Category: Candidate Attraction

Leveraging Recruitment Marketing Strategies to Supercharge Talent Acquisition

Posted on by edyson

Recruitment marketing is now an essential strategy as the talent acquisition landscape is more competitive today than it has been at any point in history. Specifically, the global talent shortage stands at 40 million workers and is forecasted to reach more than 85 million by 2030, costing employers around the world more than $8 trillion in lost revenue. This means that, to stay ahead, employers need to implement new strategies and reimagine what talent acquisition can be; talent leaders need to be able to draw in candidates in the same way that brands draw in consumers.

To make that process even more difficult, the types of offerings that job-seekers want from a potential employer has shifted dramatically in the past few years: According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends Report, since 2019, there’s been sharp growth in members posting about the following topics:

Recruitment Marketing

The data is clear: Candidates are seeking employers that can provide flexibility and a greater work/life balance. As a result, organizations that excel at highlighting a company culture that’s compatible with current talent market trends will remain competitive in the hunt for talent.

As a talent professional, you may not think about marketing as a recruitment function. However, a large part of ensuring that your talent pipeline is stocked with the best talent involves making sure that your organization is an attractive place to work for candidates. Thus, recruitment and marketing need to work together. The job of a talent acquisition team is more than just hiring great talent; it also includes attracting talent and enticing them to commit. In this four-part section, we’ll cover how employers can leverage modern marketing techniques to recruit and better engage candidates at each stage of the recruitment marketing funnel.

Recruitment Marketing and Hiring Strategies Part One: The Case for Implementing Modern Digital Marketing Strategies

Typically, consumers require engagement across multiple touchpoints before deciding on a purchase—and it’s up to an organization’s marketing team to facilitate engagement at each stage of the sales funnel. Job-seekers are no different and often need multiple interactions with an organization’s employer brand before applying for a role; in this case, it’s the job of the talent acquisition team to facilitate these interactions throughout the recruitment funnel.

Granted, the stages of the talent acquisition funnel depend on an organization’s hiring practices, but we can make some generalizations. For the purposes of this article, we’ll cover three vital functions in the recruitment marketing process: 1) attracting active and passive candidates, 2) converting candidates and 3) closing candidates. During each of these functions, talent teams need to properly engage and nurture job-seekers with the right recruitment marketing strategies. Below, we outline smart recruitment marketing strategies for sourcing passive candidate and active candidate engagement.

Talent Attraction: Sourcing Passive Candidates

According to LinkedIn, 70% of the global workforce are passive candidates, with the remaining 30% of talent actively seeking jobs. With that in mind, the first—and arguably most important—function in recruitment marketing for talent acquisition teams is to determine a strategy to attract candidates. Of course, candidates may already have some idea of your organization as a consumer brand, so the main objective of this stage is to introduce your organization’s employer brand to job-seekers for the first time to improve recruiting passive candidates.

At this stage, your engagement with candidates should be designed to gain and retain their interests, with the hope of converting them later in the recruitment marketing funnel. As such, building employer brand awareness and providing positive candidate experiences is key. For instance, consider how candidates will perceive your organization through the channels listed below. Will they have a positive view of what it’s like to work for your organization? Do they get an accurate picture of your company culture?

sourcing passive candidates

Converting Passive Candidates

The main marketing priority for talent acquisition teams during the passive candidate conversion stage should be to steer candidate interest into action, thereby converting them from job-seekers into active prospects in the talent pipeline. This step occurs when candidates gain a positive impression from the touchpoints they encounter in the attraction stage.

Fortunately, there are various methods for converting candidates. For example, they can sign up for a newsletter, register for an event or request job posting updates via your career page. And, while they may not have applied to any of your open positions yet, they’re interested enough in your organization to provide their contact information. Similarly, employers can also leverage talent communities to convert candidates looking to connect with other professionals in their industry. Remember, to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), just make sure to collect two types of consent when collecting personal data (such as email, phone, address, name, etc.) from applicants.

Additionally, at this stage, keep in mind that you’re asking candidates to provide your organization with two of their valuable resources: Time and personal information. Next, at the conversion stage, you’re asking for contact information, but only a small amount of time. Then, to get to the next stage, candidates will have to give your organization even more of both. Therefore, in the touchpoints listed below, consider what the experience is like for candidates; is it positive and easy enough to get someone to a closing stage?

sourcing passive candidates

Closing Candidates

During the closing function in recruitment marketing, talent teams are managing a flow of vetted and engaged candidates with a goal to turn these candidates into applicants. This means that candidates are willing to take the time to complete your application and provide you with a significant amount of personal information. Notably, the candidate is also making an emotional investment in your organization; they’re excited for this role. As such, they could be setting themselves up for disappointment if they don’t make it through the process. For this reason, it’s important to consider what you’re asking of candidates to help get them through the closing process.

Furthermore, while closing prospects, your recruitment marketing materials should aid the candidate’s decision-making process by informing them of open positions, inviting them to recruiting events, or even proposing a virtual meet-and-greet where the candidate can casually meet with members of your team. Think about the touchpoints listed below and how candidates will experience them. Likewise, communicate about your interviewing and hiring process upfront for a more seamless experience for both candidates and hiring managers.

how to engage passive candidates

Closing Candidates

In parts two and three, we’ll go into greater detail on how talent acquisition teams can leverage modern marketing techniques to intelligently engage candidates at each stage of the recruitment marketing funnel.

Recruitment Marketing and Hiring Strategies Part Two: Creating Talent Acquisition Content That Engages Candidates

Content marketing has fast become a go-to channel for marketing teams looking to generate interest in products; gain leads; drive organic traffic; and build a library of informative and in-depth content for clients and prospects.

However, attracting both active and passive candidates with content isn’t limited to just marketing to potential customers; rather, recruitment departments can also harness the power of well-crafted content to convert job-seekers into applicants. In fact, content marketing can help talent teams engage top candidates in a number of thoughtful and meaningful ways that intersect with a job-seeker’s interests.

Effective content for recruitment marketing can also make a difference in moving the candidate along to the next stage. In particular, content marketing as a talent acquisition strategy should focus on engaging job-seekers with relevant articles, white papers relevant to their career interests, webinars, videos, or podcasts to help a candidate navigate through an employer’s recruitment funnel. When brainstorming recruitment content, look at industry publications and professional groups on LinkedIn to identify current topics of interest for candidates in your industry.

In Part Two of this section, we’ll discuss how to create relevant content and ensure candidates are able to find it.

recruitment marketing strategies

Recruitment Digital Marketing: Considering Different Types of Talent Acquisition Content

An effective content marketing strategy includes a variety of content types to fill various channels and appeal to different types of candidates. That’s because some candidates may prefer to watch a video, whereas others would rather read an article. Likewise, some may like to learn in bite-sized pieces, while other appreciate an in-depth article. With that in mind, below are a few types of content to consider adding to your mix.

Recruitment Marketing Ideas: Leverage Your Career Blog

Your organization may already have a blog where the marketing team regularly posts content for your potential customers. In the same vein, consider a blog on your careers site to better educate and engage candidates about what it’s like to work for your organization.

Then, when generating blog articles, keep in mind that each piece of content needs to be of value to the reader. According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 66% of marketers prioritize their audience’s needs over their sales message when creating content. In contrast, 88% of the most successful marketers prioritize audience needs over sales messaging.

To that end, consider:

  • Interviewing employees across all roles and asking them to describe how they got to where they are today
  • Sharing news about exciting projects
  • Featuring hiring managers to discuss the hiring process and post updates on upcoming events

Similarly, if you have strong writers on your team, ask them to write short blogs about their experiences.

Video Content

Video is a great format for recruitment content that often boosts candidate engagement. Take the booming popularity of video-based social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram as evidence that this is a particularly influential type of content for young workers. Video is particularly powerful on social channels, so consider amplifying your efforts by encouraging colleagues to act as employee brand ambassadors for your organization on their social channels. Besides, job-seekers trust an organization’s employees three times more than the company itself to provide credible information on what it’s like to work there.

