Recruitment & Retention

State-of-the-art applicant tracking system

Employee recruitment is a heavy lift. The right steps and decisions pay dividends for years. The wrong ones escalate the demands that already take up plenty of small business owners’ time.

When you begin looking for new employees, Axcet HR Solutions’ state-of-the-art applicant tracking system streamlines the search process and improves the candidate experience, increasing your company’s competitiveness. Through this free, easy-to-use platform, your open position automatically posts to 15 free job boards, including Indeed organic. You also have access to purchase ads on at least 20 more job boards with just a click of a button.

Employers can easily tailor the platform to their needs and, through a user-friendly dashboard, view submitted resumes and cover letters. Axcet provides customizable templates for email interview confirmations and other candidate correspondence. The system manages applications, moves candidates through the process, effectively maintains data and keeps job seekers informed in real time. It’s just one of many outsourced recruitment solutions Axcet offers to relieve the HR burden on smaller businesses.

Recruiting, hiring and retention strategy development

Axcet’s human resources consultants design employee recruiting approaches based on specific job needs, so clients don’t waste time and energy looking for candidates in all the wrong places.

We also develop hiring processes that encompass best practices for interviewing, onboarding and retention. These include non-discriminatory interview questions that also effectively evaluate skillsets and determine how a candidate will fit into a company’s culture and handle demands of the job.

From our work helping smaller Kansas City companies retain employees, Axcet understands that building and maintaining employee loyalty starts with accurate and thorough job descriptions and continues with positive onboarding experiences. After that, we help companies build on their strengths.

Axcet’s professionals are experts on all things HR, so you don’t have to be. Our insights help you proactively approach retention, revealing and addressing any issues, like non-compliant recruiting and hiring practices and ineffective managers, before they lead to costly turnover.

Compliant job descriptions

Job descriptions that adeptly outline the essential duties and minimum requirements of specific roles within an organization help employers make hiring decisions, communicate clear expectations and defend wrongful termination claims.

But small business owners, simply because they don’t have HR expertise, sometimes create risks for themselves when drafting job postings and job descriptions. A common error is being unintentionally discriminatory. For example, a job listing that advises job seekers that a position requires them to sit all day when a standing desk could be an acceptable accommodation or discriminates against older workers by identifying the ideal applicant as a “recent college graduate” could run afoul of Americans with Disabilities Act or Equal Employment Opportunity Commission requirements. If information about how much a job pays is included, companies must be mindful of Department of Labor wage and hour requirements.

The demands of and potential penalties associated with arduous Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) audits also may come into play in job description development. Employers should consult with Axcet, a proven HR consulting firm, to determine whether open positions will be exempt or non-exempt and to ensure the related job descriptions meet FLSA requirements based on required duties.

We know you have a lot on your mind as a business owner. It can be difficult to remember all of these details – or even be aware of them in the first place. Axcet’s outsourced HR services for recruitment give you a reliable resource to make sure your job descriptions are both compliant and compelling to the kinds of applicants you want to attract.

Interviewing questions and training

Discrimination in the prospective employee screening and selection process is surprisingly common. Treating every applicant equally, thereby preventing discrimination, is possible if you stick to a script.

Adopting standard questions and ensuring managers understand how to conduct interviews without using language that could be construed as harassing or discriminatory are keys to success in this area. The best approach is to ask consistent, legally compliant and relevant questions of all candidates.

Axcet’s outsourced recruitment solutions include designing questions to be asked during every interview and training owners and managers on the dos and don’ts of interviewing. All candidates should be held to the same standard, which can be accomplished while still getting the information about skillsets and qualifications you need to make a decision.

HR practices change frequently, so we help interviewers at smaller companies avoid asking inappropriate questions and feel more comfortable with the process overall.

Customized offer letters

Offer letters are not required by law, but employers commonly use them to officially invite candidates to join their organizations. You may be surprised to learn, however, that they can inadvertently constitute an enforceable employment contract if improperly worded.

Among the outsourced HR services for recruitment Axcet provides is template offer letters that position your organization favorably with job candidates while also limiting your legal exposure. We help you customize offer letters that maintain consistent, legal messaging for all prospective new employees. Letters can be loaded into our applicant tracking system to be sent and signed electronically.

A well-constructed offer letter should share the details candidates are most interested in knowing, such as pay information (worded carefully to avoid potential legal liability) and health benefits. And, because employers sometimes undersell themselves to job candidates, the letter should reinforce the attributes that make your company a good place to work. Our job as your HR consultant is make your offer letter work hard while also protecting you from risk.

Background check and drug testing resources

New hire background checks and pre-employment drug testing are not only safety precautions for employees – especially in industries like manufacturing where workers under the influence could hurt themselves and others – but also provide an extra layer of protection for you as the employer. Small businesses, however, often don’t know how to do an employee background check or drug screening on their own.

Through Axcet, smaller companies have access to multi-level drug testing and to screening services that can provide a thorough review of a prospective employee’s background, including:

• Criminal records search,
• Sex offender registry search,
• Employment verification,
• Education verification and
• Other industry-specific components.

As a certified professional employer organization (CPEO), we streamline the process of looking into a candidate’s history and potential illicit habits with turnkey employee background check services and new employee drug testing through a laboratory – both of which are integrated into our applicant tracking system.

Serving as an objective third-party HR consultant, Axcet can evaluate the findings and help employers avoid discriminatory practices – or avoid hiring a questionable employee – based on those results.

Onboarding process development

A well-organized – and welcoming – employee onboarding process boosts your company’s retention rate. Beyond housekeeping tasks like paperwork and benefits enrollment, an introduction to your culture and core values and an overview of relevant policies and regulations creates a positive onboarding experience that sets your new employees up for long-term success.

Making employees feel valued as soon as they walk through the door can reaffirm their decision to accept your job offer and plant seeds of loyalty. Axcet helps you design an onboarding process for new hires that includes all the little details that should happen on day one, from providing parking protocols, key codes or ID badges to arranging for a co-worker to make introductions and taking the new associate to lunch.

The employee’s integration into the company should not stop after the first day or after the first week on the job. The most effective new employee onboarding process, which should be standardized and followed every time you hire, includes best practices such as ongoing safety and HR training and periodic check-ins during the first 90 days to make sure the new team member feels supported.