Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Diversity and Inclusion: Building Employee Resource Groups and Driving Change

Posted on by edyson

Diversity, equity and inclusion have long been a key point of discussion in many organizations’ human resources departments. While the topic has always been top of mind, events in 2020 have shined new light and emphasis on the importance of social justice, anti-discrimination and diversity and inclusion.

Why is Inclusion Important?

employee resource groups

However, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Diversity & Inclusion Survey, two-thirds of respondents indicated their organizations have not adopted practices to reduce unconscious biases and other barriers to inclusion. Moreover, even among organizations that have adopted such practices, employees are not likely to be aware of the efforts. This illustrates the importance of inclusion in the workplace for candidates.

Creating employee resource groups (ERGs) is an approach you can use to build a more inclusive environment and addresses diversity and inclusion in a more holistic, community-based way. Employee resource groups, also known as affinity groups, have emerged in the workplace as a standard component of diversity and inclusion initiatives. In fact. according to a report from Bentley University, nearly 90% of all Fortune 500 companies have ERGs.

For many organizations, the benefits of employee resource groups have evolved from the primary intent — to provide a forum in which members of an organization who share common interests, issues, or concerns meet to address those issues — to multifaceted benefits that impact an organization’s strategic diversity and inclusion efforts in recruitment, retention, mentoring, leadership development, marketing, customer relations and return on investment.

What is an Employee Resource Group?

The first employee resource groups were initially workplace affinity groups created in response to racial strife of the civil rights era. Joseph Wilson, the former CEO of Xerox, developed the concept following race riots in Rochester, NY in 1964. Wilson and his African-American employees designed and launched the National Black Employees Caucus in 1970 to address racial tension and the issue of workplace discrimination.

Modern ERG programs are the enduring legacy of Mr. Wilson and his colleagues’ courageous efforts. In its most basic form, an ERG is an employee identity or experience-based group that helps employees within an organization build community and share a common cause.

what is an erg

ERGs are generally based on building or strengthening community, providing support and contributing to personal and professional development in the workplace. Most ERGs are volunteer based, though some companies support organizers with a percentage of paid time off or other recognition, including leadership development opportunities.

What is the Purpose of an ERG Program?

While each ERG must define its purpose and goal, common ERG drivers are:

  • An ERG program creates an open forum for employees who share a common identity to meet and support one another in building their community and sense of belonging.
  • ERG programs empower these groups by offering them financial support, organizational support and access to decision-makers.
  • ERG programs facilitate a clear line of communication from ERGs to leadership to voice concerns and solve problems.
  • ERGs provide a resource for leadership regarding employee and community issues, needs and policies.
  • ERG programs seek to advance a respectful and inclusive company culture and reinforce the importance of inclusion.

What Does an ERG Look Like?

ERGs come in a variety of forms, with some of the more popular ones taking the shape of:

  • Diversity groups that foster a sense of belonging among employees that belong to a minority group in the organization
  • Volunteer programs where employees can support charities and other volunteer initiatives
  • Affinity clubs where employees with similar interests get an opportunity to socialize
  • Professional development groups that provide employees the opportunity to share knowledge with their peers from other departments

The Value of Employee Resource Groups and Why is Inclusion Important

ERGs deliver value to organizations and their workforces in multiple ways. They build a sense of community and belonging for employees by connecting people in a social and professional way and encouraging interaction between employees.

What’s more, according to a report from the Society for Human Resource Management, 90% of companies examined said ERGs helped make new hires more comfortable during the onboarding process, and 70% of organizations relied on ERGs to build a workforce to reflect the demographics of their customer base.

ERGs empower employees by giving each group a collective voice to speak with decision-makers and management. Groups are also empowered to assemble and voice concerns as a community. ERGs support learning and development by offering formal and informal leadership opportunities and creating visibility for employees who are active.

