Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Employee Retention: Combating Turnover

Posted on by epadmin

Employee retention is a major concern for many organizations. More than 50 percent of organizations worldwide have expressed difficulty in retaining some of their most valued employee groups according to a Willis Towers Watson study.

Although hiring has increased in recent years, turnover and attrition rates have also increased globally across all industries by more than 3 percent since 2013.

Turnover is not just an inconvenience for organizations, it can be expensive. Research from the Work Institute’s 2017 Retention Report uncovered that it currently costs 33 percent of a worker’s annual salary to replace them, with the major costs being recruiting a replacement, reduced productivity, cost of onboarding a new hire and training expenses.

This means for mid- to enterprise-sized employers, turnover can cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars a year. With turnover costs this high, it is important for organizations to improve employee retention.

Employee Retention: Employee Turnover and What To Do About It

The strong economy and historically low unemployment rates have made workers more confident, and as a result, they are more comfortable exploring the job market.

In the U.S., the unemployment rate reached 3.7 percent in October. Low unemployment is not confined to the U.S. The unemployment rate has also dropped to 4 percent in the UK and 5.3 percent in Australia.

In LinkedIn’s Why and How People Change Jobs study, the top three reasons employees leave a position are to advance their careers, dissatisfaction with their workplace culture and dissatisfaction with management.

Moreover, the study found that once employees resigned, 42 percent said they might have stayed if their employer had done something to show they valued the employee.

Below, we address some of the main causes of employee turnover and provide insights into how to improve employee retention.

Create a Positive Workplace Culture  

Stressful, negative and inhospitable workplaces are a recipe for high employee turnover. Research bears this out, as the American Institute of Stress reports that workplace stress can lead to an increase of nearly 50 percent in voluntary employee turnover.

How we feel about our work often depends on the relationships we have with coworkers, managers and the overall company culture. According to a study conducted by the University of Michigan, there are six essential qualities of a positive workplace culture:

  1. Caring for, being interested in and maintaining responsibility for colleagues as friends.
  2. Providing support for one another, including offering kindness and compassion when others are struggling.
  3. Avoiding blame and forgiving mistakes.
  4. Inspiring one another at work.
  5. Emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work.
  6. Treating one another with respect, gratitude, trust and integrity.

As an organization, you should work to foster these qualities in your workplace. The University of Michigan research points to two key strategies:

Encourage Trusting Safe Relationships

Employees who trust that their coworkers and managers have their best interests at heart feel safe, as research by Amy Edmondson of Harvard demonstrates. Workplace cultures where leaders are inclusive, humble and encourage their staff to communicate and ask for help lead to better learning and performance outcomes for all employees.

Be Empathic

A brain-imaging study found that when employees recollected instances when a manager had been harsh or lacked empathy, they showed increased activation in areas of the brain associated with avoidance and negative emotion, while the opposite was true when they recalled an empathic manager.

Moreover, Jane Dutton and her team at the CompassionLab suggest that leaders who demonstrate compassion toward employees foster individual and collective resilience in challenging times. Thus, creating a workplace environment more conducive for overcoming challenges and obstacles.

Key Action:

Develop a workplace environment that meets employee needs whenever possible to drive positive organizational outcomes and increase employee retention.

Professional Development

In an article published by HR Dive, Laurie Bienstock of Willis Tower Watson states that “We know from our research and consulting that career management continues to be a top driver of attraction, talent retention and sustainable engagement for most employees…Effective career management at many organizations remains elusive. That’s one of the main reasons so many of today’s employees feel they need to leave to advance their careers.”

Well-thought-out professional development programs can provide your employees with opportunities and clear direction on how to increase their skills and advance their careers within your organization.

With an expanded skill set, not only will employees feel more empowered, they will also have more tools to help your organization. A win-win for your organization and staff.

When starting a professional development program, you can leverage the expertise you have within your organization. Senior employees, for example, can serve as mentors and help mentees sharpen both their soft skills and technical skills, gain practical knowledge, institutional insights and hands-on guidance, and can help mentees become more valuable and versatile employees.

At PeopleScout, for example, we sponsor a program where employees are paired with mentors at different levels within the organization to provide mentorship and career guidance. During the first three cycles of our program, 10 percent of participants received promotions after completing the program.

Key Action:

Invest in your employees’ career development and tie their career success to the success of your organization.

Management and Leadership

It’s often stated that “employees don’t leave organizations, they leave managers.” This is not a mere business platitude, there is evidence to back it up.

In a study conducted by Gallup, 50 percent of employees said they left a job “to get away from their manager to improve their overall life at some point in their career.”

What’s more, according to an article by SHRM, “Employees who trust their managers appear to have more pride in the organization and are more likely to feel they are applying their individual talents for their own success and that of the organization.”

To curb employee turnover that stems from mismanagement, organizations should train managers on how to constructively engage, develop and motivate their teams to improve employee retention.

One challenge managers may face lies in the fact that what motivates employees is often unique to the individual. To uncover the diverse factors that drive their team members, emotional intelligence is required.

Training support for managers should involve teaching them how to build better relationships, communicate more effectively, notice the early signs of employee burnout, delegate work and shift their mindset from being “the boss” to becoming a leader who empowers their team for success.

Moreover, managers should not have to wait for HR to step in with talent retention initiatives. Instead, managers should feel empowered to provide incentives and rewards, as well as the ability to develop their staff and offer meaningful opportunities to their team.

