2017 and 2018. Covered employers are obliged to submit this data as instructed. But, it’s possible employers will not have to gather and submit component 2 paydata in the years to come.

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You’ve probably heard the discussion about EEO vs. affirmative action. EEO (equal employment opportunity) and affirmative action are certainly relevant terms and therefore easy to mix up. Here’s the difference between EEO and affirmative action:

EEO is giving everyone the same opportunity to thrive, while affirmative action is actively supporting those who’ve been consistently deprived of fair and equal treatment.

To make this distinction clearer, let’s dig deeper into their individual definitions:

Contents:

• What is EEO?
• What is affirmative action?
• EEO VS affirmative action

What is EEO?

The idea behind the equal employment opportunity definition is that everyone should be treated fairly and have the same chances to succeed when they’re considered for employment decisions (such as hiring or termination). This implies people responsible for those decisions have succeeded in combating any systemic or individual biases they have against particular characteristics (most often protected characteristics like race, gender, age, disability, etc.)

More about EEO:

• Everything you need to know to be an equal opportunity employer
• How to file an EEO-1 report
• Understanding EEO categories
• EEO policy statement

What is affirmative action?

Affirmative action describes all initiatives that support members of a disadvantaged group that has suffered past discrimination. We see affirmative action programs mostly when it comes to education or government jobs. The underlying idea is that equal opportunity means nothing if past inequalities haven’t been corrected.

For example, several countries have implemented hiring quotas (like the caste quota in India or the Employment Equity Act in Canada) or have special admissions programs for higher education to give opportunities to underprivileged children. This is because large disparities in early opportunities will result in the more privileged getting hired more often for better-paying jobs (those privileged are usually white males, but often, members of non-preferred groups also have greater privileges than other members of their group – think about the difference in educational opportunities between a black girl from a village and a black boy from a large city, like New York).

An example from the workplace itself is when organizations decide to set goals of a 50-50 balance between male and female employees in senior positions, and when governments introduce legislation to enforce similar goals as seen recently in California.

EEO VS affirmative action

Equal opportunity is almost universally accepted as desirable. Affirmative action, on the other hand, has gone through various legal battles and heated debate in the U.S. and other countries. This is because some affirmative action practices, like racial quotas, can be thought of as discriminatory against people who don’t belong into underrepresented groups (in other words, “reverse discrimination”). That’s why some U.S. states, for example, have declared these types of affirmative action as generally unlawful. Internationally, countries such as Sweden (in 2010) and the UK (described as “positive discrimination” under the Equality Act 2010) have also declared it unlawful.

Though the validity of this view is up for debate, there are types of affirmative action (or positive action) that are lawful and can help build a fairer workplace. For example, an organization that steadily receives applications from white men could launch a targeted campaign to encourage minorities and women to apply.

Generally, organizations should look at EEO, diversity, discrimination and affirmative action more holistically, and consider everyone’s point of view. Bias training, communication training and objective employment processes (e.g. structured job interviews) can help employees be more accepting of colleagues belonging in different groups and also help eliminate unconscious biases.

So we shouldn’t be talking about affirmative action vs equal opportunity but rather, how equal opportunity and affirmative action principles can be applied in complementary fashion to improve the balance of our workplaces and society in general.

Want more definitions? See our complete library of HR Terms.

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• Race / color
• National origin / ethnicity
• Religion
• Age
• Sex / gender / sexual orientation
• Medical history

In the US, companies need to comply with the regulations of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a regulatory body that enforces a group of federal EEO laws. These regulations apply in every work situation; for example when employers hire, terminate, compensate, promote and train employees. It’s also illegal to discriminate against people who have complained about discrimination.

Most companies with 15 employees or more are legally obliged to follow the equal employment opportunity laws. These include:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
• Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
• The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA)

Also, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 gives the EEOC the authority to sue in federal court cases of unlawful, discriminatory employment practices.

For more details on what is an equal opportunity employer, read our EEO definition and learn the obligations and the exceptions that might impact your business.

Filing an EEO-1 report

One of the regulations you need to comply with once your teams grow – and, at the same time, one of the biggest pain points HR departments in the US have to face – is the dreaded EEO-1 report.

The EEOC has made it mandatory for companies that meet certain criteria (mostly related to the number of employees and the company’s operations) to fill out a compliance survey with employment data categorized by race/ethnicity, gender and job category. This is the EEO-1 report that must be submitted annually. For 2019, the deadline has been extended to May 31. Note that additional hour and pay data included in the EEO-1 Component 2 will be required by September 30, 2019.

Filing an EEO-1 report can be a headache for HR teams and employers because they need to accurately collect and report on employment data. Any mistakes could result in fines or even more severe legal troubles (e.g. imprisonment). Before you start filling out your report and before the deadline expires, check our detailed guide to learn whether you need to submit an EEO-1 report and how to do it. It might also be useful to take a look at this primer on EEO categories to understand the different job classifications.

Complying with EEOC

While the purpose of an equal opportunity act might be clear, the requirements that you need to follow and the action plans that you need to set up may not always be so. A misinterpretation, an inaccuracy or a small deviation from the regular procedures could leave you with an EEO complaint. Plus, the way you’d handle this complaint is crucial because it could turn into a lawsuit. To help you avoid legal consequences, we explored the six most common mistakes that companies make when facing EEOC charges – and what you should do instead.

Because it’s difficult to keep track of all employment information as your teams scale, we built tools inside Workable to help you with this process. By enabling the ‘EEO/OFCCP Survey and Reporting’ feature, you can be confident you capture all important data consistently, including disqualification reasons. You will also have a detailed compliance (EEO) report at hand.

Writing an EEO statement

Besides the EEO-1 report, EEOC makes it mandatory for some companies to include an equal opportunity employer statement in their job ads. This can be as simple as one sentence where you declare that you’re an equal opportunity employer and you follow non-discriminatory practices.

Even if you’re not obliged by law, it’s still a good idea to put an informal EEO statement in your job ads and careers page that will prompt people from underrepresented groups to apply and will speak of your values. This is what job seekers see when they visit Workable’s careers page:

However, an equal opportunity employment statement is not a guarantee of an unbiased work environment. This is something that should be reflected in every process you have before, during and after you hire employees; in other words, if you’re talking the talk, you need to walk the walk.

The importance of being an equal opportunity employer

Equality in the workplace goes beyond EEO laws. It’s not just about filing the EEO-1 report and complying with the regulations. These laws exist only to ensure that your company treats indeed employees fairly. But why is this important? Why should companies bother to enforce equality in the first place?

Is it the right thing to do or are there any business gains? Both. The equal opportunity employer meaning is deep. Yes, not discriminating against employees is the right thing to do, but not from a philanthropic perspective. Our societies consist of people with disabilities, people of different color or nationality, people of different gender and age. These characteristics have nothing to do with their ability to do a job. So, it’s our responsibility as employers to give equal chances to everyone: fair treatment during the hiring process, objective evaluations and rewards, equal pay.

But there’s also something for the businesses to win when they apply equal opportunity employment practices. As Matt Alder put it:

We don’t have to make the business case for diversity anymore.

Diverse groups are more successful compared to homogenous teams, because they bring different perspectives on the table, they reflect societies and markets more accurately and they can use their unique capabilities to accomplish better things. So it’s up to employers to untap this potential, by removing biases from all selection and evaluation procedures, by refraining from asking illegal interview questions and by training employees to treat each other respectfully and objectively.

We compiled a guide with additional ideas that’ll help you hire and manage employees fairly. You could also use this sample equal opportunity employer policy to set up your own EEO guidelines. There might not be a law that explicitly obliges you to train your teams against bias or to write down anti-discriminatory policies, but there’s a moral and business incentive that drives you towards that direction, into being a truly equal employer.

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But it’s not all money and mellow moods for cannabis companies. In addition to product restrictions, supply shortages, and other cannabis industry challenges, they’re dealing with emerging candidate concerns. From the stigma of working with a previously-banned substance to concerns around expertise and security, many retail stores and product producers are in the weeds when it comes to hiring great talent.

Let’s break it down with a look at current market forces and challenges in the cannabis industry when it comes to engaging candidates, and how pot purveyors can come out on top.

The move to legal marijuana

On October 18th, 2018, the Canadian government legalized marijuana. It wasn’t a free-for-all: While adults may possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis (and share this cannabis with others) in public, standard smoking laws still apply – offices and restaurants will remain bastions of Canadian politeness unsullied by rings of smoke. Users can also buy dried and fresh cannabis along with cannabis oil from provincially-licensed retailers and grow up to four cannabis plants per household for personal use.

As noted by Global News, marijuana laws are still evolving: Health Canada confirms that companies will be permitted to sell edibles no later than October 17th, 2019. Things are moving more slowly in the United States – despite increasing pressure on government agencies, there’s no confirmation of when (or if) pot will be legalized here.

But in the true spirit of weed-inspired “things are all connected, man” theories, Forbes suggests one that’s not too far out: The largest cannabis company in the world, Canopy Growth, just cut a multi-billion dollar deal with an American medical marijuana firm. It’s not exactly conclusive, but the big money being thrown around here suggests that stateside MJ selling may be closer than you think.

Retail forces

There’s big money in marijuana. Research firm ArcView predicts a $4.1 billion dollar market for edibles alone by 2022, while MarketWatch points to a 16.82% compound annual growth rate for medical marijuana (MMJ) over the next five years.

As noted in the National Post article above, MMJ retailers enjoy top-tier revenue per square foot at US $974, ranking above specialty stores like Whole Foods but below market giants like Costco. In Toronto, weed shops are averaging $50 per transaction — what people want depends on the time of day, neighborhood, etc. — and they have no trouble finding new customers. Even with 100 shops in the city, industry insiders say the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) could easily handle 1000.

Don’t let the rosy numbers fool you: There are unique cannabis industry challenges. According to the Financial Post, dispensaries in British Columbia which previously operated in the grey market are facing pushback from customers who aren’t happy with the limited variety of cannabis strains on offer or the price point. Because operating a legal dispensary comes with government oversight, vetting and the need for standard operating procedures (SOPs), the range of available products is smaller while the prices are higher — between $11 and $20 CAD ($8-$15 US) per gram. That’s a big hit to consumer wallets, considering grey market strains range from just $6 to $12.

Hiring is one of the cannabis industry challenges

To keep pace with increasing demand, companies are looking to bolster their weed workforces. As noted by the Windsor Star, Leamington, Ontario-based pot grower Aphira hopes to fill 130 jobs for their new greenhouse expansion, while CBC points to a new program designed to train Indigenous Nova Scotians for careers in cannabis.

Despite the fire lit by legalized marijuana markets, however, many companies are struggling to fill pot positions. Their biggest challenges?

a) Lack of relevant experience

With the MJ market in its legal infancy there’s no previous, measurable experience. As a result, companies often find potential staff who have a vested market interest but lack the necessary skill set.

b) Rapidly changing markets

Speaking of markets, the cannabis landscape is constantly changing. Edibles like “weed beer” are in development, but most first-gen versions taste awful and may not have the longevity to survive in alcohol-dominated entertainment spaces. The jury is also out on long-term ROI as companies look to find the ideal price point for cannabis products, making this a risky bet for stability-seeking staff.

c) Technological limitations

Most recruiting platforms and social media sites don’t let companies filter candidates by weed-related experience, making it difficult to track down potential employees. Plus, advertising online can run afoul of laws in some US states even if legal in others.

d) Public perception

There’s still a stigma attached to marijuana and its use. Who wants to work for a bunch of potheads?

3 ways to find better weed workers

How do companies bridge the blunt-force employee gap?

a) Look for skill synergies

As noted by Canadian Small Business Women, the lack of cannabis-related certifications and degrees makes it difficult to evaluate relevant experience. But according to Melissa Golden, senior executive recruiter at cannabis-specialized recruitment agency HerbForce, “there are transferable skill sets from industries like agriculture and pharma that link directly to cannabis.”

In that spirit, find a job description in sectors such as the ones mentioned by Melissa, and identify the skills and backgrounds (whether directly related or transferable) that would apply readily to the position you’re hiring for. For instance, the skills for an agricultural or farm manager can easily apply to that for a master grower. Also, remember there are numerous job descriptions that transcend industry, such as in human resources, finance or even sales and marketing. You can also consider the potential contributions of a candidate without the ideal background you’re looking.

You can also create hiring practices that align with comparable industry standards such as in the aforementioned sectors. This means applying the usual steps in the recruitment process, including background checks and candidate vetting, in-depth interviews that assess both practical knowledge and essential soft skills.

b) Talk up compensation

Some job seekers are reluctant to take on work with cannabis producers and retailers because they’re worried about the future of the industry. As noted by Caitlin Krapf, VP of HR and Organizational Development for Ontario-based weed-beer brewer Province Brands, while “top-tier scientists are in high-demand, some of the engineers were more ‘risk-averse’.” While limited experience with edibles plays a role here, there’s also a sense of uncertainty.

The solution? Lean into the growing market and talk up compensation: As a recent Force Brands report points out, the cannabis sector offers the most generous raise and benefits structures of all consumer packaged goods (CPG) sectors. Intangible compensation can include, for instance, the opportunity to work in a rapidly evolving sector that values innovation and new ideas.

c) Make it OK to talk about it

As noted by Dana Leavy-Detrick, founder and director of the cannabis-focused career consulting service Canna Career Partners, many candidates are concerned about revealing any cannabis-related experience on their resume, especially if it relates to pre-legalization troubles with law enforcement. In addition, “many candidates across the board question how to represent their prior/personal cannabis experience and knowledge across their resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile.”

The stigma is hard to shake on both sides, and that includes those potential candidates who may have the necessary or desired skills but are wary of consuming, selling or marketing pot-based products. New markets have another challenge: the lack of industry standards and tried-and-true practices by which you can evaluate candidates, particularly those with little to no relevant experience. This is normal for a market that didn’t exist above ground until recently.

To overcome that, identify those candidates with relevant experience as a follow-up to tip #1 above, and second, customize outreach to those potential (and particularly, passive) candidates. Third, don’t be too quick to stigmatize candidates. Finally, be clear that relevant and transferable background in cannabis can be a plus rather than a deterrent, particularly noting that this is a new and promising market and you’re a legal company in your area.

Public perception of cannabis is changing

Melissa notes that “in the last 6-12 months, the energy around recreational and medical marijuana has drastically changed and now more people are not only more open to it but are eager to join this young, thriving industry.”

The reality is, the cannabis market is on fire. Legal dispensaries, pot growers and edible developers aren’t short of customers — but many are struggling to find, hire and retain skilled staff. This isn’t a new thing – every new industry has its growing pains, and they have overcome them by applying standard strategies that work no matter the industry, and unique processes specific to the sector. It’s about identifying those unique cannabis industry challenges as outlined above, and establishing measures to overcome them.

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Contents:

• Bona fide occupational qualification
• Affirmative action
• Equal Employment Opportunity should extend beyond the law

Disclaimer: We don’t provide legal advice, nor is this a legal document. Consult an attorney to learn about your company’s specific legal requirements or the law.

In the legal sense of the EEO definition, “same chances” or “equal opportunity” means that employers cannot use certain characteristics as reasons to hire or reject candidates or make other employment decisions; in other words, they cannot discriminate against those characteristics. In many countries, protected characteristics include:

• Race / color
• National origin / ethnicity
• Religion
• Age
• Sex / gender / sexual orientation
• Physical or mental disability

EEO doesn’t guarantee that people of underrepresented groups will get hired. The purpose of EEO regulations is to make sure nobody will face rejection or difficulties because they’re in a protected group.

For example, under several EEO laws, you cannot reject a candidate simply because they’re Jewish or Christian, African or Caucasian, or because they’re pregnant. Similarly, you cannot advertise jobs asking for candidates of a certain age, and you cannot promote men over women – you can only base this decision on each person’s proven capabilities, performance and other objective criteria, rather than biases against protected groups.

If your company fails to comply with equal employment opportunity regulations, you may face complaints, lawsuits and fines. There are also the intangible costs associated with having a uniform instead of diverse workforce; you’re missing out on the benefits of different perspectives and approaches to the work at hand.

To keep track of how EEO compliant organizations are, U.S. regulations require some employers to file the EEO-1 report. Generally, if you have more than 100 employees, or you’re a federal contractor with more than 50 employees and a federal contract worth more than $50,000, you’ll need to file an EEO-1 report.

Don’t miss our complete EEO guide for employers

Bona fide occupational qualification1

Equal employment opportunity that concerns protected characteristics does have some exceptions. These exceptions of the EEO definition are bona fide qualifications (or “genuine occupational qualifications” in the UK) for a specific job. The nature of certain jobs may allow you to make an employment decision based on one of the protected characteristics.

For example, if you’re hiring for an actor to play a teenager, you can hire a person more closely to the age of the film character, rather than a middle-aged actor. Or, if a company makes clothes for men, it can advertise for male models. Another example is when a religious organization of a certain faith hires only candidates who share that faith if their job is related to it (for instance, when they are members of the clergy.)

Affirmative action

There’s another special case when considering specific protected characteristics. This comes in the form of affirmative action: the conscious, proactive pursuit of gender balance and diversity in an organization by supporting protected groups who are traditionally discriminated against.

For example, if your software development team is all white males, you can lawfully partner with associations of female, African or Asian engineers to find great candidates and assemble a team that is more representative of the society where they’ll be working. You still shouldn’t make the final hiring decision because of a person’s protected characteristic; you can only try to attract diverse candidates to broaden your talent pool.

This logic extends to fully formed programs that support affirmative action through education. Introducing training programs to combat hidden biases of hiring teams is an effective way to reduce unconscious discrimination.

Yet, because race-based affirmative action was banned in some U.S. states, the road is open for other effective EEO strategies. At the very least, craft an EEO policy to ensure your employees know you value fairness and diversity.

Equal Employment Opportunity should extend beyond the law

Using arbitrary and non-job-related criteria is the surest way to unfairly discriminate against people, even unwittingly. For example, when screening resumes, consider whether a person’s degree from a prestigious school truly speaks to their suitability for the job you’re hiring for. It’s not illegal to only hire candidates from Ivy League schools, but it certainly narrows your talent pool and reduces the chances of you finding the absolute best candidate out there. Make sure you always use the most objective criteria possible.

Of course, equal opportunity, diversity and relevant laws keep evolving. Different countries or states might enact new regulations, and companies might try out new EEO strategies. Be sure to check for updates regularly and don’t be afraid to test new ways of building a fair, ethical workplace.

Now that you know the answer to the question “what is EEO?”, check out our guides on EEOC regulations, the EEO-1 report and EEO statements. And, consider taking actions to combat overlooked types of discrimination, like age discrimination.

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But what happens when the final hiring decision is distorted by unconscious bias? Could you be biased without even realizing it?

Science says yes. Our minds make decisions intuitively, before we’re aware of it. Research proves that, too; we’re not immune to implicit bias. We like to think that logical arguments drive our decision making, but in fact there’s unconscious activity going on inside our brains that affects our judgements and decisions. And this includes hiring decisions, too.

What unconscious bias means in recruitment

In the hiring process, unconscious bias happens when you form an opinion about candidates based solely on first impressions. Or, when you prefer one candidate over another simply because the first one seems like someone you’d easily hang out with outside of work.

Even in the early hiring stages, a candidate’s resume picture, their name, or their hometown could influence your opinion more than you think. In short, unconscious bias influences your decision – whether positively or negatively – using criteria irrelevant to the job.

Is it really unconscious, though?

Matt Alder, HR thought leader and curator of the Recruiting Future podcast, observes that bias doesn’t always happen unconsciously: “I think there is probably some conscious bias going on when people are making decisions to employ people who think will fit in to their culture or adhere to the very similar people they’ve already got.“

Here’s a passage from the book ‘We Can’t Talk about That at Work!’ that describes a video being shown to a group of people:

“A man and woman walk silently into the room, never speaking, and the woman walks in behind the man with her eyes looking slightly downward. The man is wearing shoes and the woman is barefoot. The man comes to a chair and sits down, and then the woman sits on the floor next to him. The man acts like he’s eating something from a bowl. He then passes the bowl to the woman, and she eats from the bowl. When she’s finished, the man puts his hand just above the woman’s bowed head – it looks as though he’s almost pushing her head up and down – though his hand never actually touches her head. Then, the man stands up and leaves first, and the woman leaves behind him.”

Those who saw this video where then asked to describe it, and, more often than not, they used phrases such as ‘subservience’, ‘male dominance’ and ‘gender inequality’.

Do you want to know what really happens in this video, though?

“In the scene you just saw, the woman and the Earth are actually the two most sacred and revered aspects of their specific culture, so much so, that only the woman is holy and good enough to sit on the ground and touch it with her feet. Men can only experience the Earth through the woman. The man is charged with testing the food before it is proven fit for the woman; in case it is poisoned, he would die first. He is also charged with walking in first to deflect any attacks, and thus, to safely lead the way for her to walk unharmed.”

We tend to make assumptions based on what we – think we – know, based on our background, based on our personal preferences. And then, we act upon these assumptions. Matt offers a recruitment-related example: “Hiring managers choose candidates that they have a good feeling about but can’t explain why they want to hire that person.”

But is it necessarily a bad thing, though, to opt for people who’ll fit with your culture? Or, people you think you and your teams will get along with? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

(Un)conscious bias is costing you money and talent

Biased hiring decisions result in less diverse teams. And less diversity hinders your business productivity. “If you literally just put it into Google, you find article after article and research piece after research piece that says businesses perform better when they have greater ethnic and gender diversity,” Matt explains, “more diverse companies produce more revenue.”

But, he adds:

“We don’t have to make the business case for diversity anymore.”

You aren’t just trying to reduce unconscious bias in recruiting at the moment you select candidates; you must go further back and reduce that bias in where you find your talent in the first place, especially when talent shortage and skills gaps result in a less-than-optimum candidate pool for a job opening.

So, you’re not just looking to diversify your team, but also diversify your hiring process: when you cast a wider net and explore new candidate sources, you reach out to people who already have the right skill set, yet didn’t make it into your hiring pipelines using your usual strategy.

“People are finding it very difficult to find talent in the way that they’ve always done,” Matt says, “so they need to think more creatively and be more flexible about how they get the right skills in their business.”

And you can do that by removing the barriers and start looking at candidates with non-traditional backgrounds. In one episode of his podcast, Matt talked with Dominie Moss from The Return Hub about untapped talent, which takes us back to the concept of assumptions: we’re often biased against people who took a career break or want to make a career change and this could actually cost us great and candidates.

“I think that the companies that get that, are tending to be more successful and are tending to outthink their competition. Now, whether they are able to actually act on it and actually make a difference, that’s the key,“ Matt notes.

How to remove unconscious bias from the hiring process

First and foremost, we need to be aware of our biases. We might not able to get rid of them completely, Matt says, but it’s important to build awareness and help people think more consciously when making hiring decisions.

Bias could be everywhere

Unconscious bias in recruitment is common during the resume screening phase. This is when we move forward or reject applicants based on how close they are to our picture of the ‘perfect candidate’.

But that’s not the only step of the hiring process where we should be looking for unconscious biases. Even when we decide to move a candidate forward despite a lingering feeling that they’re not quite suitable for the role, that initial impression will follow – or haunt, really – us throughout the hiring process and it’s likely we’ll disqualify them at a later stage.

To identify potential biases, we need to look at every step of the entire recruiting cycle, from the recruitment marketing techniques we apply to the moment we bring people on board. Matt elaborates on this by sharing an example of one company that was struggling with hiring female employees. Their challenge was not that they didn’t attract female candidates; rather, they noticed, that men were far more willing to accept a job offer compared to women.

“When they did some research, they found out that there were various reviews about the company that suggested that people wouldn’t want to work there.” The HR team was completely unaware of these reviews, so they remained unaddressed. And job seekers often look at company reviews on Glassdoor, Indeed, or another job site before they make their final decision to accept or decline a job offer.

“That was one of the things that was causing the problem in their process,” says Matt. “But, they would never had spotted that, had they not actually analyzed what was happening at each stage of the recruitment process and where the disconnects where.”

To really understand where your biases are, you need to monitor your recruitment process on an ongoing basis, gather data and pinpoint where the problems are, Matt explains.

“Is it the type of applications you attract? Is it the fact that people get into your recruitment process but, then, leave? Where people are coming in and where do they drop out? Sometimes, the problems can be identified as coming down to specific individuals or specific teams within the organization.”

The role of technology in increasing diversity

“There’s a sense that actually, technology could fix this,” Matt says. There are tools that hide applicants’ pictures. Or, tools that automatically post your job ads in multiple places, broadening the outreach and reaching more candidates in the ‘unlikeliest of places’. One of the latest trends is also making parts of the hiring process anonymous.

In one episode of his podcast, Matt discussed with Penguin Random House about how they went through a whole recruitment campaign without looking at resumes at all.

“They didn’t ask any questions about people’s backgrounds, or even their names, or their ages,” Matt explains. “They literally got them to complete a written exercise. Anyone could do that. And, they only met the shortlisted applicants at the very, very last stage. The final interview. They had no idea who was coming through. What happened was they ended up recruiting some people who would’ve never made it through their traditional recruiting process because, for example, they didn’t have a degree at the time. They found that it was very beneficial for their work.”

But, technology is not a panacea. Matt recently described how AI could help build a more objective hiring process, but how, at the same time, it’s also tied with the human factor.

“Do technologies bake unconscious bias in recruitment in the way their algorithms work and in the way they match people? Do they actually make things worse? That’s a debate that we’re probably going to be having for many, many years.”

Fighting the root of unconscious bias in recruiting

Instead of relying only on the most advanced technologies, Matt recommends thinking about how we can improve ourselves, too. He mentions the example of a company that had a very specific problem: a lack of women in senior roles within the business. Being very committed to solve this problem, they realized that there were various unconscious biases in the way hiring managers were doing interviews and selecting people.

This was not an issue that technology could fix. “Instead, they ran a series of courses and workshops to bring it into focus and to make people aware of what their biases were and how that was playing out.”

Matt gives another perspective, too: removing unconscious bias is not independent from your overall business objectives. You need to consider what you want to accomplish and how you’ll get there.

“Companies really need to think about how they are assessing people through processes. ‘What are the skills, experience, competencies, that we actually need in this job?’ And, if we were all open-minded about where we could go and source those competencies, we might find we employ very different people, to the people that we’ve got.”

And that’s a good thing to do for one more reason: “it’s important that businesses reflect the societies in which they’re based.” Societies are diverse, so unconscious bias in recruitment could quietly sabotage the effort to build equally diverse workplaces.

“I think that’s critical, particularly in our current state with so much uncertainty, the need for people with different viewpoints and different life experiences coming into businesses. Because there’s visible diversity, but [there’s] also diversity of thought,” Matt concludes.

Can we truly get rid of our biases?

There’ve been some great initiatives from companies that try to build more inclusive work environments globally. There’ve also been various organizations and communities that actively support minorities in the workplace. There have even been people who are dedicated to increase diversity within their company (for example, through the role of a D&I Manager).

But all of these efforts don’t guarantee that we’ll become completely unbiased. Unconscious bias exists even if we’re genuinely pursuing more diversity in our hiring process. We can always start, though, by trying to understand where biases are coming from and how they affect our hiring decisions; we may not be able to completely discard our unconscious bias, but, ultimately, we’ll be more conscious of it when it does happen.

The post Unconscious bias in recruitment: How can you remove it? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What’s more, according to data from CV-Library, salaries are soaring across the UK, with average pay in 2018 jumping up by 7.6% on the previous year. It’s clear from this that companies are trying to pull out all the stops in order to secure and retain the top talent. But is this really a strategy that businesses can afford to continue with?

Alongside this, when looking at average advertised job numbers, the agriculture, legal, property and retail industries saw the biggest rise in job numbers in 2018, an increase by 38.8%, 26.6%, 23.3% and 22.5% respectively.

At a first glance, this might suggest that employers in these industries are feeling confident about their hiring efforts and growing their teams. However, we cannot ignore the fact that some of these sectors, such as agriculture, are predicted to be hard-hit by Brexit, largely because of the projected departure of EU-based talent. As such, it’s clear that companies within these industries are being impacted by ongoing skills shortages.

In light of these issues, this article will explore these trends in more detail, as well as a number of concerns that employers have around Brexit, offering practical advice on how to stand out as an employer during uncertain times.

Sourcing candidates

The second half of the double whammy facing employers already losing EU-based talent is that the current economic climate has prompted many professionals to remain in the safety of their current employer. While this is positive news for businesses in terms of retaining key employees, it does also spark real concern for the organizations that are looking to grow their teams and bring in new talent – particularly as many are already finding it difficult to access the skills they need.

In fact, according to research, 39% of hiring managers struggle to find the right skills because of Brexit, with a further 24% stating that they need confirmation and clarity on what the potentially limiting immigration rules will be around Brexit. Many organisations rely on EU talent to supply key skills, meaning a crackdown on migration will have a serious impact on these businesses, including those key industries we mentioned earlier.

So how can employers continue to source the individuals they need? Using the right tools is extremely important, whether it’s an applicant tracking system like Workable, or a job board like CV-Library. Better still, integrating the two types of platforms can ensure that you have access to both active and passive candidates, while also streamlining your entire hiring process. Alongside this, consider building out a strategy for social media recruiting or even word of mouth. Strong employer branding will also help your company be more attractive to candidates and help counteract some of the negative press toward UK organizations resulting from Brexit developments.

Attracting professionals to your roles

Are you making a job offer that candidates simply can’t say no to? In the current climate, attracting candidates beyond the usual higher salary and benefits is extremely important. After all, many companies can’t afford to keep up with the Joneses financially and instead need to look at other ways to stand out.

At the same time, while higher salaries are all good and well, all the money in the world won’t reassure a candidate who’s worried about where they’re going to be in one year’s time.

The trouble is, we are operating in a candidate-driven market. Many professionals know their worth and will use this to their advantage to find a role that ticks every single box.

