Choosing the right person for the right job is crucial to the success of your organisation. Effective assessment strategies can reduce the time and cost of hiring candidates, increase diversity, and of course, ensure you identify the critical talent you need.
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How could one of the UK’s best known and most trusted brands have no employer brand presence? It might seem hard to believe, but that was the situation the AA faced when they approached PeopleScout’s Talent Advisory practice to develop a new employer brand.
In the past, the AA had been affected by inaccurate perceptions of who they’d be as an employer. With 15 million members and more than 7,000 colleagues, they’re the UK’s largest motoring and breakdown cover organisation. However, being known for doing one thing very well was proving to be a barrier to candidate attraction. People thought the only jobs they had to offer were their famous roadside roles. That was far from the truth, but the AA was struggling to attract the talent they needed for their wide range of career opportunities.
The AA needed to challenge misconceptions and engage a much broader audience. And, with a bold new employer brand message at the heart of an ongoing series of innovative attraction campaigns, this is how the AA and PeopleScout did just that – with award-winning, record-breaking results.
Ready for Change
Back in 2016, the AA’s talent acquisition team faced a number of challenges.
Before the arrival of Craig Morgans as their Director of Talent Acquisition, Emerging Talent & Employee Experience, they had no senior talent expert at an influential level. There was no robust workforce planning, a lack of innovation in candidate generation, and an inconsistent approach to selection.
On top of that they had no discernible employer brand. And, at nearly four years’ old, their careers site suffered from a clunky candidate journey and outdated visuals, compounding their problems with engaging the right talent.
A change in thinking was needed. The AA had to find more imaginative ways to reach and engage with target audiences. At the heart of it all was a plan to develop the employer brand with a strong, authentic central message that would underpin all attraction and engagement activity.
The AA partnered with PeopleScout to develop their dynamic employer brand message. One that would challenge perceptions, do justice to their innovation as a business, and bring the AA culture and diversity of opportunity to life.
Getting The Message Right
We undertook in-depth research to analyse the AA’s culture, offering and opportunities, to articulate the “give” and “get.” Carrying out extensive employee interviews enabled us to understand the key differentiators of all roles in the contact centre, road operations and corporate job families. We also looked outside the company, to get a fuller idea of competitors’ market positions and understand what the public thought about the AA.
We developed the emerging themes into pillars that we could validate with real stories from the business, and that could support an engaging creative approach. We refined our thinking to a proposition that really encapsulated the spirit of the AA. Leading everything was a message that we’d heard over and over.
Working for the AA, people thrived on going the extra mile to help customers with unexpected challenges – and across a surprising variety of opportunities.
This insight became the AA’s employer brand core message, Ready for ANYTHING? It also acted as the perfect counterpoint to their corporate brand message to customers and members, Because anything can happen.
Putting Our New Platform Into Practice
As the gateway for people to understand the opportunities that might be right for them within the AA, the careers site was the obvious starting point for rolling out the new employer brand. And by launching with this digital shop window, not only could we get the brand experience right, we could also give the site a much-needed technical and UX overhaul.
The new site was launched in February 2017. Creating an engaging, interactive and easily navigable user experience, it’s built around rich content, inclusive photography and video interviews – enhanced with numerous responsive, interactive elements.
The site has evolved, with new elements added over time. As well as showcasing the Almost every role you can imagine employer brand video, the site engages and informs visitors with stories of current employees and realistic job profiles. All of which combine to bring the story of being Ready for ANYTHING? and working with the AA to life. Meanwhile the AA social hub also brings the worlds of social media and blogs into the site, providing an at-a-glance, continuously updated feed of all things AA.
More recently, we’ve added new features, to give site visitors an even more immersive experience – including an insightful 360° tour and assessment tool, plus some interactive 3D imagery to add depth to the visual impression. theaacareers.co.uk is a site designed to surprise, inspire and educate.
The Chatbot That Shows the Human Side of the AA
The Ready for ANYTHING? tone of voice was woven into the site and became the voice of the first-ever appearance of the innovative AAbot – a cheeky, wisecracking chatbot that guides users on life at the AA. Demonstrating technological innovation as one of the first of its kind, AAbot was an efficient way to serve visitors the content they were after – and equally importantly, he represented the playful side of the business, showcasing the fun culture that people hadn’t associated with the AA before.
For visitors to the site, this was an unexpected and charming way of bringing the employer brand to life, and together with the improved candidate journey and overall experience, was a rousing success. Site traffic increased 320% and applications increased 266% over an 18-month period. Visitors are engaging with the site for longer too, with page views up 12%, bounce rates dropping 8% and a 10% increase in pages viewed per session.
Tapping the Energy of the Internal Audience
As important as it is to engage an external audience, an employer brand has to reconnect and be embraced internally to mobilise the existing employees as active advocates. AAbot’s charm was used internally, featured on the walls and windows of AA offices and reinforcing the expect the unexpected messaging of the EVP. ReadyforANYTHING? also became increasingly popular with employees who were supported to play an active role in bringing in great new colleagues.
Did You Say Canine Consultants
This new sense of playfulness and surprise would then underpin our next step towards changing perceptions. Having effectively used honest video of employees to convey job opportunities, we wanted to now use video to grab attention of passive audiences, entertain and educate them.
We developed a script that highlighted the diversity of roles the AA offers, creating pretend roles such as Canine Consultants, Rapid Response Pizza Officers and Outer Ozone Patrollers to interrupt the long list of real AA roles. We shot the entire video in a single, continuous take within an AA office, and made sure to feature real employees. AA colleagues were enthusiastic advocates of the content, with more than half of the entire AA workforce watching the video and sharing it widely. The result? The video increased careers site visits by 16%
Getting Out Into the Community
With the success of the video, we became bolder. We’d learned that pushing boundaries helped us succeed in changing the perceptions of passive audiences. So, we decided to take our message to the streets.
We suggested an experiential event for a number of reasons. We wanted a way of raising general community awareness of the AA easily, effectively and creatively. Using a broad brush public approach, we knew that that anyone we engaged might also know others who’d be suitable and interested. We wanted to create an event to take the AA’s employer brand message and see just who was Ready for ANYTHING?. Whatever we did would have to be a great fit with the AA’s fun and friendly culture.
In September 2018, we ran two live events in Birmingham and Newcastle, UK city centres, areas where the AA has a big presence as an employer and lots of roles to fill. We grabbed attention of passers-by in the proud tradition of game shows, inviting audience volunteers on stage to take on a series of increasingly messy mystery challenges. Wasabi toothpaste, a barefoot Lego walk and gallons of slime came together with a celebrity host in a pop-up competition to bring the spirit of Ready for ANYTHING? to life.
There were lots of laughs, big prizes – and our strategy paid off. The communities local to our contact centres were made aware of the AA as an employer with a really fun culture, visits to the careers site surged, and month-over-month application numbers increased significantly. After the Newcastle event, applications rose from 576 to 1026, with 12 hires. In Birmingham, applications rose from 898 to 1341, with 13 hires. And this was all starting with completely passive audiences.
The Social Side of Talent Engagement
Before working with PeopleScout, the AA had no employment-specific social channels although research shows that candidates expect to be able to shop prospective employers on social. So, we launched separate social media channels for recruitment, recognising that both the audiences and messaging would be very different from the AA corporate and customer-oriented channels currently in place.
