Category: Candidate Attraction

Bouncing Back with the Best Talent: Creating a Hybrid Hiring Strategy

Posted on by akessler

In times of uncertainty, candidate communications can ease job seeker’s anxiety levels significantly when employers are clear and concise about the hiring process instead of sending candidates heading into the unknown. So, what does this mean in internal and external recruitment activity? In this article, we cover how a hybrid hiring strategy can bring stability to the hiring process and benefit candidate engagement in our uncertain job market.

Hybrid Hiring Strategy: The Basics

What is a Hybrid Hiring Strategy?

Hybrid hiring is a talent acquisition strategy that allows employers to maximise the advantages of in-person and virtual recruiting practices. A hybrid hiring strategy allows organisations to leverage the advantages of virtual hiring when it makes sense, while also using strategic, in-person techniques to add value and a human touch to the candidate experience.

Hybrid hiring strategies are not new; many employers deployed a mix of virtual and in-person techniques prior to the pandemic. However, COVID-19 has accelerated the need for safer, more efficient interviewing and hiring models, leading to greater adoption of virtual and hybrid strategies. Now, because employers have seen the advantages of virtual recruiting, the benefits of a hybrid model have become clear. Depending on the type of role you’re hiring for, having a strong hybrid hiring model in place makes it easy to recruit staff 100% virtually if and when it’s needed, or with a blended approach.

Leveraging Hybrid Hiring Strategies

For some, the pandemic has accelerated their organisation’s growth strategies and driven significant hiring volume increases. For others the pandemic has necessitated a deep dive into the most effective way of recruiting in a post-pandemic world – effectively looking under the hood and fine-tuning whilst the engine is stopped.

To ensure your organisation is well-positioned to capitalise on new talent opportunities, consider bouncing back with a smartly deployed hybrid approach to recruiting. Your hybrid hiring strategy will depend on your organisation’s recruiting needs and what your potential workforce will look like on the other side of the recovery.

If some or all of your employees will work remote, it would make sense to complete the entire recruiting process virtually. As an in-person interview or office tour would waste time and money or may lead to a poor candidate experience. Instead, hiring for talent for these roles completely virtually, and providing opportunities for human interaction and cultural engagement along the way, can help candidates feel like they know what it will be like to work remotely for your organisation.

The Inside Scoop on Hybrid Hiring

PeopleScout met recently with a group of talent leaders for a highly interactive and conversational 60 minutes during which great expertise was shared by talent professionals working within some of the most challenging business sectors.

All agreed that the journey towards greater use of technology in recruiting had been accelerated as a result of the pandemic and that it had yielded positive outcomes. There is no going back, and a mix of technology-enabled in-person and virtual activities is here to stay. A number of examples of technology delivering efficiency and high-value experiences were shared. We also heard about the need to adapt your hiring approach and process relative to factors such as job category, early career versus experienced hire, and geography.

Workforce dynamics was also discussed, and it was interesting to note a shift towards greater internal mobility through the pandemic. However, there was strong agreement on the need to continue to bring in external talent for a variety of reasons, including the need to drive forward diversity and inclusion.

The need to scale and flex to meet unexpected demand is clearly an imperative, and the panel shared their views on how to build this into a delivery model. There were some valuable insights shared around partnering with RPO providers, including how to determine what to outsource, how to select the right partner and how to build out the business case.

Again, a few innovative approaches on how to do this in a hybrid hiring environment were shared. Clearly, recruiters lie at the heart of this and play a critical role in providing clear cultural insight to potential hires. The audience chat also threw up some interesting points around tax implications of hiring anywhere as well as adapting probation period policies for the new world of work.

Talent Pipeline and Candidate Engagement

Posted on by edyson

As we return to work, resiliency, business continuity and recovery are fast emerging as critical priorities for business leaders. Creating a talent pipeline strategy for vital roles is one way organizations can build greater resilience, have clear succession plans and ensure talent continuity. However, with hiring freezes and uncertainty around when hiring will resume has left many talent teams in limbo.

That said, there has never been a more important time to focus on building your talent pipeline strategy to ensure you have the best possible talent on your team and are well-positioned as things return to normal. You may not have positions to fill now, but by building a robust talent pipeline now, you will place yourself in a better position when we return to business as usual.

In this article, we cover how to build a better talent pipeline and engagement strategies and best practices for building stronger relationships with your candidate pool.

What is a Talent Pipeline?

