Category: Candidate Attraction

Talking Talent: Building an Employer Value Proposition and Employer Brand for the Future, Part One

Posted on by nfuqua

This is the first Talking Talent episode in a two-part conversation about employer value propositions and employer branding.

As employers face increasing competition for the best talent, a well-defined employer value proposition (EVP) and employer brand strategy have become more important than ever. In a candidate-driven market, employers need to stand out to their target talent audiences through a unified EVP and employer brand. High-quality candidates know what they want out of a future employer, and organizations that don’t effectively show their value to candidates risk losing them to the competition.

To talk about this, joining us is Simon Wright, Managing Partner of Talent Advisory here at PeopleScout.

With more than 20 years of experience in RPO and talent management consulting, Simon brings a global perspective to talent acquisition and engagement—having spent time living and working across the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

As Managing Partner for our Talent Advisory practice, Simon is a trusted advisor to HR and talent leaders. Operating at a strategic level, Simon has a proven track record of building and driving creative and innovative strategic talent programs that positively impact business performance. 

Simon leads an industry-leading (and award-winning) multi-disciplinary team of subject matter experts across the talent lifecycle – including employer brand and EVP, assessment and development, and diversity and inclusion – who deliver impressive outcomes for clients across a range of industries and sectors.

In this episode, Simon makes the business case for investing in EVP and employer brand development. He explains what makes a strong EVP and what steps you need to take to build one at your organization. Simon also walks us through an EVP and employer branding platform built by his team for Linklaters, a global law firm, sharing the background and the impact it made for the organization.

You can listen to part two of this podcast here.

Openreach: Recruiting for Hard-to-Fill Engineer Roles at Scale

Posted on by skatz
Openreach: Recruiting for Hard-to-Fill Engineer Roles at Scale

Microtitle

Openreach: Recruiting for Hard-to-Fill Engineer Roles at Scale

Openreach approached PeopleScout to help recruit for hard-to-fill trainee engineer positions. Our postal code-by-postal code attraction and simplified recruitment process enabled Openreach to fill all roles and to increase applications from diverse candidates.

413 trainee engineer hires
70 percent of applications were from diverse candidates
3 months to fill all vacancies

Situation

Openreach recruits 3,500 trainee engineers on an annual basis, with a large proportion of hires made in areas with strong candidate pipelines. However, hiring in Southern England and London proved challenging. So, they approached PeopleScout to support the delivery of 413 trainee engineer hires in these hard-to-fill locations in just three months.

Solution

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • Microsite hub
  • Bespoke, postal code-tailored attraction program
  • Simplified application process
  • All roles filled with increased diversity interest

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Openreach
  • INDUSTRY: Telecommunications
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ANNUAL HIRES: 413 trainee engineers
  • LOCATIONS: Multiple areas across Southern England and London
  • ABOUT OPENREACH: Openreach is a subsidiary of BT Group providing phone, broadband and Ethernet services to homes and businesses across the UK.
Let’s Connect

MICROSITE HUB

We worked with Openreach to scope and build a microsite to act as the hub for trainee engineer hiring. 

TAILORING BY POSTAL CODE

Deploying a bespoke attraction program by specific postal codes allowed us to be highly targeted in driving candidate pipelines. All attraction materials drove candidates to the microsite. 

LIGHT-TOUCH PROCESS

In addition, we developed a light-touch simplified recruitment process, which included video interviews and a one-page online application. 

Results

FILLED IN THREE MONTHS

From sign-off to implementation, the service was set up, configured and ready to go live in six weeks—and all 413 roles were filled within three months. 

DIVERSITY BOOST 

Nearly 70% of applications in London postal codes were from diverse candidates, translating into a 53% offer rate. 

TRANSFORMATIONAL

Openreach has said that collaborating with us has been “transformational,” and we’re now working with them on 150 additional hires.

