Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Specialized Nurse Recruitment at a Not-for-Profit Healthcare System

Posted on by jpatel
Specialized Nurse Recruitment for a Not-For-Profit Healthcare System

Project RPO for Healthcare

Specialized Nurse Recruitment for a Not-For-Profit Healthcare System

A not-for-profit healthcare system serving the New England area of the United States engaged PeopleScout to help find specialized nursing candidates through a project-based recruitment solution.

6 Weeks to Fill Vacancies that Had Been Open for Over a Year
13 Week Engagement Renewed—Twice
Improved Quality of Hire
Improved Quality of Hire

Situation

This healthcare facility is the only level III NICU and level I trauma center in the region. Offering this kind of specialized medical care requires specialized nursing recruiting. The client’s HR team had difficulty sourcing candidates who met the minimum education and experience requirements.

The client engaged PeopleScout for Recruiter On-Demand™ project-based recruitment solution to hire nurses at two facilities, included labor and delivery nurses, surgical nurses and emergency nurses.

Solution

PeopleScout deployed a Recruiter On-Demand solution with virtual recruiters working alongside the client’s internal TA team by sourcing and recruiting specialized nursing talent.

Our recruiters developed a close relationship with the client’s hiring managers to better understand their needs and company culture. This helped us to source candidates that closely aligned with the organization’s values and expectations.

To attract nursing talent in a competitive labor market, PeopleScout positioned the client’s employer value proposition to better align with candidate expectations for career growth, sign-on bonuses and educational assistance. We also monitored the regional labor market and identified recruiting opportunities at competitors or facilities closing operations or laying-off staff.

Our healthcare experts also posted on job boards and updated content regularly on niche healthcare sites, social media and medical association sites to source both active and passive candidates.

Results

Unfilled Positions Sourced Within Six Weeks

In the first six weeks, PeopleScout sourced and hired nurses for eight vacancies that had been unfilled for a year.

Contract Renewed

As a result of the success of the program, the client renewed its initial 13-week project RPO contract with PeopleScout, not once but twice.

Dedication and a Quality Partnership

The healthcare system’s HR team valued the quality of candidates our dedicated nursing recruiting brought to the table, and the relationship continued to improve with each engagement.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY: Not-for-Profit Healthcare System
  • INDUSTRY: Healthcare
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS: Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • About the Client: This New England-based not-for-profit healthcare system operates a level III NICU and level I trauma center in the region.
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Reimagining Recruitment Strategies for the New World of Work

Posted on by edyson

In the new world of work, the global pandemic disrupted the world of talent acquisition: Sourcing, interviewing and onboarding went virtual; talent acquisition departments faced tough reductions in budget and personnel while being asked to do more with less. As a result, recruiting and hiring are the biggest concerns employers have for the coming year, according to a survey by XpertHr, as two-thirds of HR professionals expect it to be somewhat or very challenging in 2021.

Meanwhile, there are also plenty of other hurdles that can make it more difficult to find and attract talent right now. For instance, some fear exposure to COVID-19 – either from an on-site interview or in any role that requires them to leave their home. At the same time, others may be putting off their job search until the job market improves or are looking for better compensation in their next role.

So, how do you improve your talent acquisition process? Unfortunately, there’s no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to tackling the challenges presented by the pandemic. Employers across different industries and geographies face different challenges, and the type of role also leads to varied challenges. However, in this article, we provide actionable ideas and strategies that you can implement now to help you improve your talent acquisition process in the new world of work.

New World of Work Benefits & Compensation

new world of work

There’s a lot of uncertainty in today’s talent landscape, but for employers, one factor remains constant: Without competitive compensation and benefits, job-seekers will look elsewhere. This is especially important in traditionally lower-wage industries that include a lot of face time with customers, like leisure and hospitality.

For employers, the difficulty in filling those roles means the possibility of having to navigate the challenges of today’s new world of work without key team members to rely on. Fortunately, that’s a risk that can often be mitigated by offering compensation that aligns with – or even exceeds – the overall market rate. This trend is particularly present in the food and beverage and manufacturing industries.

In an article with Marketplace, Spiro Pappadopoulos, CEO of Schlow Restaurant Group, said, “There is a complete lack of applicants for jobs that we have open, and have had open for a considerable amount of time … And, when we were faced with nobody wanting to come back to their job, we realized we had to do something to get more competitive.”

To attract talent, the company raised hourly pay by around $5 for entry-level jobs. It’s also offering more benefits, flexible schedules and signing bonuses – and it’s not alone.

The median hourly wage for non-medical essential jobs – such as grocery workers, delivery drivers and cleaners – has already risen nearly 2%. Starbucks, for example, issued a temporary pay bump of $3 more per hour for some workers. Similarly, grocery chain Kroger recently offered one-time bonuses of $400 for full-time workers and $200 for part-time workers.

