Solution: Managed Service Provider

Talking Talent: Talent Acquisition in 2020 with Madeline Laurano

Posted on 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 AffinixTM is 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.

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

Posted on 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.

So Remind Me Again, What is a Managed Service Provider?

Posted on by skatz

Managed Service Provider (MSP) noun

man·aged| /ˈmanijed/

serv·ice| /ˈsərvəs/

pro·vid·er| /prəˈvīdər/

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is a contingent and/or statement of work management solution implemented by an external organisation that combines process, personal expertise and technology to support an organisation’s gig, temporary, temp-to-hire, direct-hire, independent contractor administration, Statement of Work (SOW) hiring and other complex services such as vendor management.

There is a spectrum of organisations seeking MSP services – some are looking for the first time, others have mature programmes focused on driving continuous improvements and others that are transitioning into a Total Workforce Solution.

When an organisation partner with an MSP provider to outsource its contingent labour and SOW management, the MSP provider assumes all or portions of an organisation’s procurement or HR functions, managing the contingent talent lifecycle from requisition through invoicing and payment. They are often HR Generalists between the Supplier community who employ the workers and the Hiring Managers working within a client’s organisation. In addition, they are often workforce consultants who provide insights into the ever-changing talent landscape and workforce needs of a client.

An MSP provider works alongside a client’s internal HR and Procurement teams and can perform its duties remotely and onsite at a client’s facility. Below, we highlight a few reasons why organisations seek MSP providers, and conversely, when MSP may not be a good fit:

Reasons to engage an MSP provider:

  • If your organisation is looking for better cost control amongst your staffing vendors
  • If your organisation wants faster access to high-quality talent through vendors, directly sourced or through other hiring vehicles
  • If your organisation is looking for greater compliance protection from potential litigation due to worker misclassification across all categories of non-permanent workers
  • If your organisation is looking for more detailed reporting, workforce analytics, and key insights to make better and more informed contingent labor decisions
  • If your organisation is looking for a workforce consultant to advise them on labour trends and custom solutions that will work within your culture.

Reasons not to engage an MSP provider:

  • If your organisation is not comfortable or willing to have an external organisation manage your contingent workforce and SOW needs
  • If internal stakeholders are not ready for a centralised programme and are still operating in decentralised governance.
  • If your contingent workforce volume isn’t high enough to justify the use/cost of an MSP

What Can a Managed Service Provider Do For Me?

At its most basic service and delivery level, a managed service provider can help your organisation improve contingent workforce process efficiency, boost talent supply chain efficacy, introduce better cost controls and provide you with superior access to contingent workers.


MSP programmes can alleviate the pressures placed on both your HR talent acquisition and Procurement functions by managing your contingent workforce in a way that is both cost-effective and compliant. Similar to recruitment process outsourcing programmes, MSP programmes can be customised, planned, managed and implemented in a manner that truly reflects your organization’s needs, your position in the market and your Employer Value Proposition (EVP).


MSPs leverage the influence of your EVP and reputation in the market to source contingent and SOW workers through the management of preferred suppliers, reduce your agency spend, and ensure that you secure the best talent in every market at competitive rates, not just the most readily available talent on the market. An MSP partner should also provide market intelligence on where to find the best talent and at what price.

Common MSP programme services include:

  • Engagement of all forms of contingent and SOW workers
  • Building pools of high-quality candidates
  • Review of current supplier and vendor contracts
  • Contract management
  • Providing reporting and analysis for the contingent workforce programme
  • Management of the supplier base
  • Management and payment of staffing supplier invoices
  • Talent advisement of key labour trends
  • Partnership in the creation and execution of workforce solutions customised to fit the client

Your MSP provider will deliver these services through dedicated support teams that leverage their experience and expertise to provide a tailored level of service to your organisation. This allows your HR and procurement teams to focus on what really matters: meeting strategic and day-to-day business goals.

Want to learn more? Next, we will get into the finer details of how a managed service provider can help elevate your contingent labour programme.

Vendor-Neutral Managed Service Providers Improve Visibility and Cost Controls

In a survey conducted by Deloitte titled Human Capital Trends, 42% of executives surveyed said they plan to increase or significantly increase the use of contingent workers over the next three to five years. Conversely, only 16% of executives expect to decrease the size of their contingent workforce.

And for good reason. Contingent labour provides organisations with a cost-effective, flexible workforce while offering workers the flexibility and balance not typically found in traditional forms of employment. A win-win for both parties.

Whether you currently manage your contingent workforce centrally or through a fragmented approach throughout your organisation, unless you have dedicated resources constantly observing labour markets, it’s going to be hard to have true visibility to a labour market and its rates. This can lead to hiring the wrong people, at the wrong rate, with the wrong experience.

Managed service providers that value a vendor-neutral approach are dedicated to providing clients with the most reliable, trustworthy and cost-effective suppliers with an emphasis on sourcing the highest quality of talent. This approach removes much of an organisation’s legwork required in vetting the right supplier for a client’s needs as the managed service provider assumes these responsibilities. This ensures that the best staffing providers are chosen based on the client’s specific objectives, strengths and weaknesses.

Vendor-neutral managed service providers have no conflicts of interest with staffing suppliers, so an organisation can be certain that their MSP is operating for their benefit only – fulfilling staffing requirements with the best available talent and opening up the process to competitive rates to drive cost savings.

A vendor-neutral MSP has the independence to design, implement, manage, negotiate and optimise your contingent programme with no hidden agenda.