In order to keep up with these demands, you need to consider what makes your business unique. Can you safely say that your workplace has a stand-out factor that makes you better than your competitors? If the answer is no, it might be time to consider investing some time in switching up your entire people processes, culture and perks.

For example, are you offering flexible working hours? Are you proactively supporting mental health in the workplace? Do you have any additional perks, such as giving staff their birthdays off? These don’t have to come at too much of a financial cost, but can do wonders for helping you stand out as an employer of choice in the current climate.

What’s more, consider some of the more unique perks that can set your business apart. Unlimited time off, duvet days, paid puppy leave, a wellness allowance and so on are quickly emerging as some of the upcoming perks in the workplace. And, outside of these admittedly quirky offerings, consider what perks can you offer a candidate that will specifically help to alleviate any concerns around Brexit.

For example, some organizations have introduced Brexit Project Managers who are on hand to help individuals sort everything they need to they can stay in the UK and particularly, with the business.

Do your research on what will be most effective and don’t just throw out a new perk for the sake of it.

If you build a strong foundation of culture and benefits for employees, your employer branding efforts and attracting qualified professionals will become easier.

Recruiting and retaining the best workers

Of course, in a candidate-short market, retaining your top employees is also extremely important, especially as the cost of recruiting someone new can be a massive cost to the business. As noted, Brexit uncertainty may have made short-term retention a bit easier, but the most qualified and best employees might still leave your organisation, especially if they’re from another country.

Retention is all about understanding what drives your employees and ensuring that you’re offering them an exciting career path that they can’t afford to leave behind. Ask yourself, how often are you sitting down with your employees and discussing their performance and goals? Are you holding regular salary reviews to reward individuals for their hard work?

Your focus should not only be on sourcing new talent, but also maximising the skills of existing employees. Investing in their development can be extremely beneficial to the organisation, helping you to remain competitive in these difficult times. For example, do you offer training programs, whether internal or external? How often are you working with your employees to discuss their progress and set new goals? Consider these factors and what you can do to enhance your employees’ careers and get the most out of their skill-sets.

Alongside this, while you don’t want to ‘scare’ your employees or make them worry about the safety of their jobs, it is important to address that the current market is a difficult one. By being honest, open, and reassuring them that you’re all in it together, you’ll stand a better chance at retaining your workforce.

Stand out as an employer during uncertain times

It’s no secret that businesses across the UK are struggling to find the talent they need right now. With ongoing uncertainty around Brexit, it’s difficult to know how the market will remain in 2019. What we do know is that organisations need to think of how they can improve their candidate attraction methods in order to fill key skills gaps within their companies.

By taking action now and focussing on standing out as an employer, whether that’s focussing on your employer brand or working with the right recruitment partners, you’ll have a better chance of attracting, recruiting and retaining the best workers in the midst of Brexit uncertainty.

Augusta Henning is PR Manager for CV-Library and Resume-Library and has been writing about career related topics for more than six years. She has a passion for communication and enjoys creating all sorts of content for her employer.

The post The key to standing out in recruitment during Brexit uncertainty appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And most recently. Better.com CEO Vishal Garg came under fire for the manner in which he let go of 900 employees – effectively doing it via a Zoom call. Almost immediately, he and his brand received vicious backlash.

Whether it’s because of bad decisions, an economic crisis, a change in business strategy, or a general reorg, companies might reach a point where layoffs are an inevitable option to keep the business alive. And when you get to this point, it’s not just about why you got there; what matters is that you’re here now – and you need to carry out the process with as minimal damage to your employee morale and your employer brand as possible. You can start with how you’ll communicate layoffs to your employees – both those who are leaving and the ones who are staying.

The next day

Again: we are not talking about the decision to lay off employees. This is a whole different story that involves strategic decisions, financial results, competition and so many other factors. Here, we are interested in the extent to which the way a company is handling layoffs can – or can’t – impact its reputation.

Surely, we can’t expect positive or indifferent reactions to a company’s announcement of mass layoffs. Shock, sadness and even outrage can be inevitable. But, while many of the negative reactions refer to whether the company could have chosen another option instead of letting people go, a significant number of discussions centers around what the company is doing to protect employees’ rights. Here’s what happened during some of the most recent layoffs:

In BuzzFeed’s case, there was a lot of talk around the way the company handled layoffs. From the aforementioned quiz that points out known problems (like the lack of a workers’ union) to an open letter from ex-employees who demanded (and managed successfully) to get paid for their unused PTOs, it’s clear that BuzzFeeders were not satisfied by the senior management’s approach and they were willing to go public with their grievances, putting the firm’s brand at risk.

Also in 2019, Tesla announced mass layoffs to increase the production of Model 3s while keeping the cost low. But employees had concerns. Those who were let go had doubts about the criteria used to determine who stayed and who didn’t – claiming that the company chose to fire the more experienced, and thus higher-paid, workers. And employees who kept their jobs were concerned about the quality of work and their own workload considering that entire departments were cut back by half. When it came to Tesla layoffs: employees – both current and former – indicated and complained vocally about a lack of transparency in the company’s decision.

When Toys ‘R’ Us announced layoffs in March 2018, it didn’t come as a huge shock as the company had already filed for bankruptcy the previous September. Or, that’s what we may think. In fact, many employees said that the news came as a surprise to them, because their former employer closed more stores than what was earlier announced. What’s worse, due to the bankruptcy declaration, laid-off employees were not eligible for a severance package, leaving them even more uncertain and anxious about their future.

Is there a better way?

This much is clear: there’s no easy way. Layoffs are a dreaded part of business, for everyone. Some people lose their jobs and those who keep them enter a job insecurity phase or endure survivor’s guilt. The company must deal with legal obligations towards laid-off employees and work to reverse the negative atmosphere among remaining staff, all the while dealing with the potential bad press that comes with large-scale layoffs.

(Note that, when you’re handling layoffs, you need to check and comply with local labor laws that apply based on your company size and the location where your company operates.)

You can’t sugarcoat a layoff. But perhaps, you can try to make things smoother for your employees. Here’s how:

First, be respectful

One of the hardest parts in managing layoffs is the actual announcement – that crucial moment when you gather employees to announce the bad news. This is the time to be empathetic towards people who are about to lose their jobs. This is the time to be transparent as everyone will be wondering why this is happening. Surely, communicating layoffs to employees is uncomfortable and that’s why even written memos are often full of corporate lingo that doesn’t explain much, and if anything, can make things worse. On the other hand, a respectful, more personable speech or letter can go a long way:

“We’ve decided to make some major changes at Medium. I’ll start with the hard part: As of today, we are reducing our team by about one third – eliminating 50 jobs, mostly in sales, support, and other business functions.”

That’s how Medium’s CEO started his letter that announced layoffs in 2017. And later, he continues:

“Obviously, this is a tough thing to do, made tougher by the immense respect and love we have for these people who have helped make Medium what it is today. […] This is certainly one of the hardest things I’ve done in my years as a founder and CEO.”

An open letter is a good idea if you want to use your own voice to describe the situation in public. But, it’s not enough. The CEO should speak directly to employees and explain what is happening and why – if you’re all in the same location, then this is best to do this in person. In the wake of a mass layoff, there will be gossip. The more transparent you are and the faster you do so, the more likely it is that you can avoid rumors and uncertainty – and disdain – among laid-off and remaining employees.

Help former employees get a new job

In 2011, Nokia laid off 18,000 employees. Having experienced protests, boycotts and bad press back in 2008 when they let go of 2,300 employees, senior managers of the telecom firm knew that they had to do things differently this time. So, they developed a program to help employees find a new job inside or outside Nokia, start their own business, learn new skills or pursue their personal goals. As a result, former employees managed to build successful startups and Nokia maintained a good reputation as an employer.

When you’re going through layoffs, it might seem counterintuitive to spend money on transitioning laid-off employees or training them for new jobs. While the idea may seem well-intentioned, it’s understandable that it’s not always realistic. There are other, though, less costly things you can do: offer resume-building advice, connect laid-off employees through your network or cover the fees for a short-term online course or a local college program that will help former employees build upon their skills or transition to new careers. In other words, don’t leave employees in the lurch; show them in action that you truly respect their contribution to the company and that the layoff is not a matter of poor individual performance.

Adopt a “prevention is better than cure” mindset

That’s what senior managers at AT&T were probably thinking when they realized that there was a shortage of skills that would be in high demand in the coming years and, at the same time, many of their current jobs would become obsolete. So, to avoid mass layoffs, they designed the Workforce 2020 (WF2020) program; an initiative to train employees on new skills, promote internal mobility and build new career paths.

The same attitude applies even if you know you won’t be able to avoid layoffs after all. When you’ve tried different plans (such as cutting back on benefits or implementing a hiring freeze) but nothing seems to work, get ready for the “layoff plan”. Determine which jobs you need to cut and which ones you absolutely need to save and start thinking on how your staff can remain productive despite the downsizing.

The aftermath of layoffs

You probably can’t make amends for people who are losing their jobs, but be by their side, be fair, and provide practical support the best way you can. And for those who are staying with you, don’t let them live in insecurity; explain clearly why layoffs happened and be open and transparent about your future strategies.

By taking these steps, you can dull the pain of large-scale layoffs, maintain employee morale and avoid a PR nightmare like that seen after the Better.com layoffs. At the end of the day, you want to take care of your employees through both good, bad, and ugly times.

The post Handling layoffs: The good, the bad, and the ugly appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And that’s what we’ve been doing at OpenSignal, where I’ve been the Director of People and Talent for almost a year now. We’re a company of 60 people globally with about 45 of those based in London while the rest are located outside of the UK.

We’re proud to be a diverse organisation: we have 26 nationalities in our team. Almost every other Opensignaler (as we like to call ourselves!) you meet is from a different country, and that’s just counting what’s on their passports, not how they might identify themselves.

Because of our overall diversity, and global nature of our business, Brexit will affect us. We’ve had two London-based Opensignalers decide they did not want to live in the UK anymore in the last year (but they continue to work for OpenSignal remotely). Then, in the last three months, we’ve had two employees relocate to the UK from mainland Europe specifically to work for us.

So we need to prepare to help all our Opensignalers feel secure, supported and more informed about their legal status and their options under Brexit. Here’s how to prepare your business for Brexit:

First things first: Right to work

Our CEO stood in front of the company and said, “We know that change is coming and whilst I can’t tell you exactly how Brexit will work out, I will offer you our commitment: OpenSignal is committed to to ensure we can continue to employ our Opensignalers irrespective of their nationality. We have worked incredibly hard to build this amazing team and we will do whatever we can to avoid any repercussion from Brexit getting in the way of that.”

So we put a plan in place and we shared it with the board.

The first step for me was to verify our team members’ right to work. And that involves having a valid passport but also, if they’re EU/EEA citizens, whether they’ve considered applying for a British passport. Also, I identified if they have a residency card and what additional steps they’ve taken to secure their residency in the UK.

I spoke with everyone in the company who does not have a British passport, which is over 50% of our UK workforce.

Seek legal expertise and let employees in on it

There’s only so much information I can share when I’m not a legal expert myself, so we engaged an external expert to provide additional support. We would not want to have any risk in terms of giving information that isn’t valid. This is about people’s lives, not just about their employment status with us.

We found an immigration and visa specialist who now completely manages any visa sponsorship applications with the Home Office. They understand all the different steps to make sure the process isn’t delayed and they share up-to-date information and any government changes on immigration statuses. I’ve already learnt a lot having them onboard!

We then offered our team the ability to seek confidential advice with this external expert. We put him in touch with Opensignalers who are looking to understand, for example, the new settlement scheme and get information about applying.

And it’s on the house

The company decided to pay for this advice. Whether employees wanted advice on their application process, making sure they had all the right documents or whether it’s just asking some questions, we pay for that. We also pay any home office fees for their applications.

We want to give them unrestrained access to that advice and information, so that hopefully they can feel a little less concerned about their situation. We want to make sure they have all the knowledge and understanding they can to make an informed choice, whether they decide to stay in the UK or not.

People are still coming to the UK

The stats show there’s been a decline in the number of people from the EU/EEA moving to the UK since the referendum in June 2016. I’d say we haven’t seen less CVs from candidates outside of the UK in general, but we have seen slightly fewer CVs from candidates residing in mainland Europe. We continue to receive as many applications from the US, India, Turkey, Israel, and countries across South America. In a previous company, we had two European candidates pull out of the final stages of the hiring process just after the referendum.

However, we definitely still see people moving to London, even from the EU/EEA. Software engineers, especially, are still motivated to work and live here. I think that’s because they’re so in demand; when you have lots of opportunities available, you’re probably less likely to be concerned as you know you can always move to another buzzing tech hub, especially if you’re an EU/EEA citizen. Also, for those who are not looking to move to the UK as a long-term commitment, such as buying a house or raising a family here, there’s still very much incentive to move to London – for now!

So we’re still hiring people from outside of the UK and many of them are relocating here in London.

…but they need support

Benefits are an important part of the equation and are key in attracting and retaining the best people regardless of the social and political climate.

One of the first big benefits we put in place when I joined was private healthcare. Given that over 50% of our employees are not from the UK, they understand the concept of the NHS (as the majority of EU/EEA countries have variants of public health services) but ultimately they were telling us “we want private healthcare and we want to be able to add our families to it.” This was feedback we got from engagement surveys we send out every two months, and we listened.

For the people who relocate to work in our London office, we offer relocation support. There is a financial budget they receive and we also share guides on how to set up a bank account, how to look for housing, how to get a national insurance card, what is the NHS, and all kinds of things we take for granted as people who’ve lived here for a very long time.

We try to be flexible and accommodate as much as possible for those coming from abroad, and the changes they experience.

Remote work matters

We’ve been starting to think about what we’ll do in a worst case scenario Brexit – where there might be a big dip in terms of the workforce and the economy – and plans we might need to put in place to support our Opensignalers to continue working for us, wherever that might be. These plans are in their infancy though, while there’s still so much uncertainty.

However, we feel confident that hiring people from outside of the UK will be a lesser challenge because of our remote work practices. If the number of Opensignalers we hire outside of our London office increases, they’ll experience the same ways of working and behaviors that we already have in place. About 25% of our workforce aren’t based in HQ anyway.

This is also what has enabled us to retain the two employees who decided to leave the UK – they’re no longer in our London-office, but they remain Opensignalers.

How we make remote working work

First, we have local HR services within the countries where our remote workers are employed, to support them from a local employment law, payroll and benefits perspective.

But these employees are still very much part of Opensignal and its culture. Everyone uses Zoom and Slack, we have screens everywhere in the office where it’s very easy for people to log in and work with each other remotely. We also try to make sure the sessions we run coincide with most people’s time zones and if that’s not possible, we record everything. Whether it’s an all-company meeting or team meeting, we document everything so it’s available for people if they miss it.

We also have pretty flexible working patterns. People have flexibility in terms of when they start and finish – whatever works for our Opensignalers, the teams they work with and the projects they commit to, we trust our people to do their best work, however that might be.

Then we also have a policy in place to let our UK workforce work from abroad. We understand that, as over half of our workforce in London are from outside of the UK, they may want to go home and see their family for a longer period of time during special holidays such as Christmas, so we offer the ability to work from abroad. They have the opportunity to work from abroad for any kind of emergencies or extenuating circumstances too. This is part of a flexible culture that we’ve tried to create that pays attention to our Opensignalers’ needs.

I think, for sure, there are challenges with having remote workers but the feedback has always been that it’s working quite well. Every month we host town halls that people can join from HQ or Zoom, every quarter we get the whole company together for a company update followed by some social activity; and twice a year we take all our Opensignalers offsite for an away day. We believe that bringing our teams together regularly to solve problems, learn and laugh with one another is critical for our success.

Boost your attractiveness to candidates

We’re lucky because, as an organisation, we actually have more of a presence outside of the UK. For sure, there will always be people who decide to actively look for jobs in Amsterdam or Berlin rather than London, but currently, it hasn’t been a problem for us. We might just have to think even more outside of the box in terms of how we set our Opensignalers up for success, and how we we brand our company going forward, if it becomes more challenging with new Brexit developments.

Unfortunately, as one organisation, there’s not much you can do to change candidates’ perception of what they’re reading about the UK and the UK workforce. All we can do is promote our culture and show we have opportunities for them to work for us, even if it’s not specifically in London.

Communicate your culture

As part of the hiring process, I meet with everyone at final stage and I speak a lot about the culture of the company, how we work and what we expect of each other. It’s especially important to talk about how flexible we are, about having employees all over the globe, and about the processes and ways of working we’ve set up to support them.

We share the fact that we’re continuously scaling – with a workforce that’s not all in the same place. That’s always received really positively in the interview process.

Invest in relevant content

I’m currently the only full-time person who works in the people and talent function, but we’re investing further in the people team this year. Once the next person’s on board, we’ll build further on our employer brand.

We’ll get a few more day-in-the-life blogs out there. Maybe one of our remote engineers can share what a day looks like for them, and how they continue to work effectively with colleagues who are in different countries.

That’s definitely one of the strategies we would like to implement over the next 12 months. Creating more blog posts and building up our social media presence; sharing short videos on what people love about working in our organisation and openly share our stats, such as having a company of 60 people and more than 26 nationalities.

Build a team who truly understands diversity

It’s really important to have an internal recruitment team, and leadership team, that are open to different ways of thinking, see the benefits of a diverse workforce, and are aware of their unconscious biases. Brexit has already created a psychological barrier, so it’s important that hiring teams remain open to seeing candidates from all backgrounds, and continue to make the effort to find the right skilled person for the right role. Brexit isn’t specifically about diversity and inclusion, but I think it will definitely play a part in the choices UK companies make in their hiring strategies.

A good starting point is asking your internal recruiters and hiring managers to take the Harvard Implicit Bias test to help them identify their biases. Facebook’s ‘Managing Bias’ training is also really useful!

Employee retention made easier

In general, employees have really appreciated the additional advice and support we’re providing. What’s also important is the consistent message we keep driving internally, about how proud we are of the fact we’re a diverse company, and the positive impacts this has on our success. We’re continuing to be an inclusive environment in terms of how we hire, and it’s showing.

People are concerned, they’re not sure what’s going to happen, but ultimately they know that Opensignal is committed to continuing to employ them. They see we still hire people from abroad and they understand we value diversity and inclusion. They know there are possibilities for them, and we’ll continue to support them, no matter what happens with Brexit. We don’t have all the answers, but we always hear what our Opensignalers need; and ensure Opensignal remains a great place to work for everyone, whether they are in the office or at the end of a Zoom call.

Kat Bowles is a Business Psychologist and People and Talent Leader with over 8 years experience in large scale and high growth global tech companies. She’s passionate about creating engaging candidate and employee experiences, fostering inclusive environments, employee wellbeing, and how to create positive change as businesses rapidly scale and evolve.

Related:

• Don’t forget the ‘human’ in Brexit HR implications
• The impact of Brexit on employment: Insights from 3 experts

The post Ask a Recruiter: How to prepare your business for Brexit appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Presiding were:

• Matt Buckland, Workable VP of Customer Advocacy, who brings with him 16 years of experience in human resources and recruitment
  
• Sarah Lieberman, Programme Director and Senior Lecturer, Politics and International Relations at Canterbury Christ Church University, who brings 11 years of European legislation & regulation expertise
• Louise Haycock, Director & Solicitor at Fragomen, who brings 12 years of UK inbound immigration experience.

Brexit uncertainty hangs like a cloud over Britain’s recruitment community, as well as permeating conversations everywhere from the residential supper table to Westminster. With that in mind, our three panelists discussed the impact of Brexit on recruitment and retention for the larger recruitment community in the UK, and offered insights and potential workarounds for what’s coming up. A video of the hour-long panel talk is below – meanwhile, read on to learn the key takeaways from the event:

1. No easy path

No one knows what’s going to happen. This theme was a common refrain throughout the hour.

Sarah made this clear early on in the panel: “This morning … we were desperately checking Twitter, checking BBC News for updates, [even just] 20 minutes ago, because that is how close we are now, and how uncertain things are. … literally it’s all up in the air.”

This of course affects planning purposes in mitigating the impact of Brexit on employment. It’s hard to plan for something when you don’t know what that something is going to be, Sarah said.

“It depends if you mean long term or short term. In the short-term, I have no idea. It could be anything. In the short term, the only two options currently appear to be sticking with what we’ve got [or going ahead with no formal arrangement]. Because there is no deal on the table. … There’s nothing to look at, and say, ‘Yeah, this is what it’s going to be.’

And to really drive the point home that it’s gone far beyond the politics, Sarah clarified:

“Whether [you are] pro-remain or pro-leave, it doesn’t immunize you against it being difficult.”

2. But yes, there are things you can do

Nevertheless, Brexit uncertainty doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to plan around. There are numerous focal points that recruiters and HR representatives can consider to build a strategy with contingency plans designed to pivot quickly at the earliest sign of clarity.

Louise emphasized the importance of that: “There are certainly elements that we can look at and start to plan on a worst-case scenario basis and on a best-case scenario basis. What would happen under the withdrawal agreement that’s on the table at the moment?”

She added a point of optimism that maybe – just maybe – the anticipated changes may not be as marked as originally feared, based on the UK government’s Brexit white paper which was released in December of 2018. Louise’s employer, Fragomen, has an extensive and detailed Brexit section on its website that outlines, among other things, the main details of the white paper as it pertains to immigration.

Louise pressed the point that, while there would be a transitory period, there were two points to look forward to: what would happen with people will likely not change drastically from one day to the next, and free movement would likely continue until the end of 2020.

“Now, that gives employers a long time to be able to sort out the individuals that are already exercising those treaty rights. So meaning they can go and register their presence. They have a means to prove that they are able to live and work in each of those countries, and they have an ability to show that they are able to travel. So that clearly is the preferable scenario, that we’ve got a big lead in time and we’ve all got an opportunity to be able to protect those individuals.”

That, however, is if the details of the white paper – which Louise clarified is just a set of ideas proposed by the UK government in terms of immigration – were to take effect in law.

Consider the impacted parties

In the case of a hard Brexit – meaning, no agreement at all – Louise recommends looking at the three impacted parties in Brexit HR implications: 1) EU nationals living in the UK; 2) UK nationals living in the EU; and 3) those living in one country but working in another, or “frontier workers”.

For EU nationals living in the UK: Louise was clear that they must register as soon as possible under the EU Settlement Scheme, and the potential turnaround for approval – normally expected to be 2-3 weeks – could be as short as 24 hours based on one client’s experience. The murkier part happens in paying the fee — at the moment, a fee must be paid, and applicants can apply for reimbursement after 29 March.

For UK nationals living in Europe: it gets a little more complicated. Each country will have its own registration process for UK nationals, Louise said. “That’s 27 different types of registration processes, all of which look slightly different. All of which have different timescales in which those individuals have to register by before you get to the position where they’re essentially illegal.”

She highlighted two examples: “We do know in Germany they’re going to have three months, whereas, on Dutch soil, you’ve got much longer … it should be a two-year point that UK nationals have to register their presence. So I would be concentrating on those individuals who are British nationals based in Germany.”

There is, of course, the caveat of lack of clarity: “I must add at this point that these schemes aren’t necessarily live yet. We just have a very broad outline of what they might look like.”

Louise recommends looking at the nationalities within your workforce and those you are looking to hire in the coming months, and take advantage of that short time frame between now and 29 March: “Is there anybody who is relocating that may need to or would benefit from free movement?”

For those who work for businesses remotely in the EU – the ‘frontier workers’: “It goes back to the withdrawal agreement and what that says. So there is provision for, say, a frontier worker who might live in one member state and work in another. Wherever you may get a residence permit – is it only where you live and not necessarily where you work?

“So there might be a separate registration process they’re going through for looking at frontier workers. And that would be, how you would have to remote work in the future.”

3. Contingency plans abound

“A change management plan is a really good idea,” said Louise. She points out that there are general points to look at: knowing who your impacted populations are, communicating with them, mapping out who needs to know about the impact of Brexit on employment and business, what specifically they need to know in terms of their role in the company, and devising a plan that accounts for time, budget, business planning, and other elements.

Time is a major factor, especially. Take into account the benchmarks that will affect your hiring and retention strategies, such as Germany’s three-month scheme and the two-year scheme in the Netherlands. You may have to implement an aggressive hiring strategy starting in 2021 when Brexit is finalised, and consider that bringing in EU nationals – and other foreign talent at large – will take up added time and resources.

Plan for what is likely to happen

Sarah also discussed the potential outcomes that you can plan for: “I suspect long-term we will end up with something a bit like the deal that Norway has. I think, in the long term, we don’t want to not be trading with European member states, because [a lot] of our trade is with our European partners. They’re the closest countries to us.”

Louise stressed that you must consider 29 March as the cutoff date for registering for presettled status in the EU settlement scheme, and consider that this date potentially marks the end of free movement for potential candidates and even current employees. “I would encourage your European population in the UK to use that scheme now.”

Visa processing times will likely increase – with some estimates as long as six weeks – having a considerably direct impact on time to hire. Not to mention costs associated with employing someone who has a visa requirement: “For example, somebody is employed under tier-2 for five years; the latest [quote] that I gave to a client was even £9,000 in visa fees alone. So not including anything else. Businesses don’t go to that as it’s not a cheap means of getting labour.“

Louise reminded us that no matter the outcome, one thing is certain, provided there is a Brexit: “There will be a new immigration system that will go live from autumn 2020 [onward].” She added that the current immigration system wouldn’t be able to withstand the added numbers of incoming European nationals post-Brexit, and that there’s also a need to cater to the labour market in a different way.

But, she noted, with the white paper outlining plans for a new immigration setup to go live in the autumn of 2020, employers have the time to plan for procuring entry permissions for individuals starting in early 2021. That’s the kind of long-term planning that recruiters and employers can and should aim for.

Sarah pointed out the time constraints at the nearer end of the scale: “There’s only 34 days, I think, when Parliament is meant to be sitting before the big day when Britain leaves.” (Ed note: this is as of 23 January, the day of our event). While that may be a scary thought for many, Sarah recommended keeping an eye on the day-to-day processes and knowing where to put your pieces on the board.

Louise agreed, with a reminder for caution:

“It’s plotting out that strategy over a three-year period and perhaps mapping your timeline to what the government’s [process] looks like. Although, let’s face it, that’s not exactly entirely clear at that stage either.”

Get your data together

What you can do is do your homework, Louise said. Get your data together, know who your affected people are, look into registration schemes for both your UK population in Europe and your EU population in Britain.

For example, she offered a short-term solution for those EU nationals in Britain, who can opt for the subtle status scheme which is in its third stage of the pilot and open for most people.

“Once you’ve obtained your registration, so, your settled or pre-settled status, you’re obviously in the very best possible position to be able to ensure that you can travel in April.” This would then give EU nationals in Britain a document allowing them the ability to change employers, open bank accounts, rent a home, and so on.

This is one of the risk-mitigation strategies that recruiters can take to limit the Brexit impact on recruitment, Louise added, as an example of immediate-term planning. There is also the short-term planning — look to potential new starters and think about whether they need to move country. “Would they have the ability to work and could they take advantage of those free movement provisions? It’s also about, in that sort of short term, considering the people that you have already employed.”

And then, the longer term: “[Look at] what your recruitment strategy ought to be into the future. Now in Europe, that’s probably going to be British nationals needing to apply under the schemes that are in place in the EU 27.”

And once all that is known, and put together as a potential strategy, you want to talk to each of the parties in your organisation on the points of interest to them, such as the C-suiters, line managers, those in finance, and others. Keep them in the loop as much as you can so they can plan their own processes down the line.

4. Keep up your EU outreach

There is a huge skill set in the EU that cannot be ignored. And we need to somehow continue to capitalise on that. Sarah put it succinctly:

“The best person for the job might not be in Britain. That’s the case.”

All three panelists offered personal anecdotes to point out the diverse range of talent from continental EU countries. Sarah, for instance, talked about her cat’s Romanian veterinarian, her obstetrician from Poland, and her dentist from another eastern European country. She also went into detail about the labour shortage in the agricultural economy in Kent, where she lives, and how that gap was filled with ‘migrant workers’. Brexit potentially brings a double whammy of no longer being able to bring in this skill set and not being able to export these foods to the continent.

Plus, “if we’re losing people moving into Britain into those positions,” she said, “we suddenly have a situation where we’re going to have to retrain or train an awful lot of British workers to do those jobs. And that’s in all sectors, I would say.”

Sarah drives the point home: “I don’t think there’s any way that British companies will stop employing EU nationals because they’re our closest neighbours. It’s a huge skill set. They’re skills that are just traditionally employed in Britain from other member states.”

Don’t dismiss EU talent

Louise concurred, adding that not only would accepting EU applications fall under the discrimination legislation, it would in fact be wise to continue encouraging EU-based talent to apply for roles in the UK, and be clear about how you, as a recruiter and employer, have an open conversation about the uncertainty that Brexit brings in terms of relocation. Be open about your willingness to do everything you can to facilitate such a move to the UK and be as reassuring as you can.

“If you are a European national in our business or a UK national in Europe, you are welcome, you are valued, and we absolutely want to retain your talents. We are looking for ways that we are able to behave in the same way that we do now and recruit a diverse and valued workforce looking for, as [Sarah says], the very best individuals to fill those roles.”

Otherwise, Louise warns, “you deny yourself an enormous talent pool.” She does offer one point of reassurance from her own work with clients: “What was really positive is that there was no individual I could think of that I couldn’t put anywhere, or there were very, very few. … There’s a whole raft of individuals that couldn’t be sponsored that now could be sponsored, so that’s hugely positive news.”

Sarah offers a similarly comforting insight: “I envisage it being difficult for a period of time, but it’s not going to continue to be difficult. Something will be worked out. At the moment, it’s unclear what that something is and that’s the problem,” she said.

“It’s the lack of clarity. It’s not a situation where you should be saying, ‘We can’t employ EU nationals, it’s going to be be awful’, but I [do] think for the next couple of months it might be fairly difficult. That’s the time when you need to reassure people, both people that you’re looking to recruit and people who are already working for you; ‘Stick with us. It’ll work out, it’s got to work out.’”