Along with providing an extra incentive for people to apply, offering a pay raise or bonus can also show candidates that your company puts its employees first – which can help build a positive workplace culture. What’s more, some local governments have also introduced legislation that would require employers to provide hazard pay to essential workers, while others created funds to help eligible employers offer hazard pay for workers in “life-sustaining” fields, like healthcare or food manufacturing. In the United States, the CARES Act also offered qualified employers “emergency retention credits” of up to $10,000 per employee to help businesses retain their most vital workers.

There’s no doubt that these measures were well-deserved and vital for talent attraction and retention, and each of these factors may influence current pay rates in your local market.

Early Retirement & Engaging the Next Generation of Talent in the New World of Work

The health risks presented by the pandemic have been clear, and the elderly are among the most susceptible to negative health outcomes. As a result, some workers are taking early retirement. In fact, in the New York City metropolitan area alone, 300,000 people expect to apply for Social Security, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Furthermore, many retirees work part-time jobs in retail, hospitality and other public-facing industries hit hard by the pandemic. And, as you might expect, these workers are less likely to return to these jobs as the health risks may outweigh the benefits of returning. Unfortunately, the shock of losing so many valuable and experienced workers only exacerbates recruiting challenges for employers. To help fill the gaps, employers’ recruitment strategies should focus on the next generation of leaders and talent entering the workforce.

To that end, Millennials will soon make up the majority of the global workforce and many are mid-career experienced professionals ready for leadership. On the other hand, Generation Z is just entering the workforce. Of course, all generations express different working styles and preferences, and these generations are no different. So, it’s worth bearing in mind what the next generations at your workplace want from their employers.

Top Employer Requirements for Millennial & Generation Z:
Job-seekers in these generations expect:

  • Regular meetings with managers; in fact, employees who have such meetings are three times as likely to be engaged workers
  • Ethical company behavior in all of its activities
  • The company to have an ambition and purpose beyond simply making money
  • A diverse senior management team
  • Flexible working options
  • A high-trust culture
  • A great company culture and workplace environment
  • To be treated as individuals, not as a number on the payroll

Screen Candidates In, Not Out

In the current talent landscape, your organization can’t afford to screen out candidates solely based on experience or because they lack all of the desired hard skills. This is particularly true for niche and highly specialized roles in which workers were more likely to remain in their jobs through the pandemic. For these types of positions, many employers now struggle to find qualified candidates.

To compete, employers should look for candidates with transferrable skills. This means that, rather than assessing candidates for potential and dismissing those who don’t have the requisite experience and hard skills that you may require, employers should look for job candidates who have key soft skills. These are the types of skills that may not always come naturally to some candidates, but that are valuable in the workplace, for example:

  • Communication – both verbal and written
  • Time management
  • Teamwork
  • Problem-solving
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Conflict management and resolution
  • Personal productivity and discipline
  • Trainability
  • Learning agility

Assessment techniques like the whole person model can help you better view a candidate’s full range of skills and abilities to determine which candidates may be a good fit for a role regardless of experience. Moreover, soft skills – like learning agility and trainability – are especially important for roles in which your candidates might not have much relevant experience, but in which they need to learn new things at a rapid pace.

Bringing it All Together with Your Employer Brand

The challenges presented in the new world of work have changed what candidates look for in employers across all industries. This means that, regardless of the strength of your employer brand prior to the pandemic, nearly all employers need to shift their employer branding messaging to stay competitive.

Additionally, to attract employees in the current talent market, you need to communicate changes you’ve implemented regarding workplace safety, compensation, benefits and remote work policies to let candidates know upfront what they can expect from your organization. Likewise, make sure you reassure candidates that their health and safety are a priority by specifying what new procedures your business has initiated to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19, such as social distancing rules, staggered shifts, reduced customer capacity, face mask policies and enhanced cleaning procedures.

Another way to help you recruit during the Great Rehire is to be completely transparent about your interview process. Can the entire interview process happen remotely, or will candidates be required to interview in person at some point? For on-site interviews, in particular, explain how you’re maintaining a safe interview environment, such as socially distanced interviews, avoiding handshakes, symptom questionnaires, temperature checks and so on.

Meanwhile, keep in mind that we live in a social world. As such, before applying to work for you, 70% of candidates will check out employer review platforms – such as Glassdoor, Indeed and LinkedIn – along with other social media networks to see what employees past and present have said about your company. So, make sure your organization’s reputation is managed properly.

You might also consider enlisting your current employees to act as brand ambassadors. In this way, employees can help refer candidates and spread the word about your organization to other professionals in their network. 

Hiring during a pandemic is enough of a challenge; so, your talent acquisition process in the new world of work has to be on point if you want to get ahead of your competition. With these recruiting strategies in mind, you can set yourself up to attract more candidates, make the right hires and get back to business as soon as possible.

