Solution: Recruitment Process Outsourcing

Co-Op: How We Significantly Reduced Time-To-Hire for a Leading UK Insurer

Posted on by cspivack
Co-Op: How We Significantly Reduced Time-To-Hire for a Leading UK Insurer

Co-Op: How We Significantly Reduced Time-To-Hire for a Leading UK Insurer

Co-op Insurance came to PeopleScout for a new assessment center and streamlined recruitment process, resulting in a reduced time-to-hire and quality new talent.

Reduction in Time-to-Hire
Reduction in Time-to-Hire
73 % Assessment Center Pass Rate

up from 41%

Positive Candidate Feedback
Positive Candidate Feedback

Employing 70,000 people, the Co-op is known across the UK as a leader in socially conscious, community-led business. As well as being the country’s fifth largest food retailer, it is also a major general insurer. Co-op Insurance came to PeopleScout with a problem. They were having big issues recruiting the voices of the organisation: high-quality, productive, right-fit Claims Advisors who would stay. Also, the time-to-hire was very slow and a drag on the time of the resourcing team. Their recruitment process needed a complete overhaul.

SITUATION

The process we were presented started with a manual-intensive résumé screen. Because of the volumes that were coming through, the Co-op resourcing team was conducting daily résumé screens. This ate up immense amounts of time and resulted in the team screening candidates based on experience. That meant they were inconsistent in the way they were screening candidates (about 70% passed the screen). Those who passed this stage then had a qualifying call. This was not a formal telephone interview, but an introductory call to check the experience on their résumé, discuss any gaps and make sure they were eligible to work in the UK (85–95% passed this stage). Finally there was a face-to-face assessment centre—consisting of a computer-based assessment and interview. Following this, was the offer and induction.

SOLUTION

The right solution meant two considerations: what to assess and how.

  1. WHAT – We conducted a period of job analysis to understand what good looked like in the role.
  2. HOW – We needed to identify a solution which would support progressing candidates at speed through the process, providing a realistic job preview and automatically screening candidates so there was less manual intervention by the resourcing team.

We suggested removing the résumé screening step which meant there was less reliance on experience only. This allowed us to assess the whole person, progressing candidates who had no experience but great potential. We developed an online tool that incorporated a situational judgement test which tested for attention to detail and a video interview. Candidates completed this in one sitting, further reducing the time-to-hire. We also supported in the design of an assessment center.

RESULTS

The Co-op’s resourcing team was delighted with the new process. It’s easy to use and gives them back invaluable time to work on other projects. The assessment center significantly reduced time-to-hire, owing to the speed and efficiency of the new process. The pass rate at the assessment center stage is 73%—a big increase on the previous rate of 41%. This means that a much higher proportion of the best-fit candidates are going further in the process. In addition, new hires have been identified by the business as individuals who are motivated to succeed, with a propensity for learning and a growth mindset. Candidate feedback has been very positive, with many saying it gave them a proper understanding of the role.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Co-op Insurance
  • INDUSTRY: Financial Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT CO-OP: Co-op Insurance is part of Co-op Group, one of the world’s largest consumer co-operatives, owned by millions of members. As a leading UK insurer, the organization offers coverage for business, home, life, motor, travel and pets.
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Disrespect & Demand: Why Candidates Abandon Recruitment Processes

Posted on by akessler

By Joe Mongon, Head of Recruitment Delivery, EMEA

Talent shortages and the effects of The Great Resignation are now well-established narratives in the recruitment space. Yet, organisations are still putting up barriers between great opportunities and great talent. New research shows that candidate abandonment rates are over 65% due to a poor candidate experience. Candidates are dropping out of every stage of the recruitment process, not just the application process.

Often this results in “ghosting”—when the candidate drops off with no communication to the recruiter or hiring manager—with 28% of job seekers admitting they’ve done it. But, it’s a two way street—77% of candidates say that employers have done the ghosting.

