Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

Building an Effective Veteran Hiring Program

Posted on by epadmin

Building an Effective Veteran Hiring Program

If you want to hire veterans, you can’t just wait and hope it happens. Veterans won’t apply through your one-size-fits all careers page. Their skills and experience don’t fit into a standard application. And if veterans do apply, do you have a team that can understand the military language? Can you translate their achievements and place that veteran in the best position for their skill set?

In this ebook, Best Practices for Hiring Veterans, you’ll learn:

  • The most important and effective steps to take when creating a veteran hiring program
  • The veteran hiring landscape
  • The unique challenges veterans face as they transition into the civilian workforce

Preparing & Planning for a Hiring Recovery

Posted on by nfuqua

I don’t need to tell you how different the world, economy and talent landscape look today compared to just nine months ago; we’ve all experienced it within our organizations, on our teams and in our own homes. However, despite the uncertainty of 2020, we can be sure that the job market will recover and hiring will begin in earnest once again. And, although we don’t know exactly when this will happen, now is the time to prepare.

As I write this article, we are moving into fall in the U.S. Cities and states are reopening at different rates, and some regions are shutting down or adding new restrictions as clusters of COVID-19 cases pop up. Meanwhile, employers are dealing with new challenges as students head back to school – leaving parents functioning as both employee and teacher – and several large companies are anticipating new rounds of furloughs and layoffs. 

On top of all that, how do you plan for your organization to start hiring again? In this article, I’ll outline: the biggest challenges employers will face; how a recruitment process outsourcing provider is uniquely positioned to help with a hiring recovery surge; and what employers should be doing right now.

Talking Talent Podcast

How to Capitalize on an Uncertain Talent Market

Listen Now

A Challenge of Scale

First, employers preparing for recovery face the issue of scaling their internal talent acquisition teams. Unfortunately, throughout the crisis, many have had to make reductions to their teams, limit or cancel contracts, and set aside projects. However, scaling back up in anticipation of a hiring recovery surge isn’t a simple process because the individuals who were laid off or furloughed may have found other positions inside or outside of your organization, or there may be another reason that they’re unavailable for work.

This creates three questions about how to manage your internal team when you need to ramp up hiring again:

  1. How quickly do you want to rebuild your own talent acquisition team?
  2. How much risk do you want to take with the internal operational cost involved in pulling those workers back? 
  3. How realistic is it for a team to take on all of the challenges included in your hiring recovery, including reigniting talent pipelines and implementing new technology?

Meanwhile, the shift in the economy makes answering these questions more complicated. Plus, at many organizations, we’re already starting to see that recovery hiring volumes will be higher than those that the previous team was managing. For instance, organizations like retail stores and quick-service restaurant chains have been operating with low staff. But, eventually, they’ll need to undergo a large hiring recovery surge to get back to normal staffing levels before leveling out to their pre-pandemic hiring volumes. What’s more, even if you decide to bring back your full internal talent acquisition team, you’ll need to decide if they’ll be able to handle this additional, temporary volume.

The other factor to consider when evaluating if your internal team is prepared to scale is the current high unemployment rate, which will translate into high applicant volumes. Nine months ago was one of the most difficult job markets to hire in; it was challenging to find someone for virtually every job, and recruiters were dealing with low volumes of applicants. Fast forward to today and now we’re seeing scores – if not hundreds – of applicants for every job posting. As such, talent acquisition teams will have to deal with not only more job postings, but also more applicants – which could potentially create a poor candidate experience if recruiters are overwhelmed and don’t follow up with candidates.

So, to be prepared to take on higher hiring volumes, employers need to decide whether they will build their internal team or work with a partner. And, for leaders looking to reduce risk as recovery continues and the future is uncertain, working with an RPO provider is the best solution.

The Value of RPO

As an RPO provider, PeopleScout can immediately fill in the gaps and help teams scale. Specifically, we bring the expertise, the insights from across our client base and the people needed to supplement spikes in hiring.

Furthermore, depending on the needs of each organization, we can also: create a more automated hiring process; bring technology solutions; assist with sourcing strategies; or work on diversity and inclusion projects. Plus, we can provide value either through ongoing, operational support or on a strategic, project-by-project basis. Essentially, an RPO provider can provide businesses with the flexibility and scalability they need for the next several months – and potentially longer as the virus continues to affect the economy.

Hiring Recovery Value of RPO

At PeopleScout, we have clients across different industries, segments of the market, geographies and sizes. As you can imagine, each client has its own unique situation, solutions, best practices and lessons learned. As a result, we can bring that broad expertise to each of our clients and use that experience to craft the best solution for each employer’s needs.

In particular, when I think about the current challenges of scale from an RPO perspective, there are two significant ways in which we can help: 1) We can supplement internal talent acquisition teams by bringing in additional recruiters, and 2) we can add technology – automation technology and digital tools – to handle the increase in volume of hires and applications.

The best part is that when it comes to scaling with an RPO partner, the process is seamless on the employer’s end. That’s because we: develop a relationship as early as possible and train our teams on your processes; introduce them to your hiring managers; and prepare the right technology suite for your needs. That way, our teams are trained and ready to go, but we don’t start our work until you are ready to hire. Then, when hiring begins, you don’t have to worry about finding recruiters and getting them up to speed. Instead, when it’s time to flip the switch and start hiring, our teams are able to begin working very quickly.

At PeopleScout, we have two ways to accomplish our speed to scale: 1) our industry-specialized flex team of recruiters can be activated on short notice, and 2) our global delivery centers provide 24/7 support and recruiting capabilities that enable a faster recruitment process. Consequently, we can scale up these experienced recruiters very quickly. Then, as your needs change, we can scale the team back down.

Our teams also rely on our technology solutions to ramp up quickly. With AffinixTM Virtual Interview Management, our teams can automate on-demand virtual interviews and allow candidates to self-schedule their own live interviews, thereby saving valuable time.

