The best recruiting organisations, and the best recruiters, put effort in to establishing open communication, sharing information, providing appropriate guidance, building confidence and even encouraging risk-taking in candidates. Seeking feedback on candidate experience – providing a platform for applicants to have their voice heard and the space to share their thoughts – supports this too. These are all strategic focuses that an RPO partnership can deliver.
At PeopleScout, we are particularly focused on advocating for candidates throughout the hiring process. I believe this is why we consistently receive high candidate satisfaction scores (like NPS) on the candidate experience we provide for our clients.
Creating Psychological Safety through Candidate Engagement
Applying for a job seems an obvious example of taking a personal risk. Candidates deserve the same level of support as employees; after all, unless your search is poor at least one of them is your next colleague, right?
If a talented candidate does not feel engaged during an application, assessment, interview or any interaction with a recruiting team, what is the result? An inability to express themselves, and their talents fully.
When that talent is blocked, or overlooked, who is at fault? The candidate, or the designers and deliverers of a recruitment experience that failed to consider candidate experience?
It our goal to create a candidate experience in which every candidate can bring their best self to the process and find a new position that will create value for the candidate and the client.
Rethinking Required Skills to Engage More Talent
Through our strategic partnerships, PeopleScout helps a wide audience of candidates think differently about their own potential and skills, and what value they might add to an organisation. That approach reaches and engages talent others might overlook.
Recently our team did some work with Defra to bring to life the purpose of Civil Service Success Profiles. Asking candidates to “show off the true you” is a long way from a job advert (or a recruiter sat behind it) seeking experience in the exact same role or sector as an essential requirement.
A quick question to consider: what do you really need to know about a job applicant? Biographical information, years of education, and even job experience are less predictively valid than other modes of assessment. You’ll get a much better indication of future success from behavioural- and skills-focused interviews and tests. One of our teams recently put together a case for removing CV screening from a customer care recruitment exercise based on this principle.
Here’s to all of them for helping people – particularly those struggling to access employment – to think about skills differently and to put that thinking at the forefront of assessment and recruitment. I’m particularly pleased to see Openreach represented here with the clear message:
“If people have got the right attitude, the right mindset, the right customer service and teamwork ethos, we can train them to be great engineers.”
As a leading, global talent partner for a diverse range of businesses, PeopleScout’s RPO solutions have long been designed to amplify employer brands with a recruitment approach that focuses on an enhanced candidate experience. The missing talent can be won by placing the employee experience at the heart of your talent strategy and I’m proud to say in Q1 2022 we are re-delivering hundreds of employees each month into consumer goods and retail sectors for our client partners in the UK, with fulfilment trending positively each month.
Until about 10 years ago, simply posting a job opening to a career site like Indeed or Glassdoor may have been enough to get you the right talent to fulfill your hiring needs. That’s because in economic climates where job-seekers are abundant, active candidates would search open positions, see your job posting, read the description and decide whether they wanted to apply. Often, that job posting might have been the first time a candidate engaged with or even heard of your brand.
Today, candidates can see and engage with your brand at hundreds of touchpoints before ever seeing a job posting or visiting your career page. And millions more people are looking for lasting employment now due to the pandemic. Whereas traditional in-person interviews declined, the importance of virtual hiring and an organisation’s online presence have drastically risen. While this may sound daunting at first, digital recruitment marketing and the rise of social media mean organisations today can spread their message and establish a strong knowledge of their employer brand with prospective candidates – often before those candidates even think about looking for a job.
Regardless of the economic climate and whether we are at the lowest unemployment rates experienced in decades or the highest, a strong social media presence is imperative to an employer’s recruitment media mix. Now, more than ever, we are all tuned in to what our networks are saying, sharing and recommending online.
In fact, according to a report by LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring. Moreover Jobvite research showed that 59% of candidates followed companies on social media to gain insight into their company culture – myself included! When I was considering joining PeopleScout, social media was one of the main ways I researched what it would be like to work here.
Specifically, I kept an eye out for engaging content, interesting comments and overall employee engagement. PeopleScout’s active social pages with relevant content and employees passionately sharing their work achievements were one of the deciding factors when I chose to come on board. After all, if an omnichannel recruitment marketing strategy were what I would advise to my clients, I had to work for a company that led with the best examples.