5. Be empathetic and knowledgeable

There are numerous “unknown unknowns”, as Matt called them, that recruiters may not be aware of in light of Brexit implications for employees and candidates. For instance, Sarah shared an anecdote of a German colleague who went through a complicated process with his car insurance company because his driving licence may no longer be valid post-Brexit, and therefore he may have to retake his driving test.

With this kind of granular impact, the impact of Brexit on employment is felt at the day-to-day level as much as it’s felt at the company-wide level. Keep that in mind as you communicate with your current and potential employees, being fully transparent about your role and how you can help, Louise advised.

Adding the caveat that her answer was different from two days earlier – again a testament to the day-in and day-out of Brexit uncertainty – Louise said: “The best thing that employers can do … is to show that they’re on top of the registration schemes. That they can help in terms of either directing queries, [or] provision of support in terms of making these applications.

“It’s really communicating with those individuals who are impacted and showing them the way in [which the test can be applied]. So there’s obviously a number of ways in which you can communicate with those particular schemes.”

In short, you want to show your employees and candidates that you’ve got their back.

“In terms of the advice that you provide, [you] could be directing them to the government website,” Louise said. “It could be providing legal support, guides, webinars, all of those sorts of things which show that you care and you are considering the position of the individuals that you employ right at this moment and that you want them to stay.” She again referenced the white paper and the importance of looking at it as a potential beacon for recruitment planning.

Communication is absolutely key to the whole recruitment and employee management process, Matt said. “It would be making that reassurance explicit,” he said. “You could write [that] in your job ads.

“I would state explicitly ‘we welcome applications from EU nationals’; ‘this is what we will do to support you’, ‘this is how much we love you’, that kind of stuff. I would make it absolutely 100% explicit. [This] is what I would do as a recruiter.”

But what can recruiters do right now in returning to their desks for the afternoon, in the midst of all these Brexit HR implications? All three panelists were adamant that you must reassure your colleagues that you have an eye out for them. And that things may get clearer next week, and until then, it’s a waiting game.

Which brings us to…

6. Stay the course

“Keep calm and carry on,” Sarah said, acknowledging a very British cliche which is nevertheless very relevant right now. “I think for now we might just have to, because there’s very little we can do right now that is going to change the outcome at all. You can make things slightly easier for the people who work for you but you can’t change whatever the process is going to be in April.”

Matt echoed that sentiment. “For all of the uncertainty and doubt … I would say reassurance and calm. It might not be true at the moment, but I would go for reassurance and calm… once people are in that pipeline and you’ve started talking to them it will become easier and easier because as they get further into the process they’ve spoken to you more, [and] they’ve learned more about the business. They know things aren’t [going to] fold.”

He emphasized that this message would be more powerful than sidestepping the question or pretending that you have all the answers.

“I guess [it’s] being authentic to yourself and saying:

“‘We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re going to support you through the things that we don’t know.’”

All in all, it’s OK to feel frustrated and uncertain about the road that lies ahead. Every recruiter and employer feels the same way, as Matt testified in a recent blog post on Brexit HR implications. Know where you can plan, and know where you can’t, and keep everyone in the loop as much as you can. The human factor is a powerful one in this case, and empathy and moral support goes a long way.

Related:
Bad news for businesses affected by Brexit uncertainty
Don’t forget the ‘human’ in Brexit HR implications
Brexit Project Manager job description

The post The impact of Brexit on employment: Insights from 3 experts appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

This is already happening; one can only rely on projections of what lies ahead for Brexit and employment, and these projections change daily as per parliamentary proceedings. As a recruiter or employer, you’re caught in the middle of all this because, somehow, business must carry on and you must meet those business needs with hiring strategies and plans for the year ahead.

But how? How? All this Brexit uncertainty means it’s hard to plan ahead – whether it’s your hiring plan, business outlook, ramping up (or down) sales projections, and so on. To address this, we talked to Louise Haycock, a Director at Fragomen. Fragomen is a leading firm dedicated exclusively to the delivery of immigration services to companies around the world. The firm has upwards of 3,800 staff in more than 50 offices and provides services to many of the world’s leading corporations. It works with clients to facilitate the transfer of skilled employees into more than 170 countries. Fragomen’s professionals are respected thought leaders in the immigration field providing evidence and expertise to governments across the world including the UK Parliament, the US Congress, the European Union and the United Nations. The firm supports all aspects of global immigration, including strategic planning, quality management, compliance, government relations, reporting, and case management and processing.

Let’s be clear: Brexit will impact recruitment. Free movement of EEA nationals into the UK (and vice versa) will go and employers need to be ready. Businesses need a change management strategy and they should be clear on who it impacts, when and how. Employers are trying to cope with planning for the changes that would be implemented by the Withdrawal Agreement (or Plan B, C, D, E or wherever else we end up) whilst simultaneously ensuring they aren’t caught short in the event of a no deal.

What would happen under the Withdrawal Agreement?

There would be a transition period that would run until 31 December 2020. In essence, free movement would continue until the end of the transition period, during which time EEA nationals in the UK and UK nationals in the EEA register their status to allow them to stay. Individuals arriving after the transition period would apply for immigration permission under the rules in place in each of the EEA, Switzerland or the UK as applicable.

What would happen in a no deal?

In the case of a no deal, there is no transition period. Employers should prepare for free movement ending on 29 March 2019 (or when Article 50 expires) and EEA nationals in the UK and UK nationals in the EEA have to take action (most likely by registering their status). We explain further in #1 below.

Of course, Brexit isn’t just a migration problem. There are regulatory concerns and logistics issues and that’s not even scratching the surface. Businesses may consider bringing in a Brexit Project Manager who can oversee the whole process from start to finish, particularly in terms of compliance, strategy and mitigation of Brexit’s impact on your organisation. Recruiters and HR can play a huge part in this, so ensure that you and your colleagues are fully informed and updated on all Brexit developments – even highlighting the unknowns is useful in terms of strategic planning.

So, context is useful. After speaking at the Workable-sponsored event Brexit: Recruiting Through Uncertainty in London on 23 January 2019 (video below), Louise shared her recommendations on six things you can do today to prepare for Brexit and employment.

1. Plan for no deal (just in case)

If there is no deal between the UK and the EU, as stated above, free movement ends when Article 50 expires (currently scheduled for 29 March 2019). UK nationals arriving in the EEA to start work after that date would need to apply for immigration permission under the rules in place in the member state to which they relocate (and may need permission in more than one country in the case of UK nationals living in one member state but working in others). EEA nationals who arrive in the UK after 29 March 2019 will no longer have the right of free movement. At a minimum they will have to register to stay in the UK and worst case scenario, they must apply under Tier 2. You should build a contingency plan for this.

New Hires/New Assignees

Our immediate concern is new hires or those starting assignments after 29 March 2019. If you are aware of British nationals relocating to the EEA or EEA nationals to the UK, consider bringing start dates forward to on or before 29 March 2019 to ensure that they benefit from the free movement provisions. If not, manage expectations of both the individual and their line manager. The UK national relocating to work in the EEA will likely have to obtain immigration permission to start work, adding time and costs to the process. EEA Nationals relocating to the UK will be able to enter and start work, but will need to apply for European Temporary Leave to Remain if they wish to stay longer than three months (at as yet unknown cost). This will give the individual a 36-month permission to work in the UK. After this time, they would need to switch into an immigration status under the new immigration regime or leave the UK.

UK Nationals in the EEA

This bears repeating: In a no deal, free movement will end when Article 50 expires. UK Nationals residing in the EEA on or before 29 March 2019 will need to take action. The EU27 have begun to publish guidance on requirements so employers should look out for this, in particular any deadlines by which UK nationals have to make their applications which will vary from country to country in a no deal scenario.

EEA Nationals in the UK

In a deal or no deal, EEA Nationals who relocated to the UK whilst free movement provisions were in place will be required to register under the EU Settlement Scheme. Applications are expected to be accepted until at least 30 December 2020. In a no deal, only those residing in the UK on or before 29 March 2019 are eligible. The third stage of the pilot is now open (a fee of £65 is payable for applications made up to and including 29 March 2019 but will be reimbursed). Employers can encourage their EEA based populations to apply as soon as they are able.

2. Know your population

Take a look at your current workforce and check the Brexit effect on workers and who will/can be impacted, i.e. who are your UK nationals in the EEA, and who are your EEA nationals in the UK? Once you have this information, you are best placed to communicate with them and to analyse the impact that the right of free movement could have on your business.

Next, divide them into cohorts based on their needs. This could be Irish nationals – who are not impacted as their right to work in the UK is protected under legislation pre-dating the UK’s membership of the EU. They could be UK nationals in Europe (look out for any registration schemes), EEA Nationals in the UK (get applying under the EU Settlement Scheme).

You may also want to consider special categories, including VIPs, commuters, frontier workers and assignees.

3. Communicate and support

Next, communicate to each cohort based on needs. These communications should reassure, inform, educate, and encourage. It isn’t just the cohorts outlined above that you will need to contact. Others in your business who are not directly impacted may need to be educated or kept aware, including those in legal, finance, C-suite, HR directors and line managers.

There are a number of media channels you can communicate through, based on your target audience: emails, webinars, town halls (in person and/or virtual), printable/shareable guides, FAQs, posters, videos, intranet pages, and so on. These communications can include information on where your colleagues can get help and who they can talk to.

Being open in your communications and showing compassion and support for your employees and colleagues, whether present or future, will reaffirm their faith in you as an employer.

4. Plan for the future

Deal or no deal, the UK will implement a new immigration regime from late 2020 onwards which will treat EU nationals in the same way as other non-EU nationals.

In December 2018, a white paper was released by the British government on this new immigration regime. Highlights of this white paper for workers include details on:

• Abolition of the cap (currently 20,700 restricted Certificates of Sponsorship – CoS)
• Abolition of Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT)
• Reduction of Skill Level from degree level to A-Level. Roles that could be sponsored subject to salary level would now include Air Traffic Controllers, IT User Support, Electrical and Electronic Technicians, HR Officers (but not HR Administrators)
• £30K salary threshold (to be consulted on)
• A transitional route which would be reviewed in 2025 that would be for all skill levels including low skilled. This route would provide a 12-month visa followed by a 12-month cooling off period for self-sponsored, low-risk nationalities

Also, keep an eye on Fragomen’s informative and regularly updated Brexit section to stay up to date on developments.

5. Update your work policies

Audit your workplace policies, and consider which ones may need updating. You’re especially looking for details that may or will be impacted by Brexit, including right to work, onboarding, mobility, visas, expenses, and so on. You might want to consider whether your policies are suitable for a post-Brexit age. Are they too generous given the expense of obtaining a visa or not generous enough if you are still looking to attract migrant talent who don’t have the ease and flexibility that they once had? Budgets need to be prepared and in place to start an immigration process, so check that your policies and financials match.

You will also want to audit internal processes and communications to ensure that everyone adheres to these new policies and is fully on board as to how to continue to smoothly operate as a business.

6. Educate your business

Talk with colleagues whose decision-making processes will be impacted. This can, as above, include legal, finance, C-suite, HR managers and line managers. Consider the needs and obligations of each in terms of their roles in the organisation.

For instance, consider that a new immigration system will have the following effects on your business operations:

• Longer processes: in procuring a visa and other necessities for EU nationals in UK and UK nationals in Europe. You’ll need to manage expectations on the time it will take to hire for all relevant parties (currently it can take around three months to secure a Tier 2 visa for a new hire to the UK based overseas before they take up the role).
• Higher expenses: visas are expensive (circa £9,000 for a Tier 2 visa valid for 5 years). You need to free up budget for this.
• Potentially smaller candidate pools: as the UK becomes less attractive to previously visa-free candidates, the number of candidates applying for roles may drop sharply. You’ll need to establish smarter recruitment strategies.
• Gaps in skill sets: many skilled jobs will be difficult to fill due to departing talent. Devise and implement training programmes where roles have typically been filled by EEA nationals.

Conclusion

The lack of certainty around Brexit and employment – particularly for organisations such as yours – means there is no perfect solution. However, if you do your homework, consider the segments in your workforce and the specific impacts on each, open up channels of communication and support, and keep your policies and colleagues regularly updated, you should have a smart short-term strategy designed to pivot quickly at the earliest sign of measurable change.

For more information on how Fragomen can help you with your business, visit their website or contact Louise Haycock at LHaycock@fragomen.com.

The post Brexit and employment: 6 things you can do today to prepare for Brexit appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Join our panel of recruiting and immigration law experts, Dr. Sarah Lieberman, Louise Haycock & Matt Buckland for a discussion on possible Brexit outcomes for recruitment, what a post-Brexit talent market might look like and how you can start to prepare.

The post Brexit: Recruiting Through Uncertainty, London appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

On waking on that Friday morning, I found my neatly curated social media bubble punctured. I’d gone to sleep at about midnight, shortly before I’d watched Nigel Farage seem to give a speech of capitulation. He later said of the moment: “I’d reached the end of my campaign, I’d physically and mentally reached the end of the road. I sank into a deep depression during the course of that afternoon… convincing myself that we’d lose.”

“Great!” I thought, as I went to sleep, fully expecting to wake up a remaining member of the happy EU family.

Instead, I remember the morning of Friday, the 24th of June, 2016, as grey and overcast. Some people didn’t come in to work at all and those that did seemed quiet and cowed by the apparent rejection of their adopted country. There wasn’t the normal “Friday Feeling”. Instead, it felt more like shellshock.

As someone who works in recruitment, the shock I felt was replaced with concern for the company and the wider workforce. In the weeks after the referendum, I felt that we were seeing fewer applications from abroad and even had a few people leave the company to return to their own countries. Although I spoke to other recruiters in the industry who expressed similar feelings, there was no concrete data to support the anecdotal evidence we all felt was so obvious.

The ensuing time since the Brexit referendum vote has been a roller coaster for those in the recruitment industry. We’ve seen changes to the existing visa system, quotas placed on that system and subsequently withdrawn, and a back-and-forth on immigration policy. Uncertainty for EU nationals was replaced with the right to remain for a price and the factions on both sides of the debate remain polarised and vitriolic.

In the time since the vote, I also changed my role and moved to Workable. I found myself speaking to people, from all levels across the UK, who were involved in hiring and trying to keep talent within their organisations. The stories that people told are of the same roller coaster I had experienced. The boom-and-bust cycle of uncertainty was seemingly more frequent as the labour market tracked the weekly Brexit newscycle. It was only in my role at Workable that I was able to see the effect of Brexit in real terms. As you can see in the following graph, published job activities in the UK on the Workable job board dropped significantly from the week following the Brexit referendum (as indicated at the point marked “Brexit referendum next week”) until finally seeing a kind-of recovery starting January 2017.

The feeling of a wider negative effect, and the feeling that when in a role like HR or recruitment you shouldn’t be “political,” meant that there wasn’t much public conversation in the HR and Recruitment industry – Brexit HR implications aside. Practitioners live with the uncomfortable duopoly of both waiting to see what others do as well as give guidance and advice to their own organisations.

For those organisations with a time to hire in the 20+ days range, the dips and peaks of this data hide the stories of the individuals caught up in the rapidly changing environment. The candidate that applies one week and withdraws the next, the candidates who simply disappear, and the candidates who we’ll never know about because the whole thing just put them off before they even hit “apply”. It’s true to say that the position I found myself in on that grey Friday morning hasn’t changed for many of the people engaged in the attempt to convince people to change jobs throughout the UK. It’s the lot of the hardworking recruiters to roll with the punches of an already tough talent market. This market made even tougher by the pressures of an educated and skilled workforce either being tempted to, or tempted back to, Europe. It was only the day after the vote when a truck towing a large sign advertising jobs in Berlin prowled the streets of London’s tech hub.

Recruiters remain the squeezed middle in a no-win game of “What is Best Practice?” Brexit, unlike most regulatory change that we face, has proven to be a game where not only do the rules change each week but one team has split into three new players and then as halftime approaches someone has run away with the ball altogether.

The true impact of Brexit – and especially, Brexit HR implications – won’t be known until the final days of March 2019 and even then extracting meaning and a tactical approach from the legal wranglings won’t be pretty… but, hey, we survived GDPR, right? Right?

The post Don’t forget the ‘human’ in Brexit HR implications appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Brexit Project Manager responsibilities include:

• Analyzing the impact of a potential Brexit on procedures, products and people
• Developing company policies based on new regulations
• Articulating changes in existing partnerships in various locations

The post Brexit Project Manager job description appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Although 25% of UK businesses currently employ staff from the EU, an August 2018 survey reveals that over 50% of UK business leaders would be put off employing someone from the EU after Brexit changes the UK’s immigration laws. For some industries, this need to import talent to meet their growing demands is felt even more so. Remaining both innovative and competitive is intrinsically linked with their ability to hire the right people at the right time regardless of where they are in the world. In those sectors, businesses affected by Brexit uncertainty are feeling it much more than others.

In July, the Home Office published the new mandatory registration scheme for EU nationals. After Brexit occurs in March 2019, all 3.8 million EU nationals currently living in the UK and EU nationals wanting to enter the UK in the future will need to register for “settled status” to continue to work and live in the UK. The implications are far-reaching and go further than some had previously expected – for example, you will need to apply even if you’re an EU citizen married to a British citizen. The cost of application has been set at £65 for those 16 and over, or £32.50 if they’re under. Though these are fairly small amounts, they may prove to be non-trivial for an employer meeting additional costs when relocating a new employee and their family. Furthermore, adding to the uncertainty, the rights of citizens of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland residing in the UK are still being negotiated.

“Settled status” and “pre-settled status”, with all supporting processes and technology, are still in the testing phase. The aim is to protect the rights and jobs of EU nationals currently working in the UK, but what about recruiting EU nationals after Brexit?

From 1st July 2021, EU citizens and their family members who are living with them must hold or have applied for UK immigration status to legally work in the UK. This new status will present a challenge for hiring managers and recruiters, who may have to alter their current attraction and selection processes to comply with changes in immigration law that will happen over the next three years. The new status will require UK businesses to adopt a longer-term talent attraction strategy that either focuses on existing UK-based talent pools, perhaps even taking the time to create training programs to cultivate their own talent, or alter their expectations of the recruitment process accommodating the required time and resources to bring EU nationals to work in the UK for the first time. This is bad news for businesses affected by Brexit lack of clarity, and this may mean some stark choices around how they are structured, where they chose to locate new satellite offices and how their products and services are brought to market.

If the recruiting pundits are to be believed, we are already in a “War for Talent” and have been since the late 1990s. The effects of Brexit could further exacerbate this talent shortage across multiple industries. Which companies will be most affected by Brexit? For example, in Aviation and Engineering, 22% of UK engineering business leaders and 42% of UK aviation industry leaders identified a labour shortage as the most urgent challenge they will face in the next five years. Global demand for aviation skills alone is set to overtake supply by 2027, and with skilled candidates already under-represented amongst a rapidly reducing workforce, skills shortages will become an increasingly dominant UK business issue.

By May of 2018, LinkedIn reported that 96% of hiring strategies had already felt the impact of Brexit. The same study found that 44% of recruiters believed that working in the UK is becoming a less attractive prospect to EU citizens, with 39% seeing international candidates now reluctant to move to the UK.

Whatever the political opinion of an individual about Brexit and business and the UK’s place within the EU, it’s clear that the uncertainty of the present for EU nationals already working here and those that might have come, is having a wide-reaching impact. For recruiters working to fill a growing number of vacancies with a diminished talent pool, the job will become harder. Despite the assurances of people like London Mayor Sadiq Khan that “London is open and no matter where you’re from, you will always belong here,” for some, the uncertainty has led to doubt and those doubts have led them to look elsewhere when considering a new role. This also means a huge impact on businesses affected by Brexit being in constant flux, and it’s long and far-reaching.

The post Bad news for businesses affected by Brexit uncertainty appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You are what you eat

Reuters identifies the objective of Amazon’s AI as scoring job candidates on a scale of 1 to 5 in order to assist hiring teams. But, as reported, the data the system was fed to learn how to score candidates was “successful resumes” and “unsuccessful resumes” from the past 10 years. Most of those resumes came from men, so the patterns the AI detected caused it to downgrade resumes from women. Essentially, Amazon unwittingly taught its AI to replicate the bias that already existed in the overall hiring process, according to Reuters.

Amazon isn’t alone

This isn’t the first time a company has seen its AI design break. The same has happened to other companies that experiment with machine learning. For example, when researchers tested Microsoft and IBM’s facial-recognition features in early 2018, they found that machines had trouble recognizing women with darker skin. The reason again was skewed input data; in short, if you feed the system with more pictures of white men than black women, the system will be better in recognizing white men. Both companies said they had taken steps to increase accuracy.

You can find countless other examples: from linguistic bias of algorithms to Google’s engine serving ads for high-paying jobs to mostly men, to Twitter users turning a friendly chatbot into a villain.

Hope on the horizon

Those of us fascinated with AI and its potential to improve our world may feel dejected when we realize the technology isn’t quite ready yet. But, despite our disappointment, it’s actually good news that these ‘failures’ come out. Trial and error are what helps us learn to train machines properly. The fact that machines are not 100% reliable yet shouldn’t discourage us; it should actually make us even more eager to tackle design and training problems.

As SpaceX and Tesla mogul Elon Musk affirms: “Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you’re not innovating.” In that spirit, according to Reuters, Amazon has formed a new team in Edinburgh to give automated employment screening another try, this time taking diversity into account.

AI is not panacea

Despite growing concern that machines will take over people’s jobs, AI is unlikely to replace human critical thinking and judgment (we’ll still have the ability to create and control machines). This is especially so during the hiring process, where people’s careers are on the line; we need to be careful about how we use technology. HR thought leader Matt Buckland – who was VP of Customer Advocacy at Workable for two years – sums it up nicely: “When it comes to hiring, we need to have a human process, not process the humans.”

This means that artificial intelligence is a service tool that gives us initial information and analysis to speed up the hiring process. A good system can provide you with data you can’t find yourself (or don’t have the time to). But it shouldn’t make the final hiring decision. We humans, with our intelligence, must be the ones to select, reject or hire other humans.

We, at Workable, keep all this in mind when developing People Search and AI Recruiter, our very own AI features.

Our VP of Data Science, Vasilis Vassalos, explains: “Our efforts center on rendering our data more neutral by excluding demographics and gendered language when training our models. And, of course, to train our AI, we use a wide range of anonymized data, not only our own as Workable, but also data from the millions of candidates that have been processed in our system, so we can cancel out the bias of each individual hiring process.”

We’re also careful about how our tool will be used. “Perhaps the most important thing,” Vasilis adds, “is that we don’t allow our AI to make significant choices. The “AI Recruiter” feature is designed to make suggestions, not decisions.”

Of course, our methods and artificial intelligence itself will continue to improve. “We recognize the difficulty of algorithmically promoting diversity and training machines to be fair,” says Vasilis. “But, as the technology advances, we’ll keep improving our practices and product to make hiring even more effective.”

The post Don’t blame AI for gender bias – blame the data appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Analyzing this data made us wonder. GDPR has changed the way we think about data. Is it possible that data could also change the way we think about GDPR? Could it, perhaps, be used for demystifying GDPR and kickstarting some industry benchmarking around some grayer areas—data retention, for example?

In a post-GDPR world, sharing (secure and anonymized) data like this can be a good way of navigating the new normal. So we’ve pulled together a bunch of our top level findings here, to start the ball rolling.

A new era of uncertainty

The only thing anybody’s really been certain of since GDPR went live on May 25th, 2018, is that no one’s really certain about anything.

How long can we keep people’s data for? Not sure, up to you. Decide what’s best, but don’t be unreasonable.

What do we do with our existing candidate database? Not sure, up to you. Decide what’s best, but you should probably delete it.

How do we ask candidates for consent? Not sure, up to you. Decide what’s best, but don’t do anything funky with their data.

How will this fundamentally change how we recruit? Not sure, up to you. Decide what’s best for you. And definitely review with legal counsel.

As a global company, we have to take GDPR seriously. We’ve always been secure. But, in preparation for GDPR legislation, it became more important for us to be able to show customers that we’re a robustly secure organization, dedicated to data protection. Which is why, in the past year, we’ve doubled the size of our compliance and security team, undertaken an arduous ISO 27001 certification process, and consulted countless legal experts. Not to mention built a new set of automatic compliance features for our customers from scratch. And we’ve also, quite literally, written the GDPR checklist for recruiting.

In the course of this all, we found ourselves asking obscure questions about legitimate interest and case law. HR Managers began acting as intermediaries between Compliance Officers, legal counsel and employees—responsible for implementing and enforcing compliance in the face of crippling fines. And, while GDPR legislators sought to provide guidance where possible and legal experts suggested some best practices, there were still many GDPR myths and gray areas. There was very little (dare I say) data to go on. Until now.

Establishing an industry benchmark for data retention

Leading up to GDPR, most of the customers we spoke to were (understandably) reluctant to delete the data they had. They were afraid of erasing years of hard work and losing good candidates to compliance.

Post-GDPR, we’ve found customers have confronted the dreaded database delete head-on; generally setting a data retention period of just under 2 years. This varies somewhat by region. Customers in the UK tend to be a bit more conservative (20 months), compared to their counterparts in the United States (26 months). But, generally speaking, 2 years has emerged as a good benchmark for data retention.

A measure of candidate interest

GDPR data may also have given us a good benchmark for candidate interest. While 60% of customers contacted their existing database with an updated privacy policy, only 3% of notified candidates have exercised their right to be forgotten. Deleting data can be painful, but it can also help us focus on the candidates who are still truly interested and engaged in the process.

Only 3% of notified candidates have exercised their right to be forgotten

GDPR gives candidates more power over their own information, and we’ve certainly seen that reflected in the data as well. Over 31% of customers have had at least one candidate delete their data via the application confirmation email—a number that will unquestionably grow over time.

We’re at the very beginning of a radical shift, that much at least seems clear. The data we’ve seen so far leads me to believe that GDPR will actually help us hire better. Candidates have more control over their data–and ultimately that’s a good thing. GDPR has also forced us to make tough decisions about the data we should have access to and how long we should have access to it. And, ultimately that’s probably a good thing, too.

Related Reading:

• A recruiter’s guide to GDPR compliance
• GDPR checklist: Requirements for recruiters and HR
• How to approach GDPR legitimate interest in recruiting
• How to source candidates in a GDPR-compliant way with Workable

The post Demystifying GDPR using data appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

And that’s what makes legitimate interest a challenge for employers. On one hand, it’s quite flexible. On the other hand, you might struggle to interpret your legitimate interest or be unsure about whether your interpretation would stand its ground during an audit.

To help you understand legitimate interest better and give you some pointers about how to approach it, we’ve created this short guide:

Disclaimer: While Workable has consulted with legal professionals both in the creation of this guide and our own product features, Workable is not a law firm. All information in this guide is general information only. It is not intended to constitute legal advice or be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements. Organisations should take independent legal advice regarding their own provisions for data protection.

What is legitimate interest?

GDPR provides a legitimate interest definition in Article 6 (f). The gist:

you can process people’s personal data for a specific legitimate purpose unless their interests, rights and freedoms override that purpose.

In practice, it’s often challenging to figure out if your legitimate interest is appropriate under GDPR.

When does legitimate interest apply?

In general, you can rely on legitimate interest when you use people’s data in ways that:

• They would reasonably expect you to,
• Have minimal privacy impact and,
• Have a compelling justification.

Legitimate interest in recruitment can be an appropriate lawful basis when processing recruiting-related data. Data that doesn’t help the team to either contact or evaluate a candidate, or that includes ‘sensitive’ information (like race and ethnic origin, religious or political beliefs and disability or genetic information), isn’t related to recruiting. Generally, you shouldn’t be collecting this kind of data as part of the hiring process.

To ensure that you can rely on legitimate interest for processing specific recruitment data, it’s best to do a legitimate interest assessment (LIA).

Why and how to conduct a legitimate interest assessment (LIA)

Every team in your organisation that processes personal data (even a small amount) should conduct an LIA. This assessment will help you:

• Determine the boundaries of your legitimate interest.
• Show authorities that you’ve thought the matter through and documented the process properly (which will play a big role in proving your GDPR compliance during an audit).

To conduct an LIA, the head of a department, team or function should complete the three-part test:

1. Purpose – is there a legitimate interest behind the data processing?
2. Necessity – is the data processing necessary for that purpose?
3. Balancing – is the legitimate interest overridden by the person’s interests, rights or freedoms?

You need to complete the test in this exact order. To make the process easier, we have a document with a Legitimate Interest Assessment (template).

Purpose

Here are some details on the test for ‘Purpose’:

• Define a purpose for processing data. According to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), you can’t just say “we have a legitimate interest to process customer data” (same goes for candidate data). Your legitimate interest should be specific and clearly defined.
• You don’t need to have an original or inspiring reason to process data. Legitimate interest can be trivial, but remember that the weaker the purpose, the more easily it can be overridden by people’s interests in the balancing test.
• Your purpose must be legitimate. This seems like a no-brainer, but it’s important to note that if a purpose for processing data is unlawful or unethical, then it’s not legitimate.

To ensure you tick off these points, answer these questions as part of your LIA (the questions are included in the template):

• Why do you want to process the data?
• What benefit do you expect to get from the processing?
• Do any third parties benefit from the processing?
• Are there any wider public benefits to the processing?
• How important are the benefits that you have identified?
• What would the impact be if you couldn’t go ahead with the processing?
• Are you complying with any specific data protection rules that apply to your processing (eg profiling requirements, or e-privacy legislation)?
• Are you complying with other relevant laws?
• Are you complying with industry guidelines or codes of practice?
• Are there any other ethical issues with the processing?

When answering these questions about processing candidate data, you may find some of them aren’t applicable to your organisation (like “Are there any wider public benefits to the processing?) In this case, you could mark it as ‘not applicable’, since regulators will expect to see that you have considered this question but determined there was no relevant answer.