Here’s an example of how quickly the process works: When one of our clients needed to ramp up immediately to provide aid after a major hurricane hit the southern U.S., PeopleScout quickly sourced and hired 100 workers in just three days. 

From a client perspective, it’s invisible. There’s no risk in having to make investments, and there are no large teams to manage. You simply share with us what the demand is, and we build in processes to make sure that we’re available to hit those ramps and, just as quickly, turn it off.

The Conversations You Should Have Now

Even if your organization is not ready to make hires now, you should begin having conversations about when and how you will hire when the time comes. That way, you won’t have a week-long lead time.

If you haven’t been hiring since the pandemic began, you may also need to revamp parts of your recruitment process for the health and safety of your employees and candidates. This means looking at a virtual solution that, depending on your needs, may include adding virtual interviews, interview scheduling, a remote offer and onboarding process or more. Now is the best time to work with your RPO provider to have the solution up and running when you start hiring.

When things do ramp back up, I think a big piece of a strong recovery for your organization will be timing. We know the economy is going to get better; we don’t know exactly when, but we know it will happen. It’s time to start these conversations and start planning.

COVID-19 Series: How the Pandemic Impacts Talent Program Implementation

Posted on by nfuqua

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues and talent leaders around the world respond to the constant uncertainty, many are partnering with RPO and technology providers. Meanwhile, hiring and technology needs are changing quickly and frequently, which necessitates a nimble partner who can scale quickly. However, the days of implementing new programs in the traditional ways are over. Specifically, there are no days-long, in-person kickoffs or hands-on, face-to-face trainings. Now, it’s all virtual.

At PeopleScout, Emily Gordon has risen to the challenge of building partnerships and implementing new talent programs without even a handshake. She has more than 21 years of experience in talent acquisition and has overseen sourcing, continual process improvement and client implementations. In particular, her expertise is in transitions, process improvement, team building, client relationship development and operational delivery.

We spoke with Emily from her home in Michigan about what implementation looks like right now.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic transformed the RPO implementation process?

The first and most obvious change is that it has moved everything to a 100% virtual process. That was a big shift for us. We depended on in-person meetings and non-verbal cues. Implementation has been a human-to-human process. We’ve been really pushed to leverage technology and use new tools. We’ve also added an emotional intelligence expert, who is helping our internal teams and our customers adapt. We’re interacting with stakeholders in different ways.

We’re using a lot of video and doing lots of checking in, but we’re also taking more breaks. In a traditional implementation, we’d have a big kickoff that would take place over multiple days. We’d meet in person and get the butterflies and nervousness and excitement out. That’s difficult to manage now; because of video fatigue, people have a hard time spending a full workday on camera in a video meeting. So, we break our kickoff into more manageable chunks.

That means that while implementations during the pandemic have moved faster than they did before, it feels like we’re moving slower over the first few days as we get started. Relationships take longer to grow over video calls than they do in person. At the same time, we save a lot of time because we don’t need to build in travel or work as hard to coordinate schedules. This speed is important right now because a lot of customers want to implement new solutions faster because they had to scale down so quickly due to COVID. Now, they’re needing to ramp back up just as quickly.

What does the process look like now?

We’ve boiled the process down to four steps, and we use the acronym NEXT. It stands for Needs analysis, Engage and evaluate, eXecute and Transform.

In our needs analysis, we meet internally with our business development team and solutions architects, and we meet externally with clients to really understand their needs. We define what success looks like in this partnership and ensure that all their needs are met.

Then, we move into engage and evaluate, where we bring in even more stakeholders, including our PeopleScout client delivery teams. We go through every step of the client’s current process and look for ways to optimise and bring in our expertise. We make sure there aren’t any missed opportunities to accelerate success.

Then, we’re in the execute phase, where we add in our technology teams. We start to test and bring our new processes into practice. We bring the full delivery team into place, complete trainings and get ready for go-live.

Finally, we move into transformation. When you think about an implementation, it is really just the beginning, right? Our philosophy at PeopleScout is that implementation is a process and not an event. When we get to that last phase, we’re really at the beginning of our relationship with a new way of working established for both organisations.

What are the best virtual partnership building strategies you’ve developed – especially when it comes to communication?

Video is so important. At first, I think people were shy about being on video all day, every day. We broke up meetings to make it work for everybody. We also use collaboration technology to update our notes and project management tracking in real time so clients can watch everything happen. Building transparent communication virtually is difficult, so this has been an important step.

We’ve also learned not to be afraid to say, “I think we need to try that again.” Sometimes, we need to have another call to dig into an issue a little bit more, or maybe the right stakeholders couldn’t make part of a call. Sometimes, we ask the same questions two or three times throughout the process to make sure everyone is still on the same page.

A lot of talent acquisition teams are running lean right now. What advice do you have for organizations that are implementing RPO with a small internal team?

That’s the best part about RPO, right? Whatever you’re trying to implement – whether you’re trying to expand scope or add technology – that’s what we’re made for. Just be honest about the team you have and the needs you have. If you don’t have access to subject matter experts, let us know and be flexible. Maybe you previously had a reporting analyst, but now you can only provide access so that our team can find the necessary data ourselves. That’s okay. That’s our job. Our job is to bring the solution to you and to support you. It can feel overwhelming to start a new relationship. It’s a lot of work. To get through it, we need to acknowledge that and talk about the support you need so we can help you get there.

A lot of organizations find themselves needing to quickly implement a new technology solution, especially around virtual interviewing. What advice do you have for the process?

I recommend starting by selecting a technology solution that can be flexible and ramp up and down quickly. A best-in-class technology solution includes integrations, but that adds time and complexity when a lot of talent acquisition leaders are looking for speed. We encourage people to be flexible. We’ll pilot a new solution in a certain way and then decide what integrations we need to do and where we can best spend our time and effort. You have to design the process around your immediate needs and then build it from there.

