Solution: Talent & Market Insights

London College of Fashion: Shedding Light on Potential Barriers to Engagement

Posted on by mhill

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.

Getting More Vans on the Road for Sainsbury’s

Posted on by mhill

With online grocery shopping becoming increasingly popular, Sainsbury’s looked to PeopleScout to maximise the number of delivery slots that they could offer to customers. In a saturated market place, it wasn’t enough just to target existing drivers, we also needed to find those with transferable skills and encourage them to apply.

The resulting strategy enabled Sainsbury’s to go to market with a number of highly targeted and location-specific attraction campaigns.
The project was a huge success and exceeded targets.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

• MARKET INTELLIGENCE & SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
• PERSONA DEVELOPMENT
• PROCESS DESIGN
• CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT
• INTEGRATED MEDIA CAMPAIGN

SCOPE AND SCALE

Sainsbury’s business strategy is to respond to the changing needs of their customers, enabling them to shop whenever and wherever they want. Seven days a week, Sainsbury’s deliver fresh food, groceries, general merchandise and clothing from suppliers around the world, via 33 distribution centres to their store and online customers, meeting their requirements for flexible, convenient shopping.  Drivers are a vital part of this strategy, ensuring that Sainsbury’s can make deliveries to millions of customers at a time that suits them.

SITUATION

The Grocery Online department is a fast-growing business for Sainsbury’s. When we started this project, one in five employees worked in the department but with changing consumer habits, this was soon to become one in three. Despite being one of the company’s largest employee populations, it experienced high turnover in line with the challenging wider driver recruitment market. Some locations, for example inner-city areas and affluent suburban locations, found it particularly hard to recruit. The level of attrition made it hard for the department to grow, and driver availability became the limiting factor when it came to processing orders. It was vital for the business to hire more drivers immediately but also have a robust strategy for the future too.

THE SOLUTION

  • We used interviews and focus groups to understand the recruitment proposition for drivers at Sainsbury’s
  •  We used market mapping techniques to understand the labour force, reporting on salary benchmarks, competitor activity, and the socio-demographics of hard-to-fill locations.
  • By overlaying these two strands we developed distinct driver personas, each with its own messaging framework and channel strategy. We used these to develop highly targeted comms for each group, responding to their motivations and behaviours.
  • Secondary messaging included; flexible shifts where we knew there was a high student population and non-monetary benefits such as child-care vouchers in areas that had a high density of families.

After speaking to hiring managers, existing employees, and those working for competitor organisations, we found that the majority of people eligible to be a Sainsbury’s delivery driver, didn’t realise that they already had the skills to do the job. In fact, the role required skills like good customer service, time management, and self-motivation which we found to crossover with a number of different sectors.  This led us to design a creative route that focussed on the core messaging of “All you need is a licence” and “Where will your licence take you?”, educating the audience around the training and development new joiners received.

This sat in contrast to another creative route which we used in locations that had high competitor activity where we led with the messaging around the fact that Sainsbury’s offered guaranteed hours where other organisations did not. Before the campaign, Sainsbury’s were engaging with candidates across multiple channels with different communications, which meant they ended up talking to the same audience in different ways, about different things.

By taking this insight-driven segmented approach, Sainsbury’s could instead talk confidently about the things that mattered  to candidates, using the channels that they were most likely to respond to.

RESULTS

The campaign was so successful that the majority of roles were filled within the first 5 weeks of the 12-week campaign, meaning that Sainsbury’s could cut back on their marketing spend. More impressively, seven locations needed to pause their recruitment due to high application numbers including two of the locations that were identified as ‘hard to fill’ areas.

“ The success of the campaign so far has been unprecedented and as such after 5 weeks we are already in a place where most of our stores in the trial have filled all driver hours required. In total, we have received over 2,000 applications. 131 offers have been extended, 106 of which have been accepted so far.”

Talking Talent Leadership Profile: Kathryn Minshew

Posted on by nfuqua

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 The Wall 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.

Creating a Compelling Employment Offer

Posted on by edyson

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.

employment offer letter

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.

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis – October 2019

Posted on by skatz

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%.

UK Jobs Report October 2019

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.

What’s Next in Talent Acquisition

Posted on by skatz

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

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

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

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

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

Current State & Challenges

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

High Demand for Skills

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

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

Low Supply of Candidates

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

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

Quality of Hires

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

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

Strengthening Employer Branding

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

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

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

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

Digital Transformation

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

Reactive vs. Proactive Recruiting Strategy

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

Reactive

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

Proactive

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

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

Global Aspect

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

What’s Next for Your Talent Solution?

