Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis — December 2018

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If you are inclined to celebrate and have a few friends over when the UK labour market report is filled with positive news, then, by all means, start icing the champagne. December’s report published by the Office for National Statistics includes the following details:

  • Wages continued to rise at their highest level in nearly a decade.
  • The number of people working in the UK rose by 79,000 to 32.48 million. That is the highest figure since records began in 1971.
  • The unemployment rate was 4.1 per cent, virtually unchanged compared with May to July 2018 and lower than the estimate for a year earlier (4.3 per cent).
UK Jobs Report Analysis — December 2018

Rising Wages: The Missing Part of the Recovery. Until Now.

Wages are growing ahead of the rate of inflation and it is thought that this rise is pay is due to the tight job market. As the Financial Times reports:
“The rise in salaries is also beginning to overcome significant increases in prices. Real regular pay, which takes into account inflation, was up 1.1 per cent in the October period — a level not seen since late 2016.


‘While Brexit uncertainty and political paralysis are having a cooling effect on the wider economy, the labour market is proving more resilient,’ said Stephen Clarke, senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation.


‘Britain’s tightening jobs market is delivering stronger pay rises, particularly for workers in ICT (information and communication technology), hospitality, and real estate,’ he said. ‘2019 looks set to be a far better year for pay than this one.’


Real pay growth has, until recently, been the missing part of the UK’s post-crisis recovery. While unemployment fell and employment rose, pay growth remained stubbornly low and, in real terms, median pay packets are still worth less than they were in 2008.”


The December ONS report notes that for October 2018 average regular pay (excluding bonuses), before tax and other deductions from pay, for employees in Great Britain was £495 per week in nominal terms (that is, not adjusted for price inflation), up from £479 per week for a year earlier. This would be £1,916 in a four week month. This is certainly welcome news for Britain’s workers. But while wages are rising faster than inflation, it is not clear that they are keeping up with key elements of the cost of living. For example, the average cost of renting a home in Britain per month was £1,212 in November or nearly two thirds of the average wage earner’s monthly salary.

Historic Employment Figures: A Challenge for Employers

While the number of people working in Britain rose to a record high, unemployment also increased by 20,000 to 1.38 million. The ONS report notes that “The reason both employment and unemployment have increased is a result of the UK’s rising population and more people joining the labour force, such as students and older people.”


The challenges presented by a tight labour market is a cause for concern for UK employers:


Suren Thiru, head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, commented, “Businesses report that the political and economic turbulence, together with significant difficulties finding the right staff, are diminishing recruitment intentions, which is likely to increasingly weigh on the UK labour market over the near term. More must be done to support firms looking to recruit.”


The lack of available workers is compounded by a skills shortage in the UK, particularly in the technology sector as The Times reports:


“The technology industry fears that a skills shortage could stunt its growth, with new figures showing that job vacancies are growing.


The number of unfilled positions in the information and communication technology sector last quarter rose by 24.3 per cent compared with a year ago, according to data from the Office for National Statistics, one of the largest increases of any industry.


The ratio of jobseekers with previous employment in the industry to relevant jobs has dropped below one, meaning that there are more vacancies than people looking to fill them.”

Brexit Uncertainties: The Unwelcome Guest that Just Won’t Leave

No matter how good a jobs report may be, uncertainty over Brexit continues to cast a shadow over any positive economic news:


“Leaving the EU is likely to disrupt many sectors of the UK economy, including those that rely heavily on European workers. The magnitude of the disruption will depend on the details of the final Brexit agreement, which is making its way through a tortuous political process leading up to the March 29 deadline. In the longer term, the trading relationship between the UK and the EU after the Brexit transition period will be crucial. Will trade continue to be nearly frictionless or will it suffer economic and administrative barriers? Will migration policy support or hinder growth? The answers to those questions will determine the extent to which Brexit affects the economy’s productivity and thus the living standards of UK residents.


Hiring challenges. Low unemployment, falling migration and uncertainty about post-Brexit migration policy mean that businesses in many sectors are finding it increasingly difficult to hire staff. To recruit the workers they need, will employers tap more into under-utilised demographic groups? Young people, single parents, minorities and people with disabilities are less likely than average to be part of the labour force and their unemployment rates are above average. Whether employers manage to attract those groups into employment through higher wages or benefits — or whether they respond to hiring difficulties in other ways, like investing in automation — is a trend to watch in 2019.”


So by all means, open up that bottle of champagne. The ONS report provides plenty of good reasons to celebrate. Just be aware that there are many sobering details that must be dealt with after the celebration ends.

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018

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Canada’s unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent, the lowest level since 1976. Canada added 94,100 net jobs for its largest monthly increase since March 2012, Statistics Canada said in its most recent labour force survey. But even with healthy job growth, wage gains appear to be slowing. Both hourly and weekly wage growth rates have been dropping since May and are below the rate of inflation.

