Category: Talent Technology

Talking Talent Leadership Profiles: A Q&A with David Wilkinson, Boeing Global Talent Acquisition

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David Wilkinson spends a lot of time in airplanes, and that’s not just because he works for Boeing. In global talent acquisition at the aerospace giant, he has lived and worked in London and Dubai and now leads his team from Mesa, Arizona in the U.S. While a lot of people talk about globalizing talent acquisition, David actually lives it.

Regardless of whether he is looking towards the future of Boeing in the deserts of the U.S., the drizzle of the UK or the heat of the UAE, he is a talent champion. He’s also a member of the PeopleScout community. For this issue of PeopleScout NEXT, we caught up with David on an early morning call to learn about his insights on the future of talent acquisition.

What is the mission of Boeing Global Talent Acquisition?

Our journey is to become global talent champions. To us, that means delivering best-in-class solutions that unleash the full potential of Boeing’s people, products and services.


I’m really excited by that mission because it requires us to celebrate and champion talent at every opportunity. It also acknowledges the fact that it is a competition for talent, and we’re here to win.

What are some of your priorities as your team looks to the future?

The two things that I really think are the needle movers for us are operating globally and embracing an intentional use of talent technology. We are excited to work with PeopleScout and other valued partners in pursuit of those goals.


One of our main priorities is evolving our approach to talent technology. We’re working towards a holistic end-to-end technology strategy that will use data-driven insights to inform our experience and activities. I’m hoping that strategy will enable our teams to deliver the best experience every time, at every touch point.

What tools, methods and strategies are you exploring to achieve your approach to talent technology?

For me, the single greatest opportunity is technology. It’s also our single greatest dependency.


We’re adopting Workday globally. Given our scale, this is a significant endeavor. It’s been a two-year project, and we’re going to implement in 2019. So, our focus is on maximizing every opportunity that this change offers.


I see great potential for more intentional tools usage. When you implement a brand-new technology, you can be more intentional about that technology and the way you use your tools, processes and systems. What does that entail for Boeing talent acquisition? It means looking at artificial intelligence, business automation, access to real-time data and more.


We also see opportunities in technology to enable our global journey. Working in talent acquisition in London for eight years, Dubai for 10 years and now the U.S., I’ve learned that there are very, very few truly global tools. What’s big in the U.S. might not be big in Europe and may not be used at all in Asia, for example. This is an important opportunity for us and one that I believe will truly impact the candidate experience.

What are you most proud of in your role at Boeing?

I have been really lucky to lead some great teams globally, and specifically, I’ve been really lucky with Boeing to lead teams in London, Manchester, Delhi, Bangalore, Dubai, Riyadh, Nepal, Beijing, Tokyo, Mesa, Chicago and Seattle. Each of these experiences has influenced my personal development.


When I look at Boeing’s mission to Connect, Protect, Explore and Inspire Our World Through Aerospace Innovation, I embrace the global nature of that mission and the power of connectivity. We want to connect, protect, explore and inspire the world.


My experience and my career journey across the globe demonstrate the power of connectivity. I’m proud to be learning and developing alongside teammates in Mesa and nationwide. So, I’m most proud of the global nature of my role and the journey I have been on – and how I have personally and professionally developed throughout that process.

What are you excited about for the future of talent acquisition?

It’s a similar theme – the opportunities provided by global technology and the opportunity to operate as a team that is globally efficient, locally relevant and resolutely focused on the candidate and user experience.


The opportunities that come with a global talent approach are long established. We know that, for example, there are a million graduates in India. There are also 200,000 Chinese nationals who pursue further education in the U.S., but they have yet to truly be embraced because it is difficult for employers to hire them.


We need to make it easier for talent to move around the globe, and even if you just look on a local scale, we need to make it easier for talent to move around the country. Then we need to make it possible for workers who have been influenced and enriched by an experience in a new location to return home with a more global perspective and stronger than when they left. That’s huge.


I’m energized daily by our mission to become global talent champions and to embrace an intentional use of talent technology. As I look to the future, that is what I’m most excited about as we evolve our partnership with PeopleScout and other valued partners.