A talent pipeline is a proactive talent acquisition strategy that seeks to identify, engage and recruit talent to build a robust pool of candidates to fill roles as needed. Similar to a sales funnel where leads progress through multiple stages of engagement and are eventually converted into clients, a talent pipeline moves potential job candidates through engagement stages that hopefully lead to making a hire. Like most modern recruitment practices, talent pipelining has been derived from proven sales and marketing strategies.

Talent pipeline

With a talent pipeline, organizations can pick and choose from a highly qualified group of candidates who are already familiar with the organization. The key to a successful talent pipeline strategy lies in candidate engagement because recruiting teams are not focused solely on filling open roles. Rather, they are thinking about how to best meet future talent needs through building better relationships with top talent. In addition to better candidates, talent pipelining allows you to diversify your talent pool, deliver personalized candidate experiences and improve your overall employer brand. 

How to Build a Pipeline of Candidates: Talent Pipeline Strategy and Engagement Starts with Your Employer Brand

how to build a pipeline of candidates

Talent pipelining is about influencing candidate behavior, so the first and most logical place to begin when creating a talent pipeline is the answering the following questions:

  • How do you generate interest in your organization?
  • What differentiating factors set your organization apart from other employers?
  • Why should candidates choose to work for your organization?

To find the answers to these questions, you need to turn to your employer brand. In a talent market that’s reeling from the effects of a global pandemic and calls for increasing racial diversity, your reputation as an employer is now more important than ever to attract high-quality candidates.

What’s more, at a time when candidates can quickly look up information about your organization, from compensation and benefits to the work culture and advancement opportunities, building a strong employer brand is paramount. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, a negative employer reputation can costs organizations up to 10% more per hire.

To attract and bring top talent to your organization’s talent pipeline, maintaining and personalizing your candidate-facing content should be a top priority. You can achieve this by improving the content on your careers page and in your social media outreach with high-quality resources, guides, videos.

So, how do you position yourself as an employer of choice in your industry and fill your talent pipeline with qualified talent? Below are some simple steps that can help you get started:

Leverage Your Career Site

The first place many candidates will engage with your employer brand will be through your career site. Use your career site to highlight your corporate values, culture and provide a real glimpse of what life for the employees of your organization is like.

Make sure that your employer brand messaging on your career site is consistent with that on your social media channels, company website and review pages such as Glassdoor and Indeed. Also, make sure your career site is mobile optimized as many mid-career professionals are more likely to search for opportunities on their mobile devices. The easier it is to apply and interact with your organization, the more top candidates you will be able to add to your pipeline.

Candidate Engagement Best Practices: Engage Your Talent Pipeline on Social Channels

Social media has fast become a top recruitment marketing channel. Moreover, according to Glassdoor, 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search, so engaging with candidates and presenting a positive employer brand on social media is essential.

For example, you can build a stronger employer brand and engagement with your target audience by promoting authentic conversations about life within your organization and asking candidates to share what they seek in an employer. You should also celebrate employee achievements, share real-life stories, photos and videos to show potential candidates what it is like working with you. This will make it more likely that candidates will feel comfortable applying for positions at your organization.

Your Employees Are Your Best Advocates

Building on your social media strategy, you can also look at employee advocacy as an effective branding and talent pipeline building tactic. Employee advocacy is the word-of-mouth marketing equivalent for recruitment. Your employees can tap into their networks, refer friends to open roles and bring in more candidates into your talent pipeline.

talent pipeline strategy

Identify employees who can act as your brand ambassadors and share the perks of working with your organization with their network and build a great referral pipeline for talent. Candidates are three times more likely to trust your employees over recruiters to provide credible information about your work culture.

How to Build Talent Pipeline: Communicating with Your Talent Pipeline

how to build talent pipeline

Send Confirmation Emails to Candidates

Sending confirmation emails to candidates in your pipeline who have applied to open positions should be an obvious step, as 96% of job applicants want confirmation their application has been received. However, just 8% say they always get one from a potential employer. You can leverage technology and automate your communication with candidates to make sure emails are sent on time and reach candidates.

You should include in your replies a “thank you” for taking the time to fill out your application, let candidates know when they can expect to hear back about their application status. You do not have to provide feedback to unsuccessful candidates, just make sure you tell any unsuccessful candidates that they have not progressed and thank them again for taking the time to apply. This reply can be automated too.

Keeping your Talent Pipeline Warm During a Hiring Freeze

You may have many talented professionals out of work looking for new opportunities but might not be in a position to do any hiring right now. That does not mean that your recruiting activity should be on hold. In fact, this is the perfect time to work on building and nurturing your talent pipeline.