Managers should also be aware that meaningful recognition and praise can be powerful. Employee awards, recognition programs and praise might be the single most cost-effective way to maintain a happy, productive workforce.

Managers can send positive emails at the completion of a project or monthly memos outlining the achievements of their team, and organizations can develop peer-recognition programs to provide positive feedback to individuals as well as their teams as a whole.

What’s more, organizations can create formal employee recognition programs. These programs let employees know that their work is valued and provides employees with a sense of ownership and belonging within their organization.

Creating a culture of recognition is something any organization can do to improve their employee retention. The key to success is identifying how your employees like to be recognized and then finding ways to show recognition in their preferred method consistently over time.

While recognition programs can help improve employee retention, you still need to make sure managers are provided with coaching and training programs as well as supplied with the resources they need to become more empowered.

Key Action:

Enable employees to have positive social interactions with leadership and a rewarding work environment to increase satisfaction with their role in the organization.

Using Predictive Analytics to Track Turnover

Today, organizations are more data-driven, using AI and predictive analytics to better analyze data and drive business decisions. Predictive analytics can be leveraged by organizations to monitor and manage employee turnover by identifying which employees are at risk of leaving the organization.

Organizations should build their predictive models based on employee data tracked and stored in their HRIS or ATS. This historical data contains a wealth of information relevant to predicting employee turnover. Successfully leveraging predictive analytics to improve employee retention begins with the validity and quality of data fed into a predictive model.

Some of the most commonly used employee information for turnover-focused predictive modeling includes:

  • Tenure or duration of employment
  • Compensation level or ratio
  • Date of, or time since, last promotion
  • Percent of most recent pay raise
  • Job performance score
  • Commute distance
  • Job satisfaction score
  • Number of previous positions held
  • Years with current manager
  • Engagement score

These points of data can be analyzed to predict the likelihood and rate of turnover across roles within an organization.

For example, a PeopleScout client uses data and predictive models to assess turnover trends. The client uses employee demographic information such as age, tenure and their previous employer to predict when an employee might resign based on historical trends and patterns of similar employees.

Equipped with this data, the client is better positioned to prevent valuable employees from resigning by taking preemptive actions during periods or junctures where the employee is most likely to resign.

Leveraging Interviews to Improve Employee Retention

A key to improving employee retention is uncovering the unique issues your employees face day-to-day. Exit and stay interviews can give you a wide variety of perspectives from which to tackle issues that are driving employees away.

Exit Interviews

Exit interviews are designed to gather feedback from departing employees, and can provide an organization with insights that can be used to make current and future employees less likely to resign.

For example, if your exit interviews uncover that employees feel their duties didn’t match their original job expectations, consider changing your job descriptions and your onboarding sessions to better reflect the duties within a specific role.

What’s more, recruiters and talent acquisition stakeholders should be educated on the competencies and skills that are needed to be successful in a specific role and be able to communicate them effectively to candidates.

Tips for conducting effective exit interviews:

  • Choose the Right Interviewer: When conducting an exit interview, the interviewer should be someone with little connection to the interviewee or someone they feel comfortable sharing their true feedback and concerns with.
  • Ask the Right Questions: To get the most out of an exit interview, it is important to ask the right questions – e.g. what is the attraction of the new position?; how were relationships with colleagues?; was there an issue with benefits or compensation?; what could be done to make this company a better place to work?
  • Analyze the Interviews: Make sure you analyze the results of each exit interview and aim to find any common issues that are causing your employees to leave.

Exit interviews shouldn’t be the only time you solicit feedback from employees. Rather, you should foster a culture of constructive feedback. Employee engagement surveys are a good way to take the pulse of employees throughout their tenure with your organization. That way, you’re more likely to get honest, constructive feedback from current employees, as well as when employees leave.

Key Action:

During an exit interview, ask about things like the quality of leadership, teamwork across and within departments, opportunities for advancement and internal policies.

Stay Interviews

In some ways stay interviews are similar to exit interviews. They are both used to identify reasons employees like or dislike their job and can uncover concerns or issues an employer may be unaware of.

However, stay interviews can be more valuable than exit interviews because they provide insights managers can leverage to motivate and retain employees before they make the decision to leave.

Questions to ask during a stay interview:

  • What keeps you working here?
  • What do you enjoy about your job?
  • What would cause you to leave the company?
  • What would you like to change about your job, team or department?
  • If you could change one thing about the company what would it be?
  • Have you ever thought about leaving the organization?
  • What motivates you at work?
  • Do you feel appreciated in your role?
  • Where do you see yourself in five years?

After conducting a stay interview, be as transparent as possible with the interviewee about what you can or can’t do to remedy a particular issue.

Key Action:

Aim to conduct your stay interviews at least once per year to augment the more general information about team satisfaction obtained through engagement surveys. Schedule them separately from performance reviews so the goals of each meeting remain distinct.

The Gist:

Unmanaged employee turnover is costly and disruptive to organizations. Approaches to retaining top talent need go beyond compensation and benefits to include improving employee job satisfaction with meaningful engagement, organizational commitment to managing employees’ relationships with their managers and clearly communicating opportunities for growth and advancement with the organization.