2018 In Review: PeopleScout Thought Leadership

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Throughout 2018, we’ve written about some of the biggest trends in talent acquisition and workforce management. As we head into 2019, we’re looking back on some of the most important topics of the past year.

RPO, MSP and Total Workforce Solutions

Total Workforce Solutions in Practice
Drivers and Benefits of Total Workforce Solutions
Four MSP Trends to Make your Program More Effective
Hospitality Staffing: RPO and Hospitality, a Perfect Blend
Positive Global Economic Growth and Its Impact on Talent Acquisition
The Value of Globalizing your Recruitment Strategy
A look into the Gig Economy
Contingent Employment Arrangements: The Implications of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Survey
The Contingent Workforce Landscape: Trends and Strategies
Considerations When Sourcing Talent Globally
Expanding the Talent Landscape by Recruiting Virtual Employees
How the Skills of the Future will Impact Enterprise Recruitment Teams
How to Create a Workforce Equipped with the Skills of the Future
Wages and Recruitment: The Pressure is Building
Prospects for the Class of 2018
Changing Workforce Demographics: Aging Talent

Candidate Experience

How to Improve Your Candidate Experience
How to Create and Provide a Positive Candidate Experience
Four Factors Impacting the Way Employers Interact with Candidates
How (And Why) to Effectively Recruit Recent Graduates
Removing Barriers to Employment for the Long-Term Unemployed
Through the Grapevine: How to Create and Manage an Employee Referral Program
Rethinking Candidate Generation Strategies
Employee Retention: Combating Turnover
Ghosting in the Workplace
Strategies for Building an Effective Talent Community
The Long-Term Unemployed: Your Untapped Talent Pool

Healthcare HR

Healthcare Workforce and Recruiting Trends to Watch
Six Things to Expect from your Prospective Healthcare RPO Partner
Paging All Doctors: Effective Physician Recruiting Strategies and Tactics
Rural Healthcare: How to Recruit and Attract Clinical Talent in Rural Areas
How to Use Pre-Employment Assessments and Testing in Healthcare Recruiting
Leveraging Recruitment Marketing to Attract Healthcare Talent
Healthcare HR Technology To-Do List
Healthcare Recruiters: How Technology is Improving Healthcare Recruiting
How To: Sourcing Healthcare Workers
Healthcare Recruiting Lexicon
Medical Staffing: How to Engage and Retain Healthcare Workers
Recruiting a Traveling Nurse: What You Need to Know
Healthcare Workforce Planning: What You Need to Know
Finding the Right RPO Provider for Your Healthcare Staffing Needs
Six Tips for Healthcare Recruiting
Talking Talent Podcast: Navigating the Talent Acquisition Challenges of a Major Hospital Expansion
Talking Talent Podcast: How HR Technology Can Combat Staffing Shortages in Healthcare
Talking Talent Podcast: Addressing the Workforce Gap in Nursing
Talking Talent Podcast: How RPO Can Solve the Top Challenges in Healthcare Talent Acquisition
Ebook: How RPO Can Solve the Top Challenges in Healthcare Talent Acquisition
Ebook: Healthcare Recruiting Lexicon

Technology

Reducing Unconscious Bias with AI
How to Leverage Workforce Analytics in Workforce Planning
Virtual Reality: Enhancing the Candidate Experience
Workforce Planning: Leveraging Workforce Analytics for Deeper Insights
How Robotic Process Automation is Reshaping Recruiting
Predictive Analytics: A Powerful Talent Acquisition Tool
How to Use Chatbots to Improve Recruiting
Talking Talent Podcast: Using Robotic Process Automation to Streamline Recruiting Processes
Talking Talent Podcast: Using Predictive Analytics to Hire Best Talent Faster
Talking Talent Podcast: How HR Technology Can Combat Staffing Shortages in Healthcare
Ebook: Using Chatbots to Improve Recruiting

