Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Leveraging Your Employer Brand to Stand Out in a Sea of Job Openings

Posted on by jpatel

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  

The ideal candidate journey begins long before the candidate even applies to your job, when they first engage with your employer value proposition and your employer brand. At PeopleScout, we define your EVP, as capturing the essence of your uniqueness as an employer and the give and get between you and your employees. In many ways, your EVP is the foundation of your employer brand—the perception and lived experiences of what it’s like to work for your organization. 

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. 

Read the full case study

How to Communicate with an Ideal Candidate through Recruitment Marketing  

After evaluating your organization’s EVP and employer brand, it’s time to showcase both in your recruitment marketing strategies. Digital recruitment marketing is a way for employers to source and attract potential candidates, it can include social media, email marketing, display advertising and more. Consider these three stages when building your recruitment marketing strategy: 

Stage One: Increase Awareness 

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.  

A great way of promoting your company culture is giving firsthand experiences from current employees, via quotes about their experience working at 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 Value Proposition Meaning & How to Create One

Posted on by nfuqua

Many employers have begun to think about employer value propositions (EVPs) as a transaction, as if an EVP is a contract between an employee and an employer or a “deal” expressing what an employer expects from candidates and what candidates receive in return. But, although it’s an easy way to think about the concept, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

At PeopleScout, we define employer value proposition and employer brand as the following:

  • 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.

However, when you look at an EVP simply as a “deal,” you leave out the uniqueness – the human side of equation. That’s because candidates are unique individuals who assess prospective employers based on what’s important to them at that moment. For instance, for one candidate, that could mean finding a workplace that’s like a family to make them feel safe and secure. Alternatively, another candidate at another point in their life could thrive in a fast-paced environment where they’re always staring down a new challenge.

Furthermore, candidates now have unrivaled access to information online and are more mobile. Plus, they’re also accustomed to consumer brand interactions that are personalized, anticipate their needs, and demonstrate cultural values that benefit individuals, communities and the environment. At the same time, candidate expectations are changing in line with our expectations of consumer brands: We want a job to pay the bills, but also one that provides us with a fulfilling experience. As a result, an EVP must address the complex emotional needs of candidates in order to strike a chord – and, notably, the need to align meaning and purpose is becoming the most crucial differentiator. 

So, at PeopleScout, we’ve developed what we call the “Purpose, Passion and Mindset” model. This approach enables employers to draw in the candidates who will succeed and provides flexibility for individuals as their needs and desires change throughout the course of their employment. In this article, we’ll explain how this model works in relation to both candidates and employers, as well as how you can use it to find and hire the best talent for your organization.  

Purpose 

Purpose is a candidate’s alignment with and willingness to contribute to the vision and values of an organization. In fact, one study reported by McKinsey found that, out of 100 variables, employees reported that seeing purpose and value in their work was their most motivating factor – even more so than compensation.

Therefore, from an employer perspective, the idea of purpose should be simple to understand and to define: Why does your business exist? Why did it start? What is the vision for the future? Who are the people you need to deliver on that purpose? These are foundational for an employer, but they should also be effectively communicated in employer branding materials; on career sites; and through the employer’s website, social media and other channels.

Conversely, from a candidate or employee perspective, purpose is more fluid. If you ask a candidate where they derive purpose, you may hear answers about five-year goals or work/life balance. And, depending on the circumstances of a candidate’s life, they may be living to work or working to live. Perhaps they’re focused on career growth and looking for a challenge. Or, they may be balancing personal and family obligations with work. In any case, the way a candidate answers that question will provide insight into the type of employer and culture that the candidate is looking for. Therefore, as an employer, you need to understand how your purpose aligns with what candidates want and need – and you need to effectively communicate that to candidates. What are the values that drive your approach to business and your culture?

Sometimes, an employer’s view of purpose and a candidate’s view of purpose can overlap in clear and obvious ways. For example, a healthcare organization dedicated to providing the best patient care would be an obvious fit for a nurse who derives purpose from providing the best care for their patients. However, it isn’t always so simple. Talent acquisition leaders need to understand the gaps that exist between employer purpose and candidate purpose. And, it can be far too easy to fall into the trap of only focusing on an employer’s purpose and not recognizing the needs of candidates. Rather, employers should focus on how a job can help a candidate achieve their goals and find purpose in their lives.

Passion 

Passion is easy to understand on a human level: What gets you out of bed every day? Do you like solving problems? Connecting with people? Helping others achieve goals? Are you passionate about being creative? Telling stories? Creating a perfect product? Helping a team run seamlessly?