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

About the Expert

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

Fife Council: Bringing Deeper Understanding to Fill Pivotal Role

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Head of Children, Families and Criminal Justice

Filling this socially and strategically important leadership role challenged our research capabilities. The role is pivotal in shaping the future of children and families· services in Fife – an area where 1 in 4 children are living in poverty. Understanding and communicating the role’s interesting remit, combined with the criminal justice element, proved essential to successfully filling the role.

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • An ‘ideal’ person brief
  • Extensive deep search tactics
  • Non-traditional sources

SCOPE & SCALE

Fife Council brought this role to us a few months before the current incumbent was due to retire. We were tasked with identifying individuals with a strong background in leading services within children and families social care and already on the social work register in England or Scotland, or able to register. The role covered a wide remit, including Criminal Justice, and had also been merged with the Chief Social Work Officer role. We felt that this was a good selling point as it added interest to those who were looking to increase their responsibilities.

SITUATION

The role could not be filled internally, and it was a challenging location to recruit for, making search a much more viable option than pure media. Even with sourcing, 35% of individuals who engaged with us were not interested because of the location and a further 30% were not interested due to timings.

SOLUTION

RESEARCH

Following preliminary research, a briefing with the Executive Director of Education and Children’s Services provided further context and insight into children and family services in Fife. A version of the Directorate Improvement Plan was also shared with us to bring the role and its challenges to life. It was agreed that the ideal candidate would be working at
Head of Service level in a smaller Scottish Local Authority.

STRATEGY

We agreed on a project plan during the briefing. Timebound goals including benchmarking and work in progress updates were to be sent. Our search encompassed telephone, Linked In, referrals, CV databases and deep web searching.

OUTCOME

By using an intensive search for council documentation, and examining historical freedom of information requests, we were able to identify names of individuals who were otherwise absent from traditional sources – including their own council website.

RESULTS

Fife Council appointed an Acting Head of Service from a smaller Scottish local authority- as per their “ideal person” brief. In the candidate’s own words, she was delighted
to be offered the role and excited to be joining Fife Council. She also thanked us for contacting her as she was not looking for a new role and would have over looked this opportunity.

I was impressed with the extent of the knowledge of what Fife was looking for and the ability from our conversations to absolutely understand what type of person we wished to recruit. The process most definitely found us candidates who would not have otherwise applied and although there was still a small number of applicants we were able to appoint a suitable candidate to the post. This was my first time in using this service and would consider it for future senior appointments.

The AA: Rigorous Market Mapping for Contact Centre Roles

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CHALLENGE

The AA had identified an opportunity to significantly expand the capacity of a Midlands contact centre. At the same time, they wanted to shift focus away from customer service to more sales-oriented roles. But first, they wanted to understand if the location and available talent could support the proposal. If the AA was going to commit to the expansion they needed to be confident that the investment would pay off. So they teamed up with PeopleScout to find answers.

APPROACH

The view at PeopleScout was that the assessment could only be undertaken with robust and transparent evidence of the local employment market.

Using a mixture of online research and big data tools, we sourced detailed, comprehensive data, covering market capability, salary, talent distribution and competitor analysis including site size and skill capability.

‘The client was able to demonstrate effective manpower planning – winning the support of key stakeholders.’

RESULTS

Armed with the in-depth insight into local labour and hiring potential that we provided, the client was able to demonstrate effective manpower planning – winning the support of key stakeholders.

How to Leverage Workforce Analytics and HR Data in Workforce Planning

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According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 15 percent of respondents said they use “predictive analytics based on HR data and data from other sources within or outside the organisation,” while 48 percent predicted they would be doing so in two years.

While organisations are increasingly incorporating data into the HR mix, there are still areas for improvement and to further adopt workforce analytics. Below, we outline some of the best practices for building an analytics-oriented workforce planning programme along with some of the analytics processes essential for success.

Building an Analytics-Oriented HR Data Team

Organisations need to solicit input from a variety of stakeholders like talent acquisition programme managers, human resource leaders, data specialists, budget and finance leaders and IT specialists to create a multidisciplinary team. When building your team, considering the following:

  • Does your organisation have an individual with experience and expertise in data analysis with the leadership skills to manage a workforce analytics team?
  • Does the team you have assembled include analysts with data management, statistics and data visualisation skills?
  • Do you have your IT department’s support to choose the right tools to integrate HR data with other data sources in the organisation?
  • Can your team confidently present data-oriented solutions to senior leadership even if the solutions are counter to past workforce plans?

Collecting the Right Data

Collecting essential data points is a key step in a data-driven HR programme. The data needed for analysis may come from multiple divisions within an organisation. Organisations need to communicate the importance of sharing data with leaders organisation-wide. Evaluating current internal HR data can help organisations identify future needs and draft a workforce strategy around them. Below is a list of data needed for workforce analytics.

