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
At PeopleScout, we are committed to providing you with information to help guide you on your DE&I journey. We aim to cover a wide range of DE&I topics, including issues regarding BIPOC, the LGBTQ+ community, gender gaps, people with disabilities and more. This article is the next in our library of DE&I resources, and specifically focuses on the Hispanic and Latinx community.
In the U.S., National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15 to honor the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latinx Americans by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
And it’s no doubt their contributions have been great—especially in the workforce and to the economy. Consider the impact this group has had and will continue to have in the future:
Creators of Jobs Within the last decade, 86% of all new businesses in the U.S. have been launched by U.S. Latinos, with Latinas creating business six times faster than any other group.
Yet, organizations still lack Hispanic representation across all seniority levels. People of Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity make up 18% of the labor force but only 4.3% of executive positions in the U.S., making the gap between the labor force and executive representation wider among Hispanics than any other group.
So how can organizations do their part in closing this gap? Employers should make conscious efforts to attract and retain this diverse group of talent and provide them with opportunities for growth and development.
Understanding the Many Names of this Diverse Group
Before you can effectively attract candidates from Hispanic and Latinx backgrounds, it’s important to understand the terminology that identifies this unique group.
According to Pew Research Center, “the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’ are pan-ethnic terms meant to describe—and summarize—the population of people living in the U.S. of that ethnic background.”
Some have drawn distinctions between the two terms, and their widely used definitions can be summarized as the following:
Hispanic: A person residing in the U.S. with descent from Spanish-speaking countries (this excludes Brazil, where Portuguese is the official language).
Latino: A person of Latin American descent residing in the U.S. (this includes Brazil but excludes Spain).
However, this group has mixed views on how they prefer to describe their identity, with over half describing themselves by their country of origin.
In recent years, a new term has emerged as an alternative to Hispanic and Latino: Latinx. The term is one of many in the global movement around gender-neutral language. Latinx serves as a gender-neutral alternative to Latino and Latina and aims to encompass Latin American and Hispanic people from all racial backgrounds while also including those who identify as transgender, queer, agender, non-binary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.
According to trend data from Google, the term first appeared online in 2004, but didn’t begin to gain momentum and wider usage until 2014. Today, it sees use around the world, most often in the U.S.
And much like the terms ‘Hispanic’ and ‘Latino’, surveys also reveal mixed feelings on ‘Latinx’ among the population it is meant to represent. Younger people, ages 18-29, are most likely to have heard of and use the term, while older people 65 and up are least likely. Specifically, use is the highest among young Hispanic women—14% say they use it, compared to the 1% of Hispanic men in the same age range. Here are other factors that impact how likely a U.S. Hispanic person is to have heard of Latinx and use the term:
Whether the term Latinx should be adopted as a pan-ethnic term for the U.S. Hispanic and Latino population is still up for debate, with one third of those who have heard the term believing it should be used more broadly, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
Like many scholars, journalists, activists and publications, PeopleScout will opt to use the term for the remainder of this article in an attempt to better include the many groups of people who make up the Latinx population.
Strategies to Recruit and Retain Hispanic and Latinx Candidates
If your organization is committed to improving its diversity, equity and inclusion practices, Latinx employees are a vital group to include in this initiative. Latinx individuals come from a wide variety of backgrounds, making the group extremely diverse in culture within itself. By including people from this group across your organization and in executive positions, your business will be better equipped to evolve and innovate as time goes on. Consider these strategies for recruiting and retaining Latinx candidates.
Recruit with Intention Employers need to be intentional in improving representation of Latinx employees in leadership and across the workforce. Make it a point to recruit from industries and universities that are highly diverse.
“If you do not have intentionality with diversity and inclusion, you have nothing.” – Cid Wilson, President and CEO of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (via Invariant)
Utilize Employee Testimonials Show candidates that your organization is home to diverse talent by showcasing those employees in your recruitment marketing tactics. You can share their experiences working for your organization through quotes, videos, personal stories or recruiting case studies. It is especially important to highlight diverse talent from all levels of your business.
Expand Your Search When possible, it can be beneficial to expand your talent search nationwide, or even internationally as your organization allows. With the immense rise in remote work since the onset of the pandemic, many Latinx candidates will be looking to organizations with remote and flexible work options as they make the next move in their careers. Or, if your business requires in-person work, a competitive offer might have that top talent considering relocating for the position.
Leverage Employee Networks Look to your existing Latinx employees, as well as all employees, for diverse referrals. In addition, you should seek input from these employees on how to attract candidates with similar backgrounds, as well as hear their ideas for organizational change and goals. In other words, empower them to have a voice.
Provide Mentorship Even if your organization is highly diverse, any member of a minority group might feel excluded at times. By providing opportunities for mentorship both with individuals of the same background as well as those with different backgrounds, employees will feel more included. Encourage mentors to help employees meet their professional goals so they can grow within the organization.
How to Support Your Hispanic and Latinx Employees
Recruiting Latinx employees is the first step in improving diversity in your organization. The next is focusing on ways to make those employees feel supported and included.
