Author: Christina Boland

Securing talented EHS employees can be a challenge. That’s why it’s critical to create a strong interview process to help you find and hire the best candidates for your organization.

Here are some helpful strategies for developing an improved interview process to ensure you’re hiring well-qualified EHS staff.

1. Establish your company values. Be sure to define your company identity — what are your core values and mission? If you don’t communicate these to your job candidates, you risk hiring people who don’t fit well into your organizational culture. When you have clearly defined organizational values, you’ll be more likely to find employees who align with and support them.

2. Don’t avoid asking the basic questions during interviews. Sometimes it’s good to get back to the basics when it comes to interview questions. When you are trying to ask complex questions, it can be easy for you to get carried away. Consider including some of those basic, but essential questions in your interviews to help you gauge those important, but sometimes overlooked skills, such as the ability to communicate effectively, be adaptable, and work well with the entire team. You may be talking to a very skilled EHS professional, but if they aren’t able to work efficiently with team members, it could mean they may not be the right fit for your company.

3. Make a point of asking the big questions as well. In addition to asking your job candidates those basic questions, be sure to include some of the more difficult questions that may make your applicants have to think a bit during the interview. This will help you to bring innovative and forward-thinking employees into your organization. Example: What would you implement to improve the company’s safety strategy?

4. Be honest with job candidates. Make sure to clearly articulate the position’s responsibilities. Don’t try to make the job sound better than it is in order to increase the chances that a candidate will accept your job offer. If you hire someone and they realize the job doesn’t match what they anticipated, they will likely quit very quickly. Ask job applicants if they have any questions for you after the interview and answer them honestly. Establishing trust early on will ensure new hires will be committed to doing a great job and staying with your company for the long term.

5. Work to continually improve your interview process. It can take some time to perfect your strategy for interviewing job candidates. You will find what works well for your organization as you continue to interview applicants. It’s essential to make some changes each year to stay up to date with the constantly changing business world. Hiring a recruiting firm like Aarcher Talent can also help you refine your entire hiring strategy and secure the best candidates for your open positions.

Hiring is a difficult but critical responsibility that you have to deal with as a manager. Making sure the interview process goes smoothly is vital to hire the talent who will drive your business forward. Implement these strategies to help you get your interview process in shape to ensure you hire the best candidates.

Adapted from: How to Ask the Right Questions to Get the Best Candidates, EHS Insight Resources, EHS Insight Blog.

There has been a huge increase in talent scarcity in the job market over the last few years. There are more jobs available now than ever before and not enough qualified candidates to fill them. How can your organization overcome the challenges of job scarcity and fill open EHS positions with talented people? Here are some strategies to help you:

1. Stop trying to fill open positions with specific skillsets. Instead of focusing on certain technical skills, concentrate on finding employees who are quick learners and can adapt well. Look for talent that fits well with your organizational culture and believes in your core values. It’s easier to train employees on skills than it is to teach them to be aligned with your company culture.

2. Leverage technology to your advantage. With so many advancements in technology, you don’t necessarily have to look for potential job candidates in your immediate area or relocate recruits. Embrace opportunities to expand your workforce across the country and even globally, and use technology to stay connected with your employees on a daily basis.

3. Clearly define your company’s values and communicate them to employees. Today’s employees want to work for organizations that have similar values to their own. It’s essential to develop and articulate company values that demonstrate how you would like your business to be a positive force within the community. Provide opportunities to your workers to take part in meaningful ways.

4. Nurture talent within your company. Align your job needs with current staff members’ career goals whenever possible. When you invest in your employees’ career development, you’ll create a more productive and engaged workplace, and increase retention.

5. Work with a recruiting firm who understands the talent market and your industry. You may need to revamp your recruiting strategy as a result of the challenges from talent scarcity. A recruiting team will help you create a strategy to overcome these challenges and exceed your organizational goals.