Necessity

Here are some details around the test for ‘Necessity’:

• ‘Necessary’ means this data processing is the only way to meet your legitimate purpose. You need to be sure that processing personal data of people is the only way to achieve your legitimate purpose. If there’s a reasonable, less invasive way to achieve your purpose, your legitimate interest likely fails the necessity test.

To make sure the processing is necessary, answer the following questions as part of your LIA:

• Will this processing actually help you achieve your purpose?
• Is the processing proportionate to that purpose?
• Can you achieve the same purpose without the processing?
• Can you achieve the same purpose by processing less data, or by processing the data in another more obvious or less intrusive way?

Balancing

Here are some details around the test for ‘Balancing’:

• Consider a person’s reasonable expectations. For example, you can process contact information found on a person’s social media profile only if there’s a reasonable expectation of contact on their side. Generally, people who use Facebook or Instagram do so for personal reasons, not professional, so they might not expect to be contacted for jobs. Under certain circumstances (for example, when someone mentions on their Facebook profile that they’re looking for a job), you might have a legitimate interest in contacting them. Also, as explained by ICO, members of a professional network (like LinkedIn) who have enabled settings to show recruiters that they’re open to job opportunities have shown a reasonable expectation of contact.
• Decide whether your data processing harms people’s freedoms in some way. Although it’s unlikely that processing data in the scope of recruiting will cause harm, you still need to consider every case separately. If you find that you might unjustifiably harm a person whose data you want to process, you should delete the data you already have and avoid collecting more.

To determine these points, answer these questions as part of your LIA:

Nature of the personal data

• Is it special category data or criminal offense data?
• Is it data which people are likely to consider particularly ‘private’?
• Are you processing children’s data or data relating to other vulnerable people?
• Is the data about people in their personal or professional capacity?

Reasonable expectations

• Do you have an existing relationship with the individual?
• What’s the nature of the relationship and how have you used data in the past?
• Did you collect the data directly from the individual? What did you tell them at the time?
• If you obtained the data from a third party, what did they tell the individuals about reuse by third parties for other purposes and does this cover you?
• How long ago did you collect the data? Are there any changes in technology or context since then that would affect expectations?
• Is your intended purpose and method widely understood?
• Are you intending to do anything new or innovative?
• Do you have any evidence about expectations – like from market research, focus groups or other forms of consultation?
• Are there any other factors in the particular circumstances that mean they would or would not expect the processing?

Likely impact

• What are the possible impacts of the processing on people?
• Will individuals lose any control over the use of their personal data?
• What is the likelihood and severity of any potential impact?
• Are some people likely to object to the processing or find it intrusive?
• Would you be happy to explain the processing to individuals?
• Can you adopt any safeguards to minimise the impact?

Some of these questions may need extra thought. For example, what is ‘having an existing relationship with someone’? Does previous communication about a job opportunity count? Should you assume they have reasonable expectations of contact if they have replied at least once to your messages? If you think you can answer ‘yes’, make sure to clearly explain your reasoning in your LIA.

What happens after you conduct the LIA?

There are some times when an LIA will be insufficient for compliance. That’s when you identify that your data processing will have a significant privacy impact. For example, this could come about if you give a positive answer to the two initial questions in the balance test. When this happens, you should do a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and keep the LIA as a reference.

After you’re finished with your LIA (or DPIA), remember that you may have to re-do your assessment in the future if you want to start processing other types of information or if something changes in the way you process data. Those responsible for the recruiting function should keep the assessments under review to raise the chances of being compliant with GDPR.

Collect candidate data… with caution

Having legitimate interest to process candidate data is essential—but not enough for compliance. You need to follow GDPR’s instructions when sourcing candidates or retaining their data. Here are a few basic rules to keep in mind (for a more detailed explanation of your responsibilities under GDPR, refer to our GDPR compliance guide for recruiters and hiring teams):

• Be transparent. Send an email to sourced candidates to inform them you’re processing their data within one month after you first processed it. You should also link to your privacy notice in that email. If you don’t send this email within a month, you should delete their data from your database immediately.
• Follow data retention obligations. You can’t keep candidate data indefinitely. Let candidates know for how long you’re going to keep their data (you can keep them only for as long as they’re relevant). If you currently have old or irrelevant candidate data, it’s best to delete it.
• Give candidates ways to exercise their rights under GDPR. Provide clear instructions on how candidates can request the details of the data you are processing and how they can ask you to delete it. Be ready to comply with their requests.

The post How to approach GDPR legitimate interest in recruiting appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The sentiment behind this quote is a powerful one, especially when placed in the context of recruitment. Only by acknowledging and removing barriers, can HR teams ensure that organizations hire on merit and not on convenience. Having a fully inclusive and accessible hiring strategy leads to a better candidate experience for all of your applicants and richer talent in your pipeline.

But what does an accessible hiring strategy look like in practice?

Lessons learned about disability inclusion in the workplace learned at Career Fair.4all

In May, I attended Career Fair.4all, a Greek initiative promoting equal employment. It’s a job fair with one clear goal: to bring inclusion to the labor market, removing the barriers that could be preventing great candidates from applying for jobs. The benefits of disability inclusion in the workplace are twofold:

• Recruiters meet candidates in-person, conduct job interviews and match talent to open roles.
• Candidates with disabilities get the chance to scope out the different companies, discuss opportunities and evaluate next steps.

Organized by ethelon— an NGO that supports volunteering—Career Fair.4all has been held in Athens (the city where Workable was founded) for the past 3 years. More than 20 companies from various industries took part this year and I got the chance to talk to most of them. My big question? How can HR professionals make the recruitment process more accessible and fully inclusive. Here’s a summary of what I learned:

Make reasonable adjustments where necessary

HR professionals should be ready to make appropriate changes to the work environment throughout the hiring process and beyond. Vassilis Chouliaras (HR Senior Manager) and Anna-Maria Economou (HR Professional) from Barilla, describe how events like Career Fair.4all are a learning experience for companies.

After realizing their own offices were hard to access via public transport, they set up employee shuttles to make the commute easier for everyone. As Vassilis and Anna-Maria say,

“It’s not about hiring for the sake of it. We need to think what happens after hiring, too. To retain our employees, we should make sure that we provide them what they need to be successful at work.”

Provide a flexible but structured hiring process that works for all

Make sure hiring teams are equipped and resourced to find and hire the best talent, irrespective of any individual disabilities of potential candidates.

That’s exactly what we’re doing today”, explains Eleni Karra, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Tripsta.

“We follow our regular hiring process to identify people who could fill our current hiring needs. We conduct mini-interviews here and if there’s a good fit, we move on with an onsite interview at our offices,” she says.

“If not, we’re transparent with feedback, as with all candidates. For skilled candidates who don’t match our current open roles, we use Workable’s Talent Pool to stay in touch for future job opportunities. It helps us remember where we met each candidate and reach out when the right thing comes up.”

Understand different needs and reinforce equity at all hiring stages

Traditional assessment methods don’t work for everyone, so it pays to broaden your mind in terms of how you evaluate skills. Microsoft, for example, has replaced job interviews with a vetting process where candidates with autism can better showcase their skills. And Vasia Koutsika, HR Generalist at Stoiximan, does something similar during the Career Fair.4all:

“Instead of a formal, often stressful job interview, we view this event as an opportunity to meet candidates in a more casual setting,” Vasia explains.

“Candidates talk about their qualifications and interests and we present our open jobs. But this is not a scripted discussion. As we’re a sports betting company, candidates often want to talk about the latest game and we’re more than happy to chat about it.

“After all, this is a first introduction that helps us and candidates get comfortable. We’ll invite candidates who qualify for one of our open roles to an onsite interview where it’ll be easier for them to open up as we’ll have already established a relationship.”

Educate hiring team members and all employees on inclusivity

Banishing misconceptions and (unconscious) hiring bias means that employees work more effectively with their coworkers, whether they have a disability or not. So it pays to make inclusivity a formal part of your company’s learning and development strategy. Lydia Gkouzioti (HR Generalist) and Anna Pouliou (HR Coordinator) from Apivita couldn’t agree more:

“Our participation in this career fair is only one of the steps we take to reinforce inclusion. For example, we have scheduled training about equity in the workplace for our managers,” Anna says.

“Today, we met some great candidates for our Corporate Social Responsibility department. We’re looking forward to inviting these candidates to our offices and learning more about them. We’d like to bring someone onboard who shares the same values as us and can make a real contribution.”

Remove barriers

Many barriers, most of them unconscious and inherited, still exist as part of the standard hiring process. These can range from the tools and software used, to the language and communication adopted. To reinforce diversity in the hiring process:

• Use inclusive language in your job ads and across all your communication
• Make your web content and other supporting communications fully accessible
• Remove any physical barriers

Take a proactive approach

Candidates who have faced bias in the workplace before might be more hesitant about applying for jobs. Which is why it pays to be proactive and reach out directly where appropriate. Start by networking with communities that support disability and inclusion. According to research, about 65% of people with disabilities aged 18-64 in the US are unemployed. So, you could also join forces with college career centers and other organizations that support job seekers.

Show (don’t just tell) that you’re an equal employer

An equal opportunity employer disclaimer on your job ads is a good way to declare that you promote diversity. There are also other tangible ways of sharing your message. Include pictures of your accessible working spaces on social media and your careers page. If you’ve already hired employees with a disability, ask them if they’d like to share a story from their work life with their network, local communities or even a broader audience.

By showing the steps you take to provide equal opportunities for every employee, you send a strong message both to candidates and other companies: Inclusion in the workplace isn’t just a theory; it’s a reality.

The post Disability inclusion in the workplace: removing the barriers to finding top talent appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Workable itself is a GDPR-compliant vendor. In addition, it provides tools to help with your own compliance. Our GDPR-related features include support for sourcing and the automation of certain tasks, like deleting old candidate data. For sourcing specifically, here’s a breakdown of the features available:

• A template to help you create an effective recruitment Privacy Notice.
• A footer, automatically added to every sourcing email, linking to your Privacy Notice.
• A setting to send an automated bulk email with your Privacy Notice to existing candidates (sourced before the GDPR came into effect).
• A setting to auto-delete the profiles of sourced candidates who haven’t been contacted within a month.

Want to learn how Workable helps your entire recruiting process stay compliant? Get a demo to explore our full GDPR feature pack with functions like candidate consent requests and ways to action the ‘right to erasure’.

How do our GDPR features for sourcing work? Here’s a closer look:

Turn on GDPR settings

Once activated, our GDPR features run by default across your account. Set them up quickly and easily by sliding a single button to ‘On’:

Then, you’ll be able to set a few parameters for auto-deletion and craft your own Privacy Notice.

Privacy Notice template

GDPR places great importance on transparency: organisations must tell people why and how they process their personal data, as well as provide easy instructions for people to exercise their rights under GDPR. You can provide all the required information with a Privacy Notice. If you have one written specifically for your company, upload it to Workable and it will be included in every email, whenever you communicate with candidates. If your organisation doesn’t already have one, no problem. A template is provided by Workable, ready for you to customize.

When you switch on the GDPR features, the first thing you’ll be asked to do is establish the details for your own Privacy Notice:

Fill out the fields to generate a Privacy Notice for your organisation. If you already have one, use the option at the top right “I want to use our existing Privacy Notice.” You’ll be asked to verify that you’re happy with your own document and that it’s legally compliant.

Once you set up your Privacy Notice via the Workable template, you can preview. Here’s what a sample looks like:

You’ll see your notice included in the first email that candidates receive from you – both when they apply and when they’re sourced. For example, a job applicant will receive an automatic “thank you for applying” email that contains a link to this Privacy Notice.

Sourcing email footer

Your Privacy Notice should be sent to all EU candidates on first contact. Candidates who apply to your jobs will receive an automatic email confirming their application. This includes the Privacy Notice as standard.

But sourced candidates follow a different path. They don’t initiate contact with your organisation, so they won’t automatically receive the email with your company’s processing information. This means that you should include your Privacy Notice in your first sourcing emails. Workable helps you do that by automatically including a footer linking to your Privacy Notice when you first start writing an email to the candidate. This helps ensure you’re sending the right information to candidates from the outset, minimising the possibility of error or omission.

Keep in mind that GDPR lets you store sourced candidate data for only a month without contact. If you keep this data longer than that you risk getting a fine. That’s why Workable has built data retention settings.

Data retention

The data retention options play a big part in compliance. Under GDPR, you can’t process candidate data indefinitely. You must also delete candidate data if you haven’t provided your Privacy Notice to the candidate within a month of sourcing their details. But if you’re sourcing multiple candidates, how can you remember to delete their information from your database when the legal period has passed? And how can you stay compliant without losing a huge amount of time manually deleting every candidate?

Workable’s data retention options tackle these issues. There are two sections that you’ll be asked to set up after you’ve created your Privacy Notice:

First, you’ll be able to set the length of time your organization would like to store candidate profiles. Next, you’ll be able to exclude active profiles from automatic deletion. This means that candidates in active jobs and your Talent Pool will not be deleted automatically if there has been any recent activity—like comments, emails or evaluations. You can set the period of time for exclusion.

By turning on the first data retention option, you enable Workable to delete old candidate data automatically. What ‘old’ means is up to you; you’re able to set a specific number of months (which should ideally be less than a year):

This is a way to clean up your candidate database, removing old sourced candidate profiles (and profiles of candidates who applied a long time ago.) If there’s been no recent contact, Workable will automatically delete them to help you remain compliant without any time lost on your part.

You can also enable Workable to delete candidates if they stay in your database for more than a month without receiving your Privacy Notice:

This helps you avoid storing candidate data for longer than the legal period. If you want to keep processing the data of a candidate you sourced, send them your first sourcing email (with the automatic privacy footer) within a month.

Automated bulk email with processing information

Once you turn on your data retention settings, Workable will show you an overview of your candidate database: If you’re new to Workable, then there will be very few candidates that will be affected by the deletion settings. If you’ve been using Workable for some time, then you will have more candidates in your database who will be affected straight away.

This shows how many candidates in your database will be deleted. Also, you can see how many haven’t yet received your Privacy Notice. If you click on “Email them with a link to the new Privacy Notice”, these new candidates receive an automatic email containing your processing information (and can, therefore, remain in your database until they become ‘old’ based on your settings).

Once you’ve turned on the GDPR settings, save the changes and you’re good to go. Our GDPR features will run by default and help you remain compliant when sourcing and recruiting candidates. Your reporting won’t be affected by automatic candidate deletion. This way, Workable provides you with the tools to manage and monitor your recruiting function while minimising the burden of GDPR compliance.

Related:
GDPR compliance checklist for recruiters and HR
GDPR Readiness Evaluator

The post How to source candidates in a GDPR-compliant way with Workable appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Carry out a data risk assessment

Start by reviewing how you manage personal data across your organisation. From understanding the data you’re requesting, to how that data is stored and what you’re using it for, a data risk assessment identifies any data protection, information security and privacy risks.

Risk assessments also help organisations classify processing activities according to the risks to the individual. Everyone who accesses and holds data is accountable. Assessments bring compliance to the fore and help teams devise appropriate mitigations. “But we’ve always done it this way” is not a good excuse. The old ways of working are no longer valid.

It’s likely you’ll uncover all manner of horrors at this stage; no, it’s not ok that your desk drawer is full of old resumes. And that folder on your desktop labelled ‘Good ones to keep for later’ might also need attention.

Choose the right hiring tool

Risk assessment complete, now’s the time to evaluate your recruiting software. You might find that your current tools aren’t quite cutting it. All the good will in the world won’t help if you’re storing your data in a leaky bucket. Using a robust recruiting tool—whether it’s a Candidate Relationship Management tool or an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)—is a great foundation for GDPR compliance.

The best tools will be GDPR-compliant. They will add efficiencies to your organisation’s recruiting processes and be flexible enough to support future compliance obligations. Better to prepare and embed change now than wait until 25 May and hope everyone can make the quick switch.

But your responsibility to regulation doesn’t stop there. Whatever tools you choose to implement, they should augment a compliant culture.

Build a GDPR compliant culture

Communications theorist and sociologist Everett Rogers argues that “diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated over time”. He identifies four main elements which influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, the communication channels, time, and a social system. While the GDPR will mandate change, the compliance departments that want to make this happen should acknowledge the need to change behaviour.

For Rogers, the adoption of any new system across an organisation can be split into different adopter groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. The GDPR must become part of corporate culture—organisations are both the aggregate of its individuals and its own system with a set of procedures and norms. Adopting new behaviours where data and privacy are concerned is important for the whole organisation. GDPR compliant organisations simply can’t afford to have late adopters or “laggards”.

By 25 May, recruiters and human resources professionals will need everyone on the team to understand their own role in data gathering and processing. And new processes and expected behaviours will need to be written down as policy. It’s the responsibility of everyone in the organisation to take on board the regulations, adopt them as behaviours and embed them as culture. With clear standards set, everyone can align with updated expectations, from established members of the team to new recruits.

Don’t wait to take action

Changing to a modern, GDPR compliant ATS is now relatively painless. Making a cultural change can take a lot longer. Perhaps it’s finally time to sort through that folder full of resumes? However you plan to start, the time to act is now.

To find out more, watch a video of our Q&A with a leading lawyer in the field of data privacy and security:

• What you need to know about GRPR and recruiting if you’re based in the EU or UK
• What you need to know about GDPR and recruiting in the USA and outside Europe.

Alternatively, try the GDPR Readiness Evaluator. Answer 14 questions to see how ready your organization is to recruit in line with GDPR. Use the results to help plan and action your own GDPR compliant recruitment process.

The post Are you getting ready for GDPR? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

2018 is bringing unique challenges to recruiters in the form of new data privacy regulations in the EU (GDPR) and increased scrutiny from people worldwide about what data they share with companies and how it’s used.

In this webinar we’ll cover:

• GDPR features
• Single sign-on options
• Workable’s ISO 27001:2013 certification

Designed GDPR features around three main tenets of GDPR, Right to erasure, candidate consent and data retention.

The post Security and data privacy: SSO, ISO, GDPR appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A simple mandate demands a straightforward solution. And the great news is if you’re using Workable the solution is straightforward—we’ve taken care of the details for you. Whatever the size of your hiring team or your data processing operation, we’ve got a range of different integrated options—from existing features to new, GDPR compliance tools. No fuss required. Lots of time saved.

A robust, secure and accredited hiring platform

But first things, first. Before tools comes security. Data protection is the backbone of GDPR. A secure and stable platform from day one, Workable is 100% GDPR-compliant. We’re also ISO 27001-accredited, which means it’s easier for us, and our customers, to comply with the new regulations. And we’ve recently added extra layers of security such as single sign-on to give added confidence to users.

So, if you’re using Workable to manage your hiring data you can be confident it’s in safe and secure hands, and it always has been.

Supporting GDPR-compliance as standard

You can manage GDPR-compliance effectively throughout the hiring process, using any Workable account.

You’ll probably be familiar with most of the features highlighted below, but there’s one big change. We’ve recently added an account-wide right to erasure option. Designed specifically with GDPR in mind, it sits in a new section labelled ‘Compliance’ in your account settings.

Turn this feature on to enable candidates to delete their own data from your records. Having deleted their data, Workable will automatically prevent anyone from your company from contacting the candidate again—unless they choose to apply for another position in the future. This protects you against potential breaches of the right to be forgotten and data retention rules.

The following features help you manage the rest:

• The default customizable application form only requests the basic information required by most hiring teams. This helps meet GDPR’s data minimisation requirement.
• Comply with transparency requirements by using the job editor to add in details of how your organization processes candidate information. Then use email templates and bulk mail-outs to make sure hiring teams share this information consistently and accurately.
• Manage different GDPR compliance requirements directly from the ‘candidate profile’:
  • Use the ‘candidate resume download’ button and ‘print profile’ link to action right of access and right to data portability requests.
  • With the ‘edit candidate’ option it’s easy to correct inaccurate data, part of the right to rectification requirement.
  • You can also delete candidates individually or in bulk, helping you with the right to be forgotten, right to object and data retention rules.

The GDPR Feature Pack for recruiting—automated GDPR compliance tools for maximum support

“Workable’s GDPR support has helped us come up with a process to follow. We’re upgrading to the Pro plan because the level of support it offers in automating a lot of the GDPR requirements. It’s a huge timesaver.”
Esther Smith, Global Head of People at IQPC.

Demonstrating compliance is harder to achieve on an ad-hoc, case-by-case basis if you process higher volumes of data. Or if your operation’s a little more complex; with multiple pipelines, different hiring teams, or a strong focus on candidate sourcing. To meet these challenges we’ve added a package of new, GDPR-specific features to our Pro plan.

From minimizing the risk of storing data illegally to remaining complaint without distorting reports, our new GDPR Feature Pack automates many of the key GDPR requirements for recruiting. It takes seconds to activate and runs by default across your whole account so you can relax and focus your day-to-day attention back on hiring.

GDPR requirement #1—transparency

Activate the GDPR Feature Pack and we’ll provide you with a legally-verified, customizable Privacy Notice to share with candidates. Just add the details unique to your company and save the template. Candidates will automatically receive a copy of this on application. If you’ve already got your own, lawyer-approved policy we can link to that instead.

If candidates have actively applied for a role with you, consent to process their data is implied through GDPR’s legitimate interest caveat. But, if you do want to seek active consent, we can include a check box on every Workable-generated application form.

GDPR has different transparency requirements around sourced candidates. To help meet these we’ll include an automatic email footer linking to your Privacy Notice in your first communication with every sourced candidate.

GDPR requirement #2—right of access and right to data portability

As well as the standard features available on each candidate profile, you’ll also get the option of a ‘Candidate Breakdown Report’. This exports candidate details into CSV format, should any candidates request to see the data that you hold.

GDPR requirement #3—right to erasure and right to object

An opt-out link, automatically included in every application confirmation email, enables candidates to delete their own data. Doing this triggers a set of rules that make it impossible for anyone in your organization to contact them again, unless they apply for a new role in the future. Once deleted, Workable anonymizes the data so that your reports remain accurate.

GDPR requirement #4 —data retention

With GDPR you can no longer store candidate data indefinitely. Activate the options in your Compliance settings and data will automatically delete based on your chosen time frames. For candidates in archived jobs this is based on the date the profile was created. For candidates in active jobs or your Talent Pool, this is combined with a defined period of inactivity. For sourced candidates it’s triggered if there’s no contact within the required period of 30 days. Workable will also send a one-off email to all of your newer candidates—those who fall outside your pre-defined time frame—with links to your processing information. This way, you can be sure you’re starting off on the best footing from day one of activating the feature.

Hiring and compliance tools that go hand-in-hand

If you’re using Workable to manage your hiring you can use it to help manage your GDPR compliance too. As ‘data controller’, ultimate responsibility for compliance rests with you. But these features help you to meet that responsibility with minimal fuss. Find out more about staying compliant in our GDPR checklist for recruiters.

If you’re not using Workable and still struggling with spreadsheets to manage your recruitment, you run a much higher risk of non-compliance with GDPR. A risk that could prove costly if you’re hit with a GDPR fine. Why not have a free GDPR consultation or a demo to see how Workable can help? If you’re in a rush, try our online GDPR Readiness Evaluator. In just 14 questions, see how prepared you are and get some tips on changes you could be making.

The post Tools to meet GDPR compliance requirements for recruitment appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Well, the great news is we’ve been (very) rigorously audited and assessed, and Workable is now officially ISO 27001:2013 certified.

What does it mean to have ISO 27001 accreditation?

Having this certification is public recognition that what we’re doing internally to ensure ongoing data protection meets the highest, worldwide security standards.

What that means day-to-day is that we’ve got powerful processes and policies in place to regularly check for threats and vulnerabilities. And that we’re robust and resilient to those potential threats. In a nutshell—what it means is “We’ve got your back”.

David Hartig, our COO explains,“This accreditation is a tick in the box for us as we were on a secure track beforehand. We understand the importance of these controls and have implemented them from the very beginning. But we wanted to give our customers an added level of confidence that we’re a secure organisation. That’s why we went for accreditation.

What ISO prompted us to do was to formalize our process and make it more traceable. So what we’ve been working hard on is making it easier to track, audit and evidence what we had in place already.

Being ISO 27001-accredited isn’t just about being able to prove that our tech is safe and secure. It’s about being able to prove that Workable as a company, its employees and infrastructure, is operating safely and securely too.”

Will there be any change for our customers?

For our existing 6000+ customers it’s business as usual, with the added reassurance that as we continue to grow as an organisation our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of security will grow with us. We’ll continue to invest in ongoing cyber-security training to promote an organisational culture that reinforces the protection provided by our software and systems.

For prospective customers, we’re now able to offer the added level of confidence that comes with formal third-party accreditation. So, however large or small your candidate database, you can join us knowing that we’ve got the controls in place to securely scale-up and manage your biggest and most valuable asset – your candidates’ confidential data.

“We can now show customers that we’re a robustly secure organisation,” says David. “They can see the certificate. They don’t have to take our word for it. Independent experts have assessed, audited and approved our processes and policies. And they will continue to have oversight of what we do through quarterly internal and annual external audits.”

How does this link up with GDPR?

Having ISO 27001 certification takes on extra significance with the implementation of GDPR looming.

“GDPR bases itself on a security standard,” says David. “And for the most part they point to ISO 27001 as being the basis for a secure environment. So, arguably, if you don’t have ISO 27001 certification or you can’t meet the requirements of the certification it’s going to be tougher to prove that you’re GDPR-compliant.”

Find out more about how Workable meets security standards

From access controls to single sign-on, data protection to data encryption, Workable’s operating model has centered around security from day one.

The post Workable gets ISO 27001 certification appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The session will specifically focus on those in the recruiting, HR and talent industry. Throughout and at the end of her presentation, questions were taken from the audience.

We have recently published three great resources if you’d like to read even more about GDPR for HR and recruiters:

1. GDPR checklist: Requirements for recruiters and HR
2. A recruiter’s guide to GDPR compliance

The post A GDPR rundown for US companies, NYC appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

GDPR Data Protection Officer responsibilities include:

• Acting as point of contact with EU residents, supervisory authorities and internal teams
• Identifying and evaluating the company’s data processing activities
• Providing advice and instructions on how to conduct Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs)

The post GDPR Data Protection Officer job description appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

To help you prepare your recruiting and HR processes for GDPR compliance, we created this GDPR checklist:

Please note: while Workable has consulted with legal professionals both in the creation of this GDPR checklist and updates to our own product features, Workable is not a law firm. All information in these FAQs is general information only. It is not intended to constitute legal advice or seek to be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements. Organisations should take independent legal advice regarding their own provisions for data protection.

Does my company have to comply with GDPR?

Your company must comply with the GDPR if it collects and uses data of EU residents. This definition covers:

• EU companies.
• Non-EU companies that:

• Offer goods or services to EU residents or,
• Monitor EU residents’ behavior.

What to do this week:

Understand the basic GDPR terms

• Candidates or “data subjects”: EU residents you are considering for open roles.
• Employers or “data controllers”: Organisations that collect candidate information for recruiting purposes.
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) or “data processors”: Software providers that handle candidate information on behalf of employers.

Our hiring specialists can answer your questions about GDPR and the Workable GDPR Feature Pack. Request a free demo to learn how Workable’s all-in-one recruiting software can keep candidate data secure while making your hiring process more efficient. 

Learn about GDPR requirements that pertain to recruiting

• Legitimate interest: You need to have a specified, explicit and legitimate purpose to collect candidate data.
• Consent (for sensitive data): As a recruiter, you have legitimate interest to process candidate data. You need to ask for consent only if you require sensitive data like disability information or cultural and genetic information.
• Transparency: You need to disclose information required by the GDPR (e.g. how candidates can ask you to rectify or delete their data.)
• The “right to be forgotten”: You need to comply with a candidate’s wish to delete their own data from all systems where you store it within one month.
• The right to access and rectify data: You need to comply with a candidate’s wish to access their own data from all systems where you store it within one month.
• Accountability: You must ensure you have processes to properly inform candidates and you are responsible for partnering only with organisations that comply with GDPR.

What to start doing as soon as possible:

Map your recruiting data

• Meet with senior leaders and your company’s Data Protection Officer (if your company is obliged to appoint one) to plan your company’s data audit.
• Answer the following questions as part of the audit:

• What are our candidate sources and how do we collect their personal data?
• What kind of data do we collect and how much of it do we actually use?
• How do we use personal data in our operations?
• Where do we store data and who has access to it?
• How does data flow within our company across processes/ functions/ departments?
• What are our processes for sharing, transferring, modifying and deleting data?

Create a recruitment-specific privacy policy

• Make sure to include:

• The name and contact details of your organisation and DPO where applicable.
• An explanation of your legitimate interest and a statement that any data requested will be used for recruitment purposes only.
• The types of information about a candidate that reside in your company’s files.
• Who you will share the data with.
• Where you found the candidates’ data.
• Where the processing is based and where you store data.
• How long your organisation intends to store the candidate’s data.
• The candidates’ rights.
• Instructions on how candidates can take action on the processing of their personal data.
• How you protect candidate data.

Modify your sourcing practices to comply with GDPR

• Consider whether you have legitimate interest before storing passive candidate data. Ensure you:

• Source candidates for a specific, legitimate reason, not just to build your talent pool.
• Collect only the amount and types of data that are absolutely necessary for your recruiting purposes.
• Intend to contact candidates whose data you store in less than a month.
• Obtain data lawfully from a legit source.

• Set a fixed period (less than a month) in which your team should contact candidates to inform them that you are processing their data.
• Create a sourcing template to contact candidates including:

• A link to your privacy policy for recruitment.
• The name and contact details of your organisation.
• A statement that any data requested will be used for recruitment purposes only.

Ensure your job application process complies with GDPR

• Ask only for personal data that are necessary (“necessary and relevant to the performance of the job which is being applied for.”)
• Be transparent:

• State that you intend to use their data for recruitment purposes only.
• Specify for how long you may need to keep this data.
• Note if you plan to gather more information about candidates as part of your screening process.

