Solution: Recruitment Process Outsourcing

How the Skills of the Future Will Impact Enterprise Recruitment Teams

Posted on by epadmin

Technology is disrupting nearly every industry, at a pace that has never been seen before. As we shared in our earlier article on how to create a workforce equipped with the skills of the future, this pace of change means that employers need to take a proactive role in ensuring their workforce is prepared for this change. As in-demand skills shift towards prioritising complex problem solving, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and creativity, workforce leaders need to rethink the way they are acquiring talent.

We’ve explored the pending change of skills in the workplace and its impact on employees, but what does this mean for an in-house recruiting team? As roles are redefined and employers move from traditional job descriptions to skills-based definitions, traditional recruiting teams must learn to adapt.

In this article, we’ll examine the need to change the way jobs are defined and categorised to attract the right talent, how the shifting candidate experience drives continued focus on digital sourcing and recruiting strategies and what these changes mean to in-house recruiting teams.

Changing Skills in the Workplace and the Impact on Recruiting Teams

Jobs are being redefined, which impacts the way recruiting teams must work to find the best candidates. How can internal recruiting teams that have traditionally been aligned to specific business units adapt to meet the needs of workforce 4.0?

  • Some companies are realigning their recruiting teams away from business units to talent segments, where they focus on recruiting for a specific skill set
  • Others are outsourcing select talent segments to RPO providers for additional support and expertise
  • Other employers are moving from job-based recruitment to skills-based recruitment

The shift towards aligning recruiters with specific skills creates a challenge for in-house recruiting teams, which may not have the bandwidth or ability to shift to this model. In-house teams are struggling to keep up with the pace when recruiting for a large variety of roles and skill sets, as the number of jobs being redefined to adapt to new skills increases. Analysis of some in-house client teams show time-to-hire is actually increasing as teams find difficulty with new skills and unique roles to fill.

The digitisation of work is also having a major impact on recruiting. It’s difficult for enterprise recruiting teams to keep up with the pace of change in talent acquisition and HR technology. Recruitment teams have access to more technology, which should increase productivity and improve the quality of candidates. But in truth, it can be overwhelming. The HR technology marketplace is valued at more than $14 billion, and new technologies continue to enter the space.

As employers continue to shift their recruiting processes to keep up with the pace of change, many are turning to outsourced providers, like RPOs, to help with talent segments they’re having trouble with. Partnering with an outsourced firm also brings access to improved talent technology. At PeopleScout, for example, our Affinix™ technology is equipped with AI, machine learning and predictive analytics tools that enable our clients to connect with the best talent faster. We are also continuously evaluating and implementing new tools and features, so our clients are on the cutting-edge of emerging technologies in the marketplace.

Changing Candidate Experience: Ways to Engage with Candidates Online

Employers need to contend with changing candidate expectations in addition to adapting their jobs for the skills of the future. Candidates today want benefits like flexible working hours and virtual work opportunities and have in-demand skills that translate across multiple job categories. And, candidates today have more options than ever. With very strong job growth and low unemployment in many of the world’s leading economies, it is becoming a more candidate-driven job market every day.

How do you find these candidates of the future? Employers need to shift their employment branding strategies to fit the digital era.

Many employers invest large amounts of time and money in their career sites and application process, however most candidates are not finding your career site organically and the application process is often still cumbersome and slow.

While it is critical for candidates to have a good experience when they hit your career site, you need to first find and reach candidates where they are. With the rise of Amazon and other personalised online retail experiences, candidates expect to be treated like a consumer throughout the recruiting process. Recruitment marketing tactics must evolve to meet these requirements, with career sites recommending jobs to candidates the way online retailers recommend products to consumers.

Developing candidate personas can help employers understand exactly who they are targeting. With the candidate in mind, you can develop targeted digital advertising campaigns, post positions on specialty job boards and develop recruitment marketing content to guide candidates through the application process.

It is also critical to closely monitor job rating sites. A poor candidate or employee experience can result in a loss of candidates due to negative reviews on sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. A positive review, on the other hand, can be more meaningful as it is coming straight from an unbiased individual, rather than a company career site.

The right talent acquisition technology tool can also help provide a superior candidate experience.

  • AI-enabled sourcing tools help recruiters find the best candidates faster.
  • A streamlined application process can allow candidates apply with just one click.
  • Personalised recruitment marketing tools like chatbots, SMS messages, email campaign and individualised landing pages provide candidates with the consumer-like experience they have come to expect online.

Why Turn to Outsourced Recruitment?

When enterprise recruiting teams are struggling to implement technology or source the right candidates for positions requiring new skills, some employers bring in a talent partner to focus on specific job functions or skillsets. Talent acquisition leaders are turning to RPO providers for their expertise in hard-to-source talent segments. They’re also looking for a partner who can bring the right technology to improve sourcing and hiring metrics. Visit our website to learn more about PeopleScout’s RPO solutions.

The Value of Globalising Your Recruitment Strategy

Posted on by epadmin

As competition for talent increases, it is increasingly important for international organisations to build recruitment strategies that are consistent across the globe. One factor driving this shift is falling unemployment around the world. The U.S., China, Japan, Britain and Canada all have unemployment rates at or below 6 percent – with the U.S., China and Japan at or below 4 percent. This makes it difficult to find and attract top talent in these economies.

Leaders are concerned about the growing competition for talent. According to PwC’s 21st CEO Survey, which collects data from leaders around the world, 80 percent of CEOs say they’re worried about finding talent with necessary skills. Additionally, 54 percent say they plan to increase the headcount at their organisation over the next year and 57 percent believe global growth will improve over the next year.

To support growth and remain competitive in sourcing and recruiting the best workers, organisations need to build a comprehensive global recruitment strategy. An overarching global recruitment strategy covers recruitment marketing and employer branding, candidate experience and onboarding around the world.

In this blog post, we will cover the benefits of a global recruitment strategy and the building blocks employers need to be successful.

Benefits of a Global Recruitment Strategy

Improved quality of hire

An effective global sourcing strategy enables employers to make a better cultural match and increases the potential of finding the right candidate with the right skills.