Based on the channel demographics and content structure, we initially selected Twitter and Instagram, and spent the early part of 2018 scoping out a launch programme with content pillars, content calendar, internal sponsors, and training for the PeopleScout social media team to give them full responsibility for managing and curating content.
The key advantage of having a team devoted to the AA careers social channels is being able to capture the immediacy that’s vital with any recruitment content – and with built-in knowledge of the AA’s employer brand and talent agend.
Social media has also played a key role in the promotion and delivery of our most recent projects: the augmented reality app-based #wheresbotbeen campaign and competition, as well as Ant Middleton’s 24-hour, live interactive challenge – our biggest, boldest campaign to date.
24 Hours to Prove You’re Ready for Anything
The Ant Middleton 24-hour, live interactive challenge was easily the most ambitious project of our partnership. Aligning with the AA’s long-lasting connection to the armed services, as well as embodying the Ready for ANYTHING? brand, this campaign was boosted by a relevant celebrity influencer and engaged the general public through live streaming and social media voting.
Six brave employees were chosen to take part in this 24-hour challenge, living and breathing the Ready for ANYTHING?spirit – following the former Special Boat Service soldier through a series of grueling challenges in the Lake District wilderness.
The final lucky half-dozen were chosen from hundreds who responded to an internal communications campaign and applied to take part, in what was highest engagement level ever for a story on The Hub (the AA’s intranet).
We wanted the public and AA colleagues to really root for our chosen contenders during the event, so to get the interest level rising, we filmed their life stories, ready for sharing on social media. They spoke eloquently and compellingly on camera about their lives. We got first-hand stories of drama, heartbreak, courage and transformation.
These videos were posted across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and they clearly made a connection with people. At the start of the event, colleagues and strangers alike were rooting for particular contenders.
The event began at 4 p.m. on July 25, 2019. The next 24 hours were packed with unpredictable drama. Events were live-streamed, the pace was relentless, and the AA people got into it just as much as the watching public – commenting, voting, watching and sharing across social media.
We decided to involve the audience throughout. In an unusual twist, viewers could select tasks for the contestants while watching the live stream on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on the dedicated site we built for the campaign, Ant24Live.com. Selections varied by type and toughness of tasks such as rafting versus quad biking, or a swim at dawn versus a planking marathon – keeping audiences engaged throughout the 24 hours (although we did allow the participants to sleep!).
The whole show was streamed to AA contact centres, garages and the corporate office, and thousands of AA employees tuned in, acting as social media cheerleaders and social media amplifiers.
Venturing Into Another Dimension
Using 3D animation and augmented reality (AR) technology, our next project took Ready for ANYTHING? into new territory, with a fun-packed, bespoke-built AR app launched at experiential events.
Keen to embrace new technology to develop innovative ways of boosting brand engagement, the AA asked us to create a fun, unexpected and interactive experience that would help them reach a new audience.
So, we looked at the increasing use of AR to change the way audiences connect with brands. And, we considered how we could use it to engage a passive audience – mainly families, as flexible working patterns at AA contact centres can work around their lives – and increase the AA’s potential talent pool.
When it came to what we’d build our AR experience around, there was a clear direction to take – the AA chatbot, aka AABot, seemed like the perfect character to take us to the next level. Until now, AABot had existed only as a 2D cartoon head. So, we gave him a 3D animated body and made him the star of his own AR app – AABot Drop – compatible with both iOS and Android devices.
We created a fun, interactive installation featuring the AR trigger images, in the form of postcards from AABot, at the Manchester Trafford Centre and Birmingham Bullring shopping centres – close to the AA’s Cheadle and Oldbury contact centres.
Using the AABot Drop app, people could see AABot’s animated postcards come to life – either on their own phones, or the iPads we supplied. AABot lives up to the spirit of the AA’s EVP, Ready for ANYTHING? in six animated AR adventures, from space and deep-sea exploration to crowd-surfing his own rock gig. Animations end on a careers message, driving to theaacareers.co.uk.
Downloading AABot Drop also gives users interactive, animated images of Bot to play with and position in fun and unexpected places. Sharing their images using #wheresbotbeen, people could enter a competition to win holiday vouchers. Promoting the app and competition across social media got more people involved – and amplified our message. Bot’s postcard trigger images and #wheresbotbeen photo gallery are now housed on the AA careers site –along with app download links – supporting longer term engagement beyond the initial competition.
Both events saw good interaction with both young people and families – two key AA contact centre demographics. The Manchester event boosted careers site visits by 869%, with applications up 40% week-over-week. After the Birmingham event, careers site visits increased by 535%, with applications up 820% week-over-week.
With hundreds of app downloads and ready for more, we plan to run further AABot Drop-based campaigns with updated AABot scenarios. So, much more than a one-off AR adventure, this can help promote the AA’s employer brand and opportunities to an even wider audience during a longer period of time.
Taking the EVP 2,620 Miles Further
The AA also sponsored adventurer and influencer Anna McNuff’s Barefoot Britain challenge. As someone who champions the idea of being Ready for ANYTHING?, Anna undertook the mammoth task of running the equivalent of 100 marathons barefoot through all kinds of terrain, weather and unexpected challenges to inspire young women. She wants to encourage them to have the confidence to step out of their comfort zone – to see just how much they can achieve when they reach for what seems impossible.
A series of short videos sharing her adventures, along with Anna’s own social posts and support from PeopleScout, have helped to raise brand awareness and promote AA careers to more female talent.
Groundbreaking Activity Leads to Record-Breaking Results
Since the launch of Ready for ANYTHING?, the AA’s internal employee and social media engagement, site visits and application numbers have soared across all brand-led activity. This strong employer brand, combined with a desire to innovate and brave campaign execution, has enabled the AA to move from 60% agency use to less than 5% in 30 months, saving nearly $9 million per year. Meanwhile, the AA’s Ready for ANYTHING? attitude helped it to win 17 recruitment industry awards in two years, including Best Employer Brand at the Recruitment Marketing Awards 2019. And, of course, the AA is always ready to do more.
“This is transforming how we engage candidates, and it wouldn’t have been possible without a true partnership. PeopleScout has risen to our challenges with some genius, wacky thinking!”
– Craig Morgans, Director of Talent Acquisition, Emerging Talent & Employee Experience
Hi. My name is Vanessa, and I have an
addiction to 1Rebel.
Despite having no real desire to exercise
five years ago (beyond a very self-indulgent, free yoga class at the Hoxton
hotel every Saturday), I joined 1Rebel as a founding member after just a
handful of classes.
The triple concept gym that offers Ride
(spinning), Reshape (weights and running) and Rumble (boxing) from 6 a.m. each
day was – and still is – the only thing that gets me up before dawn. When you
consider how unmotivated I was before, this is no small feat. So, what is the attraction?
While the next-level equipment and the opportunity to take your morning shower
with the Spice Girls blaring through the surround sound was noteworthy, the real
pull was the employees. From a front of house team who remember your name and
sign you in before you get to the front desk to the instructors who can make
you feel like you’re the only person in the room, there’s a real sense of
belonging.
Over the years, instructors have become
friends and the space itself has become a place of emotional significance –
especially for my sister and I, who, with busy and often conflicting schedules,
sometimes only find time to sit next to each other on a bike on a dark Wednesday
morning.