ERGs also provide a resource for leadership and decision-makers regarding staff/community issues, needs and policies. And ERGs offer to the company their expertise and experiences to improve equality and equity. They can also be an asset in business decisions to make better, more inclusive products and services.

Lastly, ERGs can also support retention because employees are likely to stay with the company longer if they have built or are part of a strong community within the company and feel heard again, this is why why is inclusion important.

Creating an Employee Resource Group

erg diversity

If you or other employees within your organization would like to start an ERG, it can be difficult to know where to start. Below, we outline the steps to get your ERG off the ground.

Align Your ERG with your Organization’s Broader Objectives

For your ERG to be successful, your purpose should be tied to your organization’s overall mission and values. Is your organization focused on giving back to your community? Or is your goal to build a more diverse workforce?

Choose a topic around diversity and inclusion for your employee resource group that aligns with overall company goals. Think about writing a mission statement for your ERG that touches on your organization’s core values. Showing how your ERG advances the overall organizational strategy will help earn support from other areas of the organization.

Secure Executive Support

Executive support for your ERG is essential for continued success. To gain buy-in, find executive or C-suite sponsors who are personally committed to diversity and inclusion or social impact initiatives. Executives are busy and oftentimes metrics focused, so it may be helpful to come with talking points and data that showcase how an ERG will make a positive impact on your organization.

Make sure HR leaders are invested as well, as you will need their support to share ERGs during the new hire onboarding process and in promotional materials for the ERG.

Building Your ERG Team

Before launching the ERG, establish a communication plan and identify benchmarks for success, including long-term goals and potential challenges. Recruit colleagues willing to take on a leadership role, such as committing to a monthly meeting or making time to plan and execute events.

Then, find other like-minded coworkers who are passionate about supporting your ERG. It’s just as important to have members who are willing to participate and spread the word as it is to have leaders and planners.

Deploying Your ERG Program

A strong communications plan is a major component of an employee resource group’s success strategy. You can begin by creating a simple presentation that outlines the ERG’s goals, events and ideas for participation. You can leverage your organization’s marketing team to use your organization’s brand standards to create a logo for the ERG that ties it directly to the organization. This is an effective way to clearly communicate that your ERG is supported by leadership and is an important initiative.

Equipped with your members and materials, generate excitement for the ERG by hosting a company event. Throwing a happy hour — virtually now, because of COVID-19 — is a great way to introduce your ERG’s mission, lay out future events and recruit attendees to grow your group’s core membership.

How Your Organization Can Support Your Employee Resource Group

Your organization can support your employee resource groups in a variety of ways. Your ERG may receive budget and organizational support. However, your organization should not dictate which groups should form, who should join each group or what impact the groups should have. That should be a decision of the group, but it’s important for the organization to provide tools to work towards and measure that success.

This could include charter documentation, purpose workshop, road-mapping templates and exercises, budget tracking tools, support in setting and tracking OKRs, a platform for communication with their group and potential members, visibility within the organization and meetings with senior leadership.

Conclusion

A sense of belonging and inclusion in the workplace is important in order to empower employees and help them bring their whole self to work. Building a strong network or community is a very important step in creating this sense of belonging.

In order to truly empower and support ERGs, it’s important to give the employee resource groups the autonomy to define the scope of their group, to define membership eligibility and most importantly, to define what success means to them.

Succession Planning: Maintaining Talent Continuity

Posted on by edyson

The immediate response to the COVID-19 pandemic by many organizations correctly focused on workplace safety, maintaining business continuity and preserving relationships with key clients and suppliers.

Now, organizations are rebuilding and preparing themselves for the new normal. And, they are taking a good look at their people, processes and systems, including creating or revisiting organizational succession plans.

Establishing a well thought out succession plan is now more important than ever and will continue to be a vital process as baby boomers move into retirement and skills gaps and shortages that were challenges before COVID-19 persist. In this article, we explore best practices for designing and executing a successful succession planning program to help your organization better prepare for workforce disruptions.