Better Vendor Engagement and Lower Contingent Workforce Spend

When you partner with a managed service provider, they assume responsibility for the engagement and management of your current staffing agency vendors. They can introduce new vendors and negotiate new rates with existing ones, opening up the competitive playing field, making sure you get the right talent for the right price.

In addition to these vendor engagement strategies, your managed service provider may also provide feedback to vendors to inform them of which approaches worked well and which did not equip vendors with the tools and resources they need to be successful and host supplier summits to discuss strategy and optimise the programme.

Additionally, MSP providers can consolidate invoicing to save the amount of time spent managing and reconciling individual invoices, allowing the client to make one payment to the MSP provider who then pays vendors and suppliers on the client’s behalf. This means that vendors and suppliers are paid faster than if invoices were paid individually.

Your MSP provider will not only improve your current vendor relationships, but they will grant you access to new, proven and trusted suppliers you might not otherwise have come across, all managed by a single point of contact: your MSP provider.

This can help reduce the workload on your internal HR and procurement functions and ensure your contingent workforce is managed by a specialist dedicated to your organisation. This level of workforce management is unique to the MSP model and can only be provided through a workforce management specialist.

Managed Service Providers Improve Governance and Compliance and Reduce Risk

So, your organisation has increased its use of contingent labour to enhance your workforce outcomes. Great! But with growth comes growing pains, such as the need to centralise your contingent workforce management programme.

When an organisation begins to bolster its contingent workforce, it opens itself up to increased compliance and liability risks associated with non-permanent employees. The most common risks include worker credentialing, worker misclassification, co-employment issues, unemployment claims and workers’ compensation claims. Failure to properly address these risks can result in fines, tax penalties and other consequences that can set your organisation back.

With an MSP model, organisations benefit from external expertise on compliance best practices along with insights on local, regional and global regulations and processes that adhere to relevant laws. A managed service provider can also help your organisation vet suppliers and workers to mitigate risk.

If you hire independent contractors or temporary workers directly, a managed service provider can advise you on the best structure to analyse and assess your current processes to help ensure that you are staying in compliance with these directly sourced workers. In today’s changing labour economies, these worker types are coming under increased scrutiny by governments the world over, so having a trusted partner to advise you on risk-reducing strategies and the implementation of best practices is essential.

Manage Service Providers Can Give You Access to World-Class Technology

An expert managed service provider possesses in-depth knowledge and experience with major VMS platforms and can operate in a client’s legacy systems. What’s more, in some MSP programmes, the managed service provider will collaborate with a client to select the right contingent vendor management software (or VMS) for their needs. Another critical technology in addition to the VMS is a centralised business intelligence reporting and analytics tool such as PeopleScout’s proprietary AffinixTM platform that can easily show you how your organisation is buying and managing contingent labour today.

Through the use of cutting-edge contingent workforce management technology, your organisation can automate many of the key processes of workforce management and can gain insights into programme performance.

For example, your MSP provider can leverage a VMS to help transform your recruiting strategy from a fragmented process to a unified and centralised database that gives your organisation visibility into worker wages, the most effective sourcing methods, where your workers are located, payment tools and much more.

FMS technology is newer and better able to process freelancer information (in addition to other types of contingent workers), compared with VMS technology, so depending on your contingent workforce requirements, your MSP provider can deploy the right technology solution to meet your organisation’s needs.

Conclusion:

With contingent and SOW labour playing an increasingly important role in the talent acquisition and procurement mix, organisations can no longer depend on ad hoc and disparate approaches to managing their contingent workforce.

When you engage a managed service provider, your organisation can more effectively manage your contingent workforce by leveraging your MSP provider’s expertise in supply chain and vendor management, risk mitigation and compliance, talent technology and talent markets.

This expertise and experience will proactively ensure that your organisation gets the contingent talent you need, exactly when and where you need it, from a cost-effective and centralised contingent workforce programme.

Talking Talent: Getting the Most out of MSP

Posted on by epadmin

In this episode of Talking Talent, we talk about Managed Service Providers or MSPs.

An MSP is a contingent workforce management solution managed by an external organisation that combines process, personal expertise and technology to support an organization’s gig, temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire, independent contractor administration, Statement of Work hiring and other complex services such as vendor management.

There is a spectrum of organisations seeking MSP services – some are looking for the first time, others have mature programmes focused on driving continuous improvements and others that are transitioning into a Total Workforce Solution. In this episode, we dig into the issues affecting MSP programmes at all maturity levels.

Joining us is Jen Torres, MSP client portfolio leader at PeopleScout. Jen has more than 12 years’ experience as a partner to Fortune 100 companies seeking MSP solutions. Her creativity and innovation helped some of the country’s largest financial and technology institutions launch and develop workforce operations into industry-leading programmes. She is known for her “passion for people” and excellence in leading custom workforce solutions with an emphasis on customer service.

Jen explains what leaders should consider if they are pursuing MSP services for the first time, what implementing a second or third generation programme looks like and what steps organisations need to take if leaders want to transition to a total workforce solution. Jen also shares what technology means to a successful MSP or total workforce solutions programme and what she’s excited about for the future of workforce management.

Learn from our other PeopleScout experts in previous Talking Talent episodes:

Attitude is the New Experience

Posted on by epadmin

There have been numerous studies on turnover rates in multiple industries, and they all land on a similar conclusion: a high proportion of staff fail within the first 18 months of starting a new job. In fact, one study found that figure to be 46 percent of 20,000 new hires in America. When you look at the reasons why, 89 percent of those who failed did so due to cultural misalignment or attitudinal reasons, rather than technical capability.