For example, at PeopleScout and the broader TrueBlue organization, we have the Hispanic Opportunity & Latin Awareness (HOLA) employee resource group to embrace and support our Latinx employees and associates within the communities we serve. HOLA aims to increase cultural competency and awareness around Latinx issues and concerns throughout TrueBlue, support TrueBlue’s efforts to attract and retain the best Latinx talent and provide the development and support necessary for Latinx employees to grow both personally and professionally.
Here are examples of other companies with impressive initiatives to support their Latinx employees:
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola’s “Hispanic Leadership Business Resource Group” offers its Hispanic and Latinx employees development, networking, community involvement opportunities and helps the company drive innovative business ideas. In 2017, the group had an idea for a Point-of-Sale Spanish Adaptation Tool which allowed bilingual employees to submit their interpretation of Coca-Cola taglines and phrases in different Spanish dialects to avoid the phrases losing their meaning through literal translations.
Furthermore, the company showed their commitment to Hispanic and Latinx employees when there was uncertainty about Dreamers in the U.S. by covering the $500 DACA renewal fees for employees in the program.
Ellucian Ellucian, a software and solutions development company for higher education, gave employees a sense of belonging by celebrating their heritage. The company planned volunteer events, office potlucks celebrating Latinx and Hispanic culture, highlights of influential Hispanic Americans, and an Instagram takeover for Latinx employees to share their experiences working at Ellucian. The first takeover on the company’s Instagram account came from the leader of ¡wepa!, the company’s Latinx ERG.
General Motors General Motors, a vehicle manufacturing company, supports Hispanic employees from the very beginning by specifically targeting professional Hispanic organizations and Hispanic Serving Institutions as part of their recruiting strategy. The company focuses on raising the number of Hispanic professionals in STEM through their recruiting efforts and by providing over $5 million in scholarships for Hispanic STEM students.
Leidos When the defense, aviation, IT, and biomedical research company discovered that the Hispanic and Latinx community was being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 nationwide, they made it their priority to help. Leido’s Latinx ERG partnered with the Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs in Washington, D.C. and Neighborhood Health in Alexandria, VA to donate more than 6,000 face masks and 1,500 bottles of hand sanitizer to help combat the spread of COVID-19 within Latinx communities in those areas.
You can find more examples of companies who prioritize their Hispanic and Latinx employees here.
Hispanic and Latinx Inclusion in the New World of Work
The new world of work is not just about where and how work is done, but it’s about the people who are doing the work. It’s a candidate’s market, and people will choose employers who care about their employees as people. In order to be truly successful, organizations must fully understand their workforce, starting with their employees’ diverse backgrounds and identities.
By understanding your underrepresented groups of people, like Hispanic and Latinx employees, consciously recruiting them, celebrating their heritage and investing in their growth, we’ll work our way toward a workforce with equal representation and strong inclusion of diverse groups across industries and at all levels of seniority.
It’s no secret that the pandemic greatly impacted the labor market over the past year and a half. First, job openings plummeted, and unemployment skyrocketed. Now, we’re amid the Great Rehire and organizations are finalizing plans to reopen offices and get back to business as usual.
As lockdowns ease, vaccination numbers rise and consumers get back to spending, job openings are at an all-time high—as a result of millions of prime-age workers leaving the labor market or switching to part time. Employers in industries like leisure and hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing and more are struggling to fill open positions with qualified talent.
So, with all these open jobs, how can employers stand out above the competition to attract the next generation of top talent? It starts with focusing on key ideal candidate touch points—from your employer value proposition (EVP) and employer brand to your recruitment marketing strategy, careers site and application process.
In this article, we’ll take you along the candidate journey and touch on each aspect you should address to make your open roles stand out in a sea of job openings.
Create an EVP and Employer Brand that Speaks to Your Ideal Candidate
Your EVP and employer brand carry a lot of weight for the next generation of top talent, because they serve as differentiators between your brand and competitors and allow you to align your organization’s purpose with your candidates’ passions. It is important to do your research and be aware of what candidates hold in high regard, such as the opportunity for growth personally and professionally or the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Learn what drives your ideal candidate, identify what drives your organization’s mission and values, and establish an EVP and employer brand that speaks to both.
Building an Employer Brand for the Lawyer of the Future
The Situation: Linklaters approached us with a talent problem for the ages. They needed an entirely new type of lawyer. The profile Linklaters recruited for in the past would no longer bring them the ideal candidates necessary to secure and expand on their position as a heavyweight global law firm.
The Research: We conducted one-on-one interviews and focus groups with hundreds of professionals in 20 Linklaters offices across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The output of these interviews gave us everything we needed to create the EVP and the framework of the brand on which to build our global advertising campaign.
The Solution: We created an employer value proposition that was a combination of big picture philosophical and a Linklaters-specific selling point.
GREAT CHANGE IS HERE
Message: Change is healthy and exciting, as well as unavoidable. Join this modern, international, hugely diverse cohort and you’ll have a truly influential voice that redefines the legal sector and sets you up for an ever-evolving career.
The Results: Glassdoor scores for Linklaters have risen by 8% in the last two years and, importantly, applications from female lawyers – which was a key objective – have increased since the EVP launch.