Increased diversity and greater cultural literacy

Employers are able to speak to and attract candidates regardless of country through a consistent global recruitment strategy. If the recruitment process is optimised for one country or weaker in different parts of the world, an employer will see the overrepresentation of some candidates and underrepresentation of others. By deploying a truly global process, employers will be able to attract and hire a more diverse slate of candidates. Increased diversity has a host of benefits including improved productivity and higher levels of employee engagement. Diverse employees also bring an increase in cultural literacy to an organisation.

Better ability to source candidates with skills of the future

A global recruitment strategy can help employers source candidates with the skills of the future. Automation is changing the way we work, and different areas of the globe are adapting at different paces. According to PwC, 94 percent of CEOs in China are worried about finding candidates with the right skills compared to just 51 percent in Canada. With a global recruitment strategy, HR professionals can adapt candidate personas from around the world to ensure they are sourcing talent with the necessary skills and identifying new ways to target candidates who fit these personas.

Components of a Global Recruitment Strategy

Employment brand

The first step of implementing a global recruitment strategy is building an employment brand that is truly global. Many employers, especially those in the B2B space, don’t have a strong consumer brand. Without a strong consumer brand, most organisations need to rely on their employer brand to attract talent. There are many ways for an organisation to build its employer brand, including developing employee ambassadors, using social media and digitising brand strategy while putting mobile first.

When implementing a global recruitment strategy, organisations need to build an employer brand that is effective across the world. It is important to work with local employees to ensure employer branding and recruitment marketing campaigns are culturally appropriate in each region in which an employer recruits.

To accomplish this effectively, HR should work with marketing, so the strategy is aligned with and deployed alongside traditional marketing messages.

Candidate experience

A strong end-to-end candidate experience is important regardless of where candidates are from. Candidates around the world want mobile-friendly applications that are fast and easy to fill out, well-written job descriptions that engage candidates and convince them to apply, positive interview experiences and consistent communication.

Employee referral programme

The process should also include a strong employee referral programme for each country as employee referrals account for nearly a third of all hires, according to SHRM. It is important to ensure an equivalent referral bonus in each country. The amount should be based on a percentage of the average income in each location. If referral bonuses are too varied in different countries, it can make employees in one location feel less valued.

Consistent onboarding process

The onboarding process should also be as consistent as possible in each location. According to SHRM, 69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding. While some countries have exceptions, like requiring a new hire to come into the office for a signature before the start date, but otherwise the process should be as consistent as possible. At PeopleScout, we standardise, document and create global job contract repositories to make our clients’ onboarding processes more efficient and compliant.

Standardised technology

When building a global recruitment strategy, it is important to standardise technology as much as possible across the globe. While there are exceptions, like Russia where, by law, you need to have an ATS on the ground in the country, you should use the same technology systems wherever possible.
A centralised technology system for all global locations gives you better data and a better view of your entire workforce. This gives you the ability to better spot trends and make strategic decisions.

Global labour market data analysis

If the talent market starts to tighten in one part of the world, you can easily see how your workforce compares throughout the region and other areas of the world. That insight can be used to make high-level business decisions. For example, a PeopleScout client was looking to hire Norwegian speakers in a central European country. After analysing the market data, PeopleScout provided recommendations for better locations outside of Norway where the client could find more candidates who met their requirements.

Finding a Global RPO Partner

A global RPO provider can be a valuable partner in developing a global recruitment strategy because you benefit from the wealth of knowledge and experience they gain through working in different industries around the world. As you look for a partner, it’s important to ensure that they have experience in the parts of the world where you’re looking to hire candidates.

Your partner should help you navigate the compliance and cultural issues that accompany any global sourcing programme. While some local labour laws deal with issues that happen after the hiring process, remember that they can have implications during the hiring process too. An RPO provider can help prepare you for many of the challenges before you post a job or extend an offer. Additionally, a partner with years of experience can help you anticipate any communication and training issues so that you can tackle the issues head-on.

If you are considering building a global recruitment strategy, read more about our global RPO solutions.

How to Create and Provide a Positive Candidate Experience

Posted on by epadmin

The world of hiring is more candidate-driven than ever before. Professionals in various industries at different levels of experience are in high demand, and that means they have more options when it comes to choosing an employer. The presence of options, coupled with the rising bargaining power of employees, has lifted candidate experience to the top of many organisation’s list of talent acquisition and workforce management priorities.

Generally, the better the candidate experience, the more likely an organisation is to attract the best talent. Top candidates demand compelling experiences during and after the hiring process. In this post, we outline ways organisations can improve their candidate experience to gain an advantage over the competition.

Why is Candidate Experience Important?

The candidate experience covers the entire recruitment process from before an application is submitted to onboarding, and everything in between. Poor experiences during the recruiting process can negatively impact an employer’s ability to hire talent. In fact, 27 percent of candidates who have a bad experience would “actively discourage others to apply.” What’s more, 77 percent of candidates are likely to share positive experiences with those in their network.

Today, candidates have more choices, making it harder for employers to differentiate themselves and establish how their values, company culture and employees represent a unique opportunity for top candidates. Through a positive candidate experience, organisations can gain the trust and loyalty of applicants who may become advocates for an organisation and help bolster their employer brand. With a stronger employer brand, organisations can distinguish themselves as an employer of choice in their industry.

Research Report

Inside the Candidate Experience

Read the report

Candidate Experience Touchpoints

Every interaction with an organisation, from job postings and career sites to speaking with a recruiter or hiring manager can positively or negatively impact the candidate’s perception of an organisation. Candidates often decide whether or not to accept a job offer based on how they were treated throughout the hiring process.

Each touchpoint throughout the hiring process—from attraction and sourcing to onboarding—should be taken into consideration when optimising your candidate experience. The following are tips on how to enhance your candidate experience.

Employer Branding

In today’s digital-obsessed world, most candidates use the internet to research an potential employer prior to applying for a job. Having a strong employer brand not only helps build a connection with a prospective hire, but it introduces them to who you are, what you do and why you are a great place to work.

There are many ways in which a company can work to optimise its employer brand. For example, organisations can ask current employees to leave reviews on Glassdoor or submit a quote about their experience to be used in recruiting materials. Social media savvy employees can also be encouraged to share company culture through news, photos and events.

