Vote to Make Afterschool Programming a Priority

President-Elect Obama is using the Internet to shape his policy agenda. There is a grass-roots site called www.change.org which is being used to determine which ideas should be considered by the new administration. The Afterschool Alliance is circulating the following email (MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!)

Cast your vote to invest in afterschool programs on Change.org! The Afterschool Alliance has posted an Idea for Change on the Change.org website. Vote for afterschool so that our issue is raised with President Obama and is part of the platform that social networking powerhouses like change.org and myspace.com will take on in the coming year.

Vote by December 31, 2008 so that we make the top 3 rated ideas in education. We need 505 more votes to make it into the second round of voting so forward far and wide!

How to Vote:•
Go to: http:// www.change.org/ideas/search?keyword=Afterschool&x=0&y=0
• You may have to enter a login name and password to vote.
• Once you have voted scroll down the page to the box that says “Promote this Idea” see other ways to get the word out in a few seconds via your email or Facebook, MySpace, etc.
• You can also vote on our Facebook page.

Vote now before December 31, 2008!
The second round of voting will begin on Monday, January 5, and each qualifying idea will compete against the qualifying ideas from all other categories. Second round voting will end on Thursday, January 15.

What is Ideas for Change in America?
Ideas for Change in America is a citizen-driven project that aims to identify and create momentum around the best ideas for how the Obama Administration and 111th Congress can turn the broad call for "change" across the country into specific policies. The project is nonpartisan, and invites all political points of view. It is not connected to the Obama campaign or the Obama Administration.

Who's behind it?
Ideas for Change in America is a project of Change.org, an online community and media network for social issues, in partnership with more than three dozen leading organizations, including MySpace, techPresident, the Sunlight Foundation, Netroots Nation, Declare Yourself, Student PIRGs, Voto Latino, HeadCount, and Change Congress.

How does it work?
Anyone can submit an idea and comment and vote on others. The top 10 rated ideas will be presented to the Obama Administration on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2009 as the "Top 10 Ideas for America." Change.org will then launch a national campaign behind each idea and mobilize the collective energy of the millions of members of Change.org, MySpace, and partner organizations to ensure that each winning idea gets the full consideration of the Obama Administration and Members of Congress.

Retention Made Simple

November 19, 2008

It's been a long week, and we have reached the end of the Recruitment and Retention Conference. Today we capped an exciting four days of learning with the Retention Summit. All morning I kept thinking about the afterschool field, and how excited we are if we can keep a staff member one year! Well, our speakers focused on what impacts retention rates, and what measures we can take to help reduce our turnover rates.

Ok, so we started our discussion this morning talking about what impacts retention. There were three options; people, products, or processes. Most people would argue that people are the single greatest influence on retention, but that's not the case. As it turns out, it's a combination of people and processes that impact whether or not employees stay. There are three basic principles that we must consider when thinking about retention. The first is that employees quit jobs because they can. I know some of us may use exit surveys to evaluate reasons why people quit, but it's not enough. We must continue to evaluate employee happiness throughout the process, from hiring to departure. The second principle we must consider is that the #1 reason employees stay is for things they get uniquely from you. Our third principle we should consider is that SUPERVISORS build unique relationships that drive retention.

According to our speakers today, we must hold supervisors accountable for achieving retention goals. In order for us to have a positive impact on our turnover rates we must develop supervisors to build trust with their teams. People are looking for flexibility in their employment, and they value this far more than high salaries, benefits, and vacations. Interesting huh? We are an extremely flexible workforce, yet we never highlight that attribute! This again highlights our need to brand afterschool employment as a viable option for people looking for employment.

Now, some more interesting facts from this morning. Virtually every speaker touched on what I believe is a major hurdle for the afterschool field. If you want to have a positive impact on trunover rates, hire older workers. Every study done clearly highlights that college-age students quit jobs at a higher rate than any other demographic. In fact, as we get older, we are less likely to leave our employment than our younger counterparts. Hmmm..hello AARP and CRTA again! For most organizations, the speakers recommended a balanced blend of generations.