The AA: Ready for ANYTHING? An Experiential Event Drives More Applications

Posted on by skatz
The AA: Ready for ANYTHING? An Experiential Event Drives More Applications

Recruitment Events

The AA: Ready for ANYTHING? An Experiential Event Drives More Applications

The AA engaged PeopleScout to design and host big, bold recruiting events for their call center roles. Through a series of silly, messy tasks, we increased awareness of the AA’s roles and drove more applications.

2 recruitment events
60,000 career site visits
78 percent increase in applications

Thousands more careers site visitors. Hundreds more applications. And how did we do it? With 64 fake spiders, 15 liters of custard and one tube of wasabi paste—among other things. This is the story of how we created a fun, conversation-sparking event that captured the essence of the AA employer brand, raised awareness of their call center roles and helped them make the successful hires they needed.

Situation

The AA has two large call centers in Oldbury (near Birmingham) and Newcastle, England. With ambitious hiring targets to meet, they’d used a range of attraction methods, from job boards and paid social media, to taxi wraps and ads at cinemas. They weren’t getting the results they needed, so it was time for something bigger and bolder.

Solution

We discussed and planned the objectives carefully with the talent attraction team and local stakeholders. We wanted to raise general awareness of the organization in local audiences and encourage them to spread the word, so we needed a way of reaching a large number of individuals easily, effectively and creatively. The AA also wanted us to showcase their fun and friendly culture.

Highlights

  • Raising awareness of roles
  • Reflecting a fun and friendly culture
  • Boosting social media activity
  • Increasing careers site visitors
  • Record-breaking application figures

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: The AA
  • INDUSTRY: Roadside Recovery Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Talent Advisory
  • LOCATIONS: 2 call centers in England
  • ABOUT THE AA: The Automobile Association (The AA) has been supporting motorists in the United Kingdom since 1905. With over 14 million members, breakdown cover is always their number one priority, but the AA has branched out into finance, insurance, leisure and lifestyle services.
Let’s Connect

A BRAND MESSAGING-ALIGNED EVENT

The “Ready for ANYTHING?” strapline is the central message in all of the AA’s recruitment communications activity, so it made sense to take this message and see just who was Ready for ANYTHING? among local audiences.

FUN TO TAKE PART IN. FUN TO WATCH.

With a big prize to incentivize contestants, the event was built around getting volunteers on stage to take part in a mystery challenge. We built The Random Challenge Generator—a big screen flashing through a series of silly, messy tasks. The contestant pushed a big yellow button to stop the screen, which brought up their challenge. We also engaged a celebrity host to help draw the crowds, engage with the audience and keep the fun moving. We ran two of these shopping center-based outdoor events—one in Newcastle, the other in Birmingham.

PROMOTING THE OPPORTUNITIES

Maximizing social media activity before, during and after the event, we also live-streamed the challenges. Filming on the day enabled us to create short videos for follow-up content to promote the AA’s call center roles. On the event days, we gave out flyers encouraging people to get involved and driving to the AA careers site, while digital screen and on-stage announcements also highlighted the AA’s local career opportunities.

Results

UNPRECEDENTED CAREERS SITE VISIT FIGURES

Social media and event build-up activity drove 60,000 career site visits across the weeks events were held. Before, 1,500 to 2,000 people visited the AA careers site each day. For the Newcastle event, this increased to 5,000 in just one day, with a record high of 7,100 in one day for Birmingham.

RECORD NUMBERS OF APPLICATIONS

While the AA saw a huge increase in applications for their call center in Oldbury, they had record breaking figures for Newcastle. With a month-over-month increase from 576 to 1,026—a 78% increase!

Delivering Diverse Early Careers Applicants in Financial Services

Posted on by akessler
Delivering Diverse Early Careers Applicants in Financial Services

Delivering Diverse Early Careers Applicants in Financial Services

A leading UK financial services group partnered with PeopleScout to improve the candidate experience in their early careers program, resulting in improved candidate diversity.