To try and buck this trend, I’ll share with you a few tips on why it’s so important to attract and retain the right people, rather than the right skill set and how you can adopt this approach in your organisation.


First, you need to have a great culture, which is essential to keeping people in the building. Each company’s culture and mission will be unique, and you need to make sure you have values that you stand by. Secondly – and this is the main area that I’m going to focus on in this article – you need to have a recruitment strategy that is aimed at finding the right people for the organisation rather than the right skill set at every opportunity, from graduate roles through to senior management. At our client PHD Media Worldwide (PHD), we’ve focused on hiring people that align with our values of collaboration, courage and curiosity with conviction – and it’s really, really helped!


“Hire for attitude, train for skills” is a phrase that every HR professional has uttered once or heard being uttered from colleagues. However, unfortunately, only a small number of businesses apply it (like, actually apply it) to their recruitment strategy. Whilst a lot of job advertisements will focus on the soft skills and cultural alignment piece, often the interview process can revert to focusing purely on the hard skills and capability a candidate has from day one.


We work in an ever-changing industry, with the constant emergence of new technologies, new software and increasing shift in focus from traditional channels to more sophisticated digital channels. Change takes place now at a faster rate than ever before, and what you knew yesterday might not necessarily prepare for you tomorrow. So, with that in mind, why do some businesses focus on purely trying to tick skills boxes? The candidate who feels fully aligned with their organisation’s strategy and beliefs and is a part of its continued success will be more motivated to learn the necessary skills for tomorrow than someone who only has today’s skill set and not the buy-in.


Here is how we can go about finding those right candidates in various levels of the organisation:


Graduate Roles


For so long, the media industry, for example, has only considered candidates from a media/advertising/marketing-related field and often opt for interns who have gained first-hand experience working with their particular agency. When interviewing candidates with a specific degree and asking them what they know about a media planning and buying agency, their knowledge levels are comparable with that of any other degree – very little!


A huge amount of the first 12-18 months in a media agency is about learning as much as possible. A very small amount of what you learned in university actually applies to what you are now working on in terms of real briefs with real multi-million-dollar budgets attached. With that mind, at PHD we’ve had a lot of success in opening up our doors to entry-level staff from any degree/non-degree background.


Zac and Tiffany, two great coordinators who joined PHD in the last 12 months, even wrote an article recently on how university prepares you for your first job in media. Notice how throughout the article, it never mentions that it’s the marketing theory they were taught in school or the principles of advertising that has helped them succeed. Instead, it’s the focus on meeting deadlines, presentation ability, working under pressure and as part of a team. These are the skills that you need to succeed in your first job, and when you couple them with the right attitude, you can really learn anything, relatively quickly.


More Senior Roles 


Believe it or not, it’s those same soft skills that apply to the more senior roles that we look to fill. Let’s face it – at one point or another, we have all had to “fake it ‘til we make it” in our careers. A little white lie in an interview, a little oversell of our abilities and BANG, we’ve landed ourselves a gig without a clue of what we’re actually going to do. When faced with this situation, those with a good attitude, flexibility and the ability to learn quickly will be able to adapt and succeed in their roles better than those without these critical skills.


Additionally, no one knows exactly what they are doing on day one. We all have our own systems, processes and ways of doing things. At PHD, we have our proprietary planning tool, SOURCE. Unless you have worked on it before, there is a learning curve for everyone to pick it up, and it’s the pace and ability with which people pick it up that matters, as they would have zero experience in using it before. All companies have their own processes and tools, which they will expect you to learn over time.


Yes, you need to have a fundamental understanding of what you are talking about and the more senior the role, the more of an understanding we expect you to have. But we want to talk to someone about their attitude towards certain situations, learn how they act when everything goes wrong (because it does sometimes) and what they would do in the difficult times and how they bring a team along on the journey with them. Ultimately, someone who ticks the attitude box will get the job, and we will often wait until that person comes along, rather than simply fill a role with a candidate who doesn’t fit.


So, What is Attitude?


Attitude, for me, is a collection of soft skills that you can apply to every job. It’s not necessarily something that someone has been taught (or could be taught) but more an approach to work, an approach to learning and the way someone conducts themselves personally and professionally.


What does one look for when gauging attitude?
  • People who look for solutions to problems rather than people who find problems without resolve.
  • People who raise their hand rather than point their fingers.
  • People who make mistakes and have a sense of humility but then focus on what they can do next time to improve.
  • People who, when times get tough, dig in and rally everyone to achieve the same, rather than openly complain to others.
  • People who genuinely love their job and are interested in joining the organisation – this is half the battle, finding someone who wants to be on the same journey as you.
  • People who genuinely seek development/career growth opportunities.

Too often, and it’s so easy to, we get bogged down by the immediate needs of our new hire. It may be replacing someone who has left, or it might be a new role that has popped up because of workload increases. However, it works, every time, to be cautious and focus on hiring the right person for the organisation, because the longer-term impact of having the right person will really pay off and the struggle of having to dig a little harder to find them will soon be forgotten.


Read the original article on AdNews.au.

A Look into the Gig Economy

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According to research conducted by Freelancing in America, an estimated 57.3 million Americans—36 percent of the American workforce—work as freelancers or participate in gig work.  What’s more, a study conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute found that 20-30 percent of the labour force in the European Union is now made up of independent workers who are self-employed or do temporary work. Thanks to the rise of freelancing platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Fiverr, finding non-traditional means of employment is easier than ever.