Whether you’re looking to fill a permanent position or add specific skillsets for temporary projects, Aarcher Talent offers a series of staffing solutions, including permanent placement, temp-to-hire, and contracted staff services. We’re happy to chat with you about our services and how we can help you find the right candidate.

Adapted from: Employers want to know: How will talent scarcity affect my business? Bradsby Group, BradsbyGroup.com.

There is currently a talent labor shortage where unemployment has reached record lows. Organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to fill open jobs with talented employees and prevent current staff from quitting.

Here are five recruiting and retention challenges that are impacting companies in 2019 — and how to handle these challenges in your own organization.

1. Managing Time

The HR department has a diverse range of responsibilities, including reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates, training new employees, and building the company’s culture. Because HR specialists are so busy with the everyday tasks, it’s difficult for them to find the time to focus on bigger-picture goals.

“HR is about people, and HR staff need to focus on improving people’s performance, not managing paperwork and building PowerPoint [presentations],” said Laura Handrick, an HR analyst at FitSmallBusiness.

Taking advantage of opportunities to automate and digitize tasks will help HR manage their hours more effectively. This will allow them to devote time to larger initiatives, like boosting employee morale and determining ways to hire more top performers.

2. Gaining Leadership Support

Sometimes it’s difficult for HR to gain buy-in from the C-suite in order to accomplish organizational goals for talent acquisition and employee retention. However, it’s essential for leaders to support these efforts that ensure staff is more engaged and productive, which decreases turnover and helps the business save money. If you are an organizational leader, work with your HR department to elevate these initiatives, and ask HR to educate you on any organization-wide issues they see that they can help resolve.

3. Finding and Hiring the Right Employees

It can be difficult to find talented employees who fit in well with the job position and your organizational culture and values. But, a bad hire can quickly cause low productivity and morale among an entire department. Working with a recruiting firm can help you find and hire employees who are committed to producing high-quality work and understand your company’s goals.

4. Staying On Top of Ever-Changing Regulations

It’s essential that employers are well versed in the complex employment laws in the locations in which they are conducting business. Employers face compliance challenges as their organization expands into multiple states or countries. Be sure to engage in the training you need to stay on top of these important laws.

5. Building a Strong Organization Culture

Communication is key to a solid company culture. When you fail to effectively communicate your organizational goals, changes and expectations to staff, it frequently decreases morale and leads to a toxic workplace culture that can negatively impact customer interactions. As a leader, make sure you are communicating your company’s values and mission to employees on a regular basis.

It’s critical to stay on top of these five challenges to keep your organization running smoothly and sustaining growth as we move into the second half of 2019.

Adapted from: Viewpoint: 5 Significant Recruiting and Retention Issues for 2019, Dave Delaney, SHRM.org.

Hiring a recruiting firm can be a critical part of an organization’s talent acquisition plan. However, many people have some misconceptions about the role that these companies play. Here are some common misconceptions about recruiting firms — and why they aren’t true.

1. They only care about quickly placing a job candidate. Recruiting firms aren’t just trying to rapidly fill open positions. Instead, they take the time to work with organizations to ensure they find candidates who are great long-term fits for their strengths and personalities. They don’t view it as a success if a job applicant is hired and then quits just a few months later.

2. Recruiting companies are only worried about the money. A huge misconception that many people have is that recruiters only concentrate on making money and not on their client’s best interests. That simply isn’t true. Most recruiting companies care very much about helping their clients and ensuring that the organizations they are working with hire the best candidates for their open positions and organizational cultures. They are focused on learning as much as they can about the employer they’re working with and potential job candidates.

3. They’re solely focused on finding people jobs. A recruiting company’s objective isn’t just to find people jobs. Their role is to find people for jobs and organizations. Recruiters are first focused on the company they’re working with and the job position they are trying to fill. They concentrate on the job requirements and organizational culture, and then consider which applicants will best fit that role. Recruiters are ultimately working to find a mutual benefit for both the employer and job candidate.