Employer branding messages should be communicated across all platforms that are relevant to the organisation’s business and recruitment efforts such as job boards, social media platforms and industry publications.

Make a Good First Impression

According to a CareerBuilder study, 57 percent of candidates conduct their preliminary research by visiting an organisation’s website, making it clear that career pages and candidate-facing web pages need to be designed to capture an applicant’s interest.

An effective career site should make visitors feel welcome and give applicants the information they are looking for, such as details about employment opportunities, company culture and work environment.

Career sites should be both engaging and easy to understand. An excellent online experience can motivate candidates to apply and differentiate employers from competitors.

Respond to Candidates

CareerBuilder also reports that 47 percent of candidates never receive any form of communication from the organisation they apply to, even past 60 days after applying. This leaves a huge opportunity for organisations to provide superior communication and recruitment marketing.

Every candidate deserves a response, even if they will not be given an interview. Whether the response is an automated email, a letter or a phone call, as long as it is prompt and tactful, applicants will not feel that they wasted their time.

Organisations who treat every candidate equally are more likely to have applicants reapply to the company or encourage family, friends and coworkers to apply.

Create Unique Experiences

An optimised application process should be tailored based on different criteria such as the role, location or technical experience required. For example, certain positions may require rigorous technical screening questions, while others might rely more on personality or cultural fit. Organisations can even display specific job postings in an applicant’s preferred language to make them feel more comfortable with the hiring process.

Employers can also build a way for applicants to showcase their personal interests and non-work-related activities throughout the application process. This allows candidates to display their personality in addition to just experience; organisations can also use this opportunity to learn about additional skills that may make a hire more desirable.

Improving the Application Process

Many qualified candidates are lost because organisations lack a streamlined and easy application process.

To improve the application process, organisations should ask the following questions:

  • What does the application process look like? Is it long? Is it tedious?
  • What happens after a candidate completes the application?
  • How will they know if they have been selected to move on through the hiring process?

Below, we outline some additional ways to improve the candidate experience through improving the application process.

Mobile-Friendly Applications

Job seekers today spend time on their smartphone doing everything from buying birthday gifts to scheduling doctor appointments. In fact, according to Pew Research Centre, 53 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 43 percent of all users have used a smartphone as part of a job search. Yet, many employers still offer an outdated or poorly designed mobile application experience.

Because so many candidates learn about job opportunities on their mobile devices, organisations need to create a mobile-friendly application experience. Candidates—in particular, high-demand candidates such as those working in technology and executives—may judge an organisation by its technology and application processes. Being perceived as “outdated” could damage an organisation’s employer brand.

At PeopleScout, we understand the importance of creating an optimised application experience across all devices, which is why we built Affinix to be mobile-first. Learn more about PeopleScout’s mobile-friendly recruiting solutions with AffinixTM.

Job Descriptions

A well-written job description can engage a candidate and convince them to apply for a position. However, there is a disconnect when it comes to job descriptions, with 72 percent of hiring managers stating that they provide clear job descriptions, while only 36 percent of applicants agree.

Organisations should perform a quality check on their job descriptions and ask the question, “Could these descriptions describe any company?” If they can, the descriptions probably rely on a list of generic skills and traits, which may deter top candidates from applying while inviting unqualified ones.

Instead, organisations should write job descriptions that highlight what a candidate would be expected to achieve during their first month, three months, six months and a year into the job. The improved clarity will provide candidates with a clear understanding of what they can expect if they are hired.

Shorten Applications

The length of a job application can have a major impact on candidate experience. A study conducted by Indeed found that 88.7 percent of potential applicants abandon the application process if there are 45 or more screener questions. What’s more,  43 percent of candidates spent more than 30 minutes completing an application, and 12 percent spent more than one hour.

A “Quick Apply” feature that only collects the most pertinent information required to move a candidate forward in the process can help shorten job applications. Many ATSs have features that allow applicants to import their resume from other sites such as LinkedIn or auto-fill parts of the application to save time. By shortening the application time, organisations will have more candidates completing the process, adding to the applicant pool and increasing the chances of finding the right hire.

Provide a Positive Interview Experience

A positive interview experience can present a positive image of a company, improving the odds of the best candidate accepting a job offer.

During the interview, one of the most effective ways to get good responses is by using behavioural interviewing techniques. Behavioural interviewing is the concept that past experience is a good indicator of future performance. Questions that begin with “Tell me about a time,” or “Describe a moment when,” are usually behavioural in nature. It allows the candidate to share an experience from their past.

Ultimately, a well-defined interview process will give everyone the comfort to ask and receive the best answers.

How RPO Providers can Help with Candidate Experience

From the initial recruiting email or phone call to onboarding, high-quality talent expects a high-quality candidate experience. An RPO provider who makes smart use of technology and recruiting strategies can help deliver high-quality experiences that make candidates feel important. An RPO partner’s recruiting teams spend hours cultivating relationships with candidates. The rapport they build with candidates helps establish relationships that over time lead to making quality hires and recruiting success.

Organisations who partner with PeopleScout can build a world-class, global candidate experience that features personalised messaging, social recruitment, retargeting and programmatic prospecting as well as data-driven decision making.

Learn more about how you can boost your candidate experience with our research report, Inside the Candidate Experience.

Strategies for Building an Effective Talent Community

Posted on by epadmin

Competition for talent is increasing across the globe, and employers are looking for innovative strategies to stay ahead of the competition. To gain a competitive advantage, employers are deploying a variety of methods. Wages are on the rise after years of slow growth. New graduates face strong prospects for employment. Even retirement is starting to look different for older workers with important skills. Finding new ways to source and attract workers with the skills of the future is a growing need.

In the U.S., years of job growth have led to the lowest unemployment rate in decades. Around the world, favorable job conditions are making it more difficult for employers to hire the talent they need. Adding to the challenge, employers are facing a skills shortage as they look to hire candidates who have the training, education and experience to bring their workforce into the future. This pressure is even greater in industries that are currently adapting to disruptive technology, like the auto industry. While reskilling and future degree programs can help increase the size of the talent pipeline in the future, employers still need to find and hire talent today. Building a talent community is a promising solution.