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What is Succession Planning?

For some organizations, succession planning simply means making sure there are replacement candidates for key positions. For organizations with a more comprehensive view, succession planning is a systematic process to ensure leadership continuity in key positions, retain and develop institutional knowledge within key employees for the future, encourage individual advancement and ensure the stability or “bench strength” of key personnel.

Having employees identified as backups makes good business sense, as it allows organizations to fill vital roles with qualified successors quickly. A successful succession planning program should align talent management with an organization’s culture, vision and strategies.

Key Benefits of Succession Planning

  • Identify skill gaps and training needs
  • Retain institutional knowledge in a knowledge economy
  • Replace unique or highly specialized competencies

Building Your Succession Planning Team

The role of HR in succession planning should be to support business leaders, facilitate the process and provide tools and guidance along the way. Engaging stakeholders, particularly senior leadership, is critical. As part of the process, you should conduct interviews with them, invite them to take surveys and attend focus groups to get a better understanding of which roles are considered most essential to operations and the future talent needs of your organization

Plan for Both People and Positions

The first step of succession planning begins with identifying which positions your organization should target based on urgency and how critical the roles are to your organization’s operations. Your succession plan should address both specific positions and individuals to ensure you are covering all of your bases.

When identifying individual employees as potential successors for a role, consider the following traits:

  • Flexible and willing to change roles and work environments
  • Interested in professional development and learning new skills
  • A good communicator who works well with other teams and departments

When identifying positions to include in your succession plan, considering the following:

  • Positions central to strategic goals or that can provide you with a competitive advantage during uncertain times
  • Positions that are specific to your organization or industry
  • Positions of influence and leadership within your organization
  • Jobs with long learning curves, training requirements, specialized licenses and certifications
  • Positions that require institutional knowledge and experience

Assessing Successor Candidates

Once critical positions have been identified, it is time for your succession planning team to identify the employees who can potentially fit into those roles when opportunities emerge. But what should your team look for in a potential successor? To answer this question, examine a candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). The three terms seem interchangeable. However, they are distinctly different dimensions of a potential successor’s qualifications.

Knowledge: Focuses on the candidate’s understanding of key theoretical concepts important in the role.

Skills: Skills are the capabilities or hands-on experience needed for the application of theoretical knowledge important for the role.

Abilities: Abilities are the innate traits or talents that a person brings to the role if selected as a successor.

KSAs are the core competencies used when assessing talent and can create a better picture of a potential candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and are useful in paving an organization’s development programs and eventually, a successors’ growth in their new role. 

It is essential for you and your organization to develop a KSA profile of each candidate and see if their attributes align well with a specific role.  

Your succession planning team can start building KSA profiles by asking these three questions: 

  • Where does the organization see the role evolving in the next three to five years? 
  • What unique or specialized competencies are needed to succeed in the role?
  • What qualities should the new successor possesses in order to thrive in the role and meet your organization’s business objectives? 

A successor does not need to be someone who will think, talk and react the same way as the incumbent, you just need to be confident that the candidate can step up to the plate when called upon.

Develop Future Leaders Today

While every job is important, leadership positions within your organization would significantly impact your business if left open for a long period. In fact, according to SHRM’s Selecting Leadership Talent for the 21st-Century Workplace report, the cost of replacing a senior executive can range from $750,000 to $2.5 million, and up to $52 million for a chief executive officer. Leaders will undoubtedly be a significant competitive advantage as your organization rebounds and recovers. This means retaining, developing and leveraging future talent is even more important than it was pre-pandemic.

Your succession planning team, which should include HR and other key members of your executive leadership team, should conduct a thorough review of the skill sets of each member of your leadership team and identify candidates with similar skills who could become potential successors. Your team should also determine skills that you might be missing on your current leadership team and will be needed to emerge successfully from the pandemic and beyond.

PeopleScout Solution Spotlight

Design and delivery of leadership and development centers for a law enforcement agency.

