I am excited to have another article on Thrive Global! Read more about how to handle the dreaded office move on my Thrive page!
The Dreaded Office Move: 6 Tips for Navigating the Change
New Search! Human Resources Generalist with Beyond BookSmart!
Pillar Search and HR Consulting is thrilled to partner with Needham, MA-based Beyond BookSmart to hire their new Human Resources Generalist. This is an ideal role for an up-and-coming HR professional. While the ideal candidate will reside in the Massachusetts area, this is a nearly exclusively remote position!
About Beyond BookSmart:
Beyond BookSmart is an Executive Function coaching company whose mission is to help individuals successfully meet today’s challenges, using tools that will benefit them long after they have stopped working with them. Beyond Booksmart uses the work their clients currently face to teach them how to manage their time and attention, plan and prioritize, and become more organized, all so they gain confidence and become willing to take on ever greater challenges. Their corporate headquarters are in Needham, MA, and they employee 300+ coaches nationwide and have 15 full-time employees on the core business team. Beyond BookSmart’s coaching is done one-to-one, in clients’ homes, as well as online. They currently provide in-person coaching in Massachusetts, Greater New York City area, Western Connecticut, New Jersey, Philadelphia Region, the Charleston area, Chicagoland, South Florida, and online coaching throughout the United States and on three additional continents.
Job Purpose:
The Human Resources Generalist (HR Generalist) manages of the full HR function within Beyond Booksmart. The HR Generalist will be in charge of recruiting efforts, hiring, onboarding, employee relations, retention, and essential HR functions.
Core Responsibilities:
Strategic Recruiting, Hiring, and Onboarding:
- Create a strategic plan for recruitment, including identifying potential recruitment sources and how to best leverage those and existing sources
- Recruit applicants based on screening criteria and cultural fit
- Maintain/meaningfully respond to data collections for coach metrics (hiring summary and projections by month)
- Recruitment of coaches in all regions as necessary to maintain coach supply
- Post and refresh ads with Indeed
- Establish and maintain relationships for recruitment sources (internally and externally) for coaches
- Based on coach supply establish a timeline for hiring and new coach training in each region and communicate to Operations
- Maintain communication between the sales and hiring team to ensure that Beyond BookSmart has an adequate supply of coaches for each region, anticipating future shortages so that coach supply is adequate at all times
- Maintain and improve existing hiring forms, structures and processes with plans for scalability. This includes interview questions review/updates, bonus/contests, emails for regional needs, updating job ads, update the hiring process and handbooks, etc.
- Develop ongoing professional development for best practices for Diversity and Inclusion hiring for all departments
- Review and utilize data collected from employee exit interviews/terminated employees to better streamline the recruitment process and to better define the expectation of the role
- Routinely review interview notes to ensure that they are being entered into the Applicant Tracking System in a timely manner and that they are complete and appropriate for the needs of the company
- Develop, update, and disseminate coach hiring materials and guides and as needed to revise Coach interview questions
- Develop rubrics and guidelines for screening and interviewing
- Maintain hiring communication templates
- Monitor and respond to retention concerns to implement better-recruiting hiring practices
- Provide support and consultation to local hiring leads on hiring and recruiting strategies and hiring decisions
- Interview and train new hiring leads, as needed
- Interview coaches in new territories, as needed
Human Resources:
- Provide full-time employees with access to health and dental insurance packages and works with the Hiring Team (staff of 10-15 part-time interviewers) and/or Operations to make decisions about employer contribution and cost.
- Communicate changes in Human Resources laws to the Leadership Team
- Coordinate the open enrollment process by communicating in a timely manner with insurance vendors
- Generates offer letters for new positions and works with accounting to arrange for compensation and benefits
- Develops policies and procedures to ensure compliance with Federal and state regulations and laws
- Consults with COO to update Employee Policies & Procedures Handbook & Coaches’ Handbook
- Works with leaders and employees to ensure open and constructive communication and maintain a positive company culture.
- Provides guidelines for performance management
- Oversees maintenance of electronic HR Records
- Stays current on changing employment law and minimum wage changes for all areas where Beyond BookSmart serves and advises leadership on those changes and what adjustments must be made to maintain compliance
- Respond to employee inquiries in a timely manner, with a warm and welcoming attitude that supports the employee-centered culture of Beyond BookSmart
- Conduct climate surveys of existing staff to ensure human resource needs are being met, and to proactively respond to concerns
- Leave of absence maintenance and tracking
- Provide reporting on HR measures, with an eye towards implementing metrics to track HR successes
Qualifications:
- The ideal candidate will have, at a minimum, a Bachelor’s Degree. A Master’s Degree and/or HR certification would be ideal
- Significant hiring and recruiting experience
- Supervisory and/or management experience
- At minimum 2-5 years of experience in Human Resources, including recruiting, benefits, compliance, workers compensation, and policies & procedures
- Outstanding organizational and communication skills
- Ability to review and edit own communications to ensure that they are free from errors
- Must be proficient with Google Apps – especially Google Drive, video conferencing (Zoom, Skype, Google Hangout), and HRIS Software
- Ability to work from home (must have a reliable computer, internet, and phone) as this is primarily a remote position
- Available to start training in December 2018
Working Conditions:
- The HR Generalist may be expected to travel to new territories for hiring and to Beyond BookSmart’s current territories to support and/or train current or new hires.
- Must be able to sit for potentially a long period of time in front of a computer/laptop monitor, and frequently use your home or cellular phone.
- The ideal candidate will have availability to work in an interruption-free environment during business hours.
Direct Reports:
The HR Generalist does not directly manage staff, though they do indirectly manage some of the work of the following:
- Video Screeners in all territories (approx. 5-8 people)
- In-person interviewers in all territories (approx. 6-8 people)
Compensation:
Starting at $ 41,000-$45,000 as an annual salary with health and dental benefits available from day one, as well as vacation and sick time.
Beyond BookSmart has partnered with Cindy Joyce of Pillar Search & HR Consulting, please email your resume and cover letter (required) at cindy@pillarsearch.com to apply immediately.
Hire the best! Pillar provides search expertise for exceptional nonprofits and socially responsible for-profits, working with senior leaders and boards of directors to find the very best talent across all functional areas of the organization. For more information, please contact Pillar’s CEO, Cindy Joyce at cindy@pillarsearch.com.
My Latest Article – Providing Support to Employees in a Time of Grief – is on Thrive Global!
I am proud to have another article, Providing Support to Employees in a Time of Grief, on Thrive Global!
Amazing MSPCA Event at Fenway Park!
Neddick and I had a great time supporting the MSPCA last night at Dogs on Deck: A Barktail Party for MSPCA-Angell at Fenway! @MSPCA-Angell @fenwaypark #philanthropy
Pillar’s Article, Mistake Mastery, Appears on Thrive Global!
I am honored that my article, Mistake Mastery, was featured today (4/6/18) on Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global. Read it here!
Pillar’s Article, It Takes a Village to Raise a Career, Appears on Thrive Global!
I am thrilled that my article, It Takes a Village to Raise a Career, has been featured on Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global. Read it here!
Onboard or Onward: Ensuring the Success of Your New Executive Hire
“About 40% of executives who change jobs or get promoted fail in the first 18 months.”
Where does it all go wrong? Too often, the onboarding process is where things fall apart. I am not talking about “orientation”, which often is done day one and generally involves the basics of assigning a building pass, conducting a benefits overviews, meeting the team and reading a few policies. Onboarding is a longer process, and if done well (typically in partnership with Human Resources and managed by the new executive’s manager, or the Board Chair if they report to the Board of Directors) can almost guarantee fit. It is holistic and gradual. It is also very deliberate, and will require constant check-ins and open communication. Here are five key activities that will help to ensure that your new executive will be successful in their new role:
Start to Onboard Before They are Actually ON BOARD!
The time between an offer being accepted and the executive starting is sensitive. They may be dealing with a counteroffer, having to say goodbye to much-loved colleagues, and are nervous about this new venture. Keep in touch. Reiterate your excitement to have them joining the team, and have a few people in the organization reach out. If there are organizational overviews, annual reports, strategic plans or other things that that they can read up on ahead of time, get those to them during this time so that they start to feel like part of the team.
Send an announcement out to the staff and the board a few days before their start date explaining their background and the job they are filling. This will help make them seem more familiar to the team when they come through the door, and as an added benefit they will not have to review their resume and background with absolutely everyone in their first week or so.
Relationship Before Task
Ideally, new executives will meet with their team and people across the organization. One-on-one meetings are great, but remind those who will be meeting with the executive to get to know them before delving into the inner workings of their role or the issues they face. Building rapport with new colleagues and direct reports is critical in the early days.
Learn By Doing
Too often, in an effort to get all the information to a new hire as soon as possible, they are introduced to processes way too soon. Guess what? They will not remember how to do an expense report or change their password or complete a sales report 30 to 60 days in when they actually need to do it if they are taught how to do it their first week. Have the right people meet with them at the start to review the process at a high level, and then have them set up a time to do it later when they can sit down with real data and learn from it real-time.
The Buddy System
What we learned in grade school still applies: the buddy system works when the new kid starts. This should not be the executive’s manager, but a peer or high-performing direct report who has longevity and the personality to be an effective buddy. The buddy can manage the nicety of taking them to lunch on day one and being available to explain the intricacies of culture, relationship dynamics, and certain pitfalls to avoid, which are things that the executive may not be comfortable asking of higher-ups.
Check In Early & Often
I too often hear that executives join, get a ton of attention the first day or two, and then are largely left on their own. It does not feel welcoming, and it runs the risk of them going in a direction that is difficult to course-correct later on. Meet with them daily, even for 10-15 minutes, in the first few weeks. Move on to twice weekly, weekly….you get the point. Let them know where they are doing a great job. Let them know where they need to take a different approach. But LET THEM KNOW. Being clear on what is a success will lead to more success.
While by no means a complete onboarding process, following the steps above will help to ensure that your new executive hire is one of the 60% who will be a success in the first 18 months.
Cindy Joyce is an Executive Recruiter and the Founder of Pillar Search, an Executive Search and HR Consulting firm located in Boston that works with clients nationwide. She can be reached here.