Total Workforce Solutions: A Holistic Approach to Talent Channel Management

Posted on by edyson

Modern workforce management has evolved. Increasingly, organizations are leveraging a multi-channel approach for sourcing talent to extend the reach of both their internal and external workforce. In fact, evidence of this trend can be seen in a survey conducted by the MIT Sloan Management Review, which found that 87% of global executives included some portion of external workers (contingent workers, contractors, freelancers and statement of work [SOW] consultants) when considering their workforce composition. 

And, because employers are leveraging multi-channel sourcing strategies, workforce management programs are more complex – thereby resulting in the need for new strategies, proven methodologies and enhanced levels of service from outsourced providers. So, in this article, we’ll discuss how a Total Workforce Solution (TWS) can help your organization by providing a holistic approach to total talent management through enhanced strategic capabilities; precise and up-to-date workforce information; and greater visibility into the multi-channel workforce.

What Are Talent Channels?

A talent channel is a managed and repeatable source of talent and may include anything from a job board to staffing vendors and college campuses. Essentially, a talent channel is a dependable path that leads job-seekers to your open positions.

Just as marketers utilize a variety of marketing channels and techniques to acquire customers, talent professionals likewise need to utilize various talent channels to attract prospective job candidates. And, while there are a host of recruitment channels and platforms to choose from, below we’ve outlined some of the most common and effective sources:

  • Job Boards: Job boards (including generalist and specialist websites) – where recruiters and organizations post open positions – have long been a source of candidates. More recently, job aggregators like Indeed have provided an alternative platform where job-seekers can search and apply for jobs. 
  • Internal Recruitment: Internal recruitment offers many benefits. For example, internal talent pools already have a wealth of knowledge about the company, the company culture and expectations. Therefore, directly sourcing and redeploying candidates who are already within the organization can also dramatically decrease time-to-hire, as well as hiring costs associated with training and onboarding.  
  • Campus Recruiting: Campus recruiting has been a mainstay for recruiting the next generation of young talent for years. Campus recruiting involves sourcing, engaging, and hiring college talent for internships and entry-level positions, while also building a talent pipeline for an organization’s future hiring needs.
  • ATS Database: An organization’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an invaluable resource for sourcing and curating top talent. An ATS offers a recruiting channel full of applicants who may not have been the best fit for one position, but who have the experience and skills needed for a current or future opening. 
  • Events: Whether you host career events or attend networking opportunities, the power of face-to-face interactions with candidates is priceless. And, although in-person meetings have been less likely lately due to the pandemic, many organizations are still leveraging virtual events to meet and engage with candidates. 
  • Employee Referrals: Employee referrals are an effective way to build a talent pool because they allow employees to submit candidates from their professional and personal networks for open roles. Plus, by encouraging referrals, employers can tap into a steady flow of candidates, while also providing additional opportunities for engagement and compensation for current employees.
  • Staffing Vendors: Organizations might also outsource certain recruitment functions to staffing vendors to curate talent pools and supply candidates. Staffing vendors help organizations with permanent placement, executive search, SOW contracting and procuring talent of all categories – both permanent and contingent.

Sometimes, a hiring or procurement manager may fill an open role from a certain talent channel and labor type simply due to historical practices or for budgeting reasons. However, a Total Workforce Solution model opens the possibilities for reassessing historic practices and identifying the most efficient labor category and talent channel to deliver better outcomes.

Why Total Workforce Solutions Are Perfect for Workforce Management

workforce management

Total Workforce Solutions – also known as Total Talent Solutions and Total Talent Acquisition – are outsourced programs that blend the capabilities of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and Managed Service Provider (MSP) programs by integrating the talent acquisition function for permanent and contingent workforces under one delivery team. By bringing together disparate talent functions under one centralized program, Total Workforce Solutions provide organizations with greater visibility for all workers, including full-time employees and contingent workers (such as temporary workers, independent contractors, freelancers and SOW providers). Total Workforce Solutions also provide a holistic view that leads to better workforce, sourcing channel, and demand management by deploying the resources, technology, and strategies best suited to improve talent and business outcomes. Specifically, a TWS offers:

Data Capture & Analysis: A TWS can take unstructured workforce management data from multiple sources and formats and create structured outputs, which create greater visibility into an organization’s workforce and talent channel efficacy. This enables an organization to measure the success of each recruiting channel, as well as employer brand campaigns and staffing vendor performance.

Resource & Process Control: The right workforce management view helps ensure the right work is being done by the right type of worker. Thanks to the holistic view provided by a Total Workforce Solution, organizations can track how budgets, headcount, procurement, staffing vendors and other issues are being managed across the entire enterprise.

Talent Engagement Expertise: Understanding the talent market is key to knowing how to best attract and engage job-seekers across all labor categories. To that end, a TWS provider’s ability to engage with job-seekers in both full-time and contingent sourcing channels in ways that job-seekers want to be engaged is driven by expertise in candidate experience and engagement. What’s more, TWS providers also have dedicated resources to support education and adoption of the best practices among an organization’s hiring managers and other stakeholders; this ensures that talent teams are engaging candidates from all talent channels in the right way.

