A Memory and a Problem
My name is Mike. My dad was an entrepreneur long before I became one. And when I decided to build my own business, he told me to always remember that "For any company, the hiring will decide the history." His point was that the quality of a company's work force determines virtually every performance and success measurement, both short-term and long-term.
We're not one of the giant companies, but we've managed to eke out a pretty respectable share of the market within our area. But a while back, I set aside some time to work with my management team on where we stood, where we wanted to go in the future, and the steps we needed to take in order to get there. As we discussed our strengths and weaknesses, my dad's words came back to me... Because one of our company's major concerns -- and weaknesses -- turned out to be nothing other than our hiring process.
The Missing Process
Our main concern with that process was that it really wasn't a process at all. Each location seemed to be going its own way when it came to picking new people to bring aboard. There was no consistency and there were no standards, and important things were falling between the cracks. One of our competitors had recently been visited by an eager team of television reporters, after it came to light that one of his employees was a featured player on the state sex offender registry. His people hadn't even bothered to check the registry prior to hiring him. We didn't want anything like that to ever happen to us.
Our managers were spending a large and less-than-efficient amount of time in interviewing and checking applicants. Yet many of the people they were hiring were less than fully compatible with our company, its standards, its culture, and its work ethic. As we reviewed our numbers, we realized that turnover was trending upward, while customer satisfaction and productivity were trending downward. If we didn't move quickly, our profitability would begin to erode as well.
The Big-Guy Alternatives
Soon after that meeting, my human resources manager and I began looking at alternatives which could shape and improve our hiring process. She pointed out that there is a strong trend toward business software being Web-based, so we decided to concentrate our efforts there. Web-based software would be much faster and easier to deploy, support, and keep up-to-date. To say that our company's technological resources are limited would be putting it mildly.
She then arranged demonstrations of several of the hiring software products used by the big guys in our industry. Some of them were pretty impressive, and some of them weren't. But when I inquired about the cost of these products, I was shown big-guy price tags. Sorry, I told them, but there's no way.
Stunning Power, Stunning Price
But then she learned about Sysdine, and arranged an online demonstration. I was immediately impressed by the many ways in which a location manager could view and prioritize the applicant pool. And Sysdine's Applicant Dashboard was truly a thing of beauty... lots of powerful information about each applicant, in a format which was quick and easy to access and understand.
After seeing Sysdine, I was fully prepared for a price tag which would exceed the big-guy products we had looked at earlier. That's when the real surprise took place. It turns out that Sysdine is not only stunningly powerful... it is stunningly affordable as well. And there's not even a setup fee, nor a long-term contract to sign. When they told me this, I had to ask again to be sure I had heard correctly.
Suddenly, a Hiring Process
Almost immediately after we started using Sysdine, we began noticing significant benefits from its use. By using Sysdine's tools to prioritize applicants and identify the cream of the crop for interviews and further checking, our managers were interviewing far fewer people than before. They were thus able to spend more time face-to-face with their customers, training and motivating their employees, and improving the other processes which affect profitability and growth.
And suddenly, we actually had a hiring process in place for the first time. We used Sysdine to define what that process was to be, and, from our main office, we were able to assure ourselves that the process was being followed, and followed consistently, at each location.
By posting our job openings on the company website, at pleaseapplyonline.com, and on other hiring-related sites, we found that we had increased our flow of applicants into the pool. For most of our locations, we decided to continue to permit on-site applications as well. But for some of our locations, which had highly-limited space, we went to an online-only basis, thus reducing in-store traffic, and freeing precious space that had formerly been devoted to on-site applicants.
Moving on Up
We found almost immediately that the chances of a hire being unsuccessful were beginning to diminish. Thanks to Sysdine, our managers were able to identify and avoid the hiring of applicants whose attitudes, skills, and expectations were not compatible with our company and with the job they were seeking.
And our managers were able to utilize Sysdine for making required background checks, such as sex offender registries. And the checks they were required to make were being recorded by them within Sysdine. Our concerns about potential liability and adverse publicity began to be alleviated somewhat.
"People Apply. We Report. You Decide."
Now that we've had Sysdine in place for a while, we're beginning to see the longer-term benefits that it can provide.
Because we are more readily able to identify candidates who are more likely to stay with us longer, our turnover rate has started to go down. We had found that high turnover destroys the fabric of teamwork that our managers work so hard to build. Thanks to Sysdine, we are in the process of building a more consistent and cohesive team for the future.
And because we're able to choose employees with greater effectiveness, that teamwork is producing improvements in productivity, in customer satisfaction, and in all the other workforce performance measurements which drive profit and growth.
The Sysdine folks told us that "People apply... We report... You decide." People do indeed apply. And I would describe the way in which Sysdine analyzes and reports as nothing short of magnificent. And because they do, we are able to make hiring decisions in a manner which bodes well for our company's future success and well-being.
Hire and Develop a World-Class Workforce
With Sysdine, hire applicants who are more apt to stay, to perform, and to work as a team. And use Sysdine to improve employee retention and performance, while tuning your hiring process.
Increase Your Applicant Flow with On-Line Applications
Launch Sysdine applications from your own Web site, from job boards, from free services such as craigslist, and from Sysdine's own pleaseapplyonline.com.
Hire Smarter, Hire Faster... With Sysdine Simplicity
Sysdine's power is hidden under the surface. Your hiring decision-makers will see a simple, Web-based, user-friendly interface, which enables better hiring in significantly less time.
Turnover Forensics: Why Do People Leave?
With Sysdine's Reasons for Leaving and Employee Surveys, you'll learn why. And Sysdine can then tune your applicant analytics to better identify those more likely to stay.
Who's Under-Performing, and What Can Be Done?
With Sysdine's Peer Reviews and Management Reviews, you can identify your under-performers. Then use Sysdine to develop individual Performance Improvement Plans.
Define and Enforce Your Hiring Process
Define your applications, your tests, your screening criteria, your interview process, and more, in Sysdine. Let Sysdine administer and enforce it!
Stunning Power, Affordable Price
Sysdine is not only stunningly powerful... it is stunningly affordable as well. And there's no setup fee, nor is a long-term contract required.
Hiring People with Sysdine
Sysdine's hiring solutions provide: - On-line employment applications
- Automated testing and screening
- Hiring decision support
- Applicant pool management
- Applicant dashboard
- Applicant web site
Sysdine can assist in the selection of new hires who are:
- Less prone to leave;
- More likely to become productive quickly;
- More apt to fit into the company culture and be satisfied in their jobs; and
- More likely to be capable of developing into world-class employees.
Sysdine provides immediate value potential, such as: - Management time savings
- Increased applicant flow
- Reduced chance of unsuccessful hires
- Increased chance of hires who will become world-class employees
- Documentation of background checks
And Sysdine provides critical longer-term value potential: - Work force productivity and cohesion
- Reduced turnover
PleaseApplyOnline.com
For many franchisees of national companies, it isn't possible to use the parent company's web site for posting job openings. There's simply no way for potential employees to find you on the web. And other smaller companies may not have a web site of their own.
As a Sysdine customer, you'll have free access to PleaseApplyOnline.com, on which your applicants can both find you, and fill out your Sysdine application.
Copyright 2008 by Silver Creek Technologies, LLC. All rights reserved.
