Month: November 2020

The Latest Innovations in Technology That Can Empower HR Teams

Posted on by hiredna

Driven largely by the need for better recruiting and to help salespeople and sales leaders realize their full potential, HR technology has grown by leaps in bounds in recent years. In 2019, it was a $148 billion market. And with 74% of companies increasing their spending on HR tech in 2020, that market is quickly accelerating.

The HR Technology Conference & Exposition, which took place on October 20, 2020 featured the latest innovations in technology, including “AI and machine learning, chatbots and blockchain, digital transformation, diversity and inclusion, employee engagement and more.” 

Here are some of the most game changing new products that can empower HR teams moving forward. 

Bryq Bias-Free Pre-Hire Assessment

Bryq utilizes cutting-edge AI technology to “blindly screen for skills and personality, not resumes.” It’s designed to mitigate bias and provide companies with an objective means of assessing salespeople. In turn, this greatly reduces the chance of recruiters falling victim to common hiring biases such as the halo effect, expectation anchor, and affinity bias. 

One of the more noteworthy features is Bryq’s Profile Prediction, which analyzes a job description and comes up with the ideal combination of concrete skills and personality traits.

It then ranks candidates according to how well they stack up based on the assessment and how good of a fit they are for the position, while taking hard skills and personality factors into account. 

This platform is built on powerful input/output psychology data that not only helps HR teams pinpoint exactly who they’re looking for but adds a level of unparalleled objectivity that has eluded recruiters so far. Bryq takes factors that could skew hiring decisions such as gender, race, and ethnicity out of the mix, which is huge for increasing workplace diversity and finding top tier salespeople. 

And the results are undeniable. Companies that have used Bryq collectively reduced their time-to-hire by 54% and lowered turnover by 62%. 

If unconscious bias keeps getting in the way of your hiring, Bryq could be just the solution you’ve been looking for. 

Explorance Employee Journey Analytics

Roughly a third of salespeople fail to meet expectations and don’t reach their quota at least part of the time. It’s an ongoing struggle not only for salespeople themselves but also for the HR teams and sales leaders that are responsible for managing them. 

But Explorance, a company that offers sophisticated “employee journey analytics,” could have an answer to this problem. They offer a new type of machine learning called Blue, which allows companies to gather feedback across a multitude of different surveys, including the following:

It then takes that information and synthesizes it to provide a 360 degree view of what’s going on. That way HR teams “can start understanding employee sentiments, improving performances, and identifying patterns across different stages of the employee journey.”

Explorance automates the feedback gathering process and uses a comprehensive reporting engine to provide HR with actionable guidance on what they can do to help salespeople maximize their potential — from the moment they’re hired to when they retire. 

This makes it a promising end-to-end salesperson development tool that could have a huge impact on long-term company culture. 

ePerkz Offboarding Tool

HR teams spend a ton of time and money on onboarding and give it a massive amount of attention. However, they don’t always do the same for inevitable offboarding whenever salespeople leave the company. 

ePerkz is a newly developed platform that’s specifically designed to streamline severance and offboarding while ensuring compliance every step of the way. It offers a robust Employee Transition Hub with the following features:

By using it, companies can automate end-to-end calculations, agreements, and workflows to reduce the offboarding processing time by an average of 50%. ePerkz also features powerful compliance tools to prevent litigation due to unlawful termination. 

So, when it’s all said and done, HR teams can offboard salespeople with minimal friction, while at the same time providing a better employee experience. 

Optify Leadership Coaching Management System 

Finally, there’s Optify which provides “scalable leadership coaching that supports organizational growth and impact, one person at a time.” At the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, they announced the launch of their Leadership Coaching Management System (LCMS) that’s built to provide companies with scalable coaching programs with one on one coaching to help sales leaders elevate their skillset and maximize their potential. 

The process is highly individualized and matches sales leaders with handpicked coaches to reach concrete goals.

Users complete assessments to determine what their current capabilities are and what specific goals they’re looking to accomplish. They then work with coaches to successfully reach those goals, using proven training to accelerate results. 

It’s all about tangible, measurable growth, which Optify ensures by incorporating robust analytics to keep track of progress and identify additional areas for improvement. 

So, if sales leadership development is one of your top priorities, Optify is definitely a platform to consider. 

Taking HR to a New Level Through Tech

Although HR has historically been slow moving in terms of tech adoption, there now appears to be a more open mindset with many companies taking strong initiatives to leverage new technology. And as we’ve just learned with the products mentioned above, there are some exciting advancements that can help HR teams flourish. 

For a full rundown on the products featured at the the HR Technology Conference & Exposition, check out this press release from Global Newswire. 

And speaking of innovative platforms. If you’re looking for a science-based software that offers an all-in-one solution to recruiting, screening, hiring, and retaining top level salespeople, check out HireDNA. 

It eliminates 96% of hiring mistakes and reduces turnover by more than 33%. And 92% of candidates that are recommended through it are top performers within their first year. 