Single Point of Contact: While procurement, HR, and talent teams each have their own methods, talent channels, and hiring objectives, each department strives to secure talent to meet their organization’s business needs. Fortunately, Total Workforce Solutions can help successfully align talent acquisition strategy across each of an organization’s recruitment channels by communicating between HR, recruiting and procurement teams. In this way, the TWS ensures that the right talent decisions are made for wider business goals, thereby optimizing both permanent and contingent workforces to give you a total talent view.

Workforce Management: Leveraging Talent Channels to Plan Ahead

In the dynamic talent environment created by the pandemic, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to source talent. Even so – and despite persistent hiring challenges – organizations need to be smart about the allocation of talent acquisition resources when filling roles. For example, conversations about filling open roles should begin with fundamental questions, like: What do we need to accomplish? Is the role easily managed with clearly defined goals? Is it core to the organization’s long-term strategy? Does the role require a long-term commitment, project ownership and management?

Depending on the answers to those questions, you can determine whether a full-time employee or a contingent worker is the best option. And, understanding how to more effectively fill or augment talent gaps also allows teams to scale, prioritize and be nimble – each important factors in today’s business climate.

Furthermore, different talent channels will have different advantages and disadvantages to consider. But, a TWS provider can provide insights by identifying all available sourcing channels, as well as assess where work needs to be done and what skills are needed to get it done. Then, from this evaluation emerges a talent strategy that taps into available candidates from across an organization’s recruitment channels – which then provides a high level of precision for getting the work done with the highest-quality output at the most cost-effective rate.

Candidate & Hiring Manager Experience

In talent acquisition, the human element matters. Specifically, an empowered experience on the part of workers who feel they have access to more opportunities can help boost an organization’s employer brand across its talent channels, as well as among job-seekers and the general public. At the same time, a positive experience for a hiring manager who has access to all talent types equates to higher engagement from the manager, including an increased commitment to sourcing talent from the right talent channels and at the right time and cost to achieve the desired goals.

Furthermore, the traditional employer brand is built on the idea of the employee value proposition that seeks to answer, “Why would this company be a great place to work?” And, to appeal to the growing, flexible workforce, the concept of the Assignment Value Proposition (AVP) is gaining ground as a fundamental brand component to support cases in which an organization needs to sell the value of the project just as much as the strength of the business itself. Add to this assignment value the idea that an organization provides many ways to work – through traditional employee roles or flexible assignments – and the result is a reputation that appeals to professionals of all working preferences.

Fortunately, a TWS provider can help you create compelling employer value propositions across your talent channels so you can attract the right mix of external workers and traditional employees. In particular, a TWS provider will have discussions with your team to consider the following in relation to messaging:

  • Work: Role versus project type and required necessity of skill; core versus non-core
  • Speed: Time to fill, time to contract, time to productivity and leveraging known relationships to reach candidates
  • Cost: Expected tenure of salary plus benefits or rate; or pay rate plus mark-up or deliverable and milestones
  • Worker Engagement: Classification preference or mandates, talent motivation, and talent communication

This discussion will provide you with insights into delivering precise and sophisticated messaging to job-seekers regardless of talent channel, as well as create better recruitment marketing for talent sourcing, engagement and management activities. Moreover, a TWS provider with a firm understanding of your workforce needs that is supported by the right talent technology and committed to continuous improvement will bring the value of a holistic view into your talent channels and workforce strategy. As a result, your organization will be able to make better data-driven decisions and broaden your choices from a single note to a full orchestra of talent options. While the journey takes time and dedication, the effect of this approach – in terms of access to talent, speed of engagement, cost control, and alignment of talent and business strategy – makes the effort essential for growth in today’s competitive global business environment.

Talking Talent Leadership Profile: Mark Jauregui

Posted on by nfuqua

If you ask Mark Jauregui to describe himself, the PeopleScout senior vice president of client delivery will tell you that he has Idaho roots, but a home in the San Francisco Bay Area; that he has his feet on the ground, but he’s still a dreamer; that he started his career answering phones in technical support, and now, well – he does a lot of video conferences.

Then, he’ll tell you that, at this point in his career, he’s worked almost every job under the customer success umbrella, and he’s here at PeopleScout now to serve his team and our clients. And even though that last bit might sound like a soundbite, it’s 100% true. We talked to Mark from his home about how he sees success in an industry at a time when the only constant is change.

Up until this point, you’ve built your career in technology and services. What opportunities do you see in talent acquisition right now?

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen significant changes in the workforce, and now the Great Rehire is here. Going forward, work is going to look different, and HR is going to be a driving force in the recovery for so many organizations.