So what does the gig economy mean for employers and employees alike? How will recruiting tactics and strategies adapt to meet the challenges and opportunities provided by the gig economy? In this post, we explore the effects, benefits and challenges facing employers and employees participating in the gig economy.

The Gig Economy’s Effect on Workers

Based on job search results across their site, Indeed discovered that interest in flexible and non-traditional work has increased 42 percent since 2013 based on the number of candidates looking for job postings that include the words “remote,” “work from home,” and “telecommute.” What’s more, a BLS survey reports the total number of contingency-based jobs grew from 14,826,000 in 2005 to 15,482,000 in 2017, a gain of 656,000 jobs or 4.6 percent over twelve years.

From college students unable to commit to full-time work to people looking to supplement their income, people searching for gig work come from all walks of life. Below, we cover the benefits and challenges confronting gig workers.

Increased Flexibility

For workers in the gig economy, flexibility is one of the biggest benefits. In fact, in a study of Uber drivers the drivers were asked the following question: “If both were available to you, at this point in your life, would you rather have a steady 9-to-5 job with some benefits and a set salary or a job where you choose your own schedule and be your own boss?” 73 percent of respondents selected flexibility over a traditional job. This indicates that workers looking for gig work are searching for a job that fits their lifestyle, skill set and schedule.

No Experience Necessary

Most gig jobs have low barriers to entry, making on-demand work easy to start. For ridesharing services like Lyft or Uber, all an applicant needs is a vehicle, a valid driver’s license and a clean driving record. For room-sharing services like Airbnb, all you need is an extra room. Zirtual provides opportunities for micro-tasking as a virtual assistant for potential workers with good administrative abilities and technical skills. Gig workers should think about their interests and skills and to find gig opportunities that complement their strengths.

Worker Concerns

On-demand and gig labour provide opportunities for employment for workers of all ages, skill levels and educational backgrounds. However, contract work typically means that most of the protections and benefits afforded to W-2 employees are absent in the gig economy. Severance packages, disability leave, PTO, sick days, health insurance and workers compensation are just a few of the benefits afforded to employees but not contractors, freelancers or gig workers. Freelance workers often work other jobs to receive the protections and benefits often absent in gig work.

The Gig Economy’s Effect on Businesses

The most obvious appeal of hiring temporary staff is that you can build a responsive workforce, tailored to suit your business goals and objectives. Organisations can quickly scale their workforces to supplement in-house staff or find workers with the skills needed to tackle important projects. In this section, we outline the strategies employers can use to optimise gig hiring.

Hire for the Right Positions

Employers should carefully consider which specific jobs they need freelancers to perform and make sure the contractors clearly understand what they are expected to deliver. For example, in creative work, organisations need to outline specific deliverables so that both parties can agree when the project is considered complete.

Organisations need to also keep in mind that contract work is not suitable for all roles and projects. If an organisation needs workers for a long-term project, it is sometimes best to hire permanent staff as a contractor for a 2-year project may be more costly than hiring a full-time employee. Contract employees with skills in high demand may prefer to work short contracts to maintain their flexibility.

Leverage Technology

Sourcing, vetting, contracting and paying a consistent flow of gig workers is time-consuming. This additional work can overwhelm HR and procurement departments. To streamline these processes, organisations can use robust technology solutions that combine multiple processes into one platform. These platforms can automate the contracting and payment processes to reduce administrative work and keep track of gig workers and the projects they are working on.

Provide Benefits

A report from the Texas Workforce Investment Council found that a major drawback for gig workers is the lack of benefits available. The report also found that as long as employers pay gig workers a competitive wage, they are happy to purchase their own benefits. Most gig opportunities do not provide benefits. This presents an opportunity for organisations looking to attract gig employees. Workers may be more willing to take an opportunity or work consistently for an employer if they can rely on even a modest benefits package or pay rates that allow them to purchase their own benefits.

Managing Gig Employees

Effectively managing a gig workforce is complex. A thorough understanding of the gig economy can help organisations integrate policies and processes into company strategy and structure. The following are three key areas of gig workforce management and how you can best approach them.

Worker Misclassification

Depending on how gig workers are managed on the job, employers run the risk of a worker being managed as if they are a W-2 employee. Even when hiring managers have a good understanding of the difference between an employee and a contractor, managers may still treat contractors as W-2 employees. This can be an expensive mistake. In cases where misclassification is deemed unintentional, an employer may be charged:

  • A $50 fee for each W-2 that was not filed
  • 1.5 percent of the employee’s wages, plus interest
  • 40 percent of the employee’s FICA (Social Security and Medicare) contributions
  • 100 percent of the employer’s matching FICA contributions

Employees who believe they have been misrepresented can file a complaint with the Department of Labour or their state labour agency. Misclassification can usually be avoided by partnering with an MSP, RPO or total workforce solutions partner with a focus on compliance.

Employee Quality

The quality of workers in a gig-based economy can be hit or miss. Unless an employer reviews every potential workers’ prior work experience and history, they can never know the quality of worker they are getting. By working with an MSP provider and reputable staffing firms, organisations can rest assured that they are getting workers who have been properly vetted against their requirements. What’s more, if a worker fails to meet your organisation’s standard, you can work with your MSP or staffing supplier to source and hire better quality workers.

Supervision

Someone within your organisation needs to be responsible for ensuring gig workers deliver on their contracts. Some employers do not have the infrastructure to keep up with a high number of freelancers and projects. Organisations can ensure projects are on track and workers are delivering on their promises by assigning staff to monitor gig workers.