I should note that in 2015, Casper ter
Kuile, a Ministry of Innovation Fellow at Harvard Divinity School, co-authored
a report titled “How We Gather,”
which looked at how brands like SoulCycle and CrossFit have replaced the role
of traditional religious institutions, particularly among younger people who
feel isolated in their digital lives. I get it. 1Rebel trainers have changed
over the years (I still mourn the loss of some of my favorites), but the brand
ethos and loyal community have remained constant, and that’s what makes it
works.
A
recent study by the research firm YouGov found that one in five millennials
believed they had no friends. Similarly, a new report published by the American
Psychological Association showed that depression in 18- to 21-year-olds had
climbed more than 46% between 2009 and 2017. Brands are wise to be aware and
tap into this, and it explains why inclusive group exercise is leaving
exclusive “no pain, no gain” gyms in the dust. “Don’t side-eye the person on
the bike next to you; you don’t know what their journey was to get here,” said
a 1Rebel trainer in one of her classes.
I am confident that 1Rebel will continue to be
a success as the brand lives and breathes its values. But, what happens when
the brands we feel a deep-seated connection to behave “off-brand”?
There are plenty of examples of companies that rally the troops through their brand . For instance, there are the Chinese makers of air conditioners, Broad Group, who still chant their daily anthem, “I love our clients and help them grow their value,” and Japan’s Yamaha with their 1980s company song.
Along the same lines, the 2019 article “Is Your Corporate Culture Cultish?” published in Harvard Business Review described the weekly get-together of a leading U.S. tech company. Company-imposed “cheer” pops up again here – although, this time, it was a bit more contrived, with employees chanting the name of the company three times, all dressed (like the CEO) in matching black and gray. The author, curious about the employees’ enthusiasm, was prompted to explore the lived reality of the people working there. It became clear that people didn’t really have a life outside of their work. Many were divorced or separated. “One executive said that he only went home to change clothes, adding that he might just as well stay at work using the facilities in the wellness center,” the author wrote.
It’s the perfect example of a company that is externally portrayed as an employer of choice, but the internal the reality is something quite different.
If a brand is leveraging an emotional
connection, it needs to practice what it preaches.
This
is possibly even more important for employees of a brand than it is for their
consumers. After all, they are the people influencing, creating and building
your product. There’s no shortage of research proving the relationship
between company culture and performance. By hiring employees based
on their ideological alignment to your company mission rather than their raw
skill set, you can begin to build a brand loyalty seen in the consumer world.
This is something that IBM has a legacy of doing well. A 1973 global survey of IBM found that, despite national and regional nuance, employees had more in common than they had expected; they behaved and acted similarly. The researcher Geert Hofstede concluded that organisations had a personality, meaning that the character of the organisation was constant even when employees come and go. This “character” – which exists to a greater or lesser extent at all organisations – is what we now refer to as company culture, which, in its simplest form, describes “the way things are done around here.”
So,
what can employers learn about company
culture from cult brands?
Develop
an employer value proposition (EVP) that shows everyone the give and the get
for being part of your mission, as well as an employer
brand that brings it all together.
This helps candidates and employees understand the emotional contract of your organisation and get a feel for your company culture. It helps the wrong people self-select out of applying and gives your employees something to believe in – whether that’s encouraging more people to exercise, bringing healthcare to millions or developing the technology solutions of the future.
Assess
candidates against the company vision and values, rather than just competency.
When values are well-embedded in an organisation, they help people make decisions that are right for the business and encourage the behaviors that will help you achieve your mission. It’s easier to up-skill employees than to change what they believe in, so recruit those who have the right behaviors to succeed, rather than those who have done a role before. Even though colleagues and managers will move on and new people will join, if the ethos and values are embraced, the company culture will remain.
Shape
your incentives and benefits to reward mission-related achievement, reinforcing
the behavior.
Benefits and rewards typically recognise individuals for personal achievement. If your business success is reliant on entrepreneurship or collaboration, find ways to identify and recognise those behaviors instead of arbitrary targets.
Build
a community around your brand.
At a time when trust in corporations is declining and social media algorithms make it more difficult for your followers to see your content, employee advocacy is vital. On average, employees have a network that’s 10 times larger than your company’s follower base. What’s more, brand messages are shared 24 times more frequently when distributed by employees as opposed to the business account. Engaging employees throughout your EVP process naturally builds brand champions who can leverage your brand. Encourage them to share examples of your brand values on social media and be advocates when talking to suppliers or clients, or attending conferences and events.
But, above all …
If you are going to stand for something as an organisation, make sure your actions align with your words.
Just as believers can build a brand, they can also tear it apart.
Around 15 to 20 years ago, the first
millennials entered the workforce – frustrating and sometimes frightening the
baby boomers and Gen Xers who hired and managed them. Since then, the world of
work changed, and millennials grew up and advanced in their careers. In that same
time, Kathryn Minshew moved from her roles at McKinsey & Company and the
Clinton Health Access Initiative and founded The Muse, a career platform headquartered
in New York City and used by more than 75 million people to research companies
and careers.
Kathryn also authored “The New Rules of
Work,” which made it to TheWall
Street Journal’s (WSJ)
national bestseller list. She has spoken at MIT and Harvard, contributed to the
WSJ and Harvard Business Review, and appeared on TODAY and CNN. She has
been named to SmartCEO’s
Future50 Visionary CEOs and Inc.’s
35 Under 35. Additionally, The Muse was named one of Fast Company’s 50
Most Innovative Companies in the World in 2018.
Kathryn is an expert on the workforce
transformation she observed and helped drive as a millennial herself. But now,
the process is beginning all over again as Gen Z starts entering the workforce.
We talked with Kathryn about how these new workers will influence the way
companies attract and retain the best talent.
What are the biggest similarities and differences you see between current workers and those who are just now entering the workforce?
It’s a really interesting time right now
because the workplace is in flux. While I’m not a big believer in the idea that
the millennial generation is fundamentally different, there are a few trends I’m
seeing in The Muse’s community and the employers we work with.
First, there‘s a strong interest in flexibility and work-life balance. The younger generations are pushing employers to recognise their work based on output and not the number of hours sitting at a desk. I actually think that change benefits us all.
Secondly, a lot of younger workers are
willing to relocate for the right job. We surveyed The Muse community, which is
very young and diverse with two thirds under age 35, 55% women, and 50%
nonwhite. We asked them, “Would you relocate and consider moving for the right
company and role?” An overwhelming number – 89% – said yes.
As millennials went from entry-level workers to the biggest cohort in the labour market and now into leadership roles, we saw the conversation change. How do you expect the conversation about Gen Z at work to change?
There’s one pattern I’m very confident will play out, which is that we’ll see a bunch of people predicting the end of the workplace as we know it. Then, over time, some of the hysteria will quiet down, and people will realise that we’re all fundamentally more similar than we are different. A few years ago, there was a lot of, let’s just say, pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth about millennials. Now, many of those same millennials are managers and some of them are becoming executives.
The workplace has changed. Companies are
forced to compete for talent. There is a bigger emphasis on connecting the
overall purpose and mission of a company with the individual roles of workers.