  • Our client’s promotion criteria were historically focused on operational knowledge; we lead a shift in focus to also consider leadership capabilities and behavior.
  • We designed a behavioral framework aligned with national law enforcement standards and local leadership aspirations and organizational values.
  • We led the creation of both operational and behavioral exercises for each rank in the law enforcement agency.
  • We trained talent assessors and developed a digital assessment platform with automated feedback reports to create a more centralized process for succession planning.

Leverage Succession Planning to Retain Institutional Knowledge

According to research conducted by Panopto, 42% of the skills and expertise required to capably perform in a given position will be known only by the person currently in that position. Institutional knowledge is a combination of experiences, processes, data, expertise, cultural values and information possessed by specific employees or teams within your organization. It can span decades and is comprised of your organization’s tangible and intangible knowledge that defines who you are and how you operate. While some of this knowledge gets translated into processes and policies, most of it resides in the heads and hands of individual employees.

For example, what happens if your organization’s top sales manager is decides to take an early retirement or accepts a new position at another organization? Do you have a ready replacement? If yes, do they possess the deep institutional knowledge of your organization needed to rally their team and engage clients effectively?

With succession planning, you can ensure that knowledge sharing can occur concurrently between an employee and their potential successor, giving the successor the unique opportunity to gain useful skills and knowledge without a long, on-the-job learning curve. In the following graphic, we outline best practices for training and developing successor talent.

Training and Development of Successor Candidates

Training and development for potential successor candidates can take many forms and should include both real-life scenarios and classroom-style training. Below are a few common exercises to help ease the candidates into their future roles. 

  • Stretch Assignments: Just like the name implies, the employees will have to complete a set of tasks or assignments that stretch their limits. Examples include leading a special project, being assigned to a challenging task, or chairing a committee. 
  • Job Rotations: Enable successor candidates to rotate and assume different roles to obtain new experiences and learn more about the operations and processes of your organization. 
  • Mentoring and Coaching: Create or leverage existing corporate mentorship programs and pair successor candidates with senior employees to provide candidates with ongoing guidance, deeper insights and career support. 

Communication is Key

Clear and concise communication makes the succession planning strategy much smoother. According to research conducted by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, around 25% of employees in line to take over a key role in an organization did not know they had been chosen for the role. Consider what this might mean — an employee might believe they have no real future at your company and so might make plans elsewhere.

Be sure to inform each employee you have identified as a potential successor — especially in the case of leadership roles — that they have been ear­marked for a future role (without making an outright promise). Take this opportunity to determine if they are interested. While they might be content with their current position, knowing that you see real promise in them might make them feel valued, resulting in better employee retention.

Conclusion

A well-implemented succession plan will give your organization a sense of the investment you will need to make should backups for key positions be necessary. Whether it’s temporary or long-term, employees who are asked to assume greater responsibilities need support. Regularly checking in with employees will make you keenly aware of what they will need to be successful.

Remember, succession planning is not a one-off task. Organizations need to be agile to keep up with the fast-paced and ever-evolving world. You should regularly discuss and reevaluate your strategy with key stakeholders including front-line managers, your executive leadership team and HR leaders to make sure your plan is up to date.

The Importance of Inclusion in Your Diversity Programme

Posted on by jpatel

The seemingly never-ending obstacle course of 2020 has been filled with highs, lows and everything in between — from a landmark ruling for LGBTQ+ workers to an international awakening to systemic racism and a global pandemic that has impacted the lives of millions. As organisations around the world face a future more unpredictable than ever before, one thing remains certain: the business case for diversity and inclusion (D&I) is stronger than ever. 

In order to face unique challenges, organisations will need unique thinking, the kind that only comes with a truly diverse team — whether in age, gender, sexuality, race or otherwise. According to a report from the World Economic Forum, companies with above-average diversity scores report nearly 20% higher revenue due to innovation. Moreover, this article from The Conversation cites research from more than 300 Australian studies that conclusively shows how workplace racism has a direct, detrimental impact on performance, accounting for an estimated 3% loss in average annual gross domestic product. 