Talking Talent with PeopleScout, our Podcast

How Many Requisitions Should a Recruiter Carry?
How Employers Can Learn to Translate Military Resumes and Hire More Veterans
Addressing the Workforce Gap in Nursing
How RPO Can Solve the Top Challenges in Healthcare Talent Acquisition
Using Robotic Process Automation to Streamline Recruiting Processes
Using Predictive Analytics to Hire Best Talent Faster
Navigating the Talent Acquisition Challenges of a Major Hospital Expansion
How HR Technology Can Combat Staffing Shortages in Healthcare

Military and Veteran Hiring

Military Spouses: How to Hire the Overlooked Talent Pool
Building a Veteran Onboarding Program
Talking Talent Podcast: How Employers Can Learn to Translate Military Resumes and Hire More Veterans
Ebook: Best Practices for Hiring Veterans

Ebooks and Whitepapers

Best Practices for Hiring Veterans
How RPO Can Solve the Top Challenges in Healthcare Talent Acquisition
Using Chatbots to Improve Recruiting

Compliance Corner

Washington State’s Paid Medical and Family Leave Program
Sexual Harassment
Department of Labor Office of Compliance Initiatives
California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018
Ban the Box Update
Arbitration Agreements
Worker Classification in the Gig Economy
Salary History Update
CAN-SPAM, CASL and More
GDPR
HR Compliance Trends for 2018

Four Factors Impacting the Way Employers Interact with Candidates

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

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

1. The Digital Transformation

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

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

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

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

What does this mean?

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

2. Global Economic Conditions

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

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

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

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

What does this mean?

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

3. Shifting Trust and Privacy

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

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

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

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

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

What does this mean?

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

4. The Changing Role of Job Boards

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

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

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

What does this mean?

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

Where to Go from Here

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

Reducing Unconscious Bias with AI

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Last winter during a bitterly cold rush hour, a father and son were in a terrible car accident off the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. Tragically, the man died before help arrived. Paramedics were able to successfully transport the child to the nearest hospital where he was brought into an operating room for surgery. The surgeon entered the room but immediately stopped saying, “I can’t operate on this boy, he is my son.”

Who was the surgeon? His mother. This slight variation of the surgeon’s dilemma story helps illustrate how unconscious bias works. Every day people unknowingly form opinions about others based on minimal input; this is known as unconscious bias. These thoughts are usually based on deeply held beliefs. No one wants to be biased, but it is part of being human. Unconscious bias can be related to race, gender, age, religion, sexual preference, veteran status, disability status, socio-economic status, college attended and many other attributes. In fact, at least 150 different unconscious bias types have been identified and studied.


In this article, we’ll explore ways that unconscious bias appears in talent acquisition, review how AI can be used to reduce bias in the recruiting process and share tips for how to select an AI partner that can help employers reduce bias.

Unconscious Bias in Talent Acquisition


While employers strive to uphold legal standards for equal employment opportunities, unconscious bias issues in talent acquisition still exist.


Unconscious bias can occur at many stages throughout the recruiting process. For example, a recruiter may unconsciously write job descriptions that appeal more to a certain group of people. A recruiter looking for an IT developer might advertise a role as a Java Ninja, which could discourage women from applying because the title uses more masculine language.


During the candidate screening process individuals might also experience affinity bias, a specific type of unconscious bias that occurs when someone with a certain background is favored. An instance of this might include a hiring manager seeking candidates with an MBA from a particular school. At a company level, bias can even extend to citing a company’s culture fit as a reason to hire a certain type of person, i.e., hiring only younger workers.


When unconscious bias spreads across a candidate pool, bigger risks, such as a lack of organizational diversity, may emerge. A Deloitte study found that a diverse workforce is twice as likely to meet or exceed a company’s overall financial goals. Another study by Catalyst cited a 34 percent higher return to shareholders for companies with more women in executive positions.


Without a diverse workforce, organizations run the risk of possible legal action. A recent age discrimination lawsuit against three large technology employers claimed millions of older workers were allegedly blocked from seeing Facebook job ads because of their age.


Outside of legal action, companies also face the possibility of accidentally harming their own recruiting efforts. Silicon Valley has long been accused of having a less than diverse workforce. However, 47 percent of millennials say they prefer working for a diverse company.

How AI Can Reduce Bias in the Hiring Process


Artificial intelligence can decrease unconscious bias in recruiting practices in two key ways.

