An introduction to recruitment with key concepts and best practices.

What is recruitment?

Recruitment, or recruiting, is the process of an organization finding new talent to help meet its strategic goals. This can include employer branding, marketing, sourcing, screening, interviewing, negotiating a job offer, and onboarding.

As anyone who’s ever had a hand in recruitment will tell you, it can be in equal measure a rewarding and frustrating process, but one that is vital to the success of an organization.

The recruitment process—it begins with your brand

Employer branding

Organizations with the most success hiring talent that’s the right fit for them are constantly thinking about their employer brand.

The employer brand is how an organization is perceived as an employer by the wider world. Do they treat people fairly and help them grow and develop, are they working on interesting projects, do they champion a wider cause beyond making profits for shareholders?

So much goes into developing and maintaining a brand, but it will act as an anchor for all your recruitment-related efforts, including how you market yourself to potential candidates.

Recruitment marketing

As our resident recruitment expert, Mariya Hristova, points out “Recruitment marketing occurs everywhere regular marketing occurs because potential candidates are likely looking at what you’re putting out there that is aimed at clients.”

So, in essence, everything that’s shared about you as an organization, either by you or someone else on sites like Glassdoor, is a form of recruitment marketing.

A thought-out employer brand and creative recruitment marketing will help you attract the right candidates for your roles, and hopefully a lot of them, but sometimes it’s necessary to take a slightly more vigorous approach and actively source candidates.

Candidate sourcing

Candidate sourcing can be one of the toughest challenges in the recruitment process, the real nitty-gritty. It involves actively searching for people who you think would be a good fit for the role and reaching out to them with a compelling reason for why they should join.

Once you’ve hooked them in, it’s time to take them through your interview process.

The interview process

Interviews are precious and should be treated as such. They’re the reward for what can be a long search to find an ideal candidate.

As well as helping you determine if someone is right for the role, it’s worth remembering the interview process has a significant impact on the overall candidate experience and whether or not someone is excited to join.

As there’s so little time available, some things to think about are ensuring the interviews themselves are as focused and engaging as possible, as well as that the interview process itself isn’t too protracted or onerous for both sides.

Once you’ve decided someone is a good fit for the role, now comes the nerve-jangling bit—the job offer or “the close” as it’s called in the industry.

The job offer

Although this is one of the final stages in the interview process, in reality this stage started way back in the hiring process.

Closing candidates starts from the first moment you talk to them, and the actions you take at each step of the recruitment process allow you to bring them to a “closeable”, “Yes I want to work at company!” state of mind.

With the right approach from the offset, and maybe a dash of luck, they’ll accept, and then you can start the onboarding process.

Onboarding

Someone’s accepted the job so that means they’re already joining and you don’t need to worry anymore, right? Wrong!

Some argue that onboarding still counts as recruitment because you’re still not 100% convinced on each other and it’s now up to you as an organization to prove to them they made the right choice (and vice versa, of course).

Onboarding starts after they’ve accepted the offer and normally stretches for at least 90 days after their first day. But, in reality, your work regarding recruitment is never done.

Circling back to the original point about branding, you could make the argument that, when it boils down to it, the way you manage the employee experience across the whole employee lifecycle is a form of recruitment.

Your current employees are highly effective recruiters, especially when they’re prompted by a well-crafted referral program.

The success of your recruitment program, and indeed your organization, also requires solid talent management and workforce planning. In other words, having a proper hiring plan.

It’s no use going to all this effort and hiring for roles you don’t actually need and it’s surprising how often this happens.

Further resources

This has been a super-quick run-through of recruitment and what it entails. 

Covering everything is well beyond the scope of this article, but we’ll end with one last nugget of wisdom from Mariya:

“Recruiting is first and foremost a people profession, so the focus should be on the people!”.

Best of luck with your recruitment efforts, some further resources:

• Your Employer Value Proposition: An In-depth Dive
• How To Give More Effective Candidate Feedback
• How To Write A Zinger Job Description
• Recruitment Budgeting: Everything You Need To Know + Example
• How To Hire Remote Employees And Tap Into Global Talent
• How To Create A Compensation Philosophy For Better Hiring And Retention
• How to Create An Attractive Careers Page to Get Better Applicants
• 5 Recruitment Trends To Shape Your Thinking In 2023 And Beyond
• 10 Best Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for Hiring in 2023
• 20 Best Candidate Sourcing Software To Help You Find The Best Talent

We’d love to get your thoughts and ideas regarding recruitment and what you’ve found works or doesn’t work for you. 

Feel free to leave something in the comments or find me in the People Managing People Community, a supportive community of HR and business leaders sharing knowledge and building organizations of the future.

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Onboarding is a crucial but often overlooked stage in the employee lifecyle. Here’s why onboarding is so important and some tips for developing an effective onboarding process.

What is onboarding?

With regard to employees, onboarding is the process of integrating new hires into an organization. The aim is to make them feel welcome, teach them about the organization and ways of working, and get them productive as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Onboarding is an important step in the employee lifecycle because it has a significant impact on retention, engagement, and productivity. Research has found that organizations with a strong onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.

What should an onboarding process include

Like no two organizations are the same, no two onboarding processes are the same. The process will be shaped by your culture, the nuances of the role, the individual joining, and the resources available to you.