Passion is a candidate’s enthusiasm, enjoyment and commitment to mastering the requirements of a role. When an employee is passionate about a role, they are engaged. According to Gallup, 85% of workers are not engaged in their current roles. And, Dale Carnegie Training reports that organizations with engaged workers outperform their peers by 202%. Even so, most employers don’t have a method to effectively understand what a candidate is passionate about.

However, for an employer, passion comes down to the non-negotiables – the pillars of an organization or the three to five things that help a business fulfill its purpose. When thinking about these pillars, many employers talk about “a sense of restless innovation” or “continuous personal development.” But, instead, talent leaders should think of passion as something that allows an employer to connect with candidates and employees around what the candidate or employee is personally passionate about – whether that’s coming to work for the social interaction with customers; creating a culture of belonging; or working with people who treat each other with respect. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, developing new skills and having an influence.

Bringing these two elements together and aligning the employer and candidate passion tells a candidate that what they can bring to the table will be valued here. So, don’t be tempted to talk about your EVP in terms that are filled with business jargon or seem to be on an epic scale. Instead, speak in human terms about the things that are important to you as a business and help candidates connect your value set with their own.

Mindset 

There are two types of mindset: fixed mindset and growth mindset:

  • Fixed mindset is the belief that one’s talents are innate gifts and not malleable.
  • Growth mindset is the belief that one’s talents can be developed through education and effort.

When we talk about mindset from a candidate’s perspective, it’s about a candidate’s belief about themselves and their basic qualities. These beliefs are rarely measured by employers. 

Meanwhile, as an employer, you can create an environment that fosters one or the other. An employer that fosters a growth mindset is one that invests in its employees, providing development opportunities and stretch assignments. The employer doesn’t just allow people to learn and grow and move within the organization; rather, it’s a culture where employee growth and development is a defined goal. 

Granted, it can be tempting to think of mindset as a factor that comes to life in the execution of an EVP – as something that is put into place after an EVP has been defined and employer branding materials have been created. But, you can’t foster a growth mindset if it’s the last thing on a checklist.

Instead, employers should approach the concept of mindset as the core of their culture; it should be a thread woven through your EVP. By going back to the concept of EVP as a “deal,” employers that create an environment that fosters a growth mindset will attract candidates who want to learn, grow and contribute more to the organization during their time there.

And, by focusing on purpose, passion and a growth mindset, employers can build an employer value proposition and employer brand for the future. Because when employers take their EVP beyond the transaction and “deal” to focus on the core of the unique human relationship between employee and employer, they’ll be able to attract the right workers to achieve the mission and purpose of the employer – all while providing a sense of purpose for employees. 

Employer Brand: Helping the Right Talent Choose You

Posted on by mfreter

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

Employer Brand

Posted on by mfreter

PeopleScout Talent Advisory: Employer Brand

A well-established employer brand positions your organizations as an employer of choice for the talent you want to hire.

Download this fact sheet to learn how PeopleScout’s Employer Brand solutions are helping our clients build better employer reputations.

Download Fact Sheet
employer brand fact sheet

Learn more about PeopleScout’s Talent Advisory solutions.

Learn More

Dig into More Talent Insights

The Skills Crisis Countdown: The Clock is Ticking on Tackling Skills Gaps
Research Report

The Skills Crisis Countdown: The Clock is Ticking on Tackling Skills Gaps

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

Read the Research
[On-Demand] The Human Advantage: Redefining Employer Value Proposition for the New World of Work
Webinar On-Demand

[On-Demand] The Human Advantage: Redefining Employer Value Proposition for the New World of Work

Join this discuss on how shifting from a generic EVP to a tailored PVP focused on each individual can boost engagement and attraction.

Watch On-Demand
Inside the Candidate Experience
Research Report

Inside the Candidate Experience

Download our free Inside the Candidate Experience report for the latest research exploring the disparity between candidate expectation and reality.

Read the Research

Linklaters: Attracting the Lawyer of the Future with a New Global Employer Brand

Posted on by jpatel
Linklaters: Attracting the Lawyer of the Future with a New Global Employer Brand

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
27 Jumped 27 Places in Best Global Employer Brand Awards
Increase in Applications from Female Lawyers
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.

  1. Human Experts – Collaborate with smart, down-to-earth people on complex issues.
  2. One Team – Multi-jurisdictional work calls for a truly aligned and collaborative environment.
  3. Innovation – Whether you’re solving client problems or setting legal precedent, Linklaters celebrates creative thinking and innovative approaches.
  4. 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.
Let’s Connect

Maersk: Making Waves with a Global Employer Brand

Posted on by jpatel
Maersk: Making Waves with a Global Employer Brand

Maersk: Making Waves with a Global Employer Brand

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.
Let’s Connect

Diageo: Bringing Iconic Characters to Life with a New Global Employer Brand

Posted on by jpatel
Diageo: Bringing Iconic Characters to Life with a New Global Employer Brand

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.

