U.S. employers added an impressive 678,000 jobs in February, in the strongest jobs report since last summer. The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 5.1%.
The Numbers
678,000: Employers added 678,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in February.
3.8%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.8%.
5.1%: Wages rose 5.1% over the past year.
The Good
The headline number of 678,000 new jobs in February beat analyst expectations. Nearly a quarter of those jobs were in the leisure and hospitality sector, which includes the industries most impacted by coronavirus surges. Restaurants alone accounted for 124,000 new jobs, and no industries reported a decline in employment.
Additionally, labor force participation increased to 62.3%, though the number is still far below pre-pandemic numbers. However, the unemployment rate fell to 3.8%, only slightly higher than the 3.5% unemployment rate of February 2020. Though wage growth remains high, the Wall Street Journal reports that it has slowed enough to indicate that the nationwide labor shortage may be easing.
The Bad
There is very little bad news in February’s jobs report, though some challenges caused by the pandemic still remain. As the New York Times reports, the economy still has about 2 million fewer jobs it did before the pandemic, and the labor force is still about 3 million workers smaller.
The Unknown
February’s jobs numbers were collected before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so they do not reflect any impact of the conflict. MarketWatch reports that the invasion is likely to worsen inflation. According to the New York Times, the U.S. will likely see less financial impact than Europe, but there will be repercussions that can be difficult to predict. Though experts do say that Americans are likely to see higher oil prices, which could curb household spending.
From the first African slaves brought to the shores of the American colonies in the 1600s to the present day, African Americans have an active and intricate role in the history of labor in the western hemisphere and beyond. African Americans have filled a wide range of roles vital in building and sustaining the nation’s economy, even in the face of racial discrimination and persistent challenges.
Yet African Americans have often found themselves availed with few economic and career resources of their own, historically restricted to lower-paying sectors of the economy. Moreover, despite improvements in workplace diversity, African Americans have faced a long history of workplace discrimination as employees and job seekers continue to face obstacles.
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 experiences of African American workers and offer advice and recommendations for employers looking to build more inclusive workplaces.
The Complex Legacy of Slavery and African American Labor
In the 17th century, to meet the expanded labor needs of the rapidly growing North American colonies, European colonists who depended primarily on indentured servants from Europe opted for a cheaper and more plentiful labor source, African slaves.
Historians estimate that up to 12 million African slaves made the middle passage during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Following the Revolutionary War, the rural South’s demand for slave labor increased due to rising cotton production supplanting traditional cash crops like tobacco and sugar. The South’s demands for slave labor and growing calls for abolitionism in the Northern led to decades of political and social tension.
In 1861, the tensions between North and South erupted into civil war in America. On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation made it official that enslaved “shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” By freeing 4 million enslaved African Americans, the Emancipation Proclamation dealt a blow to the Confederate states’ labor force.
The Union’s victory in the Civil War granted 4 million African slaves’ freedom and in 1865, the 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery. Unfortunately, significant obstacles to full enfranchisement laid ahead during the Reconstruction era.
Racial Discrimination in the Workplace: The Emancipated Black Worker, Sharecropping and Black Codes
After the end of slavery, Southern legislators passed a series of laws also known “Black codes” intended to bar African Americans from skilled trades. While Northern states outlawed similar practices, white craftsmen resisted accepting Black workers into trade work. These restrictions on ex-slaves made them reliant on their former owners for work as landless sharecroppers.
Sharecroppers exchanged their labor for tools, seeds, fertilizer, and access to land to harvest their crops. While having more independence than during slavery, sharecroppers paid substantial rent, interest and also turned over a large portion of the crop to their landlord.
A History of Progress in The Face of Racial Discrimination:
1619 First African Slaves Brought to the New World: A Dutch ship brought 20 Africans ashore at the British colony of Jamestown. In the years to come, slavery spread quickly through the American colonies.
1865 The Thirteenth Amendment Abolishes Slavery: The end to official slavery was perhaps the greatest labor victory in U.S. history, yet the struggle for equal rights was far from over.
1866-1877 Reconstruction Era: During the Reconstruction era, the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the constitution ended slavery and granted citizenship to African Americans. Unfortunately, Reconstruction did not produce economic equality for millions of newly freed men and women.
1881 Tuskegee Institute Founded: Booker T. Washington became the first principal of Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama, on July 4. Tuskegee became the leading vocational training institution for African Americans.
1925 Pullman Company Porters form the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP): The first all-Black labor union in the U.S. formed in 1925 to address low wages, long hours and mistreatment from passengers. By 1935, the BSCP was the first African American union organization to be granted membership into the American Federation of Labor.
1961 Executive Order 10925 Establishes the EEOC: In 1961, President John F. Kennedy set forth Executive Order 10925, which established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, or EEOC. Kennedy’s order not only made it unlawful for government contractors to discriminate, but also gave the EEOC the right to impose sanctions on any organization which violated the spirit of civil rights laws.
1964 The Civil Rights Act of Outlaws Workplace Discrimination: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other major figures of the civil rights movement successfully petitioned for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The view of African American labor as first enslaved, then free, changed when the modern civil rights movement helped expand the scope of American democracy and the rights of all.
African Americans continue to face both explicit racial discrimination and more subtle forms of discrimination in the workplace. According to a survey conducted by Gallup, 72% of Black professionals have experienced racial discrimination in the workplace—a higher percentage than all other ethnic group surveyed.
Although companies claim they want to overcome these explicit and implicit biases and hire and promote diverse candidates, they rarely do so in effective ways. In this section, we outline ways in which employers can address racial inequality as well as better support and promote inclusion for their African American employees.
African American or Black?
Racial identity can be very personal, and the language employers use to refer to a person’s race is a reflection of that. “Black” and “African American” are not always interchangeable. African American is typically used to refer to descendants of African who were enslaved. Some individuals prefer the term Black because they do not identify as African or because being Black about more than about race, it may also carry cultural meaning as well.
Moreover, some people identify as Black and African American and use the terms interchangeably for themselves, depending on the situation. Whether someone prefers “African American” or “Black” is very much up to the person, so it is always advisable to ask an individual which term they prefer.