Other barriers to candidate engagement that are contributing to abandonment include:

  • Overly complex or repetitive applications
  • Screenings, tests, or assessments take too long or require unreasonable amounts of time and effort to complete
  • Recruiters or hiring managers schedule interviews but never show up (ghosting), or reschedule several times, or are disruptive during the interviews themselves
  • Job offers take weeks or months to materialise
  • Lengthy and arduous onboarding practices (which get worse in heavily regulated industries)

Tips to Reduce Candidate Abandonment

Evaluating your candidate experience, particularly the number of steps and how much time each takes to complete, is imperative. Recruiters should work with hiring managers to prepare them for final stage interviews to ensure that experience is positive for candidates.

Think about any steps that can be eliminated. In times past, we’ve advocated strongly for assessments and even design them through our award-winning Assessment Services team through our Talent Advisory offerings. But, sometimes eliminating or scaling back assessment steps can actually help deliver more qualified candidates at scale and speed. We’ve seen this work particularly well in recent entry-level hiring projects, like customer service roles.

RPO Delivers an Excellent Candidate Experience

Advocating for changes like this can cause some discomfort – but it can also get results. This is an area in which an RPO partner can make a big difference. We can bring the agility and insight needed to problem solve in this candidate-led market. 

Infographic of how to hire in a candidate-led market. Only 12% of companies use candidate feedback to improve the candidate experience. Only 30% of organisations survey new joiners to assess their experience. 8 out of 10 organisations don't have time or resources to improve the candidate experience 54% of organisations surveyed have never benchmarked their candidate experience Only 5% of candidates rate their experience as excellent

Any organisation recruiting right now must meet candidates where they are. The best solution is the one that engages and retains qualified candidates at every stage of the process. Shorter applications, streamlined assessments, commitment to best practice interviewing, clear guidance and additional support in onboarding should all be a priority for your business. Fo

Finding the Right RPO Provider for Your Healthcare Staffing Needs

Posted on by epadmin

Fuelled by an aging population and the growth of chronic conditions, jobs in healthcare are expected to grow 13% by 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. In fact, nurse practitioners are predicted to grow by 46%. So, finding the right recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider is critical for healthcare organizations looking to hire top healthcare talent. Whether a healthcare organization is looking to improve its recruiting processes, improve healthcare staff retention or enhance its employer brand, developing a strong relationship with a trusted RPO provider begins with the selection process. In this post, we review the best practices when it comes to selecting the right RPO provider for your healthcare staffing needs.

What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing for Healthcare?

To understand RPO solutions, it’s important to understand what they are not. RPO providers are not healthcare staffing companies or head-hunters. Rather, RPO providers implement solutions designed to streamline and improve the hiring process, and as a result, fulfill your healthcare hiring needs.

👉 What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing?

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CONQUERING TOP CHALLENGES IN HEALTHCARE TALENT ACQUISITION

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From employer branding to employee engagement, hiring, onboarding and much more, a well-executed RPO program can make a huge impact on a healthcare organization. RPO solutions are not one-size-fits-all plans. Each RPO solution must be tailored to meet an individual company’s needs and take industry specific concerns into consideration.

Healthcare Staffing and RPO: Getting Started

Before contacting an RPO provider, a healthcare organization must first assess both its hiring and business needs. The following is a list of common healthcare staffing needs fulfilled by RPO solutions:

  • Recruit a small number of employees for niche positions, like NICU nurses.
  • Provide scalable engagements to fill a large number of open positions quickly with high-quality candidates.
  • Help healthcare organizations increase employee retention and improve employee turnover rate.
  • Help healthcare organizations staff positions that require specific technical experience or certifications.
  • Provide transparency by tracking metrics and milestones outlined in SLAs.