If you’re just getting started in video, don’t worry about high production quality. Due to the popularity of tools like Zoom during the pandemic, as well as the proliferation of video on social media, candidates are used to watching basic videos. In fact, the authentic feel of these types of videos can often yield even higher engagement than professionally produced content.

Micro & Social Media Recruitment Content

Talent teams are stretched thin, so consistently creating long-form content may be challenging. So, if your team lacks the bandwidth to create long-form content, consider shorter, “micro content.” This might include sharing small bits of entertaining or informative news or industry updates with candidates on social media or micro-content platforms.

Social media, in particular, is perfect for micro content, with 94% of content marketers using social media platforms to distribute content. This content could include fun moments from the workplace, employee testimonials, or short videos of the company participating at a career fair or a conference. Essentially, content marketing is an opportunity to explore as many different ways to connect with your audience as possible; just remember to stay on brand and keep a consistent theme with language and design. This way, prospects will enjoy a more uniform and cohesive candidate experience.

SEO & Recruitment Marketing: Leveraging Search to Source Talent

global recruitment marketing

If you take the time to create content for candidates, it’s important to make sure that they can find it easily. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing a website to rank higher in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing—and doing so can help drive job-seekers to your careers page organically. In particular, well-optimized pages rely on homing in on and deploying the right set of keywords, as well as tailoring metadata for search and making sure the pages load quickly.

When done right—and in conjunction with high-quality content—SEO can lead to a great deal of traffic and conversions on a career site. Plus, leveraging SEO as a talent acquisition strategy makes sense, as 70% of job searches begin on Google. What’s more, 51% of all content consumption comes from organic traffic. Accordingly, with employers across the globe struggling not only to source and recruit talent, but also to increase retention, a smart SEO strategy is an integral component in the recruitment marketing arsenal.

Metadata

Meta titles and meta descriptions are the two fields that show up on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This is the page you see after typing something into a search engine like Google. Metadata makes it easier for Google to spot and index your careers page content on relevant search results pages. For this reason, your meta title should be clear so job-seekers immediately know the title and location of the job opening when they visit your page. The meta description is the caption beneath the title that describes the web page’s content in more detail. A tailored meta description helps Google and job-seekers quickly identify and interact with your content in the way that you intend.

When creating a meta description, try to stick to the following guidelines:

  • Limit it to no more than 155 characters.
  • Keep it clear and concise, with a call to action for job-seekers.
  • Reference the language of the page you’re working on to really nail your metadata.

Keyword Research

Although it can be time-consuming, researching and choosing the right keywords can also help you obtain greater visibility from qualified job-seekers, as well as increase organic search traffic to your site.

Begin by understanding which short- and long-tail keywords job-seekers use to search for jobs relevant to your company. You can also research which keywords your competitors are using in their job postings, as well as more comprehensive content, to inform and expand your keyword list. Notably, this may require job titles and descriptions to be altered. While you’re at it, pay close attention to keyword intent—the reason for a job-seeker’s search. Ensuring that this is part of your SEO recruitment strategy guarantees that keywords are aligned to your broader business goals. Additionally, if you’re a brick-and-mortar business, utilize locally focused keywords in your content to better reach quality candidates in close proximity to you.

Content marketing can also fuel other parts of the recruitment marketing mix, and email is the perfect channel to start expanding your content marketing program. What’s more, content and email marketing campaigns can complement each other by increasing the sharing of content and expanding reach. In the next section, we’ll offer tips on how email marketing can give your content a boost.

Recruitment Marketing and Hiring Strategies Part Three: Email Marketing & Talent Acquisition

Email marketing has been around for decades as an effective means of prospect engagement. However, that doesn’t mean that you can just throw together an email, send it out and expect great results. Nowadays, prospects are savvy about techniques deployed by marketers and may become annoyed or tune out marketing messaging that’s done incorrectly.

However, when recruitment marketing email campaigns are successful, recruiters can engage candidates at the right cadence. According to a DataBox survey, 33.3% of marketers said they sent weekly emails, while 26.7% sent monthly emails. In this case, recruiters can leverage the expertise of their marketing teams regarding send times, email schedules and other data points to ensure that content is optimally delivered. Plus, well-cadenced and timely emails ensure that your employer brand is in front of prospects at the right time, making your employer brand more memorable to prospects looking to shift careers.

Furthermore, email recruitment marketing can be an effective strategy for distributing your marketing content to candidates, as well as building additional trust in your employer brand. Notably, 77% of consumers preferred email marketing over other methods of permission-based advertising. And, email marketing often produces results because the audience has opted in to receive marketing materials and wants to hear from you. (Plus, they can choose to opt out at any time.)

So, in this article, we’ll cover the different types of emails that you can use to interact with candidates; how you can use your content marketing collateral to boost the influence of your emails; and how to craft effective messages.

Types of Recruitment Marketing Emails

Email Newsletters

Marketing teams often send email newsletters to prospective and current clients to update recipients on company news, content, products, and other company updates. Similarly, talent acquisition teams should also consider creating newsletters to keep candidates warm.

Specifically, your newsletter could share thought leadership pieces from your organization, webinars, job events and more. You can also use email newsletters to share the content marketing pieces you’ve created for your careers site. Or, link to articles on your careers blog or a video interview you’ve posted with a current employee. Periodical newsletters and other helpful content will also keep your employer brand top of mind and increase the likelihood of your talent community recommending you to a member of their network.

Job Application Invitation Email

The first time many candidates hear from an organization is when a recruiter or sourcer reaches out inviting them to apply for a specific role. These types of emails are common, and your recruiters likely already send them frequently. However, they can be made more effective.

For example, the goal of your email copy should be to gain a prospective candidate’s attention in the first sentence. Therefore, crafting an engaging, but brief introductory sentence or two helps the reader understand who you are and why you’re reaching out.

Typical recruitment emails often begin with an introduction of the recruiter, such as: “Hi, I’m a recruiter with {employer}. We have an open position you may be interested in.”

Instead, consider opening with: “Hi {Name of Candidate}, My name is {Your Name} and I noticed that your experience in X could make you a great fit for Y role at Z company. Would you be interested in setting up a time to discuss Y role and Z company?”

Hiring Strategies

In the first approach, notice how the company puts itself ahead of the candidate. Alternatively, in a more personalized approach, the employer places the prospect at the heart of every communication.

Interview Invitation Email

If a candidate makes it further along in the recruitment funnel, you’ll likely send them an email inviting them to interview. And, when inviting a candidate to interview, it’s crucial that the following are included in your recruitment email:

  • Where the interview will be
  • The agenda of the interview
  • Who will be involved in the interview

Providing all of this information upfront will help everyone be better prepared, more productive and better focused on what matters during the interview. Below, we’ve outlined how to structure your interview invitation email:

  • 1st paragraph: Quickly explain who you are and why you’re emailing the candidate so they know they’re being invited to interview, not apply.
  • 2nd paragraph: Here, provide a date that’s best for your team or give a few options for the candidate to choose from.
  • Third paragraph: Offer a clear agenda to keep the candidate on track. This will also give the candidate a better idea of what to expect and help them prepare.
  • Fourth paragraph: Provide the location of where your interview will take place, including how to get there and who to ask for when they arrive. Or, if the interview will not be in-person, share instructions on how to interview virtually.

Offer Emails

Top candidates are often sent offers quickly after interviewing, so it’s important to reach out fast. The moment your talent acquisition team is ready to make an offer, be sure to include the following in your offer email.

First paragraph: Include a brief greeting and review of the interview you had with them.

Second paragraph: Get right to the point and congratulate them on the offer. Double-check everything and make sure that you’re presenting the offer in the best way possible in terms of candidate expectation, salary, benefits and work location. Many times, this information is the deciding factor as to whether the candidate accepts the offer.

Call to action: Remind the candidate that they need to take action, outlining when and how to take it. Also, include contact information in case the candidate has questions about the offer. Finally, to end this email with a persuasive punch, include a line about the candidate’s future with your organization.

Best Practices for Crafting Recruitment Emails

Subject Lines

Subject lines are arguably the most important component of an email as 64% of email recipients decide to open emails based on subject lines. Therefore, while much of your focus may be on creating the copy and imagery of your email, you should also take time to write a great subject line.