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018

Posted on by epadmin

This month’s UK Labour Market Report, which covers July through September, brings to mind a gathering of friends sitting around the dinner table when a long-anticipated guest bursts through the door and breathlessly announces, “I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?” This month’s report contains elements that are unquestionably good and bad, but there are some items where interpretation varies.

UK Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018


First, the objectively good news: The number of employed people rose by 23,000, bringing the employment total to a new high of 32.41 million, which is 350,000 more than a year earlier. And the bad news? The UK unemployment rate has risen to 4.1 per cent, up from a 43-year low of 4.0 per cent. In the last quarter, 21,000 UK workers lost their jobs.


Below, we focus on factors that are up for interpretation.

Wages

The growth in UK wages accelerated to a near 10-year high. Average nominal earnings (wages excluding bonuses) rose 3.2 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier. This is the largest increase since December 2008 and higher than the expected 3.1 per cent predicted in a Bloomberg survey.


The rise in wages is continuing to outpace prices, which is a relief for those impacted by the inflation surge following the Brexit vote. While the rate of pay growth may be greeted positively by workers, it is a concern for employers who are feeling the pressure to raise wages to retain and attract talent in a tight market.

Job Vacancies

Job vacancies hit a record high of 845,000, which is welcome news for job seekers who find themselves “in the driver’s seat” given the high demand for workers. A large number of job vacancies can be perceived as a sign of a robust economy with many enterprises seeking to grow.


However, this high number of open positions can take a toll on both employers who have to ensure profitability with a smaller number of workers and the workers who may be required to take on extra responsibilities. Given the number of opportunities available, workers may feel the lure of quitting for a more lucrative position when they carry a burdensome workload.

EU Nationals as Part of the UK Workforce

There were 132,000 fewer EU nationals working in the UK than a year earlier, bringing the total to 2.25 million. This was the largest annual drop in the number of workers from Europe since the Office for National Statistics began keeping track in 1997.


The fall in EU workers was due to a decline of 154,000 workers from the eight eastern and central European accession countries that joined the EU in 2004. This was offset by an increase of about 23,000 workers from other EU countries. The Financial Times reports:


“Stephen Clarke, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said that the fall in EU migrant workers ‘shows that Britain’s labour market is already changing ahead of its exit from the EU.’


‘Firms who employ a large share of migrant workers need to think now about adjusting to a lower migration environment, in terms of the workers they employ, what they produce and how they operate,’ he said.”


This may be music to the ears of those who hoped that Brexit would bring more job opportunities to UK nationals. For others, the decline in EU workers exacerbates an already difficult skills shortage and increases the pressure to raise wages to attract home-grown talent.


If we check back in with the gathering of friends sitting down to dinner, some may have heard mostly good news and some mostly bad, but they can all agree that there is much to digest as the year draws to a close and Brexit looms ever closer.

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

Posted on by epadmin

Canada’s unemployment rate has moved back down to a four-decade low of 5.8 per cent, but even in a tight job market where employers are having a hard time finding workers, wage growth is slowing. The nation added 11,200 net new jobs in October, including a gain of 33,900 full-time positions, Statistics Canada reported in its latest labour force survey. The agency said the jobless rate moved down from the 5.9 per cent level in September, mainly because fewer people searched for work.

The Numbers

11,200: The economy gained 11,200 jobs in October.
5.8%: The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 per cent.
1.8%: Weekly wages decreased to  1.8 per cent over the last year.

The Good

Employment among people in the core-aged group (25 to 54) rose by 31,000 in October. On a year-over-year basis, employment for core-aged workers increased by 169,000 (+1.4 per cent) with gains equally distributed between men and women. Job gains were not limited to the core age group. The number of workers aged 55 and over rose by 19,000 in October, which is the result of more employed women in this age category. The unemployment rate for all workers aged 55 and over fell by 0.3 percentage points to 4.9 per cent. Compared with October 2017, the number of workers aged 55 and over increased by 72,000 (+1.8 per cent).
More Canadians were employed in business, building and other support services; wholesale and retail trade; and healthcare and social assistance. Full-time employment rose by nearly 34,000. Over the last year, the number of employed people in Canada grew by206,000 or 1.1 per cent, with the most of the gain coming from full-time work (+173,000).

The Bad

Year-over-year, average weekly wage growth fell to just 1.8 per cent and hourly wage growth slowed last month to 2.19 per cent for the lowest reading level September 2017. Experts have predicted wage growth to rise along with a tightened labour market, but average hourly wage growth has dropped every month since May when it was 3.94 per cent.
The loss of over 22,000 part-time jobs contributed to the lackluster job gains in October. The unemployment rate fell only because fewer people were in the labour force which decreased by 18,200. With the exception of Saskatchewan which gained 2,500 jobs in October, employment was essentially flat in every other province.
There were 17,000 fewer Canadians working in “other services” in October, the first notable decline in six months. “Other services” includes services such as those related to civic and professional organizations; repair and maintenance; and private households. Employment in finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing declined by 15,000 in October, offsetting an increase the month before. On a year-over-year basis, employment in the industry was essentially unchanged.

