Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

[On-Demand] The Hard Truth About Candidate Experience: Part Two

Posted on by nfuqua

[On-Demand] The Hard Truth About Candidate Experience: Part Two

Candidate experience has never been more important. Yet, fewer than two in ten candidates rate their experience as excellent.

So, what can you do about it?

To find the answer, PeopleScout audited the candidate journey of more than 215 organizations around the world, giving each a Candidate Experience Quotient, CandidateXQ, score.

By analyzing these CandidateXQ scores alongside data gathered via a survey of over 2,400 job seekers globally, we uncovered a clear disparity between candidate expectations and the reality they encounter while searching for jobs, gathering information to support their decision, and applying. These findings are detailed in our new research report, Inside the Candidate Experience.

For deeper insights into our research as well as actionable ways you can improve your own candidate journey, join PeopleScout Global Head of Talent Consulting Simon Wright for the companion Talking Talent webinar, The Hard Truth About Candidate Experience: Part Two, available now, on-demand.

In the webinar, Simon covers:

  • Our most significant research findings

  • How candidate expectations line up with reality and how you can close the gap

  • How generational differences influence what candidates consider before taking a role

  • An action plan to start improving your candidate experience

  • And more!

If you missed The Hard Truth About Candidate Experience: Part One, watch the half-hour webinar on-demand now!

Creating an Effective Employer Brand for Volume Hiring 

Posted on by akessler

It’s no secret that job vacancies continue to outnumber job seekers.  But what many employers focused on volume hiring don’t realize is that they already have one of the most effective tools for out-recruiting their competition at their disposal: their employer brand.

Investing in your employer value proposition (EVP) and employer brand is one of the best ways an organization can differentiate and attract the volumes of candidates it needs without compromising on quality-of-hire. In this article, we share ways to make your employer brand work harder for your volume hiring needs.

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Employer Brand vs Consumer Brand        

At PeopleScout, we define employer brand and EVP as follows:

  • Employer brand: Your employer brand is the perception and lived experiences of what it’s like to work for your organization.
  • Employer value proposition: Your employer value proposition, or EVP, captures the essence of your uniqueness as an employer and the “give and get” between you and your employees.

When an organization’s brand is well-known, there is frequently an overlap in sentiment between the consumer and employer brands in the minds of the general public. What candidates expect from you as consumers will be very different from what they’re looking for as potential employees.

Your employer brand should showcase the characteristics that make a company a great place to work, as well as the benefits, career growth opportunities, work-life balance and company culture that help you attract and retain talent.

Understand Your Audience & Tailor Your Content

The key to an effective employer brand is to know your audience. Zero in on who your ideal candidates are by looking at the most successful employees in each role. Are there similarities in their work experience, motivators or personalities? For example, we helped a telecoms client create candidate persona profiles for their contact center and found that many of their longest tenured employees were previously employed in beauty salons. These employees were applying their previous customer service experience to their phone and online customer interactions.

By shifting the mindset from getting candidates with previous call center experience to getting applications from candidates with past customer service experience in salons, restaurants and hotels, we were able to help the client increase offer acceptance and reduce attrition.

Similarly broadening your target audience will help you hire at scale in today’s tight market, and understanding who is most successful in a role—what makes them tick, what motivates them—will help you lean into the aspects of your employer brand that will be most meaningful to them. That could mean playing up your flexible work shifts, growth opportunities or your organizational values.

Create a Positive Candidate Experience

Even if you receive an influx of applicants for a role, don’t sacrifice the candidate experience. Word of mouth is still alive and well, and candidates have no problem sharing their experiences (especially negative ones) on social media.

Investing in CRM tools to introduce more personalization into your candidate communications can boost your candidate experience. Look for tools with texting and SMS capabilities to reach candidates where they already are. Texting is often more accessible for many hourly job seekers who are more likely to rely on their mobile devices for job searches and internet access.

Automating your screening and interview scheduling processes via text helps free up time for your recruiters and hiring managers to connect one-on-one with candidates and hold meaningful conversations that improve the candidate experience.

Your recruitment process should leave every applicant, regardless of whether they get a job with you, with a positive impression of your organization. Candidates are often your customers, and the last thing you want is for your candidate experience to negatively impact your consumer brand reputation. An exceptional candidate experience is essential not only in engaging the talent you need today, but in establishing a strong employer brand that will serve you well into the future.

Get Tips to Optimize High-Volume Recruitment

Want more tactics for high-volume recruitment? Check out our ebook, 9 Strategies for Solving High-Volume Hiring Challenges.