At PeopleScout, we use Affinix™, and that’s always my recommendation. When a client needs it, we can just turn on our virtual interviewing solution. I just did this with one of my clients, a healthcare organisation, where we had to get video interviewing up and running really quickly at the start of the pandemic. If you need that, we can do it.

Are there any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with?

Remember that change is always difficult. Having a good partner makes it better, but there will always be bumps in the road. Communicate. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Be vulnerable. Admit what’s working and what’s not. As an RPO provider, we are here as a consultant. Our job is to come forward with solutions to problems you might not even be able to articulate yet. So, be open. Implementation is hard, but it doesn’t need to be painful.

PeopleScout Jobs Report Analysis – October 2020

Posted on by nfuqua

U.S. employers added 638,000 jobs in October. This was a slowdown from the previous month, but higher than economists expected. Despite the growth, the jobs numbers still remain far below pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate fell to 6.9%. Year-over-year wage growth was at 4.5%.

U.S. jobs report infographic October 2020

The Numbers

638,000: Employers added 638,000 jobs to the economy in October

6.9%: The unemployment rate fell to 6.9%

4.5%: Wages rose 4.5% over the past year

The Good

The U.S. economy continued to add jobs for the sixth straight month. The 638,000 jobs added surpassed economists’ expectations, especially because the number was offset by the loss of 268,000 government jobs. Most of those losses were temporary census jobs. The gain for private sector employers was 906,000. The biggest gains came in leisure and hospitality, retail and construction, as the Wall Street Journal reports. The drop in the unemployment rate to 6.9% is also good news.

The Bad

In a normal year, the 638,000 jobs would have been considered a great month of growth; however, 2020 is not a typical year. The Washington Post reports that October’s job growth is another slowdown. About 11 million people remain unemployed. The unemployment rate is also unevenly distributed. Black American workers still face an unemployment rate of 10.8%, while the unemployment rate for white workers is only 6%.

The Unknown

The October jobs report has come down at a particularly uncertain time in an already uncertain year. Coronavirus cases are surging across the country and there is still no clarity on further federal aid.

As the New York Times reports, some of the hardest hit industries could face another setback as winter arrives. Outdoor dining has helped bring back restaurant jobs, but as the weather cools and some states add more restrictions on indoor dining, the leisure and hospitality industry faces another difficult period.

McKesson: High-Volume Veteran-Focused Hiring Solution

Posted on by jpatel
McKesson: High-Volume Veteran-Focused Hiring Solution

Life Sciences RPO

McKesson: High-Volume Veteran-Focused Hiring Solution

As one of the world’s largest life sciences and healthcare companies, McKesson required a high-volume hiring solution to fill positions across multiple departments. PeopleScout delivered an RPO solution with a special emphasis on boosting diversity and the client’s veteran hiring initiatives.

10 + Year Partnership
95 % of All Requisitions Have Diverse Candidates
8 % Over 8% Veteran Hiring Achieved, Up from 3.3%

McKesson has engaged with PeopleScout for 10 years. Over the course of our partnership, PeopleScout has managed hiring for a variety of positions including professional, managerial, sales, finance and administrative roles. PeopleScout’s engagement includes a specific focus on hiring veterans in all positions to support McKesson’s goal to become known as a top employer for veterans and military spouses.

Solution

VETERAN TALENT COMMUNITY

PeopleScout created a Veteran Talent Community which provides McKesson with access to thousands of active and passive veteran job candidates and opens the door to additional job opportunities for veterans.

IMPROVED WEB DESIGN

PeopleScout helped to administer a customized McKesson veteran careers webpage to attract and process veteran candidates.

RECRUITMENT MARKETING

Veteran-targeted marketing and sourcing strategies were developed including improving relationships with more than 800 military organizations, posting jobs on veteran job boards and social media marketing.

ONGOING TRAINING

PeopleScout provides ongoing training and education for members of the recruiting team to ensure military resumes are matched with civilian job requirements.

SCREENING PROCESSES

A veteran priority screening process was created to identify and prioritize veteran candidates.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION

PeopleScout hired a Navy veteran to lead the D&I initiative on the recruiting team.

Results

HIRING SUPPORT

In 2019, PeopleScout managed more than 3,000 hires across North America.

DIVERSITY IMPROVEMENT

PeopleScout provides a diverse slate of candidates on 95% of all requisitions.

INCREASED VETERAN HIRING

Veteran hiring improved from 3.3% to 8.6%.

STRONGER EMPLOYER BRAND

Targeted veteran recruitment and marketing strengthens McKesson’s veteran employment brand, resulting in McKesson being recognized as a leader in veteran hiring by national media outlets.

McKesson’s Veteran Talent Community, veteran landing page and recruitment marketing strategy are supported by PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology, Affinix.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    McKesson Corporation
  • INDUSTRY
    Life Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory, Affinix
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    3,000
  • ABOUT MCKESSON
    McKesson Corporation is a diversified life sciences and healthcare services leader dedicated to advancing health outcomes for patients everywhere. The organizaiton partners with biopharma companies, care providers, pharmacies, manufacturers, governments and others to deliver insights, products and services to help make quality care more accessible and affordable.
Let’s Connect

COVID-19 Series: How to Capitalize on an Uncertain Talent Market

Posted on by nfuqua

It’s been an uncertain year; we’re all facing a lot of uncertainty. If there’s one word everyone would like to retire at the end of 2020, it’s “uncertain.”

Unfortunately, uncertainty burnout creates neither more clarity nor more confidence. Therefore, talent leaders need to think long-term and take action to be ready for whatever lies ahead.