The Unknown

The tax reforms in the U.S. may seriously impact the Canadian economy in the near future according to a recent PwC study as reported in BNN Bloomberg:
“Our analysis suggests that the U.S. tax reform has eliminated one of Canada’s main competitive advantages. We are of the view that this loss will have a significant negative impact on capital-intensive sectors in Canada,” according to the report, which was produced for the Business Council of Canada. “All else being equal, these sectors as a whole would likely face a significant shift in investments from Canada to the U.S. over the next 10 years.”
The wide-ranging tax reform bill cut the U.S. corporate tax rate to 21 per cent from 35 per cent and allows for companies to deduct the full cost of capital spending from their tax bills.
PwC said $85-billion in GDP – about 4.9 per cent of total output – and 635,000 jobs are at risk due to the U.S. leapfrogging Canada on the competitive front. It forecasts the chemical, machinery manufacturing and plastics industries would be most at risk. On a provincial basis, PwC said Ontario has the most on the line, accounting for nearly one out of every three dollars identified at risk.”

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

Posted on by epadmin
U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

The Labor Department released its October jobs report which shows 250,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy. The pace of hiring was strong, and the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent, the lowest point since 1969. The unemployment rate held steady because the number of people working or looking for a job increased by 711,000, nudging the labor force participation rate up to 62.9 percent, from 62.7 percent a month earlier. U.S. employers have added to payrolls for 97 straight months, extending the longest continuous jobs expansion on record.


The Numbers

250,000: The economy added 250,000 jobs in October.
3.7%: The unemployment remained to 3.7 percent.
3.1%: Wages increased 3.1 percent over the last year.

The Good

Wage growth climbed 3.1 percent from one year ago, on an hourly basis, exceeding 3 percent for the first time since the recession. On a weekly basis, wages grew at an even stronger rate at 3.4 percent. The economy has added 2.1 million jobs so far in 2018, which puts it on track to be the third best year for job growth since the recession. This year is 89,000 jobs behind the pace of 2015 and 322,000 jobs behind the pace of 2014. The overall increase in those participating in the labor pool is an indicator of the continuing strength of the job market.
For those ages 25 to 54, 82.3 percent are participating in the labor force and 79.7 percent have jobs. Both figures are now at their highest levels since the recession and its immediate aftermath. The biggest sectors for job growth continued to be professional services and health care, and the construction and manufacturing industries have also had solid gains over the last year.

The Bad

Not everyone is reaping the same benefits from the strong job market. The unemployment rate for workers with high school education or less climbed in October. Workers without a high school degree face triple the unemployment rate of those who finished college. Education level is not the only determining factor, as Bloomberg reports:
“Ten years after the Great Recession, 25- to 34-year-old men are lagging in the workforce more than any other age and gender demographics. About 500,000 more would be punching the clock today had their employment rate returned to pre-downturn levels. Many… say they’re in training. Others report disability. All are missing out on a hot labor market and crucial years on the job, ones traditionally filled with the promotions and raises that build the foundation for a career.”

The Unknown

With unemployment at record lows, a critical question is how many of those still on the sitting on the sidelines outside of the labor force can be coaxed back in to fill the current and future open positions. Commenting on the strong job statistics for 25- to 54-year-olds noted above, Neil Irwin in the New York Times writes:
“The proportion of prime-working-age adults — those between 25 and 54 — who were working in October soared to 79.7 percent, up from 79.3 percent in September and easily the highest of this expansion.
Strikingly, though, there is still room to run on this measure compared with the last two economic peaks. That figure was 80.3 percent in January 2007 and 81.9 percent in April 2000.
Does the economy still have the potential to reach those levels, or reach still higher ones? If so, there’s no reason this kind of job growth can’t continue for at least a few more years.
If, on the other hand, some of those who have left the labor force won’t be pulled in no matter what, the economy will be hitting a simple constraint of not having enough workers — all the more so given more stringent policies limiting immigration.
So celebrate the latest jobs numbers, while hoping that this proves to be the middle of a nice boom rather than the beginning of the end.”

Talking Talent: Addressing the Workforce Gap in Nursing

Posted on by epadmin

In this episode of Talking Talent, we talk about how to address the workforce gap in nursing and the solution developed at Sutter Health in Northern California to increase nurse retention.

Healthcare organizations across the United States are grappling with the nursing shortage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of registered nurses is expected to grow 16 percent between 2014 and 2024 based on an increased emphasis on preventative care, growing rates of chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity and demand for healthcare services for the baby boomer generation. At the same time, baby boomer nurses are retiring in unprecedented numbers. By 2020, the number of baby-boomer nurses in the workforce will decrease to just half their 2008 peak.

Joining us to talk about the unique solution at Sutter Health is Christine Cress, the Director of Nurse Workforce and Leadership Development. A skilled executive coach and Stanford-trained facilitator, Christine has led inter-disciplinary teams to create functions and company programs where they did not exist before. She has been named honorary nurse by her nurse executive colleagues and is a strategic business partner generating results that require no spin. Christine blends mind, heart and business to her practice as a healthcare leader. She brings the insights of 18 years in healthcare – partnering with finance, supply chain, clinicians and HR to serve those who take care of patients.

In this interview , Christine explains how she and her team developed and funded an internal program that increased nurse retention during the nursing shortage.

You can read more about skills shortages in healthcare here:

Listen to other Talking Talent Podcasts about healthcare:

2018 Q3 Global Economic Snapshot

Posted on by epadmin

The strong job growth which characterized the first half of 2018 continued in the third quarter for many of the world’s leading economies. Tangible evidence of rising wages spurred by the tight job markets began to appear in the U.S. and the UK. Employers continued to be challenged by the decreasing pool of available talent which has added to the urgency to successfully recruit and retain talent.