Recession, Recruiting and Resilience: Creating Opportunities for Workforce Planning Success

Posted on by akessler

With signs pointing toward a global recession, employers are preparing their workforces for what’s to come. This may mean cutting back on their investment in talent acquisition, delaying HR projects or even reducing their workforce.

While economic uncertainty can lead to difficult decisions for employers, it’s also important to recognize the opportunity it provides. This may be the perfect time to assess the resilience of your workforce and invest in workforce planning to make it fare better in the long run.

Is your talent acquisition program resilient enough to weather the storm? Here are four questions to ask to find out where you stand.

1. Is your employer brand and EVP still relevant?

If you haven’t updated your employer value proposition (EVP) in the last 18 months, it’s probably out of sync with the market and what candidates want. Now is the time to sense check if it’s relevant in 2023 and beyond. Does your employer brand work for a remote and hybrid workforce? Is it an authentic reflection of what you have to offer your employees?

Even if you’re not planning to hire actively in the near future, employer branding is also important for retention. Auditing and updating your brand will help you retain your current talent and ensure you’re ready to attract top talent in the future.

2. Is your hiring process working for remote and hybrid employees?

At the start of the pandemic, if you shoehorned your old in-person hiring process into your new hybrid or remote work reality and never looked back, it’s time to assess whether that’s really working for you. Remote work often requires a different set of skills than office-based work. Is your current process helping you assess those skills to achieve the quality-of-hire you need?  

Review the competencies and behaviors you need for each role to ensure they’re relevant for hybrid or remote employees. Now is the time to update job ads and evaluate your assessment process to ensure they are in tune with the success factors that drive your business now—instead of those that drove success pre-pandemic.

3. Are you achieving your DE&I recruitment goals?

While you may not be actively hiring, now is a good time to engage with diverse communities to ensure candidates from underrepresented backgrounds make up a significant portion of your talent pipeline when you’re ready to ramp up hiring again.

Increase your visibility in diverse communities via campaigns or event sponsorships. Look into your diversity analytics to understand what’s working and what’s not when it comes to sourcing and hiring your target audiences.

4. Is it time to consider RPO?

Now is the time to re-evaluate how you’re going to market for talent, whether via an internal talent acquisitions team, staffing agencies, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) or a hybrid model. Work with your procurement partner to scrutinize your spend and evaluate your options to streamline and minimize risk—including standardizing with one global RPO partner.

Just because you’re not hiring at the same volume you were before, doesn’t mean outsourcing is out of the question. Recruiter On-Demand or project RPO engagements offer flexible solutions for targeted hiring needs. An RPO partner can also offer value-added talent advisory services like market insights, employer branding, assessment services and more. Plus, once engaged, your RPO partner will be on tap to hit the economic recovery running and scale up for your hiring surge.

An economic slowdown is not the time to put your talent acquisition strategy on the back burner. Use this time to take stock and get prepared so you’re ready to bounce back faster. You’ll be able to beat your competition and create a resilient workforce that’s ready for whatever the future has in store.

Want more insight into the future of work? Check out our ebook, Destination 2030: 10 Predictions for What’s NEXT in the World of Work.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – December 2022

Posted on by nfuqua

U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in December, beating analyst expectations. The growth came despite rising interest rates aimed at slowing the job market. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.5%. Year-over-year wage growth fell to 4.6%.

jobs report infographic

The Numbers

223,000: U.S. employers added 223,000 jobs in December.

3.5%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent.

4.6%: Wages grew 4.6% over the past year.

The Good

December’s jobs report shows evidence the Federal Reserve’s strategy of increasing rates to provide a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy may be working. So, what would look like bad news in almost any other year is actually good news.  

The 223,000 jobs added to the economy is the smallest increase in the past years, as the Wall Street Journal reports, but it is still a healthy pace of job growth. Additionally, year-over-year wage growth slowed to 4.6%. Wage growth has remained stubbornly high over the past two years, and economists feared it could contribute to high inflation. December’s report helped allay some of those concerns.

The Bad

Though December’s job report was generally taken as good news, there are still some signs of unwanted weakness. As MarketWatch reports, layoffs in the technology sector are making an impact in the report. The business and professional services sector, which covers many tech roles, posted a decrease of 6,000 jobs. Additionally, while the labor force participation rate did increase in December, it still remains below prepandemic levels. This continues to contribute to the ongoing labor shortage.

The Unknown

Economists say that the slowing growth in December’s report will likely cause the Federal Reserve to slow the pace of interest rate increases aimed at slowing inflation. As the New York Times reports, the S&P 500 rose 2.3% with the release of the report. Investors have been eager for fewer and smaller interest rate increases. The Federal Reserve meets next on January 31.