4. Working with more than one recruiting company is better. Some people believe that working with multiple recruiting firms will produce better results. However, it’s more effective when you build a strong relationship with one recruiting company. It’s essential for the recruiting firm to know all the details of your professional objectives with the positions you’re trying to fill. It’s much easier to develop this type of relationship with one recruiting company as opposed to three or four.

A recruiting firm can be a great partner in helping your organization hire the right candidate for an open position. Consider working with one to help you make the hiring process run more smoothly and ensure you hire quality employees who have long-term futures at your company.

Whether you’re looking to fill a permanent position or add specific skill sets for temporary projects, Aarcher Talent offers a series of staffing solutions, including permanent placement, temp–to–hire, and contracted staff services. We’re happy to chat with you about our services and how we can help you find the right candidate.

Adapted from: 7 Misconceptions About Recruiting, Wes Washington, BoazPartners.com.

Hiring a new EHS employee is a difficult process. Not only do you want to find someone who has the right skills, it’s also essential that this person fits well with your organization’s culture.

Hiring the wrong individual can significantly impact your company. It can affect your business negatively in several ways, including:

1. Lost time and money. When you’re searching for an employee to fill a position, you spend a great deal of time putting together the job ad and interviewing candidates. Once you’ve hired someone, you also invest time and money into training him or her. If you hire someone who isn’t the right fit, your company’s resources take a big hit.

“According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire is at least 30 percent of the employee’s first-year earnings,” says Forbes.

2. Low morale among employees across the department or even the entire organization. If your new hire doesn’t work well with your current employees, you could see a big drop in productivity and motivation among your team. A negative mindset is contagious, so if your new staff member has a poor attitude, it will likely spread to your other employees, resulting in a toxic work environment.

3. Loss of trust from and broken relationships with customers. Poor hires may turn off customers and clients. This will significantly damage your organization’s reputation and negatively impact sales.

4. Legal problems. Bad hires can also result in legal issues for your company. If your employees aren’t following important rules and complying with regulations in their work, your organization could land in court and face an expensive lawsuit.

Hiring a recruiting firm can help you avoid the cost of a poor hire and find a candidate who is the right fit for your company. They can help you develop a strong job description that will attract top talent and market the position to the right candidates who will work well with your current team.

Whether you’re looking to fill a permanent position or add specific skill sets for temporary projects, Aarcher Talent offers a series of staffing solutions, including permanent placement, temp–to–hire, and contracted staff services. We’re happy to chat with you about our services and how we can help you find a candidate who is a perfect fit for your company.

Adapted from: The cost of a bad hire is much higher than you think, Bradsby Group, BradsbyGroup.com.

Organizations want to retain their best employees for as long as possible. However, top performers are frequently the first to leave their companies. Not only does this cost your business time and money, it impacts the staff members on your teams as well.

Here are five common reasons employees quit and what you can do to prevent this from happening in your organization:

You aren’t challenging them in their work. When top talent isn’t challenged at work, they quickly become disengaged. These employees want to work toward important goals. Be sure to give them opportunities to use their strengths and leverage their skills in the workplace.

2. You aren’t providing them with opportunities to grow their career. Just because your best employees are already talented, it doesn’t mean they don’t want opportunities to learn new things and build their careers. For high performers, professional development isn’t simply about gaining skills, it’s about opportunities to broaden their skillsets and convert those new abilities to advance their careers. Provide your staff with ways to expand their skills, such as taking a course to acquire new EHS skills, pursuing a certification, or shadowing a colleague in a senior role.

3. You aren’t giving them the recognition and validation they need. When employees don’t feel like you appreciate their work, they typically stop producing high-quality work, become disengaged, and start looking for a new job. Providing a staff member with validation and recognition can be as simple as letting the individual know that they did a good job on a project.

You can even go one step further by discovering what motivates each of your employees. For some individuals, it could be showing them public recognition, and for others, it could be privately telling them that they’re producing high-quality work. If you customize the way that you provide your employees with recognition, it makes your appreciation more sincere and will likely be more appreciated by your staff.

