When someone mentions “video interviewing,” do you
immediately think Skype, Zoom or FaceTime?

While these are wonderful tools for connecting with friends and family, they really don’t unlock the full power of video for recruitment purposes.

Of course, technology will never entirely remove people from
the hiring equation. But, by using video interviewing tools that have been especially
designed for the HR professional, you can greatly enhance in-person interviews.

Here’s a look at how the latest video tools will help you
narrow your candidate pool quickly, while selecting the best person for the
job.

Refine candidate pool with video interviewing

Receiving a large number of resumes in response to a job
posting can be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, you have lots of
options, but let’s be honest: many of the applicants are likely not suited for
the position. 

Hiring managers spend a tremendous amount of time conducting
preliminary telephone interviews, struggling to schedule a mutually beneficial
time for the call and draining energy by repeatedly asking the same questions.

Phone interview fatigue is real, and the worst part is, there are usually more unqualified applicants than qualified ones. Candidates are sent a link to record the answers to your list of interview questions whenever it’s convenient for them. Hiring managers review the recorded videos as time allows, so there’s no phone tag to arrange an interview time – and zero no-shows either.

Pre-recorded video interviews also save recruiters headspace by eliminating monotonous question asking. By switching to video interviews in the preliminary hiring stage, only applicants with the most potential are invited for an in-person interview.

Find the best person – regardless of location

You want to hire the absolute best person for the job, and
sometimes that’s someone who lives outside of your city – or even your country.
Maybe you’re considering offering them remote work, or maybe the individual
would relocate if hired.

Either way, pre-recorded video interviews allow hiring
managers to overcome the challenges of interviewing people in different
geographical areas and time zones. 

There’s no need for recruiters and applicants to be
physically together in the same room for an informative interview to take
place. Recruiters can watch the recorded answers on their own time, which
allows them to focus on other HR priorities.

But, video interviews save more than time. They can cut
travel costs substantially compared to conventional recruitment techniques.

Collaboration with the hiring team 

Some video interviewing platforms allow for more visibility
and collaboration among all those involved in the hiring process. Instead of
everyone setting time out of their schedules to meet with job-seeking
individuals, the pre-recorded videos can be shared with anyone in your
organization.

This way, recruiters can seek other people’s opinions and achieve a more rounded assessment of applicants. 

In live video interviewing, hiring decision-makers can chat privately in real-time, asking questions or making observations about candidate responses. This, of course, is impossible to do during in-person interviews, where you may want to remain circumspect.

No one can voice their opinions until after the interview
concludes, and even then, there can be debate among peers. Video interviews can
be re-watched, removing ambiguity. 

Whether it’s a pre-recorded or live video interview,
technology allows everyone involved in the hiring process to make better
informed assessments before the final in-person interviews. Everyone is already
acquainted with the applicants before they arrive, so no one is going into the
interview unprepared.

Video interviewing: Making in-person interviews count

Video interviews do a fantastic job eliminating applicants
who aren’t well-suited for the position, giving you greater confidence that the
final in-person interviews are worth everyone’s time. The people who arrive for
an in-person interview have already been vetted and identified as the most
promising candidates.

By introducing video interviewing into your hiring process,
you can save time, money, and your sanity—all while recruiting top talent.

The post 3 ways video interviewing boosts your recruiting results appeared first on HR Morning.

https://www.hrmorning.com/articles/video-interviewing-tools-that-will-boost-your-recruiting-success/

Because the current healthcare climate is heavily focused on meeting strict quality guidelines from the feds and payors while providing top-notch care, employee retention in healthcare is more critical than ever. But it’s also getting more challenging to keep workers from jumping ship.

Retention is difficult in the healthcare industry for
several reasons – one of the most significant being employee burnout.

Whether it’s your nursing team, your doctors or your
front-end staff, many healthcare workers are in danger of becoming disengaged. The
high-pressure atmosphere that comes with working in health care can quickly
drain even the most dedicated worker’s spirit and morale, causing your best
people to leave your organization.

Stories and data abound about how clinical staff at all
levels are feeling frazzled and overworked at hospitals, physician practices,
clinics and other healthcare organizations.