Having said that, the onboarding process generally constitutes a few key phases:

1. Preboarding

Even before the new hire’s first day, provide resources they’ll need to help prepare them for their new role. This could include information about what to expect in their first week or equipment such as laptops.

Anything to help prepare them, alleviate nerves, and get them excited is fair game. If you have an employee handbook or similar, this is a great resource to send over.

Further resources: How To Nail New Employee Preboarding

2. Orientation

While a great first impression doesn’t always lead to a great lasting impression, it certainly helps set the stage for one. And this is what orientation is all about.

Starting a new job can be nerve-wracking and you’re never really sure what you’re getting yourself into. The orientation phase is all about welcoming the new hire into the fold and leaving them feeling like they made the right decision.

An effective employee orientation program also makes new team members aware of your HR policies and expectations, helps them complete essential paperwork, and answers any questions or concerns they may have before they transition into their new position.

Further resources: 10 Employee Orientation Activities To Help New Starters Hit The Ground Running (+Template)

1-30 days

The common consensus is that the ‘official’ onboarding should be longer than the first week and will last up to 90 days, or even a year in some cases.

The first 30 days are very hands-on in helping the new hire get to grips with the organization and what’s required of them in their new position.

It covers important first steps such as getting training on the technology, software, and tools that your organization uses and learning about your org’s mission, vision, values, products, business model, and customers.

This phase has the most overlap between new hires regardless of their role, so it’s easier to standardize. It also involves creating some short and long-term goals for the remainder of the plan.

Related resource: How To Write A 30 60 90 Day Plan For Your Org’s Onboarding + Template

30-60 days

Now new hires have gotten to grips with the basics they require less hand-holding and can start delving deeper into their role.

The knowledge gained from the first 30 days will now be ramped up and put into action, and they can get more involved in projects and start to speak up more with their thoughts and ideas.

The KPIs, goals, and milestones that you set in the previous 30 days? They’ll start making headway on them.

Naturally, at this stage, the process will start to diverge depending on the new hire’s position.

60-90 days

At this stage, new hires will be working on projects with less supervision, be more involved with their teams and the organization as a whole, and follow up with their managers to ensure that they are hitting their metrics.

At this point, team members can begin to go to the new hire for their expertise. Maybe they even make a new team altogether for a project they’re working on.

Mistakes will still be made, and they won’t be 100% productive yet, but by now they should have a firm understanding of their role and how to go about it.

Onboarding tools

There are various tools that can help you streamline the onboarding process. These will help with the administrative elements such as signing documents as well as setting goals and milestones and helping to track the new hire through the process.

You can go as low or hi-tech as you like here. We created some useful templates in our resource library and also compiled a shortlist of the best onboarding software.

The onboarding romance

If you think about it, onboarding is very much the honeymoon period in the employee relationship. 

You’ve decided you like each other enough to give things a try and you’re excited to get to know each other better.

Onboarding is a reflection of your culture, so don’t be shy! There are any number of ways this can come out in your process.

Maybe you send them a nice welcome pack with some company stash and a voucher for their favorite store, or perhaps you invite them along to a team social ahead of their first day.

While not the be-all and end-all, little touches like this always go down well!

Have anything to add regarding onboarding and how to make it a great experience? Leave something in the comments or join the conversation in the People Managing People Community, a supportive community of HR and business leaders passionate about building organizations of the future.

Some further resources:

• How To Onboard The Right Way In A Remote Workplace (with Jordan Boogaard from EddyHR)
• Top 8 Employee Onboarding Best Practices
• 11 Tips For Effectively Onboarding Remote Employees
• Free New Hire Checklist Template For Employers

The post Employee Onboarding: A (Very) Quick Guide appeared first on People Managing People.

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As the workplace continues to evolve, being able to collect, analyze, and present data is now a crucial skill for HR professionals.

An HR analytics certification will help learn the skills you need to progress in your career and add essential strategic value to your team.

1.Human Resources (HR) Analytics Certificate – eCornell

eCornell offers some of the top certification courses for HR professionals, including an analytics course aimed at those looking to grow their data-driven decision-making skills. Their HR Analytics Certificate will help you learn where to source data sets and position you to understand data visualization and dashboards regarding common HR challenges, such as talent employee engagement and retention.

This instructor-led course offers a 360-view of essential HR analytics, strategic talent analytics, and applied predictive analytics in HR. You’ll come away with an understanding of which tools to use and how to communicate return on investment (ROI) to key stakeholders in your organization.

Price: $3,750
Duration: 2 months
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: 2 weeks
Eligibility Requirements: Bachelor’s or equivalent required

2.HRCI Certificate in Data Analytics

Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) provides resources and expert-led courses for HR practitioners throughout the world. 

HRCI’s intermediate course is designed to help you master big data analysis and research design. Through several modules, such as how to conduct data analysis across a variety of industries and how to use data analytics can improve organization performance, you’ll come away with knowledge of the tools to bring data-driven decision-making to your org and how to utilize the right metrics to keep your employees engaged and productive.

There are no prerequisites for this course. Enrollment is on an ongoing basis, but the online course is self-paced with a mix of videos, readings, and real-world case studies. This course is perfect for independent learners at any level of HR or people management.