Keeping candidates “warm” is a balancing act, especially in uncertain times. You can keep candidates engaged by sending them updated press releases, and managers can periodically send a personal note or text to keep the lines of communications open.

You can share updates about the conditions at your organization, statements your CEO has made, or other information to give them an understating of how your organization is dealing with this crisis. These efforts might impress candidates and make them want to work with you even if you do not have an opening yet.

Consider Using a Chatbot

Candidates in your talent pipeline will have questions for you – about the role itself, about the application process or the timeline between applying and hiring. If you have high-volume hiring needs, or your internal recruiting teams are stretched too thin to answer all of the questions, deploying a chatbot to answer some of the most common questions immediately can prevent candidates from losing touch with you or becoming frustrated.

If you are wonder if candidates would be happy accepting answers from a chatbot, modern candidates are already interacting with them, because like Alexa or Siri, they mimic our natural conversational styles.

Your job is to figure out what the most common questions will be and craft answers that the chatbot can supply. Just ensure you have a process in place if the candidate’s question was not answered satisfactorily – that the question then gets routed to a human who can answer it.

Conclusion

Ultimately, effective talent pipelining engagement boils down to how you plan, strategize and leverage technology to support your long-term business needs. The landscape for candidates today is drastically different from the past years. Empathy, flexibility and understanding will go a long way in building lasting relationships with candidates and successfully adapting to the realities of a post-COVID world.

Effectively Leverage Social Media to Improve Your Employer Brand

Posted on by jpatel

Until about 10 years ago, simply posting a job opening to a career site like Indeed or Glassdoor may have been enough to get you the right talent to fulfill your hiring needs. That’s because in economic climates where job-seekers are abundant, active candidates would search open positions, see your job posting, read the description and decide whether they wanted to apply. Often, that job posting might have been the first time a candidate engaged with or even heard of your brand.

Today, candidates can see and engage with your brand at hundreds of touchpoints before ever seeing a job posting or visiting your career page. And millions more people are looking for lasting employment now due to the pandemic. Whereas traditional in-person interviews declined, the importance of virtual hiring and an organisation’s online presence have drastically risen. While this may sound daunting at first, digital recruitment marketing and the rise of social media mean organisations today can spread their message and establish a strong knowledge of their employer brand with prospective candidates – often before those candidates even think about looking for a job.

Regardless of the economic climate and whether we are at the lowest unemployment rates experienced in decades or the highest, a strong social media presence is imperative to an employer’s recruitment media mix. Now, more than ever, we are all tuned in to what our networks are saying, sharing and recommending online.

In fact, according to a report by LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring. Moreover Jobvite research showed that 59% of candidates followed companies on social media to gain insight into their company culture – myself included! When I was considering joining PeopleScout, social media was one of the main ways I researched what it would be like to work here.

Specifically, I kept an eye out for engaging content, interesting comments and overall employee engagement. PeopleScout’s active social pages with relevant content and employees passionately sharing their work achievements were one of the deciding factors when I chose to come on board. After all, if an omnichannel recruitment marketing strategy were what I would advise to my clients, I had to work for a company that led with the best examples.

Building Your Brand

When it comes down to the critical moments throughout the candidate’s journey, what an employer presents online could be the deciding factor for whether a candidate joins an organisation. Truly, if a candidate is debating between two employers and one has a nearly nonexistent online brand presence while the other showcases personality, culture and industry-related insights, it’s clear who will win the talent.

And, it doesn’t just come down to one quick, last-minute Google search. To improve your employer brand in a candidate’s mind takes a persistent effort. For example, say you’re looking to hire a nurse, but the ideal prospect is located outside of your region. Attracting that candidate will be a huge undertaking that isn’t going to happen overnight.

It’s unlikely that the candidate will apply for a job at your hospital out of the blue, especially if they’ve never heard of you before. But, what if that candidate saw one of your Twitter posts about the “10 Things You Should Know as a New Nurse”? Or, maybe a friend sent them your Instagram post of an uplifting quote about providing patient care?

By reaching prospective candidates at multiple touchpoints throughout the hiring cycle with a consistent brand presence, you’ll have a much higher likelihood of establishing a positive impression of your brand. Then, when it comes time to apply, and eventually accept a position, the persona you portray online will have a huge impact on those decisions.