Between high patient loads with little time to provide
personalized care, dealing with data entry in electronic health records (EHR)
systems and long, task-filled shifts, many doctors and nurses are not only
considering leaving their current jobs – they’re thinking of abandoning their
career choice entirely.

Front-desk and registration positions aren’t much better.
Over time, these jobs have evolved from simply answering phones and scheduling
patients to more complex duties, including insurance verification and fielding
complicated coverage questions.

Leaders for Today, a healthcare staffing firm, surveyed
thousands of hospital employees, including doctors, nurses and
administrators, to ask them about their employment plans. Of those who
responded, close to 69% planned to leave their current hospital within five
years – and 37% want to leave their current position within two years.

Not surprisingly, this creates high turnover in hospitals.
Over half of survey respondents worked for at least five different hospitals in
their entire career. Only 4% worked for one hospital during their entire career.

A recent analysis by nurse staffing firm NSI Nursing Solutions shows just how bad turnover is for many clinical positions: Overall hospital turnover was 19.1% in 2018, which is an increase over 2017’s percentage of 18.2%.

Turnover is a significant contributor to high burnout rates in healthcare. When staffing levels aren’t consistent, those left standing must shoulder a heavier burden. Patients must still be treated, and insurance claims must still be processed, so employees take on heavier workloads to keep things running, taking fewer breaks each shift.

This causes workers to feel disengaged. In fact, when looking at employee engagement across a variety of occupations, the healthcare industry ranks at the bottom. Consulting firm Quantum Workplace found that only about 57% of healthcare workers were engaged with their jobs.

Even more discouraging was the finding that 13% of
healthcare employees were either actively disengaged or openly hostile while
working each day.  

Disengaged, burned-out clinicians have significant negative impacts on healthcare organizations and their bottom line. Not only can burnout compromise the quality of patient care (44% of nurses fear that patient care will suffer because they’re tired, according to a survey from Kronos Inc.), it can also increase healthcare costs.

According to a recent article in NPR, doctor burnout adds around $4.6 billion a year to the cost of health care in the U.S. This figure represents how much it costs hospitals to replace doctors who quit – and how much income they lose while their positions are vacant.

What’s harder to swallow is that this a conservative
estimate: It only takes lost hours and turnover into account without
considering any other factors related to physician burnout that may increase a
hospital’s costs, including expensive settlements due to malpractice lawsuits or
issues with quality of care that could lower reimbursement.

That means the actual costs of burnout and turnover could be
even more significant for healthcare organizations. So it’s essential to get a
handle on the problem and improve employee retention.

Employee retention in healthcare tactics

In many ways, stress is the nature of the beast in health
care, so there will always be some turnover with certain positions. But in an
industry where staff can often make or break patients’ outcomes and experience
(which hospitals must keep tabs on as part of new reimbursement requirements),
it’s key to boost your employee retention rates to keep the best and brightest
from burning out and quitting.

With that in mind, what can healthcare organizations do to retain their staff, keep workers engaged and prevent burnout? While there’s no foolproof solution, there are several strategies organizations can try. Here are four that have worked well for your peers:

1. Recognize staffers’ achievements. Healthcare employees want to feel that their work is valued. This may be especially important for those on the front lines delivering care to patients each day. Recognition makes workers feel like they’re an essential part of the team. Without recognition, employees may perceive themselves as merely cogs in a machine, not realizing how much their efforts matter to the higher-ups. It can be harder to recognize healthcare employees in a formal setting because the nature of their work doesn’t always lend itself to employee appreciation celebrations. But there are other ways to give employees kudos. Send out company-wide emails or put up flyers in hospital breakr ooms so workers can tell their efforts are noticed. Technology can be leveraged to make this easier, as well. Vendors offer various software solutions that help managers and executives easily recognize healthcare workers for a job well done. 