Building Your Brand
When it comes down to the critical moments throughout the candidate’s journey, what an employer presents online could be the deciding factor for whether a candidate joins an organisation. Truly, if a candidate is debating between two employers and one has a nearly nonexistent online brand presence while the other showcases personality, culture and industry-related insights, it’s clear who will win the talent.
And, it doesn’t just come down to one quick, last-minute Google search. To improve your employer brand in a candidate’s mind takes a persistent effort. For example, say you’re looking to hire a nurse, but the ideal prospect is located outside of your region. Attracting that candidate will be a huge undertaking that isn’t going to happen overnight.
It’s unlikely that the candidate will apply for a job at your hospital out of the blue, especially if they’ve never heard of you before. But, what if that candidate saw one of your Twitter posts about the “10 Things You Should Know as a New Nurse”? Or, maybe a friend sent them your Instagram post of an uplifting quote about providing patient care?
By reaching prospective candidates at multiple touchpoints throughout the hiring cycle with a consistent brand presence, you’ll have a much higher likelihood of establishing a positive impression of your brand. Then, when it comes time to apply, and eventually accept a position, the persona you portray online will have a huge impact on those decisions.
But, while your ideal nurse might be active on Instagram, not all candidates will be. For instance, if you’re looking for a C-level executive, you’ll have better luck on LinkedIn. Conversely, if you’re hiring an elementary school teacher, you might reach them best on Facebook. Determine which social media platforms make the most sense to engage your prospective candidates and focus your strategies there.
If You Want to Improve Your Employer Brand, Go Beyond “We’re Hiring”
Regardless of the platform, simply posting job openings isn’t going to cut it. Instead, think about how you can best show prospects what it’s truly like to work for your organisation – whether that means showcasing how your people engage virtually or what life is like when you’re all in the office. In addition to insightful thought leadership, share employee activities, first-person stories, and anything that shows a candidate how they can contribute and connect to your company in ways beyond their skills.
Let’s look a little deeper into how you can improve your employer brand presence on each of the four largest social media channels and how you can utilise each of their unique features to your benefit.
LinkedIn
As the largest professional network, LinkedIn is unlike most other social media platforms. With more than 660 million registered users, almost half of whom are active on a monthly basis, it’s the number one platform to reach both passive and active prospective candidates.
Reach more candidates by:
Posting career advice
Promoting posts to employees
Targeting your posts
Optimizing your company page with keywords
Instagram
With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has seen a 43% increase in users since 2017. What’s more intriguing is the fact that 90% of users follow a business on the platform – users are likely to keep up with brands and see what people are saying about them. Plus, according to Sprout Social, Instagram is the leading platform when it comes to engagement, with a median engagement of 1.6% across all industries.
What does that mean for you? Essentially, Instagram is a great way to utilize employee brand advocates and visuals to showcase company culture.
Engage employees and candidates with:
Instagram stories
Story highlights
Creative grids
Instagram Live
Instagram TV
Comments and direct messages
Twitter
Twitter has about 330 million active users worldwide, and 79% of them like to discover what’s new. This fast-paced social network encourages the real-time sharing of engaging and relevant content, so post often and with timely responses to showcase your expertise.
Utilize:
Interest-based targeting
Twitter Ads
Twitter Polls
Retweets with comments
Tweet replies
Facebook
Facebook has 2.5 million monthly active users, and 66% of them say they “like” or “follow” a brand on the platform.
To showcase your industry expertise as well as your company culture, take advantage of:
Facebook Insights
Facebook Pixel for retargeting advertising
Page invites
Boosting posts
Social Media as a Recruitment Tool
By taking efforts to improve your employer brand on social media and taking advantage of what all the different platforms have to offer, candidates should already have a good understanding of your brand and what it represents by the time they’re on the job hunt. Ideally, they’ll have connected with some of your posts and already have a positive feeling about your company culture.
Then, when it comes time to create a targeted recruitment campaign, your social media presence will have done some of the work for you. To capitalise on this momentum and start generating a stream of qualified candidates, a trusted talent advisor can help.
When Vodafone came to PeopleScout in the UK, they asked us to: help position Vodafone with prospective employees at key universities as a youth employer of choice; change the perception of their target audience; and promote Vodafone as a technology company.
After researching the behaviour and interests of Vodafone’s target audience, we learned how Gen Z and Millennials want to engage with employers (through short and succinct videos) and what values drive their decisions. We found that they want to work for companies that focus on making the world a better place, as well as promote a social and fun work environment.