More precisely, a great subject line is short, descriptive and provides a call to action (CTA). Unfortunately, many recruiting emails are written without mobile users in mind. But, with 41% of emails opened on mobile devices, it’s crucial to keep your writing concise because most mobile devices are only capable of displaying five or six words of a subject line. Also, consider a little personalization in your subject lines. Personalized subject lines in email increase unique open rates by up to 27%, leading to an 11% higher click-to-open rate overall. Consider this option:

what is recruitment marketing?

In this example, the sender has personalized the email by referencing a career milestone, while simultaneously inviting the recipient to have a low-pressure conversation. This approach appeals to the candidate’s experience and offers the promise of a career opportunity where future growth is possible.

Body Copy

While you may be tempted to share a lot of information in your cold recruiting emails, recipients might not have time for all of it. Conversely, a study by Boomerang found that emails with 75 to 100 words had the highest response rate; so, write short, descriptive and action-driven copy and provide only the essential information that’s relevant to your candidates. Additionally, avoid buzzwords or jargon so that your offer clearly stands out.

The labor market will likely remain highly competitive for the foreseeable future, with employers battling it out for candidates’ attention. And now, more than ever, candidates understand what they want from work and are trying to find an environment where they’ll belong and grow. So, to attract talent, it’s essential to show candidates that you’re offering more than just a job—and that begins with recruitment marketing that showcases the value you provide to candidates.

Remember, the goal of talent acquisition marketing is no longer to just post a job offer and wait for applicants; it’s about fostering a community, enriching its members, and helping to nurture and encourage them to consider a career with your organization.

Part 4: Recruitment Marketing Strategy in Action: Bridging the Gap Between Consumer & Employer Brand for Vodafone

recruitment marketing strategies

A well-managed and reputable employer brand can go a long way in helping organizations recruit better talent, improve hiring metrics and position an organization as an employer of choice in their industry. In fact, according to Glassdoor, 92% of candidates would consider changing employers if they were offered a role within an organization that had a good reputation. As a result, a strong brand can improve cost per hire by up to 50%.

Moreover, Glassdoor found that the benefits of a powerful employer brand extended beyond recruitment; consider that nearly 30% of candidates have resigned within the first 90 days of starting a role, citing misalignment between the employer and their employer brand. Conversely, organizations that actively invest in employer brand improve their turnover by as much as 28%.

At PeopleScout, we pride ourselves on our ability to partner with clients to hire top talent by building a strategic talent acquisition architecture with employer branding at its heart. So, in this article, we present a real-world example of how PeopleScout’s expert team of talent advisors provided employer branding guidance and delivered a recruitment marketing strategy for the campaign that attracted, engaged and hired the best talent for multinational technology conglomerate Vodafone.

Changing Minds

When an organization’s brand is a household name, there’s often an overlap in sentiment between consumer and employer brand in the minds of the public—an association that can sometimes come with unforeseen complications. This was the case for PeopleScout client Vodafone. Its reputation among the UK public was one of a mobile phone retailer and nothing else—a perception that hurt the organization’s ability to become an employer of choice among young people.

However, behind that perception, Vodafone is a multifaceted innovator in the technology and communications industry with a mission and purpose to make the future a better place. With this knowledge, it was up to PeopleScout’s team to reshape Vodafone’s employer brand in the minds of its target demographic: Newly graduated job-seekers who shared the company’s passion for improving communities and the lives of their customers.

Hiring with Purpose

In employer branding, purpose is the key to unlocking the way that an employer engages with job-seekers. Now, more than ever, job-seekers want more from their employer; they want to feel a sense of belonging and that the work they do has meaning and provides a sense of personal development. In fact, according to research from Blue Beyond Consulting of knowledge workers aged 45 and younger, 52% said they would quit their jobs if their employers’ values didn’t align with their own.

Notably, Vodafone’s future hiring strategy was focused as much on purpose as it was on placing great talent in the right roles. Its purpose was to address high levels of youth unemployment head on by committing to hire up to 100,000 young job-seekers with digital workplace experience. Then, Vodafone set another ambitious goal: To support the development of digital skills in 10 million young people, given that one in five candidates in their target demographic stated that they felt underprepared for the digital economy.

To help Vodafone meet its bold vision of the future, PeopleScout needed to craft an employer brand with multigenerational appeal to attract candidates from Millennials to Gen Z and beyond. Ideally, these candidates are achievers with ambitions beyond working in mobile phone retail. As such, Vodafone’s employer brand campaign had to engage imaginations and change its audiences’ perceptions by presenting itself as a major tech company—not a retailer—and by building its reputation as a youth employer of choice for ambitious job-seekers.

Audience Insights: Leveraging Social Media to Reach the Right Audience

Social media platforms are one of the most broadly used channels for employers looking to build and improve their employer brands. Of course, this isn’t surprising when your factor in the following: 25% of all job-seekers use social media as their primary tool for job-searching and seven out of 10 18- to 34-year-olds report having found their previous job through social media. The case for social media recruiting is clear, but how can employers effectively integrate social media strategy into their employer brand?

For Vodafone, we found that 90.4% of the brand’s target audience regularly used social media. On top of this, 91% of all social media users accessed channels via their mobile devices. With this in mind, we developed a mobile-first, social media-friendly campaign. Additionally, further research showed us that many students with the right background and personal qualifications didn’t apply due to a lack of confidence. Therefore, we needed a message that was bold, relatable and empowering.

Meanwhile, just as important as the audience insights were the strategic considerations. Candidates are also customers; when buying products, they expect a streamlined, user-friendly, friction-free process. And now, they have the same expectation when making career decisions. So, we made every touchpoint (especially applying) as slick and easy as possible.

Granted, no contemporary attraction approach can be just about advertising; long-term connections are far more powerful. So, central to our strategy was helping Vodafone engage in conversations, initiatives and support with high-potential university students throughout their full university lifecycle. In short, the strategy was to start on day one, not year three.

The Core Message: #GENERATIONPOSSIBLE

There are a variety of strategies you can employ to share your employer brand with candidates, but storytelling is one of the most powerful. From career sites to job-search platforms, there are plenty of opportunities to tell interesting, unique stories that capture the attention of job-seekers and entice them to apply. But, knowing exactly what stories to tell—and how to tell them—is not always easy.

So, our message for Vodafone’s campaign aimed to capture the spirit of change and possibility, as well as draw on the opportunity for young people to have an influence on the world for the better. For instance, the visual elements of the campaign approach used photography that reflected our target audience, combined with bold headline statements. Similarly, social and site content featured current grads and interns sharing their advice for the next generation of Vodafone employees.

Campaign Highlights:

  • A six-month social media strategy targeted to mobile users
  • A #GenerationPossible video at the heart of the campaign
  • A campaign matrix of 104 social posts with 20 mini videos/GIFs

Supporting Executions

Our research identified that our target audience felt like they weren’t good enough or lacked the skills to take on these roles. So, we created a series of videos featuring current Vodafone graduate recruits and interns. These videos explored Vodafone life, wellbeing, social responsibility, innovation, assessment center and other advice to help prepare candidates for the interview process.

Hiring Strategies: Spreading the Employer Brand Message

Apart from social media, we also organized a series of 41 on-campus events to connect students directly with Vodafone employees. We also carefully targeted campuses with the highest female-to-male ratios for tech degrees as a way to help increase female applications.

Results

The campaign comfortably exceeded Vodafone’s expectations:

  • Vodafone generated more than 16,000 applications, performing 60% above its targets.
  • PeopleScout’s campaign helped improve diversity, increasing female applicants by 23%.
  • We increased Instagram post impressions by 89.3% (post-campaign vs. pre-campaign).
  • Social media drove strong engagement and provided more than 1.5 million Facebook impressions, as well as 6.8 million impressions on organic posts on LinkedIn.
  • PeopleScout also deployed a hyper-targeted paid Facebook campaign that produced 390,510 impressions and 2,541 clicks—all from the audience we wanted to target.

These numbers are backed up by audience sentiment: We significantly improved Vodafone’s reputation as an employer, jumping 27 places in the TT100 rankings. As a result of this success, Vodafone also asked us to develop the concept for its apprentice campaign audience and roll it out through a new assessment process design.