Talking Talent: Vanity Metrics vs. Sanity Metrics in RPO

Posted on by nfuqua

In this episode we’re talking about how to determine which metrics you should use to drive and define success in your RPO program.

At PeopleScout, we like to say there are two kinds of metrics—vanity metrics and sanity metrics. Vanity metrics are the numbers that may look great on paper, but fail to tell the full story of what is happening in your talent program. Vanity metrics may make you feel successful. Sanity metrics actually make you successful. So, how do you tell the difference?

Joining us to discuss is Stephen Carlson, vice president of client delivery at PeopleScout. In this conversation, Stephen shares why some the typical metrics that you’re tracking are actually vanity metrics. He outlines how you can dig deeper to find the right metrics within your program to identify opportunities for improvement and take action.

Stephen shares real-world examples from PeopleScout clients who were hitting their talent goals but knew they could be doing more. By taking a deeper look at the numbers, they were able to elevate their programs to the next level. Stephen gives tips to help you start the conversation and work with your RPO provider to better understand your program data.

Heading into 2023 with uncertain market conditions and the potential for fluctuating hiring volumes, defining and tracking your sanity metrics can help you better respond to and weather changes in the market. For example, if you anticipate having fewer job postings but more applicants in 2023, you likely need to adjust how you move candidates through the process. Stephen explains how to look at the right data to enable quick and effective changes while maintaining an efficient process and engaging candidate experience.

Targeted Recruitment Marketing Campaign Delivers Talent for Global Theme Park Brand

Posted on by akessler
Targeted Recruitment Marketing Campaign Delivers Talent for Global Theme Park Brand

Targeted Recruitment Marketing Campaign Delivers Talent for Global Theme Park Brand

During a unique time in the market with remote and flexible work options becoming the norm, this multinational chain of family theme parks required help hiring for critical in-person roles including customer service, performers and lifeguards across two of its major U.S. theme parks. PeopleScout helped hire over 1,500 workers using recruitment marketing campaigns and our talent advisory expertise.

1,500 + hires made in just six months across two locations
reduced drop-off by streamlining the application process
reduced drop-off by streamlining the application process
30,000 clicks from recruitment marketing ads across social media and online display networks

Situation

This multinational chain of family theme parks required help hiring a variety of roles across its California and New York resorts including customer service roles, performers and lifeguards.

Solution

PeopleScout conducted in-depth market research to determine the biggest challenges the client faced when recruiting for their theme parks and resorts. We identified remote work, “candidate is king” and higher pay as the three main challenges facing the client. Here’s how we solved each:


Challenge #1 — Remote Work:

More people want flexibility. Front-line and hourly positions are less attractive to candidates after the growth in remote work during the pandemic.

Our Solution: We leveraged the client’s “play” branding to emphasize the fun and rewarding aspects of working on-site at one of the theme parks. This was fed through into recruitment marketing creative and copy. 


Challenge #2 — “Candidate is King”:

With open positions outnumbering candidates for much of recent memory, today’s candidates know their worth, and the Great Resignation is proof that people are less willing than ever to settle.

Our Solution: By testing alternative job titles, improving job copy, and reaching out on different channels, we were able to widen our reach and pool of candidates. We strategically targeted candidates most likely to apply for the roles, such as those looking for seasonal or part-time jobs.

Challenge #3 — Higher Pay:

When faced with increased living costs, candidates are demanding higher pay.

Our Solution: The client was not in a position to raise wages for these roles. So, we got creative by restructuring job copy to better position the client’s competitive benefits. By quantifying these benefits and putting them front and center on job postings and recruitment marketing materials, we were able to generate interest without raising wages.

Results

  • In the first six months, we were able to fulfill our goal of 1,336 hires in California & 190 in New York.
  • The client’s previous application had up to 22 sections where the candidate had to input information. PeopleScout optimized and shortened this candidate journey by employing a variety of channels including Indeed One-Click, Indeed Hiring Events and Talent.com. This reduced the application abandonment rate.
  • PeopleScout restructured job descriptions to create job advertisements. In other words, we rewrote the copy to focus on the value the client and the role have to offer their employees rather than what the client wanted from candidates.  
  • PeopleScout performed A/B tests to determine which job titles would help reach a wider pool of candidates. For example, we found that “Waterpark Attendant” received almost 300 applications in the first week, while “Lifeguard” received only 15.
  • Social outreach using Facebook, Instagram and Google Display Network resulted in 4.1 million impressions and 30,000 clicks across the California and New York audiences.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Multinational chain of family theme parks
  • INDUSTRY
    Travel & Tourism
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Talent Advisory
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    1,500+
  • LOCATIONS
    Over 10 theme parks around the world
Let’s Connect

