Breaking DE&I Barriers in Life Science: Tips to Build & Recruit a Diverse Workforce

Posted on June 20, 2023June 27, 2024 by banderson

Over 20 years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act, or the Healthcare Fairness Act, to address national issues such as the increasing need for a diverse workforce. With focus on the life sciences, it stated, “There is a national need for minority scientists in the fields of biomedical, clinical, behavioral, and health services research.” Yet, underrepresented populations are still the largest “untapped STEM talent pools in the United States.”

Black and Hispanic individuals remain underrepresented in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce. Plus, women remain underrepresented in fields like physical sciences, computing and engineering. Moreover, organizations in Europe are struggling to find and retain women in STEM. According to Eurostat, female scientists and engineers remain a minority in STEM roles, and despite increases over the past decade, women still make up only 16.5% of engineers in the UK.

For life science organizations, the lack of minorities and women in STEM fields and the sector overall will present long-term challenges in cultivating a workforce that will help them remain competitive in our increasingly diverse and interconnected world.

However, it seems there hasn’t been much progress made in the 20+ years since the Healthcare Fairness Act. So, how can life science organizations make a difference in creating more diversity in life science careers? Keep reading to learn more about the DE&I challenges and opportunities for life science employers.

Life Science’s Lack of a Diverse Workforce

Diversity is lacking across the entire life science industry, from research to clinical work. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, the representation of minority ethnic groups in the science fields must more than double to match the groups’ overall share of the U.S. population. In fact, 65% of the U.S. workforce in life science are white, 19% are Asian, 8% are Hispanic and only 6% are Black.

Source: Pew Research Center

Being a future-focused employer requires investment in building diverse and inclusive teams. Bringing underrepresented groups into your organization provides a full range of benefits and skills to drive innovation. The issue is particularly pressing as the industry undergoes a wave of transformation due to the disruption of tech—further widening the current skills gap.

Additionally, diversity in leadership will help you boost retention and attract talent. With 85% of life science employees who identify as a minority saying they are ‘hugely underrepresented’ in senior roles, the lack of diverse leadership representation could be detrimental to your organization. It could affect your bottom line and further hinder your ability to attain those highly competitive, in-demand skills (like data analytics and computer programming) needed within the industry.

Furthermore, Informa Connect conducted one of the largest industry employee research reports to date, which surveyed life science professionals around the world about their opinions on diversity and inclusion in the industry. When asked what the industry’s biggest problem is pertaining to having an inclusive and diverse workforce, over a third of respondents named the lack of representation of minorities in leadership roles.

Source: Informa Connect

Gender Inequality in Life Science

Due to the lack of women in STEM careers, life science employers struggle to attract women to R&D roles. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 70% of global researchers are men. This creates problems for life science employers as both female life science professionals (65%) and male professionals (59%) believe women are under-represented overall. It doesn’t help that, although women make up almost half (48%) of life science workers, men still out-earn women by 13%.

Why is Diversity in Life Science so Important?

Although there are clear disparities around representation of minorities and women in life science, only 23% of organizations are giving significant focus to DE&I and only 13% are financially investing in diverse groups. Organizations that aren’t prioritizing DE&I will struggle to cope with the industry’s current talent shortage. The lack of diversity puts organizations at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent.

In our recent research report, candidates say that a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers. This is even more important for candidates from underrepresented groups. In Biospace’s latest report, 93% of women of color responded that they believe diversity is important when considering a job. Investing in DE&I-focused talent acquisition strategies, programs and training creates a huge opportunity for life science organizations to grow a diverse and productive workforce.

A diverse and inclusive work environment builds trust, increases engagement and improves business outcomes.

Organizations with strong “diversity climates” have increased employee job satisfaction and employee retention as well as financial returns above national industry medians. Companies with above-average diversity scores report nearly 20% higher revenue due to innovation. 

Moreover, diversity provides many benefits for improved organizational performance and productivity such as:

Broader range of skills and experience
Multilingualism to support global growth
Increased cultural competence and awareness

Diverse workforces, including cognitively diverse teams, leverage a greater variety of perspectives to solve problems faster with improved accuracy. According to the International Labor Organization, when companies establish inclusive business cultures and policies, they experience a nearly 60% increase in creativity, innovation and openness.

For example, the majority of the western world’s research uses tissue and blood from white individuals to screen drugs and therapies that are developed for a more diverse population. However, different ethnic groups experience different outcomes from various treatments, methods and diseases. A diverse workforce, especially in biomedical science and pharmaceuticals, would more likely push for inclusion in research and testing and provide different perspectives that could lead to new insights and discoveries.

Strategies for Attracting, Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce in Life Science

Creating a diverse and inclusive work environment can be challenging, but here are some proven steps for attracting top diverse talent and establishing equitable recruitment practices.

1. Focus on Employer Branding

Show diversity as part of your organization’s DNA by articulating a compelling EVP and employer brand that clearly defines and establishes your organizational commitment to DE&I. Building your internal and external employer brand messaging gives you greater influence over what you are known for, how you are perceived by candidates and the value that you offer to your employees. Make sure your recruitment marketing materials are relevant to a variety of audiences with imagery and content that highlights diversity in race, gender and more. Plus, showcasing real employees adds a layer of authenticity to your employer brand.

