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Building a Workforce: Best Practices

Practice Management

An ASPPA All Access session featured a discussion by industry executives on how best to build a workforce that will serve an employer well. 

In the Nov. 4 session “Employee Opportunities and Challenges,” Kirsten Curry, CEO of Leading Retirement Solutions, and Genelle Brakefield, Vice President of Ekon Benefits, shared their experiences in recruiting employees and bringing them on board—and especially in light of the circumstances the pandemic creates. 

Recruitment

One of the preliminary steps is to figure out what you need, said Curry. But that requires some thought and reflection, she suggested. “It’s easy to put together a job description related to the baseline of what you expect the employee is going to be able to do,” Curry said, encouraging attendees to dig deeper and consider, “what are some of the other traits that are going to help you learn with respect to what applicant you’re going to interview?” 

So what has worked or not worked in attracting and recruiting candidates? Part of it is how you get word out that you have available position, said Curry. “Where we look depends on what the specific position is,” offered Brakefield. She added that she has had good luck this year, which she said may be in part because they have been willing to take candidates without experience and people who had just finished school. 

Trainee programs—apprenticeships for Leading Retirement Solutions, and internships for Ekon Benefits—have been fertile ground for recruiting candidates. Such programs have worked out well for them, Curry and Brakefield reported. 

But the speakers have had different experiences regarding some other possible sources of candidates. Curry said that Leading Retirement Solutions has found internal referrals and peer groups have been very helpful, and that they pay bonuses to employees when they refer a candidate to the company who ends up being hired. “The most valuable employees we have are generally referred,” Curry remarked. Brakefield, however, said that Ekon Benefits has had mixed results from internal referrals. 

They also had different experiences regarding use of social media and online platforms to recruit candidates. Brakefield said they have had “nice results” by using LinkedIn; Curry said that platform, as well as others, “have not resulted in that much traffic” for her company. 

But they share the experience of recruitment not having been as brisk as either expected. “I would have thought there would be more people looking for jobs,” said Curry, for instance, as a result of layoffs. But, she continued, “Those layoffs haven’t materialized yet for our industry.” In addition, she said, employees don’t want to move from their current employer. “There’s a lot of fear and concern about leaving a job, even if an employee really wants to.”  

Candidate Review 

Curry and Brakefield and their companies employ sharply different approaches to reviewing and interviewing prospective employees. In fact, Brakefield herself recognized the difference, and said that while Curry’s approach is based on science, hers is “a little more reflexive” and that she relies a little more on instinct.

Curry’s office conducts multiple interviews; first with Human Resources, then with the department manager and the candidate’s prospective colleagues, then one with her. They have candidates take personality, computer skills and cognitive tests as well. “The screening has really helped us to have more successful hiring than ever before,” she said.

“I like a variety of formats and touches,” Brakefield said. She reported that review of prospective employees at Ekon Benefits is done by internal teams. They also use correspondence, including email, to see how they communicate, and accept video submissions. 

Curry and Brakefield found common ground on the usefulness of video interviews. Brakefield said that they use Zoom for interviews, which she called “really eye-opening.” She said that with use of that platform, “You get a glimpse into who these people really are.” Curry struck a similar note, reporting that Leading Retirement Solutions does “a lot” of live video interviews, which she said “has had a big impact.” Like Brakefield, she has found that such interviews can reveal a lot. Curry said that video interviews “help show how well-prepared a potential team member is,” including how well they use technology in order to participate in the interview itself.  

Measuring Success

How does one measure the success of a recruitment program? Brakefield said productivity and longevity were gauges they use at Ekon Benefits. To Curry, having a good pool of candidates to choose from is one measure of success. Another, she says, is finding out how well an employee has kept current with industry trends. “That’s become more important to me because our industry is demanding more and more of us,” she said. 

That Special Something

Curry said that she looks for “make or break’ traits in prospective employees. Computer literacy is one, the lack of which she said has been “a pretty significant barrier”; another is client service. “We have a team-based approach,” she said. She noted that all employees are in the phone queue and are expected to answer client calls and emails. “The ability to connect with clients is a really important trait for us,” she said. 

But some critical intangibles also are essential, the speakers indicated. Said Curry, “We’re not willing to teach an appreciation for company values. That’s got to be something that a potential applicant displays an appreciation for at the outset,” she said. “We want to make sure that the people we’re going to hire have an appreciation and a respect for company values.” 

Brakefield expressed a similar sentiment. “The traits that are most important to me are character traits,” she said. “You can teach people rules and regulations, you can teach them processes, but you cannot change their stripes.”