[On-Demand] Hire Quality vs Speed: Finding the Perfect Balance

Posted on by akessler

[On-Demand] Hire Quality vs Speed: Finding the Perfect Balance

 

We have all seen the stats. It’s a candidates’ market. The demands from hiring managers are acute – they need great hires and they need them now.

But when you need volume hires fast, how do you guarantee quality of candidate? How do you ensure your process is fit for purpose? What could you cut back and what is essential?

Talent acquisition professionals and hiring managers are facing unprecedented pressures and they need to understand which industry innovations they could you use to meet their hiring objectives.

This Personnel Today webinar, in association with recruitment process outsourcer PeopleScout, will look at how talent acquisition professionals and HR generalists can keep their hiring managers on-side, maintaining speed and agility without damaging quality of hire.

Personnel Today Rob Moss is joined by a panel of professionals with a wealth of experience in this area, including Mark Wright, customer services operations manager at VirginMediaO2 and Paula Simmons, director of employer brand and communications strategy at TMP Worldwide, together with Andrew Weston, solutions director at PeopleScout, and Kate Law, membership and learning director at the Call Centre Management Association.

The webinar covers:

  • What the main drivers are for the candidates’ market
  • What these mean for employers
  • How to avoid risking quality when trying to recruit fast
  • Strategies to maintain ED&I targets when talent pools are limited.

 

Global Hiring and Labor Market Trends Affecting Recruitment in APAC 

Posted on by akessler

At PeopleScout, we’re committed to providing you with information to help guide your talent acquisition decisions across the globe. This article is part of our series identifying talent trends across the globe. 

Asia Pacific (APAC) is home to more than 4.7 billion people, as well as some of the largest global economies. And, because it’s made up of more than 50 countries and territories with varied cultures, languages and job roles, it’s impossible to leverage the same talent acquisition strategy across countries.  

APAC by the Numbers 

global hiring

However, according to the International Monetary Fund, APAC is also the fastest-growing region in the world and, as such, represents a huge opportunity for global enterprises to capitalize on this diverse talent pool. For this reason, it’s imperative for organizations to understand the skills shortages, demographic gaps and pandemic recovery challenges throughout the region.  

In this article, we’ll cover some of the labor market trends in APAC. We’ll also point out what multinational organizations should be aware of when it comes to immigration, education and diversity, as well as their effect on talent acquisition in the region.  

Pandemic Recovery Continues to Vary Across APAC 

The COVID-19 pandemic recovery continues to lag behind in Asia. For instance, China is still enforcing its “zero-COVID” policy, while Shanghai and Hong Kong are dealing with spikes in infection numbers and deaths, which is delaying border openings and stifling employment recovery—particularly in economies that are dependent on tourism. 

Meanwhile, other countries in the region are showing greater resilience. Compared to other parts of the world, the Great Resignation had been a step behind in APAC—but, as of March 2022, it seems to be in full swing. In fact, 58% of workers in Australia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia are planning to leave their current job. The motivations behind these moves seem to be on par with workers in the West; some of the top reasons cited are lack of growth opportunities, salary dissatisfaction and concerns about their wellbeing.  

In Australia, the unemployment rate is at a record low of just under 4% as of May 2022, and it’s expected to drop even lower. However, the country is also experiencing an acute labor shortage: The closure of Australian borders during the pandemic meant that overseas migration to the country was negative for the first time since 1946. Pre-pandemic, one in 10 workers in Australia was on a temporary work visa. Then, as lockdowns went into place, hundreds of thousands of workers with temporary visas had to depart Australia—leaving a record number of jobs vacant. Accordingly, with only the local labor pool to pull from, unemployment dropped and vacancies soared, tripling in the retail and manufacturing sectors from 2020 to 2021.  

Then, in December 2021, the country’s borders reopened to students and migrants with visas, which is helping to fill positions—especially among casual jobs in retail and hospitality. Now, many Australian organizations are looking to new talent pools, including tapping into globally dispersed talent. As an example, PeopleScout recently helped a hospitality client take advantage of a visa strategy introduced to attract chefs to Australia’s tourism industry: Through a Recruiter On-Demand solution, we were able to source chefs in the United Kingdom who were willing to relocate.   

With a large and complex country, the knock-on effect of the pandemic on the Australian labor pool is still yet to be seen. Yet, CEOs in the country are optimistic, with 88% expecting growth in the Australian economy. 

Global Hiring: Key Takeaways for Employers 

global hiring

Shifting Demographics Affecting Talent Pools and Global Hiring  

Across APAC, many countries are facing labor shortages due, in part, to aging populations and the accelerated rate of retirement during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Gen Z makes up 25% of the APAC population—and they’re keen to have an influence. 

At the other end of the spectrum, a 2021 study from the Japanese government revealed that more than 40% of workers aged 60 and older wanted to continue working, with many citing their desire to stay busy and give back. Even so, experts project that Japan will face a labor shortage of 1.5 million workers by 2030, despite expanded workforce participation and advancements in automation.  

Meanwhile, in another part of Asia, India is experiencing a talent surplus: While most countries have seen a post-pandemic drop in unemployment, India is experiencing a decline in jobs, with an unemployment rate of more than 7.8% in April 2022. At the same time, the Indian workforce grew by 8.8 million people in April; so, even with unemployment dropping, available jobs are still not enough to satisfy the demand for work.  

In 1991, the Indian government made sweeping reforms to its industrial and trade policies, which led to greater foreign investment due to its youthful population. As a result, India went from a primarily agricultural economy to a services-led economy with a boom in IT-related jobs. Consequently, there are now fewer lower-skilled jobs to absorb the large number of unskilled or low-skilled workers.  

Moreover, the vast majority of jobs in India are informal: Just more than 2% of Indian workers are in secure jobs with access to benefits like retirement savings and healthcare. Therefore, these high unemployment numbers could be influenced by the number of educated young people who can afford to remain jobless while they find desirable work, rather than take low-paying positions. On the other hand, the poor—who have limited access to education—are forced to take any work they can get, which often involves pursuing unstable, daily-wage laborer roles in manufacturing and construction. 

Key Takeaways for Employers Exploring Global Hiring and Recruitment

recruitment agencies in australia

Tech Investment is Up, but Women are a Missed Opportunity 

The technology sector is having a significant influence on global hiring strategies and talent trends in the APAC region: India is home to the largest tech companies, like Wipro, Infosys and HCL. The growth of the Indian IT industry has also created more than 16 million jobs that drive the digital transformation for global enterprises offshoring their IT and R&D functions to take advantage of India’s less-expensive software talent. To keep up with the demand for tech talent, STEM university grads have more than doubled in India. Yet, despite IT being a top interest for 21- to 25-year-olds, there’s still a talent shortage.  

What’s more, with global enterprises embracing Indian talent, the country has also become a gateway to other markets in Asia. Now, $1 of every $2 in global investment goes to companies in Asia, some of which is fueling their own talent pools. For example, tech giant Apple has committed to building three Developer Academies in Indonesia, which will each produce 200 iOS developers annually. 

Meanwhile, as a long-time leader in innovation, Japan’s high-tech and renewable energy sectors are the most profitable industries in the country. As a result, the Japanese education system is now adjusting to keep up with the demand for digital and software skills: In 2020, computer programming languages were introduced to elementary curricula. However, not all countries in APAC are stressing technology education. In Australia, only 3,000 to 4,000 IT graduates enter the workforce each year, which won’t meet the need for 156,000 new technology workers by 2025 to ensure that economic growth is not stalled by skills shortages. 

Any company looking to remain competitive—especially those in the manufacturing or technology sectors—must emphasize becoming a top employer in APAC. And, one talent pool they could look to attract in Asia is women. Diversity and inclusion is one area where the wide variety of cultures across APAC shows itself, but the region scored highest on the importance of maintaining gender roles. Of course, it varies from country to country but, in patriarchal societies like Japan and China, females are often underrepresented in the workplace due to traditional views about women taking care of the home, rather than contributing to the household income.  

