We all want to ensure we hire the best candidate to fill our open positions. In doing so, we try to gather all of the pertinent information on each candidate in order to make an informed, sound decision. With that said, employers need to be proactive in regularly reviewing their background screening process so it is compliant with the latest federal and state regulations. One growing area for conducting background checks is social media. Employers have indicated social networks help find evidence of unprofessional behavior, such as complaints about previous employers or discussions of drug use. Some employers go as far as requiring candidates to disclose their usernames, passwords, and other credentials providing employer access to their social network accounts. There are several existing federal laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Stored Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, may protect workers against discrimination and privacy violations related to social media.

There are some questions out there I can answer on the spot. For instance, Why are light bulbs to blame for your terrible sleep habits? Well, it could be that your suprachiasmatic nucleus is no longer able to differentiate between daytime and nighttime, so it doesn’t know when you should sleep. (This is a real thing!) Another one I know: Who has the cutest dogs in the world? Literally the easiest question ever – that would be me, of course! Others, though, are a little more difficult.

With spring in the air, the habit of spring cleaning often stretches beyond scrubbing the kitchen and perfecting the landscape around your house to streamlining and organizing your work life as well. Perhaps you’ve taken a step back and looked at your HR department and thought to yourself “there’s got to be a better way to do this.” Maybe you’re anticipating growth within your organization, and you know that with more employees comes the need for enhanced processes and compliance requirements. Engaging with a third party human capital consulting firm to conduct an HR audit may be just what you need to hit the ground running with your HR spring cleaning!

As HR professionals, we know that having a Human Resource Information System (HRIS), also referred to as a HR Management System (HRMS), has a myriad of advantages. If implemented correctly, an HR technology platform allow for the most beautiful streamlining of processes. This includes taking out any manual steps that can sometimes lead to a single point of failure in any process.

Onboarding: 1 Day Vs. 90 Days Effectively onboarding employees can go a long way in ensuring they become productive, engaged employees. Although the focus is finally shifting to enriching onboarding programs, there are still many companies that believe onboarding consists of having the new hire complete the required paperwork and turning them over to their supervisor to start their job. Unfortunately, I’ve been through new hire experiences like that, so I know firsthand how lost and unimportant I felt as a result.

Whenever you are faced with a new vacancy, it's typically a good practice to review your current workforce along with your candidate pipeline when identifying the right talent for the role. In this article, we will weigh the pros vs. cons of recruiting from within the business and building an external candidate pipeline. There are many different factors to consider with this decision as the hiring manager.