Price: $399
Duration: Variable
Exam Required: Yes
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: None

3. SHRM People Analytics Specialty Credential

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is industry-respected for anyone in the HR, consultation, and talent acquisition fields. SHRM offers a People Analytics Specialty Credential to help you leverage HR analytics to make informed business decisions. 

You’ll develop your confidence and skills as an HR data analyst as you review real-world business issues, and HR initiatives and learn how to best communicate your findings to executives and HR teammates. 

You do not have to be SHRM Certified for this course but this course does provide additional credits for SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP recertification. You’ll also receive a certification badge which you can add to your email signatures and Linkedin profiles.

Price: Price upon request
Duration: Self-paced
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

4.CIPD People Analytics Course – Accredited HR Analytics Course

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is a globally respected organization providing tools for people managers and human resource teams around the world. 

CIPD’s People Analytics field was developed by two experts in the field and is designed to help HR practitioners bring a more evidence-based approach towards business decisions and how changes can influence all stakeholders involved.

Centered on developing confidence in your own skillset and your approach towards HR metrics, this specific course is perfect for anyone looking to gain a richer understanding of statistical modules and how to consult effectively using a data-driven approach.

Price: $2,180
Duration: 50-70 hours
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

5.CIPD Data and Analytics for People Professionals

CIPD’s goal is to equip people managers and policy makers with the skills and tools needed to make work better. 

So if you’re looking for a more general data analysis course to get started, CIPD’s Data and Analytics for People Professionals is for you. Designed for all levels in HR, this course will help you learn how to effectively use data to inform your work and answer frequently asked questions concerning data from all stakeholders involved.

This two-day virtual course includes reviewing real-world case studies that demonstrate how organizations use data for employee engagement goals and building culture. This data analytics course is ideal for interactive learners who want to speak to instructors in real-time.

Price: $1,088
Duration: 2 days
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Virtual
How many hours of instruction: 2 days
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

6.CIPD Data and Analytics for People Professionals Essential Insights

Looking to learn the fundamentals of people analytics and how it can impact your company staffing? CIPD’s Data and Analytics for People Professionals Essential Insights is perfect for anyone within or outside the HR management space.

The aim is to help you gain confidence working alongside data analysts and with people analytics. You’ll come away with stronger data comprehension, understand what questions to ask and how to answer them, and how to discover opportunities within data sets.

Price: $60
Duration: 60-90 mins
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Virtual
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

7.People Analytics – Google

Pioneers in people analytics themselves, Google’s online school, re:Work, hosts a course aimed at modern talent management teams wanting to make a more data-driven approach. This course is perfect for independent learners and HR practitioners of all levels looking to learn more about people analytics.

You’ll dive into workplace reporting, predictive analytics, and case studies from real-world brands to help you hone your problem-solving skills. You’ll learn how you can use employee surveys to inform future HR initiatives and workplace policies, how you can run a pay analysis to bring a more equitable approach to compensation, and be able to confidently share your HR or people management team’s stories and wins with an analytics mindset.

Price: Price upon request
Duration: Self-paced
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Both
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

8.Human Resources Analytics Course (UCI)

Learn how to identify effective data sources, develop your own dashboards, and hone your analytics skills through University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) course on Human Resources Analytics.

Taught by Executive Director, Human Resources, Amber Gould, this self-paced certificate program will get you in the mindset of using data science to plan long-term measures for your employee engagement and retention strategies. Hosted through Coursera, the course is ideal for learners who want less hands-on, self-paced study.

Price: Varies
Duration: 5 hrs
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

9.AIHR People Analytics Certificate Program

The People Analytics Certificate Program at The Academy to Innovate HR (AIHR) is a great course for HR professionals looking to learn the fundamentals of statistics.

Develop basic analytics skills using real-world examples and in-depth case studies and understand how you can use HR data to improve business outcomes. You’ll also learn how to make your own self-service dashboards through Microsoft or Power BI to track your analytics and how to create compelling data visualizations to tell a full story or persuade the right stakeholders.

Price: $975
Duration: 10 wks
Exam Required: Capstone Project
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: 4 hours/wk
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

10.HR Management and Analytics – Wharton

Known as one of the top Ivy League business programs in the country, Wharton offers a certified HR Management and Analytics course ideal for mid-senior HR professionals, business owners, and executive consultants.

Learners will gain insights into basic data science competencies alongside practical applications, for example how to measure performance with regression to the mean, sample size, and process versus outcome. A combination of videos and live lectures, this course is perfect for learners who like to study in a live classroom setting with accountability but would need something more flexible.

Price: $2,800
Duration: 2 months
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: online 4-6 hours a week
Eligibility Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree

11.Certificate in Human Resources Analytics – Rutgers

Rutgers School of Business offers a series of courses aimed at those looking to advance their careers, pivot, or fill a gap in their skills. 

Their Certificate in Human Resources Analytics is designed to help those with an interest in data fill the current skills gap. Learn the basic concepts of human resource metrics, evidence-based management, and the best practices for data collection and identifying problems. At the end of this course, you’ll come away with a deep understanding of HR analytics and methodologies and be able to confidently communicate your findings and educate a broad range of stakeholders.

Ideal for those looking for more flexibility but needing hands-on guidance, learners will be able to move through the modules on their own but also access a personal learning coach to help them in their studies and career goals. Open enrollment is on an ongoing basis too.