Employee Resource Groups Can Help Support African American Employees
Being African American in the workplace can be emotionally taxing. Research by the University of Virginia shows that because Black employees feel a strong sense of difference between themselves and their mostly white peers, and as a result their ability to contribute is diminished. This sense of isolation can take a toll.
Creating employee resource groups (ERGs) is an approach you can use to build a more inclusive environment and addresses diversity and inclusion in a more holistic, community-based way.
The first employee resource groups were initially workplace affinity groups created in response to racial strife of the civil rights era. Joseph Wilson, the former CEO of Xerox, developed the concept following race riots in Rochester, NY in 1964.
ERGs can empower underrepresented groups by giving each group a voice to discuss issues with decision-makers and leadership. ERGs support learning and development by offering formal and informal leadership opportunities and creating visibility for employees who are active. ERG groups provide resources and guidance for cooperate leadership regarding diversity issues, community needs and policy.
Discrimination in the Workplace: Systemic Inequality and Corporate Culture
The problem? Many DE&I programs tend to focus on helping employees from marginalized and underrepresented groups fit into the status-quo company culture and do not take enough action to remove systemic barriers to equality within their organizations. Organizations can start by leveraging data analytics to assess whether employees feel included on their teams and are treated equitably within the organization at large.
To collect diversity information on their workforce, employers should refer to EEO data collected for compliance obligations. Once the diversity data is collected, it should be compared to the data available on the labor market. Employers should look for gaps in diversity and then draft a plan to hire and retain more members of underrepresented groups.
Support African American Employees in Being Themselves
Members of underrepresented groups often feel pressure to conform, suppressing personal values and feel uncomfortable bringing their whole selves to work. This can lead to a particular struggle with feeling inauthentic at work. Research by McGill University shows that the pressure to create “facades of conformity” to fit in with the culture of their employer.
African American employees might straighten their hair or “finetune” their résumés by deleting ethnic-sounding names or companies. They might suppress emotions related to racism in the workplace and in the world at large.
Employers should assess how much of themselves their Black employees feel comfortable bringing to work. Here we outline a few ways leaders can encourage employees to bring their true selves to work:
Leaders should listen to everyone and incorporate the views of their diverse workforce to improve the exchange of ideas, perspectives and values.
Encourage Black employees to speak up for racial and cultural authenticity and to be seen as individuals who are unique for reasons other than their ethnicity.
Create mentoring opportunities to empower Black employees to share their true selves at work rather than learning to conform to cultural expectations.
Another challenge African Americans face in the workplace are thepolitics of respectability. Respectability politics refers to attempts by marginalized groups to control the behavior of their own members to show the groups social values align with mainstream values instead of challenging the status qou for its failure to accept difference. Respectability politics narrow the parameters of the Black experience, and can denying employees the opportunity to be their truest selves.
Sourcing African Americans Candidates
Recruiters may come with their own set of unconscious biases that may manifest as racial discrimination when hiring, hurting an organization’s efforts to source diverse candidates. Implementing technology into the recruitment process can help decrease the unconscious bias that may take place during recruiting.
For instance, if you find that there’s a large drop in minority candidates moving between the onsite interview and skills assessment, unconscious bias training may be in order. Follow your data closely so you can make more informed decisions and continue making progress on your organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. What’s more, you should also build a team of recruiters who hail from a wide range of backgrounds.
There are also websites and job boards such as Jopwell that allow recruiters to advertise open roles to a talent pool that is full of diverse candidates so you can source from a variety of different places. Don’t rely on the same sources over and over again when seeking out new candidates. Focusing on only the sources that you know best can result in a talent pool of similar candidates and a lack of diversity.
Moreover, employers who are intentional about increasing African American diversity should look to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who produce nearly 20% of all the African American college graduates.
Organizations can partner with these schools to find promising entry-level employees with not only the necessary skills and education, but also the drive to make an impact early in their career. With the rise and ease of virtual career fairs and other ways to engage job seekers, it’s easier than ever to access these highly desirable candidates.
What’s more, HBCUs provide to their students with career guidance and support to prepare them for the workforce, making these institutions an ideal place to recruit early talent. With an emphasis on mentorships, internships, and other ways to participate actively in the larger community, HBCUs prepare students for life outside the classroom while offering a safe, nurturing, and inspiring environment—a place to thrive.
How Employers Can Help Make Racial Discrimination in the Workplace a Thing of the Past
Despite increasing corporate investment in DE&I efforts, African Americans continue to face major barriers to advancement in the workplace. Now more than ever before, organizations and society should strive to benefit from the experiences, knowledge, and skills of all, not just a few. Organizations that understand racial discrimination, the reality and history of the African American experience will be better able to embrace and champion policies and programs that help to level the playing field. This will be hard but rewarding work that helps not only African Americans, but also the entire workforce and society at large.
Fuelled by an aging population and the growth of chronic conditions, jobs in healthcare are expected to grow 13% by 2031, much faster than the average for all occupations. In fact, nurse practitioners are predicted to grow by 46%. So, finding the right recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider is critical for healthcare organizations looking to hire top healthcare talent. Whether a healthcare organization is looking to improve its recruiting processes, improve healthcare staff retention or enhance its employer brand, developing a strong relationship with a trusted RPO provider begins with the selection process. In this post, we review the best practices when it comes to selecting the right RPO provider for your healthcare staffing needs.
What is Recruitment Process Outsourcing for Healthcare?
To understand RPO solutions, it’s important to understand what they are not. RPO providers are not healthcare staffing companies or head-hunters. Rather, RPO providers implement solutions designed to streamline and improve the hiring process, and as a result, fulfill your healthcare hiring needs.
From employer branding to employee engagement, hiring, onboarding and much more, a well-executed RPO program can make a huge impact on a healthcare organization. RPO solutions are not one-size-fits-all plans. Each RPO solution must be tailored to meet an individual company’s needs and take industry specific concerns into consideration.
Healthcare Staffing and RPO: Getting Started
Before contacting an RPO provider, a healthcare organization must first assess both its hiring and business needs. The following is a list of common healthcare staffing needs fulfilled by RPO solutions:
Recruit a small number of employees for niche positions, like NICU nurses.
