Join America Back to Work, a weekly podcast, video, and blog series that covers timely and relevant topics affecting the labor market and workforce with industry experts. The series includes recruiting, hiring, retention, employee satisfaction, customer service, background screenings, and more.
From the Experts: Key HR Pain Points (And The Technology That Can Help)
In this week’s episode of America Back to Work, S2Verify co-founder and chief strategy officer, Arnette Heintze, sits down with Chad Sowash, an expert in veteran hiring and HR technology.
Sowash brings 20 years of military experience to his position as a leader in the recruitment and staffing industry, including combat service, experience as a drill sergeant, and more than 15 years in leadership positions where he led, managed, and motivated groups ranging from five to more than 200 individuals.
Sowash is known as a pioneer who has worked in the industry since before Monster was known as Monster.com, and now podcasts full time on “HR’s most dangerous podcast” called, “The Chad and Cheese Podcast,” which covers recruiting, recruitment marketing, HR technology, talent management, and workforce economics in a snarky, irreverent tone.
As such, he has his pulse on modern hiring trends and shares some pretty unique observations about HR pain points in his conversation with Heintze.
First, Sowash believes that recent attrition (see: Great Resignation) is due to employers taking their eye off the ball––not doing what it takes to keep employees satisfied (i.e. mismanaging pay, promotions, professional development and learning, culture, diversity, and more).
“That attrition has revealed a less productive workforce,” he adds because employees are now doing several other jobs in addition to their own. Overworked and under-productive employees can lead to more attrition and another hit to productivity.
Second, Sowash argues that hiring cycles are way too long and open positions left unfilled for a long period of time are costing companies large amounts of money.
“Candidates get bored and drop out,” he says. “Or they finally get hired, start onboarding, start training, and then how many months has that position been unfilled?”
Finally, Sowash urges HR professionals and employers to focus on better managing the entire employee lifecycle–from recruiting to hiring to employee engagement and satisfaction through their tenure. He wants to see better training and learning opportunities and clearer pathways for promotion or career exploration.
Thankfully, Sowash believes that there are technology solutions out there, or in the works, that will solve all three of these HR pain points (and more).
Click here to listen to the episode to hear how cutting-edge HR technology, like AI-backed Applicant Tracking Systems, is driving the industry forward and can help your organization streamline HR tasks.