Price: $2,300.00
Duration: Self-paced
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: Self-paced
Eligibility Requirements: Bachelor’s Degree required

12.People Analytics for HR (PAHR) Certification – HCI

Human Capital Institute (HCI) offers a People Analytics for HR (PAHR) certification aimed at HR or people leaders looking to guide their business decisions and tackle big changes using a data-driven approach. Through this course, you’ll learn how to align efforts with organizational strategy and work with key stakeholders to interpret and identify patterns within data sets.

Learners will take away how to check data for errors, how to identify and research appropriate data, and how to make sense of their findings for evidence-based recommendations. This course is offered both online and in-person for learners who prefer studying on their own or in group settings. 

Price: $1,995 online; price upon request for 2-day in-person
Duration: 2-day in-person; self-paced online
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Both
How many hours of instruction: 2-day in-person; self-paced online
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

13.People Analytics – Bersin Academy

Acclaimed writer, researcher, and HR expert Josh Bersin has his own academy dedicated to digital learning for HR practitioners around the globe. The Bersin Academy offers its own People Analytics course for people leaders at any level. See how you can utilize metrics to surface new opportunities with your people and how you can effectively use data analysis to provide actionable insights.

If you’re an HR professional, people leader, or consultant looking for flexibility but also wanting the camaraderie of a classroom, this course is for you! Bersin Academy focuses on community development and story-sharing as part of learning online. Connect and learn with like-minded individuals as you dive into the basic competencies of data analytics, and earn a Bersin Academy certification for your resume or Linkedin profile.

Price: Part of $280 annual membership
Duration: 5 weeks
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: 4-6 hours a week
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

14.HR Analytics Dashboard using Excel – Udemy

Many organizations rely on MS Teams and Office Suite for their tech stack. This online UDemy course developed by Deepak Aggrawal, a certified Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), focuses on HR Analytics Dashboard using Excel. Designed for all levels in HR or people management, this course will help you create data visualizations and the skills to analyze and answer frequently asked questions from your stakeholders.

Learn how to use Excel to create functioning HR employee dashboards and interactive charts that provide insights into talent acquisition, headcount management, employee retention, and performance.

Price: $14.99
Duration: Self-paced
Exam Required: N/A
Online, In-Person, or both? Both
How many hours of instruction: 2 hours
Eligibility Requirements: Basic knowledge of Excel is ideal but not a prerequisite

15.Certificate in HR Analytics – EY Virtual Academy

EY offers a certificate in HR Analytics to support leaders and people managers wanting to make informed decisions in their modern workplaces.

You’ll learn industry-standard tools such as Power BI and Python for HR dashboard designing as you dive into data visualization and human resource analytics. Become au-fait with HR analytics including how to project employee retention and turnover and how to project employee salary using linear regression models.

Price: $225
Duration: Self-paced
Exam Required: Online assessment
Online, In-Person, or both? Online
How many hours of instruction: 18+ hours
Eligibility Requirements: N/A

Data is the future

If HR is going to be a more strategic partner, data literacy is a key skill to master.

Taking one of the above will help you lead the way in your organization and build a successful and enriching career.

For further support around which course you might want to take, as well as using data in general, join the People Managing People Community, a supportive community of HR and business leaders passionate about building organizations of the future.

Some further resources to help you on your HR journey:

• The 25 Best HR Certification Courses 2023
• 11 Best DEI Certifications To Take In 2023
• 9 Best Learning And Development Certifications 2023
• 8 HRIS Certifications To Expand Your Technical Competence
• 13 Best Communication Courses 2023
• 13 Best Compensation Courses For HR, Business Owners And Managers 2023
• 28 Best HR Books You Should Read In 2023
• Top 20 HR Conferences To Learn and Connect 2023

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Entrepreneurship is often associated with taking risks. To start and support a business, you’ll have to put aside a lot of money, your career, and your mental health. For most people, the prospect of being able to make their own decisions is worth it. However, it’s also essential to be prepared for the challenges that come with it.

Here are some risks that any entrepreneur should accept they’ll face one day.

Lack of Steady Pay

If you’re an entrepreneur, you might have to give up on your monthly salary to support your business. This can affect your income. It’s also critical to remember that if your business is not doing well, it can significantly affect your earnings.

Cash Flow Concerns

Maintaining a steady cash flow in your business can be challenging. This is especially true if one of your clients gets late or you lose a significant client. Having enough savings can help you pay the bills.

Financial Risk

Before starting a business, you’ll need to find a way to raise the necessary funds. Usually, the founder will need to put their own money into the venture. However, it’s also important to note that they should also have a financial plan that shows how they’ll be able to break even and how much capital they’ll need to invest. A well-defined financial plan can help minimize the risks of being an entrepreneur.

Trusting Others

In the beginning, you’ll have a limited number of employees working for you. These individuals will most likely be working hard to get the company up and running. You’ll have to give them an overwhelming amount of trust to ensure they can handle the business’s tasks and responsibilities.

Market Risk

The market for a particular product or service can be affected by various factors. The ups and downs of the economy can also affect the sales of a specific product or service. For instance, people might be less likely to buy non-essentials or luxury products if the economy is struggling.

If a competitor launches a product at a lower price, they can steal market share. An entrepreneur should analyze the market to determine the factors influencing their competitors’ success. This type of analysis should also look into the demand for their service and customer behavior.