That said, the driving motivators for organisations to foster effective D&I programmes should not be focused only on performance metrics, but rather the desire to make employees feel represented, understood, respected and cared for. While most companies are able to increase their level of diversity, they struggle with cultivating a culture in which those diverse voices are heard — leaving room for improvement in their inclusion efforts. 

D&I: Defined 

Diversity and inclusion in the workplace has been a hot topic for years, so why does it often seem like minimal meaningful change has occurred? Unfortunately, the downfall for many organisations is the misinterpretation that diversity and inclusion are synonymous. To avoid making this mistake, it is important to understand the difference between diversity and inclusion, to better understand why it’s time to shift focus to the latter. 

The definition for diversity is relatively straightforward, and simple enough for most organisations to achieve by tracking demographics and collecting concrete data to ensure they hire and promote people of varying backgrounds. 

However, the definition for inclusion is more difficult to effectively measure results against because every organisation can interpret words like “including” and “accommodating” differently.  

According to Deloitte, “without a shared understanding of inclusion, people are prone to miscommunication, progress cannot be reliably evaluated, leaders can’t be held accountable and organisations default to counting diversity numbers.” 

Deloitte goes a step further by using its research to create a holistic definition comprised of four distinct yet connected elements:  

  • Fairness and respect: The starting point for effective inclusion is ensuring people are treated equitably and with respect — in both nondiscrimination and basic courtesy.  
  • Valued and belonging: People will feel included when they believe their authentic self is valued by others and they feel a sense of connectedness with their peers. 
  • Safe and open: Inclusion is experienced when people feel safe to speak up without any fear of embarrassment or retaliation. 
  • Empowered and growing: True inclusion happens when people feel empowered to grow in their role and do their best work — diversity of thinking can emerge.  

By looking at the depth of these definitions, it’s clear that building and maintaining an effective inclusion programme requires considerably more time and effort than it does to reformat a hiring process to increase diversity. While diversity can be measured and those metrics can be used to set and achieve goals, inclusion calls for a continuous cultural reset.  

Inclusion Requires Action 

In a 2020 report by McKinsey & Company, data from three industries with the highest levels of executive-team diversity — financial services, technology and healthcare — showed that “while overall [employee] sentiment on diversity was 52% positive and 31% negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse, at only 29% positive and 61% negative.” Furthermore, the levels of negative sentiment about equality and fairness of opportunity, key indicators of inclusion, were also particularly high — proving that even more diverse companies struggle with effective inclusion.  

So, what are some steps organisations can take toward fostering better inclusion? To gain some insight, LinkedIn asked Black talent leaders their thoughts on what talent acquisition teams can do to accelerate diversity and inclusion. Here are three of their tactics: 

Change how and where you look for talent  

This starts with having diverse recruiting teams. Having recruiters from a wide variety of backgrounds will help employers change the way they think about how and where they find talent — shifting their sourcing beyond the geographies, companies and schools they’ve become accustomed to. 

Make a “top-down investment” in diverse employees 

To build diversity into the succession plan, organisations should invest time, money, training and executive sponsorship into their diversity efforts, ensuring representation across the business. By hiring and promoting diverse talent, an organisation sends a message of inclusion that ripples throughout the company and into the industry — positioning you as an inclusive workplace that recognises the value of diverse talent. 

Leverage the power of remote work  

Continuing distributed work strategies beyond the current crisis will allow recruiting teams to source, engage and hire talent where they are. Organisations will no longer be limited to talent that lives in the same geographies as their physical offices, meaning they can expand their scope to locations that are historically diverse.  