Now, here is an example of how to reduce turnover rates and increase retention rates. We talked about ana ccounting firm that would ask candidates if they were willing to commit to three years in the position if they were hired. The firm gave the candidates a day to think about it, and the next day the candidate would either accept the term, or reject it. If the candidate was willing to accept the three years, the employer would then ask what they would need to do to ensure that the candidate would stay for the minimum of three years. This would start a negotiations process and the employer and employee would settle on some things each side would need to do for the other to make the three years. Every three months, the employer and the employee would meet and look at what each said they would need in order for them to reach three years. The employer would give the employee an evaluation form, and ask the employee to rate how the employer was doing on meeting the terms of the employee. The employee would do the same for the employer. This would carry on every three months until they reached year three. If the employee was still with the firm at three years, the firm would hand the employee a check for $3000, give them an additional weel of vacation and told them to take the money, and spend it on an experience thay have never had before. They provided the employee with a digital camera/camcorder, and asked them to film/photgraph the experience, and then come back to work and make a presentation to the entire firm about their experience!

What an amazing concept. I know we can't give afterschool staff members $3000 for staying for three years, but this illustrates the creativity being used to reduce turnover. It's more than just looking at staffing issues, it's about the costs involved with turnover. Today's session pushed for organizations to get their Financial Departments involved, and include the Marketing Department since it's their job to influence people. Get creative and find solutions to ensure that your staff is enjoying their experience with your organization and will stay.

Anyone have any creative ideas like this?

Tomorrow is a networking session, and then the conference will officially be over. I will post one more blog about the conference, more like a wrap-up session, and then it's back to California!

See you tomorrow.

Michael

Workshops Day 3

November 18, 2008

Today was a day full of workshops. I know in one of my recent blogs I griped about how you typically only get to choose one morning session, and one afternoon session. Well, today my conference wishes came true. I sat in on three (3) workshops today, and each had compelling information that will surely shake up the way we recruit in the future. So, lets get right to it!

The first workshop I partipated in was entitled "Maximizing ROI From Recruitment Advertising," presented by Paul Forster, CEO of Indeed.com. His presentation focused on managing and calculating return on investment from the use of job advertisements. According to Paul, most organizations fail to accurately track the source of candidates. This means we can't measure ROI, and thus we cannot optimize recruitment ad campaigns. Effective measurement of recruitment means identifying the number of applicants, number of interviews, and the number of hires from any one source. Once we have gathered all this data, we should examine the "cost per applicant" and "cost per hire" to evaluate where our time and money is best spent.

In the afterschool field, I think we do very little when it comes to measuring ROI. Take for example so similar recruitment efforts, an on-campus job fair, and an on-campus recruitment (non-job fair). In the first scenario, suppose the fees associated with the event are $75 and at the event, an organization speaks with 55 applicants. Under these terms, the ROI for this event would be $1.36 per applicant, which is decent. Under the second scenario, we pay $35 on campus for a booth with no other employers, and our recruitment nets 175 applicants. Even without the math, we can see that our return is greater by engaging in on-campus recruitments that are not job-fair related. We could go further and determing the cost per hire, and get a real snapshot of how effective our recruitments are. I would like to create a chart illustrating the various efforts we use in our Region to advertise our jobs and highlight the ROI for each. This should bring some interesting results!

The second workshop focused on the movement of generations onto social networking sights. Moderated by Paul Forster, the panel of Kevin Wheeler,President of Global Learning Resources and Jon Ingham, Executive Consultant with Strategic Dynamics, discussed the value of social networking in the recruitment process. According to the panel, social networking sites such as Ning, Facebook,and LinkedIn enable candidates to communicate with each other. More importantly, social networking recruiting enables current employees to communicat with candidates and share ideas and provide valuable insight into employment in the organization. It's a great opportunity to get employers interacting with candidates, and the best part is that we can continue to inundate them with information as it's not considered spam because they have chosen to follow you, and can opt out at any time. This is critical because it enables organizations to establish relationships with applicants! Amazing thoughts!! For us in the afterschool field, we really need to consider our audiences and develop a strategic marketing plan that focuses on a core audience. You won't find older populations on social networking sites, so you have to know your audience. Since most of us are thristing for college students to staff our programs, social networking sites would be a great place to recruit applicants. However, it is not enough to just build a Facebook page, or a Myspace page and assume that candidates will flock to you. You have to advertise and get out there and let them know you exist. Honestly, I would love to see one of our programs pilot this concept, and I would welcome the opportunity to help develop the strategy! The impact of social networking is so great, that several workshop members (gaming industry, government contracts, and accounting industry) are pulling their ad dollars from CareerBuilder and Monster Jobs, and investing heavily in social networking. The prediction from the panel is that social networking sites may eliminate the need for resumes in the near future. Any thoughts? Any takers on the social networking recruitment plan?