When I look at the changes that I believe we’ll see with Gen Z, there’s the classic one – which is that Gen Z is very mobile-first. So, I think we’ll see less and less tolerance for legacy technology products and more of a push for the adoption of consumer-grade products. Gen Z is starting to look for workplace tools that are built on data and personalised for their needs.
How will employer branding change?
I think we’ve evolved through a number
of phases of employer branding, starting with what I call phase zero, where
companies just posted jobs online without any marketing or information. Then,
phase one was stock photos and companies trying to pretend they were perfect,
using jargon like, “we’re a team of innovators committed to excellence.”
Now, we’re in phase two, in which companies are realising the need to be more authentic. With Gen Z, we’re going to see an increasing trend toward personalisation. Platforms and tools that can provide a more personalised experience are going to win. That’s something I’m very focused on at The Muse.
I think there are platforms out there today that deliver volume, but give you very few opportunities to really build a relationship with talent and explain your company, your values, and your opportunity. My money is on the platforms that are allowing different channels for candidates and job seekers to research companies and for employers to build relationships – and, of course, I count The Muse among them.
Employer brand is ultimately just brand, right? It’s not like you get to have a consumer brand and employer brand that doesn’t interact with each other. Employer brand has the potential to be powerful, but only if you recognise that it’s a piece of your larger brand and the lines between your applicants, candidates, employees, customers, and users are blurring in the modern world.
Ultimately, I think the holy grail for
employer brand is going to be giving candidates more information and a better
experience up front. That leads to tangible business results through better and
longer-retained hires.
How will employers change their retention strategies for Gen Z?
Retention is directly linked to how much
information people receive and how accurate that information is before they come
through the door. We’ve seen companies that work with The Muse increase
retention when they’re more transparent about what it’s like to work there.
Many people earlier in their careers are looking for clarity and guidance around what the future holds. Companies that are successful in retaining millennial and Gen Z employees often layout very explicit career paths. Employees can see what milestones they need to hit to get promoted to the next level and what those steps look like. By documenting a clear career path, younger employees can understand what the future will look like if they invest in your company.
If you had to boil this entire conversation down to one piece of advice for employers, what would that advice be?
When I started The Muse, I had this deep
belief that both job seekers and employers would be better off if they found
matches based on fit. Even the same person might look for different things at
different points in their career. I want The Muse to help create fit – to help
individuals research companies and careers, and help employers hire great
people on the strength of their employee experience and employer brand.
If I had to pick just one piece of advice on how to do that, I would say focus on storytelling. Humans love stories; we can connect with them. So, think about employee storytelling – whether that’s telling stories on your career site, through The Muse or through another channel. The more you can communicate the uniqueness of your opportunities and your organisation through the real human stories of people who work there, the more successful I believe you’re going to be.
Talent acquisition teams
and hiring managers are always on the hunt for candidates who check all of the
boxes: the five-star talent with all of the right skills and experience to
excel in a role, but who also fits the culture of the employer. When these
candidates are screened, interviewed and assessed, they pass each phase of the
process with flying colors, leaving hiring managers eager to extend an offer of
employment. However, there is one catch: will the candidate accept?
When you make an offer to a candidate, you hope they want the position as much as you want to hire them. But, sometimes, you nurture a great candidate through the entire recruitment process only for them have a change of heart. Candidates declining job offers can be disheartening for recruiting teams – and costly for organisations trying to fill vital open positions. In this article, we’ll cover candidate expectations and key points in the employment offer process, as well as explain how to connect with candidates on a more personal level.
Meeting Candidate Expectations: Then & Now
Candidates Expect an
Inviting Company Culture
In the past, candidates applied for positions without knowing or expecting to know much about an organisation’s inner workings or culture. As a result, when candidates were extended an offer, an organisation’s culture played less of a role in whether they would accept the position.
But now, candidates want to know about the work environment and company culture so they can assess whether they think the organisation is a good fit. Help candidates get that information by having a section on your careers page that provides cultural insights into your organisation, and include videos and images that display what it’s like to work for you.
Candidates Expect
Greater Transparency
It used to be that a
candidate applied for a job, sent in their résumé and waited patiently for a
response from the employer. All too often, candidates were left in the dark
regarding timelines, with few ways to find out where they were in the hiring
process.
Now, candidates expect rapid responses to their inquiries and greater transparency into a potential employer’s hiring process. Therefore, make sure that you inform the candidate about when they can expect an offer or rejection and deliver on it. This shows that the organisation is respectful, responsible and disciplined. Plus, if you make transparency a core piece of your recruitment strategy, you can improve your offer acceptance rate.
Candidates Expect More
from Your Employer Value Proposition
Your employer value proposition (EVP) is the distillation of what you offer candidates and what you expect in return. In the past, organisations relied heavily on brand recognition and compensation as their primary EVP. But, more than ever, candidates expect flexible work options, formal succession planning, mentorship programms, open communication, and real-time feedback to be part of an employer’s value.
Before candidates reach
the offer phase, make sure you have clearly communicated what makes you
different as an employer. When candidates understand your story and how you
view your role as an employer, they can get a picture of what they can expect
if they accept your offer.
Plan ahead to ensure that
candidates have information about the team they’ll be working with and the
types of projects they’ll work on. When appropriate, you can also create an
opportunity for the candidates to meet their future coworkers during the
recruiting process.
Compensation, Benefits & Perks
Presenting benefits and compensation begins with your job postings. According to a survey conducted by Glassdoor, more than half of the respondents listed salary (67%) and benefits (63%) as top factors they looked for in job ads. By listing the salary range, benefits and perks this early on, you are less likely to lose a candidate at the end of the process solely because the salary and benefits offered are less than they are willing to accept.
When making a job offer, begin with an in-depth discussion with the candidate to determine which benefits and perks they value the most; it may be possible to create an offer package that is personalised enough to meet their needs. Furthermore, it’s important to know the difference between a perk and a benefit, as they are two different categories of non-wage compensation items.
Benefits: Benefits are best described as a form of non-wage compensation that complements salary. Health insurance, transit assistance, stock options, and retirement contributions are some of the most popular benefits offered by organisations.
Perks: Perks are above-and-beyond offerings that may sway a candidate to value one organisation over another. Think about these as the “icing on the cake.” Perks at work may include a company car; retail discounts; summer hours; gym memberships; standing desks and off-site, team-building activities. These perks can really sweeten an employment offer and increase the likelihood of acceptance.
Non-Traditional Perks &
Benefits
A survey released by TriNet found that 91% of respondents at small- and medium-sized businesses view non-traditional benefits as an important aspect of their job satisfaction. According to the survey, non-traditional benefits include perks such as flexible work schedules, commuter benefits, unlimited paid time off, paid volunteer time, remote work options and more.
If your organisation offers non-traditional perks and benefits, leverage them to sweeten job offers. These days, candidates are becoming less concerned with salary alone and more concerned with overall compensation – including a better work-life balance and greater workplace flexibility. If your organisation offers employees access to a gym, the option to work from home or other alluring perks, make sure to mention these when discussing benefits with candidates.
Entwining Benefits &
Employer Branding
Fusing your benefits package with your employer brand gives your benefits programme a distinct identity and purpose aligned with your core values. It’s something that candidates should be able to recognise in every aspect of your benefits presentation. In particular, your benefits mission statement should be clear and concise, but also unique to your organisation. Strive to make it a natural extension of your broader organisational values. For instance, if excellent customer service is an area of focus at your company, craft your benefits mission statement to highlight how your benefits seek to anticipate and meet the needs of employees.