What is a Talent Community?

A talent community is a sourcing strategy that is an ongoing, multifaceted approach to candidate engagement that creates employment brand ambassadors and a talent pool that begins to feed itself. A talent community is a process rather than an event and takes continual effort to maintain.

Traditional sourcing starts with a job opening. From there, a job description is written and disseminated. A sourcing specialist may search their contacts and social media to find a candidate with skills that match, but the process largely involves posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to find you.

In a talent community, the process is cyclical. It starts before a job requisition is created, and it doesn’t stop when a candidate is hired. Employers consistently build profiles of the types of candidates they would like for roles they may need to fill in the future. Then, employers need to build pipelines through technology, partnerships and employer branding initiatives to connect with those people, whether the employer currently has a job opening for that candidate or not. Finally, when a candidate gets to the point of applying, the experience throughout that process needs to be so strong that even candidates who do not make it through the process will become ambassadors for that brand and continue to apply for open positions in the future.

Building a talent community sourcing strategy has a host of benefits for employers. A talent community is sustainable. It can feed itself. This means decreased time-to-fill and cost-of-vacancy because candidates who are interested in working for an organisation are waiting for a job to be posted rather than a recruiter posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to apply. It also leads to increased quality of hire because the employer has already determined the ideal candidate persona and has built a pipeline to find those people. When more qualified candidates are in that pipeline, the likelihood of making a strong hire goes up.

Why Talent Communities Alone Aren’t Enough

  • They have to be combined with great employer branding.
  • Your content has to be engaging and of value to the audience.
  • You have to have the right mix of viable candidates with the skills and experience that your company values, and ambassadors for your employer brand.
  • It is what you put into it, not what you take out–you have to cultivate the community or it will stagnate.

Using Employer Branding to Build a Talent Community

As employers work to create a talent community they need to build an employer brand that stands out from other organisations they compete with for talent. Organisations with a strong employer brand can stand out in a crowded landscape and draw in more candidates. There are several strategies employers can use to build their brands.

Online Talent Communities

An online talent community is a way to continue to communicate with candidates who may be interested in working for you in the future but can’t find a job opening that meets their skills and needs right now. It is also a way to engage with candidates who apply to jobs they aren’t qualified for yet but still have potential. An online talent community allows candidates to provide their contact information, resume and job interests. Then, the organisation can search those resumes when a position opens, and it can send matching job openings to the candidate. This keeps the employer at the front of a candidate’s mind and provides recruiters with a slate of candidates every time a requisition opens.

Recruitment Email Marketing

Many organisations use email marketing as a part of their traditional marketing strategy, but it is also important in employment branding. Email marketing can be used in partnership with an online talent community. Organisations can send recruitment marketing emails to share job openings, as well as information about their culture. One caveat to using email marketing as a part of an employer branding strategy is that the emails should be as personalised as possible. A candidate who has provided their resume should only receive job openings that correspond with their skillsets. Data about candidates can also be used to personalise how often candidate receive emails or at what time of the day they are sent. Regulations like CAN-SPAM in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU regulate email marketing, and we discuss those later in this post.

Social Media

Every organisation should have a strategy for sharing its employment brand on social media, though that strategy may look different for different companies. One option is to create a separate “careers” social media page where the organisation can post job openings and information about the workplace, culture and current employees. At PeopleScout, we recommend this strategy to our clients and work with them to optimise their existing pages to showcase their employer brand. This strategy works well for employers with a strong brand presence and large volume of hires. Another option, especially for smaller organisations, is to include some employer branding on their traditional social media accounts. In this approach, employer branding related posts that share information about the workplace and culture should be interspersed between standard social media posts.

Video

Many employers are familiar with video interviewing, but video can enhance employer branding in several additional ways and doesn’t always need high production quality. One example is video job descriptions. A job posting could include a short video of a hiring manager talking about the job and what they are looking for. A video like this gives a candidate a better understanding of the job and gives them a glimpse into the culture of the organisation. Additionally, organisations can use video to show workplace tours, so job seekers get an idea of what working for an organisation might look like. If an organisation is hiring for a lot of entry-level roles but frequently promotes within the company, a video that shows an employee’s career path from entry-level to a leadership role can also motivate candidates to apply for hard-to-fill entry-level jobs.

Chatting and Text

Another method of building a strong employer brand is communicating with candidates in the ways candidates want to communicate. Chat and text are growing in popularity. Some employers are deploying chatbots throughout their recruitment process. For others, a chat window with limited hours but access to a live recruiter can be successful. While many employers may be cautious to start a system to text messages candidates, several PeopleScout clients have found success and higher rates of candidate engagement.

Using Innovative Technology to Power a Talent Community

While a compelling employer brand is important for attracting strong candidates, it’s not enough to stay ahead in the current competitive landscape. Innovative technology solutions can help employers source top talent faster than the competition.

Geofencing

Geofencing can be used in a few different ways during the sourcing process. Much like targeted ads for restaurants or stores can be delivered to a person’s cell phone or computer based on where that person is located, job ads can be targeted to candidates in a specific geographical area as well. This can be valuable to employers that have a variety of locations spread across a large geographical area. Geofencing can be used to target job ads at candidates near specific branches. It can also be used for industry events or expos where a large number of potential candidates could be in one location at the same time.

AI Sourcing

Artificial intelligence sourcing can provide recruiters with a solid slate of candidates as soon as a requisition is opened, giving the recruiter a strong head start to fill the role. An AI sourcing solution that uses predictive analytics modeling can also provide the recruiter with information about how well the candidate matches the job opening and how likely the candidate is to leave their current role. With this information, recruiters are able to work more quickly and efficiently, filling the role with the best talent in less time. In the end, it saves companies time and money. At PeopleScout, AI sourcing is built into AffinixTM, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology solution.