How to Onboard New Salespeople 100% Virtually

Posted on by hiredna

Largely fueled by COVID-19, a growing number of companies are making the shift to a fully remote workforce. According to a recent Willis Towers Watson report, “Employers expect 19% of their workforce to be full-time employees working from home post-COVID-19” — nearly three times what it was in 2019 at just 7%.

Just like with any other type of position, new salespeople who will be working remotely need effective onboarding. Here’s how to tackle this process 100% virtually and set your salespeople up for success. 

Start By Amassing the Right Combination of Tools

The success and efficiency of your digital onboarding largely hinges upon the tools you use. Therefore, you need to find the right combination and make adjustments along the way. 

One of the best platforms for creating a streamlined onboarding process is Kissflow. It allows you to easily manage every aspect of onboarding and make it systematized for a homogeneous experience for all of your reps. 

Or as they put it, “Keep the onboarding process paperless and free from human intervention with online onboarding and workflows.”

Among its many features, there’s an employee self-service area where new salespeople can submit documents, find information, speak with other team members, and more. 

For basic communication, there’s Slack which allows you to conveniently send messages, share files, and keep new salespeople in the loop. Create different channels and ensure new reps are on the same page with your sales leaders every step of the way. 

And for all of your video conferencing needs, there’s Zoom, which is the most popular option with nearly 43% of the market share as of mid-2020. This is the perfect platform for holding video calls during the onboarding process and building strong rapport (something we’ll discuss in more detail later on). 

For an exhaustive list of other tools you can use to facilitate smoother virtual onboarding, check out this resource from Time Doctor. 

Send Out a “What to Expect” Email

Since there will never be any in-person interaction, it’s easy for miscommunications to happen. So, soon after a new salesperson has officially been hired, send them an email welcoming them to the team along with a detailed outline of what to expect from that point until they’re actually selling. 

For instance, you’ll want to include the exact date and time onboarding will begin. And you’ll want to provide an outline of what will happen throughout each day of onboarding. Here’s a quick example of how LinkedIn approaches their virtual program.

You may also want to mention the technology you’ll be using, both for onboarding and for day-to-day activities, along with login information so new salespeople can get familiar with it ahead of time. The more transparent you are, the smoother the onboarding should go and the less potential for glitches there will be. 

Create a Robust Online Learning Hub

Another essential part of providing streamlined onboarding is developing a robust online educational resource that’s available 24/7 to answer a new rep’s questions and direct them to helpful content. This is a growing trend where “many of today’s leading cloud-based companies, such as Uber, Shopify, Airbnb, Salesforce, and HubSpot, are strengthening their businesses with effective online learning resource centers,” explains Dan Westmoreland of eLearning Industry. 

Some common types of content that are featured in these hubs include:

  • Sales courses
  • Educational videos 
  • Webinars
  • Media files
  • Blog posts
  • eBooks
  • Answers to FAQs

Some companies even have discussion boards and forums where salespeople can share their experiences with one another and sales leaders can offer insights.

So, how do you get an online resource hub like this set up? Use a learning management system like TalentLMS or LearnUpon to create a fully customized library. 

Break Down Training Sessions Over the Course of a Week

Most experts agree that trying to jam a ton of in-depth training into a single day is ineffective, especially when it’s online. If possible, it’s much better to break down your virtual training into multiple sessions throughout the week. 

“Spreading the process over a longer period of time enables hiring managers to address issues and make improvements if something is not working,” says Vicki Chabot of The Enterprisers Project. “It also reduces the stress that a new hire might feel working from home, especially if they are juggling responsibilities with children, partners, and pets while also attempting to absorb new information.”

You might, for example, spend the first day going over the basics like a salesperson’s role, job description, and your company culture. From there, you could move on to more advanced topics like the products you sell, the specific sales techniques your company uses, and so on. 

Have Sales Leaders Speak Regularly with New Salespeople Through Video

Earlier, we touched briefly on using Zoom as a platform for video conferencing. While email and messaging apps like Slack are generally fine for basic communication, experts recommend making it a point to have sales leaders maintain contact with new reps via video throughout the duration of the onboarding process.

That’s because “using video can improve engagement during calls and helps managers/trainers pick up on non-verbal cues (i.e. facial expressions and body language) which is important throughout training and gauging comprehension,” writes Angela Hughes of Acceleration Partners. 

Onboarding in a Remote Sales World

With nearly a fifth of all salespeople being fully remote in 2021 — and no doubt more in the future — many sales leaders need to make some radical changes to the way they onboard. And often that means making the onboarding process 100% virtual. 

Doing so effectively requires sales leaders to use the right combination of technology, set clear expectations right from the start, provide new salespeople with comprehensive online resources, spread out training sessions, and use video to stay in close contact with reps.

See how HireDNA can help you build a stronger sales team by using cutting-edge technology to find ultra talented reps. Book a demo today.