ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE includes machine learning, deep learning and automation. Talent tech platforms integrate AI to streamline time-intensive tasks. Through AI, recruiters can find candidates faster, while candidates can receive consumer-like branded employer experiences.
87% of senior executives believe AI is important to achieving overall business objectives.
Source: Forbes Insights
AUTOMATION continues to grow, replacing low-value, manual tasks with more strategic ones. How can employers achieve the right balance between automation and human interaction?
For more on automation, watch our webinar, “The Dos and Don’ts of Automating Your Candidate Experience” on-demand at peoplescout.com/webinars.
BEHAVIORAL ANALYTICS helps explain why people take certain actions. This form of analytics can target passive candidates, as well as help predict candidates’ future success.
Organizations that use behavioral insights outperform peers by 85% in sales growth.
Source: McKinsey sales growth.
The CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE differentiates and bolsters employers’ brands. Organizations that do not improve their candidate experience may negatively affect their ability to hire talent.
27% of candidates who have a bad experience would “actively discourage others to apply.”
Source: LinkedIn
PRIVACY in the digital age and the way organizations handle candidate information is an ongoing concern made more complex across the digital and international world.
GDPR’s Effect Since Implementation: Large UK companies spent $1.1 billion collectively on GDPR prep. Large American companies spent $7.8 billion on GDPR prep.
Source: www.varonis.com/blog/gdpr-effect-review/
IN 2020, THE INFLUENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN TALENT ACQUISITION WILL CONTINUE TO GROW IN EACH STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT CYCLE.
Many in the industry expect talent tech to play an increasingly large role in recruiting activities in the next three years.
Source: Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends survey, 2019.
WHILE THE CROWDED TALENT TECH WORLD EXPANDS, A FEW TECHNOLOGIES WILL CONTINUE TO DOMINATE THE RECRUITMENT CYCLE THIS YEAR: ANALYTICS, AI, BLOCKCHAIN AND RPA.
RPO service providers are creating a digital ecosystem using third-party technology providers to provide a seamless experience to hiring managers and candidates.
Source: Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Annual Report 2019: Steering 3D Growth on the Tides of Talent Shortage, RPO Annual Report, page 50, August 2019, Everest Group.
MAKE SURE TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT TALENT TECH PROVIDER FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION’S NEEDS
Talent tech growth is driven by the competitive job market and new AI-based solutions.
As an industry, talent acquisition is mid-way through a massive replacement of legacy systems and looking at more nimble models.
When choosing a talent tech provider for your project, ask questions, understand the vision of the project, ask for a road map and agree on the support model.
Jon Porter doesn’t have a typical recruiting background. He started out as an accountant with KPMG and made his way through the advertising sector before finally landing as the Managing Director of PeopleScout in the UK and Head of EMEA Operational Delivery. Along the way, he was lucky enough to work with many organizations with diverse recruiting challenges – from the British Army and the Metropolitan Police to Diageo. So, when Jon looks at talent challenges, he doesn’t just look at them as a recruiter; he views them through the wide-angle lens of the entire business, and he sees them as a storyteller.
Jon shared his
story from PeopleScout’s London offices. He explained how the unique and
ever-evolving challenges and opportunities in the UK and Europe will influence
talent acquisition leaders around the globe.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing the UK and Europe in talent acquisition right now?
The biggest challenge has been the uncertainty around
Brexit since the referendum in 2016. Organizations have not had certainty
around the future, and this has influenced decision-making around how to
potentially invest and grow a business. The focus of government around the
normal investment programs has also been affected, as much of parliamentary
time was focused on the many Brexit bills progressing through both Houses. It
almost felt that the UK was on pause and we just needed to press the play
button. After the election result of December 12, 2019, it now looks like some
of that uncertainty has been removed. The newly formed government, now with a
working majority, is pushing for a conclusion of the Brexit debate by the end
of 2020.
What are the talent acquisition trends you’re seeing in the UK and Europe today?
There are some clear trends in the marketplace. The obvious one is technology. There is a fragmented and hugely diverse technology landscape in the UK and EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), and leaders are looking at how to better navigate that landscape. How do they make the most of it – to drive efficiency, cost savings and better-quality candidates – and optimize the way they do things?
There is also a trend of organizations looking at multi-country
programs, with a focus around EMEA. Organizations seem to be looking at talent
more globally and around the concept that talent isn’t limited by traditional
country boundaries or geography, or even technology. It’s fast-becoming a
boundary-less environment.
How is the introduction of Affinix™ to Europe fitting into and changing the conversation about technology in the region?
I think that our timing couldn’t be better. We’ve had loads of
great feedback on Affinix since our September launch at our Resourcing 2025
event at the London Science Museum, and I think it’s because it provides a
flexible solution at a time when organizations are still a bit cautious about
how they’re going to evolve their technology solutions. Because Affinix is a
middleware, it affords our clients the opportunity to get the great technology
of the now, but also it provides them with security for the future. It’s a
manifestation of now to next.
How do you tell a cohesive and relevant story when recruiting across borders?
Finding “space” in a busy talent marketplace
is hard; differentiating one company offer from another requires a deep
understanding of brand and channel. Developing target personas, and understanding
how they live their lives and how to create a one-to-one dialogue is essential.
At PeopleScout, this approach and understanding is in our DNA. It’s how we
think.
When looking at cross-border campaigns, we
first consider the message – the employer brand promise; the value exchange
between the organization and the candidate – the deal. This message needs to be
authentic across all borders. It needs to reflect the lived experience of
employees within the organization. It can be aspirational; however, it can’t be
an exaggeration of the truth. That can only lead to unfulfilled expectations,
reduced engagement and increased attrition.
The art of the storyteller is to deliver a
consistent, overarching message while accommodating the nuances of the
countries in which it needs to be delivered. The language, tone, imagery and
cultural touchpoints may change, but the essence of the promise remains
consistent. Good recruiters understand how to bring the story to life in
conversation with candidates and yet remain true to the organizational
narrative.
What are some of the lessons from the UK and Europe that leaders in other regions should be paying attention to?
Many
organizations have a structured view around their approach to talent and where
they think hires might come from – whether it’s specific geographies, sectors
or universities. I think one of the things that we’re doing in Europe – which
does seem to be a message that’s landing elsewhere – is that we need to be more
open-minded and a bit more conscious around things like social mobility and
inclusivity.
Organizations
are looking past the barriers of geography, society and technology. They’re
seeing that talent is going to be pivotal to the evolution of business. That’s
driving a mentality of embracing talent without any boundaries and taking a
more progressive and equitable view of talent.
What are you most excited about for the future of talent acquisition?
The speed of change in talent acquisition is going to accelerate.
Technology is absolutely going to fuel that acceleration. Clients are going to
have greater and greater expectations, requiring more dynamic talent
acquisition strategies. That will be driven by the fact that talent will be
even more of a differentiator for organizations.
We’re also going to see employer brands and employer value
propositions (EVPs) play an even greater role in the hiring process. The EVP is
going to become the cornerstone of the people agenda – so, not just recruiting,
but also learning and development, organizational design and more. How does the
EVP play into the culture and behaviors of the organization?
Additionally, the vast majority of jobs that will be created five
to 10 years from now probably don’t even exist today. So, there will be the
evolution of new job roles, new technologies, new demands from organizations
and new challenges in the world and political landscapes. This makes talent
acquisition an exciting place to be.
The roles of
talent acquisition and HR are changing. When you talk with Jennifer Mattocks,
it’s clear that she’s here to lead that change. PeopleScout’s Executive Leader
of the Americas, Jennifer is the daughter of an artist and a mathematician –
part creative, part analytical and constantly looking for better ways to work.
Dig Deeper
PeopleScout Webinar: Using Data to Optimize Your Recruiting Process and Employer Brand
Jennifer doesn’t
come from a traditional recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) background. With
more than 20 years of experience leading enterprise client management and
strategic sales teams in HR advisory services and talent assessment, Jennifer has
a broad view across the HR function and has seen firsthand the way it’s
transforming. She has a deep understanding of not just talent acquisition, but
also the full employee lifecycle.
We spoke with
Jennifer at our Chicago headquarters about the changes headed for HR, the
forces behind that transformation and what organizations should be doing now to
be ready for what’s next.
We’re starting a new decade with historically low unemployment and skills shortages, making it more difficult to find and hire the right talent. How should employers approach their workforce planning?
Thinking about the skills shortage, there have been a few statistics that have caught my eye. One is that the World Health Organization predicts that there will be a worldwide shortage of 15 million healthcare workers by 2030. That’s not far away. This is an issue that we need to focus on now. Another is that according to the Department of Labor, 17.4% of workers in the U.S. are now foreign-born, and it’s rising. That means we need to have a global perspective when we’re looking at our workforce.
As it relates
to the skills shortage, employers should be thinking about the influence of
significant shifts in the talent landscape and how they address them in their
workforce planning strategies. Strong talent pipelines will hinge on the idea
of the fluid workforce – the idea of non-linear career development – and making
sure that we have programs in place to have the right skills at the right time
in the right place.
One way to
adapt to the challenges that we’re facing in finding the right talent is
through a total workforce solution, which allows employers the flexibility to
be able to address skills shortages and low unemployment. For some industries,
healthcare included, that means we need to look at ways we can find talent with
relevant skills through non-traditional channels. Then, by closely tying
training and development with talent acquisition, we have the ability to
realign talent to roles and responsibilities that fit with their current
skills.
How do you see the role of HR transforming to adapt to the changing world of work?
One role of HR
is matching people’s skills to work. As HR and talent leaders, we know we
cannot assume that when an individual is placed in a role, that is what they
will do – or want to do – for the rest of their career. Creating nimble career
paths and opportunities for ongoing development will be critical to the success
of any HR leader going forward.
An example to
illustrate the change we’ll see from HR is through how we approach career
pathing. Right now, we have a career ladder that goes from bottom to top. That
ladder is going to be flipped on its side – and it already has, to some degree.
Individuals are seeking different skillsets or opportunities to develop within
the organization, which doesn’t always translate to a linear career
progression. Employees also want to have stronger ownership and input into
their own career development; we see this characterized by input particularly
from the millennial and Gen Z talent, who are just starting to enter the
workforce and seek variety in opportunity.
I also
anticipate that we’ll see the idea of the external gig economy brought in
house. Meaning, HR will serve as a hub that is responsible for moving talent
throughout an organization based on individual skillsets, the work that needs
to get done and the way talent wants to work. With that, HR as a function will
change, and the skills needed to succeed in HR will change, as well.
To this end, I
see the need for a much tighter connection, even blending, of talent
acquisition and talent development roles. Not only is HR responsible for nimbly
fulfilling the talent needs of the business to deliver on the work that needs
to get done today, but HR is also responsible for providing structure,
resources and tools for the development of talent pools for the future. So, we
will see HR marrying those two roles to a degree we haven’t yet seen.
What is the role of technology in the changing world of HR?
HR leaders
first need to have a thoughtful strategy, then make sure the technology
supports and enables the strategy. With a strategic foundation in place,
technology will facilitate the ability of organizations to do three things.
First is to
have visibility into and a more comprehensive understanding of the talent that
they have in place today, as well as the talent pools that exist both
internally and externally. Second, HR leaders can leverage learning and
collaboration technology to build up the skillsets that perhaps are missing or
need development within the organization. I think we’ll see a lot more
innovation to come related to this. And third, HR can utilize technology, AI
and analytics to better match individuals at the right time to the work that
needs to be done.
Technology will
also change the HR roles we see today in a fundamental way. There’s a lot of
talk about certain roles being replaced by technology and tasks replaced by
automation, but we still need human thought, perspective and ethical input to
drive technology to make the right decisions. The human touch will never go
away and will increase in importance for organizations to be competitive.
What are you most excited about for the future of talent acquisition?
There are two
things. One is that we are at the point in which HR and talent acquisition
needs to be prescriptive to drive success. Then, HR needs to deliver on the
needs of the business while driving the engagement and productivity of the
employees. It’s going to be fun to see that shift start to be more pronounced.
I think the
other really exciting shift is one that’s personal to me, given the age of my
children, and that’s seeing Gen Z enter the workforce and even start to enter
management. This is a generation that more naturally and openly drives
inclusivity and values having an ethical decision-making process behind what
they do. They really embrace technology in novel ways, and having individuals
with those capabilities entering the workforce will be very exciting for talent
acquisition. I think it will continue to shape how we hire, promote and develop
talent, and I look forward to seeing the positive changes they bring.
How could one of the UK’s best known and most trusted brands have no employer brand presence? It might seem hard to believe, but that was the situation the AA faced when they approached PeopleScout’s Talent Advisory practice to develop a new employer brand.
In the past, the AA had been affected by inaccurate perceptions of who they’d be as an employer. With 15 million members and more than 7,000 colleagues, they’re the UK’s largest motoring and breakdown cover organization. However, being known for doing one thing very well was proving to be a barrier to candidate attraction. People thought the only jobs they had to offer were their famous roadside roles. That was far from the truth, but the AA was struggling to attract the talent they needed for their wide range of career opportunities.
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The AA needed to challenge misconceptions and engage a much broader audience. And, with a bold new employer brand message at the heart of an ongoing series of innovative attraction campaigns, this is how the AA and PeopleScout did just that – with award-winning, record-breaking results.
Ready for Change
Back in 2016, the AA’s talent acquisition team faced a number of challenges.
Before the arrival of Craig Morgans as their Director of Talent Acquisition, Emerging Talent & Employee Experience, they had no senior talent expert at an influential level. There was no robust workforce planning, a lack of innovation in candidate generation, and an inconsistent approach to selection.
On top of that they had no discernible employer brand. And, at nearly four years’ old, their careers site suffered from a clunky candidate journey and outdated visuals, compounding their problems with engaging the right talent.
A change in thinking was needed. The AA had to find more imaginative ways to reach and engage with target audiences. At the heart of it all was a plan to develop the employer brand with a strong, authentic central message that would underpin all attraction and engagement activity.
The AA partnered with PeopleScout to develop their dynamic employer brand message. One that would challenge perceptions, do justice to their innovation as a business, and bring the AA culture and diversity of opportunity to life.
Getting The Message Right
We undertook in-depth research to analyze the AA’s culture, offering and opportunities, to articulate the “give” and “get.” Carrying out extensive employee interviews enabled us to understand the key differentiators of all roles in the contact center, road operations and corporate job families. We also looked outside the company, to get a fuller idea of competitors’ market positions and understand what the public thought about the AA.
We developed the emerging themes into pillars that we could validate with real stories from the business, and that could support an engaging creative approach. We refined our thinking to a proposition that really encapsulated the spirit of the AA. Leading everything was a message that we’d heard over and over.
Working for the AA, people thrived on going the extra mile to help customers with unexpected challenges – and across a surprising variety of opportunities.
This insight became the AA’s employer brand core message, Ready for ANYTHING? It also acted as the perfect counterpoint to their corporate brand message to customers and members, Because anything can happen.
Putting Our New Platform Into Practice
As the gateway for people to understand the opportunities that might be right for them within the AA, the careers site was the obvious starting point for rolling out the new employer brand. And by launching with this digital shop window, not only could we get the brand experience right, we could also give the site a much-needed technical and UX overhaul.
The new site was launched in February 2017. Creating an engaging, interactive and easily navigable user experience, it’s built around rich content, inclusive photography and video interviews – enhanced with numerous responsive, interactive elements.
The site has evolved, with new elements added over time. As well as showcasing the Almost every role you can imagine employer brand video, the site engages and informs visitors with stories of current employees and realistic job profiles. All of which combine to bring the story of being Ready for ANYTHING? and working with the AA to life. Meanwhile the AA social hub also brings the worlds of social media and blogs into the site, providing an at-a-glance, continuously updated feed of all things AA.
More recently, we’ve added new features, to give site visitors an even more immersive experience – including an insightful 360° tour and assessment tool, plus some interactive 3D imagery to add depth to the visual impression. theaacareers.co.uk is a site designed to surprise, inspire and educate.
The Chatbot That Shows the Human Side of the AA
The Ready for ANYTHING? tone of voice was woven into the site and became the voice of the first-ever appearance of the innovative AAbot – a cheeky, wisecracking chatbot that guides users on life at the AA. Demonstrating technological innovation as one of the first of its kind, AAbot was an efficient way to serve visitors the content they were after – and equally importantly, he represented the playful side of the business, showcasing the fun culture that people hadn’t associated with the AA before.
For visitors to the site, this was an unexpected and charming way of bringing the employer brand to life, and together with the improved candidate journey and overall experience, was a rousing success. Site traffic increased 320% and applications increased 266% over an 18-month period. Visitors are engaging with the site for longer too, with page views up 12%, bounce rates dropping 8% and a 10% increase in pages viewed per session.
Tapping the Energy of the Internal Audience
As important as it is to engage an external audience, an employer brand has to reconnect and be embraced internally to mobilize the existing employees as active advocates. AAbot’s charm was used internally, featured on the walls and windows of AA offices and reinforcing the expect the unexpected messaging of the EVP. ReadyforANYTHING? also became increasingly popular with employees who were supported to play an active role in bringing in great new colleagues.
Did You Say Canine Consultants
This new sense of playfulness and surprise would then underpin our next step towards changing perceptions. Having effectively used honest video of employees to convey job opportunities, we wanted to now use video to grab attention of passive audiences, entertain and educate them.
We developed a script that highlighted the diversity of roles the AA offers, creating pretend roles such as Canine Consultants, Rapid Response Pizza Officers and Outer Ozone Patrollers to interrupt the long list of real AA roles. We shot the entire video in a single, continuous take within an AA office, and made sure to feature real employees. AA colleagues were enthusiastic advocates of the content, with more than half of the entire AA workforce watching the video and sharing it widely. The result? The video increased careers site visits by 16%
Getting Out Into the Community
With the success of the video, we became bolder. We’d learned that pushing boundaries helped us succeed in changing the perceptions of passive audiences. So, we decided to take our message to the streets.
We suggested an experiential event for a number of reasons. We wanted a way of raising general community awareness of the AA easily, effectively and creatively. Using a broad brush public approach, we knew that that anyone we engaged might also know others who’d be suitable and interested. We wanted to create an event to take the AA’s employer brand message and see just who was Ready for ANYTHING?. Whatever we did would have to be a great fit with the AA’s fun and friendly culture.
In September 2018, we ran two live events in Birmingham and Newcastle, UK city centers, areas where the AA has a big presence as an employer and lots of roles to fill. We grabbed attention of passers-by in the proud tradition of game shows, inviting audience volunteers on stage to take on a series of increasingly messy mystery challenges. Wasabi toothpaste, a barefoot Lego walk and gallons of slime came together with a celebrity host in a pop-up competition to bring the spirit of Ready for ANYTHING? to life.
There were lots of laughs, big prizes – and our strategy paid off. The communities local to our contact centers were made aware of the AA as an employer with a really fun culture, visits to the careers site surged, and month-over-month application numbers increased significantly. After the Newcastle event, applications rose from 576 to 1026, with 12 hires. In Birmingham, applications rose from 898 to 1341, with 13 hires. And this was all starting with completely passive audiences.
The Social Side of Talent Engagement
Before working with PeopleScout, the AA had no employment-specific social channels although research shows that candidates expect to be able to shop prospective employers on social. So, we launched separate social media channels for recruitment, recognizing that both the audiences and messaging would be very different from the AA corporate and customer-oriented channels currently in place.
Based on the channel demographics and content structure, we initially selected Twitter and Instagram, and spent the early part of 2018 scoping out a launch program with content pillars, content calendar, internal sponsors, and training for the PeopleScout social media team to give them full responsibility for managing and curating content.
The key advantage of having a team devoted to the AA careers social channels is being able to capture the immediacy that’s vital with any recruitment content – and with built-in knowledge of the AA’s employer brand and talent agend.
Social media has also played a key role in the promotion and delivery of our most recent projects: the augmented reality app-based #wheresbotbeen campaign and competition, as well as Ant Middleton’s 24-hour, live interactive challenge – our biggest, boldest campaign to date.
24 Hours to Prove You’re Ready for Anything
The Ant Middleton 24-hour, live interactive challenge was easily the most ambitious project of our partnership. Aligning with the AA’s long-lasting connection to the armed services, as well as embodying the Ready for ANYTHING? brand, this campaign was boosted by a relevant celebrity influencer and engaged the general public through live streaming and social media voting.
Six brave employees were chosen to take part in this 24-hour challenge, living and breathing the Ready for ANYTHING?spirit – following the former Special Boat Service soldier through a series of grueling challenges in the Lake District wilderness.
The final lucky half-dozen were chosen from hundreds who responded to an internal communications campaign and applied to take part, in what was highest engagement level ever for a story on The Hub (the AA’s intranet).
We wanted the public and AA colleagues to really root for our chosen contenders during the event, so to get the interest level rising, we filmed their life stories, ready for sharing on social media. They spoke eloquently and compellingly on camera about their lives. We got first-hand stories of drama, heartbreak, courage and transformation.
These videos were posted across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and they clearly made a connection with people. At the start of the event, colleagues and strangers alike were rooting for particular contenders.
The event began at 4 p.m. on July 25, 2019. The next 24 hours were packed with unpredictable drama. Events were live-streamed, the pace was relentless, and the AA people got into it just as much as the watching public – commenting, voting, watching and sharing across social media.
We decided to involve the audience throughout. In an unusual twist, viewers could select tasks for the contestants while watching the live stream on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or on the dedicated site we built for the campaign, Ant24Live.com. Selections varied by type and toughness of tasks such as rafting versus quad biking, or a swim at dawn versus a planking marathon – keeping audiences engaged throughout the 24 hours (although we did allow the participants to sleep!).
The whole show was streamed to AA contact centers, garages and the corporate office, and thousands of AA employees tuned in, acting as social media cheerleaders and social media amplifiers.
Venturing Into Another Dimension
Using 3D animation and augmented reality (AR) technology, our next project took Ready for ANYTHING? into new territory, with a fun-packed, bespoke-built AR app launched at experiential events.
Keen to embrace new technology to develop innovative ways of boosting brand engagement, the AA asked us to create a fun, unexpected and interactive experience that would help them reach a new audience.
So, we looked at the increasing use of AR to change the way audiences connect with brands. And, we considered how we could use it to engage a passive audience – mainly families, as flexible working patterns at AA contact centers can work around their lives – and increase the AA’s potential talent pool.
When it came to what we’d build our AR experience around, there was a clear direction to take – the AA chatbot, aka AABot, seemed like the perfect character to take us to the next level. Until now, AABot had existed only as a 2D cartoon head. So, we gave him a 3D animated body and made him the star of his own AR app – AABot Drop – compatible with both iOS and Android devices.
We created a fun, interactive installation featuring the AR trigger images, in the form of postcards from AABot, at the Manchester Trafford Center and Birmingham Bullring shopping centers – close to the AA’s Cheadle and Oldbury contact centers.
Using the AABot Drop app, people could see AABot’s animated postcards come to life – either on their own phones, or the iPads we supplied. AABot lives up to the spirit of the AA’s EVP, Ready for ANYTHING? in six animated AR adventures, from space and deep-sea exploration to crowd-surfing his own rock gig. Animations end on a careers message, driving to theaacareers.co.uk.
Downloading AABot Drop also gives users interactive, animated images of Bot to play with and position in fun and unexpected places. Sharing their images using #wheresbotbeen, people could enter a competition to win holiday vouchers. Promoting the app and competition across social media got more people involved – and amplified our message. Bot’s postcard trigger images and #wheresbotbeen photo gallery are now housed on the AA careers site –along with app download links – supporting longer term engagement beyond the initial competition.
Both events saw good interaction with both young people and families – two key AA contact center demographics. The Manchester event boosted careers site visits by 869%, with applications up 40% week-over-week. After the Birmingham event, careers site visits increased by 535%, with applications up 820% week-over-week.
With hundreds of app downloads and ready for more, we plan to run further AABot Drop-based campaigns with updated AABot scenarios. So, much more than a one-off AR adventure, this can help promote the AA’s employer brand and opportunities to an even wider audience during a longer period of time.
Taking the EVP 2,620 Miles Further
The AA also sponsored adventurer and influencer Anna McNuff’s Barefoot Britain challenge. As someone who champions the idea of being Ready for ANYTHING?, Anna undertook the mammoth task of running the equivalent of 100 marathons barefoot through all kinds of terrain, weather and unexpected challenges to inspire young women. She wants to encourage them to have the confidence to step out of their comfort zone – to see just how much they can achieve when they reach for what seems impossible.
A series of short videos sharing her adventures, along with Anna’s own social posts and support from PeopleScout, have helped to raise brand awareness and promote AA careers to more female talent.
Groundbreaking Activity Leads to Record-Breaking Results
Since the launch of Ready for ANYTHING?, the AA’s internal employee and social media engagement, site visits and application numbers have soared across all brand-led activity. This strong employer brand, combined with a desire to innovate and brave campaign execution, has enabled the AA to move from 60% agency use to less than 5% in 30 months, saving nearly $9 million per year. Meanwhile, the AA’s Ready for ANYTHING? attitude helped it to win 17 recruitment industry awards in two years, including Best Employer Brand at the Recruitment Marketing Awards 2019. And, of course, the AA is always ready to do more.
“This is transforming how we engage candidates, and it wouldn’t have been possible without a true partnership. PeopleScout has risen to our challenges with some genius, wacky thinking!”
– Craig Morgans, Director of Talent Acquisition, Emerging Talent & Employee Experience
The AA brought PeopleScout on board for a major redesign and rebuild of their careers site, including developing a cheeky chatbot to increase engagement and improve the candidate experience.
30,000applications, up from 8,000—a 275% increase
60 %increase in career site traffic year-over-year
17%reduction in bounce rate
The AA is often referred to as “Britain’s fourth Emergency Service.” But, being known for doing one thing very well is both a blessing and a roadblock when it comes to attracting brilliant candidates. We developed a new employer brand for the AA to help them overcome this challenge. The next step was a major redesign and rebuild of their careers site. With a totally new way to navigate and a recruitment industry first—a website-based chatbot—we helped them boost not only their employer brand, but their number of site visits and applications.
Situation
Say the AA and a lot of people can’t see beyond roadside recovery. Heading to the careers website, visitors are overwhelmed by choice or jump straight to the same old roles. Which means they miss out on the impressive variety of careers they offer (from customer advisers to digital professionals), and the AA loses the opportunity to engage with excellent candidates.
The AA brought PeopleScout on board for a major redesign and rebuild of their careers site. We were set a sizeable task, to attract and engage more visitors and increase applications – all underpinned with innovation.
Solution
Solution Highlights
Navigation Innovation
Bleeding-Edge Software
Booting Site Traffic
Huge Increase in applicants
At a Glance
COMPANY The AA
INDUSTRY Roadside Recovery Services
PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS Talent Advisory
ABOUT THE AA The Automobile Association (The AA) has been supporting motorists in the United Kingdom since 1905. With over 14 million members, breakdown cover is always their number one priority, but The AA has branched out into finance, insurance, leisure and lifestyle services.
When is a website not a website? When it’s chatbot-powered. We launched a reimagined careers site that could do justice to the new brand proposition, “Ready for ANYTHING?” At its heart is a totally new way to navigate and a recruitment industry first: a website-based chatbot.
BLEEDING-EDGE SOFTWARE
To achieve it, we sought out bleeding-edge software—Microsoft’s Bot Framework—which was still in beta and constructed new bot pathways even as the core code changed under our feet. The result, AAbot, is your guide to the world of AA.
ENTERTAINING, INFORMING & ENGAGING
By asking questions, candidates can access all website information from within the chatbot—utterly tailored to their interest—and, if desired, full job listings. With expressive animations for (almost) any occasion and banter full of cheek and surprise, AAbot is packed with personality. He takes the employer’s tone of voice in a bold, playful new direction. And he shows that functional UX copy can entertain and build a brand, as well as inform.
Results
BOOSTING SITE TRAFFIC
Site visitors are now engaging with the wider AA story and roles. We’ve successfully boosted candidate interest, as site traffic has risen by 60 percent year-over-year, while the bounce rate has fallen by 17 percent.
HUGE INCREASE IN APPLICATIONS
Applications, meanwhile, have
increased from 8,000 to more than 30,000, taking direct hire numbers from 55
percent to 95 percent of all applicants. And it’s just the start.
MULTI-CHANNEL APPEARANCES
AAbot is already a breakout star, appearing in digital ad banners and social media communications. You’ll already find him at the Wycombe Wanderers football stadium, emblazoned all over the AA offices and popping up on LinkedIn. And we have big plans to let AAbot loose across the end-to-end recruitment process.
On a sleepy Saturday morning, you grab
your laptop and spend two hours applying to your dream job. It’s worth the
extra cup of coffee because you like this role and company enough to ignore the
annoyance of a long application. Finally, you submit your application. An
instant later, you receive a reply in your inbox. “We regret to inform you that,
after careful review, you are no longer being considered for this role.”
Maybe that PowerPoint proficiency question you skipped was a disqualifier? With such a general response, it’s hard to know. In the modern candidate’s world, rigid automation rules that lead to a message like the one above rarely make sense. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 82% of candidates report the ideal recruiter interaction is a mix between innovative technology and personal, human interaction. Employers should be on notice, too, as 72% of candidates who have a poor experience share it online, according to the Human Capital Institute.
In this article, we’ll define what
automation is, the overall benefits of it, and specific examples of what to do
and not do as the use of automation in talent acquisition grows.
What is Automation?
Automation is not new, but it is rapidly evolving. In the industrial revolution, for example, local weavers were replaced by machines that could perform the same tasks in factories. This was an example of a manual task that was replicated into a process and automated. At its most basic definition, automation is:
“The technique of making an apparatus, a process or a system operate automatically.” – Merriam Webster
What, then, is the relationship between
automation and artificial intelligence (AI)? The two terms are sometimes
confused and used interchangeably, but AI is defined as:
“ … the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions.” – Investopedia
Types of AI include machine and deep
learning. Machine learning involves computers that learn
without being explicitly
programmed; an example of this is sentiment
analysis, in which computers make decisions about how individuals feel based on
their activity on or off line. Deep
learning is a subset of machine learning that
teaches computers to take the next step and learn in the same way that humans
do. For example, machine learning is displayed when a driverless car recognizes
a stop sign and stops.
Today, modern automation almost always involves AI. Finding and scheduling candidates via chatbots, for example, is a type of AI-infused automation in the world of talent acquisition. Automation using AI also includes tasks that were neither quantifiable nor automatable five years ago – such as measuring the interest level of passive candidates from social media metrics.
How Does Automation Affect Talent Acquisition?
When designed correctly, the right
levels of automation help the recruiter and candidate create a better candidate
experience.
While automation can be a game changer,
there is such a thing as too much or the wrong type of automation. Each stage
of the recruitment cycle has an “automation opportunity,” as well as an
associated risk to the candidate experience; the risk may be low in the case of
automating a candidate’s onboarding experience, for example. In comparison, the
final stage of the hiring process is rarely automated and instead involves
interviews conducted by humans.
The most effective automation tools
have one or more of the following attributes:
Ability to reach candidates in a more meaningful way. With automation, recruiters can have more timely, personalized interactions with candidates. For example, a retail candidate working at a pharmacy can receive email alerts about new roles matching their skills at another pharmacy as soon as the roles are posted.
Ability to make the hiring process convenient and simple. Long gone are the applications that take two hours to complete. Instead, candidates fill out auto-populated applications catered to their interests and backgrounds in just five to 10 minutes.
Ability to maximize recruiter productivity. As previously mentioned, automation can complete more manual tasks – such as passive sourcing 24/7 – freeing up more time for recruiters to work on activities that benefit from the human touch.
Ability to deliver better performance metrics. With more data comes the opportunity to measure it more effectively. The digitization process helps make these metrics part of the recruiter’s ongoing dashboards to measure success.
How to Avoid Candidate Experience Automation Flaws
Automation without the correct supervision can go awry. Consider the programmer who created a social media profile of a fish that was looking for a job. Algorithms took the bait and sent this qualified catfish profile requests for interviews based on keywords and a falsely construed online account. It certainly was fishy.
Here are some common automation
mistakes to avoid so you don’t get caught on the hook:
Putting your automation on auto-drive without ongoing input can create unintended bias. While the catfish profile is a more humorous example, you may recall the case study of what not to do from a leading online retailer. The company was hiring programmers, and while well-intentioned, accidentally built bias into the program based on patterns in its database of résumés from the past 10 years – which were mostly male. The company responded quickly, scrapping the program and retooling its efforts to make its profiles more gender-neutral. These types of mistakes are not only bad for your recruiting process and candidates, but can also create issues for your compliance and legal teams, as well.
Too much automation can cause candidates to lose interest. This can occur when interactions lack a human element, causing candidates to tune out during the hiring process.
Too much communication may make candidates disengage. Once a tipping point is reached, it’s hard to come back from a failed interaction; most people have experienced applying to a role and then receiving an influx of unwanted emails. Furthermore, for candidates looking at multiple job opportunities, less personalized forms of communication can create a quick change in interest.
How can these automation flaws be avoided? Test every automation step you incorporate into your hiring process – from both the experience of the recruiter and the candidate – all the way through the candidate journey. Are there any gaps you need to review or hazards you encounter? You can also pilot larger, more disruptive automation with a control group of internal employees to assess results. Make your mistakes up front, fix them, then release to a wider audience. If you think your automation strategies could create biases or a negative hiring experience, stop and retool.
You can also bring your partners along with you on your automation
journey. For example, consider establishing an advisory committee to make sure
concerns are alleviated, and conduct candidate evaluations to make sure the
candidate experience is improved.
When Automation Works
So, when is automation helpful? In
addition to eliminating manual tasks and creating time for recruiters to be
more strategic, there are five key instances when automation benefits
candidates and recruiters.
Automation helps when:
It enhances the candidate experience. An example of this is sending an email to passive candidates asking them to apply. If this process is automated, the candidate gets an identical email, but the recruiter can focus time on other recruiting activities, instead of sending individual emails to multiple candidates.
Flexibility or convenience is added to an existing recruiting process. This benefits recruiters by reducing manual work, by using text reminders to the candidate to select and systematically schedule an interview, for example. This way, the hiring manager and the candidate avoid playing phone tag.
A recruiter can add a personal touch in an automated way. As an example, candidates interested in accounting roles can receive personalized content through career pages and only see positions that apply to their personal skillset when they search.
High-volume positions create hundreds of applicants with a short interview process, such as during the holiday retail hiring season. Quick “yes” or “no” text screens with lower thresholds can help sort candidates through specific questions, such as availability and hourly salary requirements. Doing so helps bring in a smaller, more qualified applicant set to the interview process.
Recruiters need to send reminders to a specific group of candidates. For instance, perhaps you want to invite to a hiring event candidates from the Midwest who have engineering degrees. In this case, automation rules can help determine a discrete set of candidates that meet these requirements and then send the alerts on your behalf.
Automation works well in specific parts of the recruiting process, depending on your target hire. For example, high-volume roles benefit from automated sourcing, screening and basic assessments, whereas only automating the search for passive candidates may be necessary for highly skilled roles.
Your Guidelines to the Dos & Don’ts of Automating Your Candidate Experience
Keep these guidelines as you scale your
automation rules to meet your talent acquisition goals.
Do:
Measure, phase in automation and measure
again to determine effectiveness.
Involve everyone in the process to
determine where automation makes the most sense.
Take advantage of A/B testing to help
measure different ideas.
Treat every situation as unique; don’t
assume that what works for one will work for another.
Remember that candidates want a personal
touch, and what you don’t automate is as important as what you do.
Use your people to make critical decisions.
Don’t:
Proceed if it doesn’t feel like it’s best
for your candidates.
Influence the candidate experience in a
negative way.
Assume that automating your entire hiring process
is the right thing for your business.
Make an automation change and assume it
will work forever. Always be reevaluating!
People have always sought out new employment opportunities by convincing someone that they are the best choice. While the art of persuasion has not changed, technology and customs have shifted rapidly since the days of papyrus, vellum and fax machines; what was once strange and new becomes the norm, while the tried and true seem outdated.
For instance, going door to door with the classifieds in search of work seems as absurd now as recording a video interview on your phone would have been just a few years ago. As technology matures and hiring practices change, it’s important for employers to understand the new solutions being put into place.
This article explores video interviewing and related technologies and some of the legal implications to keep in mind before implementing a new tool as part of your hiring and recruitment process. Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. If you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.
Benefits of Video Interviewing
The most common form of video interviewing, and the subject of this article, is asynchronous or one-way interviewing. The candidate records answers to a series of predetermined questions on a laptop or smart device as part of the initial screening process. The recruiter or hiring manager is then able to review the candidate’s video and see how the questions were answered. There are a number of advantages to this approach to the hiring process.
Larger Candidate Pool
The hiring manager is able
to review the interviews of a much larger pool of potential candidates. While a
traditional interview might only be extended to the top five candidates, video
interviewing allows the hiring manager to review every candidate who meets
their other screening requirements. Additionally, candidates are not restricted
to local markets, as interviews can be recorded from any location.
Consistency
The questions asked in the
interview are consistent for all applicants. This allows for clear comparisons
in responses. Furthermore, recording a set of pre-determined questions prevents
interviewers from getting sidetracked or asking inappropriate or illegal
questions during the interview. Finally, other decision-makers in the hiring
process don’t need to rely on the impressions of the interviewer because the
videos are available for review by multiple people.
Speed
Screening speed can
increase with video interviewing because there is more flexibility for hiring
managers. All questions are preset, so interviewers don’t need to spend time
preparing for multiple individual interviews or coordinating schedules. Because
the interviews are recorded, they can also be screened in batches and at convenient
times for the reviewer.
Legal Implications to Keep in Mind
The advantages of video
interviewing and other emerging technologies help promote a more consistent
process that gives a greater number of candidates the opportunity to present
themselves for consideration. However, the use of video interviewing technology
does not absolve companies from their legal obligations in the hiring process
from the risk of discriminatory practices; related technologies may even
increase these risks. Companies should check with legal counsel, as well as
human resources and information security experts, before adopting new hiring
practices or technologies.
Emerging Technologies & Non-Discrimination
Video interviews have been around for a while. But, as they grow more common, new technologies emerge to complement them. One such technology is AI-assisted assessments, which use computers to analyze responses, facial gestures, intonations and other displayed characteristics and screen out applicants that fail to meet the requirements of the specific algorithm. While technology that can prevent the hiring manager from having to even physically watch the interview has a powerful allure, AI-assisted assessments are not yet proven to be effective or non-discriminatory. For instance, a large online retailer encountered the unintended consequences of AI screening out protected classes of employees and determined that such solutions are not yet feasible. Plus, privacy advocates have requested government investigations into the secret algorithms used by a provider of AI-assisted interview technology. And, in the U.S., states are starting to look critically at AI-assisted hiring, with Illinois leading the way with new legislation.
In the U.S., the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) allows for video interviewing, but the
rules against non-discrimination in hiring and employment do not change. Meanwhile,
record-keeping requirements apply equally to video interviews; if a candidate
has a disability that prevents them from providing a video interview, the
employer must provide an alternative method of applying. And, while it is not
illegal to learn of an applicant’s disability, such knowledge cannot be used to
discriminate against that applicant.
Technology cannot
eliminate human prejudices, and there will always be a risk of discriminatory
behavior by bad actors. However, this risk can be mitigated to some degree by
good processes, which can include video interviewing for the reasons set forth
above.
International Considerations
Internationally, the European Union has one of the most expansive digital privacy laws in the world. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) protects the data of EU citizens, giving them a broad array of rights including the “right to be forgotten.”
The regulation, which
became official in May 2018, requires companies that recruit and process job
applicant data to reveal all of the information it has on file about an
individual when asked by the candidate. Under the GDPR, companies must rectify
any inaccuracies and, at the candidate’s request, delete the information within
30 days.
The GDPR applies to all
companies recruiting Europeans – regardless of whether the company itself is
inside or outside EU borders. Fines for non-compliance to GDPR can amount up to
a staggering €20M ($22.2 million U.S. dollars), or 4% of a company’s global
revenue, whichever is higher.
What’s more, in Australia, before an Australian Privacy Principal (APP) entity discloses personal information to an overseas recipient, the entity must take reasonable steps to ensure that the overseas recipient does not breach the APPs in relation to the information (APP 8.1).
An APP entity that
discloses personal information to an overseas recipient is also accountable for
any acts or practices of the overseas recipient in relation to the information
that would breach the APPs (s 16C).
New technology will not eliminate the need for employers to have a compliant hiring process or absolve them from decision-making. But, carefully selected solutions like asynchronous video interviews can bring significant advantages for both hiring managers and potential employees. With more candidates able to apply and a more consistent experience for both sides, video interviews can benefit everyone.
About Affinix®
The video interview and digital assessment capabilities of PeopleScout’s proprietary talent technology, Affinix, provides our clients with a clearer picture and more insight into potential employees. This simplifies the screening process, allowing PeopleScout to share top candidates with hiring managers faster. The video interview process embedded within the Affinix platform is easy to use:
Your team creates the questions you want candidates to answer.
You can choose a combination of video, multiple choice or essay-style questions as part of an assessment.
Candidates respond to your questions just like they would in a face-to-face interview; the only difference is that the responses are recorded and stored for you to review.
Your team evaluates, reviews and rates responses when convenient.
Because responses are recorded, your team can go over answers as many times as needed, allowing for a more careful analysis of candidate responses than traditional, face-to-face interviews.
Built on the Amazon cloud (AWS – Amazon Web Services), Affinix is a stable and secure platform. All information is secured in the AWS cloud for you to access at your convenience. Using the digital interview capabilities of Affinix is a great way to replace or supplement telephone or first-round interviews.
Let’s
face it – we live in an ever-changing world, where one of the biggest
challenges is keeping up with the latest trend.
For an
update on talent acquisition trends, PeopleScout hosted Madeline Laurano,
talent analyst and founder of Aptitude Research, at our North American Talent
Summit. Laurano spoke on the top trends she is seeing through her qualitative
and quantitative research, and provided clarity on the crowded market.
Laurano
shared that the current state of talent acquisition has fundamentally shifted
due to the record increase in job openings and decrease in the available talent
pool. This contributes to the rise of competition for talent across industries
and the tremendous pressure organizations face to find the right talent.
Laurano
presented a few key solutions to aid in managing this overarching challenge,
including strengthening employer branding, simplifying your talent strategy
with technology, improving candidate communication, using data to drive
decisions and exploring total workforce solutions.
In this
article, we’ll walk through Laurano’s report on the current state of talent
acquisition, and dive into how a focus on employer branding can help you stay
on top of the trends in talent acquisition.
Current State & Challenges
Laurano’s research shows a fundamental shift in talent acquisition over the past few years, which she attributes to changing market conditions. The numbers prove it – there’s a high demand for skills and a low supply of candidates, which increases both competition for talent and the cost of a quality hire.
High Demand for Skills
Nearly half of U.S. employers attribute unfilled job openings to a lack of qualified candidates. Additionally, 75% of human resource professionals who have recruiting difficulty say there is a shortage of skills in candidates for job openings. However, 74% of organizations are investing just $500 per employee on training and development between upskilling and reskilling.
The skills gap is widening particularly for IT, healthcare, manufacturing and really any industry that has specialized or technical roles. Based on her research, Laurano recommends that organizations invest in technology and digital roles to foster ideas and monitor industry trends. More than 5 million jobs in information technology are expected to be added globally by 2027.
Low Supply of Candidates
“Statistics show employers are having a difficult time filling job openings and are competing across industries for talent, which is a major challenge in the industry and one we haven’t seen before,” Laurano said.
A 2017 PWC survey of CEOs found that 77% said the greatest threat to organizations was the availability of talent. The unemployment rate is at a record-low 3.7% in the U.S., with 106 months of continuous job growth – the longest stretch in the nation’s history. Canada ended the first half of the year with an unemployment rate of 5.5%, and many leading European and Asia Pacific economies posted strong job gains and continued low unemployment.
Quality of Hires
Laurano’s 2019 Quality of Hire Trends Report states that only 26% of organizations in her study have a formal methodology for defining quality of hire; one in three of those organizations said that they’re interested in tracking quality of hire, but they don’t know how to start. Therefore, there’s a lot of opportunity to improve how we calculate quality of hire.
Ultimately, organizations have to rethink their strategies and technology to attract the right candidates for them. So, how do organizations stay on top of these trends? Laurano says strengthening employer branding is one important way.
Strengthening Employer Branding
As a
reminder, your employer brand is the perception and lived experiences of what
it’s like to work for your organization. It also incorporates your employee
value proposition (EVP), which captures the essence of your uniqueness as an
employer and the give and get between you and your employees.
In her
presentation, Laurano discussed the importance of strengthening employer
branding as one way to stand out in the crowded market. As research shows, many
organizations are investing plenty of resources into employer branding, but
there is still room for improvement. As Laurano’s research shows, 62% of
organizations invest in employer branding, however:
One out of four organizations is unsure about its employer branding.
50% of organizations are unhappy with their employer branding tools.
37% of talent acquisition and recruitment specialists consider their knowledge of their employer brand as “weak” or “getting by” – despite it being identified as an area of critical importance.
Industry research agrees with Laurano, as one study shows that companies with stronger employer brands see a 43% decrease on average in the cost per candidate they hire, compared to their competitors. Additionally, when organizations specifically in the U.S. live up to their marketed EVP, new employees arrive with a higher level of commitment at 38%, compared to organizations that do not live up to their marketed EVP, which is at just 9%.
Digital Transformation
As
Laurano noted, the digital space is a major aspect to consider in talent
acquisition and employer branding. Whether it’s introducing digital or data
specialist roles, the skills associated with those jobs assist organizations in
recognizing their weaker areas and providing innovative ideas to capture their
intended audiences. Laurano recommends incorporating the digital role heavily
in your talent solution and to improve messaging. “Go where your candidates are,” she says. And,
for the most part, that is the digital space. Research confirms this concept:
In Laurano’s presentation, she emphasized the value of organizations nurturing talent before they apply, or a proactive versus reactive approach:
Reactive
“If we
were to take the reactive recruiting approach and turn it into a funnel, it
might look something like the diagram above. Sourcers fill up the talent
pipeline while recruiters manage the selection process on behalf of the
organization. However, there is no one working on behalf of the candidate and
no real engagement process at the top of the funnel. As a result, the recruiter
spends more time on screening résumés, phone screens, etc.”
Proactive
“If we
flip the time allocation where recruiters spend less time on screening and
focus on ensuring they have targeted, qualified candidates to begin with, the
results would differ. There would be a higher rate of effectiveness by
investing in relationship-building with targeted pools of talent, as opposed to
a reactive, start-stop recruiting approach.”
Additional research only reinforces the proactive method, as 67% of employed American adults agree that the application, interview or offer process would make or break their decision on whether to take a job.
Global
Aspect
Employer branding is difficult for global organizations, as it’s not always about the organization, but also the specific location, as well, which can get complicated. The core of your employer brand should start with a universal truth, but effective employers will also create messaging that speaks directly to different audiences and geographies. Laurano suggests a need for transparency for global organizations, as well as local flexibility and solutions to strengthen your employer branding.
What’s Next for Your Talent Solution?
Keeping up with the latest trends can be challenging to say the least, especially in the talent industry. Laurano’s research into the fundamental shift in talent acquisition provided some key insights and solutions that are beneficial when combating such rapid changes.
About the Expert
Madeline Laurano’s primary focus during the last 12+ years has been on the talent management market, specializing in talent acquisition. Her insights are based on her work as an analyst and advisor in the human capital space and her latest research with HR and talent acquisition practitioners. Laurano’s work helps companies both validate and reevaluate their strategies and understand the role technology can play in driving business outcomes. Before Aptitude Research, Laurano held research roles at Aberdeen, Bersin by Deloitte, ERE Media and Brandon Hall Group. She is co-author of “Best Practices in Leading a Global Workforce,” and has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Yahoo News, and The Financial Times. She is a frequent presenter at industry conferences, including the HR Technology Conference and Exposition, SHRM, IHRIM, HCI’s Strategic Talent Acquisition conference, GDS International’s HCM Summit, and HRO Today. Visit her website at https://www.aptituderesearch.com.
The
technology development cycle is accelerating at a pace that is hard to catch.
New services, new devices, new products – it can be overwhelming. When I was
exploring joining PeopleScout as the Leader of Technical Delivery, I knew the
organization was keeping pace because of the modern architecture and skilled
technical teams that were already in place.
At PeopleScout, we effectively manage our development cycle to produce products like Affinix, a talent technology platform built on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform. We continue to reap the benefits from that foresight today. Our Affinix development team is located at our global headquarters in Chicago, and we have team members in Latin America, Costa Rica, Peru, Australia, Manila, India and Europe. Every day, around the world, our staff works together to release code for Affinix using AWS.
What is Amazon Web Services?
AWS became the cloud infrastructure arm for Amazon in 2006, when it began offering pay-as-you-go, infrastructure-as-a-service to businesses – now known broadly as cloud computing. AWS started selling cloud “instances” others could reserve when companies needed additional capacity. While AWS started first with public cloud compute (EC2), the company now offers more than 90 different services to clients ranging from storage to Internet of Things (IOT) applications. PeopleScout uses Elastic Cloud Compute Service (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), Lambda and other AWS services to power Affinix.
How AWS Makes Affinix Better
We chose
AWS as the foundation for Affinix because it is the market leader in cloud
infrastructure services. AWS invests more resources than its competitors, and
is the leading innovator in this space.
When my
team has to solve challenges, we have the independence and flexibility we need
with AWS. Sometimes, with other providers, you are limited by what you can use
due to license costs or contracts you can’t get out of. With AWS, we don’t have
limitations in terms of other technologies or resources we want to use as part
of the Affinix platform. We are free to use the right technology as we innovate
and evolve Affinix.
Scale and Expansion
Most
people have participated in an IT project that took way longer than expected. I
think that is a shared experience. Why does that happen? Most delays trace back
to scaling out infrastructure or hardware. In order to do this, you need
permission to procure, select, configure, test and load balance infrastructure
for each new project you launch. This is a huge undertaking, and can become an
exhaustive process to complete.
AWS
eliminates these steps, allowing us to scale our infrastructure through the
cloud. If you don’t already understand how “the cloud” works, think about it as
a utility – let’s say your water supply. Imagine one day your yard needs more
water than usual; it has been extremely hot, so you run your water for a few
hours instead of a few minutes. Even though your water supply is spiking more
than average today, your sprinkler doesn’t stop working. You also don’t store
water in your basement in giant, intimidating, wall-to-ceiling containers that
sit below your deck waiting to be used. Why would you?
The
public cloud is similar. Traditionally, companies have owned on-premise data
centers full of expensive equipment that’s often underutilized. Alternatively,
some companies rent part of a data center through third-party providers. This
is more efficient than using your company’s on-premise location, but you still
need to buy more infrastructure to prepare for peak usage. With AWS, we can
turn computing and storage needs up or down virtually – without having to buy
infrastructure to manage each project. With Affinix, we use AWS’s autoscale
capabilities that allow us to set thresholds on capacity.
AWS is
also a great partner for international expansion, offering regional and
country-specific support for data residency, data sovereignty and certain
region-specific compliance initiatives. Increased speed-to-completion is a
factor here, too. Previously, it took months to bring a new international
location online; now it takes a lot less time. For example, we just launched an
Affinix instance in Europe. The rollout from start to finish took about a
month. With traditional infrastructure and hardware, it would probably take
three to six months.
Security & Compliance
Security
is one of those topics that isn’t that interesting until it is. For us,
security is critical because our brand reputation and our clients’ reputations
are at stake if these issues are not handled correctly. The innovation AWS
offers Affinix and our clients in this area –
including data encryption, intrusion detection and firewalls, and much
more – provides me with peace of mind.
AWS takes responsibility for the software services its clients use, as well as its hardware in various regions and zones through its Shared Responsibility Model. As a client of AWS, we manage operating systems, platforms and data.
After
security, the next logical step to think about is compliance. I view compliance
as a byproduct of security, or proof we are as secure as we say we are. AWS
makes it very easy to be compliant. With giant regulatory projects such as
the EU’s GDPR and the upcoming California Consumer Protection
Act in 2020, we have encountered no problems using AWS.
Speed
AWS can
dramatically reduce the cycle time it takes to launch an idea on our Affinix
roadmap. We release code regularly – now more than once a day – by releasing
very small software updates. The smaller the release, the easier it is to observe
and react to quickly. If we see any issues, we can pull that code back. We do
this by using AWS’s monitoring capabilities that track how every bit of code is
performing. And, if one of these small releases isn’t performing correctly, we
immediately roll it back and fix it; it is that easy.
This type
of release cycle is extremely efficient. We can now take a giant collection of
features and incrementally – and predictably – release them with improved speed
throughout many days. Previously, development teams would wait three months for
these types of results, using older software development methodologies
generally referred to as “waterfall”-type processes. PeopleScout is an Agile
development shop, meaning broadly that we focus on small, regular improvements
at a faster pace. AWS aligns well with our philosophy.
Conclusion
Growing
with AWS has made Affinix better – for our end-users, candidates, clients and
PeopleScout. We are a more modern, innovative, tech-focused organization
because of the AWS platform. AWS has created benefits for our internal teams,
as well. Five years ago, our team was spending 50% of its time performing
repetitive tasks related to infrastructure support. Today, because AWS manages
the scaling of our hardware, international expansion and streamlined
information security, our team has time to focus where we should focus – on new
product development and ongoing Affinix innovation.
With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to look at the past twenty years and see the inflection points where companies and industries either embraced or avoided disruptive technology. When Kodak struggled to adapt to the digital world, the company eventually declared bankruptcy. Blockbuster passed on the chance to purchase Netflix, and now, the video rental chain has just one store left open. Taxis fell to Uber and Lyft. There are countless examples in the graveyard of defunct or irrelevant companies and industries.
It is more difficult to spot that inflection point in the moment. For human resources, that moment is now. With an influx of new technologies entering the market, the role of HR is about to transform, and if it cannot adapt, it is bound to be left behind. Currently, many HR professionals are pulled away from more strategic work for simple repetitive tasks – which are prime targets for automation. Emerging tools can also provide HR with new insights – about things like which candidates are more likely to stay with the company and whether a role is better filled by a contingent or permanent worker in the current economy. These insights will provide HR with the opportunity to play a more significant role in decisions that impact the future of the business.
In this article, we walk through five ways new and emerging talent technology will make HR more strategic and why leaders should embrace change.
1. Automation Will Save Time
Everest Group predicts emerging technology has the potential to automate half of all talent acquisition activities. According to the report, “processes that are highly transactional and repetitive in nature have a higher potential for automation.” This includes tasks like resume screening, interview scheduling and sourcing candidates. However, other tasks, like communicating with top candidates and hiring managers, will continue to require a human touch.
Robotic process automation is already taking over some of the communication with candidates through recruitment marketing campaigns, interview scheduling tools and chatbots. RPA technology can ask prescreening questions or answer FAQs about positions and a company’s hiring process through a chatbot, send automated emails to engage candidates through a candidate relationship management tool and find an empty spot on a recruiter or hiring manager’s calendar to help a candidate schedule a phone or in-person interview through an automated scheduling tool.
These tools mean that the way recruiters and talent acquisition professionals spend most of their days will transform drastically. Rather than spending time sifting through resumes, scheduling interviews and responding to emails, recruiters will be able to focus on the best candidates, develop creative solutions for hard-to-solve problems and build better candidate engagement strategies. This will reduce recruiter burn out, leaving them fresher and more engaged in important tasks.
Automation also improves the candidate experience. Rather than waiting for a response from a recruiter with an inbox full of emails, candidates can have a simple question answered instantly by a chatbot. Candidates won’t have to play phone tag or do the awkward dance of comparing schedules over email because they can easily schedule interviews on their own. This means, regardless of whether or not the candidate ultimately ends up in the role, they will be left with a more positive image of the organization. However, HR leaders need to take care to select the correct tools. If they don’t work as intended or don’t integrate well with other systems in place, recruiters may not be able to use them effectively and candidates could be left with a negative impression.
2. Data Analytics Will Provide New Insights to Inform Decision-Making
Big data is everywhere, and when applied to HR, it can allow leaders to make better, more informed decisions on both the micro and macro levels. Data analytics tools have the power to provide insights and predictions about individual candidate behaviors, the best tactics to use to fill a role and even long-term predictions about local job markets.
Predictive analytics is a type of data analytics that uses data to find patterns and then uses those models to attempt to predict the future. Predictive analytics can’t tell you what will happen, but it shows what is likely to happen based on past trends. Tools that incorporate predictive analytics can tell recruiters how likely a candidate is to leave their current job or stay in a position at your organization, for example.
These tools can also identify new channels to find strong candidates by identifying common themes in previous successful hires. For example, a predictive analytics tool could tell a recruiter that the best candidates tend to come from a few specific educational backgrounds. That way, a recruiter can focus on recruiting efforts to identify the best candidates with those qualities.
Predictive analytics can also help with more strategic business decisions. Workforce planning tools focus on the future by assessing current hiring needs and modeling how those needs will evolve. This data-focused approach can help organizations match talent forecasts with analysis of the talent pool to create a realistic view of the labor market. On a micro level, analyzing market data can help predict whether a role is better filled by a permanent or contingent worker in a specific location.
Workforce planning tools can also identify potential problems before they arise. For example, hiring patterns in a market could signal an impending shortage of talent six months into the future, allowing organizations to prepare and stay ahead of the competition. If an organization is looking to expand, predictive analytics can identify areas with the best candidates to fill the needed roles. This empowers HR to have a larger role in shaping the direction of the company. Because of this, it’s key that the right tools to collect historical and current data are in place. If the predictions are inaccurate or the data is not used properly, it could have the opposite effect.
3. AI Tools Will Develop More Effective Candidate Profiles, Job Descriptions and Recruitment Marketing
Another way technology can impact HR is through the use of AI tools that make recruiters more effective in interacting with candidates. This process starts during candidate generation, where AI tools can help you craft job titles and descriptions and continues as recruiters communicate with candidates throughout the hiring process.
AI tools can help recruiters put together stronger candidate personas, by using data to show what factors predict success and where recruiters can find the best candidates, as we discussed earlier. Then, certain technology tools can help recruiters optimize job titles and craft job descriptions that will show up in search results and appeal to the greatest number of candidates.
AI can also help identify exclusionary language that could discourage a certain gender or minority group from applying to a position. This is particularly important because unconscious bias can allow gendered words to creep into our vocabulary without us realizing it. According to Harvard Business School, words like “ninja” discourage women from applying, while words like “supportive” and “collaborative” can discourage men. By using technology to avoid this, recruiters can build better and more diverse candidate pipelines.
As recruiters communicate with candidates, other tools can make the process more personal. Career sites can track what types of jobs candidates view, apply to or start, but never finish. Tracking this data allows recruitment marketing tools to recommend jobs that appeal to the candidate and match their skills and expertise, or to prompt a candidate to complete their application. Once a candidate provides their information, recruiters can use recruitment marketing tools to build personalized marketing streams that will appeal to candidates and encourage them to apply.
These tools help recruiters identify and market to stronger candidates more efficiently, which not only frees up time but also helps build a better workforce, improving business outcomes for the organizations. Here, AI algorithms need to be carefully monitored. Because AI is constantly evolving, errors in an AI platform’s logic can quickly grow, making problems hard to trace. This is especially true if errors are made at the beginning of the process causing the common problem of garbage in, garbage out.
4. AI Sourcing and Improved Assessments Will Identify Candidates with the Right Cultural Fit
Talent technology will also help recruiters identify passive candidates with the skills of the future and the ability to learn and grow with an organization. Passive sourcing tools use artificial intelligence to identify the best candidates for a role – regardless of whether or not those people are actively looking for jobs. The tools can search social media, job boards and more, finding candidates who match target personas. Passive sourcing provides recruiters with a list of strong candidates without the time required to conduct manual searches.
New types of assessments will also help recruiters identify the best candidates. Video interviewing tools can provide additional information about candidates from their facial expressions and tone of voice. This can provide insights into a candidate’s personality, which will help recruiters make better choices about which candidates are the best cultural fit with an organization.
Additionally, new assessments can evaluate the passion, purpose and mindset of candidates. This means recruiters can learn about a candidate’s enthusiasm, enjoyment and commitment to mastering the requirements of a role, their alignment with and willingness to contribute to the vision and values of an organization and whether they have a growth mindset, which is the belief that one’s talents can be developed through education and effort. With this information, recruiters can identify candidates who will align with the goals and culture of an organization, increasing the likelihood that the candidate will stay long-term. By identifying candidates with a growth mindset, recruiters can select candidates who have the ability to learn and grow in the rapidly transforming world of work.
This empowers talent acquisition leaders to better identify and hire the candidates who align with the long-term goals of an organization, enabling the company to meet strategic objectives faster and stay ahead. However, this is another case where HR should be aware that the wrong tools and assessments could actually inject bias into the process, so leaders should be sure to partner with an organization that is aware of and carefully monitors for that risk.
5. Compliance Tools Will Reduce Risk, Freeing Funds and Resources
Another significant aspect of HR is dealing with the multitude of compliance risks that vary by jurisdiction. Technology can automate parts of that process, making it not only more efficient but also more compliant.
Compliance tools can automate background checks and drug tests as a part of the pre-employment and onboarding process. This ensures that every potential employee completes the testing and that the process aligns with all local and federal regulations.
According to SHRM, predictive analytics tools can also be used to assess pay equity, an incredibly hot topic in compliance right now. At least 12 jurisdictions have some sort of pay equity law preventing employers from asking about salary history in an effort to reduce pay discrimination. Because the issue is at the forefront, employers should track this information and take steps to reduce pay inequality at their own organizations. Data analytics tools can monitor and report on any pay gaps for protected groups.
Additionally, Forbes reports that AI can identify “red areas” where fraud or unethical behavior may be more likely and bring those to the attention of HR so they can intervene early or even before bad behavior occurs. AI can also identify behaviors that cause poor work performance, recognizing patterns of stress or bad behavior that could cause safety concerns.
Technology can also assist in the process of collecting documents from workers, and providing workers with required forms and legal documents, protecting the organization from potential regulatory errors. Compliance lapses can be expensive and time-consuming; having reliable tools can keep your organization safe.
Conclusion
The current talent acquisition technology landscape is both
exciting and complicated for employers. Technology already available on the
market will allow HR to be more strategic, but it needs to be implemented and
used effectively. When selecting the right tools, employers need to look for
solutions that have tangible benefits – not just tools that are interesting.
Using the wrong tools has the potential to do more harm than good, so employers
should look for partners that can meet their needs now and flex and growth with
them into the future.