Canada Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018


The Numbers

94,100: The economy gained 94,100 jobs in November.

5.6%: The unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent.

1.5%: Weekly wage increases are 1.5 per cent over the last year. This is a 0.3 per cent decrease from October’s wage growth figure.

The Good

The 94,100 jobs gained in November were fueled by 89,900 new full-time positions and 78,600 employee jobs in the private sector. Employment among the core age group (those aged 25 to 54) was up 49,000 in November, the result of increases for both women (+32,000) and men (+17,000). The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 4.6 per cent for core-aged women, and by 0.2 percentage points to 4.7 per cent for core-aged men. In the 12 months to November, employment within this age group rose by 208,000 (+1.7 per cent), largely the result of gains for women (+129,000). In the 12 months leading up to November, employment grew by 219,000 or 1.2 per cent.
Employment was up in six provinces including Quebec with 26,000; Alberta with 24,000; Ontario with 20,000; British Columbia with 16,000; 5,500 in Saskatchewan and 2,600 in Manitoba. On a year-over-year basis, the number of private sector employees rose by 146,000 (+1.2 per cent), while the number of public sector employees grew by 48,000 (+1.3 per cent).

The Bad

Average weekly wage growth fell to just 1.5 per cent and hourly wage growth slowed as well as the CTV reports:
“Year-over-year average hourly wage growth for permanent employees continued its decline in November to 1.46 per cent — its lowest reading since July 2017.
‘There’s no question that the headline job growth is gangbusters strong,’ said Frances Donald, head of macroeconomic strategy at Manulife Asset Management
‘I would caution us against celebrating too quickly, however, because wage growth is decelerating sharply.’”
Experts have been expecting wage growth to pick up its pace, thanks to the tightened labour market. But the opposite has been happening — wage growth has dropped every month since its May peak of 3.9 per cent and now sits well below inflation.
Employment declined in information, culture and recreation (-10,000 or -1.3 per cent), continuing the downward trend that started in August. The decrease was driven by Ontario. Compared with 12 months earlier, employment in this industry was down by 25,000 (-3.2 per cent) at the national level.

The Unknown

The Financial Times reports that the digital economy has created a demand for 216,000 more tech workers, according to a new study. However, it is unclear whether there are enough available workers in Canada to meet this demand:
“Blockchain, artificial intelligence, 5G mobile networks, 3D printing and virtual reality are creating a need for digital skills that will see a demand for an estimated 216,000 additional technology workers by 2021, according to a new report.
A study by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC), found that employment of information and communications technology professionals outpaced the economy last year six-to-one.
‘What’s happening now is we are seeing fast-paced industries go from low growth to high growth,’ said Namir Anani, president and chief executive of ICTC.
‘We have to look at how do we reposition the workforce rapidly through short-duration training to provide pathways and mobility to get into fast-growth sectors of the Canadian economy that are increasingly becoming digital.’
As more industries recognize the importance of a digital strategy, competition for tech workers has increased. ICTC highlighted transportation, retail, healthcare, finance and manufacturing as sectors where demand is ramping up.
‘The environment is changing fast and every sector is seeing its own disruption,’ Anani said.
‘We have to reflect as a country on how do we leverage (disruption) and what are the transitional strategies we have to build to move some of the displaced workers from low-growth to high-growth areas of the economy.’
There was a five per cent increase in employment for digitally skilled workers in 2017, the highest growth in 10 years, according to ICTC’s report. Meanwhile, 60 per cent of Canada’s tech workers were now spread across non-tech sectors.
Not only are Canadian companies struggling to find enough digitally skilled workers to fill positions in the present, but the largest group of tech workers is already approaching retirement, with 13.1 per cent being between the ages of 55 to 64. ICTC’s research was conducted with the support of Microsoft Canada.
‘The issue is really about supply and demand. The demand is increasing as more sectors are adopting digital technologies and the supply of talent and skills is a challenge,’ said Navdeep Bains, the federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development.
‘When we put forward our Innovation and Skills Plan, by far this was the number one issue — around training and people having the right skills to succeed today and for the job tomorrow.’”

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018

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The Labor Department released its November Jobs Report which shows 155,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy. The pace of hiring slowed while the unemployment rate remained at 3.7 percent, which is the lowest point since 1969. The participation rate also remained unchanged at 62.9 percent. U.S. employers have added to payrolls for 98 straight months, extending the longest continuous jobs expansion on record.

U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018



The Numbers

155,000: The economy added 155,000 jobs in November.

3.7%: The unemployment remained to 3.7 percent.

3.1%: Wages increased 3.1 percent over the last year.