2. Update Your Career Site

After viewing a job post, a candidate’s first point of contact is usually your career site. It’s crucial that your career site shows your DE&I efforts. Sharing diversity goals publicly and transparently is an important way for candidates to experience your organizational values and mission.

3. Keep Job Listings Simple

Plain language is especially important if you want to reach diverse populations. Use verbiage that your candidate would use rather than your internal terminology and assess your job ads for biased language. Avoid verbiage like “expert,” “rockstar” or “like a family” that are often masculine and project a homogeneous work culture that prioritizes like-minded thinking over diversity. Additionally, remove any experience or skills that are “nice-to-have” in your job descriptions, and keep in mind that men and women value different things. For example, while men usually prioritize compensation, most women see work-life balance as their number one priority.

4. Go Beyond Your Careers Site

Elevate your sourcing strategy by:

Optimizing your reach by posting on relevant job boards and platforms. Don’t forget that professional networking groups, like the Black Healthcare and Medical Association, are great resources to get your job ads in front of the right people.
Establish relationships with STEM-based programs at universities, alumni associations and other networking groups that cater to diverse populations.
Get your internal teams involved by asking for referrals. Diverse employees are often connected with diverse candidates.

In doing so, you cast a wider net to reach a larger pool of diverse candidates, maximizing your chances of growing your workforce.

5. Representation Matters

During the interview stage, make sure candidates see how much you value diversity by having a diverse panel of interviewers. When a candidate sees someone who looks like themselves or another minority when being interviewed, it creates a sense of belonging and reaffirms your company’s mission to establish a diverse culture. Additionally, make sure your hiring panel has received diversity training and can successfully communicate with those that think differently and have unique backgrounds or working styles.

6. Invest in Diversity Training

Through diversity training, you can help change systematic diversity hurdles—such as your organization’s hiring practices and how diverse talent is sourced as well as taking action to increase diversity at the board or leadership level.

“Companies need to acknowledge the unique needs and contributions of employees with multiple historically excluded identities.”
Yaro Fong-Olivare, Executive director of Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business (CWB)

Diversity training programs are not a one-size-fits-all solution and come in various training types, which can be customized to help achieve your organization’s goals. Diversity training helps employees feel a sense of belonging, so they are more likely to stay with an organization, which can improve your retention rates.

7. Enable Talent Acquisition Technology and Track Your Efforts

To build a diverse candidate pipeline, it’s critical that you engage cutting-edge technology and analytics tools to know where your diverse candidates are coming from, how they’re progressing through the recruitment process, and which of your sourcing channels or campaigns brought them to you. Although these insights are often stored in different systems and platforms, a comprehensive reporting tool can help synthesize your data and visualize trends.

For example, PeopleScout’s Affinix™ brings together applicant tracking systems (ATS), candidate relationship management (CRM) systems, artificial intelligence, machine learning, digital marketing, predictive analytics and digital interviewing to provide award winning innovation to support your organization’s diverse hiring goals. Affinix Analytics’ diversity dashboards show how diverse candidates are entering your pipeline in real time. By tracking how candidates progress through your funnel, you can determine which resources and campaigns bring in top candidates from underrepresented groups. From there, you can analyze the results, identify hiring trends, adjust sourcing spend and strategy to make data-driven decisions.

Conclusion

Building an inclusive and diverse workforce doesn’t start and end with just hiring underrepresented groups, it requires an entire organizational shift. In order for the life sciences industry to maintain leadership and competitiveness in science and medical advancement, it’s crucial that organizations invest in building a strong and diverse talent pipeline. Everyone from the C-Suite to hiring managers has an important part to play in achieving DE&I goals and shrinking the industry’s growing workforce gaps.

The Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent

Posted on June 13, 2023July 4, 2024 by akessler

The Recruitment Handbook for Hiring Tech & Digital Talent

5 Strategies for Recruiting the Best Tech Talent Now and into the Future

Today, every company is a tech company as organizations across sectors create digital customer experiences, embrace automation and AI, and analyze the data created through these platforms. In fact, 6 out of 10 of the most in–demand skills are tech-related.

However, according to Gartner, a third (36%) of HR leaders say their sourcing strategies are insufficient for finding the skills they need. So, how can talent acquisition leaders keep up with the demand for tech and digital talent?

In this handbook, you’ll learn:

Global trends driving the need for tech talent
Strategies for overcoming challenges in your tech hiring programs
How partnering with an RPO provider can help

Candidate Experience Survey Best Practices: How to Ask for Candidate Feedback

Posted on May 25, 2023June 27, 2024 by akessler

Asking for candidate feedback is your best resource for improving your candidate experience and a crucial step for creating a strong employer brand. Yet, in our research report, Inside the Candidate Experience, we found that 44% of organizations did not provide an opportunity for candidates to give feedback through a candidate experience survey.

In an HRO Today and PeopleScout global survey, employers reported significant challenges in capturing candidate feedback, with many saying that a top struggle is having “no formal way to capture candidate feedback.”