Once you have considered your own needs, you need to research to see what your prospective RPO partner brings to the table. When consulting with a prospective RPO provider ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does the prospective RPO have expertise in fulfilling the specific staffing needs of healthcare organizations?
  • Do they have multiple healthcare organizations as current clients?
  • Can they provide scalability with full-cycle, partial-cycle or modular recruiting solutions?
  • Where do they source healthcare professionals to build their talent pipeline?

How Does an RPO Provider Support Healthcare Staffing?

If you are looking to streamline your healthcare organization’s talent acquisition processes and procedures as a means to become more cost-effective, then engaging an RPO provider can help you reduce spend with healthcare employment agencies, yield lower turnover and create a higher quality pipeline of candidates for your open positions. The work of a good RPO provider will save your organization money throughout the new employee’s tenure at your organization, beyond when they’re hired.

RPO Providers Can Secure Specialized Healthcare Talent

The right healthcare RPO provider understands the unique challenges presented by the healthcare industry and has experience sourcing quality candidates for niche/technical healthcare positions.

RPO providers with expertise in the healthcare industry will quickly target and assess both passive and active candidates for hard-to-fill positions rather than placing an ad and waiting for job seekers to answer it. By understanding your healthcare hiring needs, an RPO provider reduces the need for training internal personnel or hiring those with healthcare-specific experience.

RPO Providers Can Provide Scalable Solutions to Accommodate Growth

As the U.S. population ages, the need for healthcare services is on the rise. As a result, many healthcare organizations are growing rapidly to meet the demand. If your organization is experiencing growth, an experienced RPO partner can source the right talent quickly to make sure your organization is staffed adequately to meet growth demands.

RPO providers can handle background checks, drug screens and other onboarding tasks as needed. They will make sure that all the applicants presented to you for interviews have the specific skills required for your open positions.

RPO Providers Can Improve Your Employer Brand to Attract Better Talent

Whether your healthcare organization is an established medical provider or a new player in the industry, building strong employer brand appeal can attract the best talent to your job postings. An RPO provider can help build your brand and your reputation as a good place to work. An RPO engagement can provide solutions to help you maintain healthy relationships with both prospective candidates—including ones that are not hired for open positions—former and current employees, which improves your employer brand in the healthcare industry.

Which RPO Provider is Right for Your Healthcare Staffing Needs?

Choosing the right RPO partner for your healthcare staffing needs is a carefully thought out process with many factors to take into consideration. You are not only selecting a company to help you with your recruiting processes, but you are also choosing a partner that will help you improve multiple business functions for your organization. Just like when choosing other products or services, you need to identify your specific business needs and what you want an RPO provider to handle or assist you with. This primarily means identifying your weaknesses/pain points and your organizational objectives, such as staffing cost reduction, organization expansion or reconfiguring your recruiting structure.

The Right RPO Provider Values Accountability

When hiring for healthcare, accountability is one of the most important factors in the relationship between an organization and an RPO provider. When you select the right healthcare RPO provider, they will deliver a high level of transparency and will encourage you to hold them accountable for how well the hires they make work out for your organization. A good RPO provider will also want to be judged on how quickly they can fill open positions and on how cost-efficient their service is for you.

The Right RPO Provider Understands Healthcare Staffing

The right RPO provider knows healthcare staffing top to bottom. They have strong connections with healthcare professional organizations, they understand the technology used to source top healthcare talent, they know how to screen candidates effectively and they understand the compliance requirements for each healthcare position.

An RPO provider who is knowledgeable about healthcare hiring can easily fill any position in your organization and will help you find the best candidate both in terms of cultural fit and fitness for the position.

They Understand Your Needs

Each healthcare organization is unique, so a cookie-cutter approach to your healthcare staffing needs may not work to your advantage. The right RPO provider will take the time to form an in-depth understanding of your staffing needs and preferences, and will work to tailor a seamless RPO plan for you.

No matter how many positions you need to fill, the right RPO provider will take that into consideration and make sure your new 10 or 1,000 employees all hit the ground running and seamlessly integrate into your organization.