The Good

The 155,000 jobs added to the economy in November adds to an unprecedented run of continuous growth. 2018 is shaping up to be a year of impressive expansion given the 12 month job growth in key sectors of the American economy: Healthcare employment has increased by 328,000; Manufacturing has grown by 288,000 and Business and Professional Services has expanded by 561,000 jobs.
The annual wage gain is also a sign that the economy is continuing to grow, but at a more measured pace than earlier in the year. As the New York Times reported:
“It’s obviously an economy that is well in expansion mode but that is coming off the boil after a strong second and third quarter,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer of CIBC Private Wealth Management. “So the state of the job market is good. It’s just that the pace of job creation is slowing a little bit.”
Yearly wage growth remained at 3.1 percent for the second month in a row, a level not seen since the recession. “If you have solid wage growth while productivity is improving, that is the best of both worlds,” Mr. Donabedian said.

The Bad

The 155,000 jobs added in November fell below analyst expectations. The slowing pace of hiring is perceived to be caused by the inability of employers to find the right workers to fill their open positions. This appears to be the case in many parts of the economy, including those with some of the highest job gains this year such as healthcare. The Wall Street Journal reported on one such business in the high-demand area of elder care:
“The modest job-growth slowdown could be a sign of slightly softer demand for goods and services by consumers. For some companies, hiring also might be slowing because they can’t find the workers they need because unemployment is so low.”
That was the case for Home Instead Senior Care, an Omaha, Neb.-based in-home care provider, said its Chief Executive Jeff Huber. The company employs about 65,000 U.S. caregivers through its franchises, a 23 percent increase from three years ago.
“We could grow even more robustly if the labor market weren’t so tight,” Mr. Huber said. “The competitive job market is really restricting on our growth. There’s just tremendous demand for caregivers.”
Labor costs for the company, including wages and benefits, have risen about 20 percent annually in recent years, he said, but revenue is also growing robustly. The company is offering more training and flexible schedules to attract and retain employees, and recruiting older workers who have finished careers but aren’t ready to fully retire. A third of caregivers are older than 60, Mr. Huber said.

The Unknown

The recent announcement that General Motors would be laying off nearly 14,000 workers raises the question of whether these newly available workers would have the skills required to find new work, even in the current labor market in which job seekers are highly favored. This point was underscored by General Motors CEO Mary Barra:
“As Barra announced the cutbacks, she also said GM plans to acquire “skillsets of the future” by hiring in software development, battery and fuel cell technology and autonomous vehicle development,” The Detroit News reported. “You will see us having new employees join the company as others are leaving,” she said. “We still need many technical resources across the company.”

Through The Grapevine: How to Create and Manage an Employee Referral Program

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A well-managed employee referral program may be the single most powerful weapon in an organization’s recruitment arsenal. In fact, employee referral programs continue to be a top source for hires. By encouraging employees to refer contacts in their professional networks for open positions you can reduce recruiting costs, improve candidate quality and increase employee engagement.

In this article, we explore the case for employee referral programs, some of the top considerations organizations should be mindful of and how to properly manage a referral program.

The Case for Developing an Employee Referral Program

employee referral program

Intuitively, developing a formal employee referral program makes sense.

After all, who better to refer great candidates and sell those candidates on why they should join your organization than your own employees?

Employee referral programs make good business sense. Some of the benefits your organization may reap from an employee referral program include:

  • Faster time-to-hire: A LinkedIn study uncovered that it takes an average of 29 days to hire a referred candidate compared to 39 days to hire a candidate through a job board.
  • Less impact on your talent acquisition budget: An employee referral program is an inexpensive sourcing strategy that relies primarily on word-of-mouth and internal communication. You don’t have to pay to advertise job posts. Due to the faster time-to-hire, organizations can cut internal costs as well, since recruiters won’t be spending as much time sourcing and interviewing candidates for open positions.
  • Top talent begets top talent: Another LinkedIn survey revealed that star employees tend to refer other star employees. Tapping into your top talent can help organizations source and hire high performers more effectively.
  • Better employee retention: Not only are candidates hired via an employee referral typically of higher quality, they also tend to stay at their jobs longer, with 46 percent remaining in their position for at least three years.

Employee Referral Programs as an Extension of Employee Engagement

With employee referral programs, saving time and money is just the beginning.

Employee referrals also add value through improved employee engagement.

Using employee referrals to hire candidates builds a more robust corporate culture by intersecting performance and engagement to drive business success through tapping current employees for qualified candidate referrals, thus simplifying the sourcing process.

Employees who recommend a new hire have a vested interest in onboarding and retaining that person, as many referral programs include a requirement that the referred employee must be with the organization for a specific period of time before the referring employee can get a referral bonus.

What’s more, employees who refer candidates will feel a sense of commitment to ensure their referral’s success because they recommended the position.

Moreover, employees who are involved in the recruitment process may feel a greater sense of purpose towards the future of your company.

By encouraging employees to submit referrals, you are letting them know you value their input and contribution.

What to Consider Before Implementing an Employee Referral Program

Set Program Objectives

Before implementing an employee referral program, organizations should outline objectives in order to set a clear goal.