Unfortunately, the tech sector will suffer the most from this, with men making up 84% of STEM graduates in Japan alone. Conversely, companies that invest in reskilling and upskilling women—while also providing flexible work arrangements—will reap the rewards when it comes to attracting and retaining female talent. Indeed, research from McKinsey shows that Asia Pacific could add $4.5 trillion to annual GDP in 2025 by closing the gender employment gap.  

Key Takeaways for Employers 

RPO in APAC 

Despite the challenges of COVID-19 and changing demographics, corporations in the APAC region have showed resilient, expanding profits throughout the last decade. And, enticed by the large global hiring and labor market trends, leading organizations are investing in the talent pools of APAC as a means of future-proofing their workforce.  

However, the complexity of the region also means that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for recruitment in APAC. So, increasingly, global enterprises are turning to recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). According to Everest Group, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for RPO and is set to make a swift recovery; finding the right RPO partner in APAC can help you navigate the region’s unique talent market conditions—and capitalize on the growth it offers.  

Learn more about how RPO can support your global talent acquisition strategy, download our free Buyer’s Guide to Global RPO.

Ghost Hunting: How to Keep Candidate Engagement Alive After Offer Acceptance

Posted on by jpatel

Candidate engagement after extending a job offer is now more important than ever, as employers across most regions are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of new hires who are ghosting on their first day: Data from Robert Half shows that 28% of professionals have backed out of a job offer after initially accepting it, thereby costing employers time and money on a job offer ghosted. 

In today’s candidate-driven market—and with the major influence that the pandemic had on the way people view work and personal life—it’s no surprise that candidates are receiving multiple job offers and thinking critically about what they truly want in an employer.  

Top 3 Reasons Candidates Backed Out of an Offer They’ve Already Accepted

Job offer
Source: Robert Half

With candidates in the driver’s seat, employers need to do everything they can to keep new hires from taking an early exit. So, in this article, we offer actionable strategies for your organization to do just that. 

Why Do Candidates Ghost?

With record numbers of job openings, job-seekers are more empowered than ever to be picky about the company they choose to work for. This means that candidates are likely interviewing with multiple companies at the same time—and they may not disclose it.  

At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic was a catalyst for an immense digital transformation of the recruiting process, with everything from phone screens and interviews to offers and onboarding being conducted completely online. Of course, while this has made it easier and faster to apply to jobs (with “easy apply” options and text interviews the norm), it has also informalized the process and made it feel less personal than a face-to-face hiring journey.  

As a result, employers who rely solely on these technologies without establishing a human touch might struggle to build a more personal connection with candidates. Furthermore, because the majority of the hiring process now takes place online from behind a screen, it can be difficult for recruiters and candidates to build the same rapport that they would have when communicating in person; when you remove the investment that comes from traveling to meet someone in person and replace it with a simple click, the entire process can start to feel more transactional and less human. 

All of this can lead to poor communication overall, leaving candidates feeling like they might not need to provide any formal closure. According to Indeed data, here are some of the consequences of ineffective communication with the recruiter or hiring manager:

Candidate engagement

And, not only is ghosting happening, but it also appears to be a rapidly growing trend: According to a 2021 survey from Indeed, 28% of job-seekers have ghosted an employer—a 10% increase from 2019 data—and 57% of employers believe it’s more common than ever before. 

It’s important to note that the same Indeed survey found that ghosting in the workplace is a two-way street, with 77% of job-seekers saying they’ve been ghosted by an employer. So, while ghosting has become a normalized part of the hiring process (with employers starting the trend and candidates catching on), there are some actionable steps that employers can take to avoid ghosting on both ends and help combat this rising trend.

Strategies to Keep Candidates Engaged After Job Offer Acceptance 

In addition to the increasing likelihood that candidates will renege on an offer, employers should also keep in mind the various notice period requirements in countries around the world, which could be anywhere from two weeks to six months, in some places. Clearly, half a year is an incredibly long time to keep someone engaged and excited about your business, especially when that candidate is exploring other offers and evaluating the benefits of each. So, how can you do it? Consider the following: 

Focus on Employer Brand 

It should come as no surprise that keeping candidates engaged after they accept an offer starts with the work that’s done prior to them even applying; maintaining a powerful employer brand is key to keeping candidates with you throughout the entire hiring process. More precisely, when a candidate receives a competing offer or a compelling counteroffer from their current employer, is what your company offers going to be enough to keep them from changing their mind?  

To that end, it’s important that your organization presents itself—on social media, employer review sites and your careers site—in a positive light. You’ll want the candidate to be reminded of the value you offer—whether that’s in the form of benefits; flexibility; growth opportunities; diversity and inclusion initiatives; or otherwise—everywhere they look. The mental picture a candidate keeps of you in the back of their mind (or when someone mentions your company’s name) is make or break when it comes to them following through on an offer acceptance and showing up for day one. 

Make Open Communication Standard 

Lack of communication is one of the top reasons candidates ghost after accepting an offer, so establishing strong, open lines of communication from the start can make a huge difference in how the hiring process plays out. For example, encourage recruiters and hiring managers to communicate with candidates frequently by keeping them informed of their application status, providing updates on next steps and simply checking in to see if candidates have any questions. This can help build a sense of familiarity and rapport that is often lost when recruiters only communicate when absolutely necessary. 

Your organization can also stand out from others by candidly asking candidates where they are in the hiring process with other potential employers. Then, depending on your recruitment timeline, you can adjust key interviews and deadlines to avoid losing your candidate to a competing job offer. A personalized offer letter for job candidates will place you ahead of competitors. This will also help you get an idea of whether your candidate is entertaining other offers that they may be more interested in overall; then, even if they do accept an offer from you, this can help you be better prepared for the possibility that they’ll renege and accept a position elsewhere. 

Finally, the key is to maintain that line of communication even after the candidate has accepted an offer; if you ghost your brand-new hire, they’ll be more likely to ghost you in turn. 

Get the Offer Out Fast 

The more time your hiring process takes, the more time candidates have to consider taking other jobs. You’ve received a verbal offer acceptance; that’s great. Now, the time it takes for you to get official paperwork out and signed is critical. Engagement levels are highest at this point, and it’s critical that you get the offer out before the candidate has the chance to get cold feet.  

If possible, get all of your organization’s internal approvals finalized prior to your verbal offer so that the official written offer can be sent almost immediately. If your organization has a lengthier process that cannot be shortened, then be sure to communicate that to the candidate so their expectations are set accordingly.  

Utilize Thoughtful Touchpoints 

Perhaps most important, maintain frequent communication with the candidate during the period between offer acceptance (whether verbal or written) and day one. This can include messages of congratulations from the hiring manager and anyone else they may have met and interviewed with during the hiring process. 

Additionally, consider pairing your new hire with a current employee who can help them prepare for their first day. Or, in smaller organizations, set up a one-on-one meeting with a key leader to welcome them to the company. This can help the candidate feel connected to the team before they’ve even officially started—and will help keep the organization front of mind. 

Redefine Onboarding & Start Immediately 

When competing with multiple offers and long notice periods, beginning your onboarding process before the new hire officially starts can be a great way to keep them engaged and feeling like they’re a part of the team. For instance, if you’re in an office, consider sending your new hire a video tour or inviting them in for a real one. Or, if your team is planning to get together for an in-person or virtual happy hour, invite the new hire to join. 

You can also send your new hire more information about your company, culture, employee resource groups and more to help them start feeling like a part of the team. Plus, what better way to foster a sense of connection and pride than by sending a welcome kit and some company swag? Finally, encourage the new hire’s colleagues and manager to reach out frequently to check in and express excitement for them to officially get started on the team. 

The Whole Job Offer Package 

Essentially, candidate experience is really about the whole package—from establishing a strong employer brand all the way to onboarding. How you present your organization—as well as how it’s perceived by the public—is paramount. Moreover, remaining front of mind for candidates throughout the entire hiring process (and especially post-offer) is critical so as not to lose them to competing offers or a change of heart. In today’s market, employers can’t afford to slip and miss any opportunity for communication, connection and engagement. 