• Link to your privacy policies and clarify that:

• Candidates can find instructions on how to access their data in your privacy policy.
• Candidates have the right to ask you to rectify or delete their data.

Comply with GDPR when rejecting candidates

• Delete all data you have about the candidates you will not be considering for further roles.
• Inform candidates whose data you want to keep that you will keep processing their data (if you told them you would process their data only until you filled the position.) In your email:

• Explain why you want to keep the candidate’s data.
• Mention how long you plan to keep their details.
• Link again to your privacy policy.
• Let candidates know they can withdraw their consent (if applicable) at any time.

Be transparent whenever you receive data from candidates

• Have copies or links of your company’s privacy policy available.
• Email candidates after you receive their data.

Review existing talent pipelines

• Go through every candidate in the places you store candidate data (spreadsheets, ATS, internal database):

• If you determine that a candidate is unlikely to be qualified for future roles or is no longer relevant, then delete their data.
• If you’d like to keep a candidate in your talent pipeline, reach out to them to inform them you are processing their data.

Ensure your software vendors (e.g. ATS) are compliant

• Are your data processors in the EU? If yes, they must comply with the GDPR by default.
• Are your data processors outside of the EU? If they handle personal data of EU residents on your behalf, they must comply with GDPR.

• Ask them to sign data processing agreements that will oblige them to process candidate data according to GDPR requirements.
• Some U.S. companies are part of the Privacy Shield, which provides companies with a framework to comply with EU data protection requirements including GDPR.

• Arrange a meeting with your software providers and ask:

• What they’ve done, or plan to do, to comply with the GDPR.
• How they ensure their own data processors are compliant.
• What tools they offer to help your company remain compliant.
• Whether they have clear privacy policies and ask to review them.

• Check in with vendors after the law goes into effect.

Update your processes to grant candidate requests

• Establish processes to let candidates access their personal data upon request.
• Create processes to delete or rectify data.
• Create a process to let candidates withdraw consent if applicable.
• Communicate all these processes clearly on your website and/or your terms and conditions.

Related: GDPR Readiness Evaluator

The post GDPR checklist: Requirements for recruiters and HR appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

GDPR places the burden of ensuring compliance on your entire organisation, especially functions like recruiting which rely heavily on collecting candidates’ personal data. What should employers do to ensure GDPR compliance when they find candidates online or collect candidate data in their talent pools?

To help you on the journey towards GDPR compliance, we prepared this recruitment guide:

Please note: while Workable has consulted with legal professionals both in the creation of this guide and updates to our own product features, Workable is not a law firm. All information in this guide is general information only. It is not intended to constitute legal advice or seek to be the complete and comprehensive statement of the law, nor is it intended to address your specific requirements. Organisations should take independent legal advice regarding their own provisions for data protection.

Who must comply with GDPR and what are the penalties for non-compliance?

The GDPR applies to companies that process data of EU residents. This covers EU organisations and non-EU companies that offer goods or services to EU residents or monitor their behavior. All these organisations should become compliant when the law takes effect on 25 May 2018. If they don’t, they risk being fined up to 4% of their annual global turnover (revenue) or €20 million, whichever is greater. Companies may also see their reputation hurt by fines or reprimands.

UK organisations must comply with the GDPR until Brexit is completed, and possibly afterwards too.

What are the basic GDPR terms and how do they relate to recruiting?

In respect to the recruiting function, the GDPR refers to:

• Candidates or “data subjects.” Candidates are the data subjects because they can be identified through personal data they give to companies. For example, their resumes may include their names, physical addresses or phone numbers. The GDPR exists to protect this kind of data. Members of hiring teams are also considered data subjects under GDPR, but their own data will not be processed in the same extent that candidate data will.
• Employers or “data controllers.” Employers, or recruiters who serve as their company’s main representatives to candidates, determine the purpose of collecting candidate personal data. This makes them the data controllers who are fully responsible for protecting candidate data and using it lawfully.
• Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and other recruitment software/services or “data processors.” Your ATS is a data processor because it processes candidate data on behalf of your company following your company’s instructions. Data processors often have “sub-processors” (e.g. Workable uses a cloud platform to deploy its system.)

Our hiring specialists can answer all of your questions about GDPR and the Workable GDPR Feature Pack. Request a free demo to learn how Workable’s all-in-one recruiting software can keep candidate data secure while making your hiring process more efficient. 

How does the GDPR affect recruiting?

Here are a few key directives of GDPR that affect the daily work of recruiters and hiring teams:

• You need legitimate interest to process candidate data. GDPR obliges you to collect data only for “specified, explicit and legitimate purposes.” This means, for example, that you can source candidate data as long as you collect job-related information only and you intend to contact sourced candidates within 30 days.
• You need to have candidate consent to process sensitive data. GDPR requires you to ask for consent when you want to process data like disability information, cultural, genetic or biometric information or information gathered for the EEO survey or a background check. In these cases, you must ask for consent in a clear and intelligible way and provide candidates with clear instructions on how to withdraw their consent should they wish to.
• You need to be transparent about processing candidate data. Companies must have clear privacy policies and recruiters are obliged to make those policies available to candidates. You must also disclose where you store candidate data (e.g. your ATS) and state that you will use this data for recruitment purposes only.
• You need to assume responsibility for compliance (accountability.) Your company needs to be able to demonstrate compliance with the GDPR. For example, under GDPR, your company is responsible for who it does business with (e.g. an ATS provider or sourcing services.) If your contractors fail to comply with the law, your company is accountable as well.

Also, you are obliged to comply when candidates exercise their rights under GDPR:

• Candidates have the “right to be forgotten.” Candidates have the right to ask you to delete and stop processing their personal data. You must locate every place that you keep their information (e.g. spreadsheets) and delete it within one month after receiving the candidate’s request.
• Candidates have the right to access their data and ask you to rectify it. Candidates have the right to ask what data of theirs you hold. They can also request that you make corrections to any inaccuracies (rectify.) You must grant both requests within one month and provide candidates with a free, electronic copy of their own personal data.

What should employers do to comply with GDPR?

Map your recruiting data

One of the first things that your company must do to prepare for GDPR is to conduct a companywide data audit. This process will show what kind of data your organisation collects, how, why and from where.

As far as recruiting data goes, you must be clear about where and how you find and store candidate names and contact details, as well as other identifying information. Here are some questions you should be able to answer when the data audit is completed:

• What are our candidate sources and how do we collect personal data? An example would be gathering candidate data via application forms linked from your job ads.
• What kind of data do we collect and how much of it do we actually use? An example is asking candidates to provide their email, home address and phone number. You must be certain that all this information is needed for your recruiting (legitimate interest), otherwise you shouldn’t be collecting it.
• How do we use personal data in our operations? An example would be using candidate data to screen candidates and judge their suitability to progress to interview.
• Where do we store data and who has access to it? An example would be storing candidate data in spreadsheets or an ATS and sharing them with hiring teams.
• How does data flow within our company across processes/ functions/ departments? An example would be how candidate information is transferred from sourcers to hiring managers to hiring team members, so they can contact those candidates.
• What are our processes for sharing, transferring, modifying and deleting data? Again, if you use spreadsheets to track candidate data, what process do you have for correcting inaccuracies or sharing the documents?

Create a privacy policy for recruiting

Your company must have a transparent privacy policy in place explaining how it collects, processes and protects data and giving instructions to data subjects on how to ask your company to delete and rectify their data. In addition to this privacy policy, your company may find it useful to have a privacy notice for recruitment. This note will address candidates directly and should include all information required by GDPR Article 13 and Article 14 as well as a recount of your company’s actions to ensure data protection:

• The name and contact details of your organisation. If you have appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO), include their contact details as well.
• A statement that any data requested will be used for recruitment purposes only. You need to explain your legitimate interest too.
• The types of information about a candidate that reside in your company’s files. These could be contact details, social and professional profiles, education and work experience.
• Who you will share the data with. For example, if you are a recruitment consultant, you may share this data with your clients.
• Where you find candidate data. It’s important that you mention you use your sources lawfully.
• Where the processing is based and where you store data. This is especially important if you transfer data outside the EU.
• How long your organisation intends to store each candidate’s data. If this isn’t possible, you need to explain with what criteria you determine this period.
• The candidates’ rights. These include the right to be forgotten, to rectify or access data, to restrict processing, to withdraw consent, to be kept informed about the processing of their data.
• Instructions on how candidates can take action on the processing of their personal data. Let them know how to access their data or request that you delete, rectify or restrict processing of their data.
• How you protect candidate data. You could sum up or link to your company’s general privacy policy which should include all the ways your company protects data (e.g. encryption, privacy by design.)

Source candidates online with care

Sourcing is an essential function for organisations that want to find great people. However, sourcing requires finding and storing personal candidate data so complying with GDPR all the way is critical.

First, keep in mind that you need legitimate interest to source candidates and process their personal data. Ensure that you:

• Actually intend to contact those candidates. Simply building your talent database by adding candidate data in case you need it in the future is not legal under GDPR.
• Plan to contact candidates as soon as possible. You can only keep a candidate’s data without informing them for a limited time (a month at most). Contact these candidates as soon as possible and delete their data if they ask you to. If you change your mind about a candidate, and decide not to contact them, you must delete their data immediately.
• Collect only the data you need. You may want to process candidate data relating to education, work history or skills along with contact details. These types of data make sense for your recruitment process. However, you should not process irrelevant data (e.g. cultural information) for recruiting purposes. If you need to process this data, make sure to explain it when you contact candidates and ask for their consent.
• Obtain data lawfully. Gathering data from social profiles is legal under GDPR, if those profiles are publicly accessible and if you can reasonably assume that candidates expect to be contacted. For example, you may assume that a publicly accessible LinkedIn profile indicates a reasonable expectation of contact. Only then, you can proceed to process candidate data.

Create a template text that you can add to your sourcing emails. If you have a recruitment-specific policy in place, you can provide your organisation’s name and contact details, say that you intend to keep data for recruitment purposes only and link to your recruitment privacy policy to convey the rest of the necessary information.

If you don’t have a recruitment privacy notice yet, you need to include all information required by GDPR Article 14 (explained above) in your email. Here’s a sample email text with placeholders:

Acme, Inc. [address, phone number, email) has collected and stored your resume and contact details.

We process this data for recruitment purposes only. We found this data on [Linkedin] when looking to fill an open position at our company. We are storing this data in our Applicant Tracking System, [which stores data in the U.S and is fully compliant with EU data protection laws], and we will not share it with anyone else.

We would like to keep this data until our open role is filled. [We can not estimate the exact time period, but we will consider this period over when a candidate accepts our job offer for the position for which we are considering you.] When that period is over, we will either delete your data or inform you that we will keep it in our database for future roles.

Here’s a link to our privacy policy. In this policy, you will find information about our compliance with GDPR (data protection law.) You can find how to send us a request to let you access your data that we have collected, request us to delete your data, correct any inaccuracies or restrict our processing of your data.

You have the right to lodge a complaint about the way we handle your data with [supervisory authority] or you can contact our [DPO] at [contact details] for more information or concerns.

Ensure your job application process complies with GDPR

When candidates fill out your job application forms, they provide you with their personal data. Because job applications correspond to actual job openings, you have legitimate interest in processing this data and you do not need to ask for explicit consent. But, to be fully compliant with GDPR, ensure you:

• Ask only for personal data you need. The Working Party 29 (the collection of data protection authorities) states that the data you collect from candidates must be “necessary and relevant to the performance of the job which is being applied for.”
• Be transparent. In your job ads, let candidates know that you intend to use their data for recruitment purposes only and how long you may need to keep this data. If you plan to gather more information about candidates (for example, by reviewing their social media profiles) as part of your screening process, you need to say that explicitly and explain how and why.
• Link to your privacy policies. You company’s privacy policy should be easily accessible. It should include instructions to candidates on how they can ask you to delete, rectify or stop sharing their personal data. In your job ad, let candidates know that they can find that information in your privacy policies.

Update your rejection email templates

Sometimes you have more than one great applicant for a role. If you can’t hire all of them, you may want to keep the ones you didn’t hire on file for future roles. To remain compliant with GDPR, you need to make sure that you will not keep this data for a longer period than the one you originally mentioned to candidates. If, for example, you told candidates in your sourcing email that you would keep their data for a year after they apply, you don’t need to send them another email until that year has passed. Conversely, if you told candidates you would keep their data until you filled this particular position, then you need to inform them again that you want to keep the data you had collected.

Do this with your rejection email. Add a few sentences to:

• Explain why you want to keep the candidate’s data.
• Mention how long you plan to keep their details.
• Link again to your recruitment privacy notice.
• Let candidates know they can ask you to delete their data at any time.

If they ask you to delete their data, you must comply.

Prepare to inform candidates of data processing whenever you receive their data

Often, you will find yourself possessing personal candidate data through means other than job applications or online sourcing. Candidates may give you their CVs at a career fair or a networking event. Or they may ask you to contact them with job opportunities. All these scenarios are lawful under the GDPR, but you need to be able to demonstrate that you have been transparent.

You can do this by preparing standard forms that provide all information required by GDPR and ask candidates to sign. Or you can email them afterwards with your recruitment privacy notice and the rest of the necessary information.

Review existing talent pipelines

GDPR covers personal data that your company has collected in the past. This means that you must review your talent databases, spreadsheets and other files where you store candidate data before the law comes into effect in May.

This is a good opportunity to make sure your talent database is updated and relevant. Determine which candidates may be good matches for future open roles in your company and which are not:

• If you determine that a candidate is unlikely to be qualified for future roles or is no longer relevant or you obtained their information too long ago, then you must delete their data.

If you store candidate data in your ATS, it’d be easy to delete the data of those who were disqualified. Take a quick look at all candidate profiles to see if there are candidates who are promising or whom you wanted to contact in the future. You could mass-delete the rest.

• If you’d like to keep a candidate in your talent pipelines, reach out to them to inform them that you are processing their data.

For candidates that you want to keep in your database, prepare an email to give them necessary information. This email should be similar to the email you would send to sourced candidates in that it must include all information about what data you hold and where. These emails should also include links to your privacy policies. Your ATS may have bulk email functions that will make sending this email much easier.

Ensure your software vendors are compliant

Data processors have full access to your candidates’ data. This is why GDPR expects you to be certain that your partners protect this data the same way you do.
Your most important vendor in recruitment is your ATS provider. Your ATS is the place where you will store almost all candidate data, send emails and delete or modify information. If your ATS complies with GDPR, it will be a great ally in ensuring your company complies as well.

If you aren’t using an ATS, consider investing in one before GDPR comes into effect. Spreadsheets, which are the most common alternative to software vendors, may expose you to risks concerning GDPR compliance as they provide a poor audit trail, access controls and version control. One of the key benefits of spreadsheets is also one of their key flaws, in that they can be easily duplicated, modified and disseminated without the owner’s knowledge. And, they are a cumbersome method of erasing and correcting data.

As a first step, arrange a meeting with your ATS provider or several if you’re planning on purchasing an ATS. Ask:

• Whether GDPR applies to them as processors. If they aren’t an EU company, they should either be part of the Privacy Shield (for U.S. companies) or be ready to sign effective data processing agreements that oblige them to follow GDPR’s guidelines.
• How they plan to become GDPR compliant. They should also be able to tell you where they store their data and how they ensure this data is protected.
• Whether they use compliant vendors. They should have data processing agreements in place with those subcontractors.
• Whether they have clear privacy policies. Review their privacy policies to ensure they comply with GDPR and can adequately protect candidate data.

Be prepared to grant candidate requests

A big part of remaining compliant with GDPR is to be able to help candidates exercise their rights under this law. To do this, you must provide guidelines and processes to:

• Let candidates access their personal data upon request.
  • Determine the format of the electronic copy of their data that you must give candidates.
  • Establish a process to extract and send that copy.
• Delete candidates’ personal data or restrict processing upon their request.
  • Find all places where you keep data (you must have done this during your data audit) and establish a process to delete data from all these places.
• Rectify candidate data.
  • Ensure you have processes to control different versions of candidate data. For example, you should not correct the same candidate data on one spreadsheet and not in another. Having an ATS in place can save you this trouble.
• Let candidates withdraw consent (in case you decided to use consent as the legal basis for processing).
  • Compare this process to the process of giving consent. GDPR requires that the processes of giving and withdrawing consent should be equally easy and simple.

Ensure you communicate these processes clearly on your website and/or your terms and conditions.

Related:

GDPR Readiness Evaluator
GDPR checklist: Requirements for recruiters and HR

The post A recruiter’s guide to GDPR compliance appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Automating the data collection, tracking and reporting process, Workable’s ‘EEO/OFCCP Survey & Reporting’ feature keeps you fully compliant – no spreadsheets required.

But what exactly are the EEO applicant tracking requirements and how can Workable support and streamline your capacity to meet them?

Equal Opportunity 101 and EEO compliance

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 – one of the laws covered by Equal Opportunity 101 – is the backbone of employment rights. It means that, as an Equal Opportunity Employer, you agree not to discriminate against any employee or candidate based on their race, color, religion, national origin, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, or age (40 or older).

The EEOC

An agency of the US Government, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces federal employment discrimination laws. Its main tasks include tracking hiring data and fielding complaints from employees about possible unlawful discrimination.

Any privately-owned company, state agency, labor union or joint apprenticeship committee with 15 or more employees who have worked for them for at least 20 calendar weeks, has to comply with the EEOC laws. Employment agencies and recruiting companies are covered by the EEOC rules independently of their number of employees or whether they receive payments or not.

The OFCCP

Part of the US Department of Labor, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) ensures that employers doing business with the Federal Government comply with laws and regulations requiring nondiscrimination.

OFCCP regulations prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors with contracts exceeding $10,000 from discriminating in employment decisions based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. It also requires them to make outreach efforts to hire and promote qualified individuals with disabilities, as well as Vietnam era and other covered veterans.

EEOC and OFCCP legislation does not only apply to the hiring process, but also to firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages and benefits.

EEOC compliance requirements

The purpose of the EEOC and the OFCCP may sound simple, but their joint mission creates a number of different requirements:

• the development of a written affirmative action plan
• the creation of an internal audit and reporting system
• the posting of several notices of non-discrimination and employees’ rights
• the filing of an annual EEO-1 report

The EEO-1 report

Probably the most daunting of all EEOC compliance reports and tasks, the EEO-1 report is a compliance survey. It requires certain companies to provide a record of their employment data categorized by ethnicity, race, gender, EEO-1 job category and designated salary bands.

The EEO-1 report is submitted both to the EEOC and the OFCCP and must be filed by:

• employers with Federal Government contracts of $50,000 or more and 50 or more employees
• employers who do not have a Federal Government contract but have 100 or more employees

Automating EEOC compliance

All companies need to be able to evidence EEO/OFCCP compliance when required, which means being consistent about tracking, storing and analyzing recruitment data. Automating this process saves time and ensures accuracy.

Here’s where Workable’s ‘EEO/OFCCP Survey & Reporting’ feature comes in:

Step 1. Collect voluntary applicant EEOC data

Enable the ‘EEO/OFCCP Survey & Reporting’ feature in your Workable account to start automating the collection of EEO data to meet applicant tracking requirements.

To do this, just go to ‘Recruiting preferences’, scroll down to the EEOC section and turn the ‘EEO survey’ on. If you’re an employer with a Federal Government contract you should then also enable the ‘OFCCP survey’.

Once activated, every candidate will be asked to complete a voluntary form immediately after submitting an application. If they skip the survey, Workable will send them a reminder email with a link.

An equal opportunities disclaimer will also be published on your careers site. You can customize this if you want to. Contact our support team with your personalized version and we’ll update it.

Step 2. Capture disqualification reasons

EEOC/OFCCP regulations require employers to record a reason for every non-selection of a candidate. By activating the ‘EEO/OFCCP Survey & Reporting’ feature, you’ll be prompted to do this whenever you disqualify a candidate. Just select an option from the drop-down list or enter your own.

The drop-down list automatically adjusts to match each stage of your hiring pipeline. But we’ve also gone one step further…

When applicants fail to meet one or more of the minimum qualifications you’ve pre-set for each position, they’ll be automatically disqualified and assigned a reason by the system. Which means you can focus your efforts where they really matter – on evaluating candidates who do meet the criteria.

Step 3. Produce the right EEOC compliance reports without hassle

Check your Equal Employment Opportunity data anytime via the ‘Reports’ tab. With a single click, you can export your data in a .csv format (useful when generating your EEO-1 report). You can also export a detailed log of all the EEO/OFCCP surveys candidates have completed for each of your positions.

Further Reading:

• EEO complete guide for employers
• What is EEO?

Using Workable’s Applicant Tracking System for EEO compliance

Using an Applicant Tracking System to automate EEO compliance saves time and promotes the security and accuracy of your data. It also improves the quality and consistency of your overall hiring process. With this taken care of, you can focus efforts where they really add value; using the data to assess and inform your company’s long-term hiring approach.

Not using Workable yet? Sign up for a demo and see how it will work for your organization.

The post 3 steps to painless EEOC compliance appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s why startups and SMBs should embrace structured HR and recruiting processes:

Why startups need some HR functions

Startup and SMBs rely on a flexible business culture. They need to be able to fail fast and pivot. Structured HR and recruiting practices aren’t the first things they prioritize because executives see them as dreadful “corporate,” culture-killers that threaten innovation and flexibility. So, developing good HR and recruiting processes usually takes a backseat.

But when left unchecked, unstructured HR and recruiting processes can do more harm than good. They can foster toxic work environments, create confusion and negatively impact employee morale and retention.

Businesses that deliberately develop a strong HR function show that they value employees and their business. These companies are better at:

• Hiring employees;
• developing employees;
• and retaining employees.

HR processes help startups and SMBs hire employees

When you invest in HR, you are better at hiring because you’re more likely to:

• Create inclusive job titles and descriptions that aren’t discriminatory. HR staff help you come up with accurate job titles and job descriptions to entice qualified candidates to apply. This is key for startups looking to scale and hire diverse teams.
• Conduct structured job interviews. Hiring the right people is critical for small businesses, and unstructured interviews invite bias into hiring processes. HR and recruiting staff can help startups follow structured interview processes to rate candidates on fair, predetermined criteria.
• Protect businesses from lawsuits. HR staff are the point-people for legal matters – including state and federal labor laws. HR staff help you understand complex legislation and what it means for your business (e.g. how to interpret the Family Medical Leave Act in the U.S.)

HR processes help startups and SMBs develop and retain employees

Startups and SMBs with strong HR practices are better positioned to develop and retain employees, and both are important for business growth. They are more likely to:

• Fairly compensate workers. Compensation and benefits are a huge part of HR. Without HR professionals, conversations about pay increases are fraught and could come down to how managers ‘feel’ about an employee or position instead of what the fair market value for a role is. Fair compensation practices also prevent you from developing a gender pay gap.
• Invest in training managers. Startups are full of people who are “generalists” – employees who wear a lot of hats. These generalists often find themselves in management roles, without any formal management experience. Management training is important because the quality of your managers directly affects whether employees decide to stick with you, or abandon ship.
• Care about workplace culture. Good HR and recruiting departments take the pulse of employees in a way that doesn’t feel like policing. They consider their candidate experience, conduct new hire check-ins and meet with employees regularly. This builds a strong culture that feeds a strong employer brand, which leads to better hires.
• Recognize the need for policies. As businesses grow, new employees may encounter new workplace issues: e.g. how to manage noise, process expenses and manage paid time off. HR departments work with executives to create policies that answer those questions uniformly. This helps manage small conflicts before they become big ones.
• Cultivate career paths. When companies reach at least 30 employees, figuring out how to develop those employees becomes critical to retaining them. HR is the best arm of your company for developing career-pathing programs to prevent turnover, which is expensive and disheartening for employee morale.

How to embrace HR without losing your flexible culture

HR is a reflection of a company’s leadership. As long as you value flexibility, you’ll be able to structure an HR department that is creative and flexible.

Here’s what you don’t need to build and run a successful HR department:

1. Jargon. Jargon alienates employees, fosters distrust and diminishes productivity. HR departments should strive to communicate clearly, concisely and in-person, whenever possible.
2. Going “by the book” in every case. Startups don’t need to have hard and fast rules that govern every aspect of office life (e.g. formal dress codes are out of fashion.)
3. A defined set of ‘corporate values.’ At the corporate level, you might need these – as there are usually many divisions, employees and cultures at bigger companies. But as a startup, corporate values can be limiting, and may change as your company evolves.
4. An employee handbook. You need some policies (e.g. sick time, paid time off) but as a startup, you probably don’t need something as exhaustive as an employee handbook. If you really want one, though, here’s how to write an effective employee handbook.

Here’s what you do need to do to develop an innovative HR department:

1. Hire the right HR staff. These employees will be the ambassadors of your company culture, so look for individuals who embody it. Consider hiring people who can serve as both:

• HR coordinators: This person meets with employees on an informal regular basis and encourages managers and employees to resolve issues amongst themselves.
• Recruiters: This person should meet with managers regularly to gain a sense of what qualities they value in candidates. They should also be able to identify each department’s hiring needs, build talent pipelines and create good candidate experiences.

2. Encourage proactive HR involvement. Proactive HR staff do the legwork to meet people face-to-face and learn what drives employee engagement. This fosters trust in HR, instead of fear. Proactive HR employees:

• Conduct regular check-ins with employees
• Meet with passive candidates
• Welcome new hires with flair

3. Empower your HR staff. An empowered HR staff is a group that doesn’t have to run back and forth between executives and employees to gain approval for everything they say. They are free to represent employees and share information with them. Their employee goals might include:

• Onboarding employees correctly
• Measuring employee engagement
• Communicating with employees about what’s going on at the company
• Being competitive with compensation and benefits
• Actively cultivating the culture of the office

4. Invest in good HR software. There’s a lot of HR software to choose from, and much of it can streamline some aspects of HR (e.g. applicant tracking systems, HRIS and sourcing tools.) Keep in mind, though, that even the best HR software isn’t enough to replace human staff.

The post Why HR for startups is a good thing appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What is the purpose of having an employee handbook?

Your handbook’s content and level of detail depends on how you intend to use it. An employee handbook may be a repository of all your policies or a way to welcome new hires.

Using your handbook to guide new hires is a good idea. Melissa Escobar-Franco, Workable’s HR Manager in Boston, says:

“An employee handbook gives new hires tangible information to help them settle into their new jobs. It’s a consistent message on who we are, how we function and what we expect from our employees.”

Without the help of a handbook, it may take employees time to grasp a company’s culture and organization. In 2012, game development company Valve released a handbook for new hires to explain its organizational structure:

A good way to approach creating your handbook is to keep it focused on welcoming new hires and providing only the information they need (e.g. summaries and statements.) You could keep detailed documents of your policies in an intranet, a HR information system (e.g. BambooHR or Namely) or a shared folder.

What to include in an employee handbook

An effective employee handbook includes:

• Your company’s mission, vision and an overview of its culture.
• Guidelines for employee conduct.
• Details on legal aspects of employment.
• Summaries of perks and benefits.
• Descriptions of company processes.

Craft an outline with these elements in mind. Here’s a possible outline with some examples for each section:

Decide what policies to include based on your specific needs. Provide only short summaries of complicated topics (e.g. benefits) and link or refer to full policy documents. In general, avoid overloading your handbook with prohibitions. Make it more attractive by adding a personal touch like a letter from a senior leader. Here’s an example from the employee handbook of Agnes Scott College:

If you are creating a longer and more complete version of your handbook, explain legal issues too (e.g. at-will employment or worker’s compensation.)

As your company grows and laws change, you may need to address new topics. Communicate your plan to revise and update your handbook (annual or mid-year reviews are useful.) Put a process in place to share every significant change through bulletins, newsletters or other means.

Mind the presentation

An unattractive, complicated document risks remaining permanently on employees’ “to-read” list. Take some time to think about your format, layout and audience.

• Printed booklets are concrete, but they are also harder to update and demand reprinting and redistributing when something changes. Even then, a creative approach goes a long way. For example, e-commerce company Zappos created an employee handbook in the form of a comic book. Zappos reframed its policies as stories and ultimately made them easier to read and remember.
• Digitized books or interactive web pages capture people’s attention and make it easy to link to other resources. Software company Basecamp’s brand new handbook on GitHub is a notable example:

This approach helps Basecamp update its handbook easily through GitHub and get direct feedback. It also adds to their employer brand, as passive candidates, interns and newly hired employees can get insight on how the company works right from the source.

Not all companies make handbooks that create a buzz. But, they can craft effective handbooks with the right design. If you don’t have an internal design team, consider hiring a freelancer. Add pictures, schemes and even videos, when possible, to make your handbook engaging.

Use clear and attractive language

Employee handbooks should not read like business contracts or legal documents. To encourage employees to read and remember your messages, use language to your advantage. Here are a few tips:

• Focus on the positives. Even when you are indicating a prohibition (e.g. no smoking indoors) explain why it’s important and how it adds value to your company as a whole. Keep your language welcoming and instructional, rather than authoritative.
• Speak to your audience. Avoid using passive voice or addressing abstract entities (e.g. “the employee.”) Use “you” and “we” to make your handbook more personable and accessible.
• Add humor when possible. Your handbook isn’t meant to be hilarious, but adding a few humorous lines (or pictures) will make it more pleasant to read. Disqus calls its handbook a “Culture Book.” It is written in an amusing manner throughout:

• Use a tone that matches your culture. Your handbook’s tone mirrors everyday work life at your company. A consultancy firm with strict professional standards will probably write its handbook in a professional, formal tone. Conversely, tech companies might use a more casual tone.
• Keep it short and simple. Use as few words as possible and avoid jargon, technical terms and complicated words.

Employee handbooks are multi-purpose tools. Use them to inform employees about your company’s values and clear confusion on important topics. When you are done writing, ask your attorney to inspect your handbook for legality. And listen to employee feedback to ensure your policies make sense.