The post Common Risks to Acknowledge for First-Time Entrepreneurs first appeared on Rob Elkington | Business & Entrepreneurship.

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I would venture that your ability to act as an HR strategic partner to the business is the ultimate indication of your HR team’s success.

The ability of HR professionals to act strategically is so important that companies are fundamentally changing how they work to enable their teams to spend less time on transactional work and more time on strategic work.

Organizations globally are increasingly deploying more advanced HR tech like best-in-class HRIS and analytics platforms to drive this transformation, and new roles are being designed around embedding strategy into various HR functions. For instance, “strategy” is now embedded into my job title.

In my day job, I’m a Director of Talent Strategy, which means I’m accountable for leading the design, development, and deployment of strategies that will impact the learning, growth, and development of talent within my organization.

But I didn’t get to this point overnight. My journey to becoming a strategic partner took a great deal of time, effort, energy, and networking.

It required taking took intentional steps to build trust with leaders across my organization, including:

• Shadowing people in various parts of the business to understand their wants and needs
• Site visits to understand how our leaders interacted with our front-line team members
• Actively nourishing relationships with leaders across the enterprise through gaining a deep understanding of both their business and personal career goals and then helping enable them to succeed in both spaces.

My work in this space paid dividends. I was able to elevate my role and am now seen as a valued partner to the leader I support. 

Here, my goal is to help you rethink how both you and/or your HR function can operate as a more strategic partner to the business areas you support. We’ll cover:

• What is an HR strategic partner?
• How does strategic HR benefit the business?
• How to be an HR strategic partner

Let’s dive in.

What is an HR strategic partner?

Simply put, an HR strategic partner is a human resources professional, or HR department, whose work is structured around enabling the business teams they support to deliver upon their goals. 

In practice, this means working hand in hand with the business to help define their goals, identify the actions or activities needed to meet their goals (roadmaps), identify metrics to track your success, and, most importantly, align their talent in such a way to be successful. 

For me, this is all about having a very specific mindset. HR leaders need to stop looking at themselves as human resources colleagues/leaders, but rather as business colleagues/leaders who specialize in HR.

This shift in thinking is empowering. HR colleagues are no longer an extra set of hands to carry out transactional work, but a true partner with the business enabling value creation for the business.

How does strategic HR benefit the business?

HR becoming a strategic partner is a must-have for any organization that wants to remain competitive in today’s ever-changing business environment. By prioritizing strategic HR, companies can create a more efficient and effective workforce, which can lead to improved business outcomes.

Strategic HR benefits the business in several ways.

• Aligning talent with business goals. Whether it’s through talent reviews, succession planning, org design, or other workforce planning activities, a critical strategic HR function is to help leaders align in order to enable the business to achieve their business goals.
• Create a culture of continuous learning, growth, and development. An increased focus on strategic HR partnerships helps enable the HR team to focus on our most critical priority—our talent. Strategically building and enabling a culture of learning and development not only benefits the career growth of your employees but also your bottom line.
• Attract and retain top talent. HR’s ability to create an employer value proposition (EVP) centered around attracting and retaining talent is a paramount strategic benefit.  This is especially true in an environment where 96% of workers say they’ll be looking for a new job in 2023.
• Improve employee engagement and the employee experience. A key part of retaining your talent involves creating the best possible employee experience and keeping your employees engaged. A focused and strategic HR function can play a significant role in partnering with leaders across the organization to create the best possible company culture and working experience for your colleagues.  

Let’s look at an example of how this can work in the real world. 

I’m currently involved in a strategic talent initiative with our technology team designed to elevate our talent and propel our organization into the future. This initiative has multiple workstreams, each co-lead by a business executive and an HR leader.

The HR leaders were chosen not just for their technical HR expertise (i.e. I help lead our learning, growth, and development work), but also for their deep understanding of our business, our employees, and our customers.

This strategic partnership between HR and the business has led to stronger success than if the work was led by the business or HR alone.

The HR leaders often have a deeper understanding of our colleague’s wants and needs and can therefore act as a voice for our colleagues when we develop strategic roadmaps for each workstream.

This empowers us to build solutions that marry both our business needs and the need of our employees.

How To Become An HR Strategic Partner

I believe that most HR colleagues and organizations see the value in becoming more strategic. That said, knowing that you should do something is a lot different from actually doing it.  

Becoming an HR strategic partner won’t happen overnight. It will take an investment of time, building new skills, and potentially creating new processes, and will require you to build a new level of trust with your business partners.

But, once you’ve gotten there, the benefits you’ll reap will far outweigh the work you put in along your journey.

Let’s dive into how you can become an HR strategic partner.  

Understand your business

The most important place to begin your HR strategic partner journey is by having a deep understanding of the business. 

Human resources professionals cannot play in this space if they do not have a comparable level of depth and breadth in their understanding of the business as their client groups.

A friend and mentor of mine always coaches his teams by saying “In order to support the business, you need to understand the business better than your business does.” 

While this is obviously a whimsical exaggeration, the spirit rings true. Without a deep understanding of the work your business colleagues do, you’ll never be able to provide them with the strategic guidance and support they need.

A shared appreciation and understanding of their work elevates your role from order taker into that of a strategic partner.

