Talent Acquisition Strategy Archives - Page 21 of 27

Global Implementation: Is Your Talent Programme Ready for the World Stage?

Posted on January 13, 2020January 3, 2023 by skatz

The shift toward global expansion is top of mind in many of today’s organisations, and for good reason: going global brings opportunities that may otherwise go untapped – such as new revenue sources, cultural diversification, economies of scale and greater access to talent. So, as your talent programme grows, you may be considering expanding beyond your current borders.

Similar to traveling internationally, there are many steps to taking your business’ talent acquisition programme global. As you plan for a trip abroad, you may make a packing checklist, get your passport and prepare accommodations. There’s anticipation as you near your trip date, and even some nerves as you take flight. You don’t quite know what to expect, but you’re excited about the possibilities of what you’ll discover. After an invigorating visit, you recount your trip and replay all you’ve experienced – good and bad. Global talent acquisition deployments are similar, and in this article, we’ll outline factors to consider throughout the different stages of implementation.

Choosing Your Global Talent Acquisition Deployment Type

The first item on any traveler’s checklist is determining where to go. When it comes to global implementations, get a good handle on the location or locations you’ll be expanding into before taking off. After considering talent supply, cultural nuances and how easy (or difficult!) it is to do business in a certain location, selecting a deployment type should be straightforward.

There are two main types of global talent acquisition deployments:

“Big Bang” Approach: If you opt for this method, you’ll be launching all operations at one time on a singular date. This might be the choice for you if the main goal is compliance with global policies and procedures that align with a specific set of dates and standards.
Phased Approach: This type of deployment type favors a slower rollout of operations over time – which might be helpful for first-generation managed service provider (MSP), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) or total workforce solutions programmes that you want your organisation to ease into.

Factors to Consider

After choosing a travel destination, you’ll start looking into the details of the location you’re visiting. What’s the weather like? What language do people speak? Where are the best food spots in town? In essence, seemingly small aspects tend to have large effects on the success of your trip. Likewise, once you’ve taken all of the initial expansion considerations into account, you’re better equipped to further assess pivotal factors that will greatly influence the success of the overall deployment, including the following significant global and local influencers.

Key Stakeholder Identification & Support Capacity

It’s crucial to align organisational expansion plans with regional cultural norms and any specific local nuances. For example, when initially organising the details, are there any types of communication styles that are considered rude or offensive? This is crucial to ascertain for positive programme adoption from the start. Also, be sure to frame that local focus to stakeholders, as opposed to communicating a message that essentially states that a new programme will be laid over local operations. Stress the fact that you’ll be interweaving existing operations with new features and benefits to ensure maximum success for the programme and all involved.

Additionally, focus on ensuring that all voices are heard – from local teams to individual hiring managers – to avoid any passive resistance; you’ll want to fully understand how people work in that particular location and what day-to-day norms mean to ensure the success of the programme. Try putting yourself in the shoes of the end-user; a seemingly simple concept like shadowing can go a long way in showing the local constituency that you’re invested in the success of the programme at their specific location.

Availability of Talent

We’re currently seeing low unemployment rates paired with skills shortages across the globe– a trend we haven’t seen consistently in the past. Because of this, consider shifting your focus to soft skills when it comes to assessing the talent landscape in a given region. This means concentrating on skills like critical thinking, problem solving and adaptability to new environments. No matter whether you’re introducing a new industry to the area, carefully decipher what the competition for talent looks like. From there, you can start developing a well-thought-out sourcing plan to align the resources necessary for a successful deployment.

Change Management and Global Talent Acquisition

When done right, change management can have the greatest effect on deployment success. A critical component of managing change in global talent acquisition implementations is gaining buy-in from key, local stakeholders. Then, you can depend on these stakeholders to translate (literally and figuratively), the feedback needed to take into consideration.

Another vital part of managing change is ensuring the right amount of frequency to ensure consistent alignment. Rather than one initial message followed by months of silence leading up to the “go-live” communication, consider a layering approach. Keep communications frequent, consistent and to the point to get people excited about what’s coming and interested in what the changes mean for them.

And, as important as it is to keep communication consistent as you prepare for launch, it’s just as critical post-launch. Reinforce the benefits people should be seeing, ensuring everyone is comfortable with the changes and collecting feedback around any training or functionality that may need revisiting. A high level of communication and comfort translates into successful programme adoption.

For more on change management, check out our Talking Talent Podcast.

Technology Readiness

When it comes to talent technology, several different factors need to be considered. For an MSP programme, the main component is the vendor management system (VMS). Along the same lines, with an RPO program, you’ll be focused on the applicant tracking system (ATS) and any other systems that may need to be integrated for either or both. Similar systems may be utilised across an organisation with varying local versions, so it’s important to understand what consistencies exist, as well as gaps that need to be addressed.

Ensure the pros and cons are carefully weighed across the systems the technology will interface with, then try to choose one as a “source of truth” for compliance, data validation, and data integrity. In doing so, you’ll see consistency across the talent technology, giving you a true, holistic view of the workforce when it comes to analytics and reporting.

Finance & Tax

What’s important here – and heavily dependent upon the workforce population at hand – is ensuring that there are clear visibility and guidance around cross-border implications, such as supplier and provider payments, global and statutory requirements, or arrangements in which a hiring manager sits in a different location than the resource. This becomes especially important when there is an integration with an invoicing system and effects on back-office operations.

The Stages of a Global Talent Acquisition Launch

After months of preparation, you’re finally leaving for your much-anticipated trip. You just have to check in to your flight, print your boarding pass and you’re on your way! After a two-week experience you’ll never forget, you return home to tell your friends and family every detail of your getaway (even down to the hotel mishap on night three). Your global deployment will go through similar stages, as outlined below.

Pre-launch

At the pre-launch stage, all stakeholders should have a good working knowledge of what’s coming and when, and you should have a good sense of how everyone is feeling. Are people comfortable with what’s coming? Are they ready for it? What needs to be adjusted now based on the feedback collected?

Ensure that all technology components are operating as planned, and that enough time has been dedicated to testing different scenarios that will be realised upon launch. The quickest way to do this is by running through predetermined scripts and observing how the technology responds. If time allows, some organisations also subscribe to a “break the system” approach by trying out every possible or one-off scenario – including erroneous field data – to assess the outcome. While this takes more time, it also tends to be the most thorough, especially if multiple technologies are at play.

Successful Launch

When it comes to executing a successful launch, the biggest components are represented above. As you progress in the implementation, it’s wise to consistently refine change management, calibrate resource alignment and pivot as needed, so as not to lose momentum as progress is made. Remember to share successes along the way, and not to lose sight of the overall goals of the programme.

Furthermore, whether you’re evolving your programme or expanding into additional locations, consider the overall maturity of the labor market and generation of the programme you’re launching. For instance, if this is a second-generation programme, what do you need to consider from the first launch and potentially change? It’s also important to communicate the fact that unexpected issues may arise and, if they do, it’s critical to address these obstacles transparently.