A financial services client of PeopleScout’s is one example of blending employer branding and benefits. Specifically, the client provided a comprehensive and generous maternity leave policy for expecting mothers. However, when communicating its maternity leave policy, the benefit wasn’t featured in a way that effectively highlighted the company’s commitment to supporting new parents. While informative and to the point, this approach to educating employees about the policy was misaligned with the client’s employer brand of empowerment.
PeopleScout worked with this client to craft new and more brand-aligned communications about the maternity leave policy. The new messaging shared in the excitement of expecting employees, while also highlighting the challenges expecting mothers face in the workplace. Employee communications about the maternity leave policy centered on the values of empowerment and support for employees – inside and outside of the organisation’s walls.
Engaging & Communicating With Candidates During the Employment Offer Process
Initial Conversations
Once you’ve decided on a candidate, don’t waste time reaching out and sharing the good news. Otherwise, the candidate may accept a position elsewhere or develop a negative attitude about your organisation if they are left waiting too long.
When you contact the
candidate, discuss the details of the job offer. If the candidate is satisfied
with your offer, ask for verbal acceptance and let them know a formal offer of
employment will be sent shortly.
Follow Up & Keeping
Candidates Warm
After verbal acceptance of
your offer, stay in contact with the candidate to keep them engaged and
interested in the role. When following up, don’t be overly eager or too pushy;
instead, allow the candidate some time to think about your offer. While the
candidate considers your job offer, stay in touch through the candidate’s
preferred method of communication. The purpose of your follow-up correspondence
should be to reinforce your enthusiasm about having the candidate join your
team.
Follow-ups with new
details about the offer, like “You will be working at X location” or “Would you
prefer to work on a Mac or a PC?” allow you to stay connected while relaying
information that is relevant to the candidate. What’s more, keeping in touch
enables you to continue to build a positive relationship with candidates after
the offer.
The Official Offer
Letter
An offer letter represents the final stage in your recruiting process and is the legal document that defines the employment relationship between your organisation and the candidate. For those reasons, it is critical to get it right.
Think of the offer letter as a formal invitation for the candidate to become an employee of your organisation. Like any invitation, your offer letter should send a warm and positive message to the candidate. Articulate a friendly, welcoming tone and indicate your anticipation of the candidate’s future contributions to your organisation. The offer letter should inform candidates of their compensation and benefits, as well as include a description of their role and responsibilities.
Consider creating multiple templates for offer letters, especially if you have distinct categories of employees. Then, personalise them to match the candidate and to ensure that each candidate receives the right information for their situation.
Organisations that want to fill open roles with qualified and talented employees need to approach recruitment in the same way that sales and marketing teams approach engaging and closing clients. Look for creative ways to show why your organisation is a great place to work.
And, finally, solicit and provide feedback to candidates; this communicates that you value their input and that your organisation – like the candidate – is using the exchange as a teachable moment meant to foster growth, which is an indicator of positive workplace culture. By focusing on your brand, culture, and benefits, as well as keeping in touch with candidates, you’ll maximise your ability to land – and keep – the best talent.
When facing a tight and highly competitive talent market, employers find it even more difficult to hire for hard to fill jobs. What’s more, the dearth of highly skilled talent in critical industries can lower an organisation’s productivity, which, if left unabated, could have a major effect on the global economy.
According to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) report, vacancies for jobs requiring highly skilled workers or in-demand skills are among the most difficult to fill. The talent acquisition professionals surveyed in the report said the following job categories are most difficult to recruit:
In this article, we’ll cover how organisations can identify, source and hire highly skilled talent more effectively.
Creating Candidate Personas for Hard to Fill Jobs
Before you source, recruit and hire highly skilled talent, you must first outline the skills, attributes, experience, and tendencies of your ideal candidate by creating a candidate persona. A candidate persona is a semi-fictional illustration of a candidate who exemplifies what you are looking for in a specific role. An accurate candidate persona will help your talent team tailor its strategies and approach to best suit the talent you are looking to hire. This is especially important when recruiting highly skilled candidates who have diverse and unique requirements, drivers and employment expectations.
Your candidate persona needs to answer key questions. Begin by answering these questions using existing data from your applicant tracking system (ATS) and customer relationship management (CRM) databases on candidates and employees. You can also interview current employees – especially those who align with your ideal candidate – for their feedback. Below is an example of a candidate persona template:
Make sure your personas are representative of actual human beings – rather than a portrait of an overly idealised, fictional candidate. Also, be cautious when creating candidate personas; giving your personas names and pictures to make them seem more realistic and multi-dimensional is great, but it may also lead to bias. Instead, keep personal identifiers to a minimum to avoid discrimination and maximise diversity.
Sourcing Highly Skilled Candidates
Leveraging Social Media
LinkedIn is a favorite social media recruiting tool for talented professionals. However, oversaturation is the predominant reason that many hiring managers claim that recruiting on LinkedIn has become less effective. Despite being inundated with competitors, LinkedIn is still one of the most important tools in a recruiter’s toolbox. However, sourcing talent on other social media is also a vital part of a modern recruiting strategy.
Twitter: Use Twitter’s advanced search function to hunt for user profiles that use industry-related keywords and hashtags. Then, refine your search based on location and other important criteria. For example, if you’re looking to fill a developer position, search Twitter for specific software and developer-related keywords within your organisation’s target market. This search can uncover developers in your area with the experience you’re looking for.
Facebook: Facebook’s targeted search capabilities enable you to find high-quality, skilled workers who align with specific criteria. For example, if you search “copywriters with packaging marketing experience,” Facebook will return a result with matching profiles. Reach out to these candidates to see if they would be interested in interviewing with your organisation.
The power in using your social media accounts goes beyond sourcing candidates for hard to fill jobs; you can also showcase your organisation’s employer brand and culture to entice and engage talent.
Employee Referrals
To gain a competitive edge, look to your employees. An employee referral programme can help your organisation expand its network with a ready-made talent pool. Employees have contacts with former classmates and co-workers, and their referrals are more likely to be qualified and a good fit with the company culture.
Additionally, consider
posting open positions in office areas, announcing openings at company meetings
and sharing them in company-wide communications to help employees keep
referrals top of mind. Also, regularly remind employees about the rewards for
referrals, such as financial compensation or other perks. Even if a referred
candidate is not a good fit for a particular position, you can still consider
them for different roles, which can help supplement a robust talent pipeline.
Leverage Recruiting Automation & AI
Tools to Source Candidates
Innovations in
talent technology have transformed every phase of the recruiting process. One
phase that has seen enormous change due to technology is candidate sourcing.
Candidate sourcing is the most important phase in recruiting highly skilled
talent because the talent pool is more constricted.
Today, talent tools powered by artificial intelligence can locate passive candidates for hard to fill jobs much faster and more efficiently than ever before. AI technology crawls the internet to collect and analyse a wide variety of candidate data – from résumés to social media activity. Based on this data, AI-based tools can help make predictions about which candidates will be open to switching jobs, making it easier for recruiters to prioritise those candidates.