Solid Job Growth and Low Unemployment in Many of the World’s Largest Economies


In Q3 in the United States there were more job openings than unemployed workers to fill them, and in September, the unemployment rate plunged to its lowest level since 1969. In the UK, unemployment rates were at their lowest in more than 40 years. The U.S., UK, China, Germany and Japan all posted unemployment rates under 4 percent during the quarter. Unemployment in Australia dropped to 5.3 percent in July and held steady in August. The euro area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 8.1 percent in August. This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since November 2008. Individual European economies however, such as France and Italy, continued to post unemployment rates above 9 percent.


For other major economies, the results were more mixed. Canada, which had experienced healthy job growth during much of the last year, had a rise in unemployment in August which was followed by job gains in September driven by part-time employment. Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, had an unemployment rate above 12 percent during the third quarter. While Brazil’s unemployment rate is among the highest in the Americas, it is still an improvement over the 13.1 percent rate average during the first quarter of 2018.

U.S. and the UK: Possible Signals of Wage Growth are Not Shared Worldwide


In June, the New York Times noted “The rise in consumer prices over the last year has effectively wiped out any wage increases for nonsupervisory workers…That is odd for an economy with a tight labor market, with unemployment running at a 3.8 percent…the benefits of a hot economy have not yet translated into a significant wage increase for workers.” While this article was specifically referring to the United States, slow wage growth has been the norm for the world’s wealthiest countries despite sustained low unemployment.


Wage data released during the third quarter in the U.S. and the UK suggests that real wage growth may have finally arrived. In the U.S., average hourly earnings rose by 0.4 percent in August, pushing the annual rate of increase to 2.9 percent – the fastest pace since June 2009. And in the UK, wage growth accelerated over the summer with the lowest jobless rate in more than four decades. The Office for National Statistics reported that earnings excluding bonuses rose an annual 2.9 percent in the quarter including May, June and July. In July alone, basic wages rose 3.1 percent, the most since 2015. The wage increases in both the U.S. and the UK outpaced the rate of inflation, which may have a positive impact on their overall economies.


By contrast, Canada actually saw a decrease in year-over-year wage increases during the third quarter. In August the growth rate slid to 2.9 percent after expanding to 3.2 percent in July and 3.5 percent in June. In Australia, wage data for the third quarter has yet to be reported. However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that consumer prices and wage price indexes both rose by an identical 2.1 percent from the start of the year to June.

Brexit, Tariffs and the End of NAFTA


While the third quarter ended without any new clarity regarding the details of the UK’s exit from the European Union, a number of businesses, including those in the financial sector, have continued planning to move operations and employees out of the UK. The composition of the UK workforce has also started to change in response to Brexit. In August, The Office of National Statistics reported the number of European Union nationals working in the UK fell by 86,000, a record amount. This decrease was the largest annual amount since records began in 1997 and continues a trend seen since the 2016 Brexit vote. This contrasts with a rise in the number of non-EU nationals working in the UK. That number is now 1.27 million, which is 74,000 more than a year earlier. Without determining the status of EU nationals working in Britain after a final Brexit settlement, the composition of the UK workforce in both the near and long-term remains unclear.


The U.S. imposed tariffs on China before and during the third quarter. In the United States, the tariffs have led to some job losses, but when balanced against impressive domestic job gains, the extent of the impact of these tariffs on both countries remains to be seen.


Uncertainty over the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has been a challenge for many employers in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Changes to NAFTA could have potentially altered the price and availability of many goods and services. After extensive negotiations among the three countries, a new trade agreement known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA, was announced just after the end of the quarter. The agreement must still be ratified by each country’s legislatures, but the announced new terms and rules will allow employers to resume planning and hiring forecasts which may have stalled during uncertainty over NAFTA in the 1.2 trillion dollar North American market comprised of Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Addressing the Skills Gap: Upskilling Employees


Upskilling, or teaching new skills to current employees, is one way to address the skills shortage and current economic conditions faced by many employers. Upskilling not only provides additional skills to valued workers, it can also support their retention. As a recent article in Forbes notes:


“With the job market booming, employers should make every effort to prevent employees from job hopping their way up the corporate ladder, forcing companies to backfill positions and costing thousands in recruiting expenses and lost productivity. By investing in their employees’ education and skills training, employers not only increase employees’ value to the company but also send them the message that they are worth the investment and have a place in the company’s future.”


No matter how high a company’s retention rate may be, retirement and corporate growth require an effective recruitment strategy to attract new talent. Employers that promote the development of their employees’ skills provides a competitive advantage in attracting motivated candidates, and ultimately productive and successful employees.

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

Posted on by epadmin

The Office for National Statistics released its October Labour Market Bulletin which reports on the three months of June, July and August 2018. The bulletin reports 83,000 jobs were added in those three months with the unemployment rate holding steady at 4.0 per cent. The report shows that average weekly earnings for employees in the UK in nominal terms increased by 3.1 per cent over the last year.

UK Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

The Numbers


83,000: The economy added 83,000 jobs over the June-August 2018 period.
4.0%: The unemployment rate remained unchanged from the previous bulletin at 4.0 per cent.
3.1%: Wages increased 3.1 per cent over the last year.

The Good


Increased competition for workers pushed wage growth to the highest level in the UK since the recession ten years ago. The UK hasn’t seen 3.1 per cent wage growth since the final three months of 2008, the period when the government had to bail out UK banks following the collapse of Lehman Brothers.