Post Launch

Once the programme expansion has launched, consider the following recommendations:

Dedicate time to complete a thorough audit: Assess how well the goals were met, taking into account that they may have changed over time.
Schedule a “lessons learned” meeting: Identify and capitalise on best practices acquired throughout the launch.
Check in at all levels of the operation: Work to understand what is and isn’t working.

As data starts coming in regularly, analyse for trends that may not have been visible before to determine any adjustments that need to be made related to resources, processes or technology.

After any trip, you spend some time at home reliving the experience and getting reassimilated with your day-to-day life. You think about what you did and didn’t like, go over what you learned, and naturally, decide whether you want to take another trip. Maybe the destination was so great that you want to go back, or perhaps you’re ready for something new. Global talent acquisition implementations are similar, and whether you’ve met your needs with one deployment or are planning for further expansion, the right talent partner can help take you there.

Finding the Right Partner

Choosing a partner to help you through your global talent acquisition deployment is like choosing an airline. Are they reputable? Dependable? Can they get you where you need to be? Most important, can you trust them with your bags? When you’re looking into viable partners to work with for your implementation, ask yourself:

Do they align with our business needs?
Will they deliver value across every level of the organisation?
Are they flexible?
Do they have any proven standards?
Do they have the ability and experience to tailor operations as needed?

Don’t be shy about asking your potential talent partner to prove their value. Request case studies and demonstrated expertise that illustrates that they have the experience you’re looking for. Finding a partner that is a good fit for your organisation is a huge undertaking and you want to make sure you get it right. You’ll likely be working with them for a long period of time, and the success of your implementation will depend on the strength of your relationship and the trust you have in your partner.

Openreach: Helping Thousands of Engineers Fall in Love with Video Interviews

Posted on January 3, 2020January 2, 2024 by

Openreach’s engineers build the communications network that connects millions of homes and businesses across the UK. They needed nothing short of 1200 Trainee Engineers
in a number of major cities to join their development scheme, all while overhauling their video interview process at the same time.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

New visual guide for interview process
Integrated multi-platform content
New feedback form based on key insights

SCOPE & SCALE

Openreach’s expanding network and customer base of 32 million people made for significant recruitment numbers. Their ambitious target of 1200 new Trainee Engineers was split across the country and concentrated around key metropolitan areas like London.

SITUATION

The challenge we faced was in the recruitment process itself. Every candidate needed to complete a video interview as part of their application – with an average completion rate of 55%, it was clear the existing content wasn’t engaging the candidate pool effectively.

SOLUTION

Improving the candidate experience was therefore essential. Our aim was to break down preconceptions of video interviews, better informing candidates and giving them confidence in the process. Working closely with the Recruitment Delivery team, a visual guide was produced. The cross-team collaboration was vital to the project’s success, combining a wide range of knowledge and expertise. On top of this, the content was rooted in candidate feedback received by our recruitment coordinators.

RESULTS

The improvements were immediate. In the month that followed the guide’s publication, interview completion rose to 71%, up 16% overall. The pass rate significantly increased
as well, rising from 39% to 47%, along with improvements in approximate page views over the same period. All of this represented a breakthrough and victory for Openreach, and the quantitative data was complimented by candidate feedback: 100% of survey responses were positive, with 95% of responders rating the guide ‘very helpful’, the highest score available.

Talking Talent: Talent Acquisition in 2020 with Madeline Laurano

Posted on October 11, 2019July 14, 2023 by skatz

Does your talent acquisition programme spark joy? If not, Madeline Laurano is here to help. Laurano is the co-founder of Aptitude Research, a research firm focused on talent acquisition. Based on her proprietary research, Laurano sees a talent acquisition landscape that is crowded and complex. During her keynote presentation at PeopleScout’s 2019 NEXT Talent Summit, she focused on simplifying the process.

Every year, Aptitude Research conducts three major surveys to gather qualitative and quantitative data about the talent acquisition landscape – from the biggest challenges facing recruiting teams to how leaders in the field are integrating innovative technology into their programmes. We spoke with Laurano about the trends she uncovered in her surveys and how she applies the “Marie Kondo” method to talent acquisition and talent technology.

What is the biggest challenge in talent acquisition today?

The biggest challenge across organisations of all sizes and industries is that talent acquisition has become so incredibly complex. We have new technology solutions; vendors entering the industry that provides everything from employer branding to innovative assessments; and organisations that need to expand the skills and breadth of knowledge on their talent acquisition teams. While this presents exciting opportunities, at the same time, it’s creating a lot of challenges. We have to be able to manage all of these different priorities while making sense of the technology we’re using and the strategies in place.

How do you determine which talent technology solutions are the right fit for your organisation?

It’s going to be a little bit different for every company, but it’s best to start at a very basic level. Every organisation needs an ATS, an onboarding system and some type of recruitment marketing platform. That’s what I call the trifecta. Every organisation of every size should have that. Those three systems must be in place to make sure that you have a way of engaging, tracking and managing talent. That’s the basic tech stack.

After that, it’s important to look at what you need to support your needs – whether it’s automation, enhancing communication, providing stronger branding, or sourcing and assessing candidates. Most organisations have screening and assessment solutions. We’re seeing more and more companies using some type of interview management system. Then, there are a lot of sourcing and branding solutions.

I think we need to simplify the talent technology ecosystem as much as possible. That comes down to building the best trifecta – the basic tech stack – and strategically adding additional technology where it will have the greatest significance. There are companies that pull together all of these disparate solutions into one unified technology; PeopleScout’s Affinix^TMis a great example of that.

When you’re looking at technology partners, how do you determine if they are the right fit? What kind of questions should you ask, and what should you look for?

It’s really looking beyond just a demo and beyond what’s on somebody’s website. I evaluate technology partners using four buckets: company, product, differentiators and roadmap.

First, I like to ask, “What are the company’s values? What’s the strength of their leadership team? How many employees do they have? How many employees are focused on research and development? What does their customer base look like? Who is their target customer?”

The next piece involves looking at the product, getting into technical questions, and thinking about things like mobile compatibility, the suite of services and the languages that are supported.

Then, it’s about the differentiators. I like to ask technology providers to explain what their differentiators are, and then – after going through the process and understanding what they do – figuring out if I’m seeing the same differentiators. That can be very telling.

The final piece is asking about the roadmap. “What’s planned for the future? Is this a provider truly invested in making enhancements and providing flexibility to organisations?”

How do you simplify your talent acquisition process? What does simplified look like?

We’ve heard of Marie Kondo and her method for organising and decluttering our homes. I think organisations need to take that approach to talent acquisition. This is especially relevant when it comes to talent acquisition technology. Companies are using so many different providers to accomplish certain goals – our research shows it’s an average of 30. When you have so many solutions, you don’t have consistent data sets to look at, so it’s hard to know what’s working and what isn’t.