However, despite the challenges of 2020, there is a silver lining for employers. This year has created one of the best hiring markets that employers have seen in a long time. At the end of 2019, employers were facing skills shortages and record low unemployment; it was difficult to find candidates for almost any role. Now, there are a vast number of top-tier candidates who are looking for new jobs.

But, those in-demand candidates won’t stay on the market forever and the employers that start hiring now will have a competitive advantage: They’ll be able to capture those high-caliber workers first.

So, how do you get ahead? We asked PeopleScout Vice President of Global Growth Operations and Solution Design, Krista Sullivan de Torres, to talk about how employers can capitalize on the current talent market.

Why should employers take the risk of bringing on new employees during such an uncertain time?

For the past several years, we have been in a candidates’ market. But, unfortunately, due to the pandemic and its economic repercussions, a lot of organizations have had to let go of strong, high-performing employees. This is the first time in recent history where there has been so much outstanding talent on the market – making now a great time to hire.

This moment is a perfect opportunity for employers to look strategically at their own organizations to identify key roles that contribute to their long-term success and then fill those roles with top performers.

Employers that act quickly will have a competitive advantage because they’ll have the best people to guide their own recoveries. It can take a long time to onboard a new employee and get them up and running, especially in a strategic role. So, the sooner you start hiring, the sooner these new employees can add value to your organization.

Are there any common misconceptions you’re seeing about the current talent market?

I think there are two things. The first is about the quality of candidates on the market. Some leaders make the incorrect assumption that employees who are let go during layoffs are not top-performers. While that may have been the case for some organizations in the past, with this pandemic, we’ve seen organizations have to make the really tough decision to lay off or furlough some of their best performers.

The other misconception is that some talent leaders believe that, because there are so many candidates on the market, they don’t need to focus on candidate experience. Great candidates are always going to have options – no matter what the market looks like. It’s true that there is an abundance of candidates on the market now, but if you want to hire the best people, you still need to provide an exceptional candidate experience.

What should employers keep in mind about the candidates who are on the market right now?

It’s important to be mindful of the fact that candidates are also facing a lot of uncertainty. They want to know if they’re joining an organization where they will have the stability to stay and grow over a long period of time.

There is also a lot of fear of change, and passive candidates are less willing to take on new roles. As a talent leader, you should focus on having open, honest discussions with job candidates where you can address their concerns specifically.

What can employers do to ensure their hiring process is safe for everyone involved?

Job candidates are worried about the health and safety of their families. They don’t want to take a role or go through an interview process that would put anyone at risk. At PeopleScout, we’re seeing a lot of clients move toward a fully virtual model to address these concerns. In fact, between March and September of 2020, we saw a 900% increase in the use of virtual interviews by our clients.

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen people adapt quickly and grow more comfortable with video interviewing and other virtual processes. Depending on the role, we’re seeing companies add everything from on-demand audio screenings to live video interviews. I think this will stay with us for a long time.

Not every employer is going to be in the position to start hiring now. Where should they focus their efforts?

If your team isn’t in a position to make hires, focus on internal mobility and making sure your current teams stay engaged. This is especially important if your organization has gone through layoffs or furloughs that have left some employees with an increased workload. To support those workers, make sure that you have a clear communication plan around where the organization is now and what you anticipate for the future. Then, talk to employees about the existing opportunities in your organization that align with their own career goals. Find ways you can make adjustments or provide training now and, when new roles do open up, make sure you consider those internal candidates.

I also want to encourage employers not to lose track of their external candidates. This is a key time to focus on improving your candidate experience and building your talent pipelines. Be honest and clear about where you stand now and what your timeline is, but give them the opportunity to learn about your organization or even engage and build relationships with hiring managers. That way, when the time is right, it will be a quick process to reach out, move the candidate through the process and make an offer.

Are there any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with?

There are so many ways that organizations are dealing with this extraordinary time, and we can all learn from each other. This is a great time to reach out and network with other talent acquisition professionals or potentially engage with a partner to learn and share best practices. Because this is all still so new, it’s a great time to be talking to your peers, networking and seeking out best practices.

A Dynamic IT Recruiting Solution to Support Growth and Improve Candidate Experience

Posted on by skatz
A Dynamic IT Recruiting Solution to Support Growth and Improve Candidate Experience

RPO Recruiting for IT Professionals

A Dynamic IT Recruiting Solution to Support Growth and Improve Candidate Experience

PeopleScout partnered with this healthcare revenue and payment cycle management company to provide RPO recruiting solutions for niche IT roles.

3,000 + Annual Hire in IT Roles
40 % Reduction in Time-to-Hire
Tech-Enhanced Candidate Experience Powered by Affinix<sup>®</sup>
Tech-Enhanced Candidate Experience Powered by Affinix®

A healthcare revenue and payment cycle management company needed an RPO partner to support the rapid growth that occurred when it acquired a healthcare IT business. Healthcare IT is a niche field with a limited number of candidates and many hard-to-fill positions. To meet its new workforce demands, the client engaged PeopleScout to implement a full-cycle RPO program for both exempt and non-exempt hiring. In addition, they partnered with PeopleScout to provide additional support to their internal talent acquisition teams in areas where hiring volume increased through our Recruiter On-Demand (ROD) solution. 

Situation

The client requires a scalable RPO solution that is flexible enough to navigate hiring spikes throughout the year and to access talent in the niche healthcare IT field. PeopleScout’s RPO program spans high-level technology roles as well as HR, finance, marketing, sales, legal, customer service and sourcing for executive-level candidates. Due to COVID-19, the client also required a new digital interviewing platform to create a consistent experience for candidates as they move through the hiring process.