AI Data Tracking

AI data tracking can be used to make other sourcing and employer branding strategies more effective. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can understand and predict candidate behaviors. By tracking what time of day candidates apply, open emails or use social media, employers can schedule email marketing and social media posts to maximise the number of candidates who will see and click on job postings. Employers can also use this data to optimise their ad spend on job boards, so the ads appear when the best candidates are most likely to be online. One PeopleScout client had data that showed most of its applicants applied after lunch on Wednesdays. By posting jobs just before that timeframe, the employer saw a 15 percent increase in applications.

Finding a Partner

As employers work to build their own talent communities, an RPO provider can be a valuable partner. The right RPO partner will have a wealth of knowledge gleaned from experience solving a wide variety of problems and successfully sourcing and recruiting in a number of markets and industries. Employers can benefit from that collective knowledge.

Additionally, working with an RPO partner provides compliance benefits. Many of the sourcing strategies addressed in this article are impacted by GDPR, CAN-SPAM and other regulations, as well as regulations by the OFCCP. RPO providers have years of experience with these regulations and strong checks in place to ensure all sourcing strategies are compliant. This can provide peace of mind for employers.

Employers working with RPO partners will also see financial benefits, including reducing or eliminating agency spend. At PeopleScout, some clients have gone from agency usage as high as 25 percent or more to zero. To accomplish that, employers need to be committed from the top down to building the sourcing infrastructure to implement a talent community.

To find an RPO partner who is a good fit, employers should look for providers who possess customisable offerings that can be adapted to meet every need. A one-size-fits-all approach ignores the specific needs of employers in different industries and the unique challenges that can arise in recruiting in different markets. To build a strong talent community, employers should look for an RPO partner who can successfully deploy and manage these innovative sourcing strategies.

Removing Barriers to Employment for the Long-Term Unemployed

Posted on by epadmin

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.

Wages and Recruitment: The Pressure is Building

Posted on by epadmin


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.

How to Create a Workforce Equipped with the Skills of the Future

Posted on by epadmin

Automation is transforming the way we work. The World Economic Forum calls this change the Fourth Industrial Revolution which is characterised by a “fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres.” In short, technology is disrupting nearly every industry, at a pace that has never happened before.

This pace of change means that employers need to take a proactive role in ensuring they have a workforce equipped with the skills of the future in order to avoid skills gaps. To accomplish this, employers first need to understand the skills they will need to remain competitive and innovative. Then, they need to understand how best to prepare and train their current workforce, as well as prepare to source, recruit and hire the talent of the future. In this post, we’ll share the top skills of the future, how technology is changing the way we work and explore ways organisations can prepare for the workforce of the future.

Skills of the Future

According to the World Economic Forum, the top ten skills you need to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution have shifted in the last several years, prioritising complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity as the top three skills and adding emotional intelligence to the list.

The following ten skills are listed as the most in demand for employers by 2020:

  1. Complex problem solving
  2. Critical thinking
  3. Creativity
  4. People management
  5. Coordinating with others
  6. Emotional intelligence
  7. Judgment and decision making
  8. Service orientation
  9. Negotiation
  10. Cognitive flexibility

This list reflects the fact that robots can complete many tasks faster than humans, but the machines still lack soft skills like creativity and emotional skills. As technology takes on more of the workload, the most in-demand employees will be those who possess the skills that computers cannot replicate. However, the need also increases for workers who have the skills to use, build and innovate the technology of the future.

Automation is Changing the Way We Work

It’s no secret that automation is fundamentally changing the way many industries operate, increasing the demand for tech and digital skills in the workforce. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, as many as 375 million people around the world will need to change occupational categories by 2030 due to automation.

Let’s explore this idea using the example of the impact of automation on the automobile industry. Some of the most well-known innovations in automation have happened in the industry – starting with Henry Ford’s assembly line. Now, companies around the world are racing to bring autonomous cars to market. We expect that the first autonomous cars will be available for sale to the public as early as 2021. The link to the potential disruption in complementary industries from delivery services to drive-through restaurants is overwhelming. However, it is an excellent example to use to illustrate the complexity of the skills needed for the future.

The skills required to deliver the cars to market are both highly technical and analytical.  However, the skills needed to design and operate the vehicles of the future are more complicated. Skills in design thinking and innovation will be critical. Programmers will need to ensure safety in weather conditions from blizzards to heavy rains and navigate autonomous cars and trucks through road construction and complicated intersections and interchanges.  They may be faced with programming life and death decision-making into the vehicles, which are inherently complex human behaviours requiring emotional and social intelligence skills above all others.

How to Prepare the Future Workforce

The Transformation of Talent

Automation and the skills transformation will affect many industries over the next decade, but lessons can be learned from the industries that have already come through the journey, transforming their workforce in order to deliver to a new business model. This transformation is illustrated with an example of one of PeopleScout’s clients, a company which provides research and risk management services.

The company began migrating customers from the traditional print version of their core product to an online version available on multiple platforms. This was a complicated and highly-involved transformation which impacted everyone from their internal workforce to their heavily print-dependent end-user. To illustrate the skills transformation that occurred, since that point in time, the number of technology hires PeopleScout makes for this client has increased 500 percent. This includes roles like product analysts, product managers and implementation consultants. At the same time, hires for editorial roles like editors, journalists and content developers have increased only 14 percent. And, 100 percent of editorial roles filled were for their online research product; no positions filled were for the traditional print product.

In order to help guide this client through their talent transformation, PeopleScout worked closely with the internal HR function to adapt their candidate personas for both external hiring and internal mobility. We then developed sophisticated sourcing strategies to source candidates with skill sets that would meet the needs of the new organisation. In addition to sourcing new candidates internally and externally, there were also efforts to analyse which traditional roles had transferrable skills to the requirements of the new roles. This was a journey to take a traditional business and transform it into a technology company and substantially shifting the workforce to meet the new strategy.

Future Skill Degree Programmes

Another way employers can prepare for the future workforce is through working closely with high schools, colleges, universities, apprenticeships and graduate recruitment programmes to help develop degree programmes that meet the skills of the future. By building these programmes, employers can ensure that graduates have the skills necessary to succeed in the coming years.

The importance of high school programmes is not yet as obvious as those in higher education, but many businesses and universities have started working with high schools to source and attract new talent early. The programmes are particularly significant in industries where there is a forecasted talent gap. For example, Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy students in Sydney have the opportunity to partner with an engineering company to learn valuable job skills and open up thinking about new career pathways.