The post How to write an employee handbook appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s the business case for narrowing the gender pay gap:

The gender pay gap costs companies

The gender pay gap is difficult to measure. The gap is falsely framed as too big to fix, so half-hearted attempts to address it abound. These include flashy announcements on Equal Pay Day, and disingenuous reports of pay equity. But, the gap cannot be whittled down to simplistic phrases, like “women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn”, or “equal pay for equal work.”

These dramatized slogans don’t capture the finer points of the gender pay issue because:

• They don’t compare equal work. The numbers compare men and women of different jobs and pay-grades (e.g.: higher-paid software engineers to lower-paid truck drivers.)

• They don’t consider gender occupational segregation. The more female-dominated a field is, the lower its wages – and the gap grows as women and men climb the ranks.

• They represent old data. Recent research shows that younger women (ages 25-34) are closing the gap, which is about 90 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Still, wage gaps exist, even when comparing both genders in the same professions. Glamour magazine invited 12 people to its offices last year to discover the gap for themselves. Six pairs of men and women with similar jobs, titles and experience levels wrote down their salaries on large cards and “on the count of three” flipped their cards over to show to each other. Though this experiment was small and unscientific, it revealed poignant differences:

“In the silence afterward, you could feel the tension,” Liz Brody of Glamour wrote. “Nurul, one of the data analysts, looked around at the cards. “Almost all of us women,” she remembers thinking, “have the lower salary.”

Individuals suffer from the wage gap. And while the math is messy, the cost for individual companies is clear. Companies that don’t prioritize fair pay have to pay up in other big ways.

They end up with gaps in:

Performance

Companies that close the gender gap increase their skills diversity, collective intelligence and their bottom lines. Businesses with women in top management positions are more profitable. A study of 22,000 companies worldwide found that having at least 30 percent of women in the C-suite adds 6 percent to net profit margin.

Retention

Millennial women leave jobs for the same reasons men do. Those reasons include pay advancement, lack of meaningful work and the absence of learning and development programs. Fair pay, raises and bonuses communicate that you value all employees equally. Employees who feel valued are more likely to stay with their employer. Pay your people fairly to retain them and avoid wasting money on unnecessary turnover.

Branding

Your employer brand is your sharpest recruiting tool. Gender discrimination in the form of pay disparities can tank a company’s brand, in the form of Glassdoor comments, employee discrimination lawsuits and bad publicity. Paying people unfairly is a management blunder that affects your ability to attract good hires.

What employers can do about their gender pay gaps

Gender gaps grow gradually. CEOs rarely wake up one day and decide to discriminate with pay. Even Buffer, a company dedicated to salary transparency, was recently surprised to find out that it suffered from a gender pay gap.

Some companies can afford to spend millions on gap-closing initiatives. But there are simpler and cheaper ways to eliminate gender discrimination at all levels.

The single most important way to narrow the gap

End all questions about salary history

The salary history question is a divisive issue in the recruiting industry. Some recruiters feel this is a necessary question to ask:

But, there’s no other part of the hiring process where you assume a previous employer got things right. Employers independently assess references and credentials, regardless of whether a candidate’s previous boss did. Salaries should get the same treatment. Salary history questions keep women stuck in a lifetime of pay that is well below their market worth.

Katie Donovan, an equal pay consultant, firmly believes the salary history question perpetuates the pay gap:

“Every time an employer asks that question they have to take ownership that they’re growing the gap.”

Donovan helped author the Massachusetts equal pay law that bans employers from asking about previous salaries. The law, which goes into effect next year, will make it illegal for employers to ask “What is your current salary?” Savvy companies should follow suit, regardless of their state.

Other ways to narrow the gender pay gap

If you are an executive, hiring manager or business leader here’s what you can do:

• Offer all employees negotiation training. Some women are less likely to negotiate their pay, for fear of being perceived as aggressive or disrespectful. But negotiation skills help employees in all aspects of their work. Developing negotiation training workshops for employees and hiring managers will help them learn valuable skills and help them perform better in their roles.

• Adjust inequitable salaries. You don’t need to go big, like Salesforce did (by recently investing $3 million in closing their gap.) If you know you have a gender pay gap, take small steps to overcome it. Aim for pay equity one new employee at a time.

• Hire diverse leaders. Homogenous leadership teams leave companies prone to “groupthink” – when a workforce becomes so similar in its thinking that it closes the door on creativity. Groupthinking companies are less likely to challenge the gender pay gap status quo. Hire women to leadership roles -and pay them fairly- to fight groupthink, work smarter and attract diverse talent.

If you are a recruiter, here’s what you can do:

• Research market rates for salaries. Learn what’s fair compensation for the role you’re recruiting for. There are various ways to do this online.

• Be transparent about pay. List the compensation for each role either in the job description or in the first conversation you have with candidates. This will save you and your candidates time in evaluating whether the role is right for both parties.

• Promote gender-inclusive policies. Mentioning your company’s maternity and paternity benefits and remote work options, for example, may attract a more diverse candidate pool.

If you are an HR manager, here’s what you can do:

• Pull your salary data. Compile compensation reports of all people in each department to analyze how much men and women earn. These numbers may serve as a starting point for paying employees more equitably.

• Implement blind hiring. Unconscious biases cloud the hiring process. Gender bias is one of them. Consider blind hiring techniques that obscure your candidates’ genders to give every candidate a fair shot.

• Cultivate career-path programs. Building career paths for employees can help them grow within your organization. If a department suffers from a lack of gender diversity, consider career-pathing as a long-term solution to help close the pay and opportunity gap.

And, if you want to learn more about the gender gap debate, you can:

• Get acquainted with the gender pay gap. There are numerous resources that can help you understand the details of this issue. Here are a few:
  • “What Works: Gender Equality by Design” A book by Harvard behavioral economist Iris Bohnet, about the unconscious biases and behaviors that hamper gender equality and business, and what companies can do about them.
  • “What are Gender Barriers Made Of?”: A Freakonomics podcast that examines how the pay gap and gender stereotypes form.
  • “Ask the Headhunter: Women don’t cause the pay gap. Employers Do”: A Silicon Valley headhunter squarely blames employers for the gender pay gap and debunks the myth that women are responsible for earning less.
  • Aline Lerner’s blog for coverage on gender (and other) gaps in the technical recruiting world and our post on how tech recruiting is broken and how to fix it.

Many conversations about the gender pay gap take place on social media. Here’s a summary of Twitter perspectives on the gender pay gap. Most of them are compiled from Romper:

Women are underpaid for speaking engagements:

Spoke at a conference last year that paid everyone but me $5K-$15K. Told me they don’t pay speakers. Never again. https://t.co/3zGU01vBF5

— Melissa Perri (@lissijean) February 14, 2017

Women feel they are “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” when negotiating for more pay:

On #EqualPayDay, remember that simply telling women to ask for more $ is not enough – because when they do, they’re often penalized.

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) April 4, 2017

Mothers feel the pay gap, too:

Mothers shouldn’t be punished — should be compensated for balancing motherhood &work. https://t.co/pNeW7rvs5Z #stoptherobbery #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/5j28KRu0j7

— Phumzile Mlambo (@phumzileunwomen) April 4, 2017

Women of color are at an even greater disadvantage compared to white men:

Women overall unjustly earn far less than men. For Women of Color, it is much worse.
Support programs that fight this injustice#EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/grUCY6TLzv

— Tony Stark 2017 ? (@1IronMan2017) April 4, 2017

The gender pay gap grows through a series of small, silent cuts. Any amount of well-researched resources and thoughtful social media conversations will only scratch the surface of the gender pay gap issue. But, awareness, and the drive to make small changes will go a long way in narrowing the gap. And they’re worth it. Because the rewards of an equally-paid workforce are huge. You’ll be a more equitable, diverse and profitable company if you narrow your gap and treat your female employees fairly.

The post Why should employers care about the gender pay gap? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

For some employers, equal opportunity commitment begins and ends with equal opportunity statements. They display mandatory “EEO is the Law” posters, add short statements to their job listings or write full-blown equal opportunity policies. Unfortunately, these combined efforts don’t necessarily translate into equal opportunity.

A group of researchers conducted a series of studies to investigate how EEO policy statements impact companies’ hiring practices. The researchers explored the consequences of candidates masking parts of their identity by deleting racial clues, such as minority scholarships, or traditional names, from their resumes (aka, ‘resume whitening’):

• Study 1 surveyed non-white university students regarding ‘resume whitening.’ They found that one-third had ‘whitened’ their resumes, while the rest knew someone else who had. Participants stated that one of the reasons for whitening was to avoid discrimination.

• Study 2 found that applicants were less likely to ‘whiten’ their resumes when applying to job ads with EEO statements. So, the study suggested that EEO statements make minorities more comfortable.

• Study 3 tested how important ‘resume whitening’ was for companies. They included two employer groups: those with a pro-diversity statement and those without. They sent ‘whitened’ and ‘un-whitened’ resumes to both groups and waited for callbacks. Both employer groups seemed to favor candidates with ‘whitened’ resumes – ‘whitened’ candidates were twice as likely to receive callbacks.

So, equal opportunity employer statements don’t seem to make a difference when it comes to hiring discrimination. If anything, they could make discrimination worse at the initial hiring stages. Because they encourage applicants to disclose their race, which makes it easier for companies to screen out non-white applicants.

Further Reading: What is EEO?

EEO statements are the tip of the iceberg

So, do the results of these studies suggest that employers shouldn’t post EEO statements? Probably not. If you’re a federal contractor or subcontractor, you don’t have that choice. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mandates that you include the sentence: “[Company name] is an equal opportunity employer” along with a statement of non-discriminatory practices in every job ad. But, even if you’re not bound by law, assuring applicants that you’re committed to equal opportunity is a good thing.

If it’s true.

Being truthful in your EEO statement is key. Sometimes biases are unconscious and hidden. Diversity programs and training might not work as expected. And good intentions are often inadequate.

Your EEO policy should express a reality in your company: that equal opportunity runs deep. It should be particularly true for your hiring practices and it should also be true for your other employment practices, like compensation and promotion decisions.

The language you use in job ads should also be consistent with your EEO statement. For example, if the rest of your job ad contains words that attract male applicants, EEO statements might lose some of their effectiveness. Same goes for ads using words that may exclude protected groups. For example, it’s best to avoid words like ‘young’ or ‘clean-shaven.’

Here’s how you can make your hiring process more deserving of an EEO statement:

1. Know the law

It’s important to know legal provisions like which interview questions are illegal and what accommodations employers should make for people with disabilities. Read about the EEOC’s expectations and consult a lawyer when needed.

2. Use neutral (or slightly feminine) language

This extends to all internal or external communication. But job ads are especially important since they give applicants a peek into your company. If you use words that tools like Textio identify as masculine, you’re likely to drive away great female applicants. Women already avoid applying to positions they’re not 100% qualified for. It’d be best to attract them by using words that point to collaboration rather than aggressiveness. And you probably don’t have to worry about driving away men. More feminine language is unlikely to deter men from applying to your jobs. Note that feminine language doesn’t mean that you can explicitly say you’re seeking female applicants, though (e.g. “we’re looking for a female software engineer”). That’s discriminatory under EEO laws. Same goes for all language that shows illegal preference for a particular group.

3. Build a blind hiring program

There are a few bling hiring techniques that can pay off. The simplest is to conceal information that identifies women or minorities (e.g. names, photos, minority scholarships). Applicant tracking systems often have functions that can help obscure candidates’ identities. There are also other kinds of platforms that can help, like Gapjumpers and Blendoor.

4. Use structured interviews

Structured interviews may not be completely free of bias. But, they’re more objective than unstructured interviews. Using this format can help keep your hiring decisions job-related.

5. Realize biases

You can’t fight something which you don’t know is there. Bias and prejudice are common, but people don’t easily accept that their judgment isn’t objective. You could discover biases with the help of interview scorecards. By discussing your opinions and notes with your team, you can identify your own biases or help others understand theirs. You can also take tests like the Harvard Implicit Association test. It can help you see if you have any unconscious preferences for race, gender or other characteristics.

EEO statements can win the hearts of applicants

Applicants seem to view equal opportunity employer statements favorably. So, equal opportunity employers have a chance to make a unique statement and attract better applicants.

The length of EEO statements can vary. Some employers opt for a short, formal acknowledgement:

“We’re an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.”

While this may be enough under the law, it seems like a missed opportunity. A longer, more diversity-friendly statement might make a better impression. For example, Dell uses this statement in its job ads:

“Dell is an Equal Opportunity Employer and Prohibits Discrimination and Harassment of Any Kind: Dell is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Dell are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion or belief, […], family or parental status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Dell will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Dell encourages applicants of all ages.”

This statement is longer but has two important additions. First, it mentions workplace harassment. This is a big concern for most women and minorities. Stating that Dell won’t tolerate any kind of harassment sends a clear message that they value diversity. It gives applicants a clue for Dell’s culture. It also mentions business needs and qualifications. Dell lets candidates know that it makes decisions based on things that matter.

Another good example is the EEO statements of Emory University of Atlanta, Georgia. The university has several versions of its statement (short, medium and long) that its people can use in many circumstances. For job postings, its EEO policies contain important information:

“Emory University complies with Executive Order 11246, as amended, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Vietnam Era Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act, and applicable executive orders, federal and state regulations […] Emory University is committed to achieving a diverse workforce through application of its affirmative action, equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policy in all aspects of employment including recruitment, hiring, promotions, transfers, discipline, terminations, wage and salary administration, benefits, and training.”

Emory also has an actionable addition for applicants with disabilities, encouraging them to contact the university if they need reasonable accommodations. Their statement shows that they don’t just talk the talk on equal opportunity.

It’s also good practice to include an informal EEO statement on your careers page. Some candidates will go there directly. And passive candidates might consult your website when trying to decide if your sourcing emails are worth replying to. Mentioning equal opportunity where it’s visible to everyone projects a positive image. For example, Workable’s career page features this snippet:

Equal opportunity employer statements shouldn’t be a mere formality. Employers who are consciously working towards equal opportunity and diversity should be proud to announce it.

The post Why EEO statements fall short appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Companies cannot be expected to manage this themselves and need rules and regulations to govern parental leave so it works fairly. Left unfettered, the market would reward companies who scrimped on paid leave and replaced pregnant employees and new parents with unencumbered workers.

Governments are needed to regulate a level playing field, where more laws, more flexibility for employees and more parental leave are to the benefit of society.

This is progressive gospel but is it necessarily true?

At first glance 2016 was a bad summer for advocates of government-mandated parental leave.

In Britain there were two standout developments: a law firm found that only a tiny minority of fathers offered the chance to split time off with mothers actually did so; and new research revealed that discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers had risen sharply in the last decade, despite a battery of legal protections.

Why does it matter what’s going on in the U.K.?

Britain is as good a place as any to check on whether parental leave laws really work. While it’s not as generous as some of the Scandinavian countries, the U.K. offers far more to new parents than the United States — the only rich-world country not to legislate in favor of paid parental leave.

Shared Parental Leave, or SPL, was one of the big diversity battles of Britain in recent years. And when in April 2015 the British government legislated, its supporters predicted it would deliver a major boost to gender equality in the workplace.

SPL allows both parents to share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of statutory pay ($187 per week) after their baby arrives, or 90 percent of the weekly pay of the wage earner who has taken leave, whichever is the lower amount. It aimed to encourage mothers to go back to work sooner than they had in the past and make British laws reflect a more gender balanced workforce.

When a firm of lawyers, EMW, put in a freedom of information request to see how many families had actually opted for SPL, the real numbers were a shock to some. While an estimated 285,000 families had qualified for the benefit only 3,000 had applied for it.

“Policymakers also need to think carefully about what impact measures like this will really have,” warned Jon Taylor, a principal at EMW. “Both on those it is meant to benefit, and their employers who will have to manage a more complex system.”

He argues that there may be other, more effective ways to help businesses provide family-friendly policies, such as tax breaks for childcare provision.

When the British government commissioned a report on pregnancy and maternal discrimination in 2015 most observers were expecting to find at least some progress had been made. Few expected to find that discrimination had markedly increased.

When it was released in August 2016 it concluded: “Shockingly, pregnant women and mothers report more discrimination and poor treatment at work now than they did a decade ago.”

The report found that 54,000 women had lost their jobs as a result of pregnancy discrimination in 2015, up from 30,000 women in 2005.

This huge rise, which comes as more women than ever are active in the labor market, comes despite legal protections. Under British law discrimination is classed as treating a woman unfavorably — for instance passing her over for promotion or reducing pay — because she’s pregnant or has recently given birth. This protection lasts from the discovery of pregnancy to the end of maternity leave.

Findings like these encourage critics who believe there’s a limit to what government and laws can achieve in refashioning the workplace. Some politicians and business people argue that it’s time to rethink the need for more laws enshrining paid leave or protecting the rights of parents.

One of the reasons that particular attention is being paid at the moment is that there are mounting calls in the U.S. for federal legislation on paid parental leave. It has featured on both sides of the partisan divide during the presidential primaries. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders from the Democrats have called for federal laws on paid parental leave.

On the Republican side, former contender for the nomination, Marco Rubio, said there were too many Americans “who have to choose between being there for their children in times of great need or meeting the basic financial needs of their family.”

The Rubio plan centers on a 25 percent tax break to companies offering between four and 12 weeks paid leave. The credit would be capped at $4,000 per employee. Even this proposal is too much federal government intervention for some observers. They point to two developments: the small number of states who have mandated paid leave and the increasing number of companies electing to shoulder the cost. Washington doesn’t need to get involved, they argue.

With low unemployment meaning U.S. companies face a “talent squeeze,” paid parental leave will join other benefits like medical insurance as a means of attracting potential employees. The business case for paid leave broke through into mainstream consciousness in 2014 when Google revealed that increasing paid maternity leave had boosted retention of new mothers by half.

It wasn’t just a boon for the health and prospects of mothers and babies. The oped in the Wall Street Journal pointed to a survey in California, carried out after the state mandated paid maternity leave showing 91 percent of employers reported the policy either boosted profits or had no negative effect.

The author of the Google oped, Susan Wojcicki, said the U.S. should be embarrassed to be the only developed country in the world without any form of government-mandated paid parental leave: “Paid maternity leave is good for mothers, families and business,” she wrote. “America should have the good sense to join nearly every other country in providing it.”

Not everyone agrees. Nita Ghei — like Wojcicki a working mother — wrote an influential column for the Cato Institute arguing against paid family leave. “Legislation,” she wrote, “cannot change the laws of economics.”

Extended periods of paid leave, she argued, would take women permanently out of the work force and entrench bias in favor of full-time employees: “To truly help families, the federal government should look for ways to reduce the regulatory burden on employers so that they can experiment with alternative work arrangements.”

So is it a case that some parental laws work and others don’t? Or even that government-mandated programs interfere with the workings of the market. A closer examination of the two developments in Britain suggest an answer.

Part of the reason why the new shared parental leave option has seen sluggish take up was because families couldn’t afford it. Paid maternity and paternity leave provisions have seen bigger buy-in because companies agreed to top up statutory pay. Only a handful have done this so far with SPL. Research from across Europe shows parental paid leave works better when the cost burden is shared between business and government.

The author of a light-hearted blog on shared parenting, Captain Poo-Pants, captured the general response to EMW’s findings when he wrote: “The policy needs improvement to make it a real option for families. Employers can clearly do much more to promote SPL and to make it a more financially viable option.”

Similarly, the author of the parliamentary report which found a sharp increase in job discrimination against pregnant women and new mothers, suggested improving on and expanding existing laws, not junking them.

Maria Miller from the Women and Equalities Committee, made three solid recommendations. Firstly, to follow the German model in offering additional legal protections against redundancy. To consider Denmark’s approach where a collective insurance scheme helps employers from small and medium businesses provide enhanced pay and cover for maternity leave. And finally, to reduce the cost to employees of taking an employer to tribunal from the current level of $1,600.

You don’t need to be a moral philosopher to understand that laws are at once imperfect and necessary. Admitting to this imperfection and auditing the impact of laws against the stated intention of legislators should be applauded. In the case of paid parental leave the balance of evidence is in favor of improving and adding to existing laws, not scrapping them.

The post Why parental leave laws aren’t working appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The EEO-1 report is meant to inform the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of your employees’ race, gender and EEO classifications. This is part of the obligation to take actions in favor of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). Read more on our EEO complete guide to learn what other obligations you may have and how you can ensure you treat current and potential employees fairly. EEO job categories might seem complicated at first glance, but a closer look will clear the confusion.

Employers should classify employees according to the content and responsibility of their job. This means that looking at an employee’s title isn’t always enough to classify them correctly. It’s also important that EEO classifications reflect the actual job. For example, if you have a trained nurse working as a medical assistant, you should classify them as a medical assistant.

In general, there are three criteria that employers should consider to decide how to classify employees into the proper EEO categories:

• Responsibilities and primary duties
• Knowledge and training
• Level of skill required

This the breakdown of the EEO job categories:

1. Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers

These are people who create strategies and plans for the entire organization to follow. They either communicate directly with the board of directors or they’re within two reporting levels to the CEO (in larger organizations) and interact with them frequently.

Examples:

• Chief executive officer
• Chief financial officer
• Chief marketing officer
• VP of talent (when reporting directly to the CEO)

2. First/Mid Level Officials and Managers

These managers report to the executive/senior level managers and implement their plans and strategies. They oversee activities and functions at the group, regional or divisional level. This category also includes managers who report directly to middle managers and direct daily operations (e.g. first-line and branch managers).

Examples:

• HR manager
• HR business partner
• Education administrator
• Technical support manager
• VP of sales (in companies where they’re mid-level managers)

You may notice that the more senior roles fall under the first two EEO categories.

3. Professionals

Professional employees usually need bachelor’s degrees, certifications and relative experience to do their jobs. Since 2007, EEOC has included employees in financial and business jobs in this category.

Examples:

• Teachers
• Nurses
• Lawyers
• Accountants

4. Technicians

These jobs need applied scientific skills that people obtain through a vocational degree or other type of training. Often, these jobs involve technical and manual work.

Examples:

• Radio operators
• Pharmacy technicians
• Broadcast technicians
• Occupational Health and Safety specialists

5. Sales Workers

Everyone who’s involved in direct sales should be included here. There are people who have sales as only one of their primary functions (e.g. recruitment consultants). To decide whether to include them in this category, think about what percentage of their time they spend selling. If they spend more time selling than performing other duties, then include them in this category.

Examples:

• Retail salespeople
• Travel agents
• Loan officers
• Product promoters

6. Administrative Support Workers

These employees are usually sitting in offices. They are usually responsible for support functions like organizing offices, preparing paperwork and handling records. They might use the phone or a computer.

Examples:

• Emergency dispatcher
• Secretaries
• Data entry clerks
• HR assistants

7. Craft Workers

Workers should be included in these EEO job categories if they are ‘skilled.’ This means they have been specially trained in a particular skill that allows them to do a specific job. Many of these workers are found in construction or natural resource extraction like mining and oil drilling.

Examples:

• Carpenters
• Plumbers
• Mining machine operators
• Tailors

8. Operatives

These employees are ‘semi-skilled’ workers who undergo less complex training than craft workers. They often operate machinery, factory-related equipment or vehicles. This category also includes people with intermediate skills who use equipment to help move people or materials.

Examples:

• Bakers
• Welders
• Truck drivers
• Dry cleaning workers
• Flight attendants

9. Laborers and Helpers

Laborers and helpers are ‘unskilled’ workers who follow precise instructions. They usually need little training and perform mostly manual labor.

Examples:

• Construction laborers
• Carpenter helpers
• Landscapers
• Vehicle cleaners

10. Service Workers

This category includes every worker that offers food, cleaning, personal and protective services. Some might need formal training, while others only relevant experience.

Examples:

Food services:

• Chefs
• Dishwashers
• Restaurant hosts

Cleaning:

• Janitors
• Housekeepers
• Building cleaners

Personal:

• Home health aides
• Make up artists
• Travel guides

Protective:

• Firefighters
• Security guards
• Lifeguards

Keep in mind that first-line supervisors aren’t included in the first management categories because they most frequently share common duties with their subordinates. For example, first-line landscaping supervisors are included in the category Laborers and Helpers.

As a general example, you can see how to classify a set of sales-related roles:

• VP of sales, if they’re responsible for creating the sales strategy and report directly to the CEO: (1) Executive/Senior level manager
• Sales manager, who oversees sales operations and implements executive/senior manager’s strategy: (2) First/Mid level Managers
• Sales engineer, who needs high level education in engineering and a technical background: (3) Professional
• Sales representative, who seeks out potential customers and aims to close sales: (5) Sales workers
• Sales coordinator, who supports the field sales team with schedules and documentation: (6) Administrative support workers
• Delivery driver, who brings to customers items they’ve ordered: (8) Operators

Note that some EEO categories have been omitted. That’s fine; not all companies will have employees in every category.

The EEO-1 job classification guide of 2010 provides a list of occupations grouped by each of the ten EEO classifications. This list isn’t exhaustive but it can help you further in classifying your employees. You can take a look at the EEOC’s instruction booklet for more details on the EEO-1 report.

The post Understanding EEO categories appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

But, making workplace diversity work poses challenges. These are a few common issues faced by diverse teams:

• Minority groups feel undervalued and rarely speak up
• Majority groups feel alienated by efforts to enhance diversity
• Cultural conflicts arise and can distract teams from solving work problems
• Team members create closed networks (or cliques)

Team leaders are responsible for alleviating concerns and steering their team in the right direction. To help manage diverse teams, leaders can ask themselves three questions:

• How can I make all team members feel equally valued?
• How can I facilitate collaboration between team members?
• How can I always lead by example?

Here are a few things to consider to help foster diversity and improve team cohesion:

Understand the broad definition of diversity in the workplace

People often look at the meaning of diversity from a narrow perspective. Most think about gender, race or religion. But they might overlook other aspects like age, disability, language, personality and sexual orientation. These are types of inherent diversity, attributes we are born with. There’s also acquired diversity, ways of thinking acquired by experience. This kind of diversity matters too. For example, people with cross-cultural competence (the ability to understand and work with people from many different cultures) can be great allies in building an inclusive workplace.

All types of diversity can spark team conflict. For example, psychologists are more likely to associate with other psychologists and engineers tend to communicate better with other engineers. Age differences or socioeconomic backgrounds might undermine open discussion and team spirit. Addressing all aspects of diversity will ensure no one is left out and that team members work better together.

Be conscious of your own prejudices

Leaders can’t lead by example unless they fully embrace diversity themselves. Even if they have the best intentions, they might still unwittingly make assumptions based on stereotypes and biases. Identifying these cognitive barriers is critical. You can try taking Harvard’s Implicit Association Test (IAT) as a first step. It can show if you have unconscious preferences for a specific race, gender, religion or other group.

When it comes to hiring, promoting and rewarding team members, think hard about why you make particular decisions. The criteria you use should be job-related and verified by data. It’s good practice to try different perspectives and make sure you have all the information you need to avoid relying on stereotypes.

Be alert for inappropriate behaviors

When male team members talk about women at work, some might just think it’s harmless gossip. When someone talks about another’s disability or religious beliefs, it could be deemed an innocent comment. Yet, casual comments and simple teasing can make others uncomfortable. ‘Microaggressions,’ or unintentional slights of minority groups, can be perceived as offensive and damage workplace relationships.

Ignoring these behaviors can undermine a respectful and harassment-free workplace. Try to eliminate these conversations by having a meaningful talk with your team members whenever necessary.

Don’t treat equality as uniformity

Many people who believe in equality vow they’ll treat everyone the same. It’s a good practice in selection processes. For example, using ‘blind’ hiring with the help of platforms like Gapjumpers. Blind hiring focuses on meritocracy and skills. It can be an excellent way to increase diversity. But, the same kind of ‘blind’ approach doesn’t always work well when managing teams.

Some employees need different treatment than others. For example, if you decide to take your team out to lunch, don’t choose a place where employees with a restricted diet (due to personal preference, or social or religious belief) can’t find anything to eat. Older people might need more coaching in new technologies. Employees who have relocated from a different country might need additional support until they adapt to new cultural norms. A tailored approach is often better than a blind one.

Build reward systems that cover the needs of all team members

Usually, policies and programs address the majority’s needs. For example, if you think most of your employees are interested in bonuses instead of other rewards, your official policy is likely to reflect that.

Yet, different people are motivated by different things. Having a universal reward and promotion system could be useful to set some standards that team leaders can follow. But, each team leader should also pay attention to what individual team members want. Some want to be rewarded with more money, while others value greater autonomy. Some want to boost their promotion chances, while others want awards and recognition. By understanding the diverse needs and goals of their team members, team leaders can tailor their management approach to motivate and engage different kinds of employees.

Coach your team in conflict management

At the end of the day, most teams are diverse. People come from different cultures, vote for opposing political parties or have diverse tastes in music. Unless your team descends to groupthink, conflict is unavoidable, even in seemingly homogenous teams. Conflict isn’t always a bad thing. Disagreements can breed innovation and positive change.

Conflict management skills are highly sought-after because they help teams achieve positive outcomes through unpleasant situations. Coach your team members in various conflict resolution techniques and be prepared to assist them. Encourage all team members, regardless of what groups they belong to, to speak up and share their concerns on a daily basis. Training in communication is also vital to every team.

Give feedback and explain your decisions

Giving meaningful feedback can be difficult, but it’s necessary. All team members need to know what they’re doing right and what they can improve. You should also be transparent about important decisions to keep speculation to a minimum. For example, if you give someone a promotion, some employees might presume you did it because of favoritism or a workplace diversity program. This kind of speculation can cause a lot of harm. If you are very clear about your objective criteria for promotion, salary increases and other rewards, employees will know you aren’t making business decisions based on personal biases.

Being transparent with your team can help you too. If you’re obliged to explain the reasoning behind your decisions, you’re more likely to avoid subjective criteria and spot any unconscious biases early on.

Keep in mind that feedback is a two-way street. Encourage your team to talk about their problems and ideas. Your door should always be open for them.