They Employ Best-Fit Technology and AI-Powered Sourcing Methods

In a tight healthcare labor market, sourcing and attracting the best talent can be difficult. The right RPO provider understands this, and will employ cutting-edge recruiting technology and sourcing methods to meet a client’s healthcare staffing needs.

Healthcare recruiting technology that utilizes AI and machine learning to source and screen candidates give healthcare organizations a distinct advantage in finding the right candidates quickly. What’s more, recruiting technology can reduce the cost-per-hire and streamline the often disjointed healthcare staffing process by merging multiple recruiting functions into one easy-to-use interface.

They Understand Your Talent Market

Whether your healthcare organization has one location or multiple locations across many regions, the right RPO provider understands the laws, regulations, customs and structures in your regions of operation. Your RPO provider should possess the know-how and have experience in sourcing candidates in your talent market(s) to make sure you hire the best talent available. The right RPO provider will take as little time and money as possible sourcing your new workforce, and get them hired as quickly as possible.

Healthcare staffing can be complicated, that’s why partnering with the right RPO provider is crucial for success. Once you have found the right RPO provider for your staffing needs, it can take time to build a strong relationship. Once the relationship is established, you will see all of the benefits the right RPO provider can bring to the table, and you will see how much easier the healthcare staffing process can be.

Helping a Healthcare Company Adjust Their Recruitment Program Following a New COVID-19 Vaccine Policy

Posted on by akessler

After administering more than 30 million vaccines across the U.S., a healthcare company announced a company-wide vaccination policy requiring employees in clinical and corporate positions to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October 2021. The move was driven by health and safety concerns for employees, patients and customers, but the client knew it wouldn’t come to fruition without impact to their workforce.

Flexing our Process for the New Policy

Because the new policy stipulated that all new hires in impacted roles be vaccinated, the PeopleScout client engaged with us prior to the announcement to discuss their plans and get ahead of any impact to recruitment efforts. As their long-term RPO partner, we were uniquely positioned to help the healthcare company create a multi-faceted plan to communicate the vaccine mandate to candidates and adjust recruitment activities to ensure new hires are in compliance with the mandate.

Leveraging copy and communications from the company’s HR and legal teams, we updated all relevant job descriptions with a section on the vaccine mandate and deadlines. To provide an additional screening step, we added vaccine status questions to application forms for the relevant positions. If candidates indicated that they were not vaccinated or not willing to be vaccinated, they were automatically disqualified in most states.

Taking a Hands-on Approach to Reduce Candidate Drop Off

To mitigate the impact on the dropout rate at the top of the funnel, we followed up with every candidate who said “no” to ensure they had understood the questions and hadn’t answered in error. As a result of this extra effort, several candidates were requalified and put back into the running for employment with the healthcare company. Disposition codes were also used to indicate when candidates left the funnel due reasons related to the vaccine requirements. This helped the company gather data on how the policy was impacting recruitment outcomes.

Supporting the Accommodation Process

COVID-19 vaccine mandate information was added to the candidate communication sequence in the organization’s CRM, directing them to a website complete with FAQs. Throughout the screening and interview process, the PeopleScout team also fielded questions from candidates. Common queries were about how to apply for a reasonable accommodation for those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical or religious reasons. While the internal legal team handled the review of all accommodation applications, the PeopleScout team did field questions about the accommodation process, freeing up the organization’s internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives while boosting the candidate experience.

For successful candidates, we ensured all offer letters contained language about the vaccination requirement and followed up with candidates to address any final questions.  

