Category: Recruitment

For Garth Henning, it must have felt as if the planets were aligned at NASA. “When you saw somebody in the hall who was kind of close to your age, you’d stop and introduce yourself. This was very unusual behavior for introverted scientists and engineers,” recalls Henning, an engineer in the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., which oversees the Space Shuttle and International Space Station programs. Henning, who is 36, says there were so few employees under the age of 40 that younger workers almost instantly gravitated toward each other.

Most workplaces aren’t nearly as “monogenerational” as NASA, which employs 18,000 people. Because of a big recruitment surge in the mid-1980s, followed by a hiring freeze lasting through most of the 1990s, the average employee age at NASA exceeded 47 by 2007 and less than 20 percent of the federal agency’s workers were under 40. Aside from limited social interaction with other young employees, Henning says, “We had difficulty seeing any promotion potential for ourselves.”

Clearly, NASA needed to prepare for its future by trying to recruit more people from both Generation X and the millennial generation and create an appealing workplace for younger employees. Like many employers, NASA also had to develop programs to integrate younger workers with the older baby boomer and traditionalist generations. Indeed, it was Gen Xers like Henning who got the ball rolling. Younger workers found one another and began organizing. They tackled social stuff first. “Most people wanted to know more about softball teams than retirement planning,” Henning says. Grass-roots groups gradually sprang up in more centers, and people with contacts at multiple centers began stitching together an agencywide group known as “Next Geners.”

Toni Dawsey, NASA’s former assistant administrator for human capital management, brought some Next Geners to a Strategic Management Council meeting in 2008. The workers identified significant concerns, including the need to gain leadership training and experience, a perceived lack of advancement potential and limited communication and collaboration across generations. Impressed by the feedback, then-administrator Mike Griffin charged center administrators with setting up cross-generational meetings to address the Next Gen concerns.

Dawsey, who retired from NASA in 2010, was put in charge of implementing changes agencywide. One of her first acts was to dust off NASA FIRST, a leadership development program for early-career professionals that had languished on a shelf for two years. FIRST, which stands for Foundations of Influence, Relationships, Success & Teamwork, targets GS-11 and GS-12 employees—on the federal government’s 15-grade General Schedule wage system—who are usually in their 20s. “Professional development is a huge part of the NASA culture, but the Next Geners had identified a gaping hole,” says Erica Bovaird, FIRST’s program manager.

The competitive program guides 40 high-potential participants, who are selected by judges, through a yearlong leadership development curriculum. Participants work in small groups on projects, and the teams are each assigned a sponsor, adviser and mentors. Many individual centers have created their own mentoring programs and social groups. For example, a Developing Professionals Club at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland focuses on career growth, community service and networking. Its members interact with senior management at various events.

Another priority identified by Next Geners was a desire for formal employee orientation. In response, Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, formed a multigenerational group called OpenAmes that eventually spread to the agency level. “Our onboarding programs are now very advanced and multigenerationally friendly,” Dawsey says. Each new employee is paired with an experienced sponsor who serves as a guide.

New technology often provides opportunities for collaboration across generations. At Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, Next Geners assisted with the redesign of the intranet and launched Spacebook, a NASA version of Facebook, to help workers connect. Spacebook proved so popular that it was soon adopted agencywide. Despite such efforts, the percentage of NASA workers under the age of 40 stubbornly remains below 20 percent. But the space agency remains hopeful that its programs for the younger generations will ultimately produce a galaxy of new stars.

Workforce Management, May 2011, p. 16 — Subscribe Now!

As teenagers, Kari Yuers and her brother did their chores in the factory founded by their dad, an inventor and entrepreneur.

At the Vancouver, British Columbia, headquarters of Kryton International Inc., Yuers hauled buckets and cleaned floors—and experienced life as a Kryton employee firsthand. As Yuers advanced through the company that her father founded, becoming general manager and eventually CEO in 2001, she resolved to add the personnel systems and programs Kryton was lacking.

“When I became CEO, I was keen to build a great company to work for,” she says.

Yuers has since achieved her goal. Kryton was named the top manufacturing workplace by BCBusiness magazine in 2010 and the No. 2 workplace overall. Yuers began entering workplace ranking programs in 2008.

“One of my goals when I hired a full-time human resources professional was to win one of these awards,” she says.

But Yuers’ objective wasn’t just publicity. She saw the ranking program, which surveys the employees of organizations that enter the competitions, as an opportunity to get feedback on what Kryton was doing well—and what it wasn’t. In 2008, the company placed ninth; Yuers used the results to identify the 10 lowest-ranking areas and created a plan to address each.

Organizations enter workplace ranking programs for a variety of reasons. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, or NRECA, has been entering since 2003, primarily to attract qualified candidates.

“Our employment brand is not a big name. We felt we needed something extra special to get the attention of candidates,” says Paul Hvidding, director of human resources at the Arlington, Virginia-based association.

The organization regularly enters four major programs: the Northern Virginia Family Services Companies As Responsive Employers, or CARE, Award, Washingtonian magazine’s Great Places to Work, Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT, and the AARP’s Best Employers for Workers Over 50.

The positive PR generated by the awards extends beyond recruiting, says Hvidding. “The recognition reassures current employees as to our value proposition, and it sets the bar pretty high. Our managers and supervisors aspire to create a work environment we can all be proud of.”

Hvidding also uses the information generated as a benchmark and a driving force. When NRECA entered its first program in 2003, it did not win. “We learned from that experience and made some substantive changes to our benefits and programs,” he says. Hvidding also reviewed the information submitted by the winners and realized that NRECA did do some things he hadn’t highlighted well.