Provide scalable engagements to fill a large number of open positions quickly with high-quality candidates.
Help healthcare organizations increase employee retention and improve employee turnover rate.
Help healthcare organizations staff positions that require specific technical experience or certifications.
Provide transparency by tracking metrics and milestones outlined in SLAs.
Once you have considered your own needs, you need to research to see what your prospective RPO partner brings to the table. When consulting with a prospective RPO provider ask yourself the following questions:
Does the prospective RPO have expertise in fulfilling the specific staffing needs of healthcare organizations?
Do they have multiple healthcare organizations as current clients?
Where do they source healthcare professionals to build their talent pipeline?
How Does an RPO Provider Support Healthcare Staffing?
If you are looking to streamline your healthcare organization’s talent acquisition processes and procedures as a means to become more cost-effective, then engaging an RPO provider can help you reduce spend with healthcare employment agencies, yield lower turnover and create a higher quality pipeline of candidates for your open positions. The work of a good RPO provider will save your organization money throughout the new employee’s tenure at your organization, beyond when they’re hired.
RPO Providers Can Secure Specialized Healthcare Talent
The right healthcare RPO provider understands the unique challenges presented by the healthcare industry and has experience sourcing quality candidates for niche/technical healthcare positions.
RPO providers with expertise in the healthcare industry will quickly target and assess both passive and active candidates for hard-to-fill positions rather than placing an ad and waiting for job seekers to answer it. By understanding your healthcare hiring needs, an RPO provider reduces the need for training internal personnel or hiring those with healthcare-specific experience.
RPO Providers Can Provide Scalable Solutions to Accommodate Growth
As the U.S. population ages, the need for healthcare services is on the rise. As a result, many healthcare organizations are growing rapidly to meet the demand. If your organization is experiencing growth, an experienced RPO partner can source the right talent quickly to make sure your organization is staffed adequately to meet growth demands.
RPO providers can handle background checks, drug screens and other onboarding tasks as needed. They will make sure that all the applicants presented to you for interviews have the specific skills required for your open positions.
RPO Providers Can Improve Your Employer Brand to Attract Better Talent
Whether your healthcare organization is an established medical provider or a new player in the industry, building strong employer brand appeal can attract the best talent to your job postings. An RPO provider can help build your brand and your reputation as a good place to work. An RPO engagement can provide solutions to help you maintain healthy relationships with both prospective candidates—including ones that are not hired for open positions—former and current employees, which improves your employer brand in the healthcare industry.
Which RPO Provider is Right for Your Healthcare Staffing Needs?
Choosing the right RPO partner for your healthcare staffing needs is a carefully thought out process with many factors to take into consideration. You are not only selecting a company to help you with your recruiting processes, but you are also choosing a partner that will help you improve multiple business functions for your organization. Just like when choosing other products or services, you need to identify your specific business needs and what you want an RPO provider to handle or assist you with. This primarily means identifying your weaknesses/pain points and your organizational objectives, such as staffing cost reduction, organization expansion or reconfiguring your recruiting structure.
The Right RPO Provider Values Accountability
When hiring for healthcare, accountability is one of the most important factors in the relationship between an organization and an RPO provider. When you select the right healthcare RPO provider, they will deliver a high level of transparency and will encourage you to hold them accountable for how well the hires they make work out for your organization. A good RPO provider will also want to be judged on how quickly they can fill open positions and on how cost-efficient their service is for you.
The Right RPO Provider Understands Healthcare Staffing
The right RPO provider knows healthcare staffing top to bottom. They have strong connections with healthcare professional organizations, they understand the technology used to source top healthcare talent, they know how to screen candidates effectively and they understand the compliance requirements for each healthcare position.
An RPO provider who is knowledgeable about healthcare hiring can easily fill any position in your organization and will help you find the best candidate both in terms of cultural fit and fitness for the position.
They Understand Your Needs
Each healthcare organization is unique, so a cookie-cutter approach to your healthcare staffing needs may not work to your advantage. The right RPO provider will take the time to form an in-depth understanding of your staffing needs and preferences, and will work to tailor a seamless RPO plan for you.
No matter how many positions you need to fill, the right RPO provider will take that into consideration and make sure your new 10 or 1,000 employees all hit the ground running and seamlessly integrate into your organization.
They Employ Best-Fit Technology and AI-Powered Sourcing Methods
In a tight healthcare labor market, sourcing and attracting the best talent can be difficult. The right RPO provider understands this, and will employ cutting-edge recruiting technology and sourcing methods to meet a client’s healthcare staffing needs.
Healthcare recruiting technology that utilizes AI and machine learning to source and screen candidates give healthcare organizations a distinct advantage in finding the right candidates quickly. What’s more, recruiting technology can reduce the cost-per-hire and streamline the often disjointed healthcare staffing process by merging multiple recruiting functions into one easy-to-use interface.
They Understand Your Talent Market
Whether your healthcare organization has one location or multiple locations across many regions, the right RPO provider understands the laws, regulations, customs and structures in your regions of operation. Your RPO provider should possess the know-how and have experience in sourcing candidates in your talent market(s) to make sure you hire the best talent available. The right RPO provider will take as little time and money as possible sourcing your new workforce, and get them hired as quickly as possible.
Healthcare staffing can be complicated, that’s why partnering with the right RPO provider is crucial for success. Once you have found the right RPO provider for your staffing needs, it can take time to build a strong relationship. Once the relationship is established, you will see all of the benefits the right RPO provider can bring to the table, and you will see how much easier the healthcare staffing process can be.
U.S. employers added 467,000 jobs in January, beating analyst expectations despite the surge in COVID-19 cases. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 5.7%.
The Numbers
467,000: Employers added 467,000 jobs in January.
4%: The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4%.
5.7%: Wages rose 5.7% over the past year.
The Good
Despite record numbers of COVID-19 cases across the country, employers beat analyst expectations to add 467,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in the first month of 2022. Additionally, the jobs numbers for November and December were revised up 700,000 over what was initially reported. According to MarketWatch, some experts had predicted an increase of only 150,000, while others had even expected a decrease in employment. Even the slight increase in the unemployment rate is good news, as it indicates more workers sidelined during the pandemic have reentered the labor market.