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Global RPO: Hiring Solutions for Hard to Fill Jobs

Posted on by akessler
Global RPO: Hiring Engineers with Niche Skills for a Global Manufacturer in LATAM and Europe

Global RPO: Hiring Engineers with Niche Skills for a Global Manufacturer in LATAM and Europe

A multinational automotive components manufacturer at the forefront of electric driving technology engaged PeopleScout for a full-cycle, multi-country Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solution. To continue supplying automotive technology for millions of the world’s cars, they needed to source the next generation of engineering talent across 54 locations in 21 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

100 % New Hires Completed Ahead of Schedule
80 % Candidate Submissions Invited to Interview
1300 Applications Received for 150 Positions
21 Countries | <br> 5 Languages |<br> 3 Continents
21 Countries |
5 Languages |
3 Continents

Scope & Scale

A global automotive parts manufacturer partnered with PeopleScout to initially source 150 hires across locations in Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany and India as well as facilities in Latin America. They needed a global RPO provider who could handle sourcing for niche engineering roles in English, Polish, Spanish, Italian and Hungarian languages.

Challenge

As the client expanded manufacturing into new regions to support their global growth agenda, they turned to PeopleScout to partner with their in-house talent acquisition teams to drive their transformational change projects.

Hiring in Latin America had stagnated as the region became the go-to region for automotive manufacturing. With major car brands moving more of their operations into the region, competition for talent became more and more steep.

Meanwhile in Europe, a shortage of niche engineering skills was impacting operations in Poland. The talent war between organizations in the area hiring for similar roles was driving up salary expectations, but the manufacturer lacked the labor market data to make informed decisions to adjust their strategy.

Solution

Analyzing Labor Markets on Two Continents

Our Client Delivery team started by undertaking labor market and workforce analytics in each region. We worked with the client’s HR and operational teams to support their workforce strategy through a competitive analysis which led to recommendations on salary bands for each role and level of experience. For roles in Poland, we helped them explore the possibility of relocating new hires in order to widen their talent pool to other parts of the country where there was more access to experienced engineering professionals.

“PeopleScout has done a great job to support the project, showing high commitment and flexibility in this difficult and changing environment. We’ve had great collaboration together.”

Senior Director of Engineering

Sourcing Passive Candidates with Personalized Videos

Meanwhile, our multilingual teams in Bristol and Krakow began sourcing experienced Product Application Engineers in Latin America and across multiple European locations, as well as Design & Test Engineers in Poland.

Not satisfied with one outreach, we employed a different approach with candidates who were unresponsive after the first communication. Our recruiters created and sent personalized videos introducing themselves and the opportunity to the candidate. This personal touch drove higher engagement and interest from talent who hadn’t engaged initially.

Over 80% of applicants were identified via passive sourcing, with the remaining candidates coming from ongoing advertising campaigns across job boards and social media.

Leveraging Social Media to Boost Employer Brand Awareness

Through our Social Network Awareness Package (SNAP) we identified the best social channels to reach the manufacturer’s audience and created tailored posts, including imagery and headlines. We used this social media content to boost awareness of the client’s employer brand among relevant groups and individuals based on their locations, professional details and interests. Throughout each campaign, we provided a reporting dashboard and analyzed engagement which helped shape recruitment marketing activity going forward.

Testing Technical Skills with a Custom Assessment Center

These highly specialized engineers, regardless of region, needed to have a good command of English as well as technical aptitude. We assessed for both by designing and executing a technical testing program. Our assessors administered these exams virtually, freeing up hiring managers to focus on running their operations.

Once offers were made, our team continued to keep in contact with successful candidates during their notice periods and onboarding. We notified the client’s HR team of any potential concerns of dropouts, working together to mitigate risks.

Results

In just 10 months, we filled 100% of the manufacturer’s niche engineering headcount, including all openings in Poland—two months ahead of schedule. Our team reviewed over 1,300 applications and screened over 250 candidates, supporting hiring managers with initial phone screens, technical assessments and post-offer communications.

The hiring managers were thrilled with the quality of the candidates they saw, with over 80% of candidates put forward by our team being invited to interview.

Following this success, we expanded our engagement with the client to their India operation, taking over from local third-party agencies. This Recruiter on-Demand solution will support volume hiring challenges and drive cost savings.