But, while your ideal nurse might be active on Instagram, not all candidates will be. For instance, if you’re looking for a C-level executive, you’ll have better luck on LinkedIn. Conversely, if you’re hiring an elementary school teacher, you might reach them best on Facebook. Determine which social media platforms make the most sense to engage your prospective candidates and focus your strategies there.

If You Want to Improve Your Employer Brand, Go Beyond “We’re Hiring”

Regardless of the platform, simply posting job openings isn’t going to cut it. Instead, think about how you can best show prospects what it’s truly like to work for your organisation – whether that means showcasing how your people engage virtually or what life is like when you’re all in the office. In addition to insightful thought leadership, share employee activities, first-person stories, and anything that shows a candidate how they can contribute and connect to your company in ways beyond their skills.

Let’s look a little deeper into how you can improve your employer brand presence on each of the four largest social media channels and how you can utilise each of their unique features to your benefit.

improve your employer brand

LinkedIn

As the largest professional network, LinkedIn is unlike most other social media platforms. With more than 660 million registered users, almost half of whom are active on a monthly basis, it’s the number one platform to reach both passive and active prospective candidates.

Reach more candidates by:

  • Posting career advice
  • Promoting posts to employees
  • Targeting your posts
  • Optimizing your company page with keywords

Instagram

With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has seen a 43% increase in users since 2017. What’s more intriguing is the fact that 90% of users follow a business on the platform – users are likely to keep up with brands and see what people are saying about them. Plus, according to Sprout Social, Instagram is the leading platform when it comes to engagement, with a median engagement of 1.6% across all industries.

What does that mean for you? Essentially, Instagram is a great way to utilize employee brand advocates and visuals to showcase company culture.

Engage employees and candidates with:

  • Instagram stories
  • Story highlights
  • Creative grids
  • Instagram Live
  • Instagram TV
  • Comments and direct messages

Twitter

Twitter has about 330 million active users worldwide, and 79% of them like to discover what’s new. This fast-paced social network encourages the real-time sharing of engaging and relevant content, so post often and with timely responses to showcase your expertise.

Utilize:

  • Interest-based targeting
  • Twitter Ads
  • Twitter Polls
  • Retweets with comments
  • Tweet replies

Facebook

Facebook has 2.5 million monthly active users, and 66% of them say they “like” or “follow” a brand on the platform.

To showcase your industry expertise as well as your company culture, take advantage of:

  • Facebook Insights
  • Facebook Pixel for retargeting advertising
  • Page invites
  • Boosting posts

Social Media as a Recruitment Tool

By taking efforts to improve your employer brand on social media and taking advantage of what all the different platforms have to offer, candidates should already have a good understanding of your brand and what it represents by the time they’re on the job hunt. Ideally, they’ll have connected with some of your posts and already have a positive feeling about your company culture.

Then, when it comes time to create a targeted recruitment campaign, your social media presence will have done some of the work for you. To capitalise on this momentum and start generating a stream of qualified candidates, a trusted talent advisor can help.

When Vodafone came to PeopleScout in the UK, they asked us to: help position Vodafone with prospective employees at key universities as a youth employer of choice; change the perception of their target audience; and promote Vodafone as a technology company.

After researching the behaviour and interests of Vodafone’s target audience, we learned how Gen Z and Millennials want to engage with employers (through short and succinct videos) and what values drive their decisions. We found that they want to work for companies that focus on making the world a better place, as well as promote a social and fun work environment.

This led to Generation Possible – a social media campaign that speaks to Vodafone’s campus and graduate audience, as well as their desire to have a positive influence in the world. The Generation Possible campaign celebrates everyone’s individuality and empowers them to speak from the heart about how to make change for the better.

improve your employer brand
Vodafone Generation Possible Campaign Creative

Conclusion

It’s no secret that candidates are going to research your organisation prior to applying for any of your positions or even considering you as a potential employer. By balancing postings on job boards with social media and other touchpoints along the hiring process, you can create a well-respected online presence that accurately represents your employer brand and company culture. So, the next time a candidate researches your company, reads reviews or looks at what current employees are saying online, rest assured that a strong social media presence and strategic recruitment campaign will give you all you need to create a lasting impact in a candidate’s mind.

Transport for London: Recruiting to Represent Modern London

Posted on by mhill

We worked on TfL’s entry-level talent employer brand and attraction activity to recruit a higher proportion of female and BAME applicants.


TfL values the importance of diversity and inclusion. Being representative of London is something their success is measured on, and the same standards apply to their apprenticeship and graduate schemes.