So how do you go about learning about the business?

In my opinion, there’re no shortcuts here. This takes time, effort, and intentionality, and is a critical part of your personal growth and development. 

Some ways you can build your business knowledge include:

• Build into your individual development plans (IDP). HR leaders and employees should take purposeful looks at how to build IDPs that focus on mechanisms to learn the business (e.g. new projects/stretch assignments that will expose colleagues to parts of the business they haven’t supported).
• Listening to earnings calls. If your organization is publicly traded, earnings calls provide a wealth of information not just to the investor community but to anyone trying to gain a deep understanding of the business, its strategy, and financial performance. 
• Build formal relationships. Prioritize the leaders you have access to across the business and take advantage of your time with them. Where appropriate to your role/relationship, schedule regular 1:1s and show an interest in learning about them, their teams, and their work. This is your opportunity to build a trusted relationship, act in a strategic consultative way, and help enable the business strategy.
• Tap into your internal network. Informal learning through your network is one of the best (and psychologically safest) ways to learn. Ask colleagues in your internal network to join you for coffee or lunch and go prepared with questions to learn more about the work they do in their area.
• Surveys/interviews/focus groups/listening sessions with your employees and leaders. If you work in a large organization, tools like surveys or a series of listening sessions can be valuable for learning more about the business and your colleagues.  
• Attend strategy meetings. Sitting in on (and eventually contributing to) business strategy sessions is a great way to see strategic planning in action, learn about your business strategy sessions, and gain an active seat at the table to contribute over time.  
• Day in the life. Shadow days are a great way to see the business in action. This is a great way to meet the people you support, understand what they do, what their wants and needs are, and ensure that your strategies are designed to meet their needs.

Make time for strategy by removing transactional tasks

A major barrier to becoming a strategic HR partner is time. There’re only so many hours in a day and you need to be very intentional in how you spend them.

I like to think about this in two ways: 

(1) HR governance model. What can be changed about our operating model to free up time for HR professionals to be more strategic?

(2) Self-governance. How can I prioritize my work differently in order to spend my time on more strategic needs?

HR governance model 

It’s important to understand how your human resources processes, systems, and tools are impacting how your HR colleagues are spending their day.

It’s easy to say “Be more strategic”, but the reality is that there are still administrative or transactional responsibilities that HR needs to get done.

Increasingly, organizations are looking at new HR operating models that prioritize the use of technology to augment HR capabilities and redirect HR personnel to better focus on strategic imperatives.

According to McKinsey and Company’s research with CHROs from across the globe, 90% of CHROs predicted significant changes in HR operation models over the next few years: 

When deployed correctly, these changes will fundamentally shake up your HR delivery model and ensure your HR team is focusing on what’s going to drive the most value to your organization. 

Self-governance

While you may not always be able to influence or change the overall way human resources functions within your organization, you should have some level of control over how you spend your time.

While there’s always going to be urgent work that takes away from important things you need to accomplish, it’s important to not let the “urgent” continuously get in your way of accomplishing what’s truly important. 

A popular method for helping you to avoid the ‘urgency trap’ is the Eisenhower Method. 

This method was popularized based on a 1954 speech during which Dwight D Eisenhower articulated that “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”

Your strategic HR work becomes your urgent and important work and ultimately bubbles up to the top. This lens helps you prioritize what you should do now, save for later, or delegate or eliminate if possible.

Collect and analyze data

HR professionals need to be comfortable working with data and using it to drive insights and decision-making. 

Being a shepherd of this data to your business teams is critical—you need to be able to collect the relevant data, analyze it, and take a data-driven approach to inform both HR strategy and business strategies and initiatives.

The data you collect should be mapped back to your strategic imperatives and help track your progress against the goals. This can span across all sections of HR and the business (think talent acquisition, learning and development, employee engagement, DEI, retention/turnover).  

A helpful way to think about data so that you don’t try to boil the ocean is to look at key performance indicators (KPIs).

KPIs are a critical way in which strategic business partners can help the business drive decision-making, incrementally improve performance, and ensure value realization.

If you’re looking for inspiration on which KPIs might be helpful for you to measure and enable your organization’s strategy, check out 29 HR KPIs to Help You Meet Strategic Goals.

Build strategic skills and capabilities 

Acting as a strategic partner is going to be a completely new foray for many HR professionals.  

Therefore, if you or your organization is trying to transform the way you work to be more strategic, you’ll need to develop an entirely new set of capabilities to be successful in this space (see below).

As with all things development-oriented, I recommend taking the 70-20-10 approach to developing strategic HR capabilities. 

This means spending 70% of our time on experiential learning, 20% percent on social learning, and 10% on formal training (this is important). 

You won’t become a truly HR strategic partner through reading books. 

Having a strong mentor or coach to help you build strategic capabilities, combined with rolling up your sleeves and engaging in hands-on experiences that stretch your strategic capabilities, is essential in rounding out your development in this space.

Your organization may have an HR competency model in place that you can base your development on. If not, I’d encourage you to think through which competencies and skills will be essential to your success in this space at your organization. 