  • First, as a sophisticated pattern detector, AI can find bias across millions of data points.
  • Second, when potential candidates are identified, AI can catalogue profiles based only on certain skill sets. AI can also be programmed to ignore all demographic information, like zip codes, race or gender.

While many vendors today offer AI-enabled capabilities for tasks such as interview scheduling or candidate communications, using AI specifically to reduce the challenges of unconscious bias is still emerging. Montage recently launched Unbiased Candidate Review that helps companies reduce discrimination during the selection and interview process. Unbiased Candidate Review, part of Montage’s on-demand voice and video interviewing solution suite, includes hiding the candidate’s identity and voice until a hiring manager enters feedback on the candidate.


Another example of fighting bias through AI includes the story of entrepreneur Iba Masood. As a native of Pakistan that graduated from college in the United Arab Emirates, Masood had a difficult time finding a tech job after graduating. She was not from the traditional pool of young, male, Ivy League candidates that seek developer roles. So she created her own AI solution, TARA, to combat bias in the tech recruiting process. Today, candidates that use TARA’s online freelancer marketplace are judged only by the code they produce. Companies looking to find project-based developers bid based on the current skills needed for a project with no knowledge of the candidate’s socio-economic or previous professional background.

Potential AI Risks


While promising as a solution, AI algorithms need to be built appropriately and monitored frequently to make sure AI does not perpetuate the bias it was programmed to erase. As AI emerges to help reduce unconscious bias, several groups, including federal agencies, are observing AI’s impact to make sure risks are appropriately addressed.


Some of these groups include the following:

  • The AI Institute, which reviews AI’s ongoing impact on society.
  • Explainable AI, which focuses on tracing the reasoning of AI algorithms back to its human creators so links are not lost.

In addition to these formal groups monitoring AI, organizations can take steps to make sure the correct AI processes are in place. 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. However, there are strategies teams can put in place to reduce risk:

  • Recruiting teams can combine their expertise with data gathered from AI to produce more inclusive job descriptions and candidate pools in the future.
  • Bias can also be reduced by setting strategies internally to identify and eliminate bias through training and other programs.
  • Organizations should assign diverse teams to build AI algorithms so a wider set of ideas is represented in the AI’s output.
  • Finally, companies should conduct ongoing audits of AI algorithms to test that efforts related to AI are progressing appropriately.

How to Select and Evaluate an AI Provider


When assessing enterprise AI partners for your organization, make sure to review the following:

  1. Ask questions. If a potential partner isn’t willing to explain how its algorithms work, walk away. A good partner is prepared to support your business and will be able to articulate how the solutions work in terms you understand.
  2. Understand the vision. Not all partners will be experts in your industry. However, from a technical perspective, ask to see a long-term product roadmap to understand plans for the company’s product evolution and what kind of influence you may have into the roadmap features.
  3. Agree on the support model. Make sure the partner has a thorough understanding of how you operate and how AI folds into that process. Share what is critical to you and ensure they’re ready to commit to supporting those items for you. Without this, your support of your own clients could be affected.

Expanding the Talent Landscape by Recruiting Virtual Employees

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With very low unemployment in many of the world’s major economies, those seeking to attract talent should explore the benefits of recruiting employees that work from home. Since a number of these countries, such as the United States and the UK, are considered to be at “full employment,” where nearly everyone who wants a job has a job, the traditional formula of recruiting in the market where a company is located may no longer be as effective as it has been in the past. And since the top reason for quitting a current job is to increase wages, employers face the challenge of meeting candidate expectations for higher pay based on local salary ranges.

While remote work may not be viable for some positions, expanding the pool of candidates outside a specific geographic area allows employers to take advantage of the growing trend in telecommuting as well as potentially reduce attrition, decrease cost-per-hire and even improve productivity.

The Virtual Workforce is Substantial (and Growing)

A study by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs released earlier this year reported that 3.9 million U.S. employees, or 2.9 percent of the total U.S. workforce, currently work from home at least half of the time. This number is up from 1.8 million in 2005, an increase of 115 percent. And as of 2017, 43 percent of U.S. workers worked remotely at least occasionally, up from only 9 percent of workers in 2007.