These schemes had proven successful in the volume of applications received but weren’t reaching talent from all walks of life – TfL needed a diverse pipeline that truly represented modern London. It was time to rethink their entire student attraction activity.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • CREATED A NEW DIVERSITY-CENTRED EMPLOYMENT BRAND.
  • DEVISED NEW OUTREACH PROGRAMMES TO APPEAL TO WIDER DEMOGRAPHICS.
  • REDESIGNED RECRUITMENT AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES TO HELP FEMALE AND BAME CANDIDATES BETTER SHOW WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY’RE CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING.

SCOPE AND SCALE

London’s population is projected to reach 10.5 million by 2041, and naturally TfL play a major role in contributing to London’s growth. Supporting this growth means recruiting, retaining, and developing a next-generation workforce but also giving Londoners a chance to take part in the design of their city.

SITUATION

TfL needed to recruit 32 graduate roles, five placements, and 109 apprenticeships. Our primary objective was to champion these fantastic opportunities to a broader apprentice and graduate talent pool in order to increase female and BAME applicants. To achieve this, we needed to challenge stereotypes and overcome negative perceptions. That meant not only changing TfL’s attraction and assessment processes but overhauling their entry-level employer brand as well.

SOLUTION

A NEW BRAND TO MAKE BETTER CONNECTIONS
Together, we transformed the way TfL recruit diverse talent. Ensuring skilled people from all walks of life have a chance to shine in the application and assessment process, our creative team used their audience knowledge to build a dynamic unexpected youth brand, ‘The Next Move’, designed to better connect with female and BAME applicants. We then shaped
a comprehensive outreach programme and a completely new assessment process with the aim of helping these candidates show TfL who they are and what they’re truly made of.

ENABLING CANDIDATES TO SUCCEED IN ASSESSMENT CENTRES
From experience, we know that young people often need to build their confidence by filling gaps in their knowledge. To address this, we created ‘Route-into-Work’, a pre-employment programme for all candidates, that would help them succeed in assessment centres – and the results were astounding.

A MORE TARGETED APPROACH We also targeted universities with higher rates of female and BAME students, rather than promoting opportunities at all UK universities.

RESULTS

We achieved amazing results with the graduate recruitment campaign, comfortably filling all of the roles.

DOUBLE THE PERCENTAGE OF BAME GRADUATE HIRES
Most importantly we doubled the percentage
of BAME graduates from 27% to 54%, and we substantially grew the proportion of female hires from 18% to 29%.

GROWING FEMALE APPRENTICE HIRES BY 16%
Similarly strong results were achieved in the apprentice pool, as we dramatically grew the proportion of female hires from 20% to 36%,

The Route-into-Work programme delivered 9% of the apprenticeship hires (12 individuals), of which 33% were female and 67% were BAME.

Transport for London: Recruiting Talent from Every Walk of Life

Posted on by mhill

How we overhauled TfL’s entry-level talent brand and attraction activity.


TfL values the importance of social mobility. Being representative of London is something their success is measured on, and the same standards apply to their apprenticeship and graduate schemes.


TfL’s entry-level talent activities had proven successful in the volume of applications received but weren’t reaching talent from all sectors of society – TfL needed a diverse workforce from every social background that truly represented modern London. It was time to rethink their entire student attraction activity.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • REDESIGNED RECRUITMENT AND ASSESSMENT PR
  • PROCESSES TO HELP CANDIDATES FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS EXCEL.
  • DEVISED NEW OUTREACH PROGRAMMES TO CONNECT WITH YOUNG PEOPLE IN AREAS OF HIGH DEPRIVATION, THEREBY APPEALING TO A WIDER DEMOGRAPHIC.
  • CREATED A NEW SOCIAL MOBILITY-CENTRED EMPLOYMENT BRAND.

SCOPE AND SCALE

London’s growing population of 16-18-year olds is set against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment and some of the most deprived areas in the country. Naturally TfL play a major role in contributing to London’s growth, and so opening doors for people from disadvantaged areas was absolutely vital.

SITUATION

Our primary objective was to make TfL more relevant and accessible for our target audience. This meant removing barriers to recruitment, challenging stereotypes, and overcoming negative perceptions. We needed to change TfL’s attraction process so that people from every pocket of society would be interested in the unique opportunities available.
And we needed to re-position their entry-level employer brand as a progressive organisation in which everyone – regardless of background or financial situation – could excel.