Selling Your Hard to Fill Jobs
When it comes time for the interview, you’re not just interviewing highly skilled candidates; they’re interviewing you, as well. To effectively “sell” your opportunities, outline and communicate the benefits of working for your organisation. Effective communication on the front end can save your company significant time and effort.
Understand What It’s Like to Work for Your Organisation
To properly sell the role, make sure that you have an accurate view of your organisation from the perspective of your employees – both current and former. Consider deploying surveys to obtain feedback from current employees and make sure to conduct exit interviews with departing talent. Take the feedback you receive and craft an objective report of your employee experience. When you understand the day-to-day experiences of your current and former employees, you can better sell an accurate and positive depiction of what it’s like to work for your organisation.
Understand Your Employer Value Proposition
Your employer value proposition (EVP) is what you are selling to the candidate. Recruiters and hiring managers need to know – and be comfortable articulating – the value proposition of your organisation. In other words, you need to answer the question, “Why would someone want to work for you in this position?” Your employer value proposition includes a range of tangible and intangible benefits of working at your organisation, such as work/life balance, flexibility, culture, values, compensation, and benefits. Know the benefits of working for your company, and make sure that you effectively “sell” it to highly skilled candidates.
For instance, PeopleScout helps a client to maximise its employer brand to attract a healthy pipeline of top talent. The client, which has a global presence in the construction industry, works with PeopleScout to highlight its unique culture to potential employees. During the hiring process, hiring managers communicate the client’s mission of minimising environmental impact and maximising sustainability; creating innovative approaches to complex industry problems; and promoting the well-being of its employees.
As an example, the client offers three days of “well-being” PTO that can be taken in addition to the traditional leave offered by the client. These days are seen as necessary for employees working in a physically and mentally taxing industry, and illustrate the client’s commitment to the well-being of its staff. What’s more, the client also offers multiple flexible work arrangements to increase work-life balance – a prudent, yet uncommon, benefit in the industry. By helping our client weave in its mission, culture, and brand into the recruiting process, the team has been able to establish the company as an employer of choice for highly skilled talent.
Be Careful Not to Oversell
In addition to the perks, it’s also important for candidates to have an objective understanding of the challenges that may come with working at your organisation. You don’t have to paint an unflattering picture of your hard to fill jobs, but it is important to provide accurate information upfront. Overselling or omitting information will start the employment relationship off on the wrong foot should they accept your offer, and could lead to higher turnover. It won’t take a new hire long to figure out that what they were told before they were hired is not the reality of the role. For example, if your role requires irregular or long hours, communicate that to the candidate. This allows the candidate to make a fully informed decision and mitigate the risk of immediate disengagement.
What Candidates Want to Know
Just like you want to know about a candidate’s background and experience, highly skilled candidates also want to know what they can expect from employment at your organisation. In particular, during the recruiting process, they may be interested in:
The candidate’s potential for growth: Highly skilled candidates want to know how leaping to a new organisation is going to benefit them – especially in relation to the growth and overall well-being of their careers.
The role’s potential for growth: Candidates may want to go beyond the position in its current form and discuss what the position could be and how the role ties into the organisation’s plans for the future.
Your organisation’s potential for growth: Highly skilled candidates want to be part of a winning team, so show them how your organisation is driving success.
Your organisation’s culture: Candidates want to know that the position is going to be a good fit, and that includes how they fit into your organisation’s culture.
The evolving landscape of talent acquisition requires a more proactive, multi-touch approach to attracting highly skilled talent and converting them into applicants and, ultimately, hires. As the global economy continues to grow and the demand and competition for highly skilled talent rises as a result, organisations need to stay abreast of the scope of talent available in the market.
The October Labour Market Report released by the Office for National Statistics, which includes the quarter covering June through August 2019, reported that 56,000 jobs were lost as the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%. Nominal wages showed an annual increase of 3.8%.
Notable figures from the September report include:
The UK
employment rate fell to 75.9%, higher than a year earlier (75.6%) but 0.2
percentage points lower than the previous quarter.
The
number of job vacancies fell to 813,000, the lowest level since autumn 2017.
Estimated
annual growth in average weekly earnings for employees was 3.8% for both total
pay (including bonuses) and regular pay (excluding bonuses).
Job Losses and Rising Unemployment
The number of those working in the three months ending in August unexpectedly decreased by 56,000. The decline was driven by those employed part-time and self-employed workers, young people and women. The Office for National Statistics noted that while there were changes in the employment numbers for both men and women, “The number of women entering employment has been a strong contributing factor to the current high employment levels, so a fall in their number in employment has had a larger impact on the current level of employment.”
The number of people who are out of work rose by 22,000 to slightly
more than 1.31 million. The decrease in jobs combined with a lack of increased
participation drove the unemployment rate up to 3.9%.
The level of those who are economically inactive also rose.
Inactivity measures people without a job but who are not classified as
unemployed because they have not been actively seeking work within the last
four weeks and/or they are unable to start work within the next two weeks. The
inactivity rate reported was 21%, 0.2 percentage points lower than a year
earlier but 0.1% higher than the last quarter.
The Looming Brexit Deadline…Again
For the third time this year, UK businesses have had to consider their recruitment plans while facing an approaching date for leaving the European Union. And, even though Parliament has voted to constrain the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, there is still no agreement in place with a little over two weeks to go until the October 31 deadline. The job losses and the increased unemployment rate are being blamed on the lack of clarity in the nation’s immediate economic future combined with an extended tight labour market, as Tej Parikh, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, an employer’s group, noted:
“Challenging economic conditions are starting to take the
shine off the UK’s job boom. Business leaders’ long-lasting drive to expand their
workforce has put the labour market in a strong position. However, firms are
now increasingly coming up against uncertainty and the shrinking supply of
available talent.”
Even with the uncertainties that would come in the event of a “no deal Brexit,” less than one third of larger UK firms reported that they are planning to reduce their recruitment plans, while a small percentage plan to increase them, according to a recent survey by the British Chambers of Commerce:
“22% of businesses surveyed said they would revise
recruitment plans down in the event of no-deal, while 3% would revise up. 73%
of respondents did not state that they would revise investment plans.
Larger businesses surveyed (firms with more than 50
employees) were more likely to report that they will revise investment (33%)
and recruitment (31%) plans downwards in a ‘no deal’ scenario. 5% of surveyed
businesses reported they would revise investment and recruitment upwards,
respectively.”
Keep Calm and Consider the Context
While the data released today could be interpreted as the
beginning of the end of an expanding labour market, it is far too early to make
this prediction. Consider two of the headline factors of today’s report: the employment
rate and number of job vacancies. The employment rate fell from last month’s
report but this rate of 76.1% was tied for the highest rate on record since
records began in 1971. Job openings are slowly decreasing, but the current
level of 813,000 still demonstrates robust demand for talent. Unemployment remains
near historic lows. And, while news about job losses may be unfamiliar and
troubling, employers should not drastically alter their recruitment plans on
the basis of a single labour market report.
Let’s
face it – we live in an ever-changing world, where one of the biggest
challenges is keeping up with the latest trend.
For an
update on talent acquisition trends, PeopleScout hosted Madeline Laurano,
talent analyst and founder of Aptitude Research, at our North American Talent
Summit. Laurano spoke on the top trends she is seeing through her qualitative
and quantitative research, and provided clarity on the crowded market.