This is a missed opportunity. To truly improve your candidate experience, you must ask your candidates what they think and make improvements based on their input. If you’re not leveraging candidate survey tools to gather feedback from your candidates, you are passing up valuable insights that can help you improve your employer brand, lower attrition and shorten your hiring cycle.

Why is Candidate Experience Important?

As consumers, our expectations are soaring. We demand that brands deliver seamless, intuitive and personalized experiences to keep us engaged. In the fight for talent, the same rules apply.

Competition in the labor market and the increased demand for both diverse talent and digital skills means that coveted candidates have more options than ever before. They can afford to be picky, holding out for the employer that engages and inspires them during the recruitment process.

It’s easier than ever for job seekers to broadcast their impressions of your brand. In fact, 83% of candidates share their poor experiences with friends and family, with 54% taking to social media to voice their discontent—and that has major ramifications for your employer brand.

For 78% of candidates the overall candidate experience is an indicator of how a company values its people. Plus, candidates are also consumers, and a poor candidate experience can impact whether you retain an applicant as a customer.

Candidate Experience Survey Questions

If you’re serious about improving your candidate experience, the best way to source ideas is through your talent audience. Introducing a candidate experience survey is a must for any organization that wants to secure top talent. These insights are invaluable for identifying areas of improvement and can help you prioritize your candidate experience optimization projects.

When it comes to measuring the candidate experience, NPS has become a popular metric.

Net Promoter Score, or NPS, began as a way for organizations to measure customer satisfaction and loyalty. By asking one question—“On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend this product/company to a friend or colleague?”—organizations can gauge which customers are promoters, and which are detractors. The NPS scale ranges from -100 to +100, and the higher the score the better.

candidate experience survey candidate nps

By applying this same concept to the candidate experience, a Candidate Net Promoter Score, or CNPS, becomes a benchmark with which to measure your candidate experience. It’s best practice to also include a place for candidates to provide additional thoughts and comments, so you can gather both quantitative data and qualitative data.

By asking one simple question and the candidate’s reasoning for their rating, you can gather valuable data to drive continuous improvement in your candidate experience. Measuring CNPS over time will show how your talent acquisition investments are impacting your overall recruitment outcomes.

When to Send a Candidate Experience Survey

Consider adding a candidate experience survey email to your CRM after critical stages in your recruitment process, like:

After the completion of an application
After the completion of an assessment center
After the completion of an interview
Upon rejection
All of the above

Asking for feedback should be a priority regardless of outcome for the candidate.

Creating a Feedback Loop

Remember, when it comes to feedback throughout the recruitment process, it’s a two-way street. Employers should be equally committed to soliciting feedback from candidates about their experience, and providing feedback back to candidates, particularly to those who advance further into the selection process. Providing opportunities to give and collect feedback throughout the process will provide you with valuable insights and offer an engaging candidate experience, ultimately improving your recruitment outcomes.

To get the full research and more actionable candidate experience insights, download the Inside the Candidate Experience 2023 Report.

PeopleScout’s Affinix Talent Technology Wins 2023 American Business Award for Emerging Technology

Posted on May 24, 2023June 27, 2024 by akessler

Affinix recognized for exceptional use of emerging technologies to manage every stage of the talent life cycle

CHICAGO — May 24, 2023 — PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology Affinix™ has been named a Bronze winner in the Emerging Technology category of the 21st Annual American Business Awards^® program.

Embedded within PeopleScout’s talent solutions, Affinix is a mobile-first, cloud-based platform that deploys best-in-breed and emerging technology to create a seamless candidate and hiring manager experience. Affinix provides a comprehensive, end-to-end solution with the tools and technologies needed to manage every stage of the talent lifecycle.

“Our culture of innovation underpins our commitment to staying at the forefront of emerging technology to ensure Affinix continues to meet the changing needs of our clients and their candidates,” said PeopleScout President Rick Betori. “This recognition from the American Business Awards is great validation of our work to provide our clients a competitive edge in today’s talent market through an industry-leading candidate experience.”

Designed in response to changes in candidate expectations, skills shortages and digital disruption, Affinix provides access to the latest tools for talent acquisition in one platform. Affinix leverages artificial intelligence, recruitment marketing, machine learning and predictive analytics with one-point ATS and VMS integration and single sign-on. Affinix streamlines the sourcing, screening and candidate engagement process to identify and engage top talent more efficiently.

The Emerging Technology category of the American Business Awards recognizes the best emerging technology products, tools or solutions that are solving big problems, changing the status quo, and opening new opportunities. More than 3,700 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for this year’s American Business Awards, across a wide range of categories. Details about The American Business Awards and the list of 2023 winners are available at www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

About the Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards®, The International Business Awards®, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

About PeopleScout
PeopleScout, a TrueBlue (NYSE: TBI) company, is a leading RPO provider managing talent solutions that span the global economy, with end-to-end MSP and talent advisory capabilities supporting total workforce needs. PeopleScout boasts 96% client retention managing the most complex programs in the industry. The company’s thousands of forward-looking talent professionals provide clients with the edge in the people business by consistently delivering now while anticipating what’s next. Affinix™, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent acquisition platform, empowers faster engagement with the best talent through an AI-driven, consumer-like candidate experience and optimizes the talent process through data and actionable insights. Leveraging the power of data gleaned from engaging millions of candidates and contingent associates every year, PeopleScout has served clients in more than 70 countries with headquarters in Chicago, Sydney and London and global delivery centers in Toronto, Montreal, Bristol, Krakow, Gurgaon and Bangalore. For more information, please visit www.peoplescout.com.