This led to Generation Possible – a social media campaign that speaks to Vodafone’s campus and graduate audience, as well as their desire to have a positive influence in the world. The Generation Possible campaign celebrates everyone’s individuality and empowers them to speak from the heart about how to make change for the better.
Vodafone Generation Possible Campaign Creative
Conclusion
It’s no secret that candidates are going to research your organisation prior to applying for any of your positions or even considering you as a potential employer. By balancing postings on job boards with social media and other touchpoints along the hiring process, you can create a well-respected online presence that accurately represents your employer brand and company culture. So, the next time a candidate researches your company, reads reviews or looks at what current employees are saying online, rest assured that a strong social media presence and strategic recruitment campaign will give you all you need to create a lasting impact in a candidate’s mind.
The seemingly never-ending obstacle course of 2020 has been filled with highs, lows and everything in between — from a landmark ruling for LGBTQ+ workers to an international awakening to systemic racism and a global pandemic that has impacted the lives of millions. As organisations around the world face a future more unpredictable than ever before, one thing remains certain: the business case for diversity and inclusion (D&I) is stronger than ever.
In order to face unique challenges, organisations will need unique thinking, the kind that only comes with a truly diverse team — whether in age, gender, sexuality, race or otherwise. According to a report from the World Economic Forum, companies with above-average diversity scores report nearly 20% higher revenue due to innovation. Moreover, this article from The Conversation cites research frommore than 300 Australian studies that conclusively shows how workplace racism has a direct, detrimental impact on performance, accounting for an estimated 3% loss in average annual gross domestic product.
That said, the driving motivators for organisations to foster effective D&I programmes should not be focused only on performance metrics, but rather the desire to make employees feel represented, understood, respected and cared for. While most companies are able to increase their level of diversity, they struggle with cultivating a culture in which those diverse voices are heard — leaving room for improvement in their inclusion efforts.
D&I: Defined
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace has been a hot topic for years, so why does it often seem like minimal meaningful change has occurred? Unfortunately, the downfall for many organisations is the misinterpretation that diversity and inclusion are synonymous. To avoid making this mistake, it is important to understand the difference between diversity and inclusion, to better understand why it’s time to shift focus to the latter.
The definition for diversity is relatively straightforward, and simple enough for most organisations to achieve by tracking demographics and collecting concrete data to ensure they hire and promote people of varying backgrounds.
However, the definition for inclusion is more difficult to effectively measure results against because every organisation can interpret words like “including” and “accommodating” differently.
According to Deloitte, “without a shared understanding of inclusion, people are prone to miscommunication, progress cannot be reliably evaluated, leaders can’t be held accountable and organisations default to counting diversity numbers.”
Deloitte goes a step further by using its research to create a holistic definition comprised of four distinct yet connected elements:
Fairness and respect: The starting point for effective inclusion is ensuring people are treated equitably and with respect — in both nondiscrimination and basic courtesy.
Valued and belonging: People will feel included when they believe their authentic self is valued by others and they feel a sense of connectedness with their peers.
Safe and open: Inclusion is experienced when people feel safe to speak up without any fear of embarrassment or retaliation.
Empowered and growing: True inclusion happens when people feel empowered to grow in their role and do their best work — diversity of thinking can emerge.
By looking at the depth of these definitions, it’s clear that building and maintaining an effective inclusion programme requires considerably more time and effort than it does to reformat a hiring process to increase diversity. While diversity can be measured and those metrics can be used to set and achieve goals, inclusion calls for a continuous cultural reset.
Inclusion Requires Action
In a 2020 report by McKinsey & Company, data from three industries with the highest levels of executive-team diversity — financial services, technology and healthcare — showed that “while overall [employee] sentiment on diversity was 52% positive and 31% negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse, at only 29% positive and 61% negative.” Furthermore, the levels of negative sentiment about equality and fairness of opportunity, key indicators of inclusion, were also particularly high — proving that even more diverse companies struggle with effective inclusion.
So, what are some steps organisations can take toward fostering better inclusion? To gain some insight, LinkedIn asked Black talent leaders their thoughts on what talent acquisition teams can do to accelerate diversity and inclusion. Here are three of their tactics:
Change how and where you look for talent
This starts with having diverse recruiting teams. Having recruiters from a wide variety of backgrounds will help employers change the way they think about how and where they find talent — shifting their sourcing beyond the geographies, companies and schools they’ve become accustomed to.