SOLUTION

A NEW AND VIBRANT YOUNG TALENT BRAND
We started by transforming the way TfL recruited, ensuring talented people from all walks of life got a chance to apply. This resulted in a dynamic, unexpected youth brand – ‘The Next Move’ – which was designed to look different from other TfL communications, using vibrant, colourful graphics.


A CONFIDENCE-BOOSTING PRE-EMPLOYMENT COURSE
We then created a programme called ‘Route-into-Work’, a pre-employment course helping 16-25 year-old NEETs fill gaps in their knowledge and get the tools, insight, and confidence to be successful at assessment centres.


A NEW SCHOOL’S OUTREACH PROGRAMME STRATEGY
For their Apprenticeships, we designed a new strategy for our schools’ outreach programme, ‘Moving Forward’. We identified 251 of the poorest secondary state schools and ran over 50 events, with additional events in three of the most deprived boroughs in London: Newham, Tower Hamlets and Haringey.

RESULTS

We achieved amazing results in the recruitment campaign, comfortably meeting the social mobility criteria we had set out to achieve.


As a result of our targeted activities, we filled 32 graduate roles, five placements and 109 apprenticeships.

Transport for Wales: Growing the Workforce of a Newly-Created Organisation

Posted on by mhill

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for specialist Engineering, Transportation, Project Management and Support Function roles


Transport for Wales (TfW) were keen to engage a single recruitment partner who could provide a technology solution, expert resourcing services and expertise to help them not only go to market but engage and leverage their brand, while they built from a small entity to larger organisation with a plan to hire roles from apprentices and graduates to Directors with every level in between.

We’ve worked in partnership with TfW as their sole RPO supplier to build the workforce up from just nine employees to over 140 and growing, most of which are permanent with some temporary staff and contractors.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • FLEXIBLE AND SCALABLE RPO SUPPORT.
  • EXPERIENCED RESOURCING BUSINESS PARTNER ON SITE AND DEDICATED OFFSITE TEAM.
  • CREATING BRAND AWARENESS IN A COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE.
  • LANDING PAGE, ATS SOLUTION AND REGISTER YOUR INTEREST PORTAL, WITH KEEP WARM STRATEGY.
  • PROVIDING RECRUITERS WHO SPEAK BOTH ENGLISH AND WELSH.

SCOPE AND SCALE

Transport for Wales (TfW) was created to drive forward the Welsh Government’s vision for a high quality, safe, integrated, affordable and accessible transport network that the people of Wales would be proud of. As a new rail franchise operator, their initial focus was to grow at speed, recruiting 100 or more key staff within challenging timescales, in preparation for a rail franchise switch over.

SITUATION

As a newly-created organisation, Transport for Wales had no recruitment expertise or technology to support their ambitious resourcing plans for roles at all levels. Our on-site Resourcing Business Partner helped shape the Transport for Wales solution and strategy. The immediate challenge was to identify and hire to key senior positions, starting with the Directors, and working with them to build their teams from the top down in order to deliver on their goals.


Another key requirement was an RPO provider who could work in both English and Welsh.

SOLUTION

A UNIQUE SERVICE MODEL
PeopleScout consulted with TfW and using a nimble yet disciplined approach created a strategy and process to swiftly start recruiting key hires. We are client-first not process-first and a unique service model was created providing an on-site senior recruiter , with expertise and industry experience who could consult and provide solutions to market challenges and engage with hiring communities and other key stakeholders. We are focused on delivery and so alongside this, we provided regular updates and insights.


BEST-IN-CLASS SERVICE
Our off-site dedicated recruiting team provided full sourcing to onboarding services, making sure that candidates received a best-in-class service right through to their first day and beyond.


ATTRACTING A WIDER DIVERSITY OF TALENT
As an RPO provider with a creative flair and history of expertise, we were able to help TfW move away from more traditional marketing style to something which attracted a wider diversity of talent. As recognised leaders in employer brand and candidate experience this extended into a go-to-market broadcasting strategy that encompassed social solutions, community management and talent pooling. It also maximised the TfW brand and story, and reduced pressure on budgets.

RESULTS

  • 95% offer fulfilment across all levels of roles
  • Rapid identification and hiring of specialist roles
  • 92% of candidates who are delighted with their hiring experience
  • Reduction in time on recruitment by hiring managers
  • Talent pools created for future hiring
  • A developed and refined future-proof recruitment strategy

PeopleScout have been excellent in the delivery of the recruitment services into Transport for Wales. They are transparent, hardworking and qualitatively focused. All the team have been dedicated to our growth ambition and have represented our brand well to external candidates. I am delighted to work with the whole team as we share our continued success with our partners.