These tactics may seem like large feats, and that’s because they are. Building an organisation that is truly diverse and inclusive is a huge undertaking that takes time, effort and serious commitment. While you work on the organisational overhaul, keep in mind that there are also some smaller steps you can take along the way: 

  • Provide resources. Inclusion can’t be mandated; it requires the “changing of hearts and minds.” Organisations can do their part by encouraging open dialogue and providing educational resources, like this anti-racist reading list from DiversityInc. 
  • Break up cliques. We are naturally drawn toward others who are like us, which can often result in cliques. Create opportunities to position employees outside of their comfort zone and into work groups made up of people with various backgrounds. 
  • Form inclusive groups. Create a dedicated task force focused on updating policies that promote your company’s values. Project Include offers more suggestions for creating systemic inclusion here. 
  • Offer professional development. Offering development programmes and mentorship opportunities to underrepresented employees who may have a steeper hill to climb can help them in their career ascent.  
  • Showcase diverse talent. Representation matters, and employees and candidates will understand how you value diverse talent when you celebrate and share their stories. 

A Continuous Journey 

It can be easy to get lost in the mindset that inclusion is a “one and done” activity. That mindset has a certain allure, because it would mean we could all rest assured knowing we’ve created a workforce that is 100% diverse and effectively inclusive. In reality, inclusion is a continuous journey that requires a concerted effort, focus and determination to effect meaningful change. You can think of it like a long road trip — one that requires multiple checkpoints, refuels and stops to check you’re still going in the right direction. To ensure you’re always on the correct path, it can be helpful to perform a regular inclusion audit that asks: 

  • Does the organisation have a continuous representation of diverse talent? 
  • Is diverse talent represented in leadership roles? 
  • Is there room to remove bias in the hiring process? Promotion process? 
  • Are we listening to employee concerns? 
  • Are we regularly surveying employee sentiment on D&I? 
  • Do we know what’s working? What isn’t? 
  • Have we asked employees what they want and need? 

It’s clear that simply hiring diverse talent is not enough. While it’s a start, it’s only part of the solution. Workplace experience and true inclusion is what will help employees feel represented and valued, leading to diverse hires that stay, grow and thrive. The road ahead is a long one, but by implementing the strategies outlined in this article, your organisation will be well on its way toward a better diverse and inclusive workplace. 

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)

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.

Talking Talent: Building a Healthy, Authentic Company Culture

Posted on by nfuqua

In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about company culture – why it’s important, how to build one that attracts the employees you want to hire and what you can do to embrace authenticity.

Right now, your company culture is especially important. COVID-19 has changed the way we’ve all worked. A strong culture can help support your employees’ mental health throughout this crisis, and in the long term, it can help with a robust recovery by helping you hire and retain the best talent.

In this episode, we hear from three experts. The first is Vanessa Hawes, Senior Employer Brand & Communications Strategist at PeopleScout

As a member of PeopleScout’s talent advisory practice, Vanessa supports our clients to effectively launch, embed, manage and measure their employer brand. Vanessa leads a number of strategic employer brand accounts, as well as supporting the RPO division and PeopleScout globally. Vanessa takes an active interest in inclusion and diversity, especially female representation in business and STEM and social mobility.

The second is Frances-Leigh Husband, Sales Manager at Guardian Jobs.

In her role, Frances heads up both the Guardian Jobs public services and client relationship teams. With more than 15 years of experience at the Guardian, she has overseen the evolution of the digital business model and developed a sales strategy which has produced new revenue streams and delivering growth.

Finally, we’re joined by Helen Durkin, the EMEA Employer Brand Program Manager at Indeed.

In her role, she responsible for building Indeed’s employer brand reputation and owning the content and advertising strategy across EMEA. With more than 10 years in the industry, Helen has experienced most of the challenges within the employer branding space. Helen has won awards for her work—and even served as an award judge herself, so she knows her stuff.

We recorded this podcast earlier this year, before the COVID-19 crisis had impacted much of the world, but we believe the insights are still valuable and relevant today.