Ok, this blog is getting lengthy, so for the last workshop, I will post the five (5) reasons why we lose great candidates, as described by my now favorite presenter, Sarah White.

The first reason we lose great candidates is because of the job posting. These are candidates we won't even know we lost. The way we word our ads tells the candidate a lot about the position, culture of the organization and whay it is open.

The second reason we lose good candidates is because of the application process. How easy do we make it for those great candidates to apply. This includes how we ask them to apply, length of online application, what we require from the candidates, and who reviews the applications. All of these factor into the application process for a candidate.

The third reason we lose great candidates is because of organization research. Take a look at your websites, literature, and ask yourself, "Does your organization sell itself to its potential employees as well as it does to its customers?" If not, you need to re-design your marketing pieces to reach out to candidates.

The fourth reason we lose great candidates is because of the interview process. Sarah questions how much we as employers really respect the time of your candidates and use qualified interviewers? We need to look at who is screening our applicants, and do they get the big picture?

The fifth and final reason we lose great candidates has to do with the candidates overall experience. Here is where we cannot make up for defficiencies. The questions we must ask ourselves is "Did we do enough throughout the entire process to bring someone onboard? Based on what I have heard from the field (weeks before hiring, weeks before calling) my guess would be no!

Well, that is it for tonight. Tomorrow is the Retention Summit, and I hope to learn more about how we can retain our great candidates once we employ them. Until then, good night, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Michael

Internal Recruiters Work Best

November 18, 2008

Welcome back to another session of my blog. I want to start today's series of entries talking about the keynote speaker we had during our "Power Breakfast." It sounds so mind-opening, but at the end of the speech, it was all information we should know, and apply. But we don't!

This morning kicked off with a presentation from Steve Lowisz, CEO of Qualigence. His focus this morning was on the question "who is the expert" when it comes to recruiting. Steve talked about understanding the positions we are recruiting for, understanding the history of the positions, and identifying employers "must haves" and "like to haves." These factors are critical in identifying qualifed applicants for open positions. Mr. Lowisz also touched on realizing that years of experience isn't necessary to ensuring we find the best candidate either. All of this information leads us to the answer to his question "who is the expert?" We are!

I know the idea of using a third party staffing agency has been floated around as a potential solution to our staffing needs. However, Mr. Lowisz made a point to argue against the use of staffing agencies. Although he believes there is a time and a place for them, Mr. Lowisz believes that the best type of recruiter that an organization can utilize is an internal recruiter. Internal recruiters understand the field, and have a strong working knowledge of the brand that they represent. Steve went on to make the argument that internal recruiters are subject matter experts, can communicate the value of the employment more effectively, are better at problem-solving staffing issues within the field, and understand the expectations of the field.

I believe in strategic partnerships that improve the way we operate in the afterschool field, but I am an advocate for keeping our recruitment efforts in-house as we are the subject matter expert!

Ok, enough on the "Power Breakfast" material. I will have more to come as I put together all of the great information from today's workshops.

See you in a bit.

Michael

Conference Workshops Day 1

November 17, 2008

Welcome back to another blog session with me. I love conferences as they provide a great opportunity to learn new techniques to improve your work, and they can provide reinforcement for the great ideas you are already utilizing. The only drawback is that you typically only get to sit in on one workshop in the morning and one in the afternoon. Ok, I got that off my mind..now lets talk about the workshops.

I sat in on a workshop this morning that talked about the value in recruiting potential employees from the retired population. I am proud to say that the Central Valley Afterschool Foundation has been on the ground pushing recruitment from this population. Instead of blogging about why you should recruit retired persons, I will focus on the key facts discovered by Tim Driver and his company.

According to Tim, the most important factor for a retired person when deciding where to work is flexibility. For retired persons, flexibility means partial day, partial work, or partial year. Did someone say afterschool? Tim also noted that retired persons prefer to work close to home (no more than a 30 minute commute) and are looking for employment opportunities that enable them to have fun and connect with customers. Retired persons are willing to trade high salaries for suitable work/life balance, and feel most comfortable in positions that enable them to provide advice to people who value their work and life experience. Not to beat a dead horse, but did someone say AFTERSCHOOL! Now, according to Mr. Driver, retired persons work for one of three reasons; 1) They have to work; 2) They want to work; 3) A combination of both. For retired persons, employment provides them with an opportunity to meet friends, and connect with others in a social environment during a period in their lives when they might be feeling lonely.