Defining objectives early on in the process helps ensure your team is on the same page and knows exactly what is expected and when.

Setting objectives can be achieved by holding planning sessions with key stakeholders where you share the vision for the program, develop strategies to achieve success and find solutions that are mutually agreed upon.

Objectives for an employee referral program might include:

  • Improving quality-of-hire
  • Increasing new hire retention
  • Boosting employee morale and recognition
  • Lowering overall recruiting costs
  • Increasing diversity within the organization
  • Sourcing candidates with a specific skill set
  • Reducing the time-to-hire for external candidates
  • Better targeting and sourcing of passive job seekers
  • Deepening the pipeline of potential applicants

Leverage Technology

Technology can help make the employee referral process better for both employers, employees and referrals. Using your technology tools can streamline processes and minimize inefficiencies and missed opportunities in the referral program.

In an article with SHRM, Jennifer Newbill, Director of Global Employment Brand, Dell explains that Dell uses a combination of “white glove” and automated communications to manage its more than 40,000 annual employee referrals, making the process more manageable for the organization’s talent acquisition teams.

Social Media Referrals

Recruitment marketing technology can allow you to post jobs on your organization’s social channels in seconds. You can also leverage your existing employees’ social media networks – if your employees are willing to post on your behalf – to expand your reach.

Auto-Posting Open Roles

In order to get your employees more engaged in your employee referral program, you should consider sharing job openings on a regular basis. Instead of sending out emails manually every time a position opens, you can automate this process through your recruitment email marketing tools.

For example, gig-economy start-up Fiverr leverages employee referral software that gamifies the referral process by adding a competitive element to referring candidates. The software assigns points to employees and credit for all the actions they take. The software also keeps employees up-to-date on the status of their referrals.

Make Jobs Shareable Through Employee Portals

Make it easier for employees to share job opportunities through their social media accounts and email. Adding social links on job posts will allow employees to automatically share job openings with just a few clicks. The quicker and easier jobs are to share, the more likely your employees will participate.

Referral Tracking

Tracking and appropriately attributing a referral is crucial to the program’s success. To make tracking easier, a referral field should be added to applications. The referral field on the job application can be filled in with information about the referring employee, making referral tracking easier.

Managing an Employee Referral Program

When it comes to managing a successful employee referral program, there are a few elements to keep in mind. Ideally, every program includes the following:

  • Incentives
  • A simple process
  • Feedback

Below, we explain how your organization can manage each of these three elements within your employee referral program.

Employee Referral Incentives

According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, 40 percent of respondents were motivated to refer candidates for a monetary reward. What’s more, 68 percent stated they submitted a referral because they wanted to help their organization. If you want to get the most impact out of your organization’s employee referral program, you should offer a combination of monetary and creative, non-monetary incentives for referrals.

  • Experiment with monetary reward amounts because there is no magic number that will motivate all employees. Periodically testing different amounts can allow you to optimize your financial incentives.
  • Employees who are more altruistic in nature may prefer the option of donating their referral bonus to a charity or cause close to their hearts.
  • An alternative to offering individual monetary incentives is to hold a quarterly prize drawing where every employee who has made a successful referral during the period is eligible to win.
  • While prizes and cash incentives can be great motivators, other perks can be just as effective. Non-monetary rewards can include reserved parking spots, extra time off or first choice of shifts and schedules.

For a PeopleScout client and multinational auto parts and accessories manufacturer, we encourage their store managers, area managers and team members to refer quality candidates, including friends and family, to current job openings.

Once the employee’s referral applies to a position, our client lets a member of our recruiting team know that a referral has applied.

In the system the candidate selects referral and the client lets us know. This ensures we do not miss a referral and/or they selected the wrong source code when applying. 

Our team then schedules an interview with the referral and if qualified, proceeds to extend a verbal offer. 

If the referral is qualified, they will be scheduled with the store/hiring manager for an in-person interview, unless the referral was a quality candidate from the store manager and they already met them in person.

To assist our client in tracking the referrals coming in, our recruiters maintain a digital log of the number of referrals that were phone screened and referrals that were hired.

Our client values this referral program because it yields quality candidates and results in a faster time-to-hire for critical positions. 

When a referral is screened the recruiter ensure the source code is correct in the ATS so we provide stats and results of referrals.

Program highlights include:

  • When we onboard and train our client’s new managers, PeopleScout emphasizes the employee referral program and its importance to the recruiting process
  • PeopleScout’s team has specific SLAs to ensure referrals are expedited
  • PeopleScout tracks time in status and conversion rates specifically for referrals
  • More than 25 percent of hires for our client come from referrals
  • More than 50 percent of referrals submitted are ultimately hired
  • PeopleScout hires between 9,000 and 11,000 people for this client annually

Simplify the Employee Referral Process

While 95 percent of HR professionals believe their employees fully understand how to submit referrals, 63 percent say they “very often or frequently” receive feedback that employees find it too complicated to refer someone.