When it comes to increasing awareness with recruitment marketing, you want to reach ideal candidates and promote your organization as desirable. To ensure you are marketing yourself properly, it can help to create content that drives a potential candidate to come back to your site, even if they aren’t actively looking for a job.
For example, acknowledging company accolades and awards can spark interest in your organization for both active and passive candidates, like this Instagram post from HubSpot. However, content at this stage does not need to be directly correlated to your organization to be effective. Content regarding professional development and motivation can also lead ideal candidates to inquire further on your website, such as these resume tips from Nestle Purina.
Stage Two: Generate Interest
Now that you have increased awareness, the next step is to generate interest. You have succeeded in showcasing your organization’s knowledge and place in the industry, now it’s time to show what it is like to work at your company. This is where you stress your employer brand, especially via social media. This can give potential candidates an inside look as to what it’s like to work for your company.
Social media is a powerful tool that not only generates interest but can also increase applicants for vital roles. For example, PeopleScout helped this manufacturing client increase the number of female applicants and hires in a male-dominated industry. Through the usage of employee spotlights, videos and stories to showcase how women are integrated into the culture and integral to the company’s success, the client was able to increase female hiring by 3% annually from 2018 to 2021.
Stage Three: Nurture the Decision
After increasing awareness and generating interest in your company, it is now time to promote open positions and the benefits, perks and compensation that will come with these roles. The promotion of open roles within your organization will lead the candidate to your careers site, which will play a pivotal role in the candidate’s journey toward employment with your organization. Here, it is important to do research on your competitors to see what they are offering for similar open roles. If a competitor is offering better pay, benefits, or perks, that can be a deciding factor for an ideal candidate to choose them over your organization, despite your strong recruitment marketing strategy.
Build a Careers Site that Stands Out
At this point in the candidate journey, the potential applicant has made their way to your organization’s careers site. It’s important to remember that a careers site is not only an area for job postings, but it is also home to many opportunities to stand out above competitors. For example, your careers site is a great place to reiterate the employer value proposition you built out in your recruitment marketing strategies to ensure that message is carried through every step of the candidate journey. Your careers site should be inclusive of everything a potential candidate would like to know about what it would be like to work for your organization. Consider these key areas of opportunity when refreshing your careers site:
Ensure Accessibility
In the digital age, it is important to make sure your careers site is user-friendly for those on a computer or a smart phone, especially since 61% of applicants applied to jobs via a mobile device in 2020. If a candidate struggles to navigate your careers site, chances are they won’t be staying on that site for long. It is also important to make sure your careers site is accessible for those with disabilities. Here are some suggestions from SHRM on how to make your careers site accessible for all:
Screen reader compatibility
Alternative text for images
Color contrast
Keyboard accessibility
Controls for moving content
Captions
Controls for timed content
Labeled forms
Accessible downloadable files
Plain language
Search Engine Optimization
It is important to utilize search engine optimization on your careers site. This can play a pivotal role in your careers site showing up first over a competitor on major search engines. The usage of keywords and traditional, highly searched titles will play an important role in helping your roles stand out above your competition. Research of popular keywords can boost your place among major search engines, leading potential candidates to your careers site first. Google Analytics and UTM tracking codes are important tools to utilize in your SEO journey to track and report where your clicks are coming from.
Provide a Personal Touch
On your career site, adding a personal touch, such as a welcome video, can go a long way. It can help the candidate see the human side of your business; it can offer an inside look of the facility and it is also an opportunity to showcase where these applicants may fit in within the structure of the organization.
This is a great chance to sell the applicant on working for your company and really showcase your company culture. Offer insights, quotes or firsthand experiences from senior leaders to newly brought on employees. Highlight opportunities for growth both personally and professionally and provide examples of success stories from your existing employees.
Let Applicants Know What to Expect
If the process to apply and interview is not given or discussed at all, many applicants can be led to believe their application will get lost among others. Be upfront and transparent about what the application and interview process is like and offer timelines for the applicants.
Streamline the Application and Interview Process
Although the candidate has made it this far, you’re not done yet. After all, 80% of the time, candidates don’t finish filling out job applications, according to Glassdoor. To ensure candidates complete your application and interview process, focus on these key aspects to help you stand out:
Mobile-friendly application
Quick response time
Virtual interviews
Automated chat and scheduling
Consider how technology can help streamline your process in each of the categories listed above. A mobile-friendly application, easy interview scheduling and quick response times can all be enhanced by AI and automation and provide a superior candidate experience.
Standing Out Beyond the Application
Despite having a well built out EVP and employer brand, recruitment marketing strategy, careers site and application, the deciding factor for an ideal candidate to choose your organization will often come down to a strong employment offer. It’s important to keep in mind that if your compensation, perks and benefits (like flexible work options) don’t match up to competitors, ideal candidates in today’s market have the ability to choose to work elsewhere.
That said, by creating ways to stand out and showcase your EVP and employer brand at each stage of the candidate journey as outlined above, you will be one step closer to securing the top talent your organization needs.
Employer Brand: Helping the Right Talent Choose You
Engaging and retaining your best performers has become increasingly difficult due to the normalization of shorter tenures. Now more than ever, a strong employer brand is critical to attracting top candidates, keeping your employees engaged, and retaining your talent for the long term.