The Bad
There weren’t many downsides to January’s report. However, there may have been some impact due to the Omicron variant. The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly 2 million workers were prevented from looking for a job in January because of the pandemic. Additionally, 7.8 million said they missed some work because of Omicron.
The Unknown
Looking ahead to the rest of 2022, economists will be watching some factors still holding back the economy, according to the New York Times. Supply chain bottlenecks, labor shortages and high inflation have left Americans frustrated despite the fact that the unemployment rate has fallen faster than many experts predicted. Additionally, the strong recovery makes it likely that the Federal Reserve will raise interests rates in March, with traders predicting a half-point increase. Finally, employers and workers will be closely watching wages. Over the past year, wages have increased an average of 5.7%. While increasing wages are drawing more workers back into the labor market, they pose a challenge for employers.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay on the implementation of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring employers with 100 or more employees to require proof of vaccination or weekly COVID-19 testing.
This means that the ETS is on hold for further review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a potential return to the Supreme Court. For employers, this ruling is not a final decision on the issue, but it does give them more time to prepare if the ETS does ultimately take effect. However, it also indicates for employers that the current Supreme Court is unlikely to approve the requirement.
The ruling also does not apply to any state or local requirements. Littler maintains a chart of vaccine-related legislation by jurisdiction. In some states, lawmakers have taken steps to limit or prevent vaccine mandates, while other states, cities and counties already have vaccine mandates in place for certain workers. Employers should work with legal counsel to determine if they are impacted by any existing legislation.
Employers that are not impacted by any federal, state or local legislation, can choose policies and practices best suited to their business as long as those policies do not violate the law, according to law firm Jackson Lewis. According to U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidance, employers are able to mandate vaccines in most cases, but they must provide reasonable accommodations for employees who cannot receive the vaccine because of certain medical conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs.
Employers who are asking about vaccination status should take care in their approach. Tracking employee vaccination status can help employers determine whether workers need to wear masks, how quickly they can return to the workplace after an exposure to COVID-19 or if they can increase capacity in offices, but employers should be cautious in asking follow-up questions about why a person has not gotten the vaccine. According to SHRM, questions about why an employee is not vaccinated could be subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
As for workers, surveys show they are split on vaccine mandates, with a small majority (53%) saying they want to see their workplace introduce the proper technology that could record proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
Talent attraction means grabbing a candidate’s attention and in this day and age that is not an easy task. Every day, we’re bombarded with between 4,000 and 10,000 ads. Naturally, we don’t give every one of them our full attention; our brains screen out the majority that they consider irrelevant so we don’t get overwhelmed. Recruitment messages—designed to grow awareness and excitement around job opportunities—are just one subset of ads fighting for our attention in this intense daily contest.
In such a ruthless environment, talent attraction techniques have evolved and adapted. Modern recruitment marketing now draws heavily on consumer marketing practices and technology to ensure that recruiting organizations create clear space between themselves and their competitors. This optimizes the likelihood that their messages will receive the attention of the right candidates and fuel growth in healthy pipelines for future vacancies.
This article will walk you through four strategic pillars to succeed in this hugely competitive space for top talent.
Talent Attraction Pillar One: Establishing Your Brand Narrative as a North Star
To attract top talent, you need to tell a vivid story about your unique employer value proposition, or EVP. This proposition should clearly communicate the compelling elements of your employment offer, as well as the behaviors and values you expect of candidates in return.
This narrative allows candidates to make an informed decision about whether your organization is somewhere they aspire to work and somewhere they can have an influence. But, it also ensures that the people who do go on to apply are in tune with your company values; are motivated to be a part of your team’s mission; and are ready to take on the particular challenges associated with their role.
Recruitment marketing is the task of telling that story—why talent should want to work for you. Specifically, it’s about telling it:
To the right people, at the right time
Consistently, with targeted content and experiences that develop a candidate’s understanding of—and trust in—your company
In exciting and unexpected ways to stand out from the competition
Changing jobs is a significant life event fueled by a complex and highly emotional decision-making process. More than ever, candidates are searching for an employer that exhibits a shared set of values and work that they find meaningful. This is even more apparent in the Millennial and Gen Z members of the workforce. As such, a well-articulated employee value proposition can provoke an emotive response from candidates; give them a first glimpse into your company culture; and differentiate you from your competitors for talent. Without a clearly defined employer brand story, the guiding North Star of your strategy is missing.
Talent Attraction Pillar Two: Build Authenticity & Trust with Your Employees’ Voice
When considering whether to apply for a role, candidates will evaluate the authenticity of your brand claims and develop perceptions of what it’s really like to work for you. Therefore, when it comes to the credibility of your messages, the sources that deliver them are all important. Appetite for glossy corporate advertising is low; candidates are looking for trusted spokespeople to reveal the real story.
According to Edelman’s brand trust report, nearly seven in 10 people globally use one or more advertising avoidance strategy.
Personal experience, earned media, and peer-to-peer conversations are far more influential than owned media and paid advertising in the battle for brand trust.
Industry experts and regular employees are seen as significantly more credible spokespeople for a brand than the company’s CEO.
Similarly, candidates are savvy to corporate clichés and empty promises. Alternatively, they will use resources like Glassdoor and Indeed to seek out the opinions of existing employees who have previously road-tested an employee experience.
Of course, you can’t control everything that’s written about your brand online, but you can empower your most engaged employees to be the voice of your brand by sharing their own experiences. Plus, personal stories will provide you with credible evidence to support your employer value proposition and build credibility among your external brand audiences. It can be easy to overcomplicate advocacy; the key is to make it a fun and celebratory process. For instance:
Make sharing simple. There are many content amplification tools that will allow employees to access your employer brand content and repost it to their own social channels in seconds.
Introduce a little competition. Award points to employees for sharing their own stories and reposting those of their colleagues.
Make advocacy rewarding. What do your advocates get in return for being active brand ambassadors? Social media training? Networking opportunities?
But, don’t just expect employees to go off and create great content; you’ll need to offer support. So, consider setting content creation challenges with detailed guidelines to keep them energized and engaged.