“PeopleScout did really great work across hard-to-fill disciplines. We had a fantastic sense of partnership across the whole project.”

Global Head of Talent Acquisition

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Global automotive manufacturer
  • INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ANNUAL HIRES: 150+
  • LOCATIONS: 21 countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia
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Supporting Service Members with Career Counseling for a Major Retail Chain

Posted on by jpatel
Supporting Service Members with Career Counseling for a Major Retail Chain

Supporting Service Members with Career Counseling for a Major Retail Chain

A major multinational retail chain partnered with PeopleScout to support its counseling program for transitioning members of the military, veterans, military spouses, and National Guard and Reserves who are looking to take the next step in their career.

Dedicated career coaches for all program participants

Customizable career paths for participants 

Virtual intake meetings and ongoing calls

Situation

This retailer has partnered with PeopleScout since 2013 to support its veteran hiring initiatives. In 2013 when the program launched, veteran unemployment was higher than civilian unemployment. PeopleScout supported the client with direct placement, helping veterans honorably discharged on or after Memorial Day 2013 to find jobs at the retailer. The spouse component was added in 2018.

In 2019, while the veteran unemployment rate had dropped to just under 3%, the retailer was aware of the challenges that military service members were still facing when transitioning to civilian employment. The client wanted to reinvent the program to put an emphasis on career coaching and counseling for all service members to help them apply their leadership skills and teamwork experience to new careers.

Solution

The new program, which officially launched in May 2021, broadens the umbrella of the program to include veterans of any era and actively serving members of all branches of the military, military spouses, and National Guard and Reserves as well. It connects program participants to a plethora of resources from various organizations that have been vetted by the client.

When a new member registers for the program, PeopleScout assigns them a coach who helps facilitate the transition into civilian work. The PeopleScout coach schedules a virtual coaching session with the participant to perform an initial intake. This intake assesses skills, helps identify goals and determines the time commitment they can make to the program.

From there, participants confirm three paths: employment, education, or entrepreneurship.

EMPLOYMENT

PeopleScout career counselors help participants assess their strengths, build their resume and translate their military experience in a way that it applies to the civilian workplace. They also help service members and spouses find opportunities that match their career goals—whether that means employment with the retail client or another organization.

EDUCATION

PeopleScout coaches help participants get the educational foundation they need to reach their overall career goals.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

PeopleScout helps connect participants with the right resources to start their own businesses.

This emphasis on career counseling allows the participant to drive the program at their own pace and use their coach as much or as little as they like. Service members and spouses can take what they want from the program as they build their future.

Results

  • 3,500+ registrants since program launch

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Multinational retailer
  • INDUSTRY: Retail
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT THE RETAILER: This U.S.-based retailer operates in 24 countries with 2.3 million employees. The organization has a rich history of supporting and hiring veterans and their spouses.
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Progress in Action: Moving Toward A Globally Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

Posted on by edyson

Progress in Action: Moving Toward A Globally Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

Improving organizational diversity is a honorable pursuit for employers across all industries and should be a consistent point of focus for forward-thinking talent teams. Building productive teams from a pool of qualified job seekers irrespective of nationality, gender-identity, ethnicity, religious background and sexual orientation is essential to creating a workplace that reflects the communities that it serves.

So, how can you help your organization better connect with, source, engage and recruit a more diverse and inclusive workforce? In this ebook, we examine how your organization can update your DE&I program with modern diversity strategies.

In this ebook you will learn:

  • How to accurately measure your DE&I program’s progress and goals
  • How to source candidates from underrepresented groups
  • Real-world DE&I success stories and more

Amazon: Sourcing Hundreds of Candidates Across Six Countries in Record Time

Posted on by akessler
Amazon: Sourcing Hundreds of Candidates Across Six Countries in Record Time

Amazon: Sourcing Hundreds of Candidates Across Six Countries in Record Time

Across Europe, Amazon were experiencing large levels of growth across their customer base. They turned to PeopleScout for RPO to fill roles in new fulfilment centers across Europe.