Leaders need to be able to figure out what talent technology their organisation needs, how it’s going to be used, and how they can narrow down the list of providers to only those that are most effective. As an example, when it comes to recruitment marketing, a lot of companies are using several different vendors within their organisation; only 2% of companies are using all of the capabilities provided by each tool. Leaders need to look at what’s not working and think about a provider that can support the organisation with a more holistic strategy.

What advice can you share with talent acquisition leaders who are looking ahead to 2020?

When it comes to making your talent acquisition programme more manageable and simplifying your technology stack, think about which providers are truly partners and able to support you in many different ways. That’s really important.

Then, think about what skills you need to make your talent acquisition function successful, whether it’s digital expertise, data scientists or more employer branding services. Focus on how you can either bring those onto your team or find an outside provider to partner with you.

The final piece is thinking about embracing some of the areas that haven’t traditionally been part of a talent acquisition function, taking ownership and being a champion for them. Employer branding is one example. We’ve seen a lot of talent acquisition leaders and professionals embrace branding and become experts in that area. Data analytics is another. By advocating for solutions in these specialised areas, talent acquisition leaders move their programme ahead of the competition.

Finally, have fun! There’s so much in talent acquisition that can feel tactically overwhelming, but advocating for new solutions is empowering. So much is changing, but with that change, we’re seeing exciting opportunities for improved data, robust employer branding and more. This is an amasing industry to be in, and we can’t forget that.

What’s Next in Talent Acquisition

Posted on September 20, 2019January 3, 2023 by skatz

Let’s face it – we live in an ever-changing world, where one of the biggest challenges is keeping up with the latest trend.

For an update on talent acquisition trends, PeopleScout hosted Madeline Laurano, talent analyst and founder of Aptitude Research, at our North American Talent Summit. Laurano spoke on the top trends she is seeing through her qualitative and quantitative research, and provided clarity on the crowded market.

Laurano shared that the current state of talent acquisition has fundamentally shifted due to the record increase in job openings and decrease in the available talent pool. This contributes to the rise of competition for talent across industries and the tremendous pressure organisations face to find the right talent.

Laurano presented a few key solutions to aid in managing this overarching challenge, including strengthening employer branding, simplifying your talent strategy with technology, improving candidate communication, using data to drive decisions and exploring total workforce solutions.

In this article, we’ll walk through Laurano’s report on the current state of talent acquisition, and dive into how a focus on employer branding can help you stay on top of the trends in talent acquisition.

Current State & Challenges

Laurano’s research shows a fundamental shift in talent acquisition over the past few years, which she attributes to changing market conditions. The numbers prove it – there’s a high demand for skills and a low supply of candidates, which increases both competition for talent and the cost of a quality hire.

High Demand for Skills

Nearly half of U.S. employers attribute unfilled job openings to a lack of qualified candidates. Additionally, 75% of human resource professionals who have recruiting difficulty say there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. However, 74% of organisations are investing just $500 per employee on training and development between upskilling and reskilling.

The skills gap is widening particularly for IT, healthcare, manufacturing and really any industry that has specialised or technical roles. Based on her research, Laurano recommends that organisations invest in technology and digital roles to foster ideas and monitor industry trends. More than 5 million jobs in information technology are expected to be added globally by 2027.

Low Supply of Candidates

“Statistics show employers are having a difficult time filling job openings and are competing across industries for talent, which is a major challenge in the industry and one we haven’t seen before,” Laurano said.

A 2017 PWC survey of CEOs found that 77% said the greatest threat to organisations was the availability of talent. The unemployment rate is at a record-low 3.7% in the U.S., with 106 months of continuous job growth – the longest stretch in the nation’s history. Canada ended the first half of the year with an unemployment rate of 5.5%, and many leading European and Asia Pacific economies posted strong job gains and continued low unemployment.

Quality of Hires

Laurano’s 2019 Quality of Hire Trends Report states that only 26% of organisations in her study have a formal methodology for defining quality of hire; one in three of those organisations said that they’re interested in tracking quality of hire, but they don’t know how to start. Therefore, there’s a lot of opportunity to improve how we calculate quality of hire.

Ultimately, organisations have to rethink their strategies and technology to attract the right candidates for them. So, how do organisations stay on top of these trends? Laurano says strengthening employer branding is one important way.

Strengthening Employer Branding

As a reminder, your employer brand is the perception and lived experiences of what it’s like to work for your organisation. It also incorporates your employee value proposition (EVP), which captures the essence of your uniqueness as an employer and the give and get between you and your employees.

In her presentation, Laurano discussed the importance of strengthening employer branding as one way to stand out in the crowded market. As research shows, many organisations are investing plenty of resources into employer branding, but there is still room for improvement. As Laurano’s research shows, 62% of organisations invest in employer branding, however:

One out of four organisations is unsure about its employer branding.
50% of organisations are unhappy with their employer branding tools.
37% of talent acquisition and recruitment specialists consider their knowledge of their employer brand as “weak” or “getting by” – despite it being identified as an area of critical importance.

Industry research agrees with Laurano, as one study shows that companies with stronger employer brands see a 43% decrease on average in the cost per candidate they hire, compared to their competitors. Additionally, when organisations specifically in the U.S. live up to their marketed EVP, new employees arrive with a higher level of commitment at 38%, compared to organisations that do not live up to their marketed EVP, which is at just 9%.

Digital Transformation

As Laurano noted, the digital space is a major aspect to consider in talent acquisition and employer branding. Whether it’s introducing digital or data specialist roles, the skills associated with those jobs assist organisations in recognising their weaker areas and providing innovative ideas to capture their intended audiences. Laurano recommends incorporating the digital role heavily in your talent solution and to improve messaging. “Go where your candidates are,” she says. And, for the most part, that is the digital space. Research confirms this concept:

In a U.S. survey, recruiters said the top investments for growing an employer brand were: social media (47%), company career website (21%), and marketing and advertising (12%).
Social media is used by 59% of candidates to research organisations in which they’re interested.

Reactive vs. Proactive Recruiting Strategy

In Laurano’s presentation, she emphasised the value of organisations nurturing talent before they apply, or a proactive versus reactive approach:

Reactive

“If we were to take the reactive recruiting approach and turn it into a funnel, it might look something like the diagram above. Sourcers fill up the talent pipeline while recruiters manage the selection process on behalf of the organisation. However, there is no one working on behalf of the candidate and no real engagement process at the top of the funnel. As a result, the recruiter spends more time on screening résumés, phone screens, etc.”

Proactive

“If we flip the time allocation where recruiters spend less time on screening and focus on ensuring they have targeted, qualified candidates to begin with, the results would differ. There would be a higher rate of effectiveness by investing in relationship-building with targeted pools of talent, as opposed to a reactive, start-stop recruiting approach.”

Additional research only reinforces the proactive method, as 67% of employed American adults agree that the application, interview or offer process would make or break their decision on whether to take a job.