Get your team members to collaborate with diverse colleagues

When team members get to know each other better, it’s likely their prejudices will recede. They’ll start seeing each other as individuals rather than members of diverse groups. It’s a good idea to frequently pair up team members with cultural, educational or other differences for small projects, when possible. For example, if you want to hire a new employee, assemble a hiring team with workplace diversity in mind. A diverse hiring team can also help you hire more people from minority groups, since most women and ethnic groups prefer companies who show they have a diverse workforce.

It might also be useful to get your entire team to collaborate with other teams, whether it’s for a corporate event or a large scale work project. In international companies, this could help teams build cross-cultural competence.

The post How to foster workplace diversity appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Some industries have reputations for in-group hiring (often of the ‘pale, male and stale’ variety.) Blind hiring can help companies hire for talent and skill, not just for cultural similarity. The results of blind hiring are relatively untested. However, in the 1970s, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) instituted a blind audition process to combat their lack of gender diversity. Blind auditions increased the likelihood that a woman would be hired by between 25 and 46 percent. Over time, the effects of these blind hiring programs became clear: more and more women applied for the program, increasing the overall skill, talent and quality of the BSO’s application pool (and, by extension, the quality of their music.)

Beginning a blind hiring process

Transitioning to blind hiring all at once can be a complicated task, and may have mixed results. However, there are elements of blind hiring that you can bring into your hiring process that will start to reduce hiring biases. Try these approaches to add a semi-blind approach to your hiring process: 

Obscure gender, race or demographic information

If you’re looking to mask gender or race, delete candidates’ names from their resumes before sending them over to hiring managers. Names, particularly names that are commonly associated with a certain gender or race, can trigger unconscious biases that can hurt candidates and companies alike. If you choose to obscure candidates’ names, consider deleting other identifying information too, like the names of women’s or historically black colleges.

Related: How to source on job boards and resume databases

Don’t consider college pedigree

It can be tempting to judge someone’s qualifications based on their college degree. However, just because someone comes from a top-tier university doesn’t mean that they are the best fit for your job. By obscuring the education portion of a candidate’s resume, you can let their experience speak for itself. It’s best to pair this strategy with a skills assessment or assignment. Listing experience on a resume is only a snapshot of what a candidate is actually capable of. 

Disregard hobbies and interests

Hiring for ‘fit’ rather than skill can allow biases to seep through. According to a New York Times’ analysis of blind hiring, the most common reasons for hiring someone were similar taste in hobbies, leisure activities, and other traits unrelated to job performance.

Taking interests and hobbies into account can create an insular workplace culture, without room for employees to come in with new experiences to improve your company. More importantly, if the hobbies and interests of your workplace are homogenous and primarily reflect a certain demographic, achieving diversity will become significantly harder. To combat this, obscure mentions of irrelevant interests or experience.

Avoid social media

Adding social media profiles to a candidate’s application can often provide a fuller picture of what a candidate is like. You can see how they present themselves online through their Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. However, these profiles can provide photos and other information that you might not need to know. If you’re committed to blind hiring efforts, it’s best to err on the safe side and avoid digging into social media profiles during pre-screening.

Related: 17 effective candidate sourcing tools

Use structured interviews

Though a face-to-face interview is hardly blind hiring, implementing a structured interview process can mimic some of the objectivity blind hiring offers. By asking the same predetermined questions to all candidates in the same order, interviewers can score and judge answers in a less biased and subjective eye way than they could with unstructured interviews.

Tools and resources to reduce hiring bias:

Blendoor

Blendoor is a mobile job matching app that obscures the names and photos of candidates in order to combat unconscious bias and facilitate diversity recruiting in tech companies.

Gapjumpers

Gapjumpers combats implicit hiring bias through ‘blind auditions,’ providing assessments and challenges that companies can use to evaluate candidates instead of a classic resume.

Textio

Textio is a web-based tool that checks job descriptions for words that indicate gender bias. Textio highlights problematic phrasing in a job posting and makes suggestions to help you attract diverse, qualified candidates.

Gender Decoder for Job Ads

The Gender Decoder for Job Ads is a single-serve web app that allows you to check your job descriptions and advertisements for linguistic gender biases.

Project Implicit

Project Implicit is the work of psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington. Their assessments, called Implicit Association Tests, attempt to identify and measure hidden biases.

Project Include

Project Include, founded by tech leaders from Slack and Pinterest, gives chief executives recommendations and tools to improve diversity and create more inclusive work environments in the white male-dominated tech culture in Silicon Valley.

Related: Recruiting tools and techniques for modern HR teams

The post How to build a blind hiring program appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

In the United States, women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. And in Massachusetts, women make 11K less than men every year, on average. Women are paid less than men in their first jobs, even when they’re in the same field and have the same educational background. Women are also penalized more than men for initiating salary negotiations and for having caregiving responsibilities outside the workplace.

“These are things that don’t just affect one job; it keeps women’s wages down over their entire lifetime,” explains bill co-sponsor and State Senator Pat Jehlen. Victoria Budson, supporter of the law and Executive Director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, puts it this way:

“What happens to people over time is if in that first negotiation or those first few jobs out of high school or college you are underpaid, then you really get a snowball effect where if each subsequent salary is really benchmarked to that, then what can happen is that type of usually implicit and occasionally explicit discrimination really then follows that person throughout their career.”

A rising tide lifts all boats. When the law goes into effect in 2018, it will pave the way for employers to correct the wage gap and provide equal pay for equal work. This will benefit all historically underpaid workers, including minority workers.

What’s good for candidates may also be good for employers. According to SHRM’s 2016 Job Satisfaction and Engagement Report, compensation is still a top contributor to employee engagement, and even more important than it was in 2015. Workers may be tempted to look elsewhere for the raises they missed out on during the recession. Paying workers a competitive wage means they won’t have to. In addition, excluding salary history from the interview process can create a more positive experience for candidates. LevelUp’s Director of Talent, Anik Conley-Das, says:

“The impact of not asking for previous salaries is ultimately a positive one, for both candidates and employers. Candidates can now focus on their value proposition for the role they are pursuing, and can now have more holistic conversations with employers without being discounted by the singular factor of pay, which often times is not even a good indicator of fit or success.”

Here are all the main ways that the Massachusetts Equal Pay Act promotes equal pay, and how both local and multi-state companies can stay compliant with these changes.

A broader definition of ‘comparable work’

Today, job titles and job descriptions are enough to legally define ‘comparable work,’ or ‘equal pay for equal work.’ Under this narrow definition, janitors (a job dominated by men) are paid 22 percent more than housekeepers (a job dominated by women). After the law comes into effect in 2018, these two jobs will be considered ‘comparable,’ because they share similar working conditions, job responsibilities and comparable skills. Comparable jobs will have comparable wages. A joint press release from the Massachusetts House and Senate details some exceptions to the rule.

How might ‘comparable work’ factor into recruitment? Jobseekers in search of higher pay may reference a wider range of comparable jobs in interviews. An Assistant VP of Human Resources, for example, might compare their role to that of a ‘VP of Talent,’ ‘VP of People,’ ‘Director of Employee Engagement,’ ‘Chief People Officer’ or ‘Global Head of Employee Experience.’

Illegal to ask for salary history

“What was your last salary?” Jobseekers who dread this question will be pleased to know that employers will no longer be able to ask it, at least not in Massachusetts. Massachusetts will be the first state to ban employers from asking for candidates’ salary history until after they have extended a job offer with a detailed compensation package. This prompts some questions. Would employers really ask for compensation after a candidate is hired? Would they require candidates to sign a pre-employment waiver? It’s an odd thing to write into a law, but if it helps candidates get paid what they’re worth, then we support it. Candidates can still volunteer to disclose their past salary in the hiring process, but this will never be required.

To be compliant, Massachusetts employers must remove this question from job application forms and interview processes. In addition, employers must ensure that anyone participating in recruitment is aware of this law. As for multi-state employers, their job applications must be updated to say that candidates in Massachusetts should not answer salary history questions.

No pay secrecy

About half of employees report that their employers discourage or prohibit them from sharing notes about how much they’re paid. Some employers even go so far as to mandate pay secrecy in employee handbooks. This is illegal and has been so for 80 years. Under the National Labor Relations Act enacted in 1935, employees have a legal right to engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” That includes talking about our salaries. Most of us don’t even know this law exists.

Because of pay secrecy, women and minority workers are often unable to find out if they’re being unfairly paid. Similar to President Obama’s executive order in 2014, Massachusetts is giving this issue a much-needed signal boost by banning pay secrecy.

Penalties and protections

Noncompliance penalties are steep. The Equal Pay Act grants both employees and the Massachusetts Attorney General with the right to sue. Furthermore, employees can file claims on behalf of “similarly situated employees,” which could result in expensive class action lawsuits.

The Act does provide employers with protections. Employers may defend themselves against claims of gender-based pay discrimination by completing a self-evaluation of their pay practices. However, this ‘affirmative defense’ (a fact or set of facts that mitigates legal consequences) will not extend to violations of the Act’s salary history and pay secrecy provisions.

What employers can do right now

We caught up with Joel G. Kinney and Daniel Paradis from Fort Point Legal, PC in Boston to ask them how employers should prepare for 2018. Here are their recommendations. At the very least, employers should develop job matrices that document current and future roles. These should include the relative skill, effort, responsibility, working conditions and educational requirements or continuing education needed for each. They should then plug employees into the matrix to identify pay gaps.

Employers would also be well-advised to begin a written self-evaluation that they can use to predict their compliance once the law becomes effective. This evaluation can serve as an early benchmark to help employers scope out the work they need to do to be compliant with the Act.

Finally, but most critically: Employers should make sure they’re on the right track by seeking the advice of qualified legal counsel.

The post What does Massachusetts’ equal pay law mean for employers? appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

The EEOC has great expectations. Employers should file an annual EEO-1 report and comply with laws like the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964). Federal contractors have to create and enforce affirmative action plans too.

All this is hard work. But, apart from the legal risks of ignoring EEOC regulations, there’s also a business risk. Unless you’re consciously trying to be an equal opportunity employer, you’re missing out on the many benefits of diversity in the workplace.

So how do you become an exemplary equal opportunity employer? Suitable training, policies and processes can get you there.

Further Reading:

• EEO complete guide for employers
• What is EEO?

Training

Professional trainers, HR employees and the EEOC Training Institute could all be involved in EEO training for your company. Here are some useful training ideas:

1. EEO legislation

Many employees are involved in business processes that are protected by the EEOC and should know the law. For example, anyone who’s involved in hiring, training, supervising, benefit administration or succession planning.

These trainings could be broken down according to specific acts that must be enforced:

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Pregnancy discrimination Act of 1978
• Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA)
• Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA)
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA)
• Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA)

Discussing how companies can unwittingly break any of these laws is important. Training should address all prohibited employment practices.

The EEOC Training Institute offers one and two day seminars to present and discuss changes in EEO regulations. It’s a good idea for HR professionals to attend them. Afterwards they can share what they learned with their company. Of course, owners, managers and other employees could also attend, budget permitting.

The EEOC Training Institute also offers courses and custom-made on-site trainings, and holds EEO workshops in Washington, D.C.

Some states have their own EEO laws, in addition to EEOC regulations. For example, ADEA protects employees over 40 years old, but some states protect younger employees too. Keep an eye out for training opportunities in state-specific legislation.

2. Illegal behaviors and biases

This type of training can help your employees avoid potentially illegal behaviors. For example, hiring managers could be trained to avoid asking illegal interview questions. Training will help them create questions that are strictly job-related and don’t involve any legal risk. Employees should also be taught to recognize their biases and try to minimize their effect in the workplace. Employees can discover their hidden biases with the help of tests like Harvard’s Implicit Association Test (IAT).

3. Diversity training

Many employees might wonder what all this trouble is for. It’s important to inform them about the merits of diversity and how good it can be for business. When employees appreciate your equal opportunity efforts, they become more committed allies. This type of training should also be designed to help employees work better in diverse teams. You can build your own diversity training program with presentations, workshops, case studies and quizzes. Try to avoid mistakes that can undermine your diversity program’s success. Communication and teamwork training should be part of your agenda. DiversityCentral.com offers a variety of tools and information that can help you.

Policies

Company policies offer a systematic way to support equal opportunity. Companies can use them to communicate their processes and expectations to employees. So, what company policies do you need?

Equal Employment Opportunity Policy

This is the ‘umbrella’ policy that will cover all the rest. It must be thorough and powerful. HR and management should communicate it across all levels and place a lot of importance on compliance.

Accessibility

In your accessibility policy, you can list all your efforts to support employees with disabilities. To comply with ADA, you need to find ways to make their work easier. An accessibility policy is useful for accommodating customers and visitors with disabilities too.

Parental Leave

Supporting mothers and pregnant women is a decisive step towards gender equality. Craft a generous maternity leave policy to support and retain female employees. Complement it with a paternity leave policy which is increasingly important. Those policies can give your company a competitive advantage to help attract top talent.

Workplace Harassment

Employees might have an implicit understanding that your company won’t tolerate harassment. But, offenders might not always know they’re harassing someone. What some consider simple teasing might be harmful and illegal. It’s important to have an official policy that explains what harassment is and how it’ll be dealt with.

Open door & No-retaliation

Sometimes, discrimination happens right under HR’s nose. Supervisors and managers might also miss the signs. Employees should feel free to report relevant issues. Create and promote an environment of open and meaningful communication. A no-retaliation policy is necessary, since taking adverse actions or victimizing employees who file EEO complaints is explicitly illegal.

Processes

Trained employees and thorough policies can boost your EEO standards. But they’re incomplete on their own. They need the right processes to support them. If processes are flawed, employees can’t do their best for equal opportunity.

If you don’t actively try to avoid discrimination when hiring, you might find that hiring managers are unwittingly breaking the law. For example, relying solely on referrals makes it easy to end up with homogenous teams.

Wondering what you can do? Opt for structured interviews, instead of unstructured ones. Structured interview processes can reduce discrimination risks and help you defend yourself better in court.

Related: Structured interview questions: Tips and examples for hiring

Another useful process is keeping thorough records of your recruitment data. In 2015, the EEOC charged Target a $2.8M settlement for using discriminatory hiring tests. Target stopped using them. As an additional measure, Target updated its data collection systems to spot any adverse effect on their hiring processes in the future. You can do the same with the help of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Collect and analyze recruitment data with Workable’s EEO reporting feature.

The post How to follow EEOC regulations appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Here’s a wrap-up of the discussion including tools, tips and techniques that real companies use to minimize hiring bias and build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

Bias, diversity and inclusion

Bias is rampant in the workplace. Race, gender, religious and age bias in hiring are all regular issues in many workplaces. Due to human nature, we’re all unintentionally biased and more skilled at hiring people who are similar to us. If we don’t put the right processes in place, bias can snowball into discriminating against qualified people and undermining diversity initiatives.

"I think I belong here" is the ultimate goal you want candidates to feel when you show them around yr company – @DianeHessan #workableideas

— Melissa Obleada (@MelissaObleada) June 28, 2016

As Diane Hessan says, “You’ve got to figure out how to create the kind of organization where anyone you’re dying to hire can walk around the office and say ‘I think I would belong here.’” Likewise, Petar Vujosevic says:

You should have your house in order to ensure that once people are hired, they feel included and like they can progress their career at your company. Tackling biased hiring ensures that you actually have more diverse people who can enter your company in the first place.

Culture add, not culture fit

Our panelists agree that too many companies work with a confused definition of culture fit, which leads to bias in the hiring process and in the workplace. Business leaders should look for the behaviors that ensure success at their company—not shared hobbies, opinions or experiences.

“At OpenView, we recruit for about 30 companies in our portfolio. They are all totally different cultures, and one person who would be a rockstar at one culture very much would not be at another,” explained Carlie. To drill down to these desired behaviors, recruiters need to interview hiring managers.

“Ask why, why, why a lot. Why is this important?” stressed Carlie. For example, OpenView hire for continuous, rapid improvement.

Some "culture fit" traits I've heard tonight – curiosity, fearlessness, intensity, resilience #WorkableIdeas

— Christine (@chrissachrissa) June 28, 2016

The Startup Institute surveyed employees from 300 companies about what makes a great hire. The results: Soft skills are more important than technical skills and a high IQ. According to Diane, many companies value “the ability to work in an unclear, unstructured, stressful environment without freaking out.”

Carlie added that instead of thinking about “culture fit” it may be more productive to think about “culture add.” A new hire may add different experiences and valuable perspectives to your team.

Who is, or should be, in charge?

Addressing hiring biases in hiring usually falls to Human Resources. However, our panelists agree that the most effective way to reduce hiring bias and improve diversity is for CEOs to lead the charge.

“If Elon Musk, for instance, can lead two companies, create so many jobs and move people to Mars—eventually—then imagine that he could achieve with only 6 hours a month working on these goals with the same drive, energy and decision-making power,” says Petar.

Hiring is often where bias starts, but companies need policies, procedures and training to improve inclusion and build a sense of belonging after employees are hired.

“Leadership has to own these processes and model this behavior so that it rolls through the organization,” says Carlie.

De-biasing the stages of hiring

Sourcing

One effective way to take bias out of sourcing is to purposely prime your recruitment materials, such as your job descriptions and career pages, to attract the widest possible pool of candidates. “Job descriptions without neutral language can have a negative impact. Software like Textio can help with that,” says Petar. “Objective job descriptions, focused on output instead of competencies, allow for a larger pool of people to self-identify with the role.”

The best way to source diverse candidates is to hire diverse executive talent. #WorkableIdeas #recruitment

— Workable (@Workable) June 28, 2016

It also helps to purposely diversify your sourcing channels. Diane and Carlie do this by tapping networks like NCWIT and “intentionally networking,” or building relationships with people who can connect them to diverse networks. It’s important to note that diversity is no guarantee for advancing to the next stage. Recruiters always screen for the right behaviors and qualifications. However, homogenous sourcing channels typically result in homogenous hires.

Interviewing

Structured interviews are more effective at reducing hiring bias than non-structured interviews. Score cards and skills tests help interviewers rank candidates more objectively. Petar uses his company’s product, GapJumpers, in the interview stage. GapJumpers is a tool that blocks unconscious bias in the workplace through blind talent auditions.

Petar and his colleagues have also designed an interview process that reduces unconscious bias and is attentive to impostor syndrome. “We start out by reviewing a work sample and doing a deep dive around that, before moving on to other objective outcomes that a candidate has achieved,” says Petar. “Furthermore, having diverse interview panels make applicants and employers feel more at ease, thus producing better interviews.”

He adds that interviewers must have fifteen minutes of prep before conducting their interviews. “We’ve all been on interviews where the hiring manager is late and their head is still at their last meeting. Mostly what you get then is obvious questions and a decision largely based on first impressions.”

Have the same people interview to fill a role – meet in person to debrief and check yourselves on what really matters #workableideas

— Rebeccah Marrero (@lioness1120) June 28, 2016

Diane’s hiring teams typically include three people with different goals. The first person is focused on experience, the second on the technical screen and the third on culture. The hiring team checks each other for bias during the evaluation process. This process also avoids asking a candidate the same questions, creating a richer and better candidate experience.  

Goals for reducing bias in hiring

At GapJumpers, Petar partners with clients to implement scalable ways of reducing bias in the hiring process. Here are their metrics for success:

• Increase in diverse applicants making it past the initial screening
• Increase in diverse applicants making it to the offer stage
• Increase in diverse hires staying on after probation and being at or above 80th percentile for promotions and salary earned after 12 months

Related resources

For those interested in learning more about how to reduce bias in hiring, here are some of the best tools and resources around:

• Blendoor – a mobile job matching app that hides candidate names and photos to circumvent unconscious bias in the workplace and improve diversity recruiting in tech companies
• GapJumpers – a blind auditioning tool that allows companies to hire based on performance instead of resume keywords and pre-conceived assumptions
• Interviewing.io – an anonymous technical interviewing platform designed to fix Silicon Valley’s ‘fundamentally broken‘ talent funnel by minimizing unconscious biases
• Paradigm – a data-driven company that draws on behavioral science research to design effective diversity and inclusion strategies
• Project Include – an open community working toward providing meaningful diversity and inclusion solutions for tech companies
• Textio – a language analysis platform that uncovers gendered phrases and spots biases, allowing companies to write more gender-neutral job descriptions that appeal to wider audiences
• Unbias.io – a Google Chrome extension that removes faces and names from LinkedIn profiles to reduce the effects of unconscious bias in recruiting
• Unitive – a hiring platform that helps companies create job postings and structure job interviews to focus on skills instead of stereotypes

The more perspectives you have, the less likely one person’s bias will sway hiring decisions. Using team-oriented hiring software such as Workable can help reduce bias. Finally, don’t forget to check in with internal and external peers. Sharing interview outlines, job descriptions and notes on redesigning your careers page can be tremendously useful.

*Many thanks to Petar Vujosevic for sharing his insights with us. Due to technical difficulties, he could not join the event via video chat as planned. And thanks to Marissa Parillo for moderating this lively discussion. She played a huge role in the success of our event.

The post How innovative companies combat unconscious hiring bias appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

September 2017 Update: According to Reuters.com, a Texas federal judge struck down the new overtime rule. Companies do not need to make any changes to how they pay overtime to their employees.

November 2016 Update: According to a recent Forbes article, “a federal judge in Texas has issued a nationwide junction blocking the [new overtime rule.] The injunction halts enforcement of the rule until the government can win a countermanding order from an appeals court.”

Employers are voicing concerns. How can companies like small businesses and non-profits sustain such a rise in labor costs? And won’t there be consequences for workplace culture and employee morale?

Here’s a guide to help you understand the new overtime laws a bit better:

Getting to know the basics

In 1975, the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) required employers to pay almost two out of three employees overtime. This figure decreased over the years to around eleven percent. Obama’s new overtime law, which has been debated since the summer of 2015, aims to fix this.

Before the new overtime law, white collar employees had to be earning a maximum of $455 per 40-hour week to be non exempt (and therefore eligible for overtime pay). Now the salary threshold has doubled to $913 (or $47,476 per year). So, many more people could be eligible for overtime. The new law also reclassifies the cut-off for “highly compensated employees,” (HCE) from those who earn above 100,000 a year to those who earn more than $134,000. HCE are exempt from overtime pay if they meet certain requirements.

Of course, there are exceptions. Businesses that make less than $500,000 in revenue aren’t covered by FLSA rules, so they don’t have to pay overtime. Some businesses, like hospitals and schools, have to pay overtime regardless of revenue.

A quick look around the globe

Some see this policy as overly generous. Others say it’s still a long way from the standard of other countries. So, what’s happening outside the US?

UK overtime law doesn’t oblige employers to pay anything for extra hours. But employees can’t be made to work more than 48 hours per week. Everyone must get paid at least minimum wage, for all the hours they work. Employers can offer time off in lieu of overtime.

Other countries have more generous overtime laws. Mexico’s law is interesting; overtime compensation is double an employee’s normal pay, and triple if they work overtime on a national holiday.

According to Russian law, employers can ask employees to work overtime in specific instances and for a maximum of four hours over any two consecutive days (up to a maximum of 120 hours per year). Overtime pay is at least 1.5 or 2 times normal wage.

France’s overtime laws require employers to pay an additional 25% of an employee’s normal wage for the first eight hours of overtime (and 50% for every hour beyond that). But new French labor laws might change this; an issue which has sparked much debate and various demonstrations since spring 2016.

How are US employers affected by the new overtime law?

It’s natural for employers to be unhappy about laws that up their costs. In the retail and restaurant industries alone, projected costs may amount to nine billion dollars a year. Employers will also have to review current HR policies (like timekeeping).

What can businesses do?

Usually, added costs are passed on to customers. But, some employers are thinking about other ways to reduce their costs. They could raise salaries so employees can reach exempt status once again. Or they could lower salaries to make up for overtime pay. Are these options worth it, in the long term?

Probably not. Raising salaries just above the threshold is a ploy unlikely to inspire employees’ respect. Plus, this money will likely come from cutting other salaries or benefits (excluding a 10% bonus the new law allows) which employees are never big fans of. Employee engagement and productivity may suffer as a consequence.

Of course, employers could hire part-time employees to take on the extra hours, capping the working week of full-time employees.

Is paying overtime any good for business?

Added labor costs are a pain. But, businesses can pull through by making their processes more efficient and cutting redundant costs.

Imagine if there were no laws for overtime at all. Would that be good for business? Theoretically, employees could work as much as possible without extra pay for going above and beyond. This doesn’t seem like a healthy employment relationship that could boost productivity or long-term gains.

At a time when employee engagement is the holy grail for employers, complaining about having to pay a low-salaried supervisor for their work might send a bad message.

Need an additional argument? Retail, an industry heavily impacted by the new rule, can benefit from it too. Retail workers are retail customers too – if everyone is better paid, they’re likely to buy more retail products. Extra costs are a burden, but they could coincide with a rise in revenue.

How are employees affected?

Five million previously exempt employees (or many more, according to the Economic Policy Institute) can now get paid more. This should be good news for them. But, they may actually experience negative consequences.

If employers cut salaries or raise them just above the legal maximum, employees mightn’t profit much. And if employers cut back overtime, non-exempt employees may burn out trying to deal with increased workloads within normal working hours. There’s also fear that employers will eliminate some positions that require frequent overtime by automating work, or passing it to exempt employees.

Stricter timekeeping is also a pain. Nobody likes other people monitoring when they clock in and out. But this is something people can get used to, especially if they see their income rise.

There’s been some speculation that newly non-exempt employees will feel demoted and under-appreciated. Counting work hours is a normal practice for blue-collar workers. But, no matter how much prestige an employee places on their exempt status, they’re more likely to be satisfied about getting paid more. Imagine a retail store manager, making $35,000 per year working 60-hour weeks. Having to monitor their hours to get paid more isn’t likely to make them complain.

And what about public opinion?

Eighty percent of American citizens support extended overtime rules. Businesses may consider increased costs a headache but public opinion should make them reconsider their resistance to the new overtime law. After all, “the customer is always right” – catering to what 80% of the public wants is rarely a bad business move.

So where should you start?

US businesses have until December 1st 2016 to adjust to new overtime regulations. Some employers may try to get around the law. But, in the long term, it’s probably better to adjust to it and pay the new overtime rates.

Here are some actions you can take to make the transition to the new overtime law easier for you and clearer for your employees:

1. Seek legal assistance

Ever since the new overtime law was officially announced, there have been tons of articles explaining its nuts and bolts. But, a qualified lawyer can explain the rule in more detail and give useful advice on how to deal with its consequences.

2. Re-classify employees

Almost 11% of employees may be misclassified. Overtime laws set guidelines for who can be exempt. Companies should make sure all of their employees are correctly classified as exempt or non-exempt.

3. Craft clear company policies

A carefully crafted overtime policy, along with an attendance policy, is a must. Companies that already have these kinds of policies should update them as soon as possible.

What should an overtime policy include?

• Define employee classifications. If you reclassify employees, let them know why you reclassified them.
• Explain terminology. Employees should know what being classified as exempt/non exempt means. They should also understand other concepts like ‘standard working hours.’
• Outline company overtime rules. Employees should know why and when they can be asked to work overtime. Is overtime mandatory and frequent or optional and occasional? Brief employees on your company’s legal obligations to encourage transparency.
• Establish and communicate procedures. Should employees and supervisors sign written agreements when overtime is needed? Communicate all your procedures for recording and paying overtime.
• Be clear on employees’ obligations. For example, tell employees how you’ll compensate voluntary overtime. Ask them to pay close attention to their timekeeping and set out rules to avoid excessive overtime.
• Use the right technology. You can track hours and calculate overtime pay easily with the help of technology. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems and timekeeping software can standardize this process and shorten your adjustment period.

Legislative changes of this scale can be disruptive. Especially for HR departments who have to rethink policies and procedures. But, the quicker companies learn to adapt, the less likely they are to suffer negative consequences.

The post New overtime law 2016: an employer’s guide appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Illegal job interview questions laws can be complex, but the simple rule is to steer clear of everything that hints at discrimination, as defined by equal employment opportunity laws. This can be more difficult than it sounds. For example, interviewers can ask unwitting questions that subtly refer to protected characteristics as opposed to obviously discriminatory lines of enquiry. Both are illegal questions to ask in an interview, and are prohibited.

Here is a list of illegal job interview questions, with our accompanying suggestions for legal alternatives for you to incorporate into your structured interview process:

1. Where do you live?

This sounds like a perfectly innocent question. You may even see resumes noting the candidate’s address. But still, although not illegal per se, it’s a question best avoided. If a candidate lives at an area inhabited mostly by minorities, you risk lawsuits for racial discrimination.

What do you really want to know?

Often, managers are worried about attendance. It’s natural to assume that people living far away won’t be able to arrive punctually or be constantly on call. But that’s only an assumption. If you want to make sure a candidate won’t have attendance problems, ask them a direct and relevant question.

Legal alternatives:

• Will transportation to and from work be a problem for you?
• Would you consider relocating for this job?
• Are you able to be here at 8 am every morning?

2. Are you/have you been a drug user?

This illegal interview question targets recovering addicts. Same thing goes for questions about drinking and smoking. Additionally, people with health conditions, who are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), may take prescription drugs. If the question doesn’t specifically refer to illegal drugs it poses a discrimination risk.

What do you really want to know?

You probably want to know whether the candidate does illegal drugs and how reliable they are. Reliability can be assessed another way, for example with effective interview questions or from references. You’re allowed to ask about current illegal drug use. But asking might not be useful: few, if any, people would say yes. You’ll get a clearer answer from a legal drug test.

Legal Alternatives:

• Are you currently using illegal drugs?
• Are you comfortable taking a drug test?

3. How old are you?

This question comes up often in interviews. However, it points to age discrimination, which is prohibited under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). It’s meant to protect employees over 40, though in some states, younger people are also protected. Similar questions that may reveal age (e.g. when did you graduate high school?) aren’t allowed either.

What do you really want to know?