• Give
  workers a purpose. To many workers, it matters whether they’re working for
  an organization that allows them to make their voices heard – and make a
  difference. Health care is no exception. Ensuring that employees feel valued is
  important, but forward-thinking organizations that want to keep their people on
  board will take the next step and help workers see exactly how their efforts
  are helping those around them, while allowing them to offer suggestions for
  improvement. Here, it’s essential to be transparent about your organization’s
  goals and mission. Many employees (especially millennials) won’t want to stick
  around at a hospital or practice that doesn’t prioritize the same values that
  they do. It’s also important to ask for employee feedback and ideas on
  everything from improving patient care to boosting community outreach. This
  makes them feel more engaged in their work and more invested in helping your
  organization accomplish key objectives.

• Provide opportunities for employees to relax. Doctors, nurses and other clinical staff need an outlet for all the stress that comes with dealing with patients’ chronic and acute conditions every day. There are many different solutions healthcare organizations can try to alleviate this pressure, depending on their budgets and resources. Some hospitals have traded in their traditional break rooms for “renewal rooms,” allowing nurses to take whatever short breaks they can in a more tranquil environment on site. Others have brought in instructors to teach staffers meditation techniques they can practice during the workday or on their breaks. Animal therapy, typically reserved for patients, has also helped staffers feel less overwhelmed. Even offering healthier food alternatives in cafeterias can help reduce stress – since the salty snacks, sweet treats and processed foods clinicians often grab between patients can cause their energy to crash quickly, along with their moods.

• Create a
  positive culture in your organization. Burnout and turnover can skyrocket
  if healthcare employees fear they’ll be blamed or punished for any mistakes
  that are made. There are numerous benefits to having a
  culture at your organization where employees feel comfortable communicating
  openly with their peers and managers about any issues they notice. Instead of
  seeing errors as reasons to punish workers, viewing them as learning
  opportunities can improve patient safety and enhance care delivery. Better
  communication helps managers provide workers with constructive feedback they
  can use to do their jobs better, and employees are more likely to be receptive
  to feedback that’s not given to shame them for their mistakes. Above all, a
  positive culture helps employees work better as a team and feel more connected
  with each other. This can improve their attitude toward coming to work each day
  – making them want to stick around longer.

The post Employee Retention in Health Care: 4 Keys to Keep Your Best and Brightest appeared first on HR Morning.

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In a recent case study detailing what worked and what didn’t, Dan Bengyak, Vice President of Administrative Services at Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, NY, shares how his company dealt with a vacation time issue:

We had an interesting problem on our hands when it came to employees’ vacation time — they had too much of it.

The majority of our staff was accruing a ton of PTO, and the demands of their jobs made it nearly impossible to use it all.

We knew this was a sore spot for employees — those who left often mentioned it in the exit interview. We didn’t want people moving on with a bad taste in their mouth.

It was clear we needed to come up with a way to ensure the PTO got used without impacting our productivity.

Cost effective

During this time, we’d also been discussing ways to boost our recruitment efforts for new grads.

That’s when we had the idea to start a student loan repayment benefit, and we’d use employees’ extra PTO to do it.

Our CFO was very receptive to the idea since it was so cost effective. Vacation time was already in the budget, so all we had to do was move some money around.

Bigger impact

Here’s how the program works. Twice a year, any full- or part-time employee can take 30 to 75 hours of their unused PTO and convert it into student debt payment.

This means our people can be paying off as much as $5,000 of debt a year. The best part? Nearly every employee can take advantage of this.

When we first rolled it out, we assumed this benefit would mainly impact employees fresh out of college. But so many more workers were interested in the perk.

There were older employees who’d been with us for a long time who wanted to go back to school. We also had parents who’d taken out student loans on their kids’ behalf.

We quickly realized this benefit was going to have a much bigger impact than on just new young grads.

Overwhelming response

When we first announced the benefit, we were expecting a little hesitation and a lot of questions. Instead, we got cheers and applause!

We were blown away by the employee response — it’s by far the best reaction we’ve ever received when rolling out a new benefit.

The program launched at the start of the year, and we had 40 people sign up right away.

We’re expecting some major growth and wouldn’t be surprised to see as many as 100 people participating by the end of the year.