Laurano shared that the current state of talent acquisition has fundamentally shifted due to the record increase in job openings and decrease in the available talent pool. This contributes to the rise of competition for talent across industries and the tremendous pressure organisations face to find the right talent.
Laurano
presented a few key solutions to aid in managing this overarching challenge,
including strengthening employer branding, simplifying your talent strategy
with technology, improving candidate communication, using data to drive
decisions and exploring total workforce solutions.
In this
article, we’ll walk through Laurano’s report on the current state of talent
acquisition, and dive into how a focus on employer branding can help you stay
on top of the trends in talent acquisition.
Current State & Challenges
Laurano’s research shows a fundamental shift in talent acquisition over the past few years, which she attributes to changing market conditions. The numbers prove it – there’s a high demand for skills and a low supply of candidates, which increases both competition for talent and the cost of a quality hire.
High Demand for Skills
Nearly half of U.S. employers attribute unfilled job openings to a lack of qualified candidates. Additionally, 75% of human resource professionals who have recruiting difficulty say there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. However, 74% of organisations are investing just $500 per employee on training and development between upskilling and reskilling.
The skills gap is widening particularly for IT, healthcare, manufacturing and really any industry that has specialised or technical roles. Based on her research, Laurano recommends that organisations invest in technology and digital roles to foster ideas and monitor industry trends. More than 5 million jobs in information technology are expected to be added globally by 2027.
Low Supply of Candidates
“Statistics show employers are having a difficult time filling job openings and are competing across industries for talent, which is a major challenge in the industry and one we haven’t seen before,” Laurano said.
A 2017 PWC survey of CEOs found that 77% said the greatest threat to organisations was the availability of talent. The unemployment rate is at a record-low 3.7% in the U.S., with 106 months of continuous job growth – the longest stretch in the nation’s history. Canada ended the first half of the year with an unemployment rate of 5.5%, and many leading European and Asia Pacific economies posted strong job gains and continued low unemployment.
Quality of Hires
Laurano’s 2019 Quality of Hire Trends Report states that only 26% of organisations in her study have a formal methodology for defining quality of hire; one in three of those organisations said that they’re interested in tracking quality of hire, but they don’t know how to start. Therefore, there’s a lot of opportunity to improve how we calculate quality of hire.
Ultimately, organisations have to rethink their strategies and technology to attract the right candidates for them. So, how do organisations stay on top of these trends? Laurano says strengthening employer branding is one important way.
Strengthening Employer Branding
As a reminder, your employer brand is the perception and lived experiences of what it’s like to work for your organisation. It also incorporates your employee value proposition (EVP), which captures the essence of your uniqueness as an employer and the give and get between you and your employees.
In her presentation, Laurano discussed the importance of strengthening employer branding as one way to stand out in the crowded market. As research shows, many organisations are investing plenty of resources into employer branding, but there is still room for improvement. As Laurano’s research shows, 62% of organisations invest in employer branding, however:
One out of four organisations is unsure about its employer branding.
50% of organisations are unhappy with their employer branding tools.
Industry research agrees with Laurano, as one study shows that companies with stronger employer brands see a 43% decrease on average in the cost per candidate they hire, compared to their competitors. Additionally, when organisations specifically in the U.S. live up to their marketed EVP, new employees arrive with a higher level of commitment at 38%, compared to organisations that do not live up to their marketed EVP, which is at just 9%.
Digital Transformation
As Laurano noted, the digital space is a major aspect to consider in talent acquisition and employer branding. Whether it’s introducing digital or data specialist roles, the skills associated with those jobs assist organisations in recognising their weaker areas and providing innovative ideas to capture their intended audiences. Laurano recommends incorporating the digital role heavily in your talent solution and to improve messaging. “Go where your candidates are,” she says. And, for the most part, that is the digital space. Research confirms this concept:
In Laurano’s presentation, she emphasised the value of organisations nurturing talent before they apply, or a proactive versus reactive approach:
Reactive
“If we were to take the reactive recruiting approach and turn it into a funnel, it might look something like the diagram above. Sourcers fill up the talent pipeline while recruiters manage the selection process on behalf of the organisation. However, there is no one working on behalf of the candidate and no real engagement process at the top of the funnel. As a result, the recruiter spends more time on screening résumés, phone screens, etc.”
Proactive
“If we
flip the time allocation where recruiters spend less time on screening and
focus on ensuring they have targeted, qualified candidates to begin with, the
results would differ. There would be a higher rate of effectiveness by
investing in relationship-building with targeted pools of talent, as opposed to
a reactive, start-stop recruiting approach.”
Additional research only reinforces the proactive method, as 67% of employed American adults agree that the application, interview or offer process would make or break their decision on whether to take a job.
Global
Aspect
Employer branding is difficult for global organisations, as it’s not always about the organisation, but also the specific location, as well, which can get complicated. The core of your employer brand should start with a universal truth, but effective employers will also create messaging that speaks directly to different audiences and geographies. Laurano suggests a need for transparency for global organisations, as well as local flexibility and solutions to strengthen your employer branding.
What’s Next for Your Talent Solution?
Keeping up with the latest trends can be challenging to say the least, especially in the talent industry. Laurano’s research into the fundamental shift in talent acquisition provided some key insights and solutions that are beneficial when combating such rapid changes.
About the Expert
Madeline Laurano’s primary focus during the last 12+ years has been on the talent management market, specialising in talent acquisition. Her insights are based on her work as an analyst and advisor in the human capital space and her latest research with HR and talent acquisition practitioners. Laurano’s work helps companies both validate and reevaluate their strategies and understand the role technology can play in driving business outcomes. Before Aptitude Research, Laurano held research roles at Aberdeen, Bersin by Deloitte, ERE Media and Brandon Hall Group. She is co-author of “Best Practices in Leading a Global Workforce,” and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Yahoo News, and The Financial Times. She is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, including the HR Technology Conference and Exposition, SHRM, IHRIM, HCI’s Strategic Talent Acquisition conference, GDS International’s HCM Summit, and HRO Today. Visit her website at https://www.aptituderesearch.com.
If you’re
only focused on recruitment but not retention, you’re throwing away money.
According to Forbes, the cost of replacing an employee can range anywhere from 50% of the salary of an entry-level employee to more than 200% of the salary of a senior executive. Increasing retention – even by just a couple of percentage points – can save millions of dollars each year.
I think “engagement” and “retention” are just different words for the same thing. If you want to retain people, you need to engage them, and you should start as early as possible. Recent surveys have found that about 30% of job-seekers have left a job within the first 90 days of hiring. Despite this, most onboarding programmes are too short. According to SHRM, nearly 40% of onboarding programmes last one week or less.
This is
important across the talent spectrum. In extreme-burnout, high-volume roles,
culture counts. Rather than just dealing with unwanted turnover, you need to
onboard employees to your culture early. You need them to be invested with you
so they have a reason to stay.
On the other end of the spectrum, I consistently see specialised, rock-star candidates deflate when they become new employees. During the recruitment process, they are engaged and excited for a new role. But, when there is no onboarding process, they are left on their own – unengaged and more likely to respond to the next recruiter that pops into their inbox.