Global Aspect

Employer branding is difficult for global organisations, as it’s not always about the organisation, but also the specific location, as well, which can get complicated. The core of your employer brand should start with a universal truth, but effective employers will also create messaging that speaks directly to different audiences and geographies. Laurano suggests a need for transparency for global organisations, as well as local flexibility and solutions to strengthen your employer branding.

What’s Next for Your Talent Solution?

Keeping up with the latest trends can be challenging to say the least, especially in the talent industry. Laurano’s research into the fundamental shift in talent acquisition provided some key insights and solutions that are beneficial when combating such rapid changes.

About the Expert

Madeline Laurano’s primary focus during the last 12+ years has been on the talent management market, specialising in talent acquisition. Her insights are based on her work as an analyst and advisor in the human capital space and her latest research with HR and talent acquisition practitioners. Laurano’s work helps companies both validate and reevaluate their strategies and understand the role technology can play in driving business outcomes. Before Aptitude Research, Laurano held research roles at Aberdeen, Bersin by Deloitte, ERE Media and Brandon Hall Group. She is co-author of “Best Practices in Leading a Global Workforce,” and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Yahoo News, and The Financial Times. She is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, including the HR Technology Conference and Exposition, SHRM, IHRIM, HCI’s Strategic Talent Acquisition conference, GDS International’s HCM Summit, and HRO Today. Visit her website at https://www.aptituderesearch.com.

Increasing Retention: Through the First 90 Days & Beyond

Posted on September 19, 2019January 3, 2023 by skatz

If you’re only focused on recruitment but not retention, you’re throwing away money.

According to Forbes, the cost of replacing an employee can range anywhere from 50% of the salary of an entry-level employee to more than 200% of the salary of a senior executive. Increasing retention – even by just a couple of percentage points – can save millions of dollars each year.

I think “engagement” and “retention” are just different words for the same thing. If you want to retain people, you need to engage them, and you should start as early as possible. Recent surveys have found that about 30% of job-seekers have left a job within the first 90 days of hiring. Despite this, most onboarding programmes are too short. According to SHRM, nearly 40% of onboarding programmes last one week or less.

This is important across the talent spectrum. In extreme-burnout, high-volume roles, culture counts. Rather than just dealing with unwanted turnover, you need to onboard employees to your culture early. You need them to be invested with you so they have a reason to stay.

On the other end of the spectrum, I consistently see specialised, rock-star candidates deflate when they become new employees. During the recruitment process, they are engaged and excited for a new role. But, when there is no onboarding process, they are left on their own – unengaged and more likely to respond to the next recruiter that pops into their inbox.

In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up an onboarding programme that builds engagement from day one. Then, I’ll share strategies on how you can continue to measure that engagement and build it further.

The 90-Day Onboarding Programme

A well-developed onboarding programme for the first 90 days makes all the difference in the world when it comes to engagement and retention. When new employees start on day one, they have a lot of expectations, and they’re excited. However, many employers forget how critical the first impression is to a new hire.

For many organisations, the onboarding programme starts and ends an employee’s first day with HR basics. Employees fill out paperwork, get a badge, find their desks, complete a training and often receive some sort of handbook. That’s it. Employees are left without any idea of what their first 90 days will look like. In some cases, employees go home from that first day not even knowing what’s in store for day two. These programmes are set up by default. They’re easy, and they’ve often been in place for a long time.

I recommend a 90-day programme that is designed to give the employee control over their onboarding experience. When a person owns their career experience and expectations are clear from the beginning, they are more likely to stay. They will be set up for success in those first 90 days and beyond.

The Background

I like to think of a new employee’s first 90 days in three phases.

Phase 1: Shadowing

Phase one is often the first 30 days a new employee is at an organisation. They are integrating themselves into your organisation and absorbing your company culture, structure and processes. They’re learning what their own role entails and what’s expected of them.

Phase 2: Reflecting Back

Phase two takes place during days 30 through 60. The new employee is taking the information they learned in the first 30 days to start developing and sharing their own ideas. However, they are doing this cautiously, looking for feedback and checking to see how their role fits in the organisation.

Phase 3: Starting to Soar

In phase three, or days 60 through 90, the employee is taking more freedom and action on their own, but still checking in with some regularity. As they transition out of this phase, they have a base where they know who to go to and how the organisation operates, but they are taking control over their own career.

Building the Programme

As employers build an onboarding programme, I encourage them to think of it as a 360, where they introduce the employee to everything they will touch and be touched by at an organisation. To do this, employers need to ask two questions:

What tools, technology and equipment does the new hire need to do their job?

Most organisations have some sort of onboarding programme to get a new employee acquainted with the tools they need, but they fall short on the second question:

What processes and people does the new hire need to know to do their job?

We can break this question down into more pieces. Who is the new employee going to interact with? Who are they going to learn from? Will they have a mentor? Who will they go to for what kinds of information or resources? What is the operating philosophy at this organisation and in different departments? What are the fastest and most efficient ways to navigate this organisation?

Your onboarding programme should provide a new hire with the answers to both of these questions and empower them to take control of their role.

A Programme That Empowers

In many organisations, it’s unusual for companies to give a new hire control of their onboarding process, but I recommend creating an onboarding plan and handing it over. With that plan and the right guidance, employees will be engaged in their own career success from day one.

However, that doesn’t mean they are on their own. There’s a lot of hand-to-hand or shoulder-to-shoulder work that has to take place. If you have people working virtually, video is important. You can gauge someone’s total emotional responses. You can see if they’re learning and absorbing. Make sure you can see each other more than once or twice in the first 90 days. It makes new virtual employees feel like part of the team.

As a best practice, I encourage one-on-one, short meetings with key team members. This can be as short as 15 minutes. Managers should provide a new hire with a guide to what their first 90 days will look like – who they are going to meet with, where they are going to get the things they are going to need, and access to people’s calendars. In these meetings, the new hire can learn team members’ responsibilities, processes and philosophies, and can also share information about themselves. These conversations help facilitate better working relationships.

Instead of relying on traditional trainings for critical material, I encourage different interactive teaching styles so the new hire can absorb and apply the knowledge. This could be training on technology, best practices for outward-facing roles, or company culture – things that are tempting to stick in a guidebook or slide deck. However, because people often don’t retain information well from passive, instructor-led training, challenge the status quo and explore better ways to deliver training.

Transitioning Out

The transition out of the formal onboarding period should also be included in the onboarding plan you provide new employees. When you empower them to take control of the process, it should be simple. In the last 30 days, the new employee should already be starting to soar in their role, and check-ins will be less frequent. However, for some strategic roles, the process may take longer than 90 days.

What About New Promotions?

I also recommend using this same approach with people who are promoted from within. While most employers typically have at least a very basic onboarding programme, newly promoted employees are rarely given any onboarding support. You can use the same strategies, but I recommend – at the very minimum – an abbreviated version.

How to Measure Engagement & What to Do With the Numbers

We know what engagement feels like. When you walk into a workplace with an engaged workforce, you can feel the positive energy. When you walk into a workplace with a disengaged workforce, you want to turn around and walk back out the door.