4. You’re overworking them. When you have a top performer, it can be easy to get into the habit of providing them with extra work. You have to be careful when you do this though. You must find a balance between giving an employee work because they’re the best person to handle it and just piling on additional responsibilities because other employees weren’t able to finish it. If you’re relying on your highest-performing employees to do more work, consider giving them a promotion and salary increase. If you just give them more work without changing anything else, they’ll likely start looking for a new job that can better meet their needs.

5. You aren’t compensating them fairly. Your best-performing employees are aware of their value, and if they’re not being compensated properly, they’ll quickly start searching for a new job. Compensation isn’t simply about money. Many times, an organization’s budget doesn’t allow for a large salary increase, so it’s critical to look at other benefits you could give employees to provide them with the best work experience and prevent them from looking for a new employer. It could be a title change that allows for increased responsibility, mentoring opportunities from senior leadership, a flexible schedule or extra paid vacation days.

As an EHS employer, you have to ensure you’re giving your staff the tools and resources they need to thrive in their jobs and their careers. If you want employees to stay engaged and work for your organization long term, it’s essential to provide them with a positive workplace experience.

Adapted from: 6 Reasons Your Best Employees Quit, Ashira Prossack, Forbes.

Finding the right talent for your organization can be challenging, and the process can be even more difficult if your company is in a niche industry, like the environmental, health and safety (EHS) field. That’s where a recruiting firm can help.

Here are some important benefits of hiring a recruiting team to help you fill open job positions:

1. They help your organization save time and money. A major benefit of working with a staffing company is their ability to significantly reduce the time it takes to hire and the resulting opportunity cost. Using an internal team to fill an open job position, especially in a niche industry like EHS, can cost your business money because these people are devoting time to the hiring process instead of revenue-generating responsibilities.

A recruiting firm works with you from the start of the hiring process, helping you to create the job applicant brief and select candidates for you to interview based on the skills you’re seeking. This decreases the time to hire for your organization since you will only interview applicants who meet the requirements you set.

An employee can generate three to fives times his or her annual salary as revenue, according to studies. That’s why leaving a job position open for a long period of time can result in a great deal of lost revenue. Although some companies are hesitant to work with a staffing firm due to the cost, the fee paid to a recruiting team is frequently far less than the cost of leaving the job role vacant for a long time.

2. A recruiting firm has experience filling roles in your industry. A staffing team has an in-depth understanding of the talent in the job field. Their market knowledge enables them to find the highest-quality candidates for the job. A staffing company has likely determined the most efficient methods and benchmarks for the recruitment process. They also serve as a good recruitment partner by providing you with advice on important trends and changes in the market. They know how these trends affect the talent pool and can potentially impact your business.

3. They have access to a wider pool of job candidates who could be the right fit for your organization. When you’re trying to fill a vacant position, it’s not only about finding someone with the right skills. You also want to find an individual who fits in well with your company’s culture and works well with the team. A recruiting firm will understand your business needs and goals to find potential candidates who would be great fits for your organizational culture, resulting in increased productivity and retention.

Additionally, staffing firms work with multiple organizations, so they typically have a better overview of the talent pool in the industry than an internal recruiting team would. As a result, staffing teams have the ability to source candidates who weren’t necessarily actively looking for a new job role but could be the right fit for your company. Recruiting firms spend a lot of time building a network of candidates for possible future job opportunities. They frequently have long-standing relationships with candidates, so they are able to use their extensive networks to connect you to a wider range of talent in your industry.

4. A recruiting firm can help you establish an effective employer brand to attract the right candidates. If you want to attract top candidates, it’s essential to develop a strong employer brand. Skilled candidates who are looking for a new position typically have multiple job offers. That’s why it’s important to stand out by establishing a solid employer value proposition and communicate it through your hiring process. Staffing firms can help you make the recruitment process consistent and positive in order to prevent candidates from having a negative experience. They can provide you with guidance for effectively “selling” your organization to job candidates to ensure you’re attracting and securing high-quality candidates. A recruiting company can help you strengthen your employer brand to increase the chances that job applicants choose to work for your organization instead of another one.