Age may sometimes be considered a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). For example, you shouldn’t hire a bus driver who’s over the mandatory retirement age. Also, if a job has severe physical demands, you’re likely to want a younger employee. But interviewers shouldn’t ask direct age questions. Ask what you want to know instead.

Legal Alternatives:

• Are you legally allowed to do this job?
• This job has the following physical demands. Will you have any issues?

4. Are you a native English speaker?

This question points to discrimination based on nationality or race. It hints that you’re likely discriminating because of a person’s accent (explicitly prohibited by law) or because you suspect they come from another part of the world.

What do you really need to know?

Often, fluency in a particular language is an important job-related requirement (e.g. for call center reps). In these cases, the law allows you to make a hiring decision based on language ability. You still can’t ask whether they’re native speakers but you’re allowed to evaluate their communication skills during the interview. You’re also allowed to ask how fluent they are in other languages.

Legal Alternatives:

• Which languages can you speak fluently?
• How would rate your communication skills?

5. Do you plan to have children?

Anything related to parenthood can’t be asked during an interview. Women especially are protected under the pregnancy discrimination act (PDA), and you can’t ask whether they’re pregnant or plan to be in the future.

What do you really want to know?

Concerns about attendance, overtime and commitment are related to parenthood since family usually takes priority over career. However, parents aren’t necessarily less conscientious or willing to do their job. You can ask questions to discover how this job fits into their long-term plans. Or ask directly if they’re able to fulfil the position’s demands.

Legal Alternatives:

• This job often requires overtime. Will you be able to do this when asked?
• How do you think this job fits in your career goals?

6. Have you ever been arrested?

The fact that someone may have been arrested doesn’t mean they engaged in criminal conduct. The equal employment opportunity commission (EEOC) warns that arrest questions may have an underlying racial discrimination intent since some ethnic minorities get arrested more often than others. You can’t make a hiring decision based on arrest records.

What do you really want to know?

Obviously, you want to make sure that your new hire won’t engage in unlawful behavior. Conviction records indicate violations better than arrest records. Asking about specific convictions that are relevant to the job (e.g. statutory rape for teachers) is legal under EEOC regulations. Note that you shouldn’t discriminate between people with similar records based on race or nationality. Some states also restrict your rights to ask about convictions.

Legal alternatives:

• Have you ever been convicted of fraud?
• Were you ever been disciplined for violating company policy at a previous job?

Simple rules to avoid illegal interview questions

Be sure that your behavior is legal and use these guidelines to avoid illegal interview questions:

Don’t ask anything that isn’t job-related

Protected characteristics like race are never job-related. Sometimes, religion, age, gender and national origin are BFOQ. This means you’re allowed to consider them when they’re highly relevant to the job.

Structured interview questions are legally defensible. Download our free guide to learn how to get them right.

Don’t beat around the bush

When you want to know if a future employee will be punctual, discuss it directly. Don’t try to deduce an answer by asking irrelevant questions; where they live, whether they have a car or whether they must pick up their children from school in the afternoon.

Don’t cross the line to a personal discussion

No matter how likable or interesting the candidate is, resist temptation to start a personal discussion. Don’t ask anything about their lifestyle, opinions or background that is considered personal.

Don’t ask anything you can learn from a different source

Background checks are key. If you follow the legal procedure, you can learn several things without asking the candidate, such as: conviction records, bad credit etc. References or previous employers are also good sources to find out more about the candidate through legal means.

Want more? Check our list with the best interview questions to ask.

The post 6 illegal interview questions not to ask — and legal alternatives appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

We see diversity as something that is complex and holistic, a concept that’s constantly evolving. A diverse team brings together different skills, personalities and perspectives, resulting in fresh ideas and smarter problem-solving. A diverse team looks like the real world and is more aligned with an increasingly diverse and global customer base. See what building diverse teams can bring to the table, and how companies like IBM and L’Oréal and Twilio aligned their diversity strategies with their business goals.

Key figures for a diverse team

• Ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to earn above-average revenue
• Gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to earn above-average revenue
• Teams with 50-50 gender diversity outperform other teams in quality of work
• 2 out of 3 candidates report that diversity is important in evaluating job offers
• More than half of employees believe their company should do more to improve diversity

Good business, not good philanthropy

It’s become more common for companies to advertise their commitment to diversity by publishing relevant data. Vox has published an impressive diversity report, and here are the gender and ethnicity breakdowns of a fleet of tech giants. Companies like Twitter and Slack have broadcast their diversity goals. But how do pie charts translate to tangible profits?

Research from McKinsey & Company and New York’s Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) shows that companies focused on diversity in the workplace are more profitable than homogenous companies. “Two-dimensional diversity,” a metric coined by CTI, refers to inherent qualities like gender, age, and race. Their research, spanning more than 40 case studies and 1,800 employee surveys, shows that publicly-traded companies with 2-D diversity were more likely to have expanded their market shares and captured new markets in the last twelve months.

McKinsey’s data reveals similar findings: companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent likelier to have financial returns above national industry medians. Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity in the workplace are also 15 percent likelier to have revenue above national industry medians.

At IBM, for example, they’ve embraced diversity for “good business, not good philanthropy.” Through the long-term efforts of their diversity task force initiative, they’ve tripled their number of female executives and doubled their number of minority executives. The task force has also helped to develop a focus on Asian, black, Hispanic, mature (senior citizens) and Native American markets. Finally, their small and medium-sized business sales jumped from $10m in 1998 to $300m in 2003.

Diversity begets diversity

We’re in a candidate-driven job market, which means that the most qualified people for your jobs are fielding other offers. Savvy recruiters will know that it’s also worth talking to candidates who are already employed but curious about new opportunities. In this competitive scene, employers can boost recruitment by shining a light on diversity in the workplace. According to Glassdoor, two-thirds of candidates consider diversity in the workplace a decisive factor in their search. 

Employee turnover is also a concern for employers these days, as an aging population retires and is replaced by a rising generation that expects to spend two to four years at each job. Employee churn is costly on many levels because employees contribute more than just their work. When they leave, they take their relationships, skills, and institutional knowledge with them.

It’s important to note that turnover is especially high with employees from underrepresented groups. Turnover is higher for women than for men, and it’s higher again for minorities than it is for whites. Retaining these employees is a challenge in a starkly homogeneous company, where they may interpret the scarcity of employees like them as a sign that they’re unwelcome. In this light, it makes sense to think of diversity in the workplace as a long-term investment that begins now. Cultivating diversity creates a virtuous cycle that perpetually attracts and retains diverse talent–and talent, of course, is a company’s best asset.

At Twilio, building a diverse workforce started with a monthly lunch discussion, building support organically over time until they established a formal partnership with HR. Then, they appointed two diversity leads: one for building an inclusive culture, and one for attracting diverse talent. With six employee resource groups, a diversity panel at their developer’s conference, and a mentorship program for diversity and inclusion, it’s safe to say that these are now core values that are deeply infused across the company.

Channeling the wisdom of crowds

It’s not easy to introduce diversity into a previously homogeneous situation. We’re hardwired to prefer people who are similar to ourselves, and differences of opinion occasionally lead to disruptive conflicts. Worst of all, members of a diverse team have a track record of not recognizing the contributions of diversity to their own improved performance, which may lead people to doubt its value.

However in many cases, differences produce constructive results. In a mock jury experiment conducted by social psychologist Samuel Sommers, diverse juries cited more facts, recalled case details with greater accuracy and considered more perspectives than homogeneous juries. Research from the University of Amsterdam shows that in business teams, having 50-50 gender diversity resulted in more “mutual monitoring” (making sure everyone’s doing their job), resulting in higher quality work. Social scientist Scott Page attests that cognitive diversity is especially useful for problem-solving and innovation. “The more complex the decision, the more worthwhile it is to tap into diversity,” he explained. “Similar people…are less likely to see things that others have not seen before.” In these scenarios, diversity makes teams smarter, more creative and more effective.

In addition, diversity in the workplace equips companies with the cultural competency to understand, respect and connect with their target audience. A diverse workforce is essential for industries like healthcare, higher education and law enforcement. In the realm of consumer goods, at L’Oréal, diverse teams of multicultural employees are at the heart of new product development and innovation. “Their background is a kind of master class in holding more than one idea at the same time. They think as if they were French, American, or Chinese, and all of these together at once,” says a director at L’Oréal Paris. As a result, L’Oréal rolls out a steady stream of new and culturally relevant products every year, expanding their reach into emerging markets.

Related: Disability inclusion in the workplace: removing the barriers to finding top talent

The post Diversity in the workplace: the case for building a diverse team appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

A growing company is good news but it comes with added responsibility. When your staff grows beyond a certain number of employees, the US government starts to require more information about your company as an equal opportunity employer. One of the new things you have to do is file an EEO-1 report.

So what is the EEO-1 report or employer information report? It is a compliance survey mandated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and it’s obligatory for employers who meet certain criteria. EEO-1 reporting is done through the completion of Standard Form 100. To complete this EEO-1 form you store employment data categorized by ethnicity, race, gender and job category.

Complying with EEOC guidelines can be time consuming and EEO mistakes can get you in trouble. It’s a headache but it’s worth remembering that the EEO-1 report is a means of tracking compliance for any equal opportunity employer.

If you are about to file an EEO-1 report for the first time, use these simple steps to get the job done.

Step 1: Determine whether you need to file an EEO-1 report

All employers with 15 or more employees have to comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be considered an equal opportunity employer and avoid discrimination according to protected characteristics. However, you only have to file an actual EEO-1 report if:

• You have 100 or more employees
• You have less than 100 employees but you are owned, affiliated with or controlled by a company with more than 100 employees overall
• You have 50 or more employees AND you have a federal contract/subcontract worth more than $50,000
• You have 50 or more employees AND you act as an issuing and paying agent for US Savings Bonds OR serve as a depository of government funds

The Standard form 100 can be completed by all types of employers. Keep in mind that if you have 50 or more employees but you are exempt under regulation 41 CFR 60-1.5, you don’t have to file an EEO-1 report. You are also excluded if you’re located in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands or other US Protectorates.

Step 2: Learn the basics of the EEO statement

The annual deadline for submission of an EEO-1 report is September 30. Sometimes an extension may be given officially by the EEOC or you can request a one time 30-day extension.

The EEOC states that online submission of EEO-1 data is preferable in an effort to reduce paperwork (Government paperwork elimination act of 1998). Paper reports will be accepted only upon request and approval. You can check the annual survey mailout memorandum for the website, telephone number or address from which you can get a copy of the prescribed EEO-1 data file.

Employers who operate in one location, as one establishment, are referred to as “single-establishment” employers and are obliged to file a single EEO-1 report.

Employers who operate as more than one establishment are referred to as “multi-establishment” employers. They must file the following reports:

• One report for the company’s headquarters (Type 3)
• One report for each establishment with 50 or more employees (Type 4)
• One list of establishments with less than 50 employees including a data grid on their employees by race, gender and job category (Type 6) OR a separate report for each of these establishments (Type 8 as per Type 4)
• One consolidated report (Type 2)

Be sure to check the EEOC Factsheet for more detailed information.

The EEOC may occasionally accept proposals from employers for alternative methods of reporting. If you think that this will benefit your company, you should file a written proposal to the EEO-1 Coordinator, EEOC-Survey Division, 1801 L Street, NW, Washington, DC 20507 as stated in official instructions. At any case, make sure you collect all needed information by visiting the EEO-1 survey website.

If you have questions pertaining to a specific situation, you may find help in the FAQ section. A checklist for the whole process can be extremely helpful.

Step 3: Register as a first-time filer

In order to file the report you need a Login ID and password. To receive these, the EEOC requires you to register for a first time submission. Completing this form serves as an application for credentials. It will also help you determine whether you are obliged to register as a first time filer.

Make sure you do this well in advance as it will take you some time to establish a procedure for recording data and completing the standard form 100.

Step 4: Collect the data for your EEO-1 report

Employment data can refer to any pay period from July to September. Generally, self-identification by employees is preferable to ensure the accuracy of data. A procedure to conduct this employee survey, allowing for ample time for everyone to respond, is essential. Make sure you provide self-identification forms to the employees and that they are collected in time. The headquarters or parent company must collect all forms from the establishments. In cases where employees refuse to identify themselves, the employer is allowed to complete the data on their behalf by records or visual observation (in the case of race).

All employees regardless of their status (e.g. part-time vs full-time) must be included in the report. The job classification is as follows:

• Executive/Senior Level Officials and Managers
• First/Mid Level Officials and Managers
• Professionals
• Technicians
• Sales Workers
• Administrative Support Workers
• Craft Workers
• Operatives
• Laborers and Helpers
• Service Workers

Make sure that you have a clear understanding of these EEO-1 categories to avoid misclassifying an employee.

For race categories you can consult the appendix of the official EEOC instruction booklet where there are instructions for classifying employees according to race. The categories used are:

• Hispanic or Latino
• White (Not Hispanic or Latino)
• Black or African American (Not Hispanic or Latino)
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (Not Hispanic or Latino)
• Asian (Not Hispanic or Latino)
• American Indian or Alaska Native (Not Hispanic or Latino)
• Two or More Races (Not Hispanic or Latino)

Generally, the instruction booklet can help you gain a better understanding of the different EEO-1 reporting requirements.

Note that you need to record employment data only. The EEO-1 report doesn’t require you to submit any data regarding candidates from your hiring process. See step 7 if you are wondering about the usefulness of applicant data.

Step 5: Prepare and submit the EEO-1 report

You can find a full sample of the report here. Note that the job and race classifications appear by default in the report. Your preparation must be done according to those guidelines. After you have collected self-identification data by employees, you can begin to list them by establishment, race/ethnicity, gender and job category (every employee should appear only once in the EEO-1 report). Double-check your data. If you are a multi-establishment company, remember that the number of employees in the consolidated report must equal the sum of employees in the Type 3, 4 and 6 or 8 reports.

You can submit your completed report through the EEO-1 Online Filing System or through other methods approved by the EEOC.

The EEOC guidelines make a special mention of the “certify report” button. Do not forget to press it, otherwise your report will not be submitted.

Step 6: Track changes in EEO-1 reporting requirements

Recently, the EEOC proposed changes that expand the EEO-1 categories that employers must report. From 2017, the EEOC may require EEO-1 filers to submit compensation data (W-2 earnings and hours worked) as part of their EEO-1 report. It has also published a proposed form for electronic collection of this data. You can find more information, as well as a comment section that is in effect until April 1, here.

Make sure you keep abreast of the EEOC decisions. Filing an incomplete or inaccurate report may have serious consequences such as fines or the termination of federal contracts for contractors and the banning of future agreements.

Step 7: Expand your data for complete EEO compliance

Overall EEO compliance should not be left to chance. Being compliant as an equal opportunity employer largely depends on the systematic recording and storage of data.  Especially if you are a federal contractor, the recording of applicant data is typically part of a mandatory internal audit and reporting system for your affirmative action plan.

For any equal opportunity employer, it can be useful to have a detailed view of the hiring process. For example, if an employer realizes that a recent job opening has attracted only male white candidates under 40 years old, this might mean there is a problem with the content of the job ad. This can mean the employer is unwittingly breaking the law. Analyzing applicant data can help you quickly correct mistakes that could otherwise land you in court. Spreadsheets may serve this purpose. However, if you want to save time and avoid mistakes you can use an Applicant Tracking Systems like Workable, where EEO reporting features are fully integrated and can be easily activated.

Further Reading

• What is EEO?

The post How to file an EEO-1 report appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

What are EEO laws? Basically it’s everything that falls under the purview of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a regulatory body that enforces a group of federal EEO laws. Broadly, the legislation has been designed to prevent discrimination against employees or job candidates according to protected characteristics (such as race, gender and age). Each of these laws has different limitations, for example Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers employers with 15 or more employees.

Tools that help automate the EEO legal requirements during recruitment have made it simpler to remain compliant but employers still run into trouble elsewhere. Despite increased awareness of EEO guidelines, the number of official complaints has remained steady for the last two decades at around 90,000 per year. Some of them even escalate to costly lawsuits.

When faced with such complaints, the process is established: you receive notification of a charge of discrimination, you must submit a position statement and information relevant to the case. You are obliged to assist the EEOC investigation in every way possible. As an employer, you have two objectives: to prevent the charge becoming a lawsuit and to construct your defense in case it does. Any mistake made during this process can cost you time and money.

So, we have reviewed six common employer mistakes to be aware of when responding to an EEOC complaint:

1. You disregard the complaint

Employers may sometimes ignore EEOC complaints. They may think EEO laws don’t apply to them because they employ fewer than 15 employees. This is not always true. In cases of racial discrimination (which accounted for more than one-third of complaints in 2015), a law known as Section 1981 supersedes the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This law covers all employers regardless of size. Additionally, Fair Employment Practices Agencies (FEPAs) that apply to states or counties may offer greater protection to employees than the EEOC. Choosing to deal with a complaint is the smart choice. You will have adequate time to seek legal counsel and plan for investigation and corrective actions. You may also have the chance to settle through mediation or informal routes instead of going to court.

2. You are not proactive

When faced with the law, comprehensive documentation is your greatest ally. It’s a good idea to establish an investigation plan beforehand so you can execute it as soon as possible when necessary. There are a number of types of evidence you may need to obtain including: data, statements from other employees and document reviews. Since some of this data are accumulated over time (e.g. employee performance) you must plan ahead to record them properly. This strengthens the company’s chances of presenting a good defense. It goes without saying that you should have an effective internal complaint handling process, an equal opportunities policy and workplace harassment policy along with a clearly communicated EEO statement.

3. You are inconsistent

A direct advantage of a timely investigation is that it allows you to be consistent. If you are frivolous when submitting a position statement, you risk leaving out important information or reasons explaining your conduct. Afterwards, when the initial confusion has subsided, you may want to enhance your statement at court with new information. But courts will likely view this inconsistency unfavorably. The truth is, you have provided them with grounds to consider your reasons as pretexts and to decide against you. So, along with a thorough investigation plan, you must ensure the position statement is composed responsibly.

4. You don’t learn and improve

Whether a lawsuit is won or lost, it should always be seen as a learning opportunity, albeit a stressful one. If a discrimination ruling goes against you, the course of action of a responsible employer is clear. You must immediately address the internal issue, find the causes and ensure it does not happen again. If the lawsuit is won, you are given a second chance to establish preventative measures that lead to consistent EEOC compliance. Sometimes, discrimination may be indirect or involuntary so investing more time and thought in diversity and inclusion programs and training can certainly help in the future.

5. You retaliate

Employers are sometimes tempted to treat employees who have filed discrimination complaints (whether at the EEOC or internally) differently than others. Particularly in cases where the initial complaint or lawsuit proves to be unfounded, the urge for vengeance can be strong. Some employers lose faith in their accusers and end up victimizing them. This can get you in big trouble. Retaliation lawsuits are very severe and accounted for almost 45% of all charges filed in 2015. Courts can take your side in the original discrimination charge but they can still convict you for retaliation. Remember to create a clear no-retaliation policy and stick to it.

Read more: What is EEO – A complete guide

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The EU and US have differing legal approaches to data security. Put simply the EU regards it as a human right and the US treats it as a consumer protection issue. This mattered less to business until the “safe harbour” agreement under which US businesses were allowed to self certify their compliance with EU privacy laws was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice.

1. Is the subsidiary you’re contracting with in the US or EU?

You’ll need to check the Terms and Conditions of the service to find out. Note that you are not looking to establish where the headquarters of the vendor are, but rather where the subsidiary that you are contracting with is located (often referred to as the “Contracting party” or “Contracting entity”). For example, HubSpot is a US company but its terms state: “If you are located in Europe […], then you are contracting with HubSpot Ireland Limited and this Agreement is governed by the laws of the Republic of Ireland.”

2. If you are transacting with a non-EU entity

You need to verify that the vendor has put in place one of the mechanisms that enable transfers of personal data outside the EU. Safe Harbour used to be the most common one but after its demise the following are still considered valid:

a) Model clauses (also referred to as Model contracts): A standard contract provided by the EU, which specifies restrictions and safeguards on the use of personal data. This is now the most common way to facilitate cross border transfer. The model clauses will often not be included in the standard terms of the service, and will be offered as an addendum that you and the vendor will need to sign. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a Data Processing Agreement that incorporates the model clauses, which customers need to sign and mail back to Amazon.

b) Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) is an alternative that applies to transfers within a multinational corporate group. This is more cumbersome that the Model clauses and less common.

3. If you are transacting with an EU entity

You still need to check if, and under what protection, your data is exported from the EU. A common scenario is that an EU vendor is using a US data center, in effect exporting all its customers’ data to the US.

4. If the EU entity is storing all data within the EU

You are all set (unless you are German – see number 6 below).

5. If the EU entity is exporting some or all of its data outside the EU

You will need to verify that the vendor has put in place one of the mechanisms described in step 2 to facilitate the data export. For example, Workable is a UK company that is storing data in AWS in the US, and also provides partial access to this data to employees of its US subsidiary. We enable the former by having signed AWS’s Data Processing Agreement that incorporates the model clauses, and the latter by having the US subsidiary sign the model clauses with the UK entity. We also asked all our US employees to sign a proprietary information agreement (and will provide relevant training), which incorporates all the obligations that arise from the model clauses.

6. Are you a German company?

Gesundheit! There are some additional requirements for German companies. Section 11 of the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) mandates that you carefully select the vendor (“data processor”) and check the suitability of the technical and organizational measures it is taking to safeguard the security of the data. This means, in practice, two things:

• You need to sign a written Data Processing Agreement (DPA) with the vendor. The DPA will specify the collection, processing and use of the data, the technical and organizational measures to be taken by the processor and will authorize you to instruct the processor in all matters regarding the data subject to the DPA.
• You need to verify the controller’s compliance with the technical and organizational security measures undertaken in the DPA before any act of data processing begins and regularly thereafter. The results of such verification must be documented for a potential review by the authorities since a failure to comply with this requirement establishes an administrative offense subject to an administrative fine up to €50.000. Section 11 of the BDSG does not provide any specific method for such verification measures on behalf of the controller. Verification may be ensured by on-site inspections, external audits, significant certificates or by providing comprehensive questionnaires depending on the extent of the commissioned data processing, the sensitivity of the respective data, and the credibility of the processor.

FAQ

Is this all I need to know to make sure that my data and that of my clients is safe?

Not quite. This post has only dealt with the legal requirements that need to be met, and more specifically about data export. But security is a much broader topic, which can, and should, be verified in a number of different ways. This is not within the scope of this post, but some ideas to help you start the conversation with your vendor:

• Do you have an ongoing or regularly scheduled process of security and penetration testing of your infrastructure by a third party?
• Do you offer an SLA which includes uptime guarantees? What is your historical uptime percentage? Do you have a DDoS mitigation infrastructure in place?
• Have your security and privacy processes and technology been accredited under a relevant industry standard (e.g. ISO 27001) or by a security vendor (e.g. TRUSTe)? Are they audited by a third party?

Also make sure to carefully read the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy on the vendor’s website: you may be surprised by what you’ll find there.

The vendor says that I can store my data with them because they comply with Safe Harbour. All good?

No. Safe Harbour has been declared invalid by the ECJ. The vendor must use alternative measures to comply with data protection, such as those outlined in step 2. Having said that, some national regulators are taking a more relaxed approach, with the UK’s ICO stating “We are not rushing to use our enforcement powers”.

What’s the “EU-US Privacy Shield”?

The short answer is that it doesn’t exist yet. In more detail: The invalidation of Safe Harbour has sent the US and the EU racing to set up an alternative. The fruit of their labour is the EU-US Privacy Shield, a new framework for transatlantic data flows that is intended to replace Safe Harbour regulations. This is still work in progress, expected to be put in place by April. It has been welcomed by some national regulators, while others have been more cautious, with the head of the Hamburg Data Protection Authority stating that DPAs are likely to classify the Privacy Shield as insufficient to ensure the appropriate level of protection for the transfer of personal data from the EU to the US.

And one final word of advice: There is currently a lot of activity in this area as the Privacy Shield is being set up to re-establish a common basis for data exports and preclude fragmentation in how privacy issues are addressed by different national regulators; this means that the rules may change again, and vendors must be ready to move quickly and adapt to the changing landscape.

The post EU data protection directive: what employers need to know appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

Far too many companies, especially small businesses, neglect to get the basics down in writing early enough. There’s a tendency to believe that “our company doesn’t need them” and that spoken instructions will suffice.

As soon as a company starts growing the limits of this approach become obvious. Putting company policies down in writing makes them official. Employees know what the company takes seriously and how they can keep up-to-date with their rights and responsibilities. People work better when they know where they stand.

No-one wants to focus on the negative but disputes can and will arise. Having the ground rules established in the clearest and simplest terms helps to limit the damage when they do. And in the instance that disputes lead to court, written policies can be essential in ensuring a swift and fair outcome.

It’s not all (or even primarily) about firefighting though. Having the beginnings of a company handbook can help you explain to current and future hires what’s special about your company — as the games company Valve have done so well. Still not sure where to get started? Here’s five company policies that you should put in writing today.

Workplace Health and Safety

Provisions for occupational safety are a necessity for everyone who owns or runs a business. It’s imperative that your employees work within a healthy and safe workplace. Accidents and unsafe conditions can land you in court. If you also count the damage to reputation and loss of faith from employees, complacency when it comes to safety may be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make. A written policy shows that you take the matter seriously. This is about more than a few fire extinguishers. A workplace safety policy will help you to think systematically.

Equal Opportunity Policy

Being an equal opportunity employer is mandated by law in most countries. This equal opportunity policy prohibits any company from discriminating against employees or job applicants on the basis of a “protected characteristic” (gender, age, race etc.). It is fundamental for non-discrimination, anti-harassment, workplace violence and diversity policies. It can also help your business for two reasons: first, it expands the pool of people from which to choose the best applicant for any job and secondly, it creates a fair environment for employees to co-exist, work and thrive in. Putting it in writing will send the message to everyone that equal opportunity is a reality at your company.

Employee Code of Conduct Policy

All employers have expectations from their employees and a straightforward code of conduct can make this clear. Communicating these expectations clearly is a prerequisite for compliance. Even if an employee has the best of intentions and even if some things are simple enough to be expected (like completing job duties), misunderstandings may still occur. One way to keep them to a minimum is to have a written code of conduct that will include important elements like attendance or even use of social media. Rules must be clear and accessible. Employees can consult them whenever they are unsure of what constitutes acceptable behavior. It also means that when someone’s employment has to be terminated there’s a proper record in place.

Leave of Absence Policy

For various reasons ranging from health issues to vacation plans, employees may occasionally require to be absent from work. Whether it is mandated by law or not, it is always advantageous to let your employees know beforehand what benefits you offer. Different kinds of leave (sick leave, Paid Time Off, maternity leave, parental leave etc.) are separate entities and may require different treatment. Having all this in writing, alongside rules that are necessary to regulate leave taking, is the only way to adequately inform employees.

Employee Disciplinary Action Policy

Occasionally problems will arise at work and dealing with them is much easier with a clear disciplinary policy in place. Employees must know how and under what circumstances they will be disciplined. A standardized step-by-step process will help you ensure fair and appropriate treatment, even if you don’t formally disclose the entire procedure. It will also show that you are an employer who does not tolerate serious violations but also values remedial actions in the case of minor offences. Take care though to consult a lawyer to ensure that the procedures you have in place are lawful.

Workable also offers a broad range of additional company policy templates that you can customize for your own company.

The post The 5 company policies you need to have in writing appeared first on Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better.

You Can’t Pay For Groceries With Equity

Some startups go to extremes, trying to make their runway last longer. Don’t build your runway on the backs of an exhausted and underpaid team. You objective is not to delay the next round but to get to it in the best possible shape. Here’s a few things you can do to achieve the right balance.

Read on for more tips or download the complete startup hiring guide eBook for free.

The Power Of Perks

You’re not going to have the swankiest offices but you can make them reflect why people came to work for you. You don’t need a big budget to create a friendly, informal and energetic work space. Our environment helps to shape our mindset and reminds us who we are. Spend the time to make it attractive to your team, even if you can’t initially spend much money.

PRO TIP: Buffer’s focus on transparency led to their Open Salaries initiative which has created huge buzz and awareness of them.

Perks are powerful and cost effective. When you take into account tax and deductions a $10 lunch is worth more to your employee than $10 on their salary. But it’s about more than a free lunch. Taking care of peoples’ needs makes them feel taken care of. This pays off handsomely in productivity and morale. That shouldn’t mean that you neglect traditional benefits. Before you start on the ping pong tables and games consoles make sure everyone has access to health insurance. When people know the basics like health are covered they’re more prepared to live leaner when it comes to salaries.

Related: Employee benefits and perks policies

Compensating Risk

Equity compensates risk. It is a form of deferred reward. When deciding whether to join your startup a prospect is looking at what they could earn at market rates for their skills over the same time period and balancing it against a potential future return that should be several multiples of the income they lost out on. It’s mathematics.

All early employees should have a significant amount of equity. This ensures their sense of ownership and mission. A properly structured stock option is also a commitment on the part of the employee. Equity grants usually vest over a period of three to four years and there’s a “cliff period” (typically one year) before a new employee earns their first tranche of shares. This way, you’re not giving your company away, instead you’re binding the core team to your mission for long enough to make meaningful progress. With that in mind, don’t wait till the best people are restless. The best companies also give retention equity packages to fully vested employees. You need to think about this, before your star performers do.

Related: Best job posting sites to use when hiring for startups

How To Research Market Rates, Equity Standards

Knowing the going rate for salaries and equity is notoriously difficult. A good place to get a benchmark is Angel List (for startup equity and salaries) or Glassdoor (for market rates). Make sure to compare yourself to similar companies. For each hire, check what’s on offer for jobs they could take so you know what their other options look like. Especially when it comes to equity it’s always better to err on the generous side. Rather than being hung up over a 0.1% more or less, think about whether this employee will improve your chance of success by that amount. A good hire will make it worth your while.

PRO TIP: Wealthfront’s startup salary and equity charts are one of many benchmarks you can use. 

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