RPO Role in the Gig Economy

For many organisations, the demand on HR to recruit talent and manage an organisation’s traditional workforce can interfere with their ability to handle similar responsibilities for gig workers. An RPO partner can help in two major ways:

  • Delivering a complete end-to-end solution for talent acquisition, retention and utilisation for the short-term work requirements of an organisation’s talent acquisition programme.
  • Providing the tools and technology needed to hire and manage gig workers.

To learn more about how an RPO provider can help meet your gig hiring and talent acquisitions needs, visit PeopleScout’s RPO services page.

Removing Barriers to Employment for the Long-Term Unemployed

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With record low unemployment rates in the U.S., the UK and other leading economies, recruiters seeking to attract talent may assume that everyone who wants a job already has one.

However, this not the case, even in the strongest job markets. In the United States, the long-term unemployed are defined as those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more and are searching for work. In May 2018, when the jobs report numbers were so good that reporters ran out of words to describe it, nearly 1.2 million individuals had been out of work and seeking employment for more than six months. The long-term unemployed made up 19.6 percent of all unemployed Americans and May was the first month that this percentage fell below 20 percent since the Great Recession.


During an economic downturn, the primary cause of long-term unemployment is simple: there are not enough jobs to employ those who want them. With the robust job growth over the last year, the ranks of the long-term unemployed in the U.S. have fallen by one third. During times of economic growth, causes of extended joblessness can often directly be addressed and remedied by employers.

Minding the Resume Gap


Imagine being a qualified job candidate who has been unemployed for nearly a year. After months of disappointment, a job comes along that looks like a perfect match. The candidate is excited to fill out the online job application, but when they reach the job history section, they see: “Please provide the start and end dates for all of your jobs. If there is a gap of more than six months, please provide an explanation.” These types of questions related to job history can be used (or perceived to be used) as a way to disqualify candidates.


The Deloitte Handbook A Guide to Recruiting and Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed recommends removing filters and screening procedures that ask for dates of last or current employment and automatically eliminate unemployed and long-term unemployed applicants. It also recommends confirming that Applicant Tracking Systems do not screen out resumes based on employment status.

Avoid Date Limits on Valuing Experience


A candidate who has been unemployed for an extended period may possess years of valuable experience and required job skills. It is important for employers to consider whether their recruitment process gives undue weight to recent expertise over cumulative experience gained over the lifespan of a career. Recruitment processes should also be checked for any potential bias against older applicants. An OECD study found that incidence of long-term unemployment increases with age throughout many developed economies.

Addressing the Jobs Skills Gap


A lack of in-demand skills can be a cause of long-term unemployment. There are many resources for those with extended joblessness to receive training in marketable skills. Employers can build relationships with these agencies as part of their recruitment programme to target the long-term unemployed. In the UK, skills training can be included as a standard benefit offered to the long-term unemployed. In Australia, the government offers programmes which include training for young people and others who either have or risk having long periods of unemployment. Job training services are also provided by Canadian provinces and by state and local governments in the United States.


There are numerous local initiatives in which businesses combine with non-profit agencies to provide skills in an effort to fight all levels of unemployment. Employers can work closely with these agencies to source available talent (often at reduced sourcing costs) and even partner with them as part of their community engagement efforts.

Reaching the Hard to Reach Talent


Individuals without strong job seeking skills can have their period of unemployment unnecessarily extended. For example, the process of finding a job 15 years ago was completely different from today. Reaching candidates whose experience and skills may add tremendous value to your organisation requires specialised expertise in sourcing that may not be readily available in many human resources departments. Several leading employers have turned to Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) companies to successfully attract and recruit hard to reach talent.

Worth the Effort


For many companies, the incentive to attract the long-term unemployed may be to meet a need to recruit the last pool of available talent in a tight labour market. However, hiring those with extended unemployment can potentially be a valuable tool in retaining talent, which is critical in today’s economy. The Deloitte handbook cites a White House study that found that companies that hire the long-term unemployed experience higher retention rates and greater workforce loyalty. Given the potential for talent attraction and retention, employers who remove barriers for the long-term unemployed may gain an unexpected competitive edge in an increasingly challenging market.

The Contingent Workforce Landscape: Trends and Strategies

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In the current economy, contingent workers are an integral and growing part of the workforce. Whether freelancers, consultants or contract workers, contingent labour of all skillsets is in high demand. For many organisations, contingent workers are the fastest and most effective way to augment their current workforce and respond to rising talent demands, staff large strategic projects, add new skills and expertise and accelerate growth.

Contingent labour by the numbers:

In this post, we examine the current contingent workforce landscape, the trends shaping how organisations engage contingent labour and the evolving role of MSP providers.

The New Role of Managed Service Providers in Contingent Workforce Management

The role of the Managed Service Provider (MSP) has evolved. According to NelsonHall’s Next Generation Managed Services Programmes, MSPs are an increasingly influential and strategic partner in helping organisations better manage their contingent workforces. MSPs provide consultative, data-based insights to clients. From contingent workforce spend and talent channels to supplier performance, the data and analysis provided by an MSP is hugely valuable for organisations as they embrace a more contingent workforce model.

MSPs provide organisations with contingent workforce data, training, and overall strategy. Organisations have continued to use MSP providers that have developed the infrastructure to align suppliers, improve productivity, provide administration and programme management and, most importantly, reduce costs of managing contingent labour. Not only are decreased costs a benefit, but MSPs also enable organisations to have direct access to talent.

Total Workforce Solutions

With the growing trend of blended workforces leveraging full-time, part-time, statement of work (SOW) projects and contingent labour, there is a demand to integrate MSP and RPO solutions into one talent management programme. Total Workforce Solutions (TWS) allow organisations to streamline talent acquisition for all categories of labour by blending the benefits of RPO with an MSP.