Solution

Solution Highlights

  • Full-Cycle, Exempt and Non-Exempt Hiring  
  • 3,000+ Annual Hires 
  • Recruitment of Hard-to-Fill Roles 
  • Dedicated Veteran Hiring Resources  
  • Tech-Enhanced Candidate Experience Powered by Affinix® 

SOURCING FOR LEADERSHIP ROLES

The client leverages PeopleScout’s experience and expertise to source executive-level candidates to fill key leadership roles. 

SOURCING FOR NICHE ROLES

PeopleScout’s expert recruiters work with the client to identify qualified candidates in the competitive healthcare technology talent landscape. 

EMPLOYER BRANDING

PeopleScout’s RPO teams consult with the client to craft precise employer branding messaging and a social media strategy to attract talent for hard-to-fill open positions. 

ATS IMPLEMENTATION

PeopleScout assisted the client in the implementation of a single ATS platform to decrease redundancy and recruiting errors and create a pipeline of better-quality candidates. 

IMPROVED CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE 

PeopleScout implemented Affinix digital interviewing technology to ensure a consistent experience for candidates as they move through the hiring process.  

EMBEDDED RECRUITMENT SUPPORT

PeopleScout recruiters are embedded within the client’s organization and work with their internal teams to navigate sourcing, screening and hiring challenges to improve talent acquisition outcomes for all positions in scope. 

DIVERSITY & VETERAN HIRING

To support the client’s commitment to diversity and veteran recruiting, PeopleScout has a specialized focus and dedicated resources in this area. 

IMPROVED METRICS

PeopleScout’s RPO team provides the client’s leadership with full transparency by monitoring and reporting on metrics important to them including time-to-fill, candidate quality and the speed of the recruiting program.

Results

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

PeopleScout has improved the client’s recruitment performance by merging people, process and technology to enhance the experience with the recruitment process for candidates, recruiters and hiring managers. Average days to offer accept dropped from 62 days to 37 days for exempt positions, and from 40 days to 22 days for non-exempt, below the client’s target goal of 50 and 40, respectively.

INSIGHTS & EXPERTISE

The client values the input and insights provided by PeopleScout’s experienced RPO team and their ability to quickly source and hire candidates for hard-to-fill positions.

ACQUISITION SUPPORT  

The client has successfully navigated the challenges presented by its acquisition of the previous client’s healthcare IT business with the support of PeopleScout talent acquisition professionals. 

EXPANDED TALENT POOL

PeopleScout’s RPO solution has expanded the client’s talent pool and now sources veteran and diverse candidates more efficiently. 

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Healthcare revenue and payment cycle management company
  • INDUSTRY
    Healthcare Technology
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Affinix
  • ANNUAL HIRES
    3,000+ IT roles
Let’s Connect

Talent Pipeline and Candidate Engagement

Posted on by edyson

As we return to work, resiliency, business continuity and recovery are fast emerging as critical priorities for business leaders. Creating a talent pipeline strategy for vital roles is one way organizations can build greater resilience, have clear succession plans and ensure talent continuity. However, with hiring freezes and uncertainty around when hiring will resume has left many talent teams in limbo.

That said, there has never been a more important time to focus on building your talent pipeline strategy to ensure you have the best possible talent on your team and are well-positioned as things return to normal. You may not have positions to fill now, but by building a robust talent pipeline now, you will place yourself in a better position when we return to business as usual.

In this article, we cover how to build a better talent pipeline and engagement strategies and best practices for building stronger relationships with your candidate pool.

What is a Talent Pipeline?

A talent pipeline is a proactive talent acquisition strategy that seeks to identify, engage and recruit talent to build a robust pool of candidates to fill roles as needed. Similar to a sales funnel where leads progress through multiple stages of engagement and are eventually converted into clients, a talent pipeline moves potential job candidates through engagement stages that hopefully lead to making a hire. Like most modern recruitment practices, talent pipelining has been derived from proven sales and marketing strategies.

Talent pipeline

With a talent pipeline, organizations can pick and choose from a highly qualified group of candidates who are already familiar with the organization. The key to a successful talent pipeline strategy lies in candidate engagement because recruiting teams are not focused solely on filling open roles. Rather, they are thinking about how to best meet future talent needs through building better relationships with top talent. In addition to better candidates, talent pipelining allows you to diversify your talent pool, deliver personalized candidate experiences and improve your overall employer brand. 

How to Build a Pipeline of Candidates: Talent Pipeline Strategy and Engagement Starts with Your Employer Brand

how to build a pipeline of candidates

Talent pipelining is about influencing candidate behavior, so the first and most logical place to begin when creating a talent pipeline is the answering the following questions:

  • How do you generate interest in your organization?
  • What differentiating factors set your organization apart from other employers?
  • Why should candidates choose to work for your organization?

To find the answers to these questions, you need to turn to your employer brand. In a talent market that’s reeling from the effects of a global pandemic and calls for increasing racial diversity, your reputation as an employer is now more important than ever to attract high-quality candidates.

What’s more, at a time when candidates can quickly look up information about your organization, from compensation and benefits to the work culture and advancement opportunities, building a strong employer brand is paramount. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, a negative employer reputation can costs organizations up to 10% more per hire.

To attract and bring top talent to your organization’s talent pipeline, maintaining and personalizing your candidate-facing content should be a top priority. You can achieve this by improving the content on your careers page and in your social media outreach with high-quality resources, guides, videos.

So, how do you position yourself as an employer of choice in your industry and fill your talent pipeline with qualified talent? Below are some simple steps that can help you get started:

Leverage Your Career Site

The first place many candidates will engage with your employer brand will be through your career site. Use your career site to highlight your corporate values, culture and provide a real glimpse of what life for the employees of your organization is like.

Make sure that your employer brand messaging on your career site is consistent with that on your social media channels, company website and review pages such as Glassdoor and Indeed. Also, make sure your career site is mobile optimized as many mid-career professionals are more likely to search for opportunities on their mobile devices. The easier it is to apply and interact with your organization, the more top candidates you will be able to add to your pipeline.