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
pr@trueblue.com
1-253-680-8291

PeopleScout Named a Leader On HRO Today’s 2023 MSP Baker’s Dozen

Posted on May 24, 2023June 27, 2024 by akessler

PeopleScout ranked in the Top Five for all categories, including Breadth of Service, Size of Deal and Quality of Service

CHICAGO — May 24, 2023 — PeopleScout has been recognized as a leader in Managed Service Provider (MSP) solutions on HRO Today’s annual MSP Baker’s Dozen Customer Satisfaction Ratings. In addition to being named an overall leader, PeopleScout was also ranked in the top five in the Breadth of Service, Size of Deal and Quality of Service categories.

“PeopleScout remains an industry leader and one of the one of the best choices in the market for MSP services,” said Elliot Clark, CEO and Chairman of SharedXpertise and HRO Today. “Their consultative approach, makes them a valuable partner for any employer looking to optimize their MSP program.”

PeopleScout has been named an industry leader on HRO Today’s MSP Baker’s Dozen Customer Satisfaction list every year since its inception.

“Our clients are at the center of all we do, and their partnership is what makes this recognition possible,” said Rick Betori, President of PeopleScout. “Our MSP offering is rooted in our commitment to developing innovative solutions that meet our clients’ unique talent challenges and providing strategic insights to move their businesses forward.

PeopleScout’s Beyond the Expected™ MSP service approach offers the expertise, technology, resources and grit to solve the toughest staffing challenges and help employers build a contingent workforce with the best talent—now and in the future. PeopleScout’s best-in-class service is underpinned by innovative thinking that challenges the status quo.

PeopleScout’s MSP solutions are powered by Affinix™, PeopleScout’s award-winning proprietary talent technology, which integrates with VMS technology to provide clear visibility into worker and supplier performance, requisition status and metrics, spend analytics and benchmarking. Embedded within PeopleScout’s talent solutions, Affinix is a robust platform that delivers speed and scalability to our MSP clients while leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, predictive analytics and more. Affinix Analytics includes MSP dashboards that provide standardized views and enable recurring tasks and processes to be streamlined.

HRO Today surveys current buyers of MSP services for its Baker’s Dozen, which ranks the top 13 MSPs in the industry. Learn more on the HRO Today Magazine website.

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
pr@trueblue.com
1-253-680-8291

3 Ways Your Recruitment CRM Can Give Candidates What They Want

Posted on April 13, 2023March 12, 2024 by nfuqua

A candidate relationship management (CRM) tool is at the center of any strong recruitment process, but I can almost guarantee that you aren’t making the most of yours. According to Aptitude Research, only 2% of companies use all of the functionality of their recruitment CRMs, and more than 60% of employers spend more on their CRM than on their applicant tracking system (ATS).

Most likely, your CRM could be doing more to improve your recruiting process and candidate experience, and 2023 is the perfect year to optimize it. That’s because you can add functionality without additional budget — a key benefit in an uncertain global economy. With your CRM, you can:

Appeal to the 70% of candidates who are not actively looking for a job, but would move for the right position.
Provide that consumer-like candidate experience that has become the cost of entry for employers.
Share your employer value proposition more effectively with candidates of all backgrounds.

Below are three ways you can improve your own processes and the experience candidates have when they interact with your brand.

1. Appeal to Candidates From Underrepresented Backgrounds & Supercharge Your Diversity Initiatives

Whether you’re looking to increase the number of female employees in a male-dominated industry; fulfilling your commitment to helping veterans; or building a team that reflects the diversity of your customers, issues around diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) remain a focus for talent acquisition leaders. Fortunately, many CRMs feature the ability to create microsites, which let you share your employer brand more effectively with candidates from underrepresented backgrounds that you want to target.

Sometimes called landing pages, these microsites drive diverse traffic to your careers site and showcase your DE&I initiatives. Of course, diversity means something different for different employers. Therefore, consider building a microsite for each target group that contains messaging and content of interest to them. With a recruitment marketing campaign that showcases the representation that already exists in your organization, in addition to a targeted microsite, you can boost your DE&I recruitment outcomes.

At PeopleScout, our Affinix^TM microsites are fast and easy to set up—and they also yield results. For example, one client was looking to increase its percentage of female hires from just 7%. By building a landing page and campaign that featured the stories of real women who love and are excelling at their jobs, PeopleScout was able to increase that number to 18%.

2. Provide a Consumer-Level Application Experience & Reduce Candidate Fall-Out

If you’re seeing a lot of candidates falling out in your application process, that’s a sign that your candidate experience isn’t meeting expectations. In 2023, a mobile-first application that only takes a few minutes to complete is essential. If you’re missing that mark, you’re missing out on top talent.