TWS solutions can help organisations source full-time, temporary, statement of work, professional services or 1099 workers to meet hiring needs based on an organisation’s business objectives. Integrating RPO and MSP talent management into one programme provides organisations with a competitive edge when it comes to understanding their talent needs and their ability to fulfill them.

Freelancing as a Career

With the economy in constant flux it is imperative that businesses remain responsive to change. Organisations are increasingly deciding that it is more advantageous to deploy a more elastic workforce, one that can quickly contract in bad economic times or expand during periods of growth. Workers too are adapting to current economic realities. Based on projected current workforce growth rates, the majority of U.S. workers may be freelancers by the year 2027. Millennials — the largest and generation in the workforce — are spearheading the rise in freelancing, with nearly half of all millennials currently working as freelancers.

Millennials were raised in a digital age, and, as a result, expect to have access to a variety of modern tools and new innovations. Because millennials have been consistently exposed to a consumerised and “on-demand” world, engaging these younger professionals requires a varied set of strategies from social media engagement to sourcing talent on freelancer forums.

Millennials are not the only demographic turning to contingent labour as a career option. According to a study published by the Freelancers Union and Upwork, baby boomers are the generation that’s most likely to make the choice to start freelancing. What’s more, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a significant portion of those reaching retirement age are choosing to remain in the workforce. Twenty-six percent of workers plan to work until age 70, and another 6 percent say they will never want to retire.

When recruiting baby boomers for contingent work, organisations should keep in mind that this generation has different goals than their younger counterparts. Baby boomers and workers beyond retirement age interested in contingent work are likely looking for a way to stay active, socialise and receive recognition for their skills and abilities. So, when engaging baby boomer candidates, organisations should position contingent job opportunities as chances to remain productive but independent.

Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding

To attract contingent workers, organisations are turning to innovative recruitment marketing tactics. According to research conducted by Aberdeen Group, best-in-class organisations are twice as likely to use recruitment marketing within their talent acquisition function for employees of all classifications.

To reach the best candidates, organisations need to reach out to them where they are. Pew Research has found that 41 percent of adults have used a smartphone at some point in their job search. Organisations looking to recruit contingent workers should create mobile-first application experiences. Content and information should be repurposed from desktop websites to fit the mobile-first design of smart phones and apps.

Organisations should also be mindful of employer branding, as candidates now have more power than ever to affect an organisation’s reputation. According to a study conducted by Glassdoor, 70 percent of job seekers consulted the site during their job search. Negative reviews by current and former employees are likely to turn away contingent talent who may have more options when it comes to selecting an employer. Organisations should check job boards and review sites to see what employees have to say about working for them, and address common issues and complaints to improve their employer brand.

The Evolution of Contingent Labour Technology

Vendor Management Systems (VMS) have been around for quite some time, helping organisations better manage the complexities of the contingent workforce. Leveraging the reporting capabilities of VMS software has become more widely adopted as standard practice. What’s more, with advances in VMS software—namely robotic process automation—organisations can more accurately track workers, hours and pay rates and analyse supplier performance, all key components of accurate contingent labour reporting. The speed and accuracy of automated reporting functions allow organisations to make more decisive decisions in real-time with up-to-date data.

MSP providers are also offering new technology to supplement legacy VMS platforms. According to NelsonHall’s study, Changing Shape of Managed Service Programmes, approximately 75 percent of MSP vendors either offer Freelance Management Systems (FMS) technology in addition to VMS platforms, or are currently looking to introduce FMS technology in the future. This shift is driven by the need to manage an increasing number of independent contractors and freelancers in the market. FMS technology is newer and better able to process freelancer information (in addition to other contingent workers), compared with VMS technology.

Organisations and MSP providers are not the only ones benefiting from advances in contingent labour technology. New online services make it easier for independent contractors to find and sustain contingent work. Mobile apps like JobStack by PeopleReady and other online freelance marketplaces are growing more popular in the gig economy. They allow organisations to effectively direct source candidates and quickly fill staffing gaps as one piece of an MSP programme.

Direct Sourcing is Growing Among Organisations

A study conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford notes that from 2016 to 2017, there was a 26 percent increase in the work that organisations source from platforms such as Freelancer, Upwork, PeoplePerHour  and Crowdstaffing Inc. This trend indicates that more and more organisations are internalising their search for contingent workers.  Even more, the social environment created by these contingent networking opportunities allow the workers themselves to inquire with organisations about opportunities. Below we list benefits and challenges of directly sourcing contingent labour.

Benefits of direct sourcing:

  • The ability to re-engage proven talent over the long-term rather than one engagement.
  • Organisations can gain better data and visibility with metrics and results being tracked in-house.
  • Cost savings from fewer supplier fees and less overhead.

Challenges of direct sourcing:

  • Ensuring in-house programme management practices are built to include direct sourcing processes. This will be a challenge because these practices could be different from currently established processes that are applied to third-party suppliers.
  • Managing and keeping track of multiple sourcing channels.
  • Securing buy-in from internal stakeholders who do not understand the benefits of direct sourcing or are unconvinced of its benefits.

Conclusion:

PeopleScout’s MSP programmes combine expertise in staffing and supplier management with leading VMS technology to best meet an organisation’s business requirements. Each solution offered by PeopleScout is customised to provide the best talent, seamless implementation, strong governance and compliance, comprehensive programme management, high touch customer care, value-add services and tangible savings – with a goal of creating operational excellence and yielding sustainable value. Click here to learn more about PeopleScout’s award-winning MSP solutions.