Make a “top-down investment” in diverse employees
To build diversity into the succession plan, organisations should invest time, money, training and executive sponsorship into their diversity efforts, ensuring representation across the business. By hiring and promoting diverse talent, an organisation sends a message of inclusion that ripples throughout the company and into the industry — positioning you as an inclusive workplace that recognises the value of diverse talent.
Leverage the power of remote work
Continuing distributed work strategies beyond the current crisis will allow recruiting teams to source, engage and hire talent where they are. Organisations will no longer be limited to talent that lives in the same geographies as their physical offices, meaning they can expand their scope to locations that are historically diverse.
These tactics may seem like large feats, and that’s because they are. Building an organisation that is truly diverse and inclusive is a huge undertaking that takes time, effort and serious commitment. While you work on the organisational overhaul, keep in mind that there are also some smaller steps you can take along the way:
Break up cliques. We are naturally drawn toward others who are like us, which can often result in cliques. Create opportunities to position employees outside of their comfort zone and into work groups made up of people with various backgrounds.
Form inclusive groups. Create a dedicated task force focused on updating policies that promote your company’s values. Project Include offers more suggestions for creating systemic inclusion here.
Offer professional development. Offering development programmes and mentorship opportunities to underrepresented employees who may have a steeper hill to climb can help them in their career ascent.
Showcase diverse talent. Representation matters, and employees and candidates will understand how you value diverse talent when you celebrate and share their stories.
A Continuous Journey
It can be easy to get lost in the mindset that inclusion is a “one and done” activity. That mindset has a certain allure, because it would mean we could all rest assured knowing we’ve created a workforce that is 100% diverse and effectively inclusive. In reality, inclusion is a continuous journey that requires a concerted effort, focus and determination to effect meaningful change. You can think of it like a long road trip — one that requires multiple checkpoints, refuels and stops to check you’re still going in the right direction. To ensure you’re always on the correct path, it can be helpful to perform a regular inclusion audit that asks:
Does the organisation have a continuous representation of diverse talent?
Is diverse talent represented in leadership roles?
Are we regularly surveying employee sentiment on D&I?
Do we know what’s working? What isn’t?
Have we asked employees what they want and need?
It’s clear that simply hiring diverse talent is not enough. While it’s a start, it’s only part of the solution. Workplace experience and true inclusion is what will help employees feel represented and valued, leading to diverse hires that stay, grow and thrive. The road ahead is a long one, but by implementing the strategies outlined in this article, your organisation will be well on its way toward a better diverse and inclusive workplace.
We worked with the London College of Fashion to understand what factors might be preventing them from recruiting a more diverse workforce and advising on how to start addressing them.
The London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts London (UAL), wanted to increase the number of its employees from BAME backgrounds. Specifically, they were finding it challenging to attract applications from ethnic minority candidates in sufficient numbers. As part of their journey to addressing this issue, they commissioned PeopleScout to help them understand the experience they offered to existing ethnic minority employees and to advise on whether the insight gained could shed any light on potential barriers to engagement amongst external BAME audiences
SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS
COLLEGE-WIDE RESEARCH REPRESENTING ALL AUDIENCES.
IDENTIFYING DIFFERENCES IN EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE.
INSIGHT INTO FACTORS CAUSING POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO RECRUITMENT.
ADVISING ON ADDRESSING THOSE FACTORS.
SCOPE AND SCALE
We conducted research amongst a sample of people from both BAME and non-BAME backgrounds, to identify any differences in how they experienced the College as an employer. Our research took the form of 1-1- interviews and involved academic and non-academic staff, as well as a selection of alumni to provide somewhat of an external perspective.
SITUATION
While the initial focus was on ethnicity, it turned out that this was not the key challenge.
Where differences appeared to exist in the employment experience, they were not between BAME and non-BAME colleagues. They appeared to be related to socio-economics or ‘class’, with non-BAME members of staff who (unprompted) identified themselves as working class sharing very similar perceptions of senior management to their BAME counterparts. The common perception was that to do well at the College you had to have a certain background and set of social experiences. Without these, there was a sense that the top of the organisation was unattainable. This sense appeared to be reinforced by the comparatively optimistic perspectives of those BAME staff members who had achieved senior positions in the organisation.
The challenge was not therefore about ethnicity, it was about addressing seemingly class-based factors.