I recently participated in a panel discussion with other industry leaders as well as a professor at a university in Sydney. The professor shared that the university spent time with CEOs and business leaders asking them what skills they felt their organisations needed to ensure their business was successful in the future. As a result of those conversations, the university created a highly-innovative, cross-disciplinary degree programme designed to produce students with skills that include high-level critical thinking, future scenario building and innovation, as well as many other skills identified in the World Economic Forum top ten list.

However, in the first year of the programme, they had minimal applicants. Why would such an innovative and carefully-designed degree have so little applicants? More work may need to be done to ensure that parents and students are fully educated on the necessary skill sets to be successful in the future of work.

How to Prepare your Current Workforce

Employers cannot simply wait for the workforce of tomorrow to arrive. To stay ahead, it is necessary to train and prepare current workers for these shifts. To make this a priority, HR and the C-suite need to be aligned on what roles will be needed in the next three, five or ten years, as well as what skills will be needed to fill those roles. The roles that exist now may transform or disappear altogether, and new skill sets will be necessary for the business to drive growth and strategy. Both need to be open-minded about the transferrable skills in order to ensure success in having the talent to deliver key business outcomes.

Reskilling Programmes

In some countries, governments have taken on some of the burden of reskilling. For example, the Australian government has established the Skilling Australians Fund which provides $1.5 billion to support apprenticeships, traineeships and other employer-related training. The goal is to retrain more Australian workers with the skills needed in the tourism, hospitality, health, engineering, manufacturing, building and construction, agriculture and digital technologies industries. The programme is targeted toward automotive workers who lost jobs due to closing car manufacturing plants.

In the United Kingdom, the government plans to spend as much as 500 million pounds per year on worker training to combat low productivity. According to Reuters, the spending could reach as high as nearly 6 billion pounds on academic and technical education which will transform the system of technical education and increase the amount of training available by more than 50 percent.

Moving forward, governments could also potentially track metrics around reskilling opportunities as well as metrics for job creation in order to drive these initiatives even further forward.

How an RPO Provider Can Help Prepare for the Skills of the Future

An RPO provider can be a valuable partner for employers looking to prepare their workforces for the skills of the future. RPO providers can help organisations adapt their candidate personas, to ensure they are sourcing talent with the necessary skills and identifying new ways to target candidates who fit these personas. In addition, they can work with internal HR departments to demonstrate how candidates who may not have an exact profile for a role have the transferrable skills to be successful.

An RPO can also help build graduate and internship recruitment programmes and partner with schools and government programmes to find candidates from new sources with new skills.

An experienced RPO provider can also help you build your talent pool from within your own company, by consulting to develop an internal reskilling programme and helping reevaluate your current positions and workforce mix to ensure your organisation is targeting the right talent.

To stay ahead in the rapidly changing talent landscape, employers should evaluate their current workforce needs, the skills they have within their current employee talent pool and seek out an RPO provider who can act as a partner in sourcing, recruiting and training employees with the skills of the future.

Considerations When Sourcing Talent Globally

Posted on by epadmin

As the mobility of the global workforce increases, more employers are looking for the best talent from around the world. Multiple factors contribute to this increased mobility, and employers armed with the knowledge and expertise needed to navigate a global talent pool will hire and retain the best workers in the competitive talent landscape.

One contributing factor is the growing economic prosperity in many areas around the world. The U.S. is experiencing record low unemployment rates, and job growth in Australia has maintained a strong pace. In countries with low unemployment, many employers are looking outside their borders for the best talent. Additionally, workers in countries with high unemployment rates are increasingly willing to relocate for challenging and fulfilling work.

Technology is making the process easier. Video interviewing makes it simple to interview candidates without incurring large travel bills, and virtual reality technology could give candidates a realistic look at your office without an international flight. A variety of solutions for virtual work could mean that the perfect candidate won’t even need to travel to fulfill a job’s requirements.

In this article, we’ll cover the value of sourcing globally and some of the common compliance challenges including immigration, background checks and data privacy and labour laws. Then, we’ll examine some significant cultural issues, including writing job titles and job descriptions, social media, communication styles and office culture. Finally, we’ll cover how to handle the office politics that emerge when starting a global sourcing programme and how an RPO partner can help.

The Value of Sourcing Globally

A diverse global workforce can improve your employer brand. As the world becomes more globalised, candidates look for employers who provide the opportunity to work internationally, and the opportunity to work with people from around the world. Diverse workforces also increase productivity and employee engagement.

Through global sourcing, you also expand your talent pool and increase your potential of finding the right candidate with the skills to meet your needs. As employers look to hire candidates with the skills of the future, expanding your search across the globe can keep you ahead of the competition. In industries with large skills gaps like healthcare and engineering, the ability to source globally is necessary to remain competitive.

If you are planning to expand globally, global sourcing can also help support those plans; whether you’re looking to open an office in a new country or hiring a sales team that can build inroads for your company, a global workforce is valuable for international expansions.
Employers can also see other benefits including:

  • Increased ability to source candidates with the skills of the future
  • Increased internal culture and a sense of community
  • Greater cultural literacy in the workforce
  • Increased creativity
  • Diverse language skills

Managing Compliance Challenges

Immigration

Starting a global sourcing programme does come with challenges, the most obvious of which is immigration. If you are hiring foreign employees to work domestically, you need to abide by the immigration laws in your country, which can be complicated by shifting political climates. In general, the immigration process can add cost to hiring foreign workers. However, you may find that foreign workers are more open to relocation that you expect.

Background Checks and Data Privacy

Throughout the hiring process, you’ll also have to contend with varying background check and data privacy laws. The EU General Data Privacy Regulation, commonly known as the GDPR, protects the data and privacy of all EU citizens and applies to organisations that collect the personal data of EU citizens, regardless of where those organisations are located. If you are considering candidates located within the EU, your hiring process must be compliant with the GDPR.