Improvements all around

We figured this would help with recruiting efforts, but it’s worked wonders on retention, too.

Since parents with college kids can take advantage of this benefit, we have them practically guaranteed to stay on throughout their children’s college years.

Not only that, but morale has gone up. Now, our people don’t feel like their PTO is slipping away, and their student debt is much more manageable.

The post Benefit switch allowed unused PTO to go toward student loans appeared first on HR Morning.

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Google has told its employees to cut out political debate and politics at work.

The company put out employee guidelines last week, according
to widely published news reports, informing staffers that “disrupting the
workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story”
does not help build community.

Google always took pride in embracing free speech and open debates among employees. But that free-range approach is creating challenges. For instance, the tech giant found itself in the crosshairs of some prominent politicians accusing it of an anti-conservative bias, as well as some employees who said they were retaliated against for speaking out about equal treatment and equal opportunity.

Guidelines on politics at work

“Community guidelines exist to support the healthy and
open discussion that has always been a part of our culture. They help create an
environment where we can come together as a community in pursuit of our shared
mission and serve our users,” a Google spokeswoman told CNN Business.
“It’s critical that we honor that trust and uphold the integrity of our
products and services. The guidelines are official policy and apply when
employees are communicating in the workplace.”

Google first published community guidelines about a year ago
concerning how employees engaged with each other, specifying that trolling
online and name calling are not okay in the workplace.

The new guidelines take that a step further, noting
employees should not make “statements that insult, demean, or humiliate
(whether individually or by reference to groups) other employees, our extended
workforce, our business partners, or others (including public figures).”

The guidance also applies to internal channels, including
the company’s email listservs, where a lot of employee conversation takes
place.

Google is also seeking to cut back on employees making
“false or misleading statements about Google’s products or business that
could undermine trust in our products and the work that we do,” according
to its guidelines.

In addition to the new guidance, which was first sent in an
email by CEO Sundar Pichai to employees before it published online, the company
said there will be a new “central flagging tool” for employees to report
content that may not align with its guidelines. A new “community
management team” will then assess whether the content is in violation.

The post Google tells its employees to focus on work – not politics appeared first on HR Morning.

https://www.hrmorning.com/news/google-tells-its-employees-to-focus-on-work-not-politics/

Ageism continues costing employers dearly.

The Los Angeles Times is on the hook for a $15.4 million jury award for demoting an older worker.

It’s just the most recent example of just how much emphasis HR pros should put on educating managers and executives on how to avoid age discrimination.

Former LA Times sports columnist T.J. Simers sued the paper in October 2013 after the paper first reduced and then eliminated his column.

The paper claimed that Simers’ work quality declined after he developed migraines.

Simers pointed to the onset of the migraines as the beginning of a change in his responsibilities.

And he said, he faced increased criticism from managers who had previously praised his work.

Intolerable conditions

He quit, claiming intolerable working conditions and age discrimination and sued the paper and its then-owner Tribune Publishing.

A jury awarded Simers $7.1 million in economic and non-economic damages in 2015, but the judge in the trial later voided much of the original judgment.

Simers and Tribune Publishing both appealed the decision.

A second, more expensive award

In January 2018, a appeals court tossed the intolerable working conditions claim.

But, the court said, a jury should reconsider whether Simers was the victim of age and disability discrimination.

This time the jury awarded Simers $15.4 million for personal and emotional suffering caused by the paper’s treatment of the writer after his health problems started.

Tribune Publishing could still appeal the latest decision.

However, if it stands, the company could be looking at a $22 million bill after interest is included, according to Simers’ lawyer.

Rising tide of ageism claims

This case follows other recent multi-million dollar age discrimination judgments against Google, Lockheed Martin and other large employers in recent years.

It looks like the tide of age-related discrimination lawsuits will only keep rising as boomer workers age.

In June four Ford Motor company workers sued, claiming that the auto giant targeted them and other older workers in its ongoing restructuring.

And just this week, the principal at a New Jersey public school sued, saying he was pushed aside because of his age.

He claims the school forced him to move his workspace from his former office into an electrical closet after it hired a second, younger principal.

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