I recommend the following competencies as a starting place:

• Business acumen
• HR acumen
• Strategic thinking
• Relationship building 
• Influencing 
• Data analysis 
• Change management 
• Collaboration 
• Consulting 
• Resource management
• Market analysis
• Goal setting/roadmapping
• Forecasting/planning
• Prioritization

Change how the business thinks about HR 

You’ll never succeed in becoming an HR strategic partner unless you change how the business thinks about HR and/or your relationship with them.  

This is essentially a change management effort—you’ll need to help them understand how you are changing the ways in which you support them and drive the adoption of your expanded relationship with them.   

I think it’s incredibly important to take your business leadership team on this journey. This is true if you’re doing something transformational for your HR team to move your entire organization into a more strategic direction (i.e., updating your HR operating model), or if you’re trying to change the relationship you have with the business leaders you work with more organically.

Let your stakeholders know what you’re trying to do, ask them to help define what it is they need from you, and make sure you are realigning your HR approach around their wants and needs.  

Lastly, don’t be afraid to take an agile approach to changing your relationship with the business.  This means starting small, collecting feedback, iterating, and adapting to ensure you continue to meet the needs of the business.

Final Thoughts

Your transformation into becoming a strategic HR partner won’t happen overnight. Like anything else, I would recommend starting small and expanding over time. 

I truly believe that having a deep understanding of the business is the only place to start on your HR strategic partner journey. 

Being in a strategic role is all about enabling your business to achieve its goals, and you’ll never do this without a deep understanding of your organization’s business operations, financial trends, and industry dynamics.

Once you’ve mastered this, you’ll have the baseline trust and rapport with your business leaders required to be viewed as a partner (and not just another set of hands to delegate to).  

This is the foundation upon which you nourish your strategic relationship over time and transform how you support your business. 

If you have any tips or advice to share regarding the above I’d love to hear them. Leave something in the comments or find me over in the People Managing People Community, a supportive community of HR and business leaders passionate about building organizations of the future.

Some further resources to help HR become a more strategic partner:

• HR In The Boardroom: Why And How HR Should Help Drive Company Decisions
• Head Of People And The CEO: How To Form This Crucial Relationship
• 3 Ways To Build Your Professional Network And Make Meaningful Connections
• Top 20 HR Conferences To Learn and Connect 2023
• 28 Best HR Books You Should Read In 2023

The post How To Elevate HR As A Strategic Partner Of The Business appeared first on People Managing People.

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Returnships are growing in popularity and for good reason. Top talent is hard to come by and a lot of workers are reevaluating what they want from their careers.

In this article, we’ll explore what a returnship program is and what the benefits are. Then we’ll dive into how to launch one in your organization using my former employer’s program as a case study.

• What is a returnship program?
• What are the benefits of returnships?
• How to launch a returnship program in your organization

What is a returnship program exactly?

A returnship program is a type of paid internship designed specifically for individuals who have taken a lengthy career break and are now looking to return to the workforce in a professional capacity. It can also be utilized by workers who are underemployed, not using their skillset or education, or are looking to break into their new role or industry.

A returner could be a parent or caregiver who took off an extended period mid-career to care for someone, or someone who took a job not utilizing their skills and is now finding it difficult to get back on their career path.

What are the benefits of returnship programs?

From an employer’s perspective, returnship programs help to widen the talent pool and promote diversity and inclusion by providing opportunities for often overlooked individuals from different backgrounds.

Throughout the program, the organization helps people develop new skills and potentially awards them a permanent position upon completion. It’s almost like a working interview!

From an employee’s perspective, a returnship program provides an opportunity for individuals to refresh their skills and gain knowledge in the field they wish to pursue. This can help them become more competitive in the job market after a break in employment or a period of underemployment.

Lastly, launching a returnship program sends the message that the company values its employees’ personal lives and provides a way back if they need to take a career break.

How to launch a returnship program in your organization

As mentioned, a previous employer of mine had a returnship program that I administered. The program was called the Graduate Professional Development Program and, while it wasn’t officially called a returnship program, that’s what it was.

The program was designed for individuals who were looking to get back into the workforce in a professional capacity after a lengthy time off from employment, those who were underemployed, as well as individuals who were recent college graduates.

Based on my experience, here’s my step-by-step guide and best practices for launching a successful returnship program.

1. Decide on what success looks like

Step one is to get clear about the purpose of your returnship program and what success will look like.

For example, the program I administered was designed to upskill returning professionals and recent graduates so they would be successful in a role at the company after the returnship ended. 

The company was in the insurance industry and the returnship program mainly focused on hard-to-fill insurance roles, though we did offer a few IT and marketing roles as well.

You will want to define the goal of your returnship program first and build the program to achieve that goal. Determine how you will measure success and what metrics you will use to track it. Some key performance indicators could be program completion rate and retention after completion. 

You’ll also want to determine the program duration, whether participants will have one role or rotate departments, and the budget.

Consider whether you want all participants to earn the same salary or set pay depending on the person’s work experience level and skills. 

The program I administered was built for a small class of returners, about 12. They all earned the same salary for the duration of the program. Once they moved into their permanent role, their salary was commensurate with their role, skill, and experience. 

Amazon’s returnship program is 12 weeks, while Goldman Sachs has a 6-month program, and my company’s was a full year. There is no standard for duration and differences in length can be attributed to industry and program structure.

2. Get internal buy-in

As with any large-scale project, you want to engage important stakeholders as early as possible. 