Additionally, countries around the world have different laws that regulate how you can contact candidates through email. The requirements for CAN-SPAM in the U.S., CASL in Canada and the SPAM Act in Australia all have different requirements and different penalties. Employers should ensure they are compliant with these laws before contacting candidates in other countries.

Labour Laws

If employers are hiring workers in other countries as part of an effort to open a new office or enter into a new market, they should also be aware of the differences in labour laws that apply. For instance, in Australia, employees are entitled to long service leave, or a period of extended paid leave from work after a long period of working for the same employer. The exact requirements vary based on jurisdiction, but are in general, six to 13 weeks of leave for every seven to 10 years worked.

Family leave can also vary from country to country. In the UK for example, women on maternity leave are entitled to 90 percent of pay for the first six weeks of their leave and a flat rate for a further 33 weeks. Men are also entitled to paternity leave for one or two weeks at a flat rate. Though the length of time and the amount of pay may vary, most countries outside of the U.S. have some requirements for maternity or parental leave.

Some countries have laws that dictate how and when employees must be paid. One of the more unique cases is the thirteenth salary, which is legally required in some countries, including Brazil. Under the law, employees who work for an organisation for a full calendar year are entitled to an additional one-month salary, usually paid in two installments in November and December. Thirteenth salary is also a common practice in some European countries, but it is legally required in multiple South American countries, including Argentina and Uruguay.

Differences in Office Cultures

In addition to compliance challenges, employers should also be prepared to manage the cultural differences that exist in recruiting, hiring and work cultures around the globe. While a cultural mistake isn’t likely to result in a fine or other legal consequence, it can cause other problems. A lack of cultural literacy can lead to anything from communication confusion during the hiring process to a negative impact on your employer brand that will make it more difficult to recruit top talent.

Writing Job Titles and Job Descriptions

As you start the hiring process, you first want to make sure you’re using job titles and writing job descriptions that will appeal to global candidates. The wrong job title could mean that few qualified candidates even find your job posting. For example, the title “engineer” can refer to a variety of skills and a large range of experience depending on the country and industry where you are hiring. Other common titles like “secretary” or “representative” can indicate high paying and powerful positions in one country or entry-level positions in another.

Once you establish the right job title, it’s also important to write a job description that will attract your desired candidates. In some countries, candidates view job descriptions as a near exact outline of the work they would do in that position. In other countries, candidates may expect more flexibility depending on their skills. Additionally, some phrases may discourage global applicants. For instance, “must have a college degree” could prevent some global candidates from applying. The meaning of “college,” “university” and even “high school” can vary from country to country. You should include equivalent experience and educational requirements for each country you’re recruiting candidates in.

Social Media

It’s also important to understand the role social media plays in a candidate’s country. In the U.S., candidates are used to employers searching and reviewing posts on public social media pages. Candidates in other countries may not have this expectation. Additionally, some countries will have different social media sites instead of or in addition to the common Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. For example, in China, western social media platforms are banned, and Weibo, WeChat and Youku are popular. Additionally, social media sites can have varied relevance in a job search from country to country.

Communication Styles

It’s also important to understand different communication styles that are common around the world and how those influence interviews, negotiations and even contracts or lack thereof. The Harvard Business Review gives several examples of varying cultural business norms listed below:

  • In Russia, disagreement is expressed strongly and openly, and a negotiation that starts with a strong disagreement can be a positive sign.
  • In Mexico, it is uncommon to clearly voice strong disagreement, but emotional expression is a sign of honesty.
  • In countries like Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands, open disagreement is good, but it should be expressed without emotion.
  • In China, trust is built through relationships rather than a business perspective.
  • In Indonesia, it is rude to look someone in the eyes and say no to a request.
  • In Japan, it is common to iron out potential challenges informally before a meeting, so there is not debate during a formal meeting.
  • In America and Northern Europe, it is common to put everything in writing, from recapping a meeting to a full contract, but some African, Middle Eastern and Asian countries, the same process can be a sign of distrust or disrespect.
Office Culture

There are other cultural differences related to the workday that you may have to address. In the U.S., overtime is common, and full-time workers are often expected to work eight-hour days, five days each week. In other countries, like Brazil, the work week is capped at 40 or 44 hours, depending on how many days a week the person works. French workers have a “right to disconnect” after hours, and in Sweden, fika, or a mid-morning break for coffee and snacks, is common. While some of these differences are legal issues, others will shape candidate expectations about the work environment. Employers need to understand and prepare for how these different approaches to the workday will play out at their organisations.

Understanding Office Politics

As an organisation begins a global sourcing process, it should not overlook the importance of internal communications, office politics and training. Change can be difficult, and it is best to be proactive. Whether a company is opening a new office in another country, recruiting foreign workers to work virtually or sponsoring visas for candidates who wish to immigrate, employers should prepare for how all employees handle the change.

Employers should train all employees, regardless of location about the different cultural workplace differences that could impact workers. It’s important that the training is for all workers so that some employees don’t feel singled out. The process should teach new workers and existing employees about each other, how the business operates and any changes that they can expect.

Some expressions and phrases have different meanings in the same language, depending on where it is spoken. It is important to those communications across borders and cultures to be aware of these differences. For example, in the United States, to “table” usually means to postpone or suspend consideration of a pending motion. In the rest of the English-speaking world, such as in the United Kingdom and Canada, to “table” means to begin consideration (or reconsideration) of a proposal.

Employers should also be prepared for fears from current employees about replacement or outsourcing. It can be a delicate conversation, but it is an important step to help retain employees. Organisations should work with their leadership and internal communications teams to frame the conversations about changes in the workplace. HR should also review conflict management best practices to ensure that any issues that develop between employees can be mediated before they come to a head.

Finding a Partner

As employers look to start global sourcing programmes, it is important to look for an RPO partner who has deep experience with international programmes and who understands the part of the world where you are looking to expand or source candidates. Your partner should help you navigate the compliance and cultural issues that accompany any global sourcing programme. While some local labour laws deal with issues that happen after the hiring process, remember that they can have implications during the hiring process too. An RPO provider can help prepare you for many of the challenges before you post a job or extend an offer. Additionally, a partner with years of experience can help you anticipate any communication and training issues so that you can tackle the issues head-on.