Holcim: Total Workforce Solution for Building & Construction Recruitment

Posted on by akessler
Holcim: Total Workforce Solution for Building & Construction Recruitment

Holcim: Total Workforce Solution for Building & Construction Recruitment

In a highly competitive talent market, Holcim, a building materials supplier, partnered with PeopleScout for a Total Workforce Solution that blended project RPO and MSP to hire both white- and blue-collar roles for a major infrastructure project in Perth.

Successfully sourced building and construction talent during critical skills shortage
Successfully sourced building and construction talent during critical skills shortage
Campaign incorporating recruitment marketing and passive candidate sourcing
Campaign incorporating recruitment marketing and passive candidate sourcing
Collaboration with vocational training program helped reduce competition with other sectors
Collaboration with vocational training program helped reduce competition with other sectors

Holcim is one of Australia’s largest integrated suppliers and manufacturers of building materials and solutions. Their partnership with PeopleScout started with a national recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) solution, through which we recruited personnel across their entire organization including corporate, technical and blue-collar roles in metropolitan, regional and remote locations.

Situation

Following this success, Holcim came to PeopleScout for a project talent solution to support building a team to staff a major infrastructure project for the Western Australian Government. The key location was Metropolitan Perth, which presented challenges for the recruitment team:

  1. Australia was experiencing a worker and critical skills shortage following the long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced migration and an ageing population. This was making recruiting in the building and construction industry particularly hard.
  2. In addition to the national labor shortage, Perth is the main hub for the WA mining sector and the FIFO workforce, which means Holcim was competing with the top mining companies for talent. Given that FIFO wages significantly outstrip metro-based roles, our team had their work cut out for them to attract the talent Holcim required.

Holcim needed to source 20 permanent roles across white-collar, engineering, workplace safety and supervisory roles. In addition to the permanent roles on offer, our team was tasked with sourcing a contingent workforce of 35 blue-collar roles including welders, production operators and machine operators.

Strategy

First, PeopleScout made the strategic decision to approach this like a true project recruitment activity. We dedicated a full-time resource to focus on the project with our project manager working towards specific timelines and taking an agile approach to sourcing and strategy. Our project leader and Holcim stakeholders met weekly to review and re-evaluate how the project was tracking and where modifications needed to be made to meet project requirements.

Holcim’s requirements fluctuated, and at times our team was required to quickly speed up or slow down the recruitment activity due to the dynamic nature of the infrastructure build. To increase our agility, PeopleScout invested in a significant amount of planning when tackling the Perth labor market and assessing the best sourcing strategies to use.

Solution

Our flexible sourcing approach targeted both passive and active candidates. We ran a campaign incorporating traditional recruitment advertising, internal referral programs and strategic sourcing for passive talent via LinkedIn and Seek databases.

A collaboration with a government-funded vocational training and placement program was instrumental in helping Holcim to fill the contingent blue-collar roles and meant that we did not have to compete with the mining sector to source this talent. PeopleScout team managed the relationship with the placement program and completed all vetting activities before the hiring manager interview, leading to faster fulfilment rates and reduced the burden on the Holcim hiring managers.

Results

With the help of PeopleScout’s total workforce solution, Holcim has been able to meet timelines for infrastructure project, and from a recruitment perspective, we are ahead of schedule and under budget.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Holcim Australia
  • INDUSTRY
    Building & Construction
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Managed Service Program, Total Talent
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    20 permanent roles across white-collar, engineering, workplace safety and supervisory roles; 35 contingent blue-collar roles including welders, production operators and machine operators
  • ABOUT HOLCIM
    Holcim is a global leader of manufacturing and supplying building materials and solutions. Locally led, Holcim supplies aggregates, sand and concrete products to build homes, towns and cities across Australia and New Zealand.
Let’s Connect

[On-Demand] How to Build an Agile Workforce for Scale and Demand

Posted on by akessler

[On-Demand] How to Build an Agile Workforce for Scale and Demand

Employers today are dealing with more than just a tight talent market, increased turnover and rising wages; the world of work has permanently changed —and so have candidate expectations. The demand for total talent has become more dynamic, and employers are leveraging seasonal and project-based hiring to reduce the time to mobilise internal and external workforces.