Internal HR data:

  • What are the demographics of the current workforce? (Gender, ethnicity, disabilities, full/part-time, etc.)
  • How many people work in each position?
  • Where are positions located?
  • What is the employee to supervisor ratio?
  • What are the pay rates of current employees?
  • What is the likelihood of attrition through retirement?
  • What recruitment activities have been completed in the last two to three years?
  • What recruitment activities and resources were used?
  • How many qualified applicants were found?
  • Where did the most qualified applicants come from?
  • What do new employees think of your recruitment practices?
  • How many employees are needed to fill each position?
  • What knowledge, skills, competencies and abilities are needed to perform anticipated job functions?
  • What processes could be done more efficiently or effectively?
  • What are the organisation’s strategic objectives?
  • What are the organisation’s diversity objectives?

External Data Sources

Many organisations have inward-focused approach to workforce analytics and HR data and do not take into account what is going on outside the organisation. The labour market is rapidly changing. Labour market data can inform organisations about talent supply in different locations and provide critical market intelligence on issues like competitiveness and salary range.

Data and job projection reports from the U.S. Department of Labour’s Bureau of Labour Statistics, for example, can lead to a better understanding of the supply and demand for essential occupations and the competitiveness of the job market.

Putting HR Data in Action  

Organisations should take the insights gained through workforce analytics initiatives and develop a workforce plan to fill the gaps between current and future hiring needs. Some strategies and considerations when drafting a data-oriented workforce plan include:

  • Plan for employees to receive skills training when needed to prepare for changing roles within the company.
  • Hire and retain employees with skills that are critical to the success of the business.
  • Create programmes focused on employee retention.
  • Increase efficiencies in recruitment and hiring processes by proactively identifying vacancies through succession planning and forecasting future business requirements.
  • Identify training needs, classification and compensation issues, organisational or position changes that may affect employee retention.
  • Create workplace diversity strategies to reach organisational diversity goals.

Managing a Workforce Analytics Programme and HR Data

Workforce analytics is a continuous process that is highly susceptible to changes in the economy and labour market. To stay on top of new developments, organisations need to ensure their workforce analytics process is managed properly. Below, we share advice on how to best manage a workforce analytics programme.

Prioritise Business Goals

For workforce analytics to drive real value, it has to be aligned with an organisation’s business goals. Everyone contributing to workforce analytics process needs to be briefed on the overarching business strategies, so they can understand how their analysis contributes.

Common workforce goals include:

  • Reduce turnover on a particular team or organisation-wide
  • Retain high-performing individuals
  • Improve staffing and recruiting efficiency
  • Lower the cost of operations
  • Ensure the organisation has talent aligned to expansion plans or planned new product offerings

Stakeholder Management

Because workforce analytics involve stakeholders from HR, finance, IT and others within an organisation, clear and open communication should be emphasised early in the process. This will help stakeholders and their teams understand expectations up front and establish relationships between teams for success.

Data Quality

At the start of a workforce analytics initiative, it makes sense for organisations to conduct basic data hygiene practices like assessing the quality of data, gauging the need for data clean-up and documenting data-gathering and reporting processes.

Data Governance

Because employee data is personal, privacy rules must be respected. Proper data governance should be the responsibility of everyone involved in workforce analytics. However, someone should be assigned ownership to ensure that data and HR teams are following the processes established for data security.

Flexibility

Economic and business climates are not static; even the best workforce analytics programme may miss emerging talent shortages or inadequately take certain contingencies into account. To make sure workforce analytics programme reflect the latest internal and external developments, organisations should regularly re-calibrate and revise assumptions made from previous HR data analysis.

RPO Providers Can Assist Organisations with Workforce Planning, HR Data and Analytics

There is no one-size-fits-all workforce planning programme, even for global organisations that have similar needs. What’s right for one organisation may not be what another organisation needs.

However, workforce planning does not have to be mysterious or complex. Organisations more than likely have a lot of the data they need, it is just a matter of creating the right management and reporting practices to interpret the data in meaningful ways.

The right RPO partner can help organisations make sense of their workforce analytics with their experience and deep understanding of labour market data and trends. An RPO partner can also work with an organisation to create methodologies adapted to suit their needs. Click here to learn more about PeopleScout’s RPO solutions.

Workforce Planning: Leveraging Workforce Analytics for Deeper Insights

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To stay competitive in the modern and complex business landscape, organisations need to leverage technology to make more strategic decisions. Many are using big data and analytics to achieve these aims. In fact, 80 percent of executives say their big data investments have been successful, and almost half say their organisations can measure the benefits from their projects.