There were 1.36 million unemployed people which is 47,000 fewer than for March to May 2018 and 79,000 fewer than for a year earlier. The unemployment rate at 4.0 per cent has not been lower since February 1975. Of people 16- to 64-years-old, 75.5 per cent were working in the UK, up from 75.1 per cent a year earlier.


For June to August 2018, the unemployment rate for those aged from 16 to 24 years was 10.8 per cent, the lowest youth unemployment rate since comparable records for unemployment by age group began in March to May 1992.

The Bad


There were some signs of weakness in the report, with employment falling slightly from the previous report and for the first time since the autumn of last year. And while wage growth has started to pick up, the Financial Times reports, “The past decade has been the worst for UK real incomes since the mid-19th century and, on current trends, real wages will not double until 2099, the Resolution Foundation noted in a report published on Tuesday. In the period from 1945 to 2002, real wages doubled on average every 29 years.”


Due primarily to concerns over Brexit, Great Britain fell to two places to number 8 on the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Index. As The Guardian reports, “Britain has dropped two places to eighth in an influential global competitiveness index, with the risk of Brexit further damaging its international standing…While Britain remains the fourth most competitive economy in Europe behind Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the WEF suggested that it could slip further behind because Brexit stood to damage its attractiveness to international buyers and sellers of goods and services.”


“Brexit … will by definition weaken the United Kingdom’s markets component as integration with the EU is rolled back,” the report said.


“The WEF said Britain had slipped in the 2018 ranking due to a deterioration in domestic labour mobility, which measures the extent to which people move between the different regions of a country to find work.”

The Unknown


Uncertainty over Brexit terms continues with some economists warning of the possibility of no formal deal being agreed to before the exit deadline of March next year. As The Economist notes, “the timetable is slipping, and there is a growing risk of no deal at all. The main reason is that Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, has rejected a key part of the EU’s draft withdrawal agreement, a planned backstop to ensure that, no matter what happens to a future trade deal between Britain and the EU, there is no hard border with physical customs controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.


The issue of the Irish border has bedevilled talks from the start. The EU’s guidelines for negotiations, published in March 2017, made it one of three points that needed to be settled in the withdrawal agreement before talks could begin on future trade relations (the other two were settling how much Britain owed for outstanding EU obligations and enshrining the rights of EU citizens in Britain to stay). Last December Mrs. May agreed with the EU that, while the intention was to avoid frontier controls through a comprehensive free-trade deal, a backstop solution was needed to ensure no hard border in any circumstances. The problem is that the two sides have different views on how such a backstop should be legally designed.”

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — September 2018

Posted on by epadmin
U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — September 2018

The Labor Department released its September Jobs report which shows 134,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy. U.S. employers have added to payrolls for 96 straight months, extending the longest continuous jobs expansion on record. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7 percent, the lowest rate recorded since 1969.


The Numbers

134,000: The economy added 134,000 jobs in September.
3.7%: The unemployment decreased to 3.7 percent.
2.8%: Wages increased 2.8 percent over the last year.

The Good

The unemployment rate in September was the lowest in nearly half a century. Notable job increases were posted in transportation and warehousing, construction, manufacturing and healthcare. These sectors have shown significant growth over the last year: transportation and warehousing has added 174,000 jobs; construction has increased by 315,000 jobs; manufacturing has gained 278,000 jobs; and health care jobs have increased by 302,000.

The Bad

The 134,000 jobs added fell short of Wall Street analysts’ expectations. These job gains are less than half of the 270,000 jobs which were added in August based on revised figures. The comparatively modest job increases may mark the start of a slowdown of job increases.
The year-over-year wage gains fell 0.1 percentage points to 2.8 percent. This slight decrease has temporarily put on hold the start of a continuing trend of increased wages brought about by the tight job market. Slow wage growth is perceived to be the source of the current high rate of voluntary turnover. CNBC reports that compensation appears to be a major reason why workers are quitting their jobs at the highest rate since 2001 and notes that workers voluntarily leaving their jobs are making a smart move when it comes to increasing their income:
Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist at job site Glassdoor [stated] “We’re seeing high worker confidence in their ability to strike out and find a better job opportunity elsewhere,” says Chamberlain. “For many, it’s a smart move, as there’s a clear advantage to increasing your earning potential by switching jobs.”
According to Brian Kropp, vice president at research firm Gartner, the average increase in compensation for a worker who quits their old job for a new one is about 15 percent. “You’re never going to get that 15 percent [increase] by staying at your current job,” he tells CNBC Make It. “That’s just not going to happen.”

The Unknown

Hurricane Florence may have been a factor in the less than stellar job numbers in September as Bloomberg reported:
“The reason for the fuzzy September numbers? Big storms wreak havoc on a region’s workforce. Some people flee the area and businesses close down days before the wind starts to howl. Others, like utility and construction companies and their employees, work overtime preparing for damage, cleaning up and rebuilding. So the latest wages and hours-worked figures were probably skewed by the weather.”
The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economist calls for a 2.8 percent gain in average hourly earnings from a year earlier, slightly weaker than the August advance of 2.9 percent – which was the biggest jump since mid-2009. The hurricane effect, however, may render any actual number on worker pay a short-term blip.
“Hurricane Florence is poised to impact not only the pace of job creation in September” but also to “temporarily distort average hourly earnings and the average length of the workweek, as well,” according to Bloomberg economists Carl Riccadonna, Yelena Shulyatyeva and Tim Mahedy.”