In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up an onboarding programme that builds engagement from day one. Then, I’ll share strategies on how you can continue to measure that engagement and build it further.
The 90-Day Onboarding Programme
A well-developed onboarding programme for the first 90 days makes all the difference in the world when it comes to engagement and retention. When new employees start on day one, they have a lot of expectations, and they’re excited. However, many employers forget how critical the first impression is to a new hire.
For many organisations, the onboarding programme starts and ends an employee’s first day with HR basics. Employees fill out paperwork, get a badge, find their desks, complete a training and often receive some sort of handbook. That’s it. Employees are left without any idea of what their first 90 days will look like. In some cases, employees go home from that first day not even knowing what’s in store for day two. These programmes are set up by default. They’re easy, and they’ve often been in place for a long time.
I recommend a 90-day programme that is designed to give the employee control over their onboarding experience. When a person owns their career experience and expectations are clear from the beginning, they are more likely to stay. They will be set up for success in those first 90 days and beyond.
The Background
I like to
think of a new employee’s first 90 days in three phases.
Phase 1:
Shadowing
Phase one is often the first 30 days a new employee is at an organisation. They are integrating themselves into your organisation and absorbing your company culture, structure and processes. They’re learning what their own role entails and what’s expected of them.
Phase 2:
Reflecting Back
Phase two takes place during days 30 through 60. The new employee is taking the information they learned in the first 30 days to start developing and sharing their own ideas. However, they are doing this cautiously, looking for feedback and checking to see how their role fits in the organisation.
Phase 3:
Starting to Soar
In phase three, or days 60 through 90, the employee is taking more freedom and action on their own, but still checking in with some regularity. As they transition out of this phase, they have a base where they know who to go to and how the organisation operates, but they are taking control over their own career.
Building the Programme
As employers build an onboarding programme, I encourage them to think of it as a 360, where they introduce the employee to everything they will touch and be touched by at an organisation. To do this, employers need to ask two questions:
What
tools, technology and equipment does the new hire need to do their job?
Most organisations have some sort of onboarding programme to get a new employee acquainted with the tools they need, but they fall short on the second question:
What
processes and people does the new hire need to know to do their job?
We can break this question down into more pieces. Who is the new employee going to interact with? Who are they going to learn from? Will they have a mentor? Who will they go to for what kinds of information or resources? What is the operating philosophy at this organisation and in different departments? What are the fastest and most efficient ways to navigate this organisation?
Your onboarding programme should provide a new hire with the answers to both of these questions and empower them to take control of their role.
A Programme That Empowers
In many organisations, it’s unusual for companies to give a new hire control of their onboarding process, but I recommend creating an onboarding plan and handing it over. With that plan and the right guidance, employees will be engaged in their own career success from day one.
However,
that doesn’t mean they are on their own. There’s a lot of hand-to-hand or
shoulder-to-shoulder work that has to take place. If you have people working
virtually, video is important. You can gauge someone’s total emotional
responses. You can see if they’re learning and absorbing. Make sure you can see
each other more than once or twice in the first 90 days. It makes new virtual
employees feel like part of the team.
As a best
practice, I encourage one-on-one, short meetings with key team members. This
can be as short as 15 minutes. Managers should provide a new hire with a guide
to what their first 90 days will look like – who they are going to meet with,
where they are going to get the things they are going to need, and access to
people’s calendars. In these meetings, the new hire can learn team members’
responsibilities, processes and philosophies, and can also share information
about themselves. These conversations help facilitate better working
relationships.
Instead
of relying on traditional trainings for critical material, I encourage
different interactive teaching styles so the new hire can absorb and apply the
knowledge. This could be training on technology, best practices for outward-facing
roles, or company culture – things that are tempting to stick in a guidebook or
slide deck. However, because people often don’t retain information well from
passive, instructor-led training, challenge the status quo and explore better
ways to deliver training.
Transitioning Out
The
transition out of the formal onboarding period should also be included in the
onboarding plan you provide new employees. When you empower them to take
control of the process, it should be simple. In the last 30 days, the new
employee should already be starting to soar in their role, and check-ins will
be less frequent. However, for some strategic roles, the process may take
longer than 90 days.
What About New Promotions?
I also recommend using this same approach with people who are promoted from within. While most employers typically have at least a very basic onboarding programme, newly promoted employees are rarely given any onboarding support. You can use the same strategies, but I recommend – at the very minimum – an abbreviated version.
How to Measure Engagement & What to Do With the Numbers
We know
what engagement feels like. When you walk into a workplace with an engaged
workforce, you can feel the positive energy. When you walk into a workplace
with a disengaged workforce, you want to turn around and walk back out the
door.
Your
battle for engagement may start with the onboarding process, but it doesn’t end
there. Once, I took over a company for a founder and morale was really low. We
measured it, and it was a three out of 10. Within six months, we scored it
again and we were at a seven out of 10. When engagement is low, you need to
measure and then act.
Measuring Engagement Effectively
There are so many engagement tools out there, but I say: just keep it simple. Measure engagement consistently, do it on a frequency that makes sense for your organisation, share the results, and share what you’re willing to do about the results.
Most
companies have some form of employee survey, and tons will do these surveys
once a year like clockwork, but they don’t do anything with the results. If
you’re going to survey people and do nothing with it, don’t survey at all. You
actually do more harm to yourself and to your employees because you’re
demonstrating that their wants, needs and engagement don’t matter.
First,
ask for the right information. There are three areas I always recommend:
Do you know what is expected of you at work?
Do you have the tools that you need to do your work?
Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best at work?
From there, you can ask more specific questions related to your organisation or changes you are considering making, but only ask about areas where you are willing to make changes. You can ask more simple questions to make early wins. For instance, you could ask about upward mobility, career pathing or development – if you’re prepared to put something in place to address it.
Then,
publish your results. You don’t have to share every detail, but you do have to
publish the themes, and you do have to be authentic. If the results aren’t
great, people already know that. However, it gives you an opportunity to
demonstrate that you hear your employees and are willing to make changes to
address their concerns.
Building a Pulse Team
I also
like to create what is called a pulse team – the culture team for your company.
The team should be a cross-functional group of key stakeholders – not
executives. The group can pulse what’s going on, how people are feeling, if
they are supported, if they are happy and if they are productive.
The pulse team reports up and out to the executive team on a frequent basis – many do it quarterly, but some companies even have it monthly. This gives everybody a pulse on what’s happening on the ground, especially if an organisation is virtual or global. Then, leaders have a chance to understand when something isn’t going well and address it.
Organisational Influences
When you take time to follow these steps – building an onboarding program, measuring for engagement and responding, your people are more likely to become invested in your organisation. They can see their career path. They can see that your organisation cares. There’s depth and predictability. All of that increases engagement, which increases retention.
Recall
what I said at the start of this article: engagement and retention are just
different words for the same thing. To increase both, you need to start with
the first 90days, and you can’t stop.
About the Expert
Dana Look-Arimoto is a mentor, speaker and change agent. Dana has more than 20 years of experience in the talent ecosystem. She’s created Phoenix5 to evangelise a new mindset: Stop Settling™. She coaches executives and leaders of all kinds to become their all in every part of their life: work, home, community and giving back. Dana also recently released the book, “Stop Settling, Settle Smart: Rethinking Work-life Balance, Redesign Your Busy Life.”