Talent Attraction Pillar Three: Connect to Talent with Data-Driven Insights
Top talent doesn’t need to actively look for new opportunities because, like in the consumer world, offers have already started coming to them. Nowadays, passive and active candidate status is no longer clear cut. While some people are actively looking for jobs, it would be incorrect to label everyone else passive and disinterested in new opportunities.
In fact, candidates expect to be approached with new opportunities. Take the highly competitive tech market, for example: More than half of all software engineers in North America are approached by recruiters at least once every quarter. In such a competitive market, you need to engage your future workforce before the demand to hire them exists.
So, instead of playing the numbers game and hoping that the right person is out there somewhere, wouldn’t it be better to have an existing relationship with the people we think would be perfect for the job? And, better still, to know exactly their level of interest in new opportunities so that, when we do approach them, we know it’s a welcome advance? Fortunately, this is all made possible if we build high-quality, data-driven talent pipelines that provide recruiters with live insights into candidate interest levels and improve their efficiency. Below are three steps you can take to start building talent pipelines.
Pillar Four: Differentiate Your Brand Through Human Experiences
Let’s reimagine the marketing funnel as the journey of a single candidate. Armed with your compelling employer value proposition, the task throughout this journey is to bring the promises of that proposition to life for candidates and reinforce your brand messages so that they build a preference for your organization.
In other words, rather than just telling candidates why you should be their preferred choice of employer, show them at every touchpoint.
Remember when we referred to your employer brand as your North Star? This is exactly what we meant by that: Use your employer brand and value proposition as a guiding force when crafting all of your recruitment communications and experiences. The more consistently and distinctively your value proposition is expressed throughout the candidate journey (and beyond into the employee lifecycle), the more your brand reputation will align to the identity that you want to portray.
As an example, if you claim to be an employer that cares about employee wellbeing, show candidates from the start by supporting them through the recruitment process with deep empathy. Likewise, if you claim to be an employer that fosters innovation, ensure that your communications are fresh and different.
The way that candidates experience your organization throughout the candidate journey will show them everything they need to know about how your company treats customers and colleagues. That perception, once created, is hard to shift. If you treat candidates with dignity and show them how their time is valued, most will walk away from the recruitment process feeling positive about the brand you represent—whether they were successful or not. This means that you’re more likely to be the beneficiary of positive word-of-mouth advertising from that individual, as well as ensure that they’re more likely to reengage with you in the future should another, more appropriate, opportunity arise. That could be next week, next month or next year. The long game matters. A human-centric approach is different and will certainly stand out among the numerous companies that still facilitate an impersonal hiring process.
Making The Right Match
When these four strategic pillars work cohesively together, they allow you to seek out top talent and start conversations with potential employees wherever they prefer to consume content. Then, you can convert candidates to the next stage of the recruitment process by delivering content that responds to behavioral triggers and underlying candidate motivations. Finally, you can differentiate your organization from your competitors with human experiences that bring your employer brand to life in unexpected and exciting ways.
To learn more about recruitment marketing and talent attraction and retention, including the important metrics you should focus on, read our ebook.
When people of different backgrounds with different experiences come together, they drive innovation—both in the workplace and in the world at large. In fact, there’s substantial research that DE&I initiatives bring many advantages to the workplace, including increased profitability and creativity; greater productivity; and better problem-solving, among others.
Employees with diverse backgrounds also bring their own perspectives, ideas and experiences, which help to create organizations that are resilient and effective and that outperform organizations that do not invest in diversity.
Yet, despite the obvious benefits of increased diversity and inclusion in the workplace, the reality still leaves much to be desired. For instance, research from Boston Consulting Group shows that diversity and inclusion efforts have yielded sparse results: Although nearly all companies have programs in effect, only 25% of employees from diverse backgrounds feel they have personally benefited from them.
Clearly, employers must do more, and the responsibility for diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) belongs to the entire organization—including talent acquisition and HR leaders. So, in this article, we’ll cover the different areas of the business that contribute to DE&I; how you can determine your DE&I program maturity; and areas where talent acquisition leaders can have the greatest influence.
So, Who’s Responsible for DE&I Initiatives?
For years, talent acquisition teams have led diversity efforts within organizations. In some cases, employers hire a chief diversity officer (CDO) and provide a budget for DE&I initiatives. However, the responsibility for DE&I initiatives is much broader, and everyone from senior leaders to entry-level employees in everything from marketing to IT has a role in creating an inclusive workplace. Here, we outline the roles that different areas of the business play in DE&I efforts.
Talent Acquisition & HR
More than any other group or individual, talent acquisition and the broader HR organization are responsible for diversity and inclusion in the workplace. According to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey, in 59% of organizations, HR and talent acquisition oversee diversity efforts and, at 64%, they’re tasked with implementing diversity initiatives.
Leadership
An organization’s leadership team is responsible for diversity outcomes at 25% of organizations, according to a Deloitte report. But, leadership must play a role in the DE&I initiatives at all organizations. In fact, having a C-suite member as the diversity and inclusion program leader is one of the biggest differentiators between organizations in which diversity is not considered a barrier to progression versus ones where it is, according to PwC’s data.
However, to be successful champions of diversity, leadership needs to be fully engaged—because an inclusive and equitable culture must be present from the top down. Notably, if time and other responsibilities that accompany their jobs make it difficult for executives to be fully engaged, organizations may want to reconsider having their C-suite remain heavily involved in their diversity efforts. In this case, you might consider appointing another individual (or individuals) who is more able to focus on the work and, as a result, bring about more change.
Diversity Committees
Not every organization has the resources to support a full-time diversity role. In fact, the larger the employer, the more likely it is to have dedicated diversity staff, according to Xpert HR. However, as SHRM found, smaller organizations may be able to aid diversity and inclusion programs by taking a cue from the 17% of employers that have an advisory group/committee comprised of volunteer staff members. This can actually be quite an effective approach, as employee sponsorship corresponds with lower levels of reported bias within an organization, according to Center for Talent Innovation research.
Identifying Gaps in the Maturity of Your DE&I Initiatives and Programs
When it comes to really progressing your organization’s DE&I program, the best place to start is by asking yourself where your organization stands today. That way, you can best identify where to place your initial efforts in order to create the greatest influence. Below, we outline the different stages of DE&I program maturity. Note that your organization may be at different levels in different areas.