Working in the talent acquisition space, HR and talent leaders have the opportunity to contribute to getting people back to work and to shape the future of talent acquisition for our customers. Now that workers aren’t necessarily constrained to a physical location, we can focus on how we get the right people into the right roles and the right jobs to be most effective, but also how to leverage HR to guide us through that process.

What lessons from your career are you bringing to PeopleScout?

I’m a customer success geek. I’ve seen, built and scaled a bunch of different business models, as well as services and support structures. One thing I’ve learned is the importance of having a strong culture. The quote that culture will eat strategy for breakfast – it’s true. We have to be all on the same page and building a culture of trust is really key to success.

But, I’ve also learned some lessons along the way. I don’t have all the answers, and that’s why we hire so many smart people and work with them to solve challenges. The people who are closest to a problem generally have the best answers, and so a decision-making framework needs to empower those teams to put solutions into action.

The line between services organizations and tech companies is getting blurrier. What’s driving that?

It’s about efficiency. The old services model that’s about people and relationships is important, but we can use technology to drive more efficiencies – especially at scale. You can’t be just services or just technology in talent acquisition and HR. It’s about the combination of the two.

I think wherever we can leverage technology to help our clients, that’s where we need to be. Whether it’s helping our clients make better decisions on candidates, how they fill roles or where they should be focusing their resources, technology can help us.

At the same time, human resources and talent acquisition is about people, right? You have technology, but you need humans to make decisions. So, our people, their expertise, their ability to engage with talent leaders and address business challenges – that’s what makes us who we are. We are focused on helping our clients navigate the pandemic and post-pandemic waters. We are here to help in rebuilding and growing their businesses.

We’re in the middle of such a unique time. What does a full-service solution look like in 2021?

This isn’t something we’ve come across before; there are so many things coming together at the same time. We have to contend with vaccine distribution, dropping COVID-19 numbers, significant job growth, hybrid workforces, and changing candidate needs and expectations. We all need to think outside the box.

The Great Rehire is happening. There’s a list of things talent leaders need to keep in mind: What roles do we have open? What’s the available talent pool? How are we going to marry those together? What is the best next step for someone’s career? If you’re trying to manage this time with just people or just technology, you’ll fall behind.

You have to have the right blend of people, technology and scalable processes to get this all done. There is a huge opportunity right now to look at your current processes, look at the talent landscape, and reimagine your talent acquisition function to better serve your business needs moving into the future.

What can we expect in the coming years?

We have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Last year was unprecedented and certainly nothing any of us had ever lived through before. This year and next year will continue to bring new challenges, including some we may not be able to predict.

So, instead of resisting the changes that are coming, we all need to learn, rapidly adjust and embrace it. Get comfortable with change and fall in love with the problem. When you focus on the problem – instead of being set on the old solution or how you used to do things – we can have fun ‘solutioning’ together. As a strategic partner, we’re here to help figure some of these challenges out together with our clients.

Talking Talent Leadership Profile: Jose Carbia of Change Healthcare

Posted on by nfuqua

Jose Carbia is an effective communicator. That label can mean a lot of things, but in his role as vice president of talent acquisition at Change Healthcare, it means leading a team that spends a lot of time actually talking to candidates. It also means that good news and bad news is delivered quickly, by phone – not through email – and with real recognition of and respect for the time, work and emotional investment that job candidates put into their job search.

Jose is also a transformative leader. In fact, he has more than 25 years of experience in talent acquisition, 21 of which he spent leading and transforming recruiting functions within Fortune 500 companies. Now, at Change Healthcare, he leads a team of 48 and is responsible for more than 3,000 full-time hires and 2,000 flexible, seasonal hires every year. Jose’s latest project has been improving the candidate experience, with a focus on candidate communication, which we spoke with him about from his office in Atlanta.

Where does your passion for the candidate experience come from?

Throughout my 25 years in recruitment, I have volunteered to help job-seekers gain employment. I’ve held speaking engagements where I teach job-seekers how to effectively navigate their reemployment process, and I hear from job-seekers all of the time about the frustrations they experience when they apply to or interview for a job.

There’s nothing more frustrating than going through an interview with an employer and meeting with the recruiter or the hiring manager only to never hear back. We’ve all been through the process. We get excited about an opportunity and share the news with our spouses, friends or family. We tell them about the interview. Then, every day that goes by without hearing from an employer, it becomes torture. Candidates give employers about two or three days to hear back. At that point, friends and family start asking questions and, after a week goes by, the candidate is embarrassed. Then, they blame the employer and see the experience as a reflection of their culture and work environment.

What role does communication play in the candidate experience?

Once a candidate has a conversation with an employer, the communication channel has been opened and it needs to continue frequently throughout the process. Even if there are no updates, candidates should receive some type of communication. When candidates aren’t selected, there are automated processes that can send emails. But, if a candidate has interviewed with us, they deserve a call thanking them for their time and letting them know the final decision.

We need to treat every candidate like a customer. In the end, they already are – or they could be – a future customer. Proper communication is critical to our brand and our image.