Your battle for engagement may start with the onboarding process, but it doesn’t end there. Once, I took over a company for a founder and morale was really low. We measured it, and it was a three out of 10. Within six months, we scored it again and we were at a seven out of 10. When engagement is low, you need to measure and then act.

Measuring Engagement Effectively

There are so many engagement tools out there, but I say: just keep it simple. Measure engagement consistently, do it on a frequency that makes sense for your organisation, share the results, and share what you’re willing to do about the results.

Most companies have some form of employee survey, and tons will do these surveys once a year like clockwork, but they don’t do anything with the results. If you’re going to survey people and do nothing with it, don’t survey at all. You actually do more harm to yourself and to your employees because you’re demonstrating that their wants, needs and engagement don’t matter.

First, ask for the right information. There are three areas I always recommend:

Do you know what is expected of you at work?
Do you have the tools that you need to do your work?
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best at work?

From there, you can ask more specific questions related to your organisation or changes you are considering making, but only ask about areas where you are willing to make changes. You can ask more simple questions to make early wins. For instance, you could ask about upward mobility, career pathing or development – if you’re prepared to put something in place to address it.

Then, publish your results. You don’t have to share every detail, but you do have to publish the themes, and you do have to be authentic. If the results aren’t great, people already know that. However, it gives you an opportunity to demonstrate that you hear your employees and are willing to make changes to address their concerns.

Building a Pulse Team

I also like to create what is called a pulse team – the culture team for your company. The team should be a cross-functional group of key stakeholders – not executives. The group can pulse what’s going on, how people are feeling, if they are supported, if they are happy and if they are productive.

The pulse team reports up and out to the executive team on a frequent basis – many do it quarterly, but some companies even have it monthly. This gives everybody a pulse on what’s happening on the ground, especially if an organisation is virtual or global. Then, leaders have a chance to understand when something isn’t going well and address it.

Organisational Influences

When you take time to follow these steps – building an onboarding program, measuring for engagement and responding, your people are more likely to become invested in your organisation. They can see their career path. They can see that your organisation cares. There’s depth and predictability. All of that increases engagement, which increases retention.

Recall what I said at the start of this article: engagement and retention are just different words for the same thing. To increase both, you need to start with the first 90days, and you can’t stop.

About the Expert

Dana Look-Arimoto is a mentor, speaker and change agent. Dana has more than 20 years of experience in the talent ecosystem. She’s created Phoenix⁵ to evangelise a new mindset: Stop Settling™. She coaches executives and leaders of all kinds to become their all in every part of their life: work, home, community and giving back. Dana also recently released the book, “Stop Settling, Settle Smart: Rethinking Work-life Balance, Redesign Your Busy Life.”

Talking Talent: Growing Pains – Change Management in RPO

Posted on August 30, 2019July 14, 2023 by nfuqua

In this episode, we talk about change management while implementing a new RPO programme.

No matter the context, change is hard, but it’s also necessary for improvement. Whether it’s sore muscles after a new workout or frustrations as teams learn new, more efficient systems, it’s impossible to improve without at least things getting at least a little bit hard. The key is making sure that pain isn’t a symptom of something a little more serious.

We can apply this to talent acquisition. Implementing a new RPO programme is almost like a merger. You’re assimilating teams, changing processes and likely adding new technologies. It’s not easy, and there will be difficult points. But it’s about making sure that pain is more like a sore muscle than a broken bone.

Emily Gordon, a client delivery leader at PeopleScout joins us to talk about this change management process.

Emily has more than 21 years’ experience in talent acquisition and has overseen sourcing, continual process improvement, and client implementations. Her expertise is in transitions, process improvement, team building, client relationship development, and operational delivery. She holds a Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Emily is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

Emily walks us through her four-step system to drive success during the first 100 days of a new implementation. She shares specific examples of things that went wrong – and right – over her career. Emily explains how you can diagnose the pain of a transition as either normal growing pains – or the symptom of a larger problem.

You can listen to our other podcasts related to RPO here:

Talking Talent: Field Test – How to Attract Top-Performing Field Talent

Posted on August 16, 2019July 14, 2023 by nfuqua

Attracting candidates with the right cultural fit is difficult at any organisation. The issue is compounded when employees are not working in an office environment but instead out in the field, working face-to-face with your customers. For organisations with field service employees, the workers that spend the least amount of time in your office are often the face of the organisation.

So how do you attract and hire field the best service workers?

Joining us to talk about this is Chris Gera, the Managing Director, Executive Vice President for Service Council™. In his role, Chris is defining and executing the Service Council’s Research & Insights™ product portfolio.

As the Senior Analyst on Service, Chris is directly connected to Senior Service Leaders and Solution Providers to drive the Service Council’s Smarter Services™ agenda. This provides service executives and organisations the ability to benchmark their operations and also provide guided insight to target how to improve their service organisation performance and deliver the full potential of their change management initiatives.

Chris also leads new member acquisition, member engagement, community expansion and the development of their annual Symposium. Chris plays a key role in building out Service Council’s community platform which is focused on becoming the single source of information and networking for service and customer support executives globally.

Prior to his role at Service Council, Chris held service leadership positions at Vivint SmartHome, where he managed 1,200+ field professionals supporting more than one million customers across North America. While at Nielsen, he led global strategic field initiatives, specifically digitization and technology and process improvement implementations of a $1B profit and loss service business supporting greater than 15,000 field professionals in over 100 countries around the globe.

Also joining for this episode are Mike Yinger and Janice Weiner. Mike is our global leader of growth and strategy here at PeopleScout, and he is responsible for global sales results and organisational strategy. Janice leads cross-selling and total talent initiatives for PeopleScout. Total talent includes all the ways a company can “get its work done.” Getting the work done from a company’s field service perspective is what we focus on in this episode.

Manufacturing Recruiters: Retooling Industrial Recruiting for the Modern Age

Posted on August 6, 2019January 3, 2023 by edyson

For many industrial and manufacturing recruiters, navigating the skills gap remains a persistent challenge. A study conducted by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute revealed that the manufacturing skills gap may leave an estimated 2.4 million positions unfilled between 2018 and 2028, the result of which may cause 2.5 trillion dollars in lost revenue.

Those numbers represent missing out on major contracts for manufacturers without the skilled talent to fulfill them. They mean extending or missing deadlines with longtime clients. They are the difference between expanding into new markets or experiencing stagnation.

In the past, as long as a candidate possessed a strong work ethic and commitment to getting the job done, few other skills were required. However, over the years, manufacturing has become more complex and depends on sharp minds and an agile mix of technical skills.

Whether your organisation is planning to grow its operation, preparing for retirements in your workforce or upskilling in response to automation and productivity improvements, closing the skills gap relies on finding the right talent.

In this article, we will cover how manufacturing recruiters can better find the right talent to create a workforce with the right mix of competencies and skills for success in the modern industrial workforce.