Beginner: Generally, employers at the beginner level of maturity tend to be more reactive rather than proactive; they may narrowly define workplace diversity, and leaders usually have limited involvement in driving DE&I forward within the organization.
Intermediate: Employers at the intermediate level typically focus on more purpose-driven DE&I initiatives, with leadership assuming a greater role in progressing DE&I in the workplace. At this level, the definition of diversity expands to include less-visible characteristics, like disability, religion, class, age, regionalism, sexual orientation and more. Additionally, at this stage, an employer may employ a dedicated staff and provide a budget for DE&I.
Advanced: Employers at the advanced stage focus on multi-dimensionality and intersectionality when thinking about diversity. In this situation, leaders practice inclusive leadership skills and are held accountable for creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. They also often have DE&I resources and budgets distributed throughout the organization to ensure organization-wide diversity.
Leading: Employers at this level take a sustainable approach to DE&I, in which leaders are expected to lead holistically and inclusively; be key DE&I initiatives change agents; and hold the organization accountable. In addition to their internal resources, they often have external DE&I advisory boards that guide them on leading practices.
Identifying your organization’s DE&I maturity level allows you to better measure your progress on key areas of workforce diversity, including communication, employee education, company culture, resource investment and the involvement of leadership. This will help guide your next steps toward creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce, as well as allow your organization to focus on interventions that are targeted and specific. Plus, in organizational environments facing a multiplicity of DE&I issues at once, the ability to pinpoint current state, plot out the desired state and craft the roadmap to get there is critical.
What is DE&I? The Role of Talent Acquisition
While the responsibility for DE&I is spread across an organization, talent acquisition still plays a major role. Recruiters, sourcers, hiring managers and HR leaders are powerhouse roles that must work together to find the right candidate for the job, while also demonstrating an organization’s commitment to DE&I from the company’s first interactions with employees.
As talent acquisition leaders, you also play a key role in bringing to life diversity and inclusion as values that are deeply embedded in an organization. More precisely, your team plays a particularly critical role by sourcing, engaging and eventually hiring candidates from underrepresented groups.
Does your organization have a talent pool of diverse candidates? Do your interviewing practices reduce unconscious bias? Do you have a strong reputation for being a diverse workplace? These are some of the critical questions that you and your teams should attempt to answer to deliver on the organization’s diversity agenda.
By understanding your role and performing it effectively, talent acquisition teams can work with leaders in other areas of the business to build a truly holistic DE&I program. Here, we discuss some of the tactics that talent acquisition can adopt to overcome diversity sourcing, selection and hiring challenges.
Championing Diversity
Once your talent acquisition team establishes awareness and accountability, members should become champions of diversity hiring; you have a tremendous opportunity to drive the diversity agenda by reinforcing the case for diversity hiring. For instance, engaged recruiters can champion diversity and make it an everyday dialogue with hiring managers. That’s because recruiters are responsible for ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly and equally in a process that removes bias. They’re also the first step in demonstrating how the organization appreciates and celebrates its diverse employees.
Diversity Sourcing
To ensure that your talent pool is representative of diverse candidates, source your candidates from a variety of talent channels. Clearly, you can’t rely on the same sources repeatedly when seeking out new candidates; focusing only on the sources that you know best can result in a talent pool of similar candidates and a lack of diversity.
Instead, seek out opportunities to source candidates from underrepresented backgrounds. For example, there are many online and offline groups dedicated to women in technology. This could be a great opportunity to meet and connect with high-caliber, female candidates directly—instead of waiting for them to find you through platforms like Indeed. And, the more initiative you take to find these channels, the more likely it is that your talent pools will be diverse.
What’s more, if you’re struggling to find diverse talent, reach out to employees from diverse backgrounds and encourage them to share your job ads with their networks; then, give them the tools they need to promote open roles within your organization. As a result, your employees and candidates will both feel that your company values their opinions and contributions, which is fantastic for team morale and engagement.
DE&I Initiatives: Building Inclusivity
Building an inclusive workplace is central to creating a workplace environment in which every employee feels valued. Granted, every organization is different, so the content and structure of an inclusion program needs to meet the conditions of your organization. To get you started, SHRM offers an inclusivity checklist for HR that provides a good place to start:
Make sure that company leaders understand that inclusion is about ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, opinions are considered, and value to the team is evident.
Train managers to show that inclusivity is a core competency—and hold them accountable.
Form an inclusion council with genuine influence and power.
Value differences and create an environment in which people can feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work.
Identify the needs of underrepresented groups, and give them the necessary support and resources.
Provide workers with a safe space to voice their concerns.
Benchmark key aspects of your organization’s culture and understand the employee experience before making changes to promote inclusivity.
Remember that daily interactions are the most telling sign of whether your company has an inclusive culture.
Unconscious Bias & Candidate Selection
One of the key reasons companies lose out on diverse talent is unconscious bias, which can have detrimental effects on the diversity hiring process. The concept of unconscious bias or implicit bias was first introduced in 2006 as “the new science of unconscious mental processes that has a substantial bearing on discrimination law.”This challenged the longstanding idea that people are guided only by explicit beliefs and conscious intentions.
One example of unconscious bias is that a candidate’s last name—which implies their ethnic background—can adversely affect their chances of landing a job. Unfortunately, studies by Ghent University show that the last name appearing on a candidate’s résumé can reduce the possibility of receiving a call back by 25% in Germany; 29% in Sweden and the UK; and 50% in the U.S. Accordingly, to address unconscious biases, some companies mask candidate demographics while presenting them to the hiring team in order to shift the focus from ethnicity to experience and skills.
In another strategy highlighted by DiversityJobs, a large utility company in the U.S. moved away from the practice of long interviews with a few leaders and started exposing candidates to more interviewers in multiple, short interviews. This reduced the chance of a single, biased assessor significantly influencing a hiring decision. Additionally, the organization was also able to showcase a more diverse selection team to all new hires.