6 Countries including Germany, France, UK, Spain, Czech Republic and Poland
8 % Reduction in time-to-hire
Multilingual Recruitment & Advertising including German, French, Spanish, Polish and English
Multilingual Recruitment & Advertising including German, French, Spanish, Polish and English

Scope & Scale

Across Europe, Amazon were experiencing large levels of growth across their customer base. This had a significant impact on their worldwide operations business, the area of the organization that is responsible for delivering packages and products to the customer’s door.

Amazon’s heavy investment in new fulfilment and delivery centers across Europe, including Germany, France, UK, Spain, Czech Republic and Poland, resulted in a significant increase in headcount across management positions in these centers. These ranged from graduates to experienced managers running the centers themselves.

With Amazon, speed of delivery and their obsession with data feeds into everything they do, and their approach to recruitment is no different. As they can executed new super centers at a flick of a switch, their templated approach to building them created hiring spikes that had to be met in a small window of time.

Situation

Engaging a large volume of candidates across multiple countries speaking different languages and operating under different employment laws presented a unique challenge. Amazon have a large internal talent acquisition team who speak multiple languages, however the sheer volume of roles meant their needed a boost to truly engage the market and candidates in a way that matched their values.

Giving a great candidate experience is paramount for Amazon. Plus, the urgency of the roles and complex nature of the situation, motivated Amazon to engage PeopleScout to partner with them to meet these demands.

Solution

PeopleScout have two established delivery centers in Bristol (UK) and Krakow (Poland). These centers have multilingual recruitment consultants who are experts in sourcing and engaging candidates on our client’s behalf. Having understood the immediate and urgent need from Amazon we quickly mobilized a team of German, French, Spanish, Polish and English speakers across the two centers.

Amazon arranged briefings with us for the various roles and again expressed the urgency required due to the operational go-live dates of their fulfilment centers. Using our experience of recruiting across Europe, plus the understanding of the roles, Amazon’s culture and their process, we were able to build strategies to engage talent pools quickly. This included custom job adverts in each language and candidate engagement in their own native language.

Results

Our multi-national set of stakeholders are happy with our delivery from a quantity and quality level. Our activity resulted in delivering:

  • 576 candidates submitted
  • 443 invited to interview
  • 112 offers made
  • 8% reduction in time-to-hire

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Amazon
  • INDUSTRY: Ecommerce Retail
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • LOCATIONS: Fulfilment centers across six countries including Germany, France, UK, Spain, Czech Republic and Poland
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Three Potential Pitfalls of High-Volume Hiring and How to Avoid Them

Posted on by akessler

A fairly large handful of colleagues and clients are aware that my family and I are having some fairly extensive renovation work done on our home. Partly because I have moaned about it on a weekly basis since January. Partly because the endless background sounds of drills, hammers and circular saws— and on one particularly fraught occasion, a builders exposed backside descending from a loft ladder behind me—have all permeated some of my Zoom video calls. 

Now that the work is 90 percent finished, I look back on the project, and there are some aspects of it that I wish we had done differently. In doing such a lot of work at one time, we inevitably compromised on our standards in some small ways when faced with the size of the project ahead. 

Hopefully, you can see where the analogy is leading. When we, or our clients, are faced with a mountain to climb in terms of the complexity or scarcity of required talent in big numbers, it’s easy to deviate away from best practice. And this is never more common than now. 

As organisations switch from hiring freezes to acute growth mode, we are seeing a dramatic shift back towards a candidate-driven market. As the next 12 months play out, I personally believe this will prove to be one of the most dramatic shifts in several decades, and employers will be scratching their heads at just how they are going to close the hiring gap. 