What’s more, according to Harvard Business Review, organisations that excel in data-driven decision-making are more productive and more profitable than their competitors on average.

Workforce analytics combines statistical analysis and predictive modeling to help organisations make fact-based talent acquisition and management decisions. In this post, we outline how to leverage analytics as part of the workforce planning process.

What is Workforce Planning and What Role do Analytics Play in the Process?

Traditionally, workforce planning has been a reactive way of assessing workforce needs. Organisations typically make annual talent forecasts for how many hires are needed in a role, and those estimates happen before the end of a fiscal year as part of the budget-planning process. This approach to workforce planning lacks the flexibility needed to remain agile and competitive in an evolving and dynamic labour market.

Modern, data-driven workforce planning focuses on the future by assessing current hiring needs and modeling how those needs will evolve. Workforce analytics is the cornerstone of modern workforce planning.

Workforce analytics gathers and analyses data to better inform decisions made in of the process of workforce planning, resulting in the formation of a strategic plan to address workforce challenges. This data-focused approach can assist organisations to match talent forecasts with analysis of the talent pool to create a realistic view of the labour market.

When workforce planning is combined with workforce analytics, organisations are better able to predict future leaders within the organisation, craft succession plans for critical positions and recruit the right talent.

Types of Workforce Analytics

Data analytics has become common across many business functions, from logistics to finance. As organisations look to overcome the skills gap, full-employment and record retirement, they need to develop a systematic process for identifying workforce needs, develop strategies to meet those requirements and implementing them effectively. Below we list three data analytics techniques essential to workforce planning that can help organisations meet changing demands now and in the future.

Predictive Analytics 

Predictive analytics leverages historical data to create predictive models that anticipate what is likely to happen in areas such as employee turnover, skills shortages and shifts in the labour market. By incorporating predictive analytics into workforce planning, techniques such as regression analysis, forecasting, multivariate statistics and pattern matching enable an organisation’s leadership to understand likely talent outcomes and needs of the future.

Diagnostic Analytics

Diagnostic analytics helps contextualise past performance by evaluating performance-based metrics in an attempt to discover the reasons behind past workforce successes or failures. Diagnostic analytics is essential in workforce planning because it can provide organisations with a clearer picture of key workforce performance metrics and trends. The data can then be leveraged to identify unseen workforce performance issues. Armed with insights gleaned from diagnostic analytics organisations can better optimise their workforce plan to align with performance goals.

Prescriptive Analytics 

Similar to predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics uses the same sets of historical workforce data to anticipate the likelihood of specific results or events. What makes prescriptive analytics different is that the data is then leveraged to plan the best next actions based on those predictions. Prescriptive analytics is extremely valuable in workforce planning because it uses available data to recommend measures that could increase the likelihood of desired business and staffing outcomes occurring.

These techniques can provide organisations with concrete and actionable insights on workforce data and help drive better talent strategies. Talent technology solutions such as PeopleScout’s propriety technology, Affinixtm, can help organisations better leverage these techniques and deliver additional value to workforce planning.

Benefits of Workforce Analytics

While the most obvious benefits of workforce analytics are related to time savings, dollars saved and earned, percentage changes, and proof of ROI, there are less tangible benefits of workforce analytics that HR leaders often discover after they have started with their solution. These are benefits related to organisational alignment, team cohesion and company culture. While these benefits are more difficult to measure in concrete terms, they are definitely connected to business outcomes. In the following section, we outline two ways workforce analytics can improve and organisations talent management and recruiting programmes.

Improving Retention and Employee Performance

Workforce analytics can help organisations identify top performers, foster successful employee retention and talent recruitment programmes and ensure the proper workforce is in place to accomplish business goals and objectives.

Furthermore, an employee’s performance data could be used by hiring managers to identify what motivates an organisation’s top talents. This data not only provides more insights about the employees but also shape the strategies to boost the employee morale, retention and engagement.

Improved Hiring Decision With

Workforce analytics make predictive analysis easier and helps HR to make a better choice based on historical data. A great HR analytics tool can make the difference by making the HR easily derive the best candidate to hire from the historical data.

For example, if an organisation hired 20 candidates and 10 out of them are from a particular background failed at it, organisations can avoid hiring candidates from a similar background. Moreover, workforce analytics also allows recruiters to learn more about candidates through an online resume database, applications, social media profiles to learn which traits and attributes are associated with top performers in a certain role.

Conclusion

Today, HR leaders make use of analytics solutions to realise deeper insight into the workforce in order to fuel evidence-based decisions and improve business outcomes. An experienced RPO partner with a consultative approach can help organisations better understand their workforce and tailor talent acquisition strategies to match the client’s goals and objectives and which metrics can best determine the desired impact.