When evaluating your program, ask yourself these questions:

  • Do employees know about your referral program?
  • Is it clear with whom or where an employee should submit a referral?
  • Is the technology used to submit referrals user-friendly?
  • Is it easy to track if the referring employee was given credit?
  • Is it easy to track the incentives that were earned?

If the program makes your employees jump through hoops to place a referral, you can be sure that it won’t attract many participants.

To simplify your program, start with the following steps:

Explain your employee referral program

Employees need to understand exactly how your referral program works to make it successful.

How you teach employees about the program depends on your size and how the workforce is dispersed geographically.

You might gather your employees together and give a brief presentation or create an online training course.

Or, you might do something as simple as sending an informational email or flyer for employees to review.

Set your requirements up front

If you want your employees to refer quality candidates, they need to know what traits and skills you are looking for.

Share the open positions you are hiring for and provide employees with the job descriptions, so they get a feel for the types of candidates that would be a good fit.

Provide regular reminders

You should periodically remind employees about the referral program. If you don’t, they may quickly forget about it.

InMobi, an Indian-based mobile technology company, offered a motorbike—a very popular vehicle in India—to any employee who referred a successful engineering manager candidate.

To keep the referral program top of mind, InMobi parked a motorbike right in front of their corporate headquarters so employees were reminded of the referral incentive every day while entering the building.

When you have an influx of open positions, send a reminder to your employees that explains how they can refer candidates and what the reward is for hired candidates.

You can also promote the referral program when you aren’t actively hiring.

An employee might refer a candidate you do not want to miss out on. You should add those candidates to your talent pool.

Collect and Provide Feedback  

Measuring results is critical to evaluating the success of the program and to finding improvement opportunities.

While metrics can vary depending on the goals you’ve set for the program, here are some good metrics to track:

  • On-the-job performance of referral hires
  • Retention/turnover rate of referral hires
  • Program ROI or the cost/benefit ratio
  • Employee satisfaction with the overall process

Provide notifications after an employee referral is made

Referring employees may be nervous about whether their referrals were any good. The best practice is to notify employees immediately when their referral is accepted/rejected, if the candidate is invited for an interview and when the candidate is finally hired or not.

Employee Referral Program: The Gist

Employee referral programs remain one of the top sources for candidates because they are a cost-effective, engaging talent acquisition strategy.

To get the most out of your referral program, understand what motivates your employees to refer candidates, make the process as easy as possible and maintain good communication with both the referrer and referee.

Rethinking Candidate Generation Strategies

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Candidate generation strategies are crucial. In this time of rapid transformation and high competition for talent, employers face the challenge of evolving their talent generation strategies to stay ahead. For years, employers focused on attracting as many candidates as possible with the hypothesis that generating more applications was the best strategy to yield better quality hires. That approach to talent attraction and the metrics used to measure success are changing.

The old goal: Attract as many candidates as possible.

The new goal: Attract the strongest candidates who are the best motivational fit for your organization.

In this article, we cover the changing landscape of candidate attraction and why employers should develop a new, data-informed way of looking at job postings. We also present some specific strategies employers can put in place now and explore the benefits of these strategies.

When Sourcing Candidates Change is Not Optional

Many organizations remain stuck with outdated candidate generation strategies. Job titles and descriptions can go years without being updated to reflect the reality of the position or the ways that candidates look for jobs. Long, expensive contracts with specific job boards are common, even though the return on investment may be decreasing. There are several reasons why the old way is no longer working.

1. Employers look at the wrong metrics when building candidate generation strategies.

Many employers assume that a large number of views, clicks and even applications indicate an effective strategy, even when those numbers don’t translate to strong hires. At the same time, candidates are left frustrated by applying to jobs that are different than advertised and then facing rejection because they don’t align with the true requirements of the position or with an offer or a job that isn’t a good fit.

If a job posting yields too many unqualified candidates, it creates the risk of harming an organization’s employer brand. This is because when there are too many unqualified candidates, there is the risk of poor communication. Those candidates could become frustrated with a lack of communication and form a negative opinion of the organization which they could share with their own networks.

Employers need to modernize their candidate generation strategies and metrics to keep up with changing candidate expectations and advancements in workplace technology.

2. Candidate generation strategies: The process is expensive.

The practice of attracting large numbers of applicants is expensive. Employers pay to attract and process candidates who aren’t good fits. At one UK organization, we found that a dismissal at the CV review stage cost £1.92. This organization hired 6,000 employees for every 67,000 applicants. This means the cost of just the first stage was £117,000.00. The process of dispositioning an applicant after an interview is even more expensive.

3. Job postings aren’t optimized for the changing landscape.

The changing role of job boards is also disrupting the traditional process. The rollout of Google Jobs, for example, has made it easier for candidates to search for job postings the same way they search for everything else on the internet – and candidates have grown to expect this. Because of this, employers need to optimize job postings and use SEO strategies to ensure candidates will see those postings.