Lisa Yates, Director of People and
Organisational Development – Transport for Wales

Bristol City Council: Recruiting the Manager at the Heart of a Mayor’s Vision

Posted on by mhill

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • SUCCESSFULLY RECRUITING IN A COMPETITIVE SECTOR
  • NAVIGATING SMALL CANDIDATE POOL FOR THE LEADER THE CLIENT NEEDED
  • IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUALS WHO WERE WILLING TO RELOCATE

SCOPE AND SCALE

The Council’s Housing Delivery Plan identified a need for 800 new affordable homes per year. The Housing Strategy and Enabling Manager provides the strategic leadership to develop, enable and deliver this ambitious annual programme.


This role is all about sharing responsibility for affordable housing strategy across the public and private sectors. We needed to find a professional who could build great relationships in both areas and work collaboratively with partners and local communities. A persuasive advocate of the need for more homes to meet real human needs – today and tomorrow.

SITUATION

We were looking for an individual with in-depth knowledge of town planning policy and regulations; a qualified Chartered Town Planner (RTPI) or Chartered Surveyor (RICS) with membership of a relevant association. Finding an impressive professional working at the scope and scale of a large Unitary Authority was the key challenge. This person had to hit the ground running
in a new structure.

SOLUTION

The hiring manager brief highlighted three essential search criteria:

  • Detailed knowledge of housing and planning legislation in local authority and housing association sectors
  • Proven leadership track record in a local authority, housing association or housing organisation
  • Exceptional stakeholder management skills to advocate for the housing sector at a local, regional and national level

Candidates who met the first two criteria were numerous.
But most lacked the senior stakeholder experience. So we searched at a national level, positioning Bristol as a city where people could make a real impact on reducing inequality through housing strategy. This message really resonated. And we found good levels of gender diversity in the field. The final shortlist of four had a 50/50 male/female ratio.

RESULTS

We found healthy numbers of potential candidates in similar roles in other councils and housing associations, but few were willing to consider a new role at the time of the search.
Nevertheless, and shortlist of four excellent professionals was created and the role was filled with the outstanding candidate. They start in July 2020.

Fife Sports and Leisure Trust: Sourcing a Brilliant Female Leader for a Unique Time

Posted on by mhill

With the CEO of Fife Sports and Leisure Trust retiring within the month of our search, and no handover, we recruited an experienced, dynamic and strategic leader who hit the ground running.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL
  • NOT A FIRST-TIME MD OR CEO
  • FINDING CREDIBLE STRATEGIC LEADERS WHO’D MOVED AWAY FROM OPERATIONS ROLES
  • CANDIDATES UP FOR THE CHALLENGES FACING FSLT
  • SUCCESSFULLY RECRUITING DURING NATIONAL LOCKDOWN

SCOPE AND SCALE

The Trust manages and operates 14 leisure facilities on behalf of Fife Council. They’re one of the largest employers in the town with 550 staff. Their mission is improving health and wellbeing across the Fife, offering facilities for people of all abilities.
The new CEO would need to foster good relationships with
the Council and balance the social and economic purposes to develop a sustainable leisure service. This would mean finding further funding and creating and delivering a long-term vision for FSLT, after coming back from a whole industry closure, owing to the Coronavirus outbreak in March 2020.

SITUATION

Finding senior strategic leaders who could lead FSLT through an important stage in their history meant recruiting a current MD or CEO who had held profit and loss accountability for their leisure service. There are a finite number of leisure trusts in the UK so it was vital to present this fascinating opportunity to the sector in a highly engaging manner to attract the highest-calibre candidates.

SOLUTION

We took a detailed brief from the outgoing CEO, and it became very clear that FSLT needed an accomplished new leader capable of creating an immediate impact. We searched the whole of the UK, engaging with the CEO at Community Leisure UK, the industry association, who shared the requirement in her network. It’s a close-knit community and the Trust has a good reputation. We leveraged the expertise in the sector to ensure we had a comprehensive shortlist of the most recommended professionals.