SOLUTION
IDENTIFYING AND BREAKING DOWN PERCEIVED BARRIERS
Following completion of the research, we advised the College that, from a communications perspective, they needed to focus on breaking down any perceived barriers between senior management and the wider staff body. We recommended using, if possible, personal stories to position the latter group as more relatable and their level within the organisation as achievable with hard work. We also recommended that the College check its internal promotion processes for any signs of unconscious bias.
CHALLENGING MISPERCEPTIONS
During the research staff suggested that the College’s challenge around attracting BAME candidates might to some degree be caused by a sense that the organisation only wanted a certai ‘type’ of person – i.e. that the external perception might mirror the internal one.
TAKING A PERSONAL STORY-TELLING APPROACH
We therefore advised the College to extend the personal story-telling approach beyond internal communications into its recruitment communications; and to review the channels through which these stories are disseminated.
RESULTS
We advised that the key to success was to position the College as more accessible to people from all walks of life, including those with BAME backgrounds.
The College is now taking this approach for their attraction and engagement activity.
We worked on TfL’s entry-level talent employer brand and attraction activity to recruit a higher proportion of female and BAME applicants.
TfL values the importance of diversity and inclusion. Being representative of London is something their success is measured on, and the same standards apply to their apprenticeship and graduate schemes.
These schemes had proven successful in the volume of applications received but weren’t reaching talent from all walks of life – TfL needed a diverse pipeline that truly represented modern London. It was time to rethink their entire student attraction activity.
SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS
CREATED A NEW DIVERSITY-CENTRED EMPLOYMENT BRAND.
DEVISED NEW OUTREACH PROGRAMMES TO APPEAL TO WIDER DEMOGRAPHICS.
REDESIGNED RECRUITMENT AND ASSESSMENT PROCESSES TO HELP FEMALE AND BAME CANDIDATES BETTER SHOW WHO THEY ARE AND WHAT THEY’RE CAPABLE OF ACHIEVING.
SCOPE AND SCALE
London’s population is projected to reach 10.5 million by 2041, and naturally TfL play a major role in contributing to London’s growth. Supporting this growth means recruiting, retaining, and developing a next-generation workforce but also giving Londoners a chance to take part in the design of their city.
SITUATION
TfL needed to recruit 32 graduate roles, five placements, and 109 apprenticeships. Our primary objective was to champion these fantastic opportunities to a broader apprentice and graduate talent pool in order to increase female and BAME applicants. To achieve this, we needed to challenge stereotypes and overcome negative perceptions. That meant not only changing TfL’s attraction and assessment processes but overhauling their entry-level employer brand as well.
SOLUTION
A NEW BRAND TO MAKE BETTER CONNECTIONS Together, we transformed the way TfL recruit diverse talent. Ensuring skilled people from all walks of life have a chance to shine in the application and assessment process, our creative team used their audience knowledge to build a dynamic unexpected youth brand, ‘The Next Move’, designed to better connect with female and BAME applicants. We then shaped a comprehensive outreach programme and a completely new assessment process with the aim of helping these candidates show TfL who they are and what they’re truly made of.
ENABLING CANDIDATES TO SUCCEED IN ASSESSMENT CENTRES From experience, we know that young people often need to build their confidence by filling gaps in their knowledge. To address this, we created ‘Route-into-Work’, a pre-employment programme for all candidates, that would help them succeed in assessment centres – and the results were astounding.
A MORE TARGETED APPROACH We also targeted universities with higher rates of female and BAME students, rather than promoting opportunities at all UK universities.
RESULTS
We achieved amazing results with the graduate recruitment campaign, comfortably filling all of the roles.
DOUBLE THE PERCENTAGE OF BAME GRADUATE HIRES Most importantly we doubled the percentage of BAME graduates from 27% to 54%, and we substantially grew the proportion of female hires from 18% to 29%.
GROWING FEMALE APPRENTICE HIRES BY 16% Similarly strong results were achieved in the apprentice pool, as we dramatically grew the proportion of female hires from 20% to 36%,
The Route-into-Work programme delivered 9% of the apprenticeship hires (12 individuals), of which 33% were female and 67% were BAME.
How we overhauled TfL’s entry-level talent brand and attraction activity.
TfL values the importance of social mobility. Being representative of London is something their success is measured on, and the same standards apply to their apprenticeship and graduate schemes.
TfL’s entry-level talent activities had proven successful in the volume of applications received but weren’t reaching talent from all sectors of society – TfL needed a diverse workforce from every social background that truly represented modern London. It was time to rethink their entire student attraction activity.
SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS
REDESIGNED RECRUITMENT AND ASSESSMENT PR
PROCESSES TO HELP CANDIDATES FROM A WIDE VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS EXCEL.
DEVISED NEW OUTREACH PROGRAMMES TO CONNECT WITH YOUNG PEOPLE IN AREAS OF HIGH DEPRIVATION, THEREBY APPEALING TO A WIDER DEMOGRAPHIC.
CREATED A NEW SOCIAL MOBILITY-CENTRED EMPLOYMENT BRAND.
SCOPE AND SCALE
London’s growing population of 16-18-year olds is set against a backdrop of rising youth unemployment and some of the most deprived areas in the country. Naturally TfL play a major role in contributing to London’s growth, and so opening doors for people from disadvantaged areas was absolutely vital.
SITUATION
Our primary objective was to make TfL more relevant and accessible for our target audience. This meant removing barriers to recruitment, challenging stereotypes, and overcoming negative perceptions. We needed to change TfL’s attraction process so that people from every pocket of society would be interested in the unique opportunities available. And we needed to re-position their entry-level employer brand as a progressive organisation in which everyone – regardless of background or financial situation – could excel.
SOLUTION
A NEW AND VIBRANT YOUNG TALENT BRAND We started by transforming the way TfL recruited, ensuring talented people from all walks of life got a chance to apply. This resulted in a dynamic, unexpected youth brand – ‘The Next Move’ – which was designed to look different from other TfL communications, using vibrant, colourful graphics.
A CONFIDENCE-BOOSTING PRE-EMPLOYMENT COURSE We then created a programme called ‘Route-into-Work’, a pre-employment course helping 16-25 year-old NEETs fill gaps in their knowledge and get the tools, insight, and confidence to be successful at assessment centres.
A NEW SCHOOL’S OUTREACH PROGRAMME STRATEGY For their Apprenticeships, we designed a new strategy for our schools’ outreach programme, ‘Moving Forward’. We identified 251 of the poorest secondary state schools and ran over 50 events, with additional events in three of the most deprived boroughs in London: Newham, Tower Hamlets and Haringey.
RESULTS
We achieved amazing results in the recruitment campaign, comfortably meeting the social mobility criteria we had set out to achieve.
As a result of our targeted activities, we filled 32 graduate roles, five placements and 109 apprenticeships.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) for specialist Engineering, Transportation, Project Management and Support Function roles
Transport for Wales (TfW) were keen to engage a single recruitment partner who could provide a technology solution, expert resourcing services and expertise to help them not only go to market but engage and leverage their brand, while they built from a small entity to larger organisation with a plan to hire roles from apprentices and graduates to Directors with every level in between.
We’ve worked in partnership with TfW as their sole RPO supplier to build the workforce up from just nine employees to over 140 and growing, most of which are permanent with some temporary staff and contractors.
SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS
FLEXIBLE AND SCALABLE RPO SUPPORT.
EXPERIENCED RESOURCING BUSINESS PARTNER ON SITE AND DEDICATED OFFSITE TEAM.
CREATING BRAND AWARENESS IN A COMPETITIVE MARKETPLACE.
LANDING PAGE, ATS SOLUTION AND REGISTER YOUR INTEREST PORTAL, WITH KEEP WARM STRATEGY.
PROVIDING RECRUITERS WHO SPEAK BOTH ENGLISH AND WELSH.
SCOPE AND SCALE
Transport for Wales (TfW) was created to drive forward the Welsh Government’s vision for a high quality, safe, integrated, affordable and accessible transport network that the people of Wales would be proud of. As a new rail franchise operator, their initial focus was to grow at speed, recruiting 100 or more key staff within challenging timescales, in preparation for a rail franchise switch over.
SITUATION
As a newly-created organisation, Transport for Wales had no recruitment expertise or technology to support their ambitious resourcing plans for roles at all levels. Our on-site Resourcing Business Partner helped shape the Transport for Wales solution and strategy. The immediate challenge was to identify and hire to key senior positions, starting with the Directors, and working with them to build their teams from the top down in order to deliver on their goals.
Another key requirement was an RPO provider who could work in both English and Welsh.