Candidate Screening Solutions for High-Volume Hiring in Healthcare

Posted on by jpatel
Candidate Screening Solutions for High-Volume Hiring in Healthcare

Candidate Screening in Healthcare

Candidate Screening Solutions for High-Volume Hiring in Healthcare

A leading pediatric hospital in America received a high number of applicants and engaged PeopleScout for screening and presenting quality candidates for open positions.

Increased Candidate Screening Volume
Increased Candidate Screening Volume
Worked Closely with Client to Create Valued Partnerhip
Worked Closely with Client to Create Valued Partnerhip
Sourced Candidates for Cultural Fit
Sourced Candidates for Cultural Fit

Situation 

This not-for-profit pediatric hospital needed to improve candidate screening processes. This included a focus on quality as it was important to the client to hire for the right cultural fit. Skills and positions in scope included clinical housekeepers, admissions and customer service staff.

Solution

PeopleScout’s team learned the client’s niche healthcare HR technology platform and utilized it to efficiently screen and track candidates.

PeopleScout worked closely with the client’s internal HR team to screen and present candidates who possessed the right mixture of hard and soft skills to ensure each potential hire was the right cultural fit for the organization.

At the client’s facility, everyone from clinical staff to housekeepers interact with children suffering from illnesses and their families. PeopleScout’s RPO team screened candidates carefully, looking for compassion, empathy and the ability to work well with children.

Results

Increased Candidate Screening
PeopleScout screened and hired 400 candidates annually for the client.

Valued Partnership
The client highly valued the relationship with PeopleScout; many of the client’s hiring managers had it written into their contract that PeopleScout was the only RPO provider they would work with.

Provided Attentive Care & Compassion for Others
This engagement was about more than sourcing great candidates for open positions. The program was supported by mutual values of service to one’s community and compassion for others.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Not-for-Profit Pediatric Hospital
  • INDUSTRY
    Healthcare
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    400
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    This U.S.-based not-for-profit healthcare client system has engaged PeopleScout for healthcare RPO since 2015.
Let’s Connect

[On-Demand] How to Build a Compelling Talent Attraction Strategy

Posted on by akessler

[On-Demand] How to Build a Compelling Talent Attraction Strategy

As employers compete to attract the best people, talent acquisition specialists need to use everything at their disposal to ensure their efforts are efficient and successful.

The days of “post and pray” are behind us; HR and recruitment professionals are facing an increasingly complex recruitment market that means they have to do much more than simply advertise their vacancies.

This Personnel Today webinar, in association with PeopleScout, helps you build a stronger employer brand, underpinned by a clear employee value proposition, to enable your organisation to nurture a reliable talent pipeline where the best candidates seek you out.

Personnel Today editor Rob Moss is joined by Robert Peasnell, deputy managing director of PeopleScout, and Paula Simmons, director of employer brand and communications strategy at TMP Worldwide, together with an expert panel of talent acquisition professionals.

Watch now to learn:

  • How to create innovative attraction campaigns that work

  • Strategies for HR and recruitment in a candidate led-market

  • How to maintain goals around diversity in a challenging labour market

  • The best ways to encourage candidate advocacy, and

  • How to accurately portray your organisation to the right audience

Quality of Hire: The Gap from Good to Great is Bigger Than it First Appears

Posted on by akessler

By Vanessa Hawes, Senior Employer Brand & Communications Strategist

So, a company has accidentally hired the wrong person or made a rushed hire due to business needs. Does quality of hire matter in the long run?

Yes. Bad hires are expensive for a whole host of reasons. They are likely to generate less revenue than good employees, or even cost an organisation money due to their errors or complacency. Plus, it’s contagious since they impact the productivity and morale of the employees around them.

Further, the employer may have to invest over the odds in additional training or performance management. If and when the employee does leave, the employer will likely need to invest more in finding an urgent replacement. It’s clear that hiring the wrong people can cost a company a lot of money.

Quality-of-Hire Boosts the Bottom Line

Getting great people rather than good people into an organisation is not just nice to have—it has a profound impact on business performance. Great employees are valuable in themselves, but they also drive wider team performance, inspire others and make recruiting other great people easier.

McKinsey completed a study of more than 600,000 researchers, entertainers, politicians, and athletes, and found that high performers were 400% more productive than average performers. In highly complex occupations such as software development, high performers were found to be an astounding 800% more productive.

Roles described as having low complexity, such as a packing job at a large distributor—unfortunately, the kind of work that for many organisations does not merit special focus in terms of recruitment—demonstrate a productivity gap of 50% between average performers and high performers. The impact on productivity increases as the complexity of the role grows, with an extraordinary jump between high and very high complexity roles.

Clearly, employers would do well to actively recognise and retain top employees, especially when the cost of replacing them is so great.

Quality-of-Hire: What to Look for

Organisations looking to drive the best results and value from employees would be wise to consider the economies of scale that come from an improved selection process for low complexity roles as well as reaping the benefits from hiring the most able candidates for highly complex jobs.

So, what does this mean in reality? A great hire will be highly motivated, and they go above and beyond to do their work. Poor performers go through the motions, are not proactive and may encourage colleagues to adjust to these lower standards. After all, if everyone is being paid the same, why go the extra mile?

As such, using an assessment process that is able to identify (and ideally excite) great candidates at all levels of the organisation is well worth the investment.

Delivering Cost Savings and a Healthy Return on Investment for a Rural Healthcare System

Posted on by nfuqua
Delivering Cost Savings and a Healthy Return on Investment for a Rural Healthcare System

Delivering Cost Savings and a Healthy Return on Investment for a Rural Healthcare System

A major rural healthcare system turned to PeopleScout for technology-powered healthcare RPO enhanced by a recruitment marketing campaign, resulting in a $4+ million cost savings.

77 % reduction in nursing recruitment spend, totaling $4+ million in savings to date
97 % new hire retention
98 % hiring leader satisfaction score

Situation

This healthcare provider was having trouble sourcing and hiring for nursing roles in North Dakota, a rural state heavily impacted by ongoing nursing shortages, forcing the client to rely on travel nurse staffing providers to deliver talent to support rural healthcare recruitment. The reliance on these staffing providers proved expensive, with the client paying an average of $73 an hour per locum nurse in contrast to paying $34 an hour on average per full-time nurse. Traveling nurses also work on 13-week contracts, meaning that the client receives temporary talent and less value for their recruitment spend.

To improve talent acquisition costs and attract hard-to-hire candidates, the client needed a full-cycle healthcare RPO partner that could streamline the hiring process and build a strong recruitment marketing program. PeopleScout’s RPO program started with nursing hires and now spans 90% of the client’s clinical and non-clinical hiring, including aides, clerical workers, interns, leadership positions, RNs, LPNs, professional services, technical roles and therapists.

Solution

Build a Local Recruiting Team

PeopleScout built a local recruiting team balanced with virtual support. This enables PeopleScout to work directly with the client on-site with the increased efficiency of a virtual team.

Develop Improved Employer Branding and Location Branding

PeopleScout partnered with the client to understand their employer value proposition and employer brand and then built out recruitment marketing materials to showcase the strong culture and cutting-edge medical facility. The recruitment marketing campaign also included messaging on the benefits of working in the rural area, like the strong university presence, short commute, low crime and sense of community.

Target Recent Graduates

The client partnered with PeopleScout to focus their efforts on hiring recent graduates from local universities. This helped the client get ahead of the competition and train new employees in their RN Residency Program.

Implementing Hiring Bonuses

PeopleScout advised the client to implement a $10,000 hiring bonus for new nurses to ensure their employment offers were competitive based on industry data and research.

Implementation of Affinix and Streamlining Recruiting Processes

PeopleScout implemented our proprietary total talent suite, Affinix® which helped the client streamline recruiting processes through tools that supported management of direct sourcing, panel interviewing and an expedited offer process—decreasing time-to-fill rates.

Results

Cost Savings

After implementing PeopleScout’s full-cycle healthcare talent acquisition solution, the client reduced its nursing recruitment spend by 77%, totaling $4+ million in savings to date. 

Lowest Nurse Vacancy Rate

PeopleScout helped the client achieve their lowest nurse vacancy rate ever — 1.3%. The client also achieved a 136% increase in hiring new graduate registered nurses. The client reduced its use of traveling nurses by 68%, and for the first time, was able to hire nurses willing to relocate for the position.