Dissecting the Manufacturing Talent Landscape and Recruiting Challenges

Manufacturing has experienced an ebb and flow in job loss and growth over the past few decades. However, industrial activity monitored by the ISM manufacturing index hit a six-year high in August 2017, indicating a growing trend in overall manufacturing output. What’s more, according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS), manufacturing output in the first quarter of 2017 was 80% higher than its level 30 years ago.

The increases in productivity in manufacturing is in part thanks to technological advances and improvements made in industrial production. To keep pace with technology-driven innovations, manufacturing organisations require a more technically skilled workforce.

Before optimising your manufacturing recruitment strategy, it is crucial to understand the challenges that the manufacturing industry faces with reputation, the generational workforce divide and the changing nature of skilled work.

The Manufacturing Industry Has a Reputation Problem

A Kronos survey found that only 37% of those surveyed would encourage their children to pursue a career in the manufacturing industry. The survey also found that less than a quarter of respondents know that the manufacturing industry offers well-paying jobs.

To attract the next generation of manufacturing talent, you must address this perception and the bias many younger skilled workers may have regarding the industry. While campaigns to such as “Manufacturing Day” are helping improve the industry’s image, manufacturing recruiters must also be proactive in their efforts to communicate the new and exciting opportunities their organisations can provide to candidates.

The Retiring Manufacturing Workforce

The mass departure of the Baby Boomer generation continues to impact organisations across all industries. The Pew Research Centre estimated that 10,000 baby boomers will retire every day for the next 19 years.

The results of this are being felt throughout the manufacturing industry – and is only predicted to get worse. When Deloitte calculated the impact of retiring Baby Boomers on the manufacturing industry, they estimated that approximately 2.7 million workers would retire from manufacturing between 2015 and 2025 – a figure that represents 22% of the manufacturing workforce.

Changing Nature of Work Requires New Skill Sets

Automated processes like computer-aided design, 3D printing, robotics and computer numerical control (CNC) machining have replaced much of the manual workforce in manufacturing. Consequently, today’s manufacturers need talent with technical skills who are confident decision-makers, critical thinkers and quick learners.

Given today’s tight candidate market and widening skills gaps, finding candidates with the right mix of experience and technical skills within the manufacturing industry proves to be a consistent challenge. Organisations now have to carefully prioritise the “must-have” skills while hiring talent to fill these roles and consider which additional skills can be taught on the job.

Lack of Traditional Manufacturing Talent

While there are many new skills sets needed in manufacturing, there is still a need for traditional skills. However, just like technical roles, finding candidates to fill traditional manufacturing occupations is challenging.

According to the BLS, an additional 44,000 machine operator roles will be needed by 2026. Current trends indicate this number will be a hard order to fill for manufacturers. If left unchecked, manufacturers are facing a talent crisis that could leave up to 2 million roles vacant.

Retooling Your Manufacturing Recruitment Strategy

The time and resource investment needed for manufacturing recruiters to source, interview and hire the right talent is considerable. On average, it takes 94 days to recruit employees in the engineering and research fields and 70 days to recruit skilled production workers for manufacturing positions.

To improve manufacturing recruiting outcomes, organisations should stop reacting to talent shortages with a single-minded focus on specific skill sets or certifications, and take a big-picture, strategic approach to recruitment.

In this section, we will outline how to analyse weak points in your manufacturing recruitment processes, help you refine your approach to fill your most urgent talent needs with top talent and how to get this talent interested in your organisation.

Rethink Job Descriptions

It can be easy to provide a laundry list of skills, experience and “musts haves” when writing a job description. However, this practice can scare top talent away from applying to positions within your organisation, even if they are qualified.

Candidates who might be a perfect fit for a role may self-select out of the application process because they do not meet every single qualification. Worse, candidates who are not qualified end up applying because they recognise one or two items on the list and think, “Sure, I can do that.”

Instead of making a long list of qualifications, describe what the candidate’s onsite responsibilities will be like should they be hired for the role. Not only will you attract better candidates from the start, but you will also stand a higher chance of retaining employees because they understand what they signed on for.

Along with describing responsibilities, also be honest about working conditions in job descriptions. You will need to describe those conditions accurately to clarify any misconceptions and adequately prepare your candidates for their potential work environment.

Master Employer Branding

Top candidates want to work for dynamic, growing organisations. If you are trying to recruit talent from outside the manufacturing industry, these candidates need to believe that they will have autonomy and opportunities to ascend the ranks of your organisation. Your team of manufacturing recruiters and your HR department should work together to create a plan to communicate your organisation’s employer value proposition to candidates.

When engaging candidates, your recruiters should act as “culture carriers” and highlight what makes your organisation an employer of choice. When pitching top talent, your manufacturing recruiters should research what will get candidates excited about your organisation, whether it is your unique company culture, the opportunity for driving change or the potential to build a lasting and rewarding career.

Also, make sure to highlight the benefits of working at your organisation. Do you currently offer insurance, profit sharing or a retirement plan? Are there discounts on the goods you produce for employees and their families? The extras you provide will help differentiate your organisation and make it more appealing to candidates.

Work with Local Academic Institutions

Most universities, community colleges and technical schools have a wide range of programmes and courses in manufacturing processes, fabrication, welding, automation and machining. So it makes sense to target students at these institutions as part of your manufacturing recruiting programme.

Create a list of local schools your manufacturing recruiters should reach out to and have them contact campus career centres at each school. Once they have established contact, ask them to inquire about chances to share internships and employment opportunities with students. It is important to establish a relationship with the career centres at your target schools, as each school has specific guidelines, events and timelines associated with its recruiting process.

Once on campus, it is important to establish a strong employer brand presence. Partnering with marketing can be invaluable in this instance, as a company’s marketing team can create materials that specifically appeal to the campus audience.

Invest in Building a Superior Candidate Experience

Identifying roadblocks and issues that can make it difficult for candidates to move through in your current hiring process is important in creating a better candidate experience. A lengthy hiring process or unrealistic job offers could be causing your organisation to miss out on top prospects.

Your recruiting teams should ask for feedback about your hiring process from current employees and even candidates who turned down your offer. This can bring you insights from candidates who pass on your job offers and determine whether these roadblocks are culturally entrenched or can be changed.

For example, do candidates frequently complain about a lengthy interview process? If so, there may be a way to streamline the interviews to accelerate the decision-making timetable, such as video interviews.

Building a better candidate experience begins and ends with your manufacturing recruiters communicating expectations upfront with candidates, so they know exactly how long the process will take, how they should prepare and what each step of the process entails.

Conclusion

Organisations willing to rethink their manufacturing recruitment strategy now will gain a critical first-mover advantage. Rather than fighting for talent with antiquated tools and tactics, they will be leading the charge forward. If you establish a reputation for being an employer of choice in the manufacturing industry, top talent will seek you out, and be excited to be part of your dynamic, innovative organisation.

