Bi-Weekly Roundup: 3/23 - 4/6

Welcome back! Read how Haagen-Dazs improved employee engagement by 15 percent, understand the top ten issues employees bring to the HR table, real-time feedback applications, and more in this Bi-Weekly Roundup!

Questions every HR department wants to hear from job candidates

Even if you have done your due diligence, prepared, and researched the company at which you’re applying to, interviews can still be nerve-racking. Many candidates prepare to sell themselves and often forget to ask the questions they need to know such as if this company will be a good fit for them. When a hiring manager asks if there is anything else you’d like to know about the job, they are really giving you the opportunity to interview them. The way you answer this question plays a large role on how they evaluate you by providing you the opportunity to express your interest and curiosity.

Questions that are often missed, but are really beneficial include:

• Why is the position open?

• What are your core values?

• What are the company’s weaknesses?

It’s hard to know what questions to ask so here are 40+ questions that HR experts expect to hear that job candidates often forget.

Engagement at Haagen-Dazs rose 15 percent with the help of an app

In 2012, the ice cream chain Haagen-Dazs was faced with decreasing levels of employee engagement and dismal communication between its employees and the corporate office, which lead to workflow inefficiencies. After creating an app that provides employees with a live chat, a game/point system, training, scheduling help, and news from the corporate office, the company saw a 15 percent increase in employee engagement followed by a 10 percent increase in customer service scores. Haagen-Dazs should be viewed as a case study to show how technology can help develop and retain employees. Many employers are still confronting communication problems, and their answer lies in their willingness to innovate and begin the move towards digitization.

What is your company doing to engage with its employees? Read more about Haagen-Dazs here.

10 common issues employees bring to HR

Being an HR manager is a tough job. Employees often bring an array of issues to HR and many can sound like complaints. However, theses issues provide the opportunity to build trust between an organization and its employees. One common issue has to do with payroll and benefits. Having benefit information easily accessible and being able to explain deductions on payroll will provide transparency. Another issue is how an employee should handle work/life balance if they find themselves constantly working after coming into the office. An employee’s personal issues may even be brought to HR. They could be in search of support or resources that the company could provide them with.

What issues are often brought up in your organization? You can read the rest of the ten most common issues here.

Your salary is more than a number on your paycheck

Benefits are a word we are seeing more and more of these days. While money is always great, four out of five employees say they would rather have more benefits offered to them than get a raise. So why is that? Benefits provide employees with ways to save money, stay healthy, and improve overall well-being by allowing them to enjoy life inside and outside of work. Companies are stepping up their game by offering more competitive and unique benefits in order to retain employees and boost morale. Some of those benefits include insurance with premiums that are 100 percent paid for by the company, unlimited PTO, reimbursement for college tuition, catered meals during the week, and even free childcare services.

Check out these 11 companies who are setting the bar with great employee benefits.

Real-time feedback apps are trending

Many companies conduct quarterly or annual employee evaluations or surveys to get a grasp on how their employees are feeling. But is it enough? Some companies, like Amazon, have been gathering daily feedback to constantly evaluate the state of their employees. Are daily surveys too much? While some are concerned with their anonymity, others are taking advantage of these apps to communicate issues as they arise. Since launching this program, Amazon has seen a correlation in positive reviews on Glassdoor and LinkedIn. Amazon isn’t the only one taking advantage of these tools. Real-time feedback applications are trending in HR departments because they provide a more active feedback loop that allow HR managers to post responses.

Would you be an advocate for real-time feedback applications? Or do you think it’s too much? You can read more about the trending technology and its benefits here.

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