SOLUTION
A UNIQUE SERVICE MODEL PeopleScout consulted with TfW and using a nimble yet disciplined approach created a strategy and process to swiftly start recruiting key hires. We are client-first not process-first and a unique service model was created providing an on-site senior recruiter , with expertise and industry experience who could consult and provide solutions to market challenges and engage with hiring communities and other key stakeholders. We are focused on delivery and so alongside this, we provided regular updates and insights.
BEST-IN-CLASS SERVICE Our off-site dedicated recruiting team provided full sourcing to onboarding services, making sure that candidates received a best-in-class service right through to their first day and beyond.
ATTRACTING A WIDER DIVERSITY OF TALENT As an RPO provider with a creative flair and history of expertise, we were able to help TfW move away from more traditional marketing style to something which attracted a wider diversity of talent. As recognised leaders in employer brand and candidate experience this extended into a go-to-market broadcasting strategy that encompassed social solutions, community management and talent pooling. It also maximised the TfW brand and story, and reduced pressure on budgets.
RESULTS
95% offer fulfilment across all levels of roles
Rapid identification and hiring of specialist roles
92% of candidates who are delighted with their hiring experience
Reduction in time on recruitment by hiring managers
Talent pools created for future hiring
A developed and refined future-proof recruitment strategy
PeopleScout have been excellent in the delivery of the recruitment services into Transport for Wales. They are transparent, hardworking and qualitatively focused. All the team have been dedicated to our growth ambition and have represented our brand well to external candidates. I am delighted to work with the whole team as we share our continued success with our partners.
Lisa Yates, Director of People and Organisational Development – Transport for Wales
In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about company culture – why it’s important, how to build one that attracts the employees you want to hire and what you can do to embrace authenticity.
Right now, your company culture is especially important. COVID-19 has changed the way we’ve all worked. A strong culture can help support your employees’ mental health throughout this crisis, and in the long term, it can help with a robust recovery by helping you hire and retain the best talent.
In this episode, we hear from three experts. The first is Vanessa Hawes, Senior Employer Brand & Communications Strategist at PeopleScout
As a member of PeopleScout’s talent advisory practice, Vanessa supports our clients to effectively launch, embed, manage and measure their employer brand. Vanessa leads a number of strategic employer brand accounts, as well as supporting the RPO division and PeopleScout globally. Vanessa takes an active interest in inclusion and diversity, especially female representation in business and STEM and social mobility.
The second is Frances-Leigh Husband, Sales Manager at Guardian Jobs.
In her role, Frances heads up both the Guardian Jobs public services and client relationship teams. With more than 15 years of experience at the Guardian, she has overseen the evolution of the digital business model and developed a sales strategy which has produced new revenue streams and delivering growth.
Finally, we’re joined by Helen Durkin, the EMEA Employer Brand Program Manager at Indeed.
In her role, she responsible for building Indeed’s employer brand reputation and owning the content and advertising strategy across EMEA. With more than 10 years in the industry, Helen has experienced most of the challenges within the employer branding space. Helen has won awards for her work—and even served as an award judge herself, so she knows her stuff.
We recorded this podcast earlier this year, before the COVID-19 crisis had impacted much of the world, but we believe the insights are still valuable and relevant today.
Annie Lush is an Olympian, round the world sailor and quadruple World Champion.
In 2014/15 she competed in the Volvo Ocean Race with Team SCA, becoming part of the first ever female team to win a leg of the race. She went on to race with Team Brunel, a mixed crew in the 2017/18 edition, as well as racing on the World Match Racing Tour, with Team Magenta, the first female team to earn a place on the World Tour in its 23 year history.
At university Annie was part of the successful Cambridge University rowing crew who beat Oxford to the finish line of the Boat Race by the smallest recorded margin in the race’s history. It was winning with this team that inspired her to pursue a career in competitive sport and she has been on the water everyday since.
Alongside racing Annie works with teams and business to explore techniques for performing, team building and leading under pressure. She has worked with International business from a range of industries, with National sports teams, and also mentors younger sailors as well as speaking in schools and clubs.
Annie’s main passion is to utilise sport for social change. Annie is one of the founders of The Magenta Project, a charity set up at the beginning of 2016 to advance women in sailing and the marine industry. She is also an educator and ambassador for the 1851 Trust, working with low income children in schools to foster interest in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) through the sport of sailing. Recently she has been delivering workshops across the UK targeted specifically at inspiring girls into STEM and Maritime careers.
Annie speak to Talking Talent to share her take on how organisations can develop and lead diverse, high-performing teams.