Medallia Inc., a Palo Alto, California-based maker of customer experience management software, is new to the rankings game, having entered its first program last year. Employee recruitment was the goal, says Amy Pressman, president and co-founder. “The company had doubled in size in the previous year. We had a great culture but were kind of a well-kept secret,” she says. “Although we have a strong employee referral program, we wanted to cast our net wider.”

To enter the program sponsored by the Bay Area News Group, Pressman permitted an online survey of all of her employees.

“I like that employee participation eliminates a company’s ability to spin” the information submitted, she says.

The reward was twofold: Medallia received customized survey results that showed how it did in various dimensions as well as how it compared with other companies. Recruiting benefited, too, although not exactly as Pressman had planned.

“The payback was slightly different from the goal,” she says. “I’m not sure how many candidates [the award] attracted, but it added to our credibility and made [working here] a faster sell.”

Some companies find that the benefits of workplace ranking programs can extend over time. Beryl Cos., headquartered in Bedford, Texas, entered and regularly placed high in workplace ranking programs for about seven years. The company, which was named No. 2 in the nationwide Great Places to Work program in 2007, stopped entering programs about a year ago.

“We had won the best of the best,” explains Lara Morrow, who goes by the title “queen of fun and laughter.” “It is a lot of work to gather the information, and we felt that we were inundating our employees with surveys.”

Morrow estimates that completing the application for the Great Places program took about 100 hours. However, the company has reaped significant advantage from the recognition, and continues to do so.

“Employees, vendors and clients want to work with us. Our recruiting costs have declined by half, and we now enjoy a 60 percent employee referral rate,” Morrow says.

She also notes that the awards aid retention. “People are aware that they have found a job someplace special and are much less likely to jump ship for 50 cents or a dollar more per hour.”

Workforce Management Online, February 2011 — Register Now!

The old adage “People are our most important asset” is particularly true when it comes to stocking the workforce.

Consider that 88 percent of employers rate employee referrals as their No. 1 source of above-average candidates, says John Sullivan, a San Francisco State University professor of management, who adds that employee referrals top executives’ lists in terms of quality and longevity of hire and return on investment. And, Sullivan says, turnover of new hires from employee referrals is 32 percent lower after six months.

“Employees refer candidates with similar qualifications and skills,” says Anne Murguia, vice president of marketing at Jobvite, a site that merges referral and tracking capabilities with social networking. “They’ve set the candidate’s expectations, so there’s likely to be a better fit.”

Murguia adds a statistic discovered in Jobvite’s research: One in 10 employee referrals are hired vs. 1 in 100 applicants who apply over the transom.

Chicago-based consulting firm Accenture has been recognized frequently for the quality and strength of its employee referral program. Its goal, says John Campagnino, senior director of recruitment, is to make current employees Accenture’s top source of talent.

“The quality of employee referral candidates tends to be very high,” Campagnino says. “There’s a strong sense of stewardship and understanding among our employees.”

Policy and process is key to the program’s success is two critical elements. Campagnino says to build a policy that lays out internal rules and regulations as well as reward and recognition potential. Then craft a process that is easy to use and that lays out intelligence—how the program will be tracked and measured—upfront.

Rewarding employees who make referrals are common and help organizations demonstrate their appreciation. At Accenture, more than one-third of new hires are generated by referrals; rewards range from $2,000 to $7,000 or more.

“We run special campaigns for specific skills” that might net higher rewards, Campagnino says.

R.J. Morris, director of staffing for McCarthy Building Cos. in St. Louis, regularly encourages the company’s 1,600 employees to refer candidates. His program includes a variety of rewards, ranging from gift cards at the interview stage to bonuses up to $5,000 for a successful hire.

Accenture recently launched a one-step referral website that allows employees to suggest candidates for specific openings or to make general referrals; its use is open to all employees as well as Accenture alumni.

Morris says it’s important to make the referral process easy for employees. He relies heavily on referrals as a source of qualified candidates and ensures company colleagues that the staffing team will do the legwork.

“All you have to do is give us a name and a phone number or e-mail address; we will do the rest,” he says.

To Morris, the ability to accommodate outliers is crucial.

“I would much rather spend my day trying to figure out how to fit a really good person into our organization than trolling social networks looking for candidates,” he says.

Company culture underlies policy and process, Murguia says.

“Building a culture of referral is fundamental,” Murguia says. “Employees must be excited about their company, and the company must send the message that recruitment and hiring are everyone’s job.”

If employees feel that they are a part of the company and its success, they won’t refer unqualified people, says consultant Simma Lieberman, who blogs about recruiting for the website Fast Company.

Lieberman says that a robust referral program can also help to increase the diversity of a candidate pool, but “you need to let employees know that you desire that greater diversity,” she says.

Accenture has created an internal marketing campaign that includes a variety of communications strategies and a special landing page on the company intranet that includes photos and testimonials of successful program participants; employees can even shoot and upload their own videos. The referral site also features online help that allows employees to track the progress of their referrals in real time.

To promote the referral program, Morris posts stories about employees and their successfully hired referrals on the McCarthy intranet. He does presentations on the program at new employee-orientation programs at the company’s annual meeting and peppers all staff members with regular e-mails reminding them about the program, its rewards and any special skills the company needs.

Morris says the effort has paid off. In 2009, 36 percent of new hires came through the referral program and received referrals from more than 10 percent of his employees.

Workforce Management Online, December 2010 — Register Now!