Growth in remote work is not limited to the United States. In the UK, one in seven people work from home, according to the Office for National Statistics. In Canada, nearly half (47 percent) of employees work from outside one of their employer’s main offices for half the week or more. And in Australia, the number of people who work from home has risen to 30 percent. The significant percentages of telecommuters is not the case for all economies. Eurostat reported earlier this year that working from home was slightly more common in the Eurozone than in the EU as a whole. And some non-Eurozone countries have a negligible virtual workforce. Bulgaria has only 0.3 and Romania just 0.4 percent of its workers working from home, as an example.

A Deloitte study on Global Human Capital Trends reported that 70 percent of employees value telecommuting, but only 27 percent of employers offer this option. Therefore, companies that provide opportunities for telecommuting may have a competitive advantage in attracting talent.

Reducing Employee Turnover and Increasing Productivity

While study results vary, there is evidence being offered that working from home can increase employee retention. One study by OwlLabs found that companies that support remote work have 25 percent lower employee turnover than those that don’t.

A study conducted by a Stanford University professor set up a control group between office-based workers and those were allowed to work from home. As the Harvard Business Review reports:

“Half the volunteers were allowed to telecommute; the rest remained in the office as a control group. Survey responses and performance data collected at the conclusion of the study revealed that, in comparison with the employees who came into the office, the at-home workers were not only happier and less likely to quit but also more productive.”

The professor noted that “The results we saw at Ctrip, (the company studied, which is the largest online travel agency in China and the owner of other travel sites worldwide including Trip.com) blew me away. Ctrip was thinking that it could save money on space and furniture if people worked from home and that the savings would outweigh the productivity hit it would take when employees left the discipline of the office environment. Instead, we found that…Ctrip got almost an extra workday a week out of them. They also quit at half the rate of people in the office—way beyond what we anticipated. And predictably, at-home workers reported much higher job satisfaction.”

Providing the option of working virtually can be a crucial factor in retaining valuable talent. If an employee needs to relocate temporarily for family reasons, such as caring for an older parent, or permanently due to a spouse’s job transfer, the employee can remain with the company by working remotely. Having this option available allows the employee to remain with the organization while the employer retains experienced talent and saves the costs of hiring and training a new worker.

Cost Savings for Employers and Employees

This same Stanford study showed that the company saved $1,900 per employee working from home over nine months. Remote workers allow employers to save money on furniture, parking, office space, insurance costs and other expenses. Global Workplace Analytics’ research shows that a typical employer can save more than $11,000 per year for each half-time telecommuter, the result of a combination of increased productivity and reduced real estate, turnover and absenteeism.

The cost benefits of remote work also extend to employees. Those working remotely save on commuting expenses, depreciation on their vehicles if they drive and gain the time back that would normally be spent going to and from work.

Can Remote Work Be a Solution for Your Business?

The difficulties of recruiting locally and the potential returns of developing a remote workforce may be attractive, but it is also uncharted territory for many companies. How would you source candidates throughout the nation and even beyond? Can you develop recruiting processes, including interviewing, that are effective using video and other tools if you have only relied on face-to-face meetings until now? And once a candidate is hired, how will you manage the onboarding process remotely? The answers to these and many other questions confronting a company exploring a remote workforce option can be provided by a recruitment process outsourcing company (RPO). An RPO can provide the experience, technology and expertise to ensure your success as you remove the geographic limits of your talent pool.

Healthcare Workforce and Recruiting Trends to Watch

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The healthcare workforce is highly specialized. As a result, the healthcare workforce and labor market are uniquely competitive. To gain a competitive edge, healthcare organizations are looking for innovative recruiting solutions to find top-quality candidates who provide world-class care for patients.

In this post, we examine the trends in the healthcare workforce that will influence the future of healthcare recruitment.

Employer Branding for Healthcare Workforce

Top healthcare candidates have many options when it comes to employers and can easily research the experiences of employees in your organization on career sites such as Indeed and Glassdoor.

In fact, a survey conducted by LinkedIn found that 75 percent of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying for a job. What’s more, a study conