Category: Talent Acquisition Strategy

A Look into the Gig Economy

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According to research conducted by Freelancing in America, an estimated 57.3 million Americans—36 percent of the American workforce—work as freelancers or participate in gig work.  What’s more, a study conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute found that 20-30 percent of the labor force in the European Union is now made up of independent workers who are self-employed or do temporary work. Thanks to the rise of freelancing platforms such as Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit and Fiverr, finding non-traditional means of employment is easier than ever.

So what does the gig economy mean for employers and employees alike? How will recruiting tactics and strategies adapt to meet the challenges and opportunities provided by the gig economy? In this post, we explore the effects, benefits and challenges facing employers and employees participating in the gig economy.

The Gig Economy’s Effect on Workers

Based on job search results across their site, Indeed discovered that interest in flexible and non-traditional work has increased 42 percent since 2013 based on the number of candidates looking for job postings that include the words “remote,” “work from home,” and “telecommute.” What’s more, a BLS survey reports the total number of contingency-based jobs grew from 14,826,000 in 2005 to 15,482,000 in 2017, a gain of 656,000 jobs or 4.6 percent over twelve years.

From college students unable to commit to full-time work to people looking to supplement their income, people searching for gig work come from all walks of life. Below, we cover the benefits and challenges confronting gig workers.

Increased Flexibility

For workers in the gig economy, flexibility is one of the biggest benefits. In fact, in a study of Uber drivers the drivers were asked the following question: “If both were available to you, at this point in your life, would you rather have a steady 9-to-5 job with some benefits and a set salary or a job where you choose your own schedule and be your own boss?” 73 percent of respondents selected flexibility over a traditional job. This indicates that workers looking for gig work are searching for a job that fits their lifestyle, skill set and schedule.

No Experience Necessary

Most gig jobs have low barriers to entry, making on-demand work easy to start. For ridesharing services like Lyft or Uber, all an applicant needs is a vehicle, a valid driver’s license and a clean driving record. For room-sharing services like Airbnb, all you need is an extra room. Zirtual provides opportunities for micro-tasking as a virtual assistant for potential workers with good administrative abilities and technical skills. Gig workers should think about their interests and skills and to find gig opportunities that complement their strengths.

Worker Concerns

On-demand and gig labor provide opportunities for employment for workers of all ages, skill levels and educational backgrounds. However, contract work typically means that most of the protections and benefits afforded to W-2 employees are absent in the gig economy. Severance packages, disability leave, PTO, sick days, health insurance and workers compensation are just a few of the benefits afforded to employees but not contractors, freelancers or gig workers. Freelance workers often work other jobs to receive the protections and benefits often absent in gig work.

The Gig Economy’s Effect on Businesses

The most obvious appeal of hiring temporary staff is that you can build a responsive workforce, tailored to suit your business goals and objectives. Organizations can quickly scale their workforces to supplement in-house staff or find workers with the skills needed to tackle important projects. In this section, we outline the strategies employers can use to optimize gig hiring.

Hire for the Right Positions

Employers should carefully consider which specific jobs they need freelancers to perform and make sure the contractors clearly understand what they are expected to deliver. For example, in creative work, organizations need to outline specific deliverables so that both parties can agree when the project is considered complete.

Organizations need to also keep in mind that contract work is not suitable for all roles and projects. If an organization needs workers for a long-term project, it is sometimes best to hire permanent staff as a contractor for a 2-year project may be more costly than hiring a full-time employee. Contract employees with skills in high demand may prefer to work short contracts to maintain their flexibility.

Leverage Technology

Sourcing, vetting, contracting and paying a consistent flow of gig workers is time-consuming. This additional work can overwhelm HR and procurement departments. To streamline these processes, organizations can use robust technology solutions that combine multiple processes into one platform. These platforms can automate the contracting and payment processes to reduce administrative work and keep track of gig workers and the projects they are working on.

Provide Benefits

A report from the Texas Workforce Investment Council found that a major drawback for gig workers is the lack of benefits available. The report also found that as long as employers pay gig workers a competitive wage, they are happy to purchase their own benefits. Most gig opportunities do not provide benefits. This presents an opportunity for organizations looking to attract gig employees. Workers may be more willing to take an opportunity or work consistently for an employer if they can rely on even a modest benefits package or pay rates that allow them to purchase their own benefits.

Managing Gig Employees

Effectively managing a gig workforce is complex. A thorough understanding of the gig economy can help organizations integrate policies and processes into company strategy and structure. The following are three key areas of gig workforce management and how you can best approach them.

Worker Misclassification

Depending on how gig workers are managed on the job, employers run the risk of a worker being managed as if they are a W-2 employee. Even when hiring managers have a good understanding of the difference between an employee and a contractor, managers may still treat contractors as W-2 employees. This can be an expensive mistake. In cases where misclassification is deemed unintentional, an employer may be charged:

  • A $50 fee for each W-2 that was not filed
  • 1.5 percent of the employee’s wages, plus interest
  • 40 percent of the employee’s FICA (Social Security and Medicare) contributions
  • 100 percent of the employer’s matching FICA contributions

Employees who believe they have been misrepresented can file a complaint with the Department of Labor or their state labor agency. Misclassification can usually be avoided by partnering with an MSP, RPO or total workforce solutions partner with a focus on compliance.

Employee Quality

The quality of workers in a gig-based economy can be hit or miss. Unless an employer reviews every potential workers’ prior work experience and history, they can never know the quality of worker they are getting. By working with an MSP provider and reputable staffing firms, organizations can rest assured that they are getting workers who have been properly vetted against their requirements. What’s more, if a worker fails to meet your organization’s standard, you can work with your MSP or staffing supplier to source and hire better quality workers.

Supervision

Someone within your organization needs to be responsible for ensuring gig workers deliver on their contracts. Some employers do not have the infrastructure to keep up with a high number of freelancers and projects. Organizations can ensure projects are on track and workers are delivering on their promises by assigning staff to monitor gig workers.

RPO Role in the Gig Economy

For many organizations, the demand on HR to recruit talent and manage an organization’s traditional workforce can interfere with their ability to handle similar responsibilities for gig workers. An RPO partner can help in two major ways:

  • Delivering a complete end-to-end solution for talent acquisition, retention and utilization for the short-term work requirements of an organization’s talent acquisition program.
  • Providing the tools and technology needed to hire and manage gig workers.

To learn more about how an RPO provider can help meet your gig hiring and talent acquisitions needs, visit PeopleScout’s RPO services page.

How to Create and Provide a Positive Candidate Experience

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The world of hiring is more candidate-driven than ever before. Professionals in various industries at different levels of experience are in high demand, and that means they have more options when it comes to choosing an employer. The presence of options, coupled with the rising bargaining power of employees, has lifted candidate experience to the top of many organization’s list of talent acquisition and workforce management priorities.

Generally, the better the candidate experience, the more likely an organization is to attract the best talent. Top candidates demand compelling experiences during and after the hiring process. In this post, we outline ways organizations can improve their candidate experience to gain an advantage over the competition.

Why is Candidate Experience Important?

The candidate experience covers the entire recruitment process from before an application is submitted to onboarding, and everything in between. Poor experiences during the recruiting process can negatively impact an employer’s ability to hire talent. In fact, 27 percent of candidates who have a bad experience would “actively discourage others to apply.” What’s more, 77 percent of candidates are likely to share positive experiences with those in their network.

Today, candidates have more choices, making it harder for employers to differentiate themselves and establish how their values, company culture and employees represent a unique opportunity for top candidates. Through a positive candidate experience, organizations can gain the trust and loyalty of applicants who may become advocates for an organization and help bolster their employer brand. With a stronger employer brand, organizations can distinguish themselves as an employer of choice in their industry.

Candidate Experience Touchpoints

Every interaction with an organization, from job postings and career sites to speaking with a recruiter or hiring manager can positively or negatively impact the candidate’s perception of an organization. Candidates often decide whether or not to accept a job offer based on how they were treated throughout the hiring process.

Each touchpoint throughout the hiring process—from attraction and sourcing to onboarding—should be taken into consideration when optimizing your candidate experience. The following are tips on how to enhance your candidate experience.

Employer Branding

In today’s digital-obsessed world, most candidates use the internet to research an potential employer prior to applying for a job. Having a strong employer brand not only helps build a connection with a prospective hire, but it introduces them to who you are, what you do and why you are a great place to work.

There are many ways in which a company can work to optimize its employer brand. For example, organizations can ask current employees to leave reviews on Glassdoor or submit a quote about their experience to be used in recruiting materials. Social media savvy employees can also be encouraged to share company culture through news, photos and events.

Employer branding messages should be communicated across all platforms that are relevant to the organization’s business and recruitment efforts such as job boards, social media platforms and industry publications.

Make a Good First Impression

According to a CareerBuilder study, 57 percent of candidates conduct their preliminary research by visiting an organization’s website, making it clear that career pages and candidate-facing web pages need to be designed to capture an applicant’s interest.

An effective career site should make visitors feel welcome and give applicants the information they are looking for, such as details about employment opportunities, company culture and work environment.

Career sites should be both engaging and easy to understand. An excellent online experience can motivate candidates to apply and differentiate employers from competitors.

Respond to Candidates

CareerBuilder also reports that 47 percent of candidates never receive any form of communication from the organization they apply to, even past 60 days after applying. This leaves a huge opportunity for organizations to provide superior communication and recruitment marketing.

Every candidate deserves a response, even if they will not be given an interview. Whether the response is an automated email, a letter or a phone call, as long as it is prompt and tactful, applicants will not feel that they wasted their time.

Organizations who treat every candidate equally are more likely to have applicants reapply to the company or encourage family, friends and coworkers to apply.

Create Unique Experiences

An optimized application process should be tailored based on different criteria such as the role, location or technical experience required. For example, certain positions may require rigorous technical screening questions, while others might rely more on personality or cultural fit. Organizations can even display specific job postings in an applicant’s preferred language to make them feel more comfortable with the hiring process.

Employers can also build a way for applicants to showcase their personal interests and non-work-related activities throughout the application process. This allows candidates to display their personality in addition to just experience; organizations can also use this opportunity to learn about additional skills that may make a hire more desirable.

Improving the Application Process

Many qualified candidates are lost because organizations lack a streamlined and easy application process.

To improve the application process, organizations should ask the following questions:

  • What does the application process look like? Is it long? Is it tedious?
  • What happens after a candidate completes the application?
  • How will they know if they have been selected to move on through the hiring process?

Below, we outline some additional ways to improve the candidate experience through improving the application process.

Mobile-Friendly Applications

Job seekers today spend time on their smartphone doing everything from buying birthday gifts to scheduling doctor appointments. In fact, according to Pew Research Center, 53 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds and 43 percent of all users have used a smartphone as part of a job search. Yet, many employers still offer an outdated or poorly designed mobile application experience.

Because so many candidates learn about job opportunities on their mobile devices, organizations need to create a mobile-friendly application experience. Candidates—in particular, high-demand candidates such as those working in technology and executives—may judge an organization by its technology and application processes. Being perceived as “outdated” could damage an organization’s employer brand.

At PeopleScout, we understand the importance of creating an optimized application experience across all devices, which is why we built Affinix to be mobile-first. Learn more about PeopleScout’s mobile-friendly recruiting solutions with AffinixTM.

Job Descriptions

A well-written job description can engage a candidate and convince them to apply for a position. However, there is a disconnect when it comes to job descriptions, with 72 percent of hiring managers stating that they provide clear job descriptions, while only 36 percent of applicants agree.

Organizations should perform a quality check on their job descriptions and ask the question, “Could these descriptions describe any company?” If they can, the descriptions probably rely on a list of generic skills and traits, which may deter top candidates from applying while inviting unqualified ones.

Instead, organizations should write job descriptions that highlight what a candidate would be expected to achieve during their first month, three months, six months and a year into the job. The improved clarity will provide candidates with a clear understanding of what they can expect if they are hired.

Shorten Applications

The length of a job application can have a major impact on candidate experience. A study conducted by Indeed found that 88.7 percent of potential applicants abandon the application process if there are 45 or more screener questions. What’s more,  43 percent of candidates spent more than 30 minutes completing an application, and 12 percent spent more than one hour.

A “Quick Apply” feature that only collects the most pertinent information required to move a candidate forward in the process can help shorten job applications. Many ATSs have features that allow applicants to import their resume from other sites such as LinkedIn or auto-fill parts of the application to save time. By shortening the application time, organizations will have more candidates completing the process, adding to the applicant pool and increasing the chances of finding the right hire.

Provide a Positive Interview Experience

A positive interview experience can present a positive image of a company, improving the odds of the best candidate accepting a job offer.

During the interview, one of the most effective ways to get good responses is by using behavioral interviewing techniques. Behavioral interviewing is the concept that past experience is a good indicator of future performance. Questions that begin with “Tell me about a time,” or “Describe a moment when,” are usually behavioral in nature. It allows the candidate to share an experience from their past.

Ultimately, a well-defined interview process will give everyone the comfort to ask and receive the best answers.

How RPO Providers can Help with Candidate Experience

From the initial recruiting email or phone call to onboarding, high-quality talent expects a high-quality candidate experience. An RPO provider who makes smart use of technology and recruiting strategies can help deliver high-quality experiences that make candidates feel important. An RPO partner’s recruiting teams spend hours cultivating relationships with candidates. The rapport they build with candidates helps establish relationships that over time lead to making quality hires and recruiting success.

Organizations who partner with PeopleScout can build a world-class, global candidate experience that features personalized messaging, social recruitment, retargeting and programmatic prospecting as well as data-driven decision making.

PeopleScout Canada Jobs Report Analysis — June 2018

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Canada Jobs Report Analysis — June 2018

Statistics Canada released its June 2018 Labour Force Survey which shows 32,000 jobs added to the Canadian economy. While unemployment rose by 0.2 percentage points to 6.0 percent, this was due to an increase in job seekers.

The Numbers

32,000: The economy added 32,000 jobs in June.
6.0%: The unemployment rate rose to 6.0 percent.
3.6%: Wages increased 3.6 percent over the last year.

The Good

The 32,000 jobs added in June beat analyst expectations. Many of the gains were in important sectors like construction, manufacturing and natural resources. The rise in the unemployment rate is due to the addition of nearly 76,000 job seekers to the labour force which suggests that more Canadians are optimistic that they can find work due to the strong economy. Year-over-year wage growth is relatively strong at 3.6 percent.

The Bad

The aggregate job gain figures in June do not tell the whole story. Canada added only 9,100 full-time jobs in June and 22,700 part-time positions. The services sectors lost 14,700 jobs mostly because of big decreases in accommodation and food services positions. The wholesale and retail trade also had a significant decrease in jobs last month.
Additionally, the job gains only came from three provinces: Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Everywhere else the market either shed jobs or remained flat.

The Unknown

Trade uncertainties with the U.S. cast the biggest shadow over economic forecasts for the coming months. NAFTA renegotiations dominate and undermine the outlook for the export sector. This is particularly important for the non-energy sector, which has already had several industries being subjected to tariffs this year.
Additionally, these numbers were released just days before the Bank of Canada’s decision on interest rates. Analysts expect that despite the trade concerns, employment and wage growth numbers are strong enough to prompt an increase in the benchmark.

PeopleScout U.S. Jobs Report Analysis — June 2018

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The Labor Department released its June jobs report which shows 213,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy – continuing the longest stretch of job growth in the nation’s history. Increased participation in the labor market brought the unemployment rate up to 4.0 percent.

The Numbers

213,000: The economy added 213,000 jobs in June.
4.0%: The unemployment rate rose to 4.0 percent.
2.7%: Wages increased 2.7 percent over the last year.

The Good

The 213,000 jobs added in June beat analyst expectations. The rise in the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points is not bad news because it was caused by the increase in the workforce. Americans who have been sitting on the sidelines of the job market are being drawn in by the strong hiring environment.
Year over year job growth for many major sectors is impressive. In the last year, manufacturing has added 285,000 jobs; business and professional services increased by 521,000 jobs and employment in healthcare rose by 309,000.

The Bad

The tight labor market is having a negative impact on seasonal hires. The shortage of summer seasonal workers such as lifeguards is causing curtailing of services and higher wages, the cost of which may be passed onto consumers.
The U6, which is the unemployment measure that includes those too discouraged to look for work and workers in part-time jobs who want to work full-time, rose to 7.8 percent from 7.6 percent in May. The U-6 remains somewhat elevated compared to the last time unemployment was similarly low.

The Unknown

It is unclear how much the labor force can expand due to an aging population. With job openings continuing to increase, there is no clear path for how to attract those who have stayed outside the workforce in recent years.
While some hiring has been scaled back due to recently imposed tariffs and fears of a full-scale trade war, uncertainty remains regarding future commodity prices and inventory shortfalls which can have a profound effect on the nation’s economic health.

Talking Talent: Navigating the Talent Acquisition Challenges of a Major Hospital Expansion

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In this episode of Talking Talent, we talk to Dr. Ekta Vyas, the Director of Human Resources at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford I Stanford Children’s Health, about the challenges she faced during the major hospital expansion of the new Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.


The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford is nationally ranked and recognized in 10 specialties and has been for 13 consecutive years. The new expanded facility opened in December 2017, a more than half-a-million square foot building that doubled the size of the existing pediatric and obstetric hospital campus. It added 149 patient beds, bringing the total on the Palo Alto campus to 361. This new facility is America’s most technologically advanced, family-friendly and environmentally sustainable hospital for children and expectant mothers and has proudly earned the LEED Platinum distinction.


Dr. Ekta Vyas led the employer branding strategy and recruitment infrastructure development work. As a trained industrial/organizational psychology practitioner with 20 years of experience, Ekta is a regular conference and panel speaker and has been published in academic and practitioner journals. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, and also currently serves as adjunct faculty at San Jose State University School of Management (within Lucas College of Business).


Among the challenges facing the Human Resources group was the need to hire more than 500 new employees for a high acuity environment; the complexity of hiring in Silicon Valley along with the high cost of living and commuting barriers it brings; and synchronizing strategic timelines between Corporate Marketing, Hospital Expansion, and the Talent Acquisition teams. This hiring need was in addition to their regular average recruitment – based on standard turnover for normal business operations.


The success of this project is being widely recognized across healthcare and other industries and has been published as a case study in the Fall 2017 issue of Journal of HR People + Strategy. Ekta recently presented this work at the People in Healthcare (Talent Management Alliance) conference and as a keynote at NCHRA’s Talent Acquisition conference.


Ekta has been in the healthcare industry for 12 years and before this undertaking was a Director of HR at Stanford University Medical Center.
You can listen to our first Talking Talent podcast, How HR Technology Can Combat Staffing Shortages in Healthcare, here.

Strategies for Building an Effective Talent Community

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Competition for talent is increasing across the globe, and employers are looking for innovative strategies to stay ahead of the competition. To gain a competitive advantage, employers are deploying a variety of methods. Wages are on the rise after years of slow growth. New graduates face strong prospects for employment. Even retirement is starting to look different for older workers with important skills. Finding new ways to source and attract workers with the skills of the future is a growing need.

In the U.S., years of job growth have led to the lowest unemployment rate in decades. Around the world, favorable job conditions are making it more difficult for employers to hire the talent they need. Adding to the challenge, employers are facing a skills shortage as they look to hire candidates who have the training, education and experience to bring their workforce into the future. This pressure is even greater in industries that are currently adapting to disruptive technology, like the auto industry. While reskilling and future degree programs can help increase the size of the talent pipeline in the future, employers still need to find and hire talent today. Building a talent community is a promising solution.

What is a Talent Community?

A talent community is a sourcing strategy that is an ongoing, multifaceted approach to candidate engagement that creates employment brand ambassadors and a talent pool that begins to feed itself. It is a process rather than an event and takes continual effort to maintain.

Traditional sourcing starts with a job opening. From there, a job description is written and disseminated. A sourcing specialist may search their contacts and social media to find a candidate with skills that match, but the process largely involves posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to find you.

In a talent community, the process is cyclical. It starts before a job requisition is created, and it doesn’t stop when a candidate is hired. Employers consistently build profiles of the types of candidates they would like for roles they may need to fill in the future. Then, employers need to build pipelines through technology, partnerships and employer branding initiatives to connect with those people, whether the employer currently has a job opening for that candidate or not. Finally, when a candidate gets to the point of applying, the experience throughout that process needs to be so strong that even candidates who do not make it through the process will become ambassadors for that brand and continue to apply for open positions in the future.

Building a talent community sourcing strategy has a host of benefits for employers. A community is sustainable. It can feed itself. This means decreased time-to-fill and cost-of-vacancy because candidates who are interested in working for an organization are waiting for a job to be posted rather than a recruiter posting a job and waiting for the right candidate to apply. It also leads to increased quality of hire because the employer has already determined the ideal candidate persona and has built a pipeline to find those people. When more qualified candidates are in that pipeline, the likelihood of making a strong hire goes up.

Why Talent Communities Alone Aren’t Enough

  • They have to be combined with great employer branding.
  • Your content has to be engaging and of value to the audience.
  • You have to have the right mix of viable candidates with the skills and experience that your company values, and ambassadors for your employer brand.
  • It is what you put into it, not what you take out–you have to cultivate the community or it will stagnate.

Using Employer Branding to Build a Talent Community

As employers work to create a talent community they need to build an employer brand that stands out from other organizations they compete with for talent. Organizations with a strong employer brand can stand out in a crowded landscape and draw in more candidates. There are several strategies employers can use to build their brands.

Online Talent Communities

An online talent community is a way to continue to communicate with candidates who may be interested in working for you in the future but can’t find a job opening that meets their skills and needs right now. It is also a way to engage with candidates who apply to jobs they aren’t qualified for yet but still have potential. An online community allows candidates to provide their contact information, resume and job interests. Then, the organization can search those resumes when a position opens, and it can send matching job openings to the candidate. This keeps the employer at the front of a candidate’s mind and provides recruiters with a slate of candidates every time a requisition opens.

Recruitment Email Marketing

Many organizations use email marketing as a part of their traditional marketing strategy, but it is also important in employment branding. Email marketing can be used in partnership with an online talent community. Organizations can send recruitment marketing emails to share job openings, as well as information about their culture. One caveat to using email marketing as a part of an employer branding strategy is that the emails should be as personalized as possible. A candidate who has provided their resume should only receive job openings that correspond with their skillsets. Data about candidates can also be used to personalize how often candidate receive emails or at what time of the day they are sent. Regulations like CAN-SPAM in the U.S. and GDPR in the EU regulate email marketing, and we discuss those later in this post.

Social Media

Every organization should have a strategy for sharing its employment brand on social media, though that strategy may look different for different companies. One option is to create a separate “careers” social media page where the organization can post job openings and information about the workplace, culture and current employees. At PeopleScout, we recommend this strategy to our clients and work with them to optimize their existing pages to showcase their employer brand. This strategy works well for employers with a strong brand presence and large volume of hires. Another option, especially for smaller organizations, is to include some employer branding on their traditional social media accounts. In this approach, employer branding related posts that share information about the workplace and culture should be interspersed between standard social media posts.

Video

Many employers are familiar with video interviewing, but video can enhance employer branding in several additional ways and doesn’t always need high production quality. One example is video job descriptions. A job posting could include a short video of a hiring manager talking about the job and what they are looking for. A video like this gives a candidate a better understanding of the job and gives them a glimpse into the culture of the organization. Additionally, organizations can use video to show workplace tours, so job seekers get an idea of what working for an organization might look like. If an organization is hiring for a lot of entry-level roles but frequently promotes within the company, a video that shows an employee’s career path from entry-level to a leadership role can also motivate candidates to apply for hard-to-fill entry-level jobs.

Chatting and Text

Another method of building a strong employer brand is communicating with candidates in the ways candidates want to communicate. Chat and text are growing in popularity. Some employers are deploying chatbots throughout their recruitment process. For others, a chat window with limited hours but access to a live recruiter can be successful. While many employers may be cautious to start a system to text messages candidates, several PeopleScout clients have found success and higher rates of candidate engagement.

Using Innovative Technology to Power a Talent Community

While a compelling employer brand is important for attracting strong candidates, it’s not enough to stay ahead in the current competitive landscape. Innovative technology solutions can help employers source top talent faster than the competition.

Geofencing

Geofencing can be used in a few different ways during the sourcing process. Much like targeted ads for restaurants or stores can be delivered to a person’s cell phone or computer based on where that person is located, job ads can be targeted to candidates in a specific geographical area as well. This can be valuable to employers that have a variety of locations spread across a large geographical area. Geofencing can be used to target job ads at candidates near specific branches. It can also be used for industry events or expos where a large number of potential candidates could be in one location at the same time.

AI Sourcing

Artificial intelligence sourcing can provide recruiters with a solid slate of candidates as soon as a requisition is opened, giving the recruiter a strong head start to fill the role. An AI sourcing solution that uses predictive analytics modeling can also provide the recruiter with information about how well the candidate matches the job opening and how likely the candidate is to leave their current role. With this information, recruiters are able to work more quickly and efficiently, filling the role with the best talent in less time. In the end, it saves companies time and money. At PeopleScout, AI sourcing is built into AffinixTM, PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology solution.

AI Data Tracking

AI data tracking can be used to make other sourcing and employer branding strategies more effective. Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics can understand and predict candidate behaviors. By tracking what time of day candidates apply, open emails or use social media, employers can schedule email marketing and social media posts to maximize the number of candidates who will see and click on job postings. Employers can also use this data to optimize their ad spend on job boards, so the ads appear when the best candidates are most likely to be online. One PeopleScout client had data that showed most of its applicants applied after lunch on Wednesdays. By posting jobs just before that timeframe, the employer saw a 15 percent increase in applications.

Finding a Partner

As employers work to build their own talent communities, an RPO provider can be a valuable partner. The right RPO partner will have a wealth of knowledge gleaned from experience solving a wide variety of problems and successfully sourcing and recruiting in a number of markets and industries. Employers can benefit from that collective knowledge.

Additionally, working with an RPO partner provides compliance benefits. Many of the sourcing strategies addressed in this article are impacted by GDPR, CAN-SPAM and other regulations, as well as regulations by the OFCCP. RPO providers have years of experience with these regulations and strong checks in place to ensure all sourcing strategies are compliant. This can provide peace of mind for employers.

Employers working with RPO partners will also see financial benefits, including reducing or eliminating agency spend. At PeopleScout, some clients have gone from agency usage as high as 25 percent or more to zero. To accomplish that, employers need to be committed from the top down to building the sourcing infrastructure to implement a talent community.

To find an RPO partner who is a good fit, employers should look for providers who possess customizable offerings that can be adapted to meet every need. A one-size-fits-all approach ignores the specific needs of employers in different industries and the unique challenges that can arise in recruiting in different markets. To build a strong talent community, employers should look for an RPO partner who can successfully deploy and manage these innovative sourcing strategies.

2018 Q2 Economic Snapshot

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Very strong job growth and low unemployment were the headlines in many of the world’s leading economies in the second quarter of 2018.

However, employers were faced with the increasingly difficult tasks of attracting and retaining talent in a historically tight labor market and responding to impending wage pressures. Uncertainties in the labor supply created by Brexit and immigration restrictions were exacerbated by the introduction of tariffs by the U.S. and the threat of trade wars in the coming months.

Strong Job Markets


Robust job markets and low unemployment were the major headlines in many of the world’s largest economies in the second quarter of 2018. In the United States, the number of job openings reached a record high. In the UK, the unemployment rate was at its lowest point in over 40 years. Canada continued to experience record low unemployment and Australia had consecutive months of job gains.


Faced with the tightest job markets in recent years, employers are focused on effective strategies to attract and retain talent. The difficult hiring environment is leading companies to rethink established norms in their recruitment processes. The strong demand for talent is showing no signs of easing. Companies seeking to compete successfully should consider developing strategic partnerships with organizations that can provide intelligence and expertise in recruitment and retaining talent.

Wages – The End of Stagnation


Wage pressures have intensified in response to the robust labor market. In the U.S., the period of relative stagnation in wage growth is perceived to be ending. In the UK, salaries for new positions rose at their fastest rate in three years. Canadian workers experienced their biggest wage increase in nearly a decade. And even without significant inflation, the national minimum wage in Australia is slated to increase 3.5 percent on July 1, potentially impacting salaries nationwide.


With record job openings available in many markets, employees are increasingly confident that they can easily find a new job. Since the top reason for workers to find a new job is to increase their salary, employers face the dual challenge of adjusting their wages as needed to retain their current workers and set starting salaries for new jobs at levels that will attract talent. Arriving at wage levels that will not unnecessarily strain profit margins is becoming an increasingly important task for human resource professionals.

Barriers to the Free Movement of Talent


Uncertainty over the availability of talent comprised of foreign nationals due to Brexit and immigration restrictions in the U.S. continued to raise concern. In the UK, sectors such as social care, technology and hospitality could be impacted especially hard. A recent survey found that one in ten hospitality workers are considering leaving the UK due to Brexit. The same survey found that 18 percent of hospitality managers are finding that recruiting new staff is more difficult due to Britain’s status change with the EU. In the U.S., restrictive immigration policies are blamed for the stall in IT job growth. Adding to the uncertainty of the U.S. workforce, the future status of the more than 600,000 U.S. residents granted permission to live and work under the Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) act was left unsettled by the U.S. Congress.


The policy-driven talent shortages in some countries are contrasted by others such as Japan and Canada that are making efforts to attract talent from abroad. The ambiguities in possible policy decisions regarding immigration and the free movement of labor drive the need for employers to craft flexible recruitment programs. Companies that find it difficult to find full-time talent may want to consider Managed Service Providers (MSPs) that provide scalability through contingent labor.

Social Media, Privacy and Sourcing


There are important developments affecting the way employers utilize social media for recruitment and employer branding. New regulations in Europe under GDPR went into effect on May 25. GDPR requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. GDPR applies to any collection of data for those living or working in the EU, regardless of the location of the organization accessing this data. The new rules include notification requirements, up-front security measures and other privacy safeguards.


The data breach at Facebook, the world’s largest social media platform, impacted 87 million users whose personal data may have been unknowingly shared with Cambridge Analytica. A study released in April showed that confidence in Facebook dropped by 66 percent since the Cambridge Analytica scandal emerged. In addition to implementing new compliance requirements necessitated by GDPR, businesses may need to review and adjust their recruitment and marketing practices in order to be effective in the evolving social media landscape.

Addressing the Skills Gap Part I: Apprenticeships


Employers that are struggling to find talent with the right skills can turn to a solution that pre-dates the industrial revolution: apprenticeships. Apprenticeships enable workers to gain valuable skills and experience so that they can be fully productive employees at a future date. In the United States, the Department of Labor announced resources for apprenticeships as part of a public/private partnership. For example, employers can apply for registered apprenticeships and create “on-the-job training contracts” and have costs reimbursed for up to 50 percent of wage rates paid to participants for up to six months.


In June, it was announced that the Skilling Australians Fund will be providing AUD 1.5 Billion to create as many as 300,000 apprenticeships. Public resources for apprenticeships are available throughout the EU, the UK, Canada and many other countries. To successfully incorporate apprentice programs as part of an overall talent attraction and training strategy, and learn the steps to take to access public funds, organizations can utilize the expertise of a Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) company to ensure that its workforce has the right skills to succeed for many years to come.

Key Takeaways for Employers


Historically strong job markets combined with the uncertainties brought about by restrictions in immigration and trade requires employers to be both intelligent and agile in attracting and retaining talent. Organizations can expect to reap the benefits of a strong economy only if they have the talent to support the growth that can be generated by a prosperous environment.

How to Effectively Recruit Recent Graduates

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How to recruit college graduates is a question many talent leaders are wondering. According to UCLA’s Trends in Executive Development report, “experienced leaders of the Baby Boomer generation continue to retire at a pace of 10,000 per day.” The mass exodus of Baby Boomers from the labor market leaves a sizable workforce gap void of seasoned and experienced talent.

When Generation Xers and Millennials ascend into leadership positions to replace Baby Boomers, mid and entry-level positions are left vacant. To fill these positions, organizations are increasingly turning to recent college graduates. In fact, according to a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, 74 percent of employers say they plan to hire recent college graduates.

For organizations looking to fill the gap left by retiring Baby Boomers, recruiting and hiring talent from universities is a significant first step. In this post, we examine some of the best practices and strategies for attracting, recruiting and hiring recent graduates.

The Benefits of Recruiting Recent Graduates

how to recruit college graduates

Most recent graduates do not have years of experience. However, what recent graduates lack in professional experience can be made up elsewhere. Many students participated in volunteer activities, performed leadership roles in student government or clubs and completed internships, all of which can help develop critical workplace skills. From technical aptitude to adaptability, recent grads have characteristics that can be additions to an organization. Below, we list some of the main benefits of hiring recent graduates.

Recent Graduates are Ambitious and Enthusiastic

After graduation, many students are eager to begin their professional careers; they want to make a good impression, and they want to succeed. A sense of gratitude may also accompany a new hire’s desire to do well in their role. This can lead to a strong commitment to the job from the beginning, not to mention enthusiasm to learn, succeed and make leadership proud.

How to Recruit College Graduates: Recent Graduates are Tech-Savvy

Recent graduates have more than likely spent time learning and mastering new technologies, making their ability to navigate technology capabilities and functionalities second nature. What’s more, according to an Accenture Strategy Survey, nearly three-quarters of Generation Z graduates have taken digital, coding or computer science-related courses in college. These skills can give newly hired graduates the opportunity to share their knowledge across an organization.

Greater Diversity Outcomes

With graduating classes becoming more and more diverse, organizations have a prime opportunity to recruit talent from all walks of life. Pew Research projects that both colleges and workplaces can expect to see diversity numbers climb, with the class of 2025 expected to be the most diverse in history. Embracing diversity and incorporating it into overall corporate culture has many benefits. According to a survey conducted by McKinsey and Company, businesses with a diverse workforce are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above industry averages.

Long-Term Talent Development

Hiring graduates with a focus on developing their skills affords organizations the opportunity to recruit the leaders of the future. Organizations can groom recent graduates and equip them with the knowledge and skills needed for leadership. By thinking about the long-term needs of the organization, hiring managers can proactively fill forecasted skill, workforce and leadership gaps with fresh, ready-to-learn talent.

Sourcing Strategies for Graduate Recruitment

When recruiting recent graduates, organizations need a strong presence where they work, live and go to school, and on the platforms and technologies they use the most. The majority of today’s job seekers are Millennial and Gen Z graduates. To reach young talent, it’s critical for organizations to connect with them in the ways they can relate to – namely through technology. Below we list digital sourcing strategies for recruiting the best talent among recent graduates.

How to Recruit College Graduates on Social Media

Social media’s ubiquitous nature makes it one of the most effective recruiting tools for Generation Z and Millennials. To reach a large pool of recent college graduates, organizations should establish recruiting-focused Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook pages that highlight entry–level jobs. Social media recruiting tips include:

  • Organizations should utilize Facebook’s Graph Search option to find graduates with the specific skills and educational background they are looking for in candidates.
  • On LinkedIn, organizations should use keywords relevant to open entry-level positions to attract the right candidates as well as posting jobs in alumni groups and university pages.
  • Although Twitter only permits 280 characters in posts, organizations can add videos about their company and photos to gain the attention of recent graduate candidates.

How to Recruit College Graduates with Mobile Recruiting

Mobile recruiting is growing in popularity as more and more applicants initiate their job searches on their mobile devices. What’s more, 86 percent of recent graduates feel positive about text messages being used in the hiring process. Organizations can use SMS messages to alert candidates of new opportunities and coordinate interviews. While sending job opportunities via text can be valuable, organizations should be careful not to overdo it. Mobile-first talent technology like PeopleScout’s Affinixtm can help organizations leverage mobile recruiting tools to attract candidates to entry-level positions.

How to Recruit College Graduates with your Career Page

Members of Generation Z are always online, so investing in a well-designed, content-rich career page for students to learn about job openings is well worth the effort. If possible, organizations should personalize a graduate career page to highlight alumni hires, experiences of recent graduates and employer messaging tailored to engage potential hires. Graduate career pages should be optimized for search engines and contain relevant keywords so job seekers can easily find it. Links to the page should also be included in communications with prospective candidates.

Building and Maintaining Campus Relationships

Establishing strong relationships with universities is a key element to successful campus recruiting.

To start, organizations should reach out to a university’s career center. When communicating with the career center’s team, focus on communicating what your organization can do for the university. Once a relationship is established with the career center, organizations should leverage that connection to start nurturing relationships with faculty.

Organizations should become active in different campus activities, even if those activities are not directly associated with recruiting. For example, organizations can identify student groups related to their industry and offer sponsorship programs for activities and events. This is a great way to create a positive brand image on campus. Below, are other strategies for building relationships with universities and students:

  • Organizations should participate in networking events hosted by the university to get to know potential candidates, faculty members and administrators who can help in campus recruiting efforts.
  • Sponsoring academic conferences and events on campus is a good way to illustrate that an organization is a committed partner in supporting the educational mission of the university.
  • To boost their profile on campus and connect better with faculty, organizations should enlist the help of campus ambassadors, former employees who attended that university.
  • Organizations should offer university staff and students on-site visits to their offices to share their company culture and give students a real-world view of the workplace.

Engaging Students at Campus Career Fairs

College job fairs have been a mainstay of on-campus recruiting for years. To make the most of career fairs, organizations should carefully tailor their approach. In this section, we outline ways organizations can better engage students at campus career fairs.

Bring the A-Team

Companies should bring employees who will best reflect the experiences and values most important to students. Often, these individuals will be recent graduates, members of the leadership team or employees currently holding positions candidates may be particularly interested in.

When selecting a team, identify employees who have a passion for what they do and an interest in building relationships with students. Also, organizations should be sure to have a diverse range of culture, ethnicities, age, and gender reflected in the recruiters at their booth.

Follow Up

After the career fair has wrapped up, organizations need to quickly follow up with interested candidates to refresh their memories and keep the organization “top-of-mind” as a future potential employer.

Tips for post-career fair follow up include:

  • Collect as much information from students as possible and use that information to send targeted emails. For example, you could notify them of upcoming hiring events in their area.
  • Provide candidates with specific, tangible options for engaging with your organization after the career fair, such as the contact information of employees they met with at the fair, links to career pages and invitations to in-house meet and greets.

Timely, professional and tailored correspondence to candidates immediately after a career fair can help improve employer branding.

Outsource College Recruiting

When recruiting recent graduates, organizations can leverage the technology of outside resources to maximize their reach and improve recruiting outcomes. From sourcing and screening to interviewing and hiring recent graduates, a Recruitment Process Outsourcing partner can effectively deploy technology to assist organizations with campus talent acquisition.

As the business landscape becomes more complicated and organizations look to adapt to changes, hiring young forward-thinking graduates will continue to be important for remaining competitive. Learning how to recruit college graduates and implementing an RPO solution to help recruit students can imbue an organization with expertise, tools and technologies to create the talent pipeline needed to find tomorrow’s talent today.

Removing Barriers to Employment for the Long-Term Unemployed

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With record low unemployment rates in the U.S., the UK and other leading economies, recruiters seeking to attract talent may assume that everyone who wants a job already has one.

However, this not the case, even in the strongest job markets. In the United States, the long-term unemployed are defined as those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more and are searching for work. In May 2018, when the jobs report numbers were so good that reporters ran out of words to describe it, nearly 1.2 million individuals had been out of work and seeking employment for more than six months. The long-term unemployed made up 19.6 percent of all unemployed Americans and May was the first month that this percentage fell below 20 percent since the Great Recession.


During an economic downturn, the primary cause of long-term unemployment is simple: there are not enough jobs to employ those who want them. With the robust job growth over the last year, the ranks of the long-term unemployed in the U.S. have fallen by one third. During times of economic growth, causes of extended joblessness can often directly be addressed and remedied by employers.

Minding the Resume Gap


Imagine being a qualified job candidate who has been unemployed for nearly a year. After months of disappointment, a job comes along that looks like a perfect match. The candidate is excited to fill out the online job application, but when they reach the job history section, they see: “Please provide the start and end dates for all of your jobs. If there is a gap of more than six months, please provide an explanation.” These types of questions related to job history can be used (or perceived to be used) as a way to disqualify candidates.


The Deloitte Handbook A Guide to Recruiting and Hiring the Long-Term Unemployed recommends removing filters and screening procedures that ask for dates of last or current employment and automatically eliminate unemployed and long-term unemployed applicants. It also recommends confirming that Applicant Tracking Systems do not screen out resumes based on employment status.

Avoid Date Limits on Valuing Experience


A candidate who has been unemployed for an extended period may possess years of valuable experience and required job skills. It is important for employers to consider whether their recruitment process gives undue weight to recent expertise over cumulative experience gained over the lifespan of a career. Recruitment processes should also be checked for any potential bias against older applicants. An OECD study found that incidence of long-term unemployment increases with age throughout many developed economies.

Addressing the Jobs Skills Gap


A lack of in-demand skills can be a cause of long-term unemployment. There are many resources for those with extended joblessness to receive training in marketable skills. Employers can build relationships with these agencies as part of their recruitment program to target the long-term unemployed. In the UK, skills training can be included as a standard benefit offered to the long-term unemployed. In Australia, the government offers programs which include training for young people and others who either have or risk having long periods of unemployment. Job training services are also provided by Canadian provinces and by state and local governments in the United States.


There are numerous local initiatives in which businesses combine with non-profit agencies to provide skills in an effort to fight all levels of unemployment. Employers can work closely with these agencies to source available talent (often at reduced sourcing costs) and even partner with them as part of their community engagement efforts.

Reaching the Hard to Reach Talent


Individuals without strong job seeking skills can have their period of unemployment unnecessarily extended. For example, the process of finding a job 15 years ago was completely different from today. Reaching candidates whose experience and skills may add tremendous value to your organization requires specialized expertise in sourcing that may not be readily available in many human resources departments. Several leading employers have turned to Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) companies to successfully attract and recruit hard to reach talent.

Worth the Effort


For many companies, the incentive to attract the long-term unemployed may be to meet a need to recruit the last pool of available talent in a tight labor market. However, hiring those with extended unemployment can potentially be a valuable tool in retaining talent, which is critical in today’s economy. The Deloitte handbook cites a White House study that found that companies that hire the long-term unemployed experience higher retention rates and greater workforce loyalty. Given the potential for talent attraction and retention, employers who remove barriers for the long-term unemployed may gain an unexpected competitive edge in an increasingly challenging market.

PeopleScout Australia Jobs Report Analysis – May 2018

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The Australia Bureau of Statistics released its May Labour Force Key Statistics.  Australian employment rose, but the growth was slower than expected. Job gains were led by increases in part-time work while the jobless rate ticked down to its lowest since November at 5.4 per cent.

The Numbers

12,000: The Australian economy added 12,000 jobs in May.
5.4%: The Australian unemployment rate decreased to 5.4 per cent.
65.5%: Labour force participation decreased to 65.5 per cent.
+6: According to the NAB, the business confidence index fell to +6 index points.

Upside

There was a net job gain of 12,000 in May which continues the trend of monthly job growth. Australia’s annual job growth of about 3 percent was nearly double the U.S. rate of job creation of 1.6 percent. Since May 2017, full-time employment has increased by 178,800, and part-time employment has increased by 125,100.


The labour force participation rate decreased in May but is still near historic highs with more women and senior citizens entering the workforce.  In seasonally adjusted terms, the largest increase in employment was in Victoria (up 22,100), followed by Queensland (up 5,000), and New South Wales (up 2,800). The only increase in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was in Tasmania (up 0.5 per cent).

Downside

The job gains in May still fell 6,000 short of the 18,000 expected increase. The net increase was only possible due to a surge in part-time jobs that offset a decrease in full-time employment. The business confidence index fell to +6 – the level of its long-term average. Wages continue to grow at a slow pace which is causing concern about the possible negative impact this will have on the economy as a whole.

The Unknown

The Fair Work Commission raised the minimum wage by 2.4 per cent to $672.70 a week. This will mean an extra $15.80 per week for the 1.8 million workers who are paid the minimum wage in Australia. The increase takes effect on July 1 and equates to a minimum hourly rate of $17.70. It is unclear what the impact of this increase will be on the unemployment rate or the stagnation in wage increases.