In particular, look for a recruitment CRM with a quick-apply feature that allows candidates to submit only the most important information. While you’ll likely need more details from the candidate, you can gather that later in the process. As an added benefit, CRM features—like on-demand assessments and text questionnaires—can also keep candidates more engaged as they move through the interview and assessment stage faster.

Additionally, a shortened application is a simple change that can have a profound effect on your recruitment outcomes. As an example, one PeopleScout client went from a long application with a 30% conversion rate to one that took less than 10 minutes to fill out with an 80% conversion rate. It also shaved eight to 10 days off their time-to-fill.

3. Find Candidates Who Don’t Realize You’ve Posted Their Dream Jobs & Fill Your Most Challenging Roles

When you post a new job opening, somewhere out there is that perfect person for the role: There’s a chance your open position is someone’s dream job, but do they even know it exists? Realistically, there’s a very good chance that they don’t, and they won’t come across your posting on their own. So, it’s up to your recruiting team to find them and pitch the job that they’ve been waiting for.

Some recruitment CRMs have automated talent matching that search candidate databases to find qualified candidates for any role. These are then ranked by how closely they fit the role requirements, how likely they are to leave their current position, and their average tenure. Unlike a manual sourcing process, an automated talent matching feature like this can help fill the top of your funnel in seconds.

Notably, in PeopleScout’s Affinix CRM, Talent Finder is one option for automation technology that can find and filter qualified candidates. Our Diversity Boost feature also amplifies diverse candidates to help you reach your DE&I goals. Then, once you find that perfect match, you can bring them through the process and provide a good candidate experience—if you’re getting the most out of your CRM.

Keep in mind that this list only scratches the surface of what your CRM could bring to your recruitment process if properly optimized for your organization. While candidate expectations continue to shift, at the end of the day, they’re looking to build the right relationship with the right organization. It’s up to you to start that relationship off right.

Research Report

Inside the Candidate Experience

Get the Report

Workforce Planning: Applying What We’ve Learned to Drive Future Success

Posted on April 13, 2023June 27, 2024 by nfuqua

In the past three years, we’ve seen a talent market that has shifted more drastically and rapidly than we’ve ever seen. These weren’t the standard economic oscillations that take place slowly throughout many years—rather, this pace of change was something new and required talent leaders to spend the last three years fighting fires instead of focusing on workforce planning.

Now, it’s as important as ever to be more intentional about our strategy as we ask, “What’s next?”

Taking Time to Reflect

As talent leaders, we’re no strangers to the Great Rehire, quiet quitting and the Great Resignation—it seems at every turn, we are learning about a new workforce movement. At PeopleScout, we feel the real value comes not from labeling the next talent trend, but in doing the work to help employers struggling with today’s very real talent obstacles and developing custom solutions to address our clients’ unique talent challenges.

Right now, there is an opportunity to take a look back at everything we’ve learned from our experiences over the past three years and apply those lessons to our talent programs to drive continued success. It’s time to change strategies, rewatch the tapes and recalibrate our approach to meet whatever challenges the future holds.

So, where do we go from here? We step back, take a breath and reflect, then take action by challenging the status quo.

In this article, we’re going to outline many of the different lessons learned, as well as opportunities for you to revitalize your own workforce planning.

The Economic Reality

While the global economic landscape continues to fluctuate, the pace of change has decelerated. In the U.S., most economic indicators give a mixed picture: some companies have made headlines with layoffs, but job growth in other industries has remained strong. What’s more, monthly jobs reports still show strong hiring numbers and economists have seen positive signs around inflation.

At the same time, we’re starting to see a bit of “gas pedal, brake pedal” as talent leaders try to read the tea leaves of the economic picture amid these mixed signals. While employers across some industries are still hiring, the pace has slowed from the height of the Great Rehire.

Globally, we’re seeing the setup for similar environments. In the UK, job vacancies have fallen from their 2022 high, but still remain far above average with a shrinking labor force; however, issues like high inflation, rising wages and worker strikes persist. And, in Australia, the unemployment rate remains at a very low 3.5% and our clients are seeing a tighter applicant pool.

These are certainly challenges to contend with, and the best way to move forward is with a quick glance back.

Opportunities for Adjustment with Workforce Planning

With large variances across countries, regions and sectors, the lessons learned and resulting transformations will depend on how the past three years have affected you.

Here are the five main areas we recommend you prioritize as part of your workforce planning strategy enhancement.

1. Recruitment Process Improvement

The first place to start your recalibration is the recruitment process. Did the pandemic and Great Rehire introduce changes into your process? For example, many employers were forced to shoehorn their in-person hiring process into a virtual one through the pandemic and Great Rehire. If that was the case at your organization, does that process still work, especially for your remote and hybrid employees?

This is one of the biggest opportunities for talent leaders to connect with their teams to understand what worked and what didn’t. Your team members have built up so much knowledge on the ground working through the challenges of the last three years. How can you harness that going forward?