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — September 2018

Posted on by epadmin
Canada Jobs Report Analysis — September 2018

Statistics Canada released its September 2018 Labour Force Survey which shows a gain of 63,300 jobs for the Canadian economy which drove the unemployment rate down to 5.9 per cent, down from 6.0 per cent in August. Contributing to the drop in unemployment was a gain of 80,200 part-time positions.


The Numbers

63,300: The economy gained 63,300 jobs in September.
5.9%: The unemployment rate fell to 5.9 per cent.
2.2%: Weekly wages increased 2.2 per cent over the last year.

The Good

September’s job gains, fueled by the increase in part-time employment reversed the job losses from the previous month. The report shows that in Ontario, employment increased by 36,000, the third increase in four months. Employment in British Columbia increased by 33,000, driven by gains in full-time work (+26,000). In the third quarter, employment increased by 54,000, following a decline over the first half of 2018.
In September, more Canadians worked in construction; finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing; public administration and agriculture. Compared with September 2017, employment was up 222,000 or 1.2 per cent, entirely the result of gains in full-time work (+224,000). Over the same period, total hours worked increased 0.7 per cent.

The Bad

The Canadian economy lost 16,900 full-time jobs in September. At the same time, employment fell in information, culture and recreation and business, building and other support services.  Employment increased in Ontario and British Columbia while it was little changed in the remaining provinces. Statistics Canada reported that the number of self-employed Canadians declined by 35,000 after recording an almost equal total increase over the past twelve months.
The monthly labour force survey also found that all of the job gains in September were made by workers in the core 25-to-54 age range with virtually no change in youth employment. September’s youth unemployment rate stood at 11.0 per cent, up by 0.1 percentage points from the previous month and more than 5 percentage points higher than the working population as a whole.

The Unknown

Canada agreed to a new trade deal with the United States and Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The CBC notes that as “details of the newly renegotiated deal (the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA) emerge, some questions remain about what Canada’s signature guarantees in terms of protections, and what concessions were made…”
While the Canadian dairy industry will have new barriers imposed in the new agreement, the Canadian auto industry appears to be a winner in the USMCA, but these wins may not be lasting.  The CBC report continues, “Canada seems to have escaped..Section 232 national security tariffs — which would slap 20 to 25 per cent duties on cars and auto parts imported into the U.S… no hard limit will be placed on Canadian auto exports to the U.S., though if the U.S. moves forward with the imposition of worldwide 232 tariffs on autos, those would also apply to Canada.”

Ghosting in the Workplace

Posted on by epadmin

Ghosting in the workplace is an increasing concern for employers as the growing trend of candidates who don’t show up to scheduled interviews, don’t arrive on the first day of work or even quit without giving notice rises. This trend is also known as “ghosting” in the workplace.

“As labor markets tighten, recruiters and hiring managers say they’re experiencing a surge of workers no-showing at interviews or accepting a job only to never appear for the first day of work without explanation. Some employees are even quitting by walking out and saying nothing,” wrote LinkedIn’s Chip Cutter in an article on workplace ghosting.

What’s more, an article published by USA Today reports that 20 to 50 percent of job applicants and workers are pulling no-shows or ghosting in some form or fashion.

The ghosting phenomenon is global. “I thought it could only be in pockets of a country like the U.S., where the unemployment rate has sunk to an 18-year low,” wrote Pilita Clark in an article in the Financial Times. “When I asked around in the UK, where unemployment is at its lowest in over 40 years, I found a surprising number of victims of what is known in the online dating world as ‘ghosting.’”

To further explain what ghosting is, why it’s occurring and what your organization can do to minimize its effects on your talent acquisition program, we explore the phenomenon and its effects on employers.

So, What is Ghosting in the Workplace?

In the dating world, “ghosting” is the practice of ending a relationship by stopping all contact and communication with a partner without apparent warning or explanation.

The discourteous act of ghosting is no longer confined to romance; it has now entered the world of work.

Ghosting in the workplace is similar to ghosting in dating. Essentially, candidates or employees avoid having potentially unpleasant conversations with recruiters or their employers by going radio silent instead.

ghosting in the workplace

Instead of telling employers, “I am quitting” or “I have accepted another job offer,” some workers are thinking: “If I ignore you long enough, eventually you will take the hint and leave me alone.”

Simply put, many job seekers do not want to have an uncomfortable conversation with a recruiter or manager, so they take the easy way out by ghosting them. Ghosting in the workplace comes in many forms including:

  • No-Showing for an Interview. This occurs when candidates do not show up to scheduled interviews. This can happen for initial interviews, or interviews further along in the hiring process.
  • No-Showing on the First Day. This occurs when candidates accept a job offer but don’t show up on their start date.
  • Quitting Without Notice. This occurs when an employee leaves for the day and is never heard from again.

While job candidates and employees have ghosted in the past, what’s unique now is the practice has now become more prevalent. According to a survey conducted by Washington-based research firm Clutch, 71 percent of workers admitted to ghosting at some point in the application process. What’s more, 55 percent of the respondents said they abandon one to five applications during a job search.

Why are Workers Ghosting in the Workplace?