36 % Increased in Total Applications
39 % of Candidates Identified as Female
47 % Identified as Coming from an Underrepresented Group

Situation

PeopleScout is the long-time RPO partner for this client, supporting candidate management within their emerging talent program to attract more graduates and interns into the their workforce. As recognized leaders of employer brand and candidate experience, our client delivery team presented some recommendations to the organization to improve their hiring journey based on ad-hoc feedback received while interacting with early careers candidates.

Solution

Crafting a Better Candidate Experience

We started by creating a candidate experience audit to measure the informal comments we’d heard. Through a series of internal and external focus groups with graduates and interns who had recently been through the recruitment process, we identified gaps in the candidate communication schedule. Candidates revealed that they were often unsure of where they were in the process, what was coming next and how they should prepare.

With our client first, not process first philosophy, we created a customized plan to address these concerns. We produced a candidate journey guide to help the candidates understand each step of the process. To go along with this, we developed a content plan to provide candidates with the right information at the right time, keeping them informed about next steps.

Supporting the DE&I Directive

We also took the opportunity to boost candidate engagement by personalising email communications and adding visual content which promoted organizational program that would appeal to this young audience, like their well-being initiatives. In addition, to support the client’s DE&I directive, we chose to highlight stories about women and employees from minority backgrounds—especially those in finance and technology focused roles—to decrease the likelihood of these candidates dropping out of the funnel. 

Implementing Candidate NPS

Since we’re always focused on delivery, we implemented a new candidate Net Promoter Score® (NPS) survey to measure the candidate experience and uncover more opportunities for improvements going forward. All candidates, whether hired or not, are asked how likely they are to recommend the bank as a potential employer based on their recent experience with the early careers recruitment program.

Results

Since taking on the management of the Emerging Talent program for this client, we generated a 36% increase in total applications from the previous year, with 39% from female candidates and 47% from candidates from a underrepresented background.

The new candidate survey provided a candidate NPS of 57, which is considered excellent.

“The PeopleScout team are proactive in talking to us about new ideas and at the same time are brilliant at being reactive to business hiring needs. PeopleScout are a true trusted partner and have been fundamental to our hiring delivery and service over the last 20+ years.”

– Senior Resourcing Manager

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Leading UK financial services group
  • INDUSTRY: Financial Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ANNUAL HIRES: 1,500
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT: A leading UK financial services group has been partnering with PeopleScout for over 20 years, making it one of our longest-standing client relationships. What started as a Talent Advisory engagement has now expanded to include end-to-end volume Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) services, with over 1,500 hires annually across 16 sites, 50 shift patterns and multiple banking brands.
Let’s Connect

Scottish Police: Securing the Future of Policing with Talent Assessment

Posted on by akessler
Scottish Police: Securing the Future of Policing with Talent Assessment

Talent Assessment

Scottish Police: Securing the Future of Policing with Talent Assessment

PeopleScout developed a bespoke assessment process for the Scottish Police Authority to identify top leadership talent.

Situation

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) was faced with the challenge of hiring an elite group of leaders into the roles of Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) and Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) for Police Scotland. Police Scotland had undergone a wave of change, instability and uncertainty, and they needed a strong leadership team to work collectively and deliver a significant transformational agenda.

They wanted candidates who not only had the operational policing experience, but also the leadership capability to drive a challenging journey of accelerated growth, intense scrutiny and accountability.

The SPA engaged PeopleScout as a strategic talent assessment partner to help them do it.

Solution

A Robust Process

The SPA wanted our Assessment Team to design and deliver a robust process to recruit a number of ACCs and DCCs into Police Scotland. We measured each candidate’s strengths and potential areas of development against indicators from the College of Policing Competency and Values Framework.

A Two-Staged Approach

In stage one, candidates completed an online critical reasoning test and a series of personality assessments. This was followed by an in-depth validation interview with a highly experienced organizational psychologist.

For the second stage, all candidates were invited to attend an assessment center. They were tested by a team of independent, highly experienced assessors across four exercises.

Bespoke Reports

Our assessors collated all the candidate performance information and developed detailed reports on each individual. These also included a set of unique questions that the interview panel could use in the final stage interview to dig deeper and give candidates a final opportunity to demonstrate their capability in a specific competency.

Results

Successfully Appointed Leaders

This robust approach enabled the SPA to successfully appoint three individuals into ACC roles and two individuals into DCC roles as key players in the Police Scotland leadership team.


Confidence in the Future

Our tailored, best practice-based assessment process gave the SPA confidence that the selected individuals would make a significant contribution to the development of policing in Scotland in the years ahead.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Scottish Police Authority (SPA)
  • INDUSTRY: Government & Public Sector
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ABOUT SPA: Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is the independent governing body for policing in Scotland, created to promote, support and oversee improvement in policing.
Let’s Connect

Surrey Police: A Video Call to Action for Detective Constables

Posted on by akessler
Surrey Police: A Video Call to Action for Detective Constables

Recruitment Video

Surrey Police: A Video Call to Action for Detective Constables

PeopleScout created a compelling call to action to attract Detective Constables for Surrey Police with documentary-style video.

Situation

With Surrey bordering the Greater London area, Surrey Police are often in the shadow of The Metropolitan Police in the capital. There’s a perception that only detectives serving in the big city get the chance to work on big cases and solve serious crimes, and that Surrey is quiet and boring. The truth is that Surrey offers that opportunity, plus the training, career progression and work-life balance detectives looking for.

It’s complex. It’s challenging. And it’s rewarding.

Surrey Police needed to recruit experienced Detective Constables from other forces. They engaged PeopleScout and our industry-leading in-house creative team to challenge perceptions about crime fighting in Surrey.

Solution

Surrey Police asked us to create a video that would show experienced Detective Constables from other forces that they could have the career and development they wanted while reassuring the public that Surrey is a safe place to live.

A Research-Based Proposition

Conducting research to understand why detectives worked for Surrey Police, we developed the underlying proposition, “Be the detective you have always wanted to be.”

Compelling Visual Approach

We wanted something that would stand out and resonate with our target audience, inspiring them to uncover the truth in Surrey. So, adopting a compelling TV documentary trailer style, we worked with the filmmaker behind the groundbreaking BBC2 series The Detectives to shoot it—making the result truly cinematic.

Authentic Content

It was crucial to involve real detectives in the video, and at every stage, we worked with the detective team to ensure our film was as close to reality as possible. By conducting audio interviews with the detectives, we were able to match powerful, authentic, statements with the visuals.

Results

The video and accompanying campaign were highly successful in attracting Detective Constables to the Surrey Police.

Significant Increase in Hires

Surrey Police hadn’t expected the campaign to be so successful—they thought a handful of people might apply. But, with 24 hires in 9 months (up from 5 hires in 13 months), the results have really impressed them.

Cost Effective Campaign

With the typical cost to train a new starter as much as £100,000, this campaign built around attracting experienced detectives proved dramatically cost effective at £1,250 per hire.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Surrey Police
  • INDUSTRY: Government & Public Sector
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT SURREY POLICE: Surrey Police fights crime and protects communities in the country of Surrey, the third most densely populated county in SE England.
Let’s Connect

Talking Talent: The First 90 Days, Setting Yourself up for Success with New Hires and Promotions

Posted on by nfuqua

In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about the onboarding process and setting yourself up for success with new hires and promotions in the first 90 days.

Those first 90 days are a critical point for a new hire or promotion. Recent surveys have found that about 30% of job seekers have left a job within the first 90 days of hiring. Despite this, most onboarding programs are too short. According to SHRM, nearly 40% of onboarding programs last only a week or less. So, what impact does this have on the success of the new employee or the company? What can employers do during the first 90 days to improve the happiness and productivity of new hires?

Joining us to talk about this is Dana Look-Arimoto who is a mentor, speaker and change agent. Dana has more than 20 years of experience in the talent ecosystem. She’s created Phoenix5 to evangelize a new mindset: Stop Settling™. She coaches executives and leaders of all kinds to become their all in every part of their life: work, home, community and giving back. Dana also recently released the book, Stop Settling, Settle Smart.

In this interview, Dana talks about how employers can overcome inertia to develop a well-designed onboarding program tailored to each individual hire. She gives actionable advice that you can put in place today, and she explains how to drive success for newly promoted managers, an often-neglected topic. You’ll also hear Dana’s insights on how to identify your employee’s strengths and how to get the most out of them, how to give your new hires control over their own onboarding process, how to flex the process to fit different jobs and industries and how to transition out of the onboarding program to drive continued success.

Providing a Scalable Solution to Boost Recruiting Capabilities

Posted on by Kate
Providing a Scalable Solution to Boost Recruiting Capabilities

RPO Recruiting for Financial Services

Providing a Scalable Solution to Boost Recruiting Capabilities

A major national financial institution approached PeopleScout to supplement its internal recruiting functions. PeopleScout’s RPO solution provides the client with the scalability and flexibility it needs during high and low-volume hiring periods.

200 Scaling up to 200 recruiters to meet fluctuating demand.
90 percent of SLAs met
Dedicated military veteran hiring resources
Dedicated military veteran hiring resources

Scope and Scale

Positions in scope cover a mix of specialist and volume roles including tellers, personal bankers, IT, risk, compliance, audit, finance, mortgage, wealth management and call center representatives.

Situation

The client enlisted PeopleScout as an overflow RPO solution to handle cyclical hiring alongside its in-house recruitment teams in specific lines of business. PeopleScout supports the client with full-cycle RPO, including post-offer acceptance and pre-hire compliance checks. PeopleScout works with the client’s internal recruiters to support the sourcing and screening of candidates and to provide administrative support.

Solution

SOLUTION HIGHLIGHTS

  • Scalable full-cycle support for cyclical hiring needs
  • Consultative support and market intelligence
  • Innovative sourcing solutions
  • Dedicated military hiring resources
  • Project scope expanded

SCALABLE RECRUITING RESOURCES

PeopleScout’s team scales according to the client’s needs, fluctuating in size from approximately 90 members to over 200, helping manage costs while ensuring hiring demands are met.

FULL-CYCLE SUPPORT

PeopleScout acts as full-cycle recruiters, executing each phase of the recruitment process from identifying quality candidates to on-boarding new hires.

A CONSULTATIVE APPROACH

We provide the client with consultative services including market intelligence and innovative sourcing solutions.

Results

8,000 ANNUAL HIRES

Facilitate an average of 8,000 hires per year.

ADAPTED TO CLIENT PROCESSES

Successfully navigate the client’s complex processes and company hiring practices.

EXCEEDED CLASS HIRING GOALS

Exceed the goal for 90% of new hires starting on the same day, as part of a class.

MILITARY HIRING

Help the client achieve annual military hiring goals, dedicating two PeopleScout team members solely to military hiring.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE

Meet 90% of SLAs over the course of the engagement.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Major national financial institution
  • INDUSTRY: Financial Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ANNUAL HIRES: 8,000
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HM Treasury: Building Inclusion into the Candidate Experience

Posted on by akessler
HM Treasury: Building Inclusion into the Early Careers Candidate Experience

Early Careers

HM Treasury: Building Inclusion into the Early Careers Candidate Experience

PeopleScout boosted inclusion in the HM Treasury early careers recruitment process to improve diversity.

Situation

Every year His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) recruits up to 150 graduates for their Graduate Policy Adviser program, offering the chance to shape policies that affect a nation. A popular proposition, they sought PeopleScout’s help to identify the very best candidates from almost 2,500 applications. While well-subscribed, delivering a satisfactory candidate journey had historically proved to be a challenge, and they were keen for our help to improve the application experience.

A key objective was to attract a more diverse range of candidates, reflecting the the UK population they serve. Specifically, they wanted to engage a wider socio-economic, gender, ethnic and disability community. Understanding—and addressing—any adverse impacts on these groups was essential.

Solution

Our goal was to shift the perception that HMT roles are primarily financial when, in fact, communication and analytical skills are the most important abilities. Understanding this helped us to broaden the sweep of our attraction strategy while also developing a strategy to target specific talent groups.

We reviewed all of HMT’s assessment materials to establish their fairness and to ensure they represented best practice. We also monitored every stage of the recruitment process for any adverse impact.

We established a structured schedule of nurture emails, regularly updating candidates on their application status. Our recruitment team supported candidates throughout their entire recruitment journey.

We also applied a reasonable adjustment process, making sure that every candidate with a disability-related request was personally contacted to assess their requirements. For example, a disabled candidate was unable to complete the online test, so we worked with the test provider to replicate the evaluation in Microsoft Excel, and allowed the candidate to complete the test at our offices in London. The candidate was successful and progressed to the next stage.

“The attraction campaign generated 49% of all applications and increased applications from key target audiences—particularly women, those from underrepresented groups and state schools.”

Results

All hiring targets were achieved. The attraction campaign generated 49% of all applications and increased applications from key target audiences—particularly women, those from underrepresented groups and state schools.

HMT was thrilled with the results—so much so that they have asked us to take on further campaigns.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT)
  • INDUSTRY: Government & Public Sector
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ABOUT HMT: HM Treasury is the UK government’s economic and finance ministry, maintaining control over public spending and setting the direction of economic policy.
Let’s Connect

Safran Nacelles: Cutting Time-to-Hire by Over 30% for Critical Engineering Talent

Posted on by akessler
Safran Nacelles: Cutting Time-to-Hire by Over 30% for Critical Engineering Talent

Safran Nacelles: Cutting Time-to-Hire by Over 30% for Critical Engineering Talent

PeopleScout RPO sourced specialist engineering talent for Safran Nacelles, reducing time-to-hire by a third and cutting cost-per-hire in half.

33 % Reduction in Time-to-Hire
50 % Reduction in Cost-per-Hire

Situation

Safran Nacelles, an aerospace and defence company, needed to attract experienced stress engineers to join in permanent roles. However, experienced stress engineers are in very short supply as they are an essential part of the design and test processes for aircraft components.

The aerospace market is highly competitive, and the best candidates often opt for contracts rather than permanent positions. After 18 unsatisfying months trying to fill roles with their previous supplier, Safran Nacelles approached PeopleScout for help through recruitment process outsourcing (RPO).

Solution

Four things defined our approach: rigour, innovation, relationships and brand unity.

To understand the skills, experience and behaviors that typified an excellent candidate for Nacelles, we held a detailed briefing with hiring managers and stakeholders. Next, we devised a sourcing strategy, including deep web searching, competitor mapping and tapping into online forums, reaching out to candidates from Romania, India and the UK.

Our recruiters worked onsite at the Nacelles headquarters to build great relationships with the hiring managers. Every contact by PeopleScout recruiters was made under the Nacelles name, whether sourcing candidates, conducting interviews or leading tours of the factory. Nacelles and PeopleScout collaborated as one.

“The agreed time per hire was 45 days, but you achieved an average is just 30 days. That’s a reduction of 33%.”

Results

By managing every part of the process, we substantially streamlined Nacelle’s talent acquisition program, yielding fantastic results. The agreed time-per-hire was 45 days, but our average was just 30 days–a reduction of 33%. Within a month, we filled the first three roles and placed nine more stress engineers in permanent roles at Safran Nacelles—an unheard-of achievement in the aerospace industry.

Plus, we cut the cost-per-hire in half.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Safran Nacelles
  • INDUSTRY: Aerospace & Defence
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • LOCATIONS: Romania, India and the UK
  • ABOUT SAFRAN NACELLES: Safran Nacelles is a French multinational aerospace and defense corporation that designs, develops and manufactures aircraft components as well as various aerospace and military equipment.
Let’s Connect