Are You Getting it Right? How to Manage Your Contract Employee Workforce

Posted on August 5, 2019January 3, 2023 by edyson

Increasingly, organisations are harnessing the talents of contractors and temporary employees to augment their current workforce, respond to rising talent demands, staff large strategic projects, add new skills and expertise to their teams and accelerate growth.

The rising trend of contract labor is a global phenomenon. According to an Oxford Economics survey, 83% of executives reported an increase in the usage of contract labor to meet business objectives. What’s more, according to an industry trends report, up to 30% of the Fortune 100 workforce works on a contract basis. That number is expected to increase to 50% by the year 2020.

It is not just organisations getting in on the contractor market, more and more professionals are opting to work as “free agents”. According to a survey conducted by Upwork, 63% of all independent contractors say they have chosen to freelance as a first option.

While leveraging the skills of a contract workforce provides many significant benefits, such as lower tax burdens and increased workforce agility, improper management of a contract employee can potentially negate many of the upsides.

So, how can managers provide effective leadership and guidance to contract workers under their charge without incurring compliance risk? How can managers successfully integrate contract workers into their teams? What should managers consider when selecting optimal approaches and tactics for recognising the contributions of their contract workforce? How can your organisation be more inclusive of all labor types?

While there are many types of contract employees, freelancers, SOWs, consultants, temporary employees and contingent workers in a multitude of work environments, in this article, we focus on the management of contract workers in an office setting.

Attracting and Engaging Your Contract Workforce

Behavioral scientist Dr. Ashley Whillans from the Harvard Business School, who researches what makes people happy in the workplace, summarised the power of engagement succinctly: “Cash matters in people’s lives, but it’s not all that matters,” said Whillans. “What really matters in the workplace is helping employees feel appreciated.” This sentiment is especially important to the next generations entering the workforce—Millenials and Gen Z—value this over money.

An Aberdeen study found that 74% of respondents who chose temporary employment cited lack of employer engagement as the driving reason for not renewing their contract.

To get the best from your contract workforce, your organisation needs to treat contract workers with the same respect and appreciation you give to your full-time employees.

Build a Contractor Talent Pipeline

Talent pipelining is critical to improving the recruitment process; even more so when hiring contractors, who are always on the lookout for their next opportunity. Talent communities are a great way to populate an effective pipeline.

Contractors should be frequently encouraged to join your talent community through social media, on your organisation’s career site and in an email via targeted campaigns. Remember, you are not trying to build just a talent pool, but a community, so relationship building and engaging candidates are crucial.

Use this platform to your advantage by interacting and engaging with contractor talent, providing information about current job openings, company happenings and industry news, and sharing branded content that is relevant and beneficial. Capturing data on your talent community based on job interests, industry experience, skill level and basic demographics will help tailor your approach.

Improve the Contract Candidate Experience

Because of the nature of their employment, contractors are always on the lookout for new or better assignments. As a result, a contractor may review multiple opportunities a day, this makes improving and optimising the candidate experience vitally important.

Stand out by explaining what makes the job worth their time, and why they should apply. This will make it easier for them to quickly assess whether the opportunity is a good fit for them and if so, motivate them to toss their hat in the ring. For example, job postings for temporary positions should be more precise and to the point. Try not to include a long list of rigid experience qualifications and responsibilities.

Giving candidates visibility into your work culture through the sourcing and interview process is also key. Ultimately, candidates are making a decision based on personality fits more and more. The more you can share how the role supports the overall improvement of your organisation is also key. Candidates want to feel like they can make an impact and affect change within the organisation they work in.

Contractors’ hiring experience can be very different from full-time employees. Therefore, don’t use the same process to recruit and onboard them. Instead, develop and employ a consistent onboarding process designed solely for contract workers.

Once you select a contractor you need to make sure that they are properly engaged from the start. Ideas to engage contract workers once they are hired should include incentive programs, benefits packages if applicable and accrued paid time off for long-term contracts.

Do not just assume a high turnover for a contract employee, as many contractors opt to renew their contracts or work seasonally for organisations during peak times. Contractors may also be looking for more permanent employment, so clearly highlight any full-time opportunities that are available once a contract has ended.

Integrating a Contract Employee into Your Team

For your contract workforce to be effective, your leadership should go above and beyond to ensure that members feel welcome and are properly integrated into the larger organisational culture. Workers hiring status should not preclude them from feeling like they are a part of the team. In other words, make sure all your contract workers know that they are valued contributors rather than hired guns.

What’s more, treating a contract employee like “a second class citizen” can result in bad morale, not just with your contractors, but also your permanent workforce who must work beside them. Depending on how contractors are used, organisations can find a myriad of ways to welcome them into the corporate culture while treating them differently from permanent employees. But concern about a contractor being offended by being treated differently should not override the need to observe differences for compliance and liability reasons. Co-employment risk is less about exclusivity and more about ensuring fair treatment for all workers.

Communication

Establishing good communication is the key to maintaining strong relationships between contractors and employers. Research from Gartner shows that 70% of business mistakes are due to poor communication.

The first step in establishing good communication is letting your contracted team members know that you are always available to answer questions and address concerns.

You should hold regular meetings with members of your contract staff to stay updated about the progress and obstacles they might be facing on projects. You can also assign each contractor a point person they can go to when questions arise, or they are unclear about their assignment.

Video calls, chat messages and emails are all great ways to keep in touch—especially if the worker is remote—but do not rely too heavily on technology to communicate; just like with your full-time employees, contractors workers like to have personal and face-to-face communications with their employer.

Onboarding a Contract Employee

Walking into an unfamiliar office, parsing out the dos and don’ts of a new workplace, and locating the restrooms and water coolers can be daunting on the first day of a new job. So imagine a contractor who may have to go through this process multiple times a year, as they move from assignment to assignment. This is where providing a seamless onboarding process to contract hires can help reduce the stress related to starting a new assignment and establish trust and comfort from day one.

During the contractor employee onboarding process, make sure you have everything prepared on a worker’s first day. Security badges, equipment, office supplies and access to the information required to navigate projects should all be ready to go once they enter the door.

While the onboarding process for contractors will and should look different from an administrative perspective, it should be an equally positive experience. A good onboarding process will increase a contactors tenure, with 69% of employees more likely to stay with an organisation for three years if they experienced great onboarding according to SHRM. Every employee, once onboarded, should feel as much a part of the team as anyone. Doing so will promote trust in the workplace and will ultimately lead to more creativity and more production across the board.

Fostering Relationships

Workers—regardless of employment status—are more effective and productive when they have strong relationships with their colleagues. According to research conducted by Gallup, employees with who report having a best friend at work constantly perform better than employees without similar connections.

When workers respect and view their colleagues as friends, they are more likely to value each other’s input and ideas and may feel more comfortable sharing their own. This mutual respect and comradery lead to better teamwork and the development of solutions based on the collective insight, wisdom and creativity of the whole team.

Early on in an assignment, introduce your contractors to each other and their full-time counterparts. During the initial meeting, encourage everyone to share their background, experience, personal achievements and interests. This can help build rapport and engender greater trust and cooperation.