Process Improvement

With PeopleScout’s expertise, the client achieved 97% new hire retention and 98% hiring leader satisfaction scores for exceptional performance. The client was so impressed with PeopleScout’s results hiring nurses that the client now outsources 90% of their hiring to PeopleScout.

Enhanced Employer Branding

PeopleScout leveraged the client’s strong employer value proposition and was able to partner with the healthcare provider to create an enhanced suite of employer branding materials that feature real employees. PeopleScout also used a comprehensive approach to reach candidates, including social media, campus recruiting and paid search ads.

Client Feedback

“We are so impressed with this partnership, and it’s a significant improvement from our past recruitment practices. We feel so confident working with a partner who ‘gets it,’ and we are excited about the quality of our candidate pool.”

Client Feedback

“Out of the three nursing jobs I have obtained in the past, this was by far the most professional and friendly hiring process that I have been through. It was a pleasant change.”

New Hire Feedback

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Rural healthcare system
  • INDUSTRY
    Healthcare
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory, Affinix
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    This American nonprofit healthcare system has served portions of the Midwest for more than 130 years. It employs over 3,500 health professionals and support staff.
Let’s Connect

Are You Ready for RPO? 3 Questions to Ask

Posted on by akessler

Shrinking talent pools, widening skills gaps and high turnover rates are driving companies across industries to look for new ways to boost their global talent acquisition program—including recruitment process outsourcing (RPO).

Whether your organization is thinking of outsourcing some, most or all parts of your recruitment, an RPO partner can help. It’s not just about outsourcing your recruiting, it’s important to find the best partner to help manage the people, process, technology and strategy behind your talent acquisition function, which touches every employee, team and department within your business.

So, how do you know if RPO is the right choice for your organization? In this article, we’ll cover three questions to ask to understand how your company can benefit from RPO.

Why RPO?

RPO is a cost-effective and scalable talent acquisition solution. Whether you’re looking for a regional solution or a multi-country partnership, RPO has been proven to boost the ability to hire at speed, manage the employer brand, streamline the candidate experience and maximize economies of scale across geographies.

Here are just a few of the benefits of RPO:

Improved Candidate Quality

Your RPO partner can help you boost your number of qualified candidates and the quality of hires. In fact, according to Aberdeen Group, 81% of best-in-class organizations say RPO helps to fill their skills gaps. This keeps hiring managers happy and helps your organization achieve its goals while also boosting retention.

Better Candidate Experience

You want your recruitment process to leave every applicant, regardless of whether they get the role, with a positive experience. Your RPO team will provide consistent and honest feedback throughout the recruitment process, so they know exactly where they stand and what comes next.

Improved Hiring Manager Experience

Your RPO team reduces the administrative burden on your hiring managers by taking over résumé and CV screening, candidate assessment administration, initial interview steps, candidate communication and feedback tasks. RPO partners prepare hiring managers for interviews, provide them with feedback and identify any candidates at risk of dropping from the process so managers can make informed decisions.

Reduced Time-to-Fill

The longer a position goes unfilled, the more likely your business is to experience productivity loss—and loss of revenue. RPO teams are able to find candidates and fill roles faster by building and maintaining talent pipeline, providing quick access to qualified talent. By streamlining and optimizing recruitment processes, improving the time-to-hire and retention rates, RPO providers can increase your recruiting return on investment and deliver real cost savings to your bottom line.

Improved Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

In their global Diversity Wins report, McKinsey revealed organizations in the top quartile for ethnic and cultural diversity outperformed laggards by 36% in terms of profitability. So, it’s imperative that recruitment is an element of your DE&I journey. RPO teams are knowledgeable about different talent attraction options and can expand to new job boards, social media groups, online forums and events to engage more diverse candidates. Plus, RPO recruitment companies understand the regional nuances of DE&I issues. For example, in some countries like Poland, it is not legal to ask candidates their ethnicity, gender, etc.

❓ Not sure if you should go for RPO or staffing agencies? Here are the top differences.

Is RPO Right for Me?

So, how do you know if RPO is right for your business? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

  • Is your talent acquisition approach slow and clunky or failing to meet your organization’s talent needs?
  • Do you lack the ability to scale your recruitment efforts up or down quickly as your business needs change?
  • Are you seeing high candidate dropout rates or low offer acceptance rates, which could indicate a bad candidate experience?
  • Are low conversion rates more pronounced for candidates from diverse backgrounds?
  • Are you hearing complaints from hiring managers about the quality of candidates?
  • Are new employees leaving your organization less than a year after joining?
  • Do your assessments and other selection tools need to be updated?
  • Do your in-house teams lack the cultural literacy to support recruitment in all regions?
  • Are your hiring costs going up?
  • Is the time it takes to fill positions getting longer?
  • Is your usage of talent acquisition technology immature or out-of-date?
  • Do you lack access to the right data to make workforce planning decisions?

If you answered “yes” to even a few of these questions, RPO can help you meet your talent acquisition goals.

CHECKLIST

Is RPO Right for You?

GET THE CHECKLIST

What Should I Look for in an RPO Partner?

If you’ve decided to that RPO will be a good for your organization, you may be wondering how you go about choosing the best provider. Below are just three things to consider in order to make RPO a truly transformational model for your business.

Partnership

If there’s one thing we’ve learned in 30 years of developing talent acquisition programs, it’s that no two organizations are the same. That’s why it’s important to look for an RPO partner that is collaborative, that will listen to your ideas and take the time to truly understand your business and pain points.

We hear a lot from clients who have worked with other providers who tried to squeeze them into their standard program, and it just doesn’t work. RPO creates efficiencies and improvements to the candidate experience through repeatable processes, but these processes should be adapted to your unique needs and challenges. Look for an RPO partner who understands the balance between consistency and customization.

Talent Advisory

The success of your recruitment program starts with your employer brand. Many RPO providers offer talent advisory solutions that help you to develop and improve your employer brand, EVP, recruitment marketing approaches, candidate assessments and more.

So often we see companies who have agencies that execute recruitment marketing campaigns separate from their RPO program. However, with this siloed approach, the agency is less likely to be held accountable for their campaigns leading to high quality candidates entering later candidate journey stages like interviews and assessments. On the other side, the RPO partner has limited means to provide feedback on the campaigns and the impact the ads have on recruitment outcomes. By having both functions under one partnership, you get a holistic program that not only attracts candidates—but truly delivers against your hiring goals.

Look for a partner with in-house resources (not one who outsources to an agency) who takes a consultative approach to maximizing the effectiveness of your whole talent acquisition program, beyond just filling vacancies.

Technology

Digital transformation has hit HR and recruitment, bringing an influx of new solutions to the market that offer a range of benefits. RPO partners increasingly offer tech consulting and can show you how emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning and predictive analytics can boost your ability to attract top talent.

Some RPO partners have proprietary technology, like PeopleScout’s Affinix®, while some offer expertise in well-known platforms. Look for a modular approach that can integrate with your existing systems, so you can continue to benefit from existing investments and grow your recruitment tech stack as your needs change. Any technology you implement must comply with data privacy regulations in all regions where you’re recruiting, including any rules about where data can be stored. A SOC 2 certification is a great way to tell that a vendor takes information security seriously.

In this era of tight competition for talent, augmenting your recruiting capacity and ability with an RPO provider could be a crucial step for the future of your business. When it comes to RPO, there is no single best option, only the option that best aligns with your organizational needs. By understanding your current recruitment challenges and requirements, you can find an RPO partner with right capabilities to support your global recruiting goals.

Learn more about RPO in our ebook, The Buyer’s Guide to Global RPO.

Asian American & Pacific Islander Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Posted on by jpatel

At PeopleScout, we are committed to providing you with information to help guide you on your DE&I journey. We aim to cover a wide range of DE&I topics, including issues regarding BIPOC, the LGBTQ+ community, gender gaps, people with disabilities and more. In this article, we cover the history and importance of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and offer advice and recommendations for employers looking to build more inclusive workplaces for AAPI workers. 

Each year in the U.S., Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is observed during the month of May to recognize the many contributions and influence of the AAPI community to the history, culture and achievements of the U.S.  