What do you do at Change Healthcare to ensure effective communication with candidates?

We conduct a one-questions NPS – net promoter score – survey that we send to candidates who have directly engaged with us through conversation or who have been eliminated from the selection process. The candidates provide a rating and a comment and we review every comment – both positive and negative. We evaluate this feedback twice monthly and look for opportunities for improvement across the enterprise and individually.

We hold each other accountable for the experience and all of our recruiters have visibility into the data as it comes in. It’s also included as part of our recruiters’ individual performance metrics. We have a quarterly ‘most valuable player’ award that goes to the recruiter with the best experience scores, along with other talent acquisition metrics.

We launched this process back in January of 2020 and, at that time, we had a net promoter score of -50. Now, we’re trending at a score of 36, which is considered a great score, but we want it to be even higher.

It sounds like you’ve really made a cultural shift to achieve this success. Is that how you see it?

Absolutely. We’ve been able to break down barriers to create a culture and environment where we are committed to providing a valuable experience. We started with a campaign and it has really taken shape and evolved. We have a hashtag, #LeaveNoCandidatesBehind, and it has really become a part of our regular conversations. We never take our eyes off of it. We see our numbers improve month after month. It has become part of the DNA of our organization.

What role does technology play in the candidate experience for you?

The applicant tracking systems provide the opportunities for automated communications, and it’s important to ensure that those notifications are clear and that they show connection and empathy with the candidate throughout the process. Technology also allows us to better track the talent pool through the selection process and provides a vehicle for a more organized approach to communication. The NPS survey tool helps us capture the information we need to make better business decisions and, now, we’re exploring artificial intelligence technology to help from a screening standpoint.

With this process, I’d imagine you work with a lot of partners, whether those are technology partners or RPO. What role do these partnerships play in your process?

It’s a critical role. When we have partners like PeopleScout, we treat them as an extension of our team. Their leaders are in my leadership meetings. Their talent acquisition team members are included in our overall team meetings. We align our rewards and recognition programs to ensure that we are consistent in our messaging and overall performance. We want the process to be seamless for candidates and hiring managers – whether they are working with an internal employee or a vendor partner.

Our technology partners are equally important. We don’t just plug in a new technology. Our partners are truly engaged in what we’re trying to accomplish, and they work with us through each challenge. We have to continuously monitor everything to ensure that the process is effective and that we’re achieving our overall goals and objectives as an organization.

What advice do you have for other talent leaders who are looking to make similar changes at their organizations?

Data is king. You need to establish ways to measure experience and performance and then use that data to determine where to place your focus. It’s not something you can improve overnight. It’s a constant process of trial and error. Data is necessary to make those critical decisions in the experience and process.

Also, recognize that, while communication is critical, it’s not the only component in a great candidate experience. There’s also your employer brand and your careers site. Candidates today want to know about your diversity and inclusion programs and your culture. Applications need to be quick and easy to fill out. If any of these pieces are missing, candidates will get lost in the process. With the proper mechanisms in place, you can ensure all of these components are working together to create a great candidate experience.

Talking Talent Leadership Profile: George Tate

Posted on by nfuqua

George Tate is interested in growth. Sometimes, it’s on the big, company-wide scale; other times, it’s growth on the smaller, more personal side, such as developing employees to lead in the business or drive success wherever they land.

That’s good news, because as the senior vice president of business development at PeopleScout, he’s about to lead a lot of growth as the Great Rehire kicks off and employers around the world start adding more workers to their ranks. We spoke to George from his home in Michigan to find out what he’s hearing from talent leaders in 2021.

We’re in the middle of a really unique year. What are talent leaders looking for right now?

I don’t want to say that we’re past COVID-19 because we’re not. But, we are on the downswing when it comes to how severely COVID-19 is impacting businesses. What we’re hearing from talent leaders is that teams are very lean and they need help. They need to hire people back into organizations and we need to help.

The challenges talent leaders are facing are no longer industry-specific. They are widespread. Right now, leaders are concerned that their organizations could experience revenue loss if they can’t get workers in open roles. This is just the start of what we’re going to see related to both challenges for employers and increasing job growth, especially as we move into 2022 and 2023 and these organizations continue to grow.

What do talent leaders want new talent partnerships to look like?

The one thing I keep hearing is, “I need help.” But, what that statement often means is, ‘What do you have to offer? Because I don’t know what questions to ask.’ When COVID-19 hit last March, no one was prepared. Now, we’re in the recovery and it’s still hard to predict what things will look like. So, talent leaders want a partner with the experience to guide them through this time and their specific needs – whether that’s talent advisory, RPO, Recruiter On-Demand, Total Workforce or MSP.

Additionally, a lot of organizations have really lean internal talent acquisition teams at this point. They need a partner who can come in and handle the volume of hires they need to make right now and who can scale with them as volumes change and uncertainty continues. Talent advisory services are also becoming a bigger portion of partnerships, as employers need help building a strong employer brand or designing assessments to identify which candidates out of a mountain of applicants would make the best fit.