Watch this on-demand webinar in partnership with HR Exchange Network to get a real-life case study on agile hiring solutions that combine candidate experience, talent acquisition technology and dynamic insights-led sourcing, which are aligned to future workforce plans.

Talent Consulting and Strategic Sourcing Support for Business Critical Roles

Posted on by edyson
Talent Consulting and Strategic Sourcing Support for Business Critical Roles

Talent Consulting and Strategic Sourcing Support for Business Critical Roles

PeopleScout helped this waste disposal company source, attract and hire drivers, administrative roles and technicians with RPO, recruitment marketing campaigns and compliance support.

16,000 annual hires targeted
957 offers made over two career day events
38 % improvement in key SLAs in just 30 days

A leading waste disposal and environmental services company faced significant challenges sourcing, attracting and hiring talent for vital full-time frontline roles including CDL drivers, technicians and administrative roles.

Scope and Scale

As a result of continuing skills shortages in high-demand roles, the client found it increasingly difficult to source talent with the required skills, credentials and experience to fill business-critical roles. The client required a full-cycle RPO solution to support its internal team in making 16,000 annual hires across North America. What’s more, the client sought a consultative partnership with ongoing strategic guidance and best practice implementation across the client’s talent sourcing program.

Situation

PeopleScout has partnered with the client for nearly 14 years supporting full-cycle, end-to-end roles and recently, the client required additional support for partial-cycle hiring. PeopleScout deployed a flexible RPO solution to source and deliver a continuous slate of qualified candidates into the client’s talent pipeline. PeopleScout also provides the client with recruitment marketing support, detailed talent market insights and expertise on program compliance.

Solution

  • PeopleScout’s team executes talent sourcing strategies, provides guidance on how to tap into talent channels and helps the client develop grassroots recruitment marketing campaigns to reach the right candidates.
  • PeopleScout developed a custom SLA dashboard and performance reporting via Affinix® Analytics which highlights roles that aren’t getting as much traction and optimizes channel usage and ad spend accordingly.
  • With the additional scope, PeopleScout ramped up its team of 47 to 284, with specialized global support spanning India, Poland, UK and the U.S.
  • PeopleScout Talent Advisory team conducted a two-phased research project, including an exhaustive candidate persona framework based on interviews with the client’s current employees, for insight into their talent audience to develop highly targeted creative and messaging.
  • PeopleScout created a new employer branding and recruitment marketing strategy, and dedicated marketing experts from PeopleScout manage all the client’s social media accounts.

Results

  • PeopleScout’s team finds qualified candidates in niche skill sets despite challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting talent shortages.
  • PeopleScout’s full-cycle RPO solution targets an average of 16,000 annual hires for extremely difficult skill sets, improving business outcomes across the enterprise.
  • Implemented new channels including Indeed, Appcast, geofencing, social media and more which allow the team to instantly post jobs to multiple job boards at one time.
  • After just 30 days of launching the SLA dashboard, the client saw a 38% improvement in SLAs including the interview-to-offer ratio, candidate outreach timeframe and offer extension timeline.
  • PeopleScout helped with the planning and execution of two career day events with over 1,900 attendees and 957 offers made, resulting in two of the best career day events the client has ever had.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Waste disposal and environmental services company
  • INDUSTRY
    Utilities, Environmental Services
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory, Affinix
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    16,000
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    As a leading waste disposal company in North America, this organization has over 45,000 employees supporting over 20 million residences and businesses with their waste and recycling needs.
Let’s Connect

U.S. Workforce Trends Quarterly Report for Q3 2022

Posted on by nfuqua

U.S. Workforce Trends Quarterly Report for Q3 2022

To help businesses succeed in navigating the current hiring climate, our Q3 2022 U.S. Workforce Trends Report shares the latest employment numbers along with exclusive jobs data across a variety of industries.

Although the high demand for U.S. workers has cooled a bit since its peak in April 2022 (11.9 million), the number of unfilled jobs remained high as of September 2022, with 10.1 million job openings, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Companies face a mismatch between supply and demand that has left about 1.7 job openings for every available worker, notes BLS data. The mismatch has led to increasing wages, with average hourly earnings up 5% year over year.

To help businesses succeed in navigating the current hiring climate, our U.S. Workforce Trends Quarterly Report for Q3 2022 shares the latest employment numbers along with exclusive jobs data across a variety of industries.

Key information in the report includes:

  • The latest national jobs numbers

  • Wage info for several key industries

  • Breakdown of jobs seeing the most growth

  • Recommended solutions and strategies for dealing with the labor shortage