Similarly, take a step back and look at the data you’re using to define success with your recruitment program. Are you hitting your goals, but still feel like something is missing? If so, you may be looking at vanity metrics, as opposed to sanity metrics. There’s always room for improvement; you just need the right data points to identify it.

In this case, consider bringing in a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner. A partner can help with any future scaling up and down as your hiring needs change, but they also provide value in helping benchmark your progress and success. For instance, the most frequent questions we get from clients during our routine business reviews with them are around what other employers are doing. What technologies are out there? What innovations have been made? What suggestions do you have? Without an RPO partner, you miss out on that insight.

2. Employer Brand

There has probably been more discussion about employer brand during the last year and a half than ever before, and this has been driven largely by the change in workforce and candidate priorities. During the Great Resignation, employees left for perceived greener pastures. To that end, it’s important to understand what you did right and where you may have let employees down during the last few years. In particular, there’s an opportunity to talk to the people who stayed with you to understand what kept them at your organization through some difficult years. Then, you can apply those lessons to your employer value proposition. In fact, if you haven’t updated your employer value proposition and employer brand since before 2020, you’re behind the curve.

Outside of the pandemic and recovery, the growing influence of Gen Z in the workplace has also influenced employer brands. Our research shows that Gen Z—more than any other generation in the workforce—says that your mission and values, company culture, and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives influence their decision to apply. With that in mind, does your employer brand reflect the changing values of the workforce?

3. Candidate Experience

The world has fundamentally changed in the last few years, and so have candidate expectations. Specifically, we’ve seen a shift toward the need for a consumer-like candidate experience in recent years, and it has only accelerated. As consumers, we’ve grown to expect even more convenience. In 2020, many of us expanded our use of services, like grocery pick-up and delivery. We order our coffee with an app so we don’t have to wait as it’s made. Even as the pandemic receded, many of us kept up with these conveniences. Candidates expect a similar experience when it comes to finding and applying for jobs.

In the same vein, when was the last time you evaluated your candidate experience? Have you taken on the task of simply applying for a job at your organization to see the experience through the candidate’s eyes? Did you make compromises in the depths of the pandemic or the chaos of the Great Rehire? Or did you implement tools—like on-demand video interviews or automated text message screenings—and discover that they reduced candidate fall-out? In any case, it’s probably time to recalibrate your candidate experience.

PeopleScout recently released research around candidate expectations and candidate experience best practices. Read our three most important takeaways.

4. Retention

The Great Resignation forced employers to renew their focus on employee retention, and it has definitely had an influence. According to HR Digest, employers that invested in employee development saw a 58% increase in retention in 2022. Beyond employee development, many organizations have also made their moves to remote, hybrid and flexible work permanent.

In 2023, we expect the pace of turnover to slow down for many employers. That’s because the changing economic landscape has left candidates less confident in their job searches, according to CNBC. As such, we anticipate more workers will place greater value on stability after several turbulent years.

As you look at your own program improvements, the employees you retain will be valuable assets as they’ve learned the key lessons firsthand. They’ve stayed with your organization and adapted through the changes of the past several years. They know your company better than anyone. What can you do to provide benefits like work/life balance, professional development and wellness?

5. Optimizing Technology

Finally, take a look at your technology. Many employers quickly added new recruitment technology solutions in 2020 to support remote recruitment during lockdown. If that was the case at your organization, are those tools optimized for your current needs?

When it comes to improving your recruitment program, your technology is one of your most important tools: Your recruitment tech stack likely affects every one of the other opportunities for enhancement that we’ve highlighted. With machine learning and artificial intelligence, we can learn from the history of candidate behavior. The right tools can then help recruiters prioritize interactions with candidates and automate communications to candidates in your recruitment funnel. Similarly, the right technology can also make your recruitment process more efficient; help you more effectively share your employer brand; improve your candidate experience; and provide benefits for current employees. If you’re reevaluating your talent acquisition strategy, technology needs to be a part of the conversation.

Lessons Learned

During the last three years, many of us have spent so much time dealing with the present that there hasn’t been an opportunity to think about the future. That said, we have learned the value of scheduling time to focus on what’s next; over and over again, we’ve seen the importance of being nimble. With that in mind, we’re encouraging our clients to think about the elements discussed above and identifying ways that PeopleScout can help them meet their talent needs. So, I urge you to take the time to think about how you can adjust your talent program for whatever the future brings.

PeopleScout Releases Q2 2023 Issue of PeopleScout NEXT

Posted on April 11, 2023June 27, 2024 by akessler

Latest issue provides research-based insights and practical actions to help employers build a more resilient talent acquisition program

CHICAGO – APRIL 11, 2023 – Today, PeopleScout released the Q2 2023 issue of its award-winning PeopleScout NEXT magazine, which provides actionable insights on the rapidly changing talent acquisition, talent technology and workforce management landscape.

The past three years have seen the depths of pandemic job losses and a talent market that has shifted more drastically and rapidly than before. While talent market and economic complexities remain, employers now have an opportunity to reflect on the lessons from the past few years and apply those learnings to hone their recruitment strategies to meet the demands of today’s market.

This edition of NEXT includes research-based insights and practical actions to improve recruitment outcomes and build a more resilient talent acquisition program to ensure future success.