Tracking and Supervising Projects Assigned to a Contract Employee

Managers who oversee contract employees do so without a formal supervisor-employee hierarchical relationship. They can specify what projects need to be done and when they need to be completed. However, they cannot dictate the specific hours that contractors work or exactly how they are to perform the work. So, to effectively manage projects assigned to a contract employee, managers need to employ a more hands-off supervisory approach.

Define your Goals, Expectations and Timelines with Your Contract Employee

Before assigning a project or task, you should discuss the goals of the project, their roles in it and what you expect from them. You can avoid future confusion about when they should complete tasks by sketching out a clear timeline of when the project starts when they should report on the progress and when they have to turnover in the final product.

Check-in Regularly with Contract Employees

A good way of checking up on project status is to schedule intermittent check-ins with your contract employees to gauge progress toward goals and objectives. While checking-in, try not to explicitly direct your contract employee’s actions, as this may infringe on their feeling of autonomy and make them feel as if they are being managed rather than being engaged as an independent project-based worker. Think of it as managing for results rather than specific activities.

Evaluate and Review

Just like your permanent employees, contract workers need constructive feedback to improve on their skills. When a contractor submits a task, evaluate it right away and provide speedy feedback. This will not just help them review their work, but you can also check on whether the project and you assigned the worker is on the right track or if it needs a course correction.

Conclusion

As more and more professionals are choosing to make their living working as contract employees, the contractor workforce is becoming a bigger part of the labor mix, developing a best practice management strategy attracting and retaining them critical to organisational growth.

Forward-thinking organisations are providing contracted help with a greater say in the work they do; they’re connecting them with teammates and they’re recognising them for their contributions. In other words, they’re positioning themselves to become employers of choice for contractors.

Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: The Whole Person Model in Practice

Posted on July 25, 2019January 3, 2023 by nfuqua

The whole person model is a highly bespoke assessment process. We have found that the model functions best in two contexts: high-volume hiring and highly specialised leadership hiring.

If an organisation needs to hire a large number of candidates for a specific role or type of role, the whole person model can produce stronger, more diverse candidates and can result in longer-tenured employees. The process of building out the tailored assessments is time- and cost-effective for high-volume hiring.

The whole person model can also be valuable when searching for the right candidate for a leadership role. For organisations in times of transition, it can be especially difficult to identify candidates with the ability to lead through change.

In this article, we will explain how we at PeopleScout apply the model practically to both hiring examples.

Whole Person Model Use Case: High-Volume Hiring

This infographic is one example of the whole person model in practice for high-volume hiring. It includes three stages and each stage measures different aspects of a candidate’s background, or gears of the whole person model:

A realistic job and culture preview
The One Experience online assessment
The final stage of online assessments, which we call the Assessment Center

During the realistic job and culture preview, a candidate gets a practical look at what it would be like to work for your organisation and in this particular role. This section will include media like a video job description, shaped by your EVP and employer brand and customised to a job’s responsibilities.

Showcasing the job and the employer brand of the organisation is critical during the realistic job and culture preview because it assesses the passion and purpose of the candidate. If the candidate identifies with and is enthusiastic about your organisation, they will continue through the process. If a candidate does not feel as though their passion and purpose align, they will not continue in the process.

The One Experience assessment is an online holistic tool that assesses each part of the whole person model. Candidates answer questions in a variety of formats that allow them to demonstrate their different strengths Each of the six factors is weighted differently based upon their ability to predict candidate success and the requirements and expectations in a role.

In the One Experience tool, the scores for each type of assessment will be combined and weighted, and candidates who meet a certain threshold will be moved along to the next step. Because there are a variety of ways to earn a passing score on these assessments, there will be a more cognitively diverse group of candidates that make it through this part of the process.

At this stage, the assessments include automated feedback reports so that candidates have a better understanding of why they do or do not move forward. This improves the candidate experience because candidates who do not get the position are not left in the dark. It gives them an opportunity to see why they may not have been the best fit.

The final step is the last set of online assessments, which we call the assessment center, to further narrow the candidate pool. In this example, it measures mindset, passion, capability and behavior. However, it can be adapted to focus on the categories that show the strongest predictive ability for a specific position. This stage also includes automated feedback reports.

Using this model, we see fewer candidates making it past the realistic job and culture preview to complete the One Experience tool, but 50 percent of those who do complete that step go on to pass and move to the assessment center. Those who make it to the assessment center have a pass rate of 75 percent, which is higher than the traditional process. In the old process, clients viewed a pass rate of 50 percent at this stage as high.

Assessments in High Volume Hiring: Healthcare Case Study The Problem: A PeopleScout healthcare client wanted to improve quality-of-hire and decrease turnover for their nearly 2,000 annual call center hires. The Solution: PeopleScout partnered with the organization to deploy an online assessment that identified the key behaviors and personality traits that correlated with success at their organization. The assessments also identified candidates who are aligned to the organization’s mission and who have a growth mindset, and those who could be successful in leadership roles. The Results: After two-and-a-half years, the client has seen an increase in the quality of candidates and is expanding the use of the assessment to all external positions. They may also deploy the assessments for internal positions as well.

Whole Person Model Use Case: Leadership Hiring

In the case of leadership hiring, rather than using the One Experience tool, the whole person model uses a deep-dive interview in which the questions are designed to assess the candidate’s passion, purpose and mindset, as well as their capability, behavior, and results – the six factors included in the model. By assessing top candidates for these factors, organisations can better identify leaders who fit well with their organisation and goals.

To understand how this works, let’s look at how we applied the whole person model to help the Scottish Police Authority appoint the next Chief Constable for Police Scotland.

How did this impact the onboarding process?

The new Chief Constable continued the developmental work they invested in during the assessments process and received a series of coaching sessions throughout the transition.

All candidates reported a positive experience that provided ample opportunity to demonstrate their capability and suitability for the role.

Applying the Whole Person Model to Your Hiring

In the current economic climate, employers who hire and retain candidates with a growth mindset and who align with the passion and purpose of the organisation will be at an advantage. By assessing these factors and looking at the whole person, employers can better identify those candidates and set themselves up for success.

When employers face the challenge of hiring a large volume of employees, the model can be customised to efficiently identify the best candidates with a passion for the work and the organisation. When an organisation is looking to make a leadership hire but is struggling to find candidates with relevant experience, the model can be customised to identify those who can learn, lead and grow with the organisation.

Key Takeaways:

The whole person model is a bespoke process and works best for high-volume and leadership hiring.
When used for high-volume hiring, the whole person model can produce stronger, more diverse candidates and can result in longer-tenured employees.
When used for leadership hiring, the model can identify leaders who fit well with an organisation and its culture and goals.

This article is the third in a series, you can read the first article, Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: Drivers for Change, hereand the second, Assessing for Passion, Purpose and a Growth Mindset: The Current State of Assessments and a Better Way Forward, here.