The Central Valley Afterschool Foundation has already established a strong working relationship with AARP and CRTA, so if you are interested in connecting with the retired population...call us!

The second workshop of the afternoon really played on the information I received from Sarah White. Matt Kaiser talked about improving the candidate experience, and focused on putting employers in the shoes of potential applicants. I won't go into great detail because the gist of this workshop was covered in my last blog about Sarah White. Matt did talk more elaborately about focusing on enhancing candidate touch points throughout the hiring process. According to Matt, whether or not a candidate gets hired to work with your organization, you want to make sure their exposure to your brand was engaging and respectful. For candidates that you hire, this may be their first expsosure to your organization, and they will carry this experience with them through their employment. For those candidates that aren't hired, Matt notes that they should be treated the same as if they were being hired. Remember that these people went through the screening process, gave you private information about themselves, and then found out that they don't fit your organization's needs. Even though they weren't hired, they could become valuable recruits for you as they pass along what your organization is looking for to others considering working for you.

It's been a long day and it's almost midnight here in Florida.I have a full day of workshops to get through tomorrow so I will finish this post, and I look forward to bringing you more valuable information tomorrow.

See you tomorrow!!!

A Conversation with Sarah White

November 17, 2008

I am back!

Before I blog about the workshops I participated in today, I thought I would share some information I received while having a conversation with Sarah White. Sarah works for MRA-The Management Association, and witnin a group of conference attendees, we began to discuss job postings.

In order for a job posting to truly be effective, it must go beyond the realm of simple job desciptions and duties. According to Sarah, we as employers must "Imagine you are a qualified candidate, & then imagine visiting your organization's employment website, or viewing your job posting. What impressions do you have?"

Since I have been a part of the afterschool field I have often heard people advocating for moving away from technical jargon, and being more creative. But I have yet to see this happen! This may be because we don't view our jobs or our job postings as if we were qualified candidates. We view them from the inside looking out. We know afterschool jobs are great, but individuals looking for employment don't, and it's our job to sell it to them.

Sarah also explained that as employers, we must "Understand how our job postings and ads are viewed by different candidate groups through their individual lenses." For example, a college student might be looking for language about career progression and growth. For parents, they might be looking for language that reflects flexibility and work/life balance. Since we can't make 20 different job postings, we have to find creative ways to incorporate all of the attributes that make our jobs worthwhile into our job postings.

I am opening the floor for discussion on this one. I would love to hear from programs in our Region that feel they are doing a good job of tackling the two points made by Sarah White.

More to come as I continue to download all of the information and bring it to you via this blog!

Recruiting Conference 2008

November 17, 2008

Good afternoon blog followers,

I am bringing you the latest news from the Recruiting Conference in Orlando. As I attend each session, I will posting new blog updates so that you can follow along.

Now lets kick this thing off!

On Sunday I participated in the pre-conference intensive "How to Create an Employment Brand to Increase the ROI of Recruitment and Retention." The session was presented by Lizz Pellet, CEO of EMERGE International and author of the book "Getting Your Shift Together."

Lizz talked about building a strong brand identity that potential applicants can recognize. Lizz noted that in order for an organization to develop a strong employment brand, it must first understand its cultures. Understanding the cultures that make up your applicant pool means that an organization must understand how these culture view organizational leadership, relationships, communications, and the level that they are engaged.

Looking at our brand(s) in afterschool should include determining how potential applicants view us. Understanding the "cultures" of afterschool staff can provide valuable insight into how we can move applicants from job seekers to job holders! Understanding the cultures that make up our applicant people will help increase our Return on Investment as it relates to our recruitment efforts. According to Liz Pellet, it's all about Attracting, Retaining, and Repelling. We must attracts the right applicants which will increase our retention rates, and repel those that don't fit our field.

Lizz also touched on ensuring that employing experience what you said they would while on the job. This concept goes beyond describing the job description, and includes leadership, communication, environment, training, etc. Just how good of a job are we doing in ensuring that afterschool employees are experiencing what we said they would?

That's it for now. I'll have a full days worth of conference material to cover for you later in the evening!