Candidate Generation Strategies for the Future

Building a Centralized Recruitment Function

By centralizing the recruitment function, employers build a team that can adapt more quickly to change and works more efficiently to put new strategies in place. HR leaders find that a centralized function allows all members of the team better insight into the full hiring process and helps them better understand how each step impacts the broader candidate journey.

It is also easier to test new strategies and deploy successful ideas throughout the entire recruitment function. Because there is no need to get the buy-in of other offices or teams, a centralized function can deploy changes quickly.

A centralized recruitment team also helps maintain consistent metrics and employer branding. When multiple teams are accountable for different parts of the process, those teams can start to shift over time to the point where aspects of an employer brand or the metrics used to define success can look different from team to team.

When processes are siloed it makes it more difficult for leaders to get a full view of the recruitment team and maintain consistency throughout the process. When the entire recruitment team is accountable to the same leader, the process remains more consistent.

Benefit: An accountable and synchronized recruitment team that can more effectively share your brand message.

Sharing an Honest Employer Brand

An authentic yet aspirational, unique and dynamic employer brand is key for employers looking to stand out in the competitive talent market. This type of employer brand will speak to candidates who fit with the current company culture but can also be an effective way to keep current employees aligned with shifting organizational priorities.

According to a report by Cornell University, organizations with a strong employer brand experience less turnover, a higher level of employee commitment, more buy-in to the corporate culture and increased engagement.

Successful deployment of an employer brand will include the development of media toolkits, with language, images, videos, social media posts, emails and more than the recruiting team can use to disseminate brand communications. Materials like these can be used to make sure your employer brand consistently comes through in job postings and advertisements.

Benefit: A strong employer brand will generate applicants who understand and fit in with your culture and who are excited to work for you.

Swapping Vanity Metrics for Sanity Metrics

As your goal changes from attracting the most candidates to attracting the right candidates, you need to adjust what metrics you monitor to see if you’re achieving your goal.

Vanity metrics can include data like the number of clicks or views you have for a job posting and the number of applications. These metrics don’t tell you whether the people who are clicking on your job advertisements or the candidates who are applying are good fits for the position or enthusiastic about working for you.

Sanity metrics are numbers like the ratio of clicks-to-hires or applications-to-hires. Sanity metrics can also include data about the performance and tenure of your new hires. These metrics tell you whether or not the right people are finding and applying to your job postings.

If you are looking at vanity metrics, you cannot tell if you are attracting the strongest talent.

Benefit: A more clear measure of whether you are meeting your goal of attracting the strongest candidates who are enthusiastic about working for you.

Using Data to Inform Decision Making When Sourcing Candidates

Data should be central to the candidate attraction process. Your team should consistently ask these four questions and make alterations to your recruitment process based on the answers the data provides.

1. Are you marketing your job properly for the audience you’re looking for?

Sanity metrics will tell you if your tailored approach to candidate attraction is working well. The exact ratios will vary from organization to organization and position to position, but your goal should be to decrease the ratio of clicks-to-hires and applications-to-hires while increasing performance metrics and tenure numbers on those hires. If you aren’t already tracking this information, you should gather historical data on the relevant positions and continue tracking performance and tenure data.

If, for example, you spend a significant amount of time and money reviewing applications from unqualified candidates, you can revise your job copy to reflect the more challenging parts of the job. One of our clients had challenges hiring for a door-to-door salesperson. The job posting gave a rosy view of the position, without mentioning the tougher parts.

This led to a high number of applications, but as candidates moved through the process, many realized they didn’t want the position. The cost of processing these applicants was high, as was new hire turnover once candidates started in the role.

By making the job posting more transparent about the challenges, applications decreased by 11 percent, despite a 10 percent increase in the salary for the position. The client saved 305 hours of hiring manager time over a three month period, made the same number of hires as before, spent less on candidate attraction, held fewer phone and face-to-face interviews and new hire turnover in the role dropped significantly.

2. Is your job title optimized for your audience?

Often, job titles at individual organizations are informed by organizational culture and tradition. These can lead to titles that haven’t changed in years or new and creative titles, like “digital prophet” or “crayon evangelist.” While these titles may function well inside an organization, they can’t attract candidates who search online for positions like “business analyst” or “design director” because those candidates will never find the positions.

Regardless of the job title you use internally, the job title you use in a posting should be informed by data. Tools like Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner can help develop SEO-friendly job titles that will help put your position at the top of search results. Popular job boards also provide click data, and you can perform A/B testing with your recruiting team to determine which job titles bring in the best candidates fastest.

One client was struggling to hire for a position they called “help desk advisor,” although the position was customer service related. Data showed that more people in the client’s location searched for jobs like “customer service representative.”