If you’re looking to fill a vacant job position in your company, consider hiring a staffing team to serve as a recruitment partner that will understand your business goals and your industry. They will help you save time and money, and enable you to find a high-quality candidate who is the perfect fit for your organization.

Whether you’re looking to fill a permanent position or add specific skill sets for temporary projects, Aarcher Talent offers a series of staffing solutions, including permanent placement, temp–to–hire, and contracted staff services. We’re happy to chat with you about our services and how we can help you find the right candidate.

Adapted from: The Benefits of Using a Specialist Recruiter to Find Talent, Selby Jennings, PhaidonInternational.com.

As employers work to fill EHS positions with candidates who have the skills and attitude necessary to do the job, they seek “informed” candidates the most, according to a 2018 survey conducted by Glassdoor. These are the job applicants who have researched your company and know they want to work for you. They are the people who will be most engaged and productive.

However, if the informed candidate doesn’t like what he hears about your organization, he may steer clear of working for you.

The Top Hiring Challenge for Employers 

Employers report that their biggest hiring challenge is attracting quality EHS job applicants who are knowledgeable about the industry, job role and your company.

If you’re trying to fill an EHS position, you might want to make some changes to your recruiting strategy because informed candidates research potential employers before they accept a new job.

“Recruiting strategies of the past are no longer enough to attract today’s candidates who are more informed than ever before thanks to transparency and more company information available online,” said Carmel Galvin, CHRO at Glassdoor.

Informed Job Candidates Make a Positive Impact on Your Workplace

Informed candidates save you time throughout the hiring process, improving the interview experience and decreasing costs. Hiring decision makers say the largest benefits of hiring informed candidates is an improved experience for potential employees (38 percent of those surveyed), reduced time to hire (34 percent) and improved satisfaction of hiring managers (34 percent), according to the Glassdoor survey.

Once informed candidates are hired, they positively influence employee engagement and retention. The top benefits of hiring an informed applicant are improved employee retention (42 percent of those surveyed), and a more productive (42 percent) and engaged (41 percent) employee.

How to Attract Informed Job Candidates

Hiring decision makers say the biggest influences on whether a job applicant joins their company is salary and compensation (48 percent of those surveyed), workplace culture (37 percent), and company reputation/employer brand (36 percent).

Here are some important things you can do increase your company’s chances of attracting quality job applicants:

1. Provide your candidates with the right information they need to make the decision to work for you. When you’re hiring an EHS professional, make sure to explain the importance of occupational safety, health and environment to your organization and its leaders. Talk with the applicant about the safety and health investments your company makes, your strategy for improvement, and how the role they’re interviewing for will contribute to improved safety performance. Additionally, highlight your company’s values, such as staff engagement, environmental management and community leadership, because candidates look for organizations with values similar to their own.

2. Invest in better employer branding. Hiring decision makers are investing more in employer branding to make sure applicants have the information they need about their organization and workplace culture. When potential employees recognize a company’s brand, it’s easier for that company to recruit them and to attract informed applicants. According to another Glassdoor study, 65 percent of users surveyed were more likely to respond to a recruiter from an organization they know than from one they don’t recognize.

3. Look to current employees to spread the word about job openings. Hiring decision makers are also asking current employees to share with their network details about open positions and their work experiences.

Job seekers are no longer simply looking for a job, according to Galvin. They’re looking for work that is meaningful and a company that shares their values. Hiring managers need to invest in creating a positive workplace culture and making their brand recognizable to attract quality job candidates for their organization.

Adapted from: Attracting Top Quality Candidates Is a Challenge (Even for Safety Leaders), EHS Today.

Does your safety leader need to be the top safety expert in your organization?

EHS Daily Advisor took a look at what the leaders of the world’s safest companies had in common. They learned that organizations in the top quartile of safety participation have an incident rate of 3.5 times lower than the bottom quartile.

After conducting interviews to learn how the safety leaders from the safest companies developed their cultures, EHS Daily Advisor found they took five important steps:

1. The CEO commits to maintaining a safe workplace and does so publicly.
2. The CEO appoints a safety leader and provides him or her with the tools to drive change.
3. The safety leader is supported by frontline employees.
4. Managers respond quickly to new safety initiatives.
5. The organization expands the safety program to other departments or sites.

Your first thought may be to hire someone with a strong safety background. However, that might not be the best move.

What Skills Should Your Safety Leader Possess?

• The ability to drive change: This is the most essential skill that your safety leader can have. You may already have a leader like this in your company. It could be an A-player who you hired to turn around a department that was struggling. It’s easy to hire someone who is skilled in change management and train him or her in safety. It’s much more difficult to go the other way around. Your safety leader doesn’t serve the role of “safety cop” who tells employees to wear their protective equipment. This person is a change agent who develops a culture of safety where all workers put on their protective equipment without even thinking about it.

• Experience leading large projects: Cultivating a safety culture will require new tools, so your safety leader should be experienced in taking the lead for a large procurement operation where he or she has to select the right vendor or solution, present the business case to upper management and stakeholders, and secure the necessary funding.

• The capability to work well with your frontline staff: Your frontline employees are the people who carry out the daily work, so the safety leader must earn their support. Your safety leader must convey to employees that a safe workplace ensures everyone goes home safely every day, and that a better safety record allows the company to gain more contracts, increasing job security for employees.

• The aptitude to connect well with managers: Safety leaders must make sure that managers have the resources and systems they need to respond to new safety initiatives. If managers’ workloads prevent them from responding to safety activities in a timely manner, frontline employees will become frustrated and the safety leader will likely lose their support.

A strong safety culture isn’t achieved. Instead, it’s maintained. The safety leader you promote or hire must be able to lead the changes that push your organization in the right direction, ensure that these changes are maintained, and sustain a culture of safety for the long term.

Adapted from: Finding the Right Leader to Drive Safety Participation, EHS Daily Advisor, Josh LeBrun.

There is an increasing demand for environmental engineers in organizations. Environmental engineers serve a critical role by planning and performing engineering responsibilities in order to prevent, control and manage environmental health hazards.

Their work functions include conducting research on hazardous waste management, designing and implementing systems for water supplies, and assessing the potential impact of proposed construction projects on the environment.

Here are some important projections and trends for this essential environmental job role from EHS Daily Advisor:

• The median salary for environmental engineers is changing across states. Nationwide, the median salary for environmental engineers increased just 0.49% from 2016 to 2017. This job role is paid the highest in Alaska, but South Dakota saw the largest percentage increase in median income, rising from $71,845 in 2016 to $91,535. The lowest median income is in Georgia, while New Mexico had the biggest drop in salary, decreasing from $107,272 in 2016 to $89,426 in 2017.

• Employment of environmental engineers is rising. Employment of this critical job role is projected to increase by 8 percent from 2016 to 2026, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is about average across all occupations.

• Water issues are increasing the demand for environmental engineers. The growing concerns of state and local government regarding water availability and quality boost the need for environmental professionals. Environmental engineers are required to provide professional, scientific and technical services to increase the efficiency of water use.

Additionally, wastewater treatment is becoming a bigger issue in areas of the United States where drilling for shale gas requires massive volumes of water. The EPA’s focus on cleaning up contaminated sites should continue to sustain the need for environmental engineers. 

The BLS projects that environmental engineers will continue to be needed to help water treatment plants and utility companies stay in compliance with federal and state laws. As state environmental rules and their enforcement become increasingly important, environmental engineers who are well-versed in state-specific laws for multiple states will have an advantage when it comes to employment opportunities.

Adapted from: Is the Need for Environmental Engineers Growing?, EHS Daily Advisor, Clare Condon.