In this ebook, Employer Brand: Helping the Right Talent Choose You, we explore how organizations can build and maintain a strong employer brand to combat talent risk.
In this ebook you will learn:
What goes into a cohesive employer brand and how it can help attract top talent
How your organization should be managing and caring for your employer brand
How your employer brand can impact cost-per-hire, recruiter efficiency, and employee advocacy
How to measure success from your employer brand efforts
Our latest research shows a detailed picture of the current state of skills in the global workforce and how HR leaders are preparing for the impending skills crisis
Linklaters: Attracting the Lawyer of the Future with a New Global Employer Brand
PeopleScout helped the firm create a global employer brand to attract and retain the best and more diverse legal talent across 30 global offices.
8%Boost in Glassdoor Scores
27Jumped 27 Places in Best Global Employer Brand Awards
Increase in Applications from Female Lawyers
Situation
The world Linklaters was facing was one of rapid, multifaceted and unprecedented transformation. New technologies, sectors and innovations were disrupting the world and dismantling old assumptions about business success and the role of the law.
The profile they had recruited in the past would no longer bring them the candidates necessary to secure and expand on their position as a heavyweight global law firm. Linklaters needed a whole new type of lawyer—a nimble business advisor using their legal expertise and global mindedness to help clients navigate a time of huge complexity.
The problem was that every law firm in the world was chasing this new breed of lawyer.
Linklaters approached PeopleScout to help them define, promote and manage a compelling new global employer brand, allowing the business to cut through the noise as an employer of choice in a ferociously competitive market.
Solution
Knowing, Not Guessing
We met with hundreds of professionals in 20 Linklaters offices across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific including recruitment, HR, hiring managers, associates, graduates and interns to gather insights.
After 17 focus groups in 13 international offices, we had a sense of the key themes which gave us a foundation from which to build the employer value proposition (EVP) and the framework of the employer brand which would inspire our global advertising campaign.
Linklaters is global firm with almost unmatched strength across practices and geographies.
Linklaters lawyers don’t just embrace the change, they direct it.
They are at the epicenter of work that will shape law, commerce, industry, the environment and society for decades to come.
The quality of training on offer and the caliber of colleagues to learn from means those who join will never stop learning.
A New EVP – Great Change is Here
We created an employer value proposition (EVP) that was a combination of a big picture philosophy and a Linklaters-specific selling point: GREAT CHANGE IS HERE.
In a time of unprecedented change, this EVP makes progress healthy and exciting. It serves as a foundation for an employer brand that reflects Linklaters as a modern, international, hugely diverse cohort offering employees the opportunity to have an influential voice that redefines the legal sector and sets them up for an ever-evolving career.
Global Relevance
As an international brand with diverse target audiences, we built flexibility into the brand so it would resonate widely across geographies and cultures.
We created four underlying message pillars that we could dial up or down as required to create the right combination of messages with the right geographies.
Human Experts – Collaborate with smart, down-to-earth people on complex issues.
One Team – Multi-jurisdictional work calls for a truly aligned and collaborative environment.
Innovation – Whether you’re solving client problems or setting legal precedent, Linklaters celebrates creative thinking and innovative approaches.
Career Platform – Through prominent projects, high-profile clients, training, support, early exposure, external secondments, Linklaters is investing in their employees’ careers.
Linklaters received a full employer brand toolkit explaining the EVP, the messaging behind the brand, visual design and advertising principles and the tone of voice to be used internationally. We rolled this out to recruiters across North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific so that local activity could be fully supported.
Results
The project was a significant success and was shortlisted for Best Global Employer Brand in 2018. Following the launch, the firm’s reputation as a graduate employer improved significantly over several years, rising 27 places from their 2016 position to 19th place in 2021. Glassdoor scores for Linklaters have risen by 8% in the last two years and, importantly, applications from female lawyers—which was a key objective—have increased since the EVP launch.
At a Glance
COMPANY Linklaters
INDUSTRY Legal Services
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
LOCATIONS 30+ offices across 21 countries in Europe, North America and Asia
ABOUT LINKLATERS Linklaters in a global law firm specializing in corporate practice areas including mergers and acquisitions, finance, litigation, antitrust and tax.
Maersk, a global shipping company, came to PeopleScout for a talent advisory solution that would deliver on a diverse and digital-forward new global employer brand.
Situation
Think Maersk and you think container ships. Steel giants criss-crossing the oceans. You probably think dependable and trustworthy, but slow moving. What you don’t think of is digital trailblazer. But, when they came to us, that was precisely their goal.
Already leaders in global shipping, the Maersk group was about to undertake a huge transformation to take them to the next level of their business strategy. Their vision was to become a global integrator of container logistics and digitalization of the business was at the core of this big move. Maersk no longer wanted to be seen as a shipping company; they wanted to be seen as a leader in technology.
The issue was that they didn’t have the world-class capabilities in the business to fuel this tech revolution.
The brief: create an employer brand that:
Made transportation and logistics attractive to global talent in a way it hadn’t been before – competing with the likes of Microsoft and Amazon.
