People
BY MEL KLEIMAN
Automate Hiring, Get Cash Back
Increase employee quality/retention and generate tax credits
Bret Hooppaw, Luihn Food Systems’ director of operations, had an “Aha!” moment when his 19-year- old daughter said she’d applied online for a summer job. When he asked, “Why don’t you just go over there
and apply in person?” her response was, “Nobody does it that
way anymore, Dad.”
That’s when Hooppaw, who helps oversee 90 KFC and Taco
Bell locations, realized instant communication technologies are
second nature to the Millennial generation—those who make
up most of today’s frontline employees—who will be his managers 5 years from now and who will be the organization’s leaders in the next 5 to 10 years. “I
knew I had to find a way to meet them on their
ground,” he said.
Anthony Robinson, COO for Genesh, faced
a different challenge. “On my rounds of our 40
Burger King and 14 Denny’s locations, I noticed
how little time our managers spent interviewing
job applicants before selecting employees. It was
out of synch with our conviction that our people
are our most important assets. When I asked them
why, their answers were all much the same, and
completely understandable given the demands of
their jobs: ‘There’s never enough time.’”
The solution for both Hooppaw and Robinson was a robust, real-time, automated hiring system.
Hooppaw partnered with Kronos to better
connect with his stores. Job applicants complete
a prescreening skills assessment on a website and
managers can get real-time results daily. According
to Hooppaw, “Now sorting through applications
is a process instead of a chore, and where we would have had 5
applicants for a job before and maybe one would be good, now
we can choose from 100 where 5 may be great.”
Hooppaw facilitated the introduction of the new system
through a series of conference calls about 18 months ago. By
January of this year, all locations were participating and, after a
few months, usage was second nature and managers loved the
time it saved. Test stores in the rollout saw a 40 percent increase
in applicants—and the latest reports show a 20 to 25 percent
system-wide drop in employee turnover.
In Robinson’s case, he partnered with Job App Network and
chose both a prescreening website and an interactive voice response (IVR) phone system both in English and Spanish. “The
up-front assessment helps us start with a better quality of applicant and helps us ask better interview questions. As a result,
employee turnover is down more than 20 percent and is trending even better.”
Results like these are typical, so I was astounded to learn in
a recent survey that more than 40 percent of participating business owners and managers were not using any type of automated
employee hiring system, and that only 25 percent were filing for
and collecting Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTCs). I cannot
even begin to estimate the amount of money these organizations
are leaving on the table because of this.
Both the Luihn and Genesh organizations are taking advantage of their systems’ ability to collect the information needed to
populate the forms required to apply for WOTCs.
In Robinson’s case, restaurant managers used
to collect the information manually and the effort
was “pretty much hit and miss.” Now compliance
is up significantly and the credits alone are more
than paying for the hiring system.
Hooppaw’s HR department reports the system
is doing a much better job of getting WOTCs
and that it has greatly reduced their legal exposure because all applicants are being handled in
the exact same way.
To give you an idea of what you may be missing in tax credits, a recent study estimates a new
healthcare worker who qualifies for one of the
federal tax credit programs nets an average of
$2,744 in total credits for the employer. And
this credit reduces taxes dollar-for-dollar. (If
your business does not generate taxable income
and owes no current taxes, the credit can be carried back one year or forward 20 years. If your
business is a partnership, LLC, or subchapter S
corporation, these benefits flow through to your
personal tax returns).
Even if you aren’t ready to invest in a full-blown automated
hiring system, a reputable employment tax credit company can
administer every aspect and usually charge only a portion of the
money earned through the tax credits generated.
If you decide not to look into these opportunities and leave
your money on the table, listen closely as you get up and walk
away. As humorist Richard Armour so aptly put it, “That money
talks, I’ll not deny. I heard it once, it said good-bye.”
“The up-front
assessment
helps us start
with a better
quality of
applicant
and helps us
ask better
interview
questions.”
Mel Kleiman is an internationally recognized con- sultant, author, and professional speaker on strategies for hiring and retaining the best hourly employees and their managers. He is president of Humetrics, a lead- ing developer of training processes and tools for recruiting, selecting, and retaining the best hourly workforce. He is also the
author of five books, including the best-selling Hire Tough, Manage
Easy. You can reach him at 713-771-4401 or mel@melkleiman.com.