By changing the job title in the external job posting, the client received the same number of applications in two weeks that it normally received in six to eight weeks. Because of this, the time-to-offer and time-to-fill both decreased, and the client spent less on attracting candidates.

3. Is the most important information in your job posting laid out in the best way for readers?
Candidate Generation Strategies

If your marketing and optimization efforts are successful at bringing job seekers to your posting, you also need to make sure they get the information they need to decide if the position is the right fit and they want to take the step to apply. According to research by The Ladders, job seekers spend an average of 49.7 seconds deciding that a job isn’t right for them and 76.7 seconds deciding that it is a good fit. This only provides a short window of time to provide the information you want them to see.

By developing a strong employer brand, marketing the position properly and optimizing your job title, you will be able to provide the type of information the candidate needs to see to decide if your role is the right fit. Your challenge is to make sure they can digest it in less than one minute. The Ladders’ study used eye-tracking software to determine that most job seekers follow an “F” shape as they scan job postings.

This means, as you write up and lay out a job posting, you need to put the most important information in the first places a candidate will look. Using headings can also help candidates identify key criteria.

4. Are you using job boards effectively?

The introduction of Google Jobs drastically changed the landscape of job boards. For our UK client base, we are already seeing a decreased return on investment from job boards which has decreased our own spending. To ensure you are spending effectively on job boards, you need to constantly evaluate which boards perform better.

To do this, you need to find out which job boards send an appropriate number of the right candidates. Some boards may send a lot of candidates but very few are qualified. Others may send fewer and fewer candidates altogether. By monitoring this data, you can invest your budget into the right job boards to attract the right candidates. You should also monitor whether the job boards you use integrate with Google Jobs and what impact that will have on your application data because it could vary among different industries.

More benefits of data-driven methods:

  • Increased candidate quality and decreased turnover because you are attracting candidates who are enthusiastic about the position and your organization and who understand the responsibilities and requirements of the role.
  • Decreased time-to-fill and cost-of-vacancy because candidates who aren’t a good fit self-select out of the process, so you don’t waste money evaluating the wrong people.
  • Increased ability to attract the candidates of the future because you’re speaking to them where they are and in ways they expect as they search for new positions.

Candidate Generation Strategies: Key Takeaways

  • Rather than attracting as many applicants as possible, employers should focus on decreasing the number of unqualified or uninterested applicants while increasing the number of strong applicants.
  • Employers should use a data-informed process to guide their candidate attraction strategies.
  • Employers should consistently evaluate their use of job boards to match the quickly changing job board landscape.

Four Factors Impacting the Way Employers Interact with Candidates

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Across the globe, employers and candidates live in an accelerating state of change. Adapting is difficult for both workers and employers, but the process of changing strategies as an organization is more complicated. There are legacy systems in place – especially for large organizations – and traditions can become entrenched. Remaining nimble is a challenge. For that reason, it is important to watch the employment landscape and respond with smart and targeted strategies.

In this article, we will explore four factors driving changes in the way that employers interact with job candidates: the digital transformation, current global economic conditions, shifting trust and privacy expectations, and the changing landscape of job boards.

1. The Digital Transformation

In a study by Gartner, 80 percent of executives reported that they have a digital initiative underway and 69 percent believe that they need to become significantly more digital to remain competitive.

According to McKinsey, 51 percent of job activities can be automated, but fewer than 5 percent of jobs are can be completely replaced by machines. The report also determined that the pace of change is so rapid, that by 2030 as much as 14 percent of the global workforce could need to change occupational categories.

Employers need to respond by finding candidates who can lead through change and learn and adapt – rather than candidates who only excel at a job as it exists today. This is becoming even more difficult as top candidates are in high demand due to record-low unemployment rates in many major global economies.

Fast Company reports that in May 2018 employers posted 314,000 tech job openings and only filled 8,700 of them. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also projects employment of software developers to grow 24 percent through 2026, faster than the average for all other occupations.

What does this mean?

Employers need to be able to attract and identify the candidates of the future – the people who have the skills and mindset needed to drive success into the future. That means developing an employer value proposition, or EVP, and an employer brand platform that is unique, authentic yet aspirational, and dynamic, sharing your EVP with your target audience, using innovative, data-driven strategies to attract candidates for the future and assessing candidates to identify those with a growth mindset.

2. Global Economic Conditions

In the decade since the start of the global economic downturn, many countries have recovered and now have competitive, candidate-driven markets for talent.

In the U.S., the unemployment rate is down to 3.7 percent. In the UK, it is down to 4.0 percent. There are strong employment numbers around the world. In a competitive market, employers need to be proactive about attracting both active and passive candidates.

Additionally, people are starting to feel more comfortable leaving their jobs, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for employers. It means that you have an opportunity to bring in strong candidates, but it also means that some of your strongest employees could leave for greener pastures.

