Many of us can remember taking a personality assessment, whether that is in a current position, in a first job - maybe even in college. Personality assessments are typically aimed at identifying strengths and weaknesses. In an educational setting, these assessments may provide the participant with good career matches. In a workplace setting, these assessments can help leadership identify candidate position fit, or overall work team diversity.

You have navigated your new employee through socialization, position training, and overall integration into the organization. They are now confidently going through their day and meeting other co-workers. You have noticed they attend your check in conversations with excitement and suggestions for improvement and began answering questions for newer hires joining the organization.

Now, let’s dive into the core of the onboarding process. If you missed the blog about pre-onboarding, I suggest reading that first and then coming back to this one. We went through the first impression, now the new hire has officially arrived for their first day: the first moment of onboarding. This stage is where the new hire becomes an integrated and productive member of your team. Let's explore this critical phase in the employee journey.

Onboarding is a free, first opportunity to retain your new hires. It allows the organization to set the tone for the new hire experience, while having an opportunity to instill a new culture or proper training. Many organizations focus on the main course of onboarding, and even more often on orientation. There is a less known (but highly valuable) missed step: pre-onboarding. In this blog, we'll explore what pre-onboarding is, how it can positively impact your employees and your organization, and some best practices to bring back to your new hires.

Over the past few years, there has been a remarkable resurgence of manufacturing in the United States. Illinois in particular has experienced a great deal of growth, making manufacturing Illinois’ largest industry. This growth brings positive impacts such as having a higher economic contribution to our state and the fact that manufacturing continues to generate various job opportunities.

If we have a lost cost in our business of $100,000, $500,000 or $1,000,000 would you know about it? Should you know about it? Would you take action to reduce the lost cost?

What is the actual cost of turnover for your business?
Unfortunately, well over 90% of companies do not capture this true cost or know how to calculate it specifically for their company. To get a total annual cost, one must look at the cost per person multiplied by the number of employees lost in a year.

IMEC believes building quality, customizable training programs, and defining career pathways are the solutions to manufacturing workforce challenges of shortages of skilled workers, retiring workforce, and meeting the needs of innovative technologies that the current skills don’t quite match. The new Career Pathways in Manufacturing program aids companies in recruiting, succession planning, and developing the workforce of the future with skills training in high-demand technical areas.

This is an original article from the NIST Manufacturing Innovation Blog.

Up and down busy streets nationwide, the same six-word banners stand outside in front of hundreds of businesses. Affixed to poles on front lawns or hanging above entrance doors, these inescapable banners, while the numbers may vary, almost always have the same wording:

Part 1 to this blog discussed the importance of incorporating ESG into your business strategy for stakeholders including customers, employees, and investors. In this follow up, you will learn how and why ESG evolved from its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) origins, transcending the latter’s internal perspective with an outward-facing regimen of objective, measurable, stipulated standards to validate and verify reductions in impacts such as carbon footprint/output.

Local and regional colleges are terrific places for recruiting entry-level talent. Here are nine tips for getting the most out of your college recruitment program.

1. Work on Recruitment All Year
College students begin looking for internships and jobs long before they graduate. Therefore, it’s important to form strong relationships year-round through a variety of tactics.