Align the goals of the program with the company goals and sell the program as the investment in the company it is. A returnship program can be easily tied to your organization’s DEI goals, for example.

In order to have a successful program, you’ll need hiring managers willing to participate, so get several key hiring managers on board early to champion your cause. Talk with hiring managers early and often to gauge interest in participating in the program, and maybe enlist the help of senior leaders in the company to help you connect with these managers.

In addition to having enthusiastic hiring managers, you’ll also need senior team members to serve as mentors. Hiring managers can help identify top performers who would be a good fit, and you may already have a formal mentorship program that you can utilize as well. 

3. Build the infrastructure

Returnship programs can vary widely in terms of length and class size, but successful programs have a few core components in common.

Structured onboarding and training

Returnship programs need to provide participants with a structured onboarding process that includes training and development opportunities tailored to their needs. 

This can help them get up to speed on industry trends and best practices, as well as the company’s culture and practices.

Training can be tailored to address both hard and soft skill needs of the participants, and shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach.

Each participant’s training needs for successful re-entry can be assessed early in the program and their training can be assigned based on their unique needs.

My company had all participants start on the same day with the first week in the office. Accenture offers a 16-week returnship program, where all returners start in February. 

This shared orientation allows for a deep dive into the company, its history, and its culture. It also provides participants the opportunity to get to know one another and form a cohort. 

Meaningful work

Returnship participants should be given meaningful work that aligns with their skills and interests and provides them with opportunities to contribute to the organization’s goals. This helps them to build confidence and makes them feel valued.

This is where programs will vary the most in terms of the actual work being performed during the program. However, the work should help build knowledge and skills the participants will use in their careers and chosen industry.

My previous company’s program was tailored to hard-to-fill insurance roles, and each participant spent the majority of their time performing on-the-job training for the permanent role they hope to fill at the end of the program.

For example, participants training to be an underwriter would shadow other underwriters part-time while they build the skills required to handle their own workload by the end of the program. 

Mentorship and coaching

The best returnship programs include one-on-one mentorship and coaching opportunities to help participants navigate the workplace, build relationships, and develop their skills. This also helps them to set goals and track their progress throughout the program. 

This coaching can come from managers and mentors, and feedback can be gathered from peers. Having relevant and timely feedback is important to participants as it helps equip them with the knowledge of how they can improve.

Amazon’s returnship program offers each participant a mentor to help guide them through the experience and support their growth. My company paired participants with both a manager and a mentor. For example, those participants training to be underwriters would have a top-performing underwriter as a mentor.

Networking opportunities

A successful returnship program will provide participants with opportunities to network with other professionals in the organization and industry. This can help them build relationships and potentially lead to future job opportunities. 

The program I administered offered participants various opportunities to network with industry professionals through company-sponsored events. Participants were also offered the opportunity to attend industry events, both in person and virtual.

Additionally, employee resource groups are also a great way to build a network and connect to the organization so encourage returnees to join and get involved.

Flexibility

While returnship programs can’t typically offer part-time hours, they can offer flexibility in terms of scheduling and work arrangements to accommodate the needs of participants who may be transitioning back into the workforce while juggling other responsibilities. 

Flexibility can be built into the program by offering portions of the training to be self-guided and self-paced.

Providing participants with the options for flexibility up front is key so they can make informed decisions about their participation in the program.

A clear path to full-time employment

Returnship programs should provide a clear path to full-time employment for participants who meet performance expectations. This incentivizes participants to perform their best and makes the program more attractive to potential candidates.

My former employer’s program offered a preselected, full-time role to returners who successfully completed the program. Returners must have a clear understanding of expectations for the program and know what success looks like.

4: Marketing and launch

Now that you have the program logistics figured out, you will need to market and launch the program. 

I’d advise creating a landing page on your company career site dedicated to the returnship program that explains all about the program, the benefits, and how to apply (this is Amazon’s). 

Once you have an established program, you can feature testimonials from successful returners, as Hubspot does:

Also, post your returnship openings on job boards and LinkedIn and encourage employees to share the program with their networks. Tap those early champions to promote the program on their professional profiles.

5: Evaluate and iterate

Last, but certainly not least, is measuring the results of your returnship program.

This loops back into the first step when you decided what success will look like for the company and for the participants and created key measurements that can be presented back to the stakeholders. Some key measurements are hire rate and tenure after program completion.

For example, my company found that a majority of male participants were leaving the company within 2 years of completing the program. A pivot was made to market the program more heavily to women who were looking to get back into the workforce after a lengthy career break.

Ready to Launch a Returnship Program in Your Org?

Overall, returnship programs can be beneficial for both individuals looking to return to work and companies looking to diversify their workforce and tap into a new pool of talent. 

I remember one participant who was re-entering the workforce after taking a years-long career break to care for her young children. 

She successfully completed the company’s returnship program, moved into an underwriter role, and then worked her way up to a director level where she was a vocal champion of the program!

By including the key components discussed above, a returnship program can provide a supportive and effective environment for individuals looking to return to the workforce, and provide your org with a pipeline of top talent. 

Not quite ready to launch and want to read more:

Women Back to Work offer services to both returners and employers and has a wealth of knowledge on its website

You can also seek advice in the People Managing People Community, a supportive community of HR and business leaders passionate about building organizations of the future.

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