Diversity at Work: Converting Candidates From Underrepresented Groups Into Employees
However, winning over diverse candidates goes beyond just locating them and ensuring that they’re treated fairly during the hiring process. Rather, to win diverse talent, organizations should demonstrate the authenticity of their commitment to DE&I by leveraging their employer brand through career sites and social media channels, as well as by showing how diverse and inclusive they are through their employees and leadership.
Furthermore, talent acquisition can also play a role in reinforcing these messages by:
Adding a link to diversity and inclusion policies and practices in job advertisements and recruiters’ email signatures.
Minimizing adverse effects of recruitment discrimination by complementing recruiters with talent acquisition technologies like PeopleScout’s AffinixTM.
Ensuring job-related information is accessible to all groups. (For example, ensure your career site is accessible to those with visual impairments through design, alt text and screen readers; and ensure presentations and videos include subtitles or sign language.)
Scheduling interviews in locations that are accessible and convenient for all candidates, such as parking for people with disabilities; Braille script on elevators and signage; and female, male and gender-neutral restrooms.
Sharing relevant stories about a diverse set of employees in the organization and involving diverse employees and senior leaders in the interviewing process.
Respecting candidates’ gender identity. Because gender identity is internal, a person’s gender identity is not necessarily visible to others, so asking candidates what pronoun(s) they prefer to use in interviews and other communications can make a difference.
DE&I Initiatives: Talent Technology
The right talent acquisition technology can be a powerful tool for reaching your DE&I initiatives and goals. And, as you begin to recognize and fix disparities in hiring processes and work environments, data can be an important tool in determining the effectiveness of those efforts. No DE&I initiative can be successful unless it can be measured.
To that end, diversity dashboards—like those available in PeopleScout’s Affinix Analytics—can break down your hires by gender and ethnicity. Then, with that information, you can identify where the most diverse hires have been found. From there, you can focus on which recruitment strategies are most effective in bringing in candidates form underrepresented groups. And, once those initiatives are in place, you can track your success over time.
The goal of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace should be a central pillar in any organization’s journey. Embracing a multitude of viewpoints and cultures drives innovation; improves decision-making; increases employee productivity and retention; and leads to better-served employees—and, by extension, customers. While responsibility for diversity, equity and inclusion is shared across an organization, talent acquisition leaders have a significant influence.
U.S. employers added 199,000 jobs in December, missing analyst expectations and providing mixed signals about the state of the economy. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%. Year-over-year wage growth remained high at 4.7%.
The Numbers
199,000: The U.S. economy added 199,000 jobs in December.
3.9%: The unemployment rate fell to 3.9%.
4.7%: Wages rose 4.7% over the past year.
The Good
While the headline of 199,000 jobs added in December is disappointing, other numbers in December’s jobs report point to good news. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9% faster than the Federal Reserve had predicted. Additionally, the New York Times reports that the labor participation rate rose to 61.9% in November and December, the highest rate since the pandemic started.
Additionally, the U.S. economy added 6.4 million jobs in 2021, the highest yearly increase on record.
The Bad
As MarketWatch reports, December’s increase in employment was less than half of what analysts had projected. Experts say the lower numbers were caused, in part, by the tight job market. To compete for workers, employers have raised wages significantly over the past year, with year-over-year wage growth hitting 4.7% overall, though some sectors, like leisure and hospitality, have seen even larger increases. Because December’s numbers are based off the first two weeks of the month, before the latest COVID-19 surge began, the Omicron variant likely only had a small role in the month’s numbers.
The Unknown
Looking ahead to 2022, the Wall Street Journal reports that workers continue to quit their jobs at record rates, and experts predict a potential disruption caused by the surging Omicron cases followed by a strong year of job creation. Economists say that while businesses have gotten better at responding to waves of COVID-19 cases, Omicron has caused millions of sick workers to quarantine. The resulting labor shortage has already led to canceled flights and temporarily closed restaurants. However, as demonstrated by a rapid drop-off in cases in South Africa, Omicron is expected to cause only a short-term disruption.
After administering more than 30 million vaccines across the U.S., a healthcare company announced a company-wide vaccination policy requiring employees in clinical and corporate positions to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October 2021. The move was driven by health and safety concerns for employees, patients and customers, but the client knew it wouldn’t come to fruition without impact to their workforce.
Flexing our Process for the New Policy
Because the new policy stipulated that all new hires in impacted roles be vaccinated, the PeopleScout client engaged with us prior to the announcement to discuss their plans and get ahead of any impact to recruitment efforts. As their long-term RPO partner, we were uniquely positioned to help the healthcare company create a multi-faceted plan to communicate the vaccine mandate to candidates and adjust recruitment activities to ensure new hires are in compliance with the mandate.
Leveraging copy and communications from the company’s HR and legal teams, we updated all relevant job descriptions with a section on the vaccine mandate and deadlines. To provide an additional screening step, we added vaccine status questions to application forms for the relevant positions. If candidates indicated that they were not vaccinated or not willing to be vaccinated, they were automatically disqualified in most states.
Taking a Hands-on Approach to Reduce Candidate Drop Off
To mitigate the impact on the dropout rate at the top of the funnel, we followed up with every candidate who said “no” to ensure they had understood the questions and hadn’t answered in error. As a result of this extra effort, several candidates were requalified and put back into the running for employment with the healthcare company. Disposition codes were also used to indicate when candidates left the funnel due reasons related to the vaccine requirements. This helped the company gather data on how the policy was impacting recruitment outcomes.
Supporting the Accommodation Process
COVID-19 vaccine mandate information was added to the candidate communication sequence in the organization’s CRM, directing them to a website complete with FAQs. Throughout the screening and interview process, the PeopleScout team also fielded questions from candidates. Common queries were about how to apply for a reasonable accommodation for those who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical or religious reasons. While the internal legal team handled the review of all accommodation applications, the PeopleScout team did field questions about the accommodation process, freeing up the organization’s internal teams to focus on more strategic initiatives while boosting the candidate experience.
For successful candidates, we ensured all offer letters contained language about the vaccination requirement and followed up with candidates to address any final questions.
Now more than ever, an organization’s hiring strategy should be adaptable. Throughout the last two years, many employers have had to reimagine their recruitment processes. Due to the pandemic, organizations rapidly moved recruiting processes to virtual models, shifting in-person interviews to digital and transitioning traditional office roles to remote.