Candidate Engagement Best Practices: Engage Your Talent Pipeline on Social Channels

Social media has fast become a top recruitment marketing channel. Moreover, according to Glassdoor, 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search, so engaging with candidates and presenting a positive employer brand on social media is essential.

For example, you can build a stronger employer brand and engagement with your target audience by promoting authentic conversations about life within your organization and asking candidates to share what they seek in an employer. You should also celebrate employee achievements, share real-life stories, photos and videos to show potential candidates what it is like working with you. This will make it more likely that candidates will feel comfortable applying for positions at your organization.

Your Employees Are Your Best Advocates

Building on your social media strategy, you can also look at employee advocacy as an effective branding and talent pipeline building tactic. Employee advocacy is the word-of-mouth marketing equivalent for recruitment. Your employees can tap into their networks, refer friends to open roles and bring in more candidates into your talent pipeline.

talent pipeline strategy

Identify employees who can act as your brand ambassadors and share the perks of working with your organization with their network and build a great referral pipeline for talent. Candidates are three times more likely to trust your employees over recruiters to provide credible information about your work culture.

How to Build Talent Pipeline: Communicating with Your Talent Pipeline

how to build talent pipeline

Send Confirmation Emails to Candidates

Sending confirmation emails to candidates in your pipeline who have applied to open positions should be an obvious step, as 96% of job applicants want confirmation their application has been received. However, just 8% say they always get one from a potential employer. You can leverage technology and automate your communication with candidates to make sure emails are sent on time and reach candidates.

You should include in your replies a “thank you” for taking the time to fill out your application, let candidates know when they can expect to hear back about their application status. You do not have to provide feedback to unsuccessful candidates, just make sure you tell any unsuccessful candidates that they have not progressed and thank them again for taking the time to apply. This reply can be automated too.

Keeping your Talent Pipeline Warm During a Hiring Freeze

You may have many talented professionals out of work looking for new opportunities but might not be in a position to do any hiring right now. That does not mean that your recruiting activity should be on hold. In fact, this is the perfect time to work on building and nurturing your talent pipeline.

Keeping candidates “warm” is a balancing act, especially in uncertain times. You can keep candidates engaged by sending them updated press releases, and managers can periodically send a personal note or text to keep the lines of communications open.

You can share updates about the conditions at your organization, statements your CEO has made, or other information to give them an understating of how your organization is dealing with this crisis. These efforts might impress candidates and make them want to work with you even if you do not have an opening yet.

Consider Using a Chatbot

Candidates in your talent pipeline will have questions for you – about the role itself, about the application process or the timeline between applying and hiring. If you have high-volume hiring needs, or your internal recruiting teams are stretched too thin to answer all of the questions, deploying a chatbot to answer some of the most common questions immediately can prevent candidates from losing touch with you or becoming frustrated.

If you are wonder if candidates would be happy accepting answers from a chatbot, modern candidates are already interacting with them, because like Alexa or Siri, they mimic our natural conversational styles.

Your job is to figure out what the most common questions will be and craft answers that the chatbot can supply. Just ensure you have a process in place if the candidate’s question was not answered satisfactorily – that the question then gets routed to a human who can answer it.

Conclusion

Ultimately, effective talent pipelining engagement boils down to how you plan, strategize and leverage technology to support your long-term business needs. The landscape for candidates today is drastically different from the past years. Empathy, flexibility and understanding will go a long way in building lasting relationships with candidates and successfully adapting to the realities of a post-COVID world.

Effectively Leverage Social Media to Improve Your Employer Brand

Posted on by jpatel

Until about 10 years ago, simply posting a job opening to a career site like Indeed or Glassdoor may have been enough to get you the right talent to fulfill your hiring needs. That’s because in economic climates where job-seekers are abundant, active candidates would search open positions, see your job posting, read the description and decide whether they wanted to apply. Often, that job posting might have been the first time a candidate engaged with or even heard of your brand.

Today, candidates can see and engage with your brand at hundreds of touchpoints before ever seeing a job posting or visiting your career page. And millions more people are looking for lasting employment now due to the pandemic. Whereas traditional in-person interviews declined, the importance of virtual hiring and an organization’s online presence have drastically risen. While this may sound daunting at first, digital recruitment marketing and the rise of social media mean organizations today can spread their message and establish a strong knowledge of their employer brand with prospective candidates – often before those candidates even think about looking for a job.

Regardless of the economic climate and whether we are at the lowest unemployment rates experienced in decades or the highest, a strong social media presence is imperative to an employer’s recruitment media mix. Now, more than ever, we are all tuned in to what our networks are saying, sharing and recommending online.

In fact, according to a report by LinkedIn, 72% of recruiting leaders worldwide agree that employer brand has a significant impact on hiring. Moreover Jobvite research showed that 59% of candidates followed companies on social media to gain insight into their company culture – myself included! When I was considering joining PeopleScout, social media was one of the main ways I researched what it would be like to work here.

Specifically, I kept an eye out for engaging content, interesting comments and overall employee engagement. PeopleScout’s active social pages with relevant content and employees passionately sharing their work achievements were one of the deciding factors when I chose to come on board. After all, if an omnichannel recruitment marketing strategy were what I would advise to my clients, I had to work for a company that led with the best examples.

Building Your Brand

When it comes down to the critical moments throughout the candidate’s journey, what an employer presents online could be the deciding factor for whether a candidate joins an organization. Truly, if a candidate is debating between two employers and one has a nearly nonexistent online brand presence while the other showcases personality, culture and industry-related insights, it’s clear who will win the talent.

And, it doesn’t just come down to one quick, last-minute Google search. To improve your employer brand in a candidate’s mind takes a persistent effort. For example, say you’re looking to hire a nurse, but the ideal prospect is located outside of your region. Attracting that candidate will be a huge undertaking that isn’t going to happen overnight.