Some experts believe it is due to changing candidate attitudes and others believe it is a result of the booming job market and historically low unemployment. Whatever the cause, ghosting in the workplace is becoming one of the top issues talent acquisition professionals face in today’s talent market.

Change in Candidate Attitudes

In an interview with the New York Post, Rob Bralow, owner of BLVD Wine Bar in Long Island says he schedules interviews back to back because the majority of applicants simply ghost the interview.

“If I have 10 people who have confirmed interviews in a day, and three people show up, I’m happy,” Bralow says. “And we’re talking about all pay grades and positions. It doesn’t matter what the pay scale is. I’ve had ghosts [no-shows] for $50,000 to $70,000 jobs, and I’ve had ghosts for minimum wage jobs.”

Clutch’s survey found 41 percent of workers found it acceptable to ghost employers, while 35 percent found it unreasonable for an organization to ghost an applicant. Clutch also found that of the workers that found ghosting acceptable, the most common reasons include accepting another job offer (30 percent) or deciding the role was not a good match (19 percent).

Improved Economy and Opportunities

Ghosting employers is not just a symptom of shifting attitudes in the workforce. It can also be the result of low unemployment.

At the height of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate reached 10 percent in the U.S. During this time, many organizations were inundated by the deluge of applications from job seekers and could not respond to every applicant.

What’s more, the global economy is expected to grow by 3.7 percent in 2018, further driving demand for talent.

As the economy and job market surge, the tables have turned. Employees are at an advantage because it’s a candidate’s job market and they have more employment options than they have in recent years.

In May of 2018, the unemployment rate reached an 18-year low of 3.8 percent. There were more job openings than unemployed workers for just the second month in two decades, according to the United States Department of Labor.

Low unemployment is not confined to the U.S., the unemployment rate in the EU has dropped to 7.1 and in the APAC region at 4.2 percent.

This means that employees have more options for employment and can move quickly from one job to the next, ignore employment offers they choose not to accept or accept multiple offers at once with little perceived negative consequences.

How to Survive Ghosting in the Workplace

ghosting employers

Ghosting is not only frustrating for employers and recruiters, it’s also expensive. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports the average cost-per-hire for companies is $4,129 and the average time to fill a position is 42 days. Ghosting also causes lost productivity, as hard-to-fill jobs stay open longer than anticipated.

To combat ghosting, employers can implement the following strategies:

Developing a Talent Community Can Curb Employee Ghosting

With ghosting becoming the new normal, it’s essential to be more strategic and build long-term relationships with candidates. One method of building long-term relationships is with talent communities.

Talent communities are ideal for establishing long-term professional relationships with passive talent for future opportunities. This means getting to know the talent landscape and candidates regardless of whether or not they are looking to make a career change immediately.

Developing a talent community requires organizations to shift from reactive recruiting to a more proactive approach. Your organization’s mindset should switch from recruiting to fill an open position to thinking about who your organization should hire in the future.

By sourcing candidates earlier in the hiring process, you have ample time to engage them and develop closer and more personal relationships, reducing their likelihood of ghosting.

Tips for building a talent community include:

  • Determine what roles you want to target for your talent community (usually roles with high turnover or roles that are hard-to-fill.)
  • Look to past candidates, former employees and interns to build your talent community.
  • Source passive candidates by combining various sourcing techniques (e.g. social media, networking events, etc.)
  • Engage candidates through recruitment marketing until you have an open role for them.

Building a talent community isn’t a short-term strategy and takes time to develop and nurture, but in the long term the benefits are worth the investment and can help offset ghosting in the workplace.

Ghosting Employers: Evaluate Your Onboarding Process

While candidates ghosting job interviews can be a challenge, candidates who ghost on the first day or who resign their position without notice can wreak havoc on an organization.

To curb and deter this behavior, organizations should start the onboarding process early to build an emotional connection with new hires.

In fact, according to research conducted by Inavero, 77 percent of candidates are willing to accept an offer that is 5 percent lower than their expected offer if the employer created a great impression through the hiring process.

That is important because new hires decide to stay or leave a job within the first three weeks, according to a study by the Wyndhurst Group.

Despite the fact that it can take a year or longer for a new employee to reach full productivity, only 15 percent of organizations extend their onboarding past six months, according to SHRM. If employers want to keep their new hires from ghosting, they should consider extending their onboarding processes through the first year of employment. Here are some ideas for successful onboarding techniques at different key points throughout an employee’s first year.

  • Before start date: Prior to a candidate’s first day, reach out with friendly messages welcoming the new employee or sharing an introduction to some of the benefits your organization has to offer.
  • On the first day: When the new hire arrives for their first day, be sure they are personally introduced to their coworkers and designate a point of contact who will be readily available to answer questions.
  • The first six months: Now that the new hire has learned the ropes, continuous feedback is what is going to help them hone their skills, catch mistakes and take corrective action when needed. This is also a great way to establish rapport and trust with the rest of the team.
  • After the first year: After the first year, managers should start having conversations about a new hire’s future within the organization and their career development as a way to show the employee that the organization is invested in their continued success.

Conclusion

No one can say for certain if ghosting in the workplace is a trend that is here to stay or if the emergence of an employer-friendly job market will curb it. But one thing is certain; candidate’s attitudes have changed, so organizations need to take steps to adjust.

By building strong talent communities and engaging new hires early and often, you can better position yourself to reduce the likelihood of candidates and employees ghosting you.