In the issue, talent acquisition leaders will find:

A guide for applying the lessons learned over the past few years to their current talent program
Exclusive, data-driven insights about what candidates want out of the recruitment process and how the right technology can make it happen
How to keep the human in Human Resources by understanding what is driving high turnover and tips for turning it around
Real-life examples demonstrating how employers can recalibrate and transform their talent program
A roadmap to prepare your talent program all the way to 2030

PeopleScout NEXT began publication in 2018 and has received numerous awards for its content and design. In February 2022, PeopleScout NEXT was named a Gold winner in the 2022 AVA Digital Awards for its Q3/Q4 2021 issue. In October 2020, PeopleScout NEXT magazine was named a Gold winner in the Publication, Magazine category in the 2020 MUSE Creative Awards competition. This win followed two 2019 MarCom Awards: Platinum in the Print Media – Writing category and Gold in Print Media – Design for PeopleScout NEXT.

Access the Q2 2023 issue of PeopleScout NEXT today at www.peoplescout.com/next

About PeopleScout NEXT
NEXT is PeopleScout’s bi-annual publication covering an expansive array of talent acquisition and workforce management topics and technology trends, designed to provide readers with the knowledge they need to go from advice to advantage. PeopleScout’s audience is focused on what’s next—the future of work, impending skills shortages and technological advances. The goal of PeopleScout NEXT is to provide talent leaders with both the big ideas and small steps they can take today to make sure they are set up for future success. You can access the latest edition of PeopleScout NEXT here.

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
pr@trueblue.com
+1-253-680-8291

5 Career Site Must-Haves to Improve the Candidate Experience

Posted on March 20, 2023June 27, 2024 by banderson

By Simon Wright, Global Head of Talent Advisory Consulting

Your career site is a one-stop shop where candidates can learn about your organization, evaluate your employer value proposition (EVP), and find opportunities. It’s not enough to simply list your job openings. Candidates are savvier than ever and want to be informed about your organization before they apply.

Your career site is a crucial resource for candidates as they research your organization and roles, playing a pivotal role in the candidate experience. For our recent research report, Inside the Candidate Experience, we audited the candidate journey—including the career sites—of 217 organizations across sectors. When we compared the findings with candidate survey data, we found that many career sites were lacking when it comes to providing the experience candidates expected.

In our Talent Advisory work with companies around the world, we often find that organizations seem to be under the impression that candidates visit the career site just once—to submit an application. In reality, we see candidates come back again and again throughout the recruitment process—usually before an interview and again when they receive an offer. Modern candidates, who are used to social media and e-commerce experiences, think of your career site as a content hub rather than a brochure—and you should too.

Here are five career site must-haves to create a positive candidate experience:

1. Intuitive Career Site Search Functionality

The first rule of career sites is to ensure that job openings are easy to find. That means ensuring your job descriptions can be found via Google and that your career site is easy to access from your corporate website. But it goes further—are your job openings searchable on your career site? Can your job listings be accessed from everywhere on your career site?

Candidate expectations are increasingly fueled by consumer experiences. So, employers should take a page from the e-commerce book and streamline career site experiences by offering relevant job searches. This means candidates can navigate quickly and easily to the types of roles that interest them. We’ve helped our clients up-level their job postings by featuring relevant content for certain jobs, including employee spotlights for someone who’s currently in the role and even recommending similar positions that the candidate may be interested in.

Search doesn’t just apply to your job openings. Does your site have a universal search accessible from every page? To satisfy today’s informed candidates, you must make it as easy as possible for candidates to find the content that matters to them—whether it’s information on your benefits, your sustainability statement, or your DE&I efforts.

2. Information About Your Organizations’ Mission and Purpose

Historically, candidates have given rewards and benefits priority when it comes to their career decisions. However, our study confirms a change in candidate expectations following the pandemic, with more value placed on flexibility and organizational philosophy.

The top things candidates look for when evaluating a company are:

Flexible working and work/life balance
Mission/purpose
Rewards and benefits
Career development and mobility
Company values

Half (50%) of candidates say an organization’s mission and purpose are key influences on their decision to apply. This is true across generations not, just for Gen Z.

Top Considerations by Generation

(Source: Inside the Candidate Experience 2023 Report)

With mission/purpose in the top five considerations for job seekers, it’s concerning how few organizations have this information on their career websites. We found an organization’s mission and purpose less than half (48%) of the time on the sites we evaluated. This means that half of employers are missing an opportunity to make an emotional connection with their talent audiences and help candidates understand how the role they have applied for fits into that mission. If candidates can’t find your mission on your careers site, they won’t even look at the roles you’ve got.

You might be thinking, we’ve got that on our corporate website. Can’t we just link to it there? As soon as you send a candidate away from your career site, they’re less likely to come back to apply. Streamline the candidate experience by giving candidates the information they want in the same place where they can submit an application.

3. Content Featuring Real Employees

During our diagnostic, we evaluated career sites to see if a diverse group of real employees was represented. We found that 35% of organizations don’t feature real employees on their career site. In addition, 60% of career sites don’t contain any video content in which employees share their personal journeys and stories.