It’s unlikely that the candidate will apply for a job at your hospital out of the blue, especially if they’ve never heard of you before. But, what if that candidate saw one of your Twitter posts about the “10 Things You Should Know as a New Nurse”? Or, maybe a friend sent them your Instagram post of an uplifting quote about providing patient care?

By reaching prospective candidates at multiple touchpoints throughout the hiring cycle with a consistent brand presence, you’ll have a much higher likelihood of establishing a positive impression of your brand. Then, when it comes time to apply, and eventually accept a position, the persona you portray online will have a huge impact on those decisions.

But, while your ideal nurse might be active on Instagram, not all candidates will be. For instance, if you’re looking for a C-level executive, you’ll have better luck on LinkedIn. Conversely, if you’re hiring an elementary school teacher, you might reach them best on Facebook. Determine which social media platforms make the most sense to engage your prospective candidates and focus your strategies there.

If You Want to Improve Your Employer Brand, Go Beyond “We’re Hiring”

Regardless of the platform, simply posting job openings isn’t going to cut it. Instead, think about how you can best show prospects what it’s truly like to work for your organization – whether that means showcasing how your people engage virtually or what life is like when you’re all in the office. In addition to insightful thought leadership, share employee activities, first-person stories, and anything that shows a candidate how they can contribute and connect to your company in ways beyond their skills.

Let’s look a little deeper into how you can improve your employer brand presence on each of the four largest social media channels and how you can utilize each of their unique features to your benefit.

LinkedIn

As the largest professional network, LinkedIn is unlike most other social media platforms. With more than 660 million registered users, almost half of whom are active on a monthly basis, it’s the number one platform to reach both passive and active prospective candidates.

Reach more candidates by:

  • Posting career advice
  • Promoting posts to employees
  • Targeting your posts
  • Optimizing your company page with keywords

Instagram

With more than 1 billion monthly active users, Instagram has seen a 43% increase in users since 2017. What’s more intriguing is the fact that 90% of users follow a business on the platform – users are likely to keep up with brands and see what people are saying about them. Plus, according to Sprout Social, Instagram is the leading platform when it comes to engagement, with a median engagement of 1.6% across all industries.

What does that mean for you? Essentially, Instagram is a great way to utilize employee brand advocates and visuals to showcase company culture.

Engage employees and candidates with:

  • Instagram stories
  • Story highlights
  • Creative grids
  • Instagram Live
  • Instagram TV
  • Comments and direct messages

Twitter

Twitter has about 330 million active users worldwide, and 79% of them like to discover what’s new. This fast-paced social network encourages the real-time sharing of engaging and relevant content, so post often and with timely responses to showcase your expertise.

Utilize:

  • Interest-based targeting
  • Twitter Ads
  • Twitter Polls
  • Retweets with comments
  • Tweet replies

Facebook

Facebook has 2.5 million monthly active users, and 66% of them say they “like” or “follow” a brand on the platform.

To showcase your industry expertise as well as your company culture, take advantage of:

  • Facebook Insights
  • Facebook Pixel for retargeting advertising
  • Page invites
  • Boosting posts

Social Media as a Recruitment Tool

By taking efforts to improve your employer brand on social media and taking advantage of what all the different platforms have to offer, candidates should already have a good understanding of your brand and what it represents by the time they’re on the job hunt. Ideally, they’ll have connected with some of your posts and already have a positive feeling about your company culture.

Then, when it comes time to create a targeted recruitment campaign, your social media presence will have done some of the work for you. To capitalize on this momentum and start generating a stream of qualified candidates, a trusted talent advisor can help.

When Vodafone came to PeopleScout in the UK, they asked us to: help position Vodafone with prospective employees at key universities as a youth employer of choice; change the perception of their target audience; and promote Vodafone as a technology company.

After researching the behavior and interests of Vodafone’s target audience, we learned how Gen Z and Millennials want to engage with employers (through short and succinct videos) and what values drive their decisions. We found that they want to work for companies that focus on making the world a better place, as well as promote a social and fun work environment.

This led to Generation Possible – a social media campaign that speaks to Vodafone’s campus and graduate audience, as well as their desire to have a positive influence in the world. The Generation Possible campaign celebrates everyone’s individuality and empowers them to speak from the heart about how to make change for the better.

improve your employer brand
Vodafone Generation Possible Campaign Creative

Conclusion

It’s no secret that candidates are going to research your organization prior to applying for any of your positions or even considering you as a potential employer. By balancing postings on job boards with social media and other touchpoints along the hiring process, you can create a well-respected online presence that accurately represents your employer brand and company culture. So, the next time a candidate researches your company, reads reviews or looks at what current employees are saying online, rest assured that a strong social media presence and strategic recruitment campaign will give you all you need to create a lasting impact in a candidate’s mind.

Diversity and Inclusion: Building Employee Resource Groups and Driving Change

Posted on by edyson

Diversity, equity and inclusion have long been a key point of discussion in many organizations’ human resources departments. While the topic has always been top of mind, events in 2020 have shined new light and emphasis on the importance of social justice, anti-discrimination and diversity and inclusion.

Why is Inclusion Important?

employee resource groups

However, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Diversity & Inclusion Survey, two-thirds of respondents indicated their organizations have not adopted practices to reduce unconscious biases and other barriers to inclusion. Moreover, even among organizations that have adopted such practices, employees are not likely to be aware of the efforts. This illustrates the importance of inclusion in the workplace for candidates.

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. Employee resource groups, also known as affinity groups, have emerged in the workplace as a standard component of diversity and inclusion initiatives. In fact. according to a report from Bentley University, nearly 90% of all Fortune 500 companies have ERGs.