What are the biggest challenges employers are facing this year?

I think its three-pronged. One is around using technology to drive applications and attract the right talent. The second relates to employer branding and brand awareness. What does the job look like? Is it meaningful? Is it going to be impactful? The third is, as I mentioned before, managing the large candidate volumes to identify the best talent. I spoke with one leader recently who received 21,000 résumés off a single job posting.

That means that employers need to look for providers that: come in with the right technology to pair with what employers already have in-house; [have] a strong advisory background to help strengthen employer brands; build candidate personas and deploy effective recruitment marketing campaigns, and then [have] the recruiting expertise to identify and hire the best candidates quickly.

You mentioned technology. Many talent acquisition leaders got a crash course in the power of technology at the start of the pandemic. Are those lessons carrying over?

Yes, and part of the reason for that is the staying power of remote work. Employers are now determining what part of their workforce will remain virtual. Some workers have struggled working at home and need to be in an office. Other positions will be more effective if that role remains virtual.

In the past year, employers have been able to build a virtual candidate experience using text or SMS technology, virtual interviewing, and more. I think now we’re seeing that employers want to expand and improve beyond that, especially into virtual onboarding. Some employers have developed ways to handle this at a smaller scale. Now, they need to put those lessons to the test at a larger scale.

What are the biggest opportunities for employers moving forward?

I think the biggest opportunities come when you’re looking to 2022, 2023 and beyond. What are your three-, four- and five-year strategic plans? What does your talent acquisition team need to look like to accomplish that? Who is the right partner to help? Do you have the right technology in place to meet those goals? We’re all going to need answers to questions that we don’t have yet, so the partnership piece is key. At PeopleScout, we’re already hearing different challenges from all different types of organizations. We’re finding solutions and then we’re going to carry those ideas forward. That way, we can continue to set clients up for success when those challenges and opportunities come.

Three Potential Pitfalls of High-Volume Hiring and How to Avoid Them

Posted on by akessler

A fairly large handful of colleagues and clients are aware that my family and I are having some fairly extensive renovation work done on our home. Partly because I have moaned about it on a weekly basis since January. Partly because the endless background sounds of drills, hammers and circular saws— and on one particularly fraught occasion, a builders exposed backside descending from a loft ladder behind me—have all permeated some of my Zoom video calls. 

Now that the work is 90 percent finished, I look back on the project, and there are some aspects of it that I wish we had done differently. In doing such a lot of work at one time, we inevitably compromised on our standards in some small ways when faced with the size of the project ahead. 

Hopefully, you can see where the analogy is leading. When we, or our clients, are faced with a mountain to climb in terms of the complexity or scarcity of required talent in big numbers, it’s easy to deviate away from best practice. And this is never more common than now. 

As organisations switch from hiring freezes to acute growth mode, we are seeing a dramatic shift back towards a candidate-driven market. As the next 12 months play out, I personally believe this will prove to be one of the most dramatic shifts in several decades, and employers will be scratching their heads at just how they are going to close the hiring gap. 

During these impending and inevitably large-scale campaigns, there are three potential risks that stand out to me:

1. Introducing new people will impact the company culture.

Firstly, hiring lots of new people can present a risk to the company culture you’ve spent a lot of effort crafting. This may be more prevalent within smaller organisations or for those hiring at the leadership level, but no organisation is truly immune. With any hiring that significantly impacts a team, you must consider not only the skills and competencies match, but also how the existing cultural makeup of that group will be affected. One way to counter this is through thorough training to help align old and new employees on the same cultural path. This should be led by leadership and serve as a catalyst for people—old and new—to embrace your organisation’s mission and values. 

2. High-volume hiring can increase the risk of compromising on quality.

When it comes to high-volume hiring, hiring managers are more inclined to drop their standards on quality-of-hire. Not so much in terms of matching skills and experience, which tends to be a more objective. Plus, a deviation away from the requisite profile can be harder for the hiring manager to justify in their own mind. However, I’ve seen a “lowering of the bar” when it comes to the softer skills—the personality traits and competency matches which are naturally more subjective. One effective antidote here is robust candidate assessment practices. Backing up your gut feel with a bespoke or even “off the shelf” assessment package can help make your judgement more objective. 

3. Diversity amongst new hires suffers.

Thirdly, there is naturally a risk to diversity in your hiring. We’re all hopefully well-versed on the myriad benefits that fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce can bring. But, what is a valid, primary consideration when hiring one or two team members can begin to feel like an added challenge when filling a large number of openings starts to weigh down on a manager. Is there a temptation to let diversity standards slip if the challenge of filling critical gaps on your team already feels impossible? Is one allowed to be pragmatic in the circumstances and just hire, regardless of the diversity credentials? 

