Human Resources Fun Facts & Serious Statistics

As the digital age evolves and use of the Internet and online data grows exponentially; organizations continue to mine this information to assist in their recruiting, hiring and retention practices.

This column contains information culled from a variety of resources providing a brief synopsis of some of the pertinent human resources facts and figures of the day…

Recently released statistics from the Society of Human Resource Management, the US Bureau of  Labor Statistics and PayScale highlights some intriguing topical HR issues including pay raises, employee retention, turnover and office romance:

• The average pay raise is 4.5%, and 88% of businesses plan to give employees raises this year
• 57% of organizations view employee retention as a problem, and 22% of new hires leave their jobs within 45 days of being hired. Reasons include poor performance and temperament issues
• Fully 46% of new hires fail and are let go from their jobs within 18 months of being hired. Only 11% of these are for lack of skill, with 89% for reasons of motivation and lack of ‘coachability’
• New hires that undergo a structured on-boarding program are 58% more likely to be with the company after three years
• The costs of employee turnover range from 30% to 150% of the employee’s salary
• 54% of organizations do not have a written or verbal policy that addresses workplace romance, but the number that do, 42%, is up sharply from just 20% in 2005
• Of those organizations with a workplace romance policy, 99% ban dating between superiors and subordinates

Recruiting, Job Seeking & Resumes – Oh, My…

The Internet has also opened up available career openings to a much wider audience. Knowing how to market an open position to the right audience, and on the other side of the coin, how to target a resume and handle an interview is crucial. Here are some fun facts about these processes paraphrased from Martin Buckland of Business to Community:

• In the US, there are 3 million unfilled jobs and 11.8 million unemployed workers.
• The average time spent by recruiters looking at a resume is just 5 to 7 seconds, with 76% of resumes discarded for having an unprofessional email address.
• In 2000, 22% of resumes were submitted via email or posted on the web. In 2014, over 90% of resumes were posted online or sent via email. But, only 35% of applicants are actually qualified for the jobs to which they apply.
• Applicant Tracking Software, the robots that read your resume, is able to quickly eliminate 75% of the applicants.
• 427,000 resumes are posted each week on Monster, 89% of recruiters have hired someone through LinkedIn and 8,000,000 applicants found their job on Twitter.
• 93% of recruiters are likely to look at a candidate’s social media profile – so you might not want to post those images from the last party you attended!
• While the average length of an interview is 40 minutes, 33% of 2000 surveyed bosses indicated they know within the first 90 seconds if they will hire that candidate. How? Disqualification ‘tells’ include: being too fashionable/trendy (70%), failure to make eye contact (67%), not being knowledgeable about the company (47%), lack of confidence/smile (38%), bad posture (33%), weak handshake (26%) and crossing arms over chest during interview (21%).

So once you’ve landed an interview, dress appropriately, do your homework, sit up straight and let your confidence and enthusiasm shine through!