For many organizations, the benefits of employee resource groups have evolved from the primary intent — to provide a forum in which members of an organization who share common interests, issues, or concerns meet to address those issues — to multifaceted benefits that impact an organization’s strategic diversity and inclusion efforts in recruitment, retention, mentoring, leadership development, marketing, customer relations and return on investment.

What is an Employee Resource Group?

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. Wilson and his African-American employees designed and launched the National Black Employees Caucus in 1970 to address racial tension and the issue of workplace discrimination.

Modern ERG programs are the enduring legacy of Mr. Wilson and his colleagues’ courageous efforts. In its most basic form, an ERG is an employee identity or experience-based group that helps employees within an organization build community and share a common cause.

what is an erg

ERGs are generally based on building or strengthening community, providing support and contributing to personal and professional development in the workplace. Most ERGs are volunteer based, though some companies support organizers with a percentage of paid time off or other recognition, including leadership development opportunities.

What is the Purpose of an ERG Program?

While each ERG must define its purpose and goal, common ERG drivers are:

  • An ERG program creates an open forum for employees who share a common identity to meet and support one another in building their community and sense of belonging.
  • ERG programs empower these groups by offering them financial support, organizational support and access to decision-makers.
  • ERG programs facilitate a clear line of communication from ERGs to leadership to voice concerns and solve problems.
  • ERGs provide a resource for leadership regarding employee and community issues, needs and policies.
  • ERG programs seek to advance a respectful and inclusive company culture and reinforce the importance of inclusion.

What Does an ERG Look Like?

ERGs come in a variety of forms, with some of the more popular ones taking the shape of:

  • Diversity groups that foster a sense of belonging among employees that belong to a minority group in the organization
  • Volunteer programs where employees can support charities and other volunteer initiatives
  • Affinity clubs where employees with similar interests get an opportunity to socialize
  • Professional development groups that provide employees the opportunity to share knowledge with their peers from other departments

The Value of Employee Resource Groups and Why is Inclusion Important

ERGs deliver value to organizations and their workforces in multiple ways. They build a sense of community and belonging for employees by connecting people in a social and professional way and encouraging interaction between employees.

What’s more, according to a report from the Society for Human Resource Management, 90% of companies examined said ERGs helped make new hires more comfortable during the onboarding process, and 70% of organizations relied on ERGs to build a workforce to reflect the demographics of their customer base.

ERGs empower employees by giving each group a collective voice to speak with decision-makers and management. Groups are also empowered to assemble and voice concerns as a community. ERGs support learning and development by offering formal and informal leadership opportunities and creating visibility for employees who are active.

ERGs also provide a resource for leadership and decision-makers regarding staff/community issues, needs and policies. And ERGs offer to the company their expertise and experiences to improve equality and equity. They can also be an asset in business decisions to make better, more inclusive products and services.

Lastly, ERGs can also support retention because employees are likely to stay with the company longer if they have built or are part of a strong community within the company and feel heard again, this is why why is inclusion important.

Creating an Employee Resource Group

erg diversity

If you or other employees within your organization would like to start an ERG, it can be difficult to know where to start. Below, we outline the steps to get your ERG off the ground.

Align Your ERG with your Organization’s Broader Objectives

For your ERG to be successful, your purpose should be tied to your organization’s overall mission and values. Is your organization focused on giving back to your community? Or is your goal to build a more diverse workforce?

Choose a topic around diversity and inclusion for your employee resource group that aligns with overall company goals. Think about writing a mission statement for your ERG that touches on your organization’s core values. Showing how your ERG advances the overall organizational strategy will help earn support from other areas of the organization.

Secure Executive Support

Executive support for your ERG is essential for continued success. To gain buy-in, find executive or C-suite sponsors who are personally committed to diversity and inclusion or social impact initiatives. Executives are busy and oftentimes metrics focused, so it may be helpful to come with talking points and data that showcase how an ERG will make a positive impact on your organization.

Make sure HR leaders are invested as well, as you will need their support to share ERGs during the new hire onboarding process and in promotional materials for the ERG.

Building Your ERG Team

Before launching the ERG, establish a communication plan and identify benchmarks for success, including long-term goals and potential challenges. Recruit colleagues willing to take on a leadership role, such as committing to a monthly meeting or making time to plan and execute events.

Then, find other like-minded coworkers who are passionate about supporting your ERG. It’s just as important to have members who are willing to participate and spread the word as it is to have leaders and planners.

Deploying Your ERG Program

A strong communications plan is a major component of an employee resource group’s success strategy. You can begin by creating a simple presentation that outlines the ERG’s goals, events and ideas for participation. You can leverage your organization’s marketing team to use your organization’s brand standards to create a logo for the ERG that ties it directly to the organization. This is an effective way to clearly communicate that your ERG is supported by leadership and is an important initiative.

Equipped with your members and materials, generate excitement for the ERG by hosting a company event. Throwing a happy hour — virtually now, because of COVID-19 — is a great way to introduce your ERG’s mission, lay out future events and recruit attendees to grow your group’s core membership.

How Your Organization Can Support Your Employee Resource Group

Your organization can support your employee resource groups in a variety of ways. Your ERG may receive budget and organizational support. However, your organization should not dictate which groups should form, who should join each group or what impact the groups should have. That should be a decision of the group, but it’s important for the organization to provide tools to work towards and measure that success.

This could include charter documentation, purpose workshop, road-mapping templates and exercises, budget tracking tools, support in setting and tracking OKRs, a platform for communication with their group and potential members, visibility within the organization and meetings with senior leadership.

Conclusion

A sense of belonging and inclusion in the workplace is important in order to empower employees and help them bring their whole self to work. Building a strong network or community is a very important step in creating this sense of belonging.

In order to truly empower and support ERGs, it’s important to give the employee resource groups the autonomy to define the scope of their group, to define membership eligibility and most importantly, to define what success means to them.