Positive Global Economic Growth and Its Impact on Talent Acquisition

Posted on by epadmin

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.

How to Improve Your Candidate Experience

Posted on by epadmin

Candidate experience is becoming a popular topic of discussion in the talent acquisition and recruiting community—with good reason. According to a CareerBuilder survey, 78 percent of candidates say the overall candidate experience they receive is an indicator of how a company values its staff. What’s more, the same survey found that 86 percent of job seekers believe employers should treat candidates with the same respect as current employees.

The results of CareerBuilder’s survey illustrate that the lines between the candidate and employee experience are blurring, making it critical for organisations to strengthen their candidate experience. In this post, we outline the importance of improving the experience of your candidates and how organisations can streamline the hiring process.

What is the Candidate Experience, and Why Does it Matter?

In order to build a strong candidate experience, it is important to understand what is and why it matters.

So, what is the candidate experience?

The candidate experience is the sequence of interactions a job candidate has with an organisation throughout the recruiting and hiring process. These interactions can include correspondence that a candidate receives from an organisation’s HR department, recruiters and its software systems.

Common candidate experience touch points include:

  • An organisation’s career site
  • Job advertisements
  • The online job application process
  • Any communication from an applicant tracking system
  • An organisation’s interview process
  • Any correspondence with HR professionals, team members or leadership
  • Notifications about a candidate’s application status
  • Candidate rejection letter or job offer

What is a positive candidate experience?

According to Talent Board’s CandE Research Report, candidates rated “communication” as the number one way to engage talent. So, organisations looking to craft a positive candidate experience should communicate clearly and honestly with job seekers to create the type of candidate experience they value.

A positive candidate experience meets the following standards:

  • Communicates realistic expectations for the job and work environment
  • Clearly communicates an organisation’s employee value proposition
  • Outlines all of the employment details to candidates upfront
  • Provides an easy and mobile-friendly application process
  • Respects a candidate’s time at all stages of the application process
  • Provides a pleasant and smooth interview experience
  • Seamlessly transitions selected job applicants into new employees
  • Maintains a kind and respectful process for rejecting job applicants

What are the Benefits of Improving Candidate Experience?

Improving candidate experience not only benefits candidates and job seekers, but it can also have a positive impact on an organisation’s workforce. Below, we outline three ways a strong candidate experience improves the overall talent acquisition process.

Improve applicant retention  

According to research conducted by Indeed, applications with 45 or more screener questions lose 88.7 percent of their potential applicants to application abandonment. Improving the candidate experience often begins with refining the application process. A short and streamlined job application process will increase the likelihood of job seekers finishing job applications, thereby increasing an organisation’s applicant pool.

Create a better first impression

Research from labour economists Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger suggests a growing interest in joining the gig economy. The number of Americans working these “gigs” has risen from 10.1 percent a decade ago to 15.8 percent in 2015. Nearly 40 percent of workers in these jobs have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This means that organisations are not only in a battle with competitors for skilled talent but also with the candidates who may want to work for themselves.

To win the war for talent, organisations need to see candidate experience as more than just a part of the recruiting process; it is also a sales tool that can help win over top talent. A job application is often the first interaction a candidate has with an organisation. So, making a great first impression on top talent with a superior candidate experience will help organisations differentiate themselves and stand out as great places to work.

Increase brand awareness

The candidate experience affects more than just job applicants; it also plays a significant role in how consumers view an organisation as a whole. If an organisation offers an exceptional candidate experience, candidates are more likely to share the experience with colleagues and write about it online. What’s more, a survey conducted by Software Advice found that 71 percent of candidates are more likely to purchase from a company they feel treated them well throughout the recruiting process.

How Technology Can Help Improve the Candidate Experience

Technology continues to shape the way job seekers search for work and how organisations find and hire qualified talent. The rise of social and professional networking sites, mobile devices, job boards and online applicant systems means that creating a meaningful candidate experience often begins with crafting a technology-first approach. Below we list three ways in which organisations can use technology to improve their candidate experience.

Offer a mobile-friendly candidate experience

Research conducted by Indeed found that 78 percent of Millennials, 73 percent of Generation Xers and 57 percent of baby boomers conduct job searches from their mobile devices. This means that organisations looking to improve their candidate experience should look to create a mobile-friendly recruiting environment for job seekers. Organisations should make sure that their career website and other resources candidates may need while applying for job openings are mobile-friendly.

Affinix™, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology, is designed as a mobile-first platform for both candidates and recruiters, ensuring seamless engagement from any mobile device at any time throughout the application, scheduling and screening process.

Quick questions to ask yourself to improve the mobile candidate experience:

  • Is career-related text and content easily readable on mobile devices?
  • Are job pages optimised for better visibility in mobile search?
  • Is navigation of the career site and job application simple on mobile devices?
  • Will candidates have to go through trial and error to complete applications on mobile devices?

Clear Communication

Establishing timely and clear communication between candidates and recruiters is essential for developing a positive candidate experience. However, many candidates are left without feedback or status updates on their application. In fact, a Talent Board report found that 47 percent of candidates were still waiting to hear back from employers more than two months after they applied.

The right technology platform can help by sending automated messages to candidates via email or chatbot technology letting them know their application status. You can even craft messages letting a candidate know if they did not get the job. While missing out on a job is never pleasant, receiving prompt feedback communicates to a candidate that their application and time were respected.

Social Recruitment Marketing

Enhancing the candidate experience also means reaching candidates where they are. According to Social Talent’s 2016 Global Recruiting Survey, 37 percent of survey respondents said that social media is the primary source of finding candidates. This shift towards a digital hiring model has seen the traditional résumé be displaced by the online footprint of candidates which showcases their skills and experiences.

PeopleScout’s Affinix platform can help organisations reach digitally native candidates with customised ads, optimised job descriptions, personalised landing pages, career portals and recruitment marketing that elevates job postings with robust content and campaign management.

Conclusion

Learning from past mistakes and successes is essential to improving the experiences of your candidates. While there is no such thing as a perfect hiring process, learning and evolving processes and procedures will improve an organisation’s ability to attract great talent and retain the strongest workers.