Today, as businesses bounce back and job openings are at record highs, employers need to hire top talent—and fast. And, just as a hybrid approach to in-person and remote work for employees has become the norm, so, too, will the need for a blended recruiting strategy that will optimize the candidate experience advantages of in-person, while also continuing to leverage the benefits of virtual.
So, in this article, we’ll walk through what a hybrid hiring strategy is, discuss the benefits of in-person versus virtual techniques and provide tips for how to create a hybrid hiring strategy that works for your organization.
What is a Hybrid Hiring Strategy?
Hybrid hiring—or hybrid recruiting—is a strategy that allows organizations to maximize the benefits of both in-person and virtual hiring techniques. Specifically, a hybrid approach allows employers to leverage the advantages of virtual recruiting where it makes sense, while simultaneously using strategic, in-person methods to add value to the candidate experience along the way.
Granted, hybrid hiring isn’t new; many organizations employed a mix of virtual and in-person techniques prior to 2020. However, COVID-19 rapidly accelerated the need for safe, efficient hiring models, thereby leading to greater adoption of virtual strategies. Now, because employers have seen the advantages of virtual recruiting, the benefits of a hybrid model have become clear. Depending on the type of role you’re hiring for, having a strong hybrid hiring model in place makes it easy to recruit staff 100% virtually if and when it’s needed, or with a blended approach.
Leveraging a hybrid hiring strategy means you get the best of both worlds. But, what does that entail? Here are some of the biggest benefits of both virtual and in-person hiring techniques—and how they’ll play out post-pandemic.
Benefits of Virtual Hiring Techniques
Reduced Cost & Greater Efficiency
When you remove the physical component of recruiting, you see a greatly improved speed-to-hire and an overall reduction in costs. For example, PeopleScout helped this retail client reduce time-to-hire by more than 20% by implementing a mobile-first, shortened application process. Plus, expenses that would normally be spent on hosting recruiting events—such as travel costs, venue fees and printed materials—suddenly drop to zero. Additionally, your employees save time by hosting events remotely and also reap the benefit of having more candidates in attendance.
Expanded Reach & Reduced Bias
With travel out of the equation and with remote job options in place, employers can then expand the geographies from which they source talent. This offers greater opportunities for candidates and also opens up the candidate pool to top talent who may not have been on your radar previously.
Virtual hiring also reduces the amount of hiring bias experienced during in-person interviews. As humans, we judge people on many things (unconsciously or not), including how a candidate may look. But, with virtual interviews, recruiters are able to focus less on a candidate’s appearance and more on what they have to say.
According to the American Psychological Association, when it comes to height, every inch counts—in fact, in the workplace, each inch above average may be worth $789 more per year. This is the kind of bias that can be eliminated with virtual interviewing techniques.
Overall Convenience
Virtual interviews and other virtual recruiting tactics are convenient for both candidates and recruiters alike. For example, candidates can schedule on-demand interviews at a time that is most convenient for them, and recruiters can watch those recordings at their own convenience. What’s more, through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, candidates can also self-schedule follow-up interviews, ask questions and receive real-time responses that would have previously taken much longer without the technology that has come from the rise of virtual.
Benefits of In-Person Hiring Techniques
Showcase Your Company Culture
One challenge of virtual recruiting is the ability to effectively showcase your company’s culture. While there are certainly ways to do so, nothing quite compares to experiencing how individuals in an organization interact with one another in-person. Especially for roles that are required to work in an in-person or office setting, providing a time to come in for an in-person interview or assessment can be a great way to show your candidate what it would really be like to work for your company on a day-to-day basis.
Human Touch
While AI and automated tools help with efficiency, improve candidate experience, and speed up the overall time-to-hire, today’s talent pool can also find benefits from a blended model. In fact, candidates today are feeling more confident, in general, and more comfortable negotiating their salary when meeting face-to-face. A phone call and video interview can get the candidate in the door, but an in-person conversation can seal the deal—especially when it comes to hiring senior talent who would really appreciate being brought in for the final stages of the interview process.
Source: Workest by Zenefits
Added Value
Furthermore, utilizing in-person techniques can also add value to the candidate experience overall. From office tours to final interviews, it’s difficult to recreate human touch and company culture completely virtually. To that end, where it makes sense, in-person meetings can help sell a candidate on why they should work for your organization, as opposed to the competition.
How to Recruit People Now: Balancing Your Post-Pandemic Hybrid Hiring Strategy
Your hybrid hiring strategy will likely depend on your organization’s needs and what your workforce will look like on the other side of the pandemic.
For example, if some or all of your teams will work entirely remotely, it would make the most logical sense to complete the entire recruiting process virtually. Inevitably, bringing the candidate in for an in-person interview or office tour would waste time and money, and would likely confuse the candidate and, therefore, lead to a poor candidate experience. Instead, recruiting for these roles completely virtually and providing opportunities for human interaction and culture along the way can help candidates feel like they know what it will be like to work remotely for your company.
“How do we show candidates our company culture when we can’t invite them to the office? We send personalized, handwritten cards to candidates before their start date (as well as some swag!). We want to give them a feeling of being really welcomed into the company—which is what we’re really about.”
Ewa Zajac, Recruiting Operations Manager at Zendesk
On the other hand, if some of your teams will be working both from home and from the office, a hybrid approach would be the best fit. Virtual options save a lot of time and money in the beginning stages of sourcing, screening and interviewing, and candidates will want the flexibility to complete those initial interviews and assessments from the comfort and convenience of their own homes.
Then, when it comes to final interviews with candidates you’re very excited about, bringing them in for an in-person interview can be the final step before extending an offer. The candidate will appreciate the time you’re investing to bring them in, and they’ll get a taste of what it will be like when they work in-person. This will be especially important for roles that will be primarily in the office or in which relocation is necessary.
In the end, hybrid hiring won’t be a one-size-fits-all strategy. Whether your organization opts to keep recruiting fully virtual or works in opportunities for in-person techniques, the candidate experience will need to remain at the forefront of any model. Think about what candidates will want and how the recruiting process will make the most sense for the role you’re trying to fill.