Wages and Recruitment: The Pressure is Building

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The scene opens on an office with two people facing each other across a desk. The one behind the desk takes a piece of paper, and with exaggerated strokes, writes an unseen amount on it, folds the paper in half and slides it slowly across the desk. There is tension in the air. The paper is picked up, unfolded and read. The entire plot hinges on whether the amount, still invisible to the viewer, is accepted or rejected.


This performance has played out countless times in films and television. For those attempting to recruit in a tight labor market successfully, the scene may feel uncomfortably familiar. Determining the right wages at a time of record high job openings and low unemployment can seem daunting. Offering wages that are too low can repel the best talent while offering wages that are unnecessarily high can impact a company’s profitability. Understanding the causes of current wage pressures allows employers to make informed decisions that will have a positive effect on their recruitment processes.

Beyond Supply and Demand – Causes of Wage Pressure


It’s Economics 101: the cost of goods and services rises when their availability decreases. When there is low unemployment, available workers are scarce. Companies that are seeking to attract talent need to source from a limited pool of available workers as well as those who are currently working. Since the top reason that workers quit their jobs is for better pay elsewhere, companies face the dual challenge of finding the right salary to offer the workers they are trying to attract while also retaining their current employees. While this supply and demand scenario is critical to understanding wage pressure, there are other important factors at work in today’s recruiting environment.

Cost of Living


Inflation continues to remain at low levels in most major economies, but the cost of living is rising in many places due to high housing costs. This is especially true for cities that are major business and financial centers. Companies recruiting in these metropolitan areas need to factor in the current and potential future cost of living in these locations when determining their wage ranges as part of an effective recruiting strategy.

Competition from the Gig Economy


The gig economy was not a factor in wage pressure just a few years ago, but it is an integral part of today’s talent landscape. Uber, the company that pioneered this sector, surpassed 1.5 million drivers last year. Some people may choose to work in the gig economy to supplement the income from their full-time job. For others, gig work is an attractive alternative to working set hours, going to an office and having a boss. Employers that want to attract talent to fill positions need to know how their pay rate compares with those choosing to work as independent contractors by tapping on an app.

Skills Shortage


Supply and demand also come into play when there is a shortage of workers who possess the skills required by employers. Consider the example of welders in the United States. In 1988, there were about 570,000 welders compared to the 360,000 in 2012. The American Welding Society estimates a 290,000 job deficit for welders by 2020. Due to a skill shortage and increased demand, wages for welders are projected to increase at nearly double the rate of the average U.S. worker. Wage pressure resulting from skills shortages is a global issue. Employers should factor in the availability of workers with the required skills, or those that can be trained to acquire these skills, when determining pay rates.

What Wage Pressure? 


The United States and other leading economies have had sustained job growth and low unemployment for an extended period, without experiencing a corresponding substantial increase in wages. However, there are leading economists that believe that wage inflation is imminent. Employers seeking to find the best talent should take note of the current economic environment in the U.S. A recent article in Bloomberg reported that during the current economic cycle, the rate at which workers are leaving their jobs has accelerated to its highest point in the in the past six months. This is an indication that the strong labor market is giving workers the confidence that if they leave a job, another one can be found without difficulty.


The article goes on to cite The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s wage measure for job switchers, those who leave one employer for another, which has also rebounded to cycle highs in recent months, reaching 4.4 percent in March and 4.0 percent in April. The article goes on to note: “Seems like a good environment for workers facing stagnating real wage growth to start looking for greener pastures, forcing firms to boost compensation more aggressively to attract and retain employees.”

Relieving the Pressure on Recruitment


With so many factors to consider, how can employers determine a wage range that will attract the best talent without causing an unnecessary negative impact on profit? Companies should consider partnering their recruitment efforts with an expert, such as a recruitment process outsourcing company or RPO.  RPOs can provide information on current wage rates, the supply and demand of workers in specific markets and the ability to source and screen candidates. An RPO provides the steps to deliver the best candidates while delivering an employer the insight to offer the right wages to attract the right talent. By partnering with an RPO, an employer can leverage an understanding of wage pressure into an asset in its recruitment efforts.

Positive Global Economic Growth and Its Impact on Talent Acquisition

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According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Update, global economic activity continues to trend upward. Global production is estimated to have grown by 3.7 percent in 2017, which is 0.1 percentage point faster than projected and half a percentage point higher than in 2016. Global growth has been broad-based, with exceptional growth in Europe and Asia. As a result of better than projected growth in 2017, global growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 have adjusted from 0.2 to 3.9 percent. The adjustment reflects amplified global growth momentum.

Positive economic growth numbers affect both large, multinational and small, regional organisations’ demand for and ability to recruit talent. To stay competitive in the battle for talent, organisations need to understand current economic trends and the effect they have on the labour market. In this post, we cover the impact of global growth on labour markets, how workforce planning can help organisations navigate growth and the need for flexible talent acquisition programmes to manage fluctuations in hiring needs.

Strong Global Economic Recovery and Increased Competition for Talent

While the global economy continues to grow steadily, the working-age population has stagnated. According to a demographic analysis conducted by the Wall Street Journal, by 2050, the global population will grow by 32 percent; however, the working-age population will increase by only 26 percent, a 6 percent drop off.