26 One Employer Brand Nuanced to Resonate Across 26 Countries
5 Five In-Market Brand Launch Events Plus One Global Webinar
300,000 + Over 300k 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.

An example of the creative PeopleScout talent advisory team created to support Diageo employer brand.

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.
Let’s Connect

Learning and Development Programs for Long-Term Retention & Employee Satisfaction

Posted on by jpatel

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.

5 Signs You Should Outsource Your Recruitment

Posted on by akessler

I frequently help talent acquisition leaders decide whether to, or not, to use an external partner for recruitment support. Through these consultations, I’ve spotted many signs where companies choose to get external help. Here are the top five most frequent ones: 

1. You need a more diverse workforce.

Affinity bias, subconsciously aligning to candidates whose values match your own, has a huge impact on the throughflow of diverse candidates in your process. A recruitment partner who is measured on it’s performance in retaining diverse candidates through the process will eliminate this for you. We know this, because we do this.  

2. Your hiring process is too long.

Particularly where you are hiring niche talent, you run the risk of losing the talent you need which has larger cost consequences. Addressing long processes is challenging for in house teams who are fully occupied ‘doing’ to change processes. A strategic partner who specialises in streamlining and delivering bespoke processes for clients is the ideal way to improve your process without a dip in delivery.  

3. You have too many applications to process.

Technology can of course improve this for you – our HR Tech Guru David Parker – frequently advises clients on how to leverage tech for better processes. It’s not all about tech though. For example, our candidate management teams frequently stretch across to our brand experts to advise clients on changing their outreach to reduce the number of applications and increase the quality.

4. You are growing rapidly.

Growing pains are real. There’s an expertise that comes with scaling up and down in tune with demand quickly and efficiently. As a model, in house teams are static and rely on approval processes for new team members and there own recruitment processes which take time. All delaying delivering the talent the business needs. Far better to make use of an organisation who have flexible high skilled talent pools and can get you where you need to be. Even if it’s to buy you time to recruit your own team!

5. You’re missing specialist skills.

Be this in your team or for specific roles in the business. It is expensive to hire staff who have the recruiting knowledge you need. It is more cost effective to access this skill in a central resource through a recruitment partner. Many of the specialist talent you’re seeking are in demand elsewhere too and / or are not actively looking to move. We tackle this all day every day. Especially with technology hiring. We have a number of tools at our disposal to know where to find those candidates who aren’t moving or how to speak to early careers talent about your particular opportunity. 

In conclusion, RPO isn’t just about getting the job done and processing candidates through the funnel. It’s about having a wider expert team who are glued to your business and dedicated to continuous improvement and innovation.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – June 2021

Posted on by nfuqua

The U.S. economy gained 850,000 jobs in June. The numbers beat economist expectations and suggest the economic recovery is picking up steam. The unemployment rate changed little at 5.9%. Year-over-year wage growth was at 3.6%.

U.S. Jobs Report Infographic

The Numbers

850,000: The U.S. economy gained 850,000 jobs in June.

5.9%: The unemployment rate rose slightly to 5.9%.

3.6%: Wages rose 3.6% over the past year.

The Good

The New York Times reports that June’s job report is another piece of good news about the economic recovery. It is the strongest jobs gain in 10 months and comes after news that consumer confidence surged in June, the stock market closed out the first half of the year with record highs and the congressional budget announced that the U.S. was on track to recover all jobs lost because of the pandemic by the middle of next year.

The most significant gains came in the leisure and hospitality sector, which was the hardest hit by the pandemic. Employers added 343,000 workers to their payrolls in the past month, and those workers saw a 7.1% wage increase compared to this time last year. Wage growth has accelerated in recent months, as employers compete for talent in a market flooded with job openings.

The Bad

The labor-force participation rate still lags 2% behind pre-pandemic levels, fueling the current labor shortage. The Wall Street Journal reports that many older workers who left the labor force in 2020 have decided to retire, rather than return. Other workers may be dealing with childcare responsibilities, continued concerns over the coronavirus or continuing health problems. Economists say the low participation rate is still holding back the recovery.

The Unknown

Economists are debating the impact several factors are having on the growing economy. Some have argued that enhanced employment benefits are keeping some workers out of the labor force. This has led 26 states to cancel the additional $300 weekly benefit in the hope that it would accelerate job growth. However, data does not show any increase in labor force participation in those states at this point.

Additionally, MarketWatch reports that workers are quitting at record levels – often to take a better paying job. Nearly 1 million people left their jobs in June. Wages have risen 3.6% over the past year, but because wages appeared to rise during the pandemic as lower wage workers were more likely to lose their jobs over higher wage workers, there isn’t much clarity about how quickly wages are rising.