Yet, when asked how hearing from actual employees would affect their job search, 86% of respondents said they value hearing employee stories. This is especially important to Baby Boomers with 92% saying it would influence their decision to join an organization. Plus, one in three women also believe it’s critical.

Videos that show a diverse range of employees in their real work environment help candidates see themselves in the role and at your organization. The number one obstacle for candidates when it comes to applying is not knowing what it’s like to work at an organization. So, brands that can show candidates what their day-to-day tasks will look like in a role will see more applications and higher-quality candidates.

4. Information on the Recruitment Process

Setting expectations and giving advice on the recruitment process after you’ve piqued a candidate’s interest is an often-overlooked way of improving the number and quality of applications you receive. If candidates are unsure of what they’re getting themselves into from the start, they will likely pass over your position entirely.

In our candidate experience diagnostic, we found that information about the recruitment process was lacking. Only 13% of employers offer candidates the opportunity to speak to a recruiter or current employee before applying. Just a third of career sites (34%) featured frequently asked questions (FAQs) or advice to support candidates throughout the process (31%).

Less than a third (28%) of the career sites we assessed gave an overview of the key stages of the recruiting process. This information can help set realistic expectations for candidates, reduce their anxiety during the recruitment process and reduce drop-off. Plus, outlining the steps of the candidate journey has the added benefit of making your recruitment process more accessible to hard-to-reach talent groups, supporting your brand’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.

5. An Opportunity to Join Your Talent Community

As consumers, we’re accustomed to subscribing to offers and news from our favorite brands. Sharing tailored content via marketing automation tools is a simple, yet effective way companies build engagement with prospective customers until they’re ready to buy. Talent acquisition leaders can use a similar approach in their recruitment efforts.

Concerningly, only half of organizations (53%) give candidates an opportunity to register their interest or to sign up for job alerts. Even fewer (39%) encouraged candidates to join a talent community. So, you could be unknowingly turning away talented candidates if you don’t provide a channel for staying in contact with your company. When new roles come up, your talent pool of qualified candidates should be your first port of call.

Candidates wait an average of nine months between joining a talent community and applying for a job. So, maintaining talent pools and communicating with them regularly allows you to demonstrate to candidates what they are missing by keeping them warm until the right job becomes available. These communications should go beyond the standard job updates in order to showcase the value of your employer brand and what they’ll gain by joining your team. Organizations that can successfully implement this strategy will outperform the competition in securing top talent.

Research Report

INSIDE THE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE 2023

Read the report

PeopleScout’s Affinix™ Talent Technology Wins 2022 Best in Biz Award Recognizing Product Innovation

Posted on February 10, 2023July 6, 2023 by jpatel

Affinix named a silver winner in Most Innovative Product of the Year category

CHICAGO – February 10, 2023 – PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology Affinix™ has been named a silver winner in the Most Innovative Product of the Year – Enterprise category in the 2022 Best in Biz Awards.

Designed with changing candidate expectations in mind, Affinix is a mobile-first, cloud-based platform that streamlines the recruiting process with an AI-driven, consumer-like experience and actionable data insights.

“Candidate expectations have increased significantly post-pandemic, with an engaging candidate experience being essential for success,” said Taryn Owen, President and COO of TrueBlue. “We are committed to continued innovation with Affinix as part of a comprehensive solution to ensure that our clients remain well-positioned to attract the talent they need today and in the future.”

PeopleScout’s expertise in the field of talent technology, coupled with the flexible design of Affinix, ensures new market innovations are easily accessible via the platform. These regular enhancements to product functionality and productivity equip employers with cutting-edge tools to bolster their recruitment strategy and candidate experience.

The Best in Biz Awards recognize companies’ visionary leadership, innovative use of AI technologies, exemplary diversity and inclusion programs and workplace best practices. Winners are determined based on scoring from independent judging panels comprised of some of the most respected national and local newspapers, TV and radio outlets, and business, consumer, technology and trade publications in North America. This year, the program received over 700 entries from both public and private companies of all sizes, representing all industries and regions in the U.S. and Canada.

See the full list of 2022 Best in Biz Award winners here.

About PeopleScout
PeopleScout, a TrueBlue (NYSE:TBI) company, is a leading RPO provider managing talent solutions that span the global economy, with end-to-end MSP and talent advisory capabilities supporting total workforce needs. PeopleScout boasts 96%[LL1] [SC2] client retention managing the most complex programs in the industry. The company’s thousands of forward-looking talent professionals provide clients with the edge in the people business by consistently delivering now while anticipating what’s next. Affinix™, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent acquisition platform, empowers faster engagement with the best talent through an AI-driven, consumer-like candidate experience and optimizes the talent process through data and actionable insights. Leveraging the power of data gleaned from engaging millions of candidates and contingent associates every year, PeopleScout has served clients in more than 70 countries with headquarters in Chicago, Sydney and London and global delivery centers in Toronto, Montreal, Bristol, Krakow, Gurgaon and Bangalore. For more information, please visit www.peoplescout.com.

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
pr@trueblue.com
1-253-680-8291