What’s more, in advanced nations, the working-age population will decrease by 26 percent, while according to the U.N., middle-income nations will see it rise 23 percent. Shrinking labour markets and talent pools will become a serious challenge in many major economies as labour market shortages could reach heights unseen in decades, especially in the U.S., Japan, UK and countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Labour shortages cause increased competition for talent. Thanks to steady economic growth, organisations are on better financial footing than during the recession. Financial stability can lead to more investments in expansion and product development; however, skills and labour shortages can be stifling to growth.

This reality necessitates that business leaders reassess how they attract, develop and retain their organisation’s talent. Below, we list a few ways organisations can help bridge the talent gap as well as ways they can mitigate the effects of talent shortages:

  • Organisations should encourage recruiting teams to source from diverse demographic groups to find talent.
  • Organisations should look to cultivate a strong talent pipeline consisting of passive and active candidates to nurture and engage when vacancies arise.
  • If possible, organisations should partner with local governments to invest in infrastructure, technology, education and training programmes to help underqualified and less-educated workers improve their employability for the jobs of the future.

Planning for Talent Acquisition to Accommodate Economic Growth

Economic growth is transforming global businesses and the international talent landscape. Technological advances, further globalisation of markets, changing demographic trends and increased competition are changing the way organisations see talent acquisition in virtually every industry. To stay ahead of talent shortages and increased competition for candidates, organisations should take proactive steps, including integrating workforce planning into their business planning process.

Workforce planning is a process used to align the needs of an organisation with those of its workforce to ensure it can meet compliance, service and production requirements. Workforce planning can help organisations analyse their current workforce, determine future workforce needs and identify the gaps between the current and future workforce. The workforce planning process should include stakeholders from multiple departments of the organisation collaborating closely together to establish organisational goals and the talent needs to support them.

Essential components of workforce planning include:

Workforce Demand Planning

Workforce demand planning involves taking into account the key mission, goals and future objectives set by an organisation’s leadership and assessing the current workforce to determine if it is well-aligned enough to achieve them.

Estimating the Labour Pool

Estimating the labour pool entails researching the supply and availability of labour and comparing the talent supply with an organisation’s talent demands from both internal and external sources.

Managing the Gaps

Managing the gaps requires that the HR department establish tactics to proactively resolve issues that may arise between workforce demand and supply. This ensures that positions vital to achieving previously outlined goals can be filled in the face of labour shortages.

Economic Growth and Increased Competition Demand Flexibility in Talent Acquisition Tactics and Strategy

A competitive labour market and rapid innovation are spurring a need to reinvest in recruiting. More frequently, organisations are turning to talent acquisition experts such as recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) providers. The global RPO market grew by 17 percent in 2015, according to Everest Group, a consulting and research firm. The majority of global RPO growth is attributed to new deal activity, which grew at a rate of more than 18 percent from 2015 to 2016 and continues to trend upward.

For high-growth organisations, an RPO provider offers the benefit of a consultative partnership where the provider acts as extension of an organisation’s HR department to supplement and amplify recruiting resources. Throughout the engagement, RPO providers work to transform recruitment processes to help the client reach its long-term hiring and business goals. Experienced RPO providers embrace a mix of talent acquisition strategies, technology and emerging recruiting techniques to source and hire talent. Moreover, an RPO provider with experience hiring talent globally can leverage data to determine the best global talent markets to source talent from. The provider will also use global employment data and trends to design strategies that will attract talent to a client’s organisation.

RPO solutions provide scalability and flexibility to organisations by outsourcing the entire or parts of the recruitment process to an external provider. An RPO provider scales its team according to a client’s unique needs, deploying more resources for high-volume hiring periods and recalling resources when hiring slows. An RPO provider’s experienced team of recruiters, use of cutting-edge recruiting technology and recruitment marketing tactics make it well-equipped to handle scalable hiring needs. Because of the flexible nature of RPO programmes, providers can better navigate fluctuating hiring demands.

Contingent and Gig Workers

Organisations that wish to develop a more agile talent management strategy and position themselves for future growth are adopting a more scalable and fluid approach to recruitment, with contingent hiring at it its core. Research conducted by Ernst & Young (EY) revealed that organisations are increasingly embracing gig and contingent workers as a means of adapting to rapid growth and the changing nature of work. Contingent and gig hires are not a fad. In fact, 40 percent of respondents to the study expect to use contingent labour in the years ahead.

From the employer perspective, the uptick in temporary hiring and the growing utilisation of gig economy workers has provided substantial benefits. Below, we list a few of the benefits reported in the EY research:

  • Contingent hiring helps organisations better control labour costs by setting prescribed budget limits.
  • Organisations are more flexible in the skills sets and expertise they hire for.
  • Contingent labour provides organisations with the ability to rapidly respond to changes in demand for labour.

To manage contingent workforce needs, organisations can turn to managed service providers (MSP) programmes to support gig, temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire, independent contractor (1099) administration and other needs.

Benefits of Engaging a Managed Service Provider:

  • An MSP programme delivers immediate ROI by analysing an organisation’s total spend and identifying ways to optimise and drive cost savings.
  • MSPs set baseline performance metrics to track improvements and quantify business issues, such as the cost of turnover and the lost productivity that follows. This provides clients with a real-time view of costs and areas for improvement and savings.
  • MSPs not only manage staffing suppliers and services spend but also work to streamline operations to scale and match growth cycles.

Conclusion

As the global economy continues to grow and the demand and competition for talent rises as a result, organisations need to stay abreast of the scope of talent available on the market. Talent acquisition specialists have adapted to the changes in global workforce trends and are equipped to provide organisations with the expertise and resources needed to navigate an ever-changing and challenging talent landscape.