I would argue that you wouldn’t hire someone who has the wrong skills for your team, so you shouldn’t be any more inclined to lower standards on diversity. As we all know, the wrong hiring decision now, only costs us in the long-term when we have to re-hire down the line. Better to get it right first time, whether that be a diversity match or a skills match. 

Ultimately, any short-term concessions we might be tempted to make under pressure to hire at the time will be a source of regret. So, don’t lower your standards and suffer from these pitfalls. Take it from me—the decision not to fit underfloor heating in our family bathroom will likely haunt me for the next decade or two!

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – May 2021

Posted on by nfuqua

The U.S. economy gained 559,000 jobs in May. The numbers improved over April, but still lagged behind expectations. Employers report they struggle to find job candidates, while some economists say that the economy may need time to get into a consistent rhythm. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8%. Year-over-year wage growth was at 2%.

jobs report infographic

The Numbers

559,000: The U.S. economy added 559,000 jobs in May.

5.8%: The unemployment rate fell to 5.8%.

2%: Wages grew 2% over the past year.

The Good

After a disappointing jobs report in April, May’s job gains show a notable improvement. The biggest job gains occurred in the leisure and hospitality sector, as rising vaccination numbers and falling infection rates drove an increase in dining. The New York Times reports that job postings on Indeed were 27% higher in May of 2021 than February of 2020, before the pandemic hit. However, economists predict job growth to vary greatly month to month, as the economy normalizes after a long period of uncertainty.

The Bad

The Wall Street Journal reports that the jobs numbers fell short of economist expectations, and the jobs numbers continue to lag behind other economic indicators, like consumer spending. Some employers report a shortage of job applicants, and economists say there could be several factors contributing – including early retirements, childcare responsibilities, health concerns, low pay and enhanced unemployment benefits. The labor participation rate changed little, indicating that many workers who were sidelined during the pandemic have not yet reentered the job market.

The Unknown

Though economists agree that the economy is on track to continue growing, there are a number of factors that could impact that rate of growth. MarketWatch reports that key material shortages are causing issues in industries like manufacturing and construction. Experts predict that the labor shortage should improve in the fall, as children return to school and propel more parents back into the workforce. Lingering fears over the coronavirus are expected to abate as vaccinations continue to rise and cases plummet

Internal Mobility Skills Audit

Posted on by edyson

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.

Common employee skills include:

  • Technology and digital skills
  • Research skills
  • Quantitative skills
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Analytical skills
  • Soft skills like emotional intelligence
  • Project management
  • Business acumen
  • Project management
  • Teamwork

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:

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 (such as remote work) on the role.
  • Develop a list of competencies that most clearly and accurately describe what is necessary to do the work.

Conducting an inventory of your employees’ current skills:

  • Position descriptions
  • Job class specifications
  • Performance evaluations and employee assessments
  • Interviews/focus group meetings with supervisors, managers and employees 
  • Self-assessment surveys

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 Affinix Internal Mobility can 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.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – April 2021

Posted on by nfuqua

The U.S. economy gained 226,000 jobs in April. The numbers fell far below economist expectations, even as vaccinations increase, and COVID-19 cases decrease across the country. The report comes one year after the economy shed 20.5 million jobs in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic. The unemployment rate rose to 6.1%. Year-over-year wage growth was at .3%.

jobs report infographic

The Numbers

+266,000: Employers added 266,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in April.

6.1%: The unemployment rate rose to 6.1%

.3%: Wages rose just .3% over the past year.

The Good

April’s jobs report was largely disappointing. As the New York Times reports, economists had expected job growth as high as one million. However, there are a few bright points. leisure and hospitality, the sector hit hardest by the pandemic, led job growth with 331,000 new jobs. Additionally, labor force participation increased to 61.7% in April, marking the second straight month of growth, and suggesting that more Americans are reentering the workforce.

The Bad

Despite COVID-19 numbers trending positively, the Wall Street Journal reports that many employers are still cautious about ramping up hiring. Additionally, sectors that grew during the pandemic saw some job losses in April, including temporary work and transportation and warehousing. Manufacturing shed 18,000 jobs due to supply chain issues in the auto industry.

Additionally, year-over-year wage growth fell sharply in April, however these numbers come exactly one year after more than 20 million jobs were lost. At that point, wage growth increased drastically, as higher wage workers were more likely to retain their jobs, while lower wage workers were more likely to experience layoffs. That shift caused the average wage to rise, and the trend will impact wage growth numbers for months to come.

The Unknown

Economists disagree on the cause of April’s disappointing report. According to NBC, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ascribes the low numbers to the volatility of a recovering economy. Others have argued that enhanced unemployment benefits may be keeping some people at home, while yet another group argues those benefits have been necessary to keeping food on the table for many families. The New York Times reports a more complicated story, particularly in the restaurant industry, as some workers look to change careers for more stable industries, or express health and safety concerns.