Starting in 1979, this recognition was initially observed from May 4 – May 10 as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. In 1992, U.S. Congress officially annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. In 2009, Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month was renamed to AAPI Heritage Month, as we know it today.  

AAPI Heritage Month is celebrated in May for two main reasons. The first is to commemorate the first known Japanese immigration to the U.S. on May 7, 1843. The second is to honor the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869—a construction that was largely aided by the labor of over 20,000 Chinese workers. 

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made a lasting impact on the history of the U.S. and will no doubt be just as instrumental in its future accomplishments and successes. But are these Americans receiving the recognition, respect and inclusion they deserve?  

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of which ethnic groups are included in AAPI, discuss barriers this group may face in the workforce and share actionable steps your organization can take to foster inclusivity among AAPI employees. 

Who are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders? 

According to the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, AAPI can be defined as “all people of Asian, Asian American or Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins to the countries, states, jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of these geographic regions.” 

Let’s break this down further. While keeping in mind that personal identifications can be complex and often overlapping, with not all Asian people identifying as American, and depending on one’s background and upbringing, consider this list of terms to help keep track of who might fall into the larger AAPI community: 

  • AAPI: Asian American and Pacific Islander. This term generally includes all people of Asian, Asian American or Pacific Islander descent. 
  • Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent. 
  • East Asian: A person of Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean or Mongolian descent. 
  • South Asian: A person of Indian, Bangladesh, Sri Lankan, Nepali or Pakistani backgrounds. 
  • Southeast Asian: A person of Filipino, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Lao, Indonesian, Thai or Singaporean descent. 
  • Central Asian: A person with origins in the original peoples of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 
  • Pacific Islander: A person with origins in the original peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. 
  • West Asian: A person with origins in the original peoples of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Georgia, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates or Yemen. 

There is immense diversity among members of AAPI heritage, and their ancestry and origins vary across the U.S. Here are visuals of the top ancestry groups and top countries of birth for AAPI immigrants based on research from the New American Economy: 

AAPI meaning
asian american diversity

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the Workforce 

While the Asian American population is growing faster than any other group in the U.S., the same cannot be said for the rate at which this group is promoted into positions of leadership in organizations across the country. 

  • According to data from the EEOC, white-collar Asian American workers are the least likely group to be promoted into management roles—less likely than any other race. 
  • According to Bain & Company, while 9% of the professional workforce in the U.S. identifies as Asian, only 2% of CEOs do. 
  • The AAPI community suffers from high levels of income inequality, with AAPI workers in the top 10% of the income distribution earning nearly 10 times what AAPIs in the bottom 10% do.  
  • Insider shares a 2020 analysis of the C-suites at Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies, finding that just 5.6% of the total executives in the study identified as Asian or Indian. 
asian demographics

So, what’s the reason behind these massive gaps? In a nutshell: stereotypes.  

AAPIs have often been mislabeled the “model minority,” a term that stems from a New York Times article published in 1966 which praised Japanese Americans for overcoming prejudice, respecting authority, achieving academic excellence and “subordination of the individual to the group.” And according to CNBC, the model minority myth “also paints Asians as a monolith, when in fact some 23 million Asian Americans trace their roots to more than 20 countries in East and Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent.” 

Over the years, this description has come to stereotype all AAPI people as hardworking, smart, well-educated and faithful to their superiors. However, there are pitfalls to this idea—by placing Asian Americans on a pedestal for minority success in America, we have inadvertently made circumstances far worse for this community.  

By characterizing this group as having a higher level of “success” than the typical immigrant or other racial/ethnic group, it glosses over and seeks to erase the struggles, barriers and different challenges and experiences AAPIs face. Moreover, the same descriptors that have come to define “model minority” have also deemed this group unfit for leadership roles and promotions, due to a perceived lack of creativity, ambition and confidence—painting AAPIs as submissive and not “leadership material.” 

What’s more, new research finds that Asian employees report feeling the least included of all demographic groups in the workplace, including Black and LGBTQ+ workers. This research from Bain found that only 25% to 30% of employees across all geographies, industries, and demographic groups say that they feel fully included at work, with only 16% of Asian men and 20% of Asian women feeling the same. 

aapi meaning

Strategies to Foster AAPI Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 

Spread Awareness  
Because AAPIs have for so long been characterized as the “model minority,” non-AAPIs may not realize the extent of the barriers to which this group faces daily in the workforce. Employers should spread awareness of the leadership gap AAPI workers face and fold AAPI-related topics into organizational diversity and inclusion efforts. This can include bias training and learning programs to help make stakeholders and employees aware of the distinct obstacles facing AAPI workers. 

Target Recruitment 
The first step in building a diverse workforce is ensuring your organization is inclusive of all types of people—including AAPIs. According to the EEOC, one of the most common barriers for AAPI employees and applicants is a lack of targeted recruitment. Employers can combat this by establishing targeted recruitment plans that include goals and deadlines for attracting AAPI candidates, and by partnering with universities and organizations with a high percentage of AAPI students or professionals looking to advance in their careers. Organizations should also be sure to monitor and modify the plan as needed. Talent technologies like PeopleScout’s Affinix can help make this process simple with diversity dashboards that track progress toward specific goals. 

For more on diversity recruiting strategies, check out this PeopleScout article: The Future of Diversity Recruiting: Reevaluating Traditional Methods & Questioning Accepted Wisdom. 

Invest in AAPI Growth and Development 
For employers looking to diversify their leadership, developing a program that specifically invests in AAPI employees is a great way to start. Consider identifying top-performing individuals and providing them with opportunities to demonstrate their leadership abilities (i.e., more responsibility, a big project, presentation, etc.). Organizations can also provide these employees with mentorship and designated training paths to encourage promotion and growth. 

Create Employee Resource Groups 
Employee resource groups, or ERGs, are a great way to help employees within an organization build community and share a common cause—such as interests, backgrounds and identities. An ERG focused around AAPIs can help these employees feel at home within an organization and can also serve as a community for non-AAPIs who want to learn more about the experiences of this diverse group. ERGs are also a great way to improve retention rates, because when employees truly feel included, they are more likely to stay at an organization.  

At PeopleScout and the broader TrueBlue organization, we are proud to have the Asian Collective of Employees (ACE) ERG, a trustworthy forum where AAPIs and allies can share ideas, perspectives and professional experiences, to accelerate business and career growth, and increase cultural awareness. 

Elevate AAPI Voices 
With a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes following the COVID-19 pandemic, AAPIs were abruptly reminded that their sense of belonging in a predominately white society is often conditional. And with the Stop AAPI Hate National Report finding that businesses are the primary site of discrimination at 35%, organizations can make a powerful impact by addressing and acknowledging incidents and offering open forums for discussion among employees. By amplifying AAPI voices and perspectives, AAPI employees will feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, feelings and experiences in a safe space while knowing their employer cares. In addition, organizations can host speaker events featuring AAPI leaders and top performers within the company to highlight contributions and allow other AAPIs to see examples of success within the workplace. 

Celebrate AAPI Month 
AAPI month is a great opportunity for organizations to celebrate AAPI heritage and contributions and show employees that their unique cultural differences are valued. Consider these ideas for celebrating AAPI Month within your organization: 

  • Host an AAPI author book club 
  • Order lunch from a local AAPI restaurant 
  • Raise funds for an AAPI nonprofit 
  • Host an AAPI history and trivia night 
  • Spotlight AAPI employees on internal channels 

Asian American DE&I as a Continuous Journey 

The U.S. continually becomes more diverse, and so do organizations and the people in them. For organizations to stay competitive, diversity, equity and inclusion are non-negotiable. A truly diverse company will include people from all backgrounds at all levels of the organization—including in leadership roles. And when candidates and customers see that level of diversity, they’ll be more likely to invest their time and resources with those businesses. 

However, diversity without inclusion does nothing for people nor businesses. In order to retain your diverse employees, you’ll need to understand who they are, celebrate their heritage and invest in their growth. It is our responsibility as employers to identify groups who need amplification in the workforce—like AAPIs—and to foster long-term inclusion, representation and respect.