With all of the press coverage about the state of the global economy, in-demand candidates will also recognize that the hiring landscape has changed. This, coupled with the potential for multiple offers, means that top candidates will have higher expectations – not only in regard to salary but also the purpose, mission and culture of the employer they choose.

What does this mean?

Employers around the globe should look for the best talent and use innovative assessment techniques to identify those who derive purpose from the work done by the organization and who are passionate about the mission. Employers should also ensure their offers and workplace culture lives up to and exceeds the expectations of the best candidates, and they should invest more in retaining top talent.

3. Shifting Trust and Privacy

Candidates are growing more cautious about which organizations they trust and who can have access to their personal data. Candidates in the U.S. and Europe have been exposed to political disinformation campaigns that left many reevaluating their sources of information. Additionally, privacy issues at Facebook have motivated many candidates to increase their social media privacy settings.

As a result, research shows that many people have grown to distrust traditional advertising from brands. Instead, more people are relying on recommendations from friends and relatives, according to Nielson. Forbes reports candidates are asking more about reviews on Glassdoor and issues that they read about online like turnover rates and layoffs. Consumers are also taking steps to avoid ads, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that 80 percent of adults in America use at least one ad blocking method.

While most candidates have some information available online for employers to find, some of the most tech-savvy are cutting back. According to Pew Research, 74 percent of American Facebook users have either taken a break from the site, adjusted their privacy settings or deleted the app from their phone. Another survey found that half of consumers in the UK don’t trust anyone with their personal information.

Beyond reactions from candidates, employers also face increasing regulations. The GDPR, or EU General Data Protection Regulation, took effect in May 2018. It requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. TechRepublic reports that 61 percent of compliance professionals say they’re concerned that the reduced data availability and new requirements of GDPR could impact future sourcing and recruiting. In the U.S., California recently passed the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. These laws are popular with voters, and employers should expect privacy concerns to be a continuing issue.

Despite these issues, Forbes reports that HR teams still have more data now than ever before. Employers benefit from the growing amount of data available, but they should keep in mind its limitations.

What does this mean?

Employers should work to build an authentic EVP and employer brand platform to gain trust and buy-in from candidates. This should include the development of brand ambassadors who can reach candidates who are skeptical of traditional information channels. By developing an employer brand platform that takes advantage of peer-to-peer networking, employers can break through the walls put up by ad-blocking software and ad-skeptical candidates. The authenticity of the message is key to appearing more trustworthy.

4. The Changing Role of Job Boards

The role of job boards is also changing rapidly. Google Jobs makes it easier for candidates to search for job postings the same way they search for everything else on the internet – and candidates have grown to expect this. According to Forbes, the second page of Google search results accounts for only 6 percent of all website clicks. This means that to ensure your target audience can find your available positions, you must have job descriptions optimized for search.

Inc. reports that Google’s preference for relevant text- and video-based content will also apply to Google Jobs results. Employers need to be SEO-savvy to get postings in front of candidates. Additionally, many candidates now search for jobs using the same search engines that supply information like Glassdoor reviews and news stories about your organization.

Job boards and aggregators have also changed in response to Google Jobs. Candidates no longer need to search a variety of job boards to find postings that match their skills. Because of this, for our UK client base, we are already seeing a decreased return on investment from job boards which has decreased our own spending.

What does this mean?

Employers need to be able to respond quickly as the job board environment changes. Google Jobs has only been available in the U.S. since 2017, and it was only introduced in the UK in 2018. This means there are still more changes to come. Employers should constantly evaluate which job boards bring in the most high-quality candidates in a cost-effective way and consistently adjust their strategy.

Where to Go from Here

In response to this rapid change, these four factors should be seen as challenges and opportunities, not barriers to success. Employers can use strategies like employer branding, new ways of generating candidates and assessments built for the future to set themselves apart. 

Employee Retention: Combating Turnover

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

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

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

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

Employee Retention: Employee Turnover and What To Do About It

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

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

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

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

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

Create a Positive Workplace Culture  

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

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

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

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

Encourage Trusting Safe Relationships

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

Be Empathic

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

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

Key Action:

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

Professional Development

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

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

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

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

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

Key Action:

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

Management and Leadership

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Key Action:

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

Using Predictive Analytics to Track Turnover

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leveraging Interviews to Improve Employee Retention

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

Exit Interviews

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

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

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

Tips for conducting effective exit interviews:

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

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

Key Action:

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

Stay Interviews

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

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

Questions to ask during a stay interview:

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

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

Key Action:

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

The Gist:

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

PeopleScout UK Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018

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

UK Jobs Report Analysis — November 2018


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


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

Wages

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


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

Job Vacancies

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


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

EU Nationals as Part of the UK Workforce

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


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


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


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


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


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

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

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

The Numbers

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

The Good

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

The Bad

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

The Unknown

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

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

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U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — October 2018

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


The Numbers

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

The Good

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

The Bad

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

The Unknown

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