During these impending and inevitably large-scale campaigns, there are three potential risks that stand out to me:

1. Introducing new people will impact the company culture.

Firstly, hiring lots of new people can present a risk to the company culture you’ve spent a lot of effort crafting. This may be more prevalent within smaller organisations or for those hiring at the leadership level, but no organisation is truly immune. With any hiring that significantly impacts a team, you must consider not only the skills and competencies match, but also how the existing cultural makeup of that group will be affected. One way to counter this is through thorough training to help align old and new employees on the same cultural path. This should be led by leadership and serve as a catalyst for people—old and new—to embrace your organisation’s mission and values. 

2. High-volume hiring can increase the risk of compromising on quality.

When it comes to high-volume hiring, hiring managers are more inclined to drop their standards on quality-of-hire. Not so much in terms of matching skills and experience, which tends to be a more objective. Plus, a deviation away from the requisite profile can be harder for the hiring manager to justify in their own mind. However, I’ve seen a “lowering of the bar” when it comes to the softer skills—the personality traits and competency matches which are naturally more subjective. One effective antidote here is robust candidate assessment practices. Backing up your gut feel with a bespoke or even “off the shelf” assessment package can help make your judgement more objective. 

3. Diversity amongst new hires suffers.

Thirdly, there is naturally a risk to diversity in your hiring. We’re all hopefully well-versed on the myriad benefits that fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce can bring. But, what is a valid, primary consideration when hiring one or two team members can begin to feel like an added challenge when filling a large number of openings starts to weigh down on a manager. Is there a temptation to let diversity standards slip if the challenge of filling critical gaps on your team already feels impossible? Is one allowed to be pragmatic in the circumstances and just hire, regardless of the diversity credentials? 

I would argue that you wouldn’t hire someone who has the wrong skills for your team, so you shouldn’t be any more inclined to lower standards on diversity. As we all know, the wrong hiring decision now, only costs us in the long-term when we have to re-hire down the line. Better to get it right first time, whether that be a diversity match or a skills match. 

Ultimately, any short-term concessions we might be tempted to make under pressure to hire at the time will be a source of regret. So, don’t lower your standards and suffer from these pitfalls. Take it from me—the decision not to fit underfloor heating in our family bathroom will likely haunt me for the next decade or two!

Providing a High-Volume Project RPO for Financial Services

Posted on by akessler
Providing a High-Volume RPO for Financial Services

Providing a High-Volume RPO for Financial Services

PeopleScout RPO augmented the talent acquisition capabilities for this financial services company across high-volume roles.

PeopleScout was approached by a major financial institution looking to supplement its internal recruiting functions. PeopleScout RPO provided the client with the scalability and flexibility it needs during high and low-volume hiring periods.

Situation

The client enlisted PeopleScout to augment its internal recruitment teams in specific lines of business to handle cyclical hiring for tellers, personal bankers, call center representatives, IT professionals, as well as roles in risk, compliance, audit, finance, mortgage and wealth management.

PeopleScout supported the client with full-cycle RPO, including post-offer acceptance and pre-hire compliance. PeopleScout worked with the client’s internal recruiters to source and screen candidates and provide administration recruitment coordination support.

Solution

PeopleScout acts as full-cycle recruiters, executing each phase of the recruitment process from identifying quality candidates to on-boarding new hires. PeopleScout’s team scaled according to the client’s needs, fluctuating in size from approximately 90 recruiters to over 200, helping manage costs while ensuring hiring demands are met.

PeopleScout also provided the client with consultative services including talent insights, marketing intelligence and innovative sourcing solutions.

Results

  • PeopleScout facilitated an average of 8,000 hires per year
  • Exceeded goal for 90% of new starts to start on the same day, as part of a class
  • Met 90% of SLAs over the course of the engagement

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Financial services company
  • INDUSTRY: Financial Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ANNUAL HIRES: 8,000+ hires across tellers, personal bankers, call center representatives, IT professionals, as well as roles in risk, compliance, audit, finance, mortgage and wealth management
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