RESULTS

The results were very positive:

  • We achieved 72% engagement of passive ‘candidates’
  • Four candidates were invited for interview (75/25 male/female split)
  • Two candidates were invited for second interview (50/50 male/female split)
  • One great hire was made (female candidate appointed)

London College of Fashion: Finding the Perfect Professor for a Vibrant New Enterprise

Posted on by mhill

The newly established Centre for Fashion Business & Innovation Research operates at the intersection of fashion business and the economy, culture and society. We helped them recruit their first professor, who would lead the direction of research, funding and collaboration.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • FINDING RARE CANDIDATES WITH RESEARCH EXPERTISE
  • IN-DEPTH CANDIDATE RESEARCH PHASE
  • BLENDED MEDIA CAMPAIGN AND INTERNATIONAL SEARCH TO ATTRACT ACTIVE AND PASSIVE CANDIDATES

SCOPE AND SCALE

London College of Fashion has been nurturing creative talent for over a century. They offer courses in all things fashion, from business to design and fashion curation.
The Centre for Fashion Business & Innovation Research is an exciting new addition in the Fashion Business School and this role will lead its development and success.
As the chosen candidate will set the direction for the Centre, they wanted very high-calibre candidates to shortlist from.

SITUATION

Challenge: Professors could come from different disciplines but would need relevant research interests aligned with the Centre.

Approach: Extensive international candidate research to ensure they met the criteria.


Challenge: Professors needed experience in motivating and mobilising other researchers.
Approach: All candidates were consulted on their REF leadership and co-ordination experience.


Challenge: London College of Fashion has a leadership team that is open, creative and generous. This Professor would need to thrive in that culture.
Approach: All candidates were consulted on their leadership style and culture preferences to ascertain their fit.

SOLUTION

An in-depth, face-to-face brief was taken, followed by profiles benchmarking to explore the parameters of the brief in more depth.
Exhaustive research built an international target which was approved before engagement commenced.=
WIP reports and calls were diarised weekly so everyone was fully informed on progress and could contribute to the direction of activity.
Strong, professional relationships were fostered with candidates ensuring they had an excellent experience whether they applied or not.

RESULTS

Our comprehensive solution created results the client was delighted with:

  • 16 final applications
  • Four shortlisted for interview & assessment
  • One offer accepted

The successful candidate was a referral from another passive candidate on the target list. If we hadn’t undertaken the research, she wouldn’t have been aware of the opportunity.

Transport for Wales: Recruiting the Tax Expert Who Brought Added Value

Posted on by mhill

We have been a key recruitment partner in helping Transport for Wales to grow their headcount from their inception in 2018. They needed support to build all five directorates, which encompass some niche and specialist positions, including a Tax Accountant to support the management of their finances. They needed a VAT subject matter expert to help them reclaim VAT they would invest in the Welsh transport sector.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • SUCCESSFULLY RECRUITING IN A LIMITED TALENT POOL OF VAT SPECIALIST TAX ANALYSTS IN WALES – WE RESEARCHED THE PASSIVE MARKET EXTENSIVELY
  • ENSURING A GOOD CULTURAL FIT BY CONDUCTING AN IN-DEPTH SCREENING PROCESS BEFORE PRESENTING CANDIDATES
  • ENGAGING AND SOURCING THE BEST TALENT IN A GLOBAL PANDEMIC

SCOPE AND SCALE

Transport for Wales are on a mission: to deliver an integrated travel system across Wales and revolutionise travel. So they are quickly growing and expanding their workforce. They were now looking for a qualified VAT subject matter expert to provide advice and guidelines in line with legislation to help TFW reclaim VAT to reinvest into the transport network. This is a highly competitive sector and the new Tax Analyst needed niche market skills. The sector is known for its low turnover; tax professionals are risk-averse and require significant consultation before considering a new opportunity.

SITUATION

This was a particularly challenging role to recruit. There is a very small talent pool of qualified candidates in Wales. This market is competitive, and many candidates are reluctant to move jobs unless for a significant increase in salary. In addition, the global pandemic was at its height – a climate that made candidates even more reluctant to change jobs.

SOLUTION

We adopted a fully consultative approach and took a detailed brief from the hiring manager. We started by using a blended approach of media and sourcing the passive market, advertising further across a number of well-known recruitment websites to drive applications. Attraction did not produce results, so we conducted a thorough search of the passive market to find that one perfect candidate that our recruiter knew straight away would be a good fit for the team. This candidate had worked
as a Tax subject matter expert for a similar government body, they understood government processes and culturally they were a strong fit for Transport For Wales.

RESULTS

We approached over 100 qualified professionals in South Wales and beyond. Our strategic search produced an ideal candidate who is moving into the Tax Analyst role.