Attract diverse candidates (especially STEM and digital) with the innovative mindset to bring radical change.
Change perceptions of the Maersk Group away from solid, slow and paternalistic to dynamic and pioneering.
Solution
RESEARCH
The insight phase was intensive.
Understanding the organization, the many and varied brands, the core business areas, its people and the nuances across the globe was highly complex. It was also the key to creating an employer value proposition (EVP) that would turn heads among non-traditional candidates.
We ran a very diverse, in-depth and international series of focus groups and one-on-one interviews across the group and externally.
This allowed us to:
Understand the views and vision of senior leaders within the business.
Gain deep insights into the lived experience of professionals at various managerial, technical and operation levels.
Map the competitor talent market to identify specific territories that Maersk could own with regards to its proposition and messaging.
Develop a set of core messaging pillars that we validated with senior stakeholders across the globe before developing our EVP and recruitment communications campaigns.
THE CORE MESSAGE
Our EVP message aimed to inspire, motivate and challenge employees and candidates to be part of a career-defi ning, once-in-a-generation transformation. The result is an invitation and a two-way commitment striking the kind of pioneering, adventurous and fast-moving note that you simply wouldn’t expect from a business like Maersk. It also gave us a platform to tell stories that capture hearts as well as minds.
EVP message: Let’s go into the amazing
INTERNATIONAL RESONANCE
Because our audiences were very diverse and located all over the world, we created a series of five messaging pillars. Drawn from the key insights gained at the research stage, these pillars allowed our brand messaging to be flexed in order to speak to the motivations of individuals and talent groups all across the globe.
THE PILLARS
Pioneering Candidate offer: Seize every new opportunity, pursue every experience and never be afraid to be the first.
Belonging Candidate offer: Be open, be curious and bring your whole self to work.
Societal impact Candidate offer: This isn’t just about the part you play in our business, it’s about the change you can make in our world.
Unfolding potential Candidate offer: Jump in wholeheartedly and we’ll support and invest in you to be your very best.
Global citizens Candidate offer: Broaden your horizons and make the world your workplace.
KEEPING IT ROBUST
Inspiring EVPs need strong foundations to stay inspiring. This is how the architecture of the Maersk employer brand all fits together.
MAKING IT REAL
This is how we took each of the pillars and turned it into a candidate-facing advertisement.
The Outcome
It’s still early days, but in the latest employer brand benchmarking, Maersk was delighted to see the impact the work was already having. A key measure is its ranking in The Most Attractive Employers List produced by Universum.
Maersk has seen its ranking improve. Our goal is to continue this momentum in each of the key markets and among each of the key talent segments.
At a Glance
COMPANY Maersk
INDUSTRY Transportation & Logistics
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
LOCATIONS Global with priority markets in India, the UK and Denmark
ABOUT MAERSK With locations in every port in the world, Maersk is one of the largest container shipping line and vessel operators in the world.
Diageo: Bringing Iconic Characters to Life with a New Global Employer Brand
You might have heard of Captain Morgan, but have you heard of the parent brand Diageo? PeopleScout helped Diageo, one of the world’s largest alcoholic beverage manufacturers, with a new global employer brand that helped them both celebrate and transcend their iconic brands to attract world class talent across cultures, companies and languages.
26One Employer Brand Nuanced to Resonate Across 26 Countries
5In-Market Brand Launch Events Plus One Global Webinar
300,000+Impression on Social Media During Week of Brand Launch
Situation
Diageo has a portfolio of some of the world’s most renowned drinks brands including Guinness, Baileys and Captain Morgan. Even though its drink brands are long established, the Diageo brand itself is less recognizable, particularly in the employment space.
Our challenge was to develop an employer brand that cut through this lack of awareness and inspired people in a wide variety of commercial disciplines all across the world to see themselves at Diageo. The new brand needed to reflect their employer value proposition (EVP) to drive Diageo’s reputation as an employer of choice for world class talent globally and complement the existing corporate brand positioning.
Solution
Our mission was to create and launch a new and compelling employer brand for an employer that was being outshined by its own iconic products.
Delving into the Challenges
We dove into insights gathered from a variety of internal stakeholders—from experienced Diageo colleague to recent hires—across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, India and other parts of APAC. These employees were from several departments like e-commerce, supply chain, marketing, finance, HR, IT and customer management.
We realized that the wide variety of geographies that Diageo covers creates complex challenges for the business, from the differing strengths in consumer brands between markets to talent attraction techniques and cultural nuances relating to alcohol. So, we knew that the new employer brand had to be flexible enough to resonate in different countries and feature local employees as champions to bring it to life.
From an external perspective, a survey revealed that 58% of our target audience had not heard of Diageo. Yet, 78% said they would be interested in working there after we connected the Diageo name to their famous brands. So, we needed to find a way to link the Diageo name to their recognizable products.
A Unique EVP – Character is Everything
We anchored the new employer brand in the history of the organization: character. People of extraordinary character—like Arthur Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Charles Tanqueray—had built the business from the ground up centuries before. And their spirit lives on, driving every aspect of Diageo in the 21st Century.
The EVP we introduced—Character is Everything—was grounded in the history of their individual products as well as influenced by the characters we met at Diageo. We wanted the brand to be a celebration of their personalities, joy and enthusiasm for Diageo’s famous brands.
We took Diageo through a comprehensive journey, developing pillars, narratives and collateral that fit into their overall corporate brand.
Tailoring the Employer Brand for Global Talent
We created six brand pillars, ensuring the message was compelling and authentic for audiences divided by geography or job area and then tested the proposition globally to gain buy-in business-wide.
In our narratives and designs, we made Diageo employees the brand heroes, telling local and global stories, and showcasing their characters to bring the Diageo story to life on every channel. The brand imagery was genuine and full of depth—from the smiling faces of real employees to the bold headlines.
We fine-tuned and then launched different iterations of the brand for different geographies. For example, in various African countries, recruiters told us that candidates responded well to messages around supporting the community. We also translated our communications into a range of languages.
The brand was designed to provide enough content and materials for immature markets to roll out independently, while still leaving enough scope and space for innovation in advanced markets.
Setting Diageo Up for Success
Our Talent Advisory team supported the brand launch across the globe, promoting and publicizing the new brand. We helped the Talent Engagement Teams to understand the proposition, what tools are available to them and how to use the brand effectively to hire great talent. We also supported internal launch events in which we engaged employees in activities to explain what it means to work for Diageo and the kinds of traits and behaviors they should look for in new hires.
Results
The new EVP and employer brand creative was well received across Diageo.
Launch Events
We hosted five in-market events plus a webinar which had over 500 webinar registrants, over 200 live participants and 30 on-demand views of the recording. These events inspired huge amounts of user-generated content on LinkedIn from employees.
Social Media
Diageo executed a series of posts across their social media channels under a unique branded hashtag, #characteriseverything, generating a huge amount of activity and traffic during the first week.
329,472 overall impressions
6,257 clicks plus 2,936 click-throughs to the Diageo career site
2,986 likes
179 shares
72 comments
3.19% overall engagement rate (well above industry average)
Global Reach
Activations of the brand have now reached 26 markets. So far, we’ve worked on:
A film to support recruitment in Budapest
Brand activation project for hiring in Korea
Communications for Diageo’s global ATS platform
A revamped toolkit for employee reward
Recruitment event collateral for Venezuela
A recruitment marketing campaign for early careers within the supply chain division
An internal communication project for the Diageo’s migration to Workday
We’ve gained evidence across a number of campaigns that the new employer brand is altering perceptions and boosting awareness of Diageo. There has been a great response internally too. Not only were we over-subscribed for brand champion volunteers, focus group feedback is showing an upswing in pride around the Character is Everything message.
At a Glance
COMPANY Diageo
INDUSTRY Consumer Goods
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
LOCATIONS The refreshed Diageo employer brand was flexed to resonate in 26 different countries including Budapest, Korea and Venezuela.
ABOUT DIAGEO Diageo is one of the world’s largest producers of spirits and beers including iconic brands like Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker. With over 27,00 employees, their 200+ brands are sold in 180 countries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright spotlight on company values and culture, separating employers who truly live up to their promises from those who rarely take action where it matters. And, employees are paying attention – as well as growing more critical of organizations that they’re considering working for.
Meanwhile, according to the latest Engagement and Retention Report from Achievers Workforce Institute, 52% of currently employed respondents said they would hunt for a job in 2021 – up from 35% in 2020. But, why are more than half of employees looking for a new job this year? The short answer: They’re disengaged. Whether from lack of recognition; poor diversity and inclusion practices; remote work burnout; or a feeling of disconnectedness, 71% more employees are disengaged in 2021 than 2020.
In fact, lack of career growth is the number one factor holding employees back from feeling engaged at work – making it a key area of opportunity for employers looking to remain competitive. Plus, as organizations are in the midst of the Great Rehire, talent acquisition teams face the challenge of filling a number of unexpected open roles – and high turnover exacerbates the issue. As such, maintaining a strong retention strategy is essential to avoid overloading these already lean teams.
In this article, we’ll walk you through the benefits of learning and development programs; explain how to create an effective strategy to promote career growth; and share examples of ways that organizations are investing in their people.
Benefits of a Learning & Development Program
Launching an effective learning and development program typically requires investing in resources. However, when done right, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Specifically, not only does a strong learning and development program help employees in their career growth, but it can also improve the performance of an organization as a whole. More precisely, some of the key benefits of implementing a learning and development program are:
Closing Skills Gaps A training and development program is a great way to address skills gaps within an organization – especially if your company had to scale down during the pandemic. But, by performing a skills audit, you’ll have a better idea of which gaps exist in your organization – which can then help you determine the areas that make the most sense for reskilling your workforce. Then, as a result of improved efficiency and more highly skilled employees, you’ll also increase your ability to fill open roles from within.
Increasing Retention & Employee Satisfaction Not only will employee performance improve, but retention and satisfaction will increase, as well. That’s because employees feel genuinely cared for and valued when an employer shows a willingness to invest in employee growth and development. And, with an improved set of skills and knowledge, employees will be more likely to stick around at a company that believes in them and wants to see them succeed. This employer loyalty will then increase retention and decrease turnover rates.
Staying Competitive & Innovative Consistent investment in your employees’ growth and development will also help keep their thinking fresh and future-focused, thereby resulting in an overall culture of innovation at your organization. Plus, top talent will also be more inclined to join an organization with the perk of a strong learning and development program, as well as the opportunity to grow in a new role.
Improving Employer Brand Organizations with effective development programs can also leverage them as a selling point to attract prospective candidates. Additionally, current employees will be more likely to leave positive reviews on employer review sites and spread the word within their networks that your organization truly cares about employee career growth.
Saving Money As skills gaps close and retention is improved, your organization will also save money on sourcing and recruiting external candidates. Plus, a culture of innovation and employee satisfaction will keep your employer brand strong, as well, which has a significant effect on candidate attraction spend.
How to Create an Effective Learning & Development Program
Before you jump in to implementing a robust learning and development program, it’s important to start by planning. Below is an overview of the key items to consider:
Establish Goals The first step in planning for a learning and development program is to establish the goals of the program. This step is crucial because you’ll refer back to these goals as you make decisions along the way. In particular, ask yourself:
What are the overall business goals that our organization is trying to achieve?
How will the learning and development program align with our overall organizational goals?
What are the necessary steps needed to achieve these goals?
Identify Competencies Competencies are a particular set of abilities, skills, and knowledge that affect an organization’s success and set it apart from competitors. Some examples of business competencies include:
Business acumen
Strategic agility
Market knowledge
Communication
Decision-making
Change leadership
Driving results
Collaboration and influence
After determining the key competencies your organization wants to foster in alignment with your goals, you’ll be able to better curate learning tracks to help instill these competencies into your employees.
Determine Strategy There are a variety of types of learning and development programs, so choose the one that makes the most sense for your organization. Your selection will depend on whether you want to teach the same skills to a large group of people at once, help employees improve on-the-job performance, or open training to everyone on their own schedule. Common types include:
Classroom/workshop style
Instructor-led training (ILT)
In-house/outsourced learning sessions
Interactive
On-the-job
Skills-based
Online
Incorporate Mentorship
A formal mentoring and coaching component can also complement your learning and development program. Specifically, pairing compatible employees with one another encourages teams to build relationships and learn from each other. To that end, it’s important to match mentees with mentors whose areas of expertise match the former’s desired area of growth to ensure that the relationship is mutually beneficial. As a result, less-experienced employees can be challenged and learn, while more seasoned employees can grow from the experience as a leader and mentor.
Encourage Engagement In order to ensure the longevity of your learning and development program, it’s essential to foster strong engagement. In particular, encourage managers to suggest training for employees and create a recognition system for employees who participate in trainings. Employees can also share completion certificates and comments about different trainings internally on platforms like Slack and Yammer. This strong sense of engagement will then encourage others to participate and, ultimately, lead to long-term success with your program.
Measure Results Finally, despite the fact that it’s often overlooked, it’s extremely important to establish a way to measure the effectiveness of the learning and development program once it has gained some traction. First, determine whether those initial goals are being worked toward and met. If they’re not, identify gaps where you may need to adjust strategy by considering the following questions:
Is employee productivity improving?
Are managers noticing improved employee engagement and satisfaction?
Are there any reductions in turnover time?
Are employees feeling more successful?
Has your employer brand presence improved externally?
Are you able to quantify results based on your overall goals?
Real Examples of How to Invest in Your People
The thought of creating a learning and development program from scratch may seem daunting, but it can be helpful to know that many organizations have found success through unique approaches to investing in their people. Here are some of the organizations leading the way in this important commitment to developing people:
Yelp Yelp’s transparent, supportive culture pushes its people to excel. The user-review company invests in: career development opportunities for its employees; constant constructive feedback; goal-focused, one-on-one sit-downs; team meetings; and thank you shout-outs for a job well done. All of these strategies reinforce each employee’s achievements, ambitions and unique strengths.
Dun & Bradstreet Dun & Bradstreet – a leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics – supports top-down learning, in which team members are welcome to jump on their managers’ calls. This enables them to learn about taking on more responsibility and also encourages them to pursue their own learning – whether by attending conferences or taking courses online.
WEX Inc. At WEX, every day is an opportunity for employees to ask if there is a better way – and to act on promising ideas. Through mentorship, conferences and tuition reimbursement, there’s always room to keep climbing the ladder at this financial technology company.
Amazon Amazon committed $700 million to retrain 100,000 workers by 2025, thereby allowing employees of the online retailer and technology giant to move into more highly skilled jobs within the company or find new careers outside of Amazon. In addition, Amazon’s Machine Learning University initiative helps workers who already have a background in technology and coding to gain skills in machine learning.
Verizon Communications Inc. After closing most of its retail stores during the pandemic, Verizon retrained 20,000 employees to handle new jobs, which ranged from sales to customer service. This year, the American multinational telecommunications conglomerate plans to teach 100,000 employees new skills to prepare them for the demands of 5G, the next-generation wireless standard. Additionally, Verizon is partnering with Generation USA to help train 500,000 workers throughout the next decade for jobs of the future in communities across the country.
Levi Strauss & Co. This year, Levi’s launched its Machine Learning Bootcamp, an immersive training in coding, machine learning and agile ways of working that are uniquely designed for employees of the American clothing company. Participants will master an in-demand skillset and focus on learning full-time for two months – all paid for and encouraged by leadership.
Walmart Walmart partners with Guild Education to offer employees a way to earn a high school or college degree for $1 per day. Employees of the American multinational retail corporation also get personalized coaching support from day one all the way through graduation.
PeopleScout At PeopleScout, we invest in our people through two programs. First, our Global Mentorship Program supports and enriches the professional development of PeopleScout employees. Similarly, our engagement with LinkedIn Learning also allows employees to explore professional interests and develop skills both professionally and personally. And, finally, our global ideation platform encourages employees to submit their innovative ideas for improving our business – giving them direct opportunities to work with leadership to develop ideas into tangible solutions.
Developing the Next Generation of Talent
As a talent leader, you understand the importance of a total talent mix, which means leveraging both internal and external recruitment strategies. And, with higher turnover forecasted as we move out of the pandemic, there’s no better time than now to start investing in your existing workforce. Plus, by constantly reskilling and upskilling your current team through a strong learning and development program, you’ll not only attract top talent externally, but you’ll also have loyal and dedicated employees who believe in your business and are prepared for the future of work – whatever challenges it may bring.
One of the earliest and most important steps in the internal mobility process is identifying which employees within your organization should be targeted for internal roles based on skills, experience and willingness to explore new career paths. But, how can you be sure you know the full extent of the skills available within your organization?
An internal mobility skills audit enables you to understand where employee skills lie, as well as direct your employees’ training and development plans and your overall recruitment strategy.
What is an Internal Mobility Skills Audit?
An internal mobility skills audit is the process of assessing your employees’ skills and then identifying potential internal candidates for open positions based on knowledge, experience, skill sets and flexibility. By assessing the knowledge and skills that already exist within your workforce, you can help develop the careers of existing employees while simultaneously improving your retention rates and filling open roles faster.
Who is Responsible for the Internal Mobility Audit?
When it comes to an individual employee who is a candidate for an internal role, team leaders or managers should be responsible for conducting the audit of that employees’ skills. However, larger team analysis for multiple roles is usually done by team leaders, HR or external talent advisors.
Data Collection & Analysis
The goal of data collection and analysis in an internal mobility skills audit is three-fold: 1) to analyze which roles are open now; 2) to rate how important each role is; and 3) to inquire about the skills required to perform the role properly. Data collection and analysis activities can include:
1. Developing job profiles and identifying critical skills needed for each job role:
Review current job descriptions as a reference for the skills that are needed.
Consider the effect of upcoming organizational changes or future work trends (like AI) on the role.
Develop a list of competencies that most clearly and accurately describe what is necessary to do the work.
2. Conducting an inventory of skills in your organization leveraging methods like:
Position descriptions
Job class specifications
Performance evaluations and employee assessments
Interviews or focus groups with supervisors, managers and employees
Self-assessments
As you might expect, it can quickly become difficult to manually keep track of each employee’s competencies and skill levels. Fortunately, talent technology can help you with the data collection process. For example, PeopleScout’s Internal Mobilitycan help you access an internal talent pool all in one place so you can quickly source, leverage, promote and reassign talent from within your organization.
Assessing Internal Candidates
Once internal candidates for open positions have been identified, it’s time for your teams to dive deeper and examine a candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). While the three terms may seem interchangeable, they are actually distinctly different dimensions of a potential internal candidates’ qualifications:
Knowledge focuses on the candidate’s understanding of key theoretical concepts important to the role.
Skills are the capabilities or hands-on experience needed for the application of theoretical knowledge important for the role.
Abilities are the innate traits or talents that a person brings to the role if selected as a successor.
KSAs are the core competencies used when assessing talent and can create a better picture of a potential candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. These are useful in creating your organization’s internal promotion and talent development programs, and it’s essential to develop a KSA profile of each internal candidate to determine whether their attributes align well with a specific role.
To begin, your internal mobility team can start building KSA profiles by asking these questions:
Where does your organization see the role evolving in the next three to five years? What skillsets will be required to evolve with the role?
What unique or specialized competencies are necessary to succeed in the role?
What qualities should the internal candidate possesses in order to thrive in the role and meet your organization’s business objectives?
Then, when identifying individual employees as potential internal candidates, consider assessing the following traits:
Flexibility and willingness to change roles or work environments
Interest in professional development, taking on new projects outside of their duties and learning new skills
Good communicators who work well with multiple teams and departments
When completed, the results of a skills audit should be aggregated into a report to obtain a clear view of existing skills and knowledge within your organization. The information you collect during the audit can then be used to support more than just your internal mobility program. It can also be applied to organizational restructuring and internal promotion, as well as help conduct effective succession planning.
![[On-Demand] The Human Advantage: Redefining Employer Value Proposition for the New World of Work](https://www.peoplescout.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PS-1265_The-Human-Advantage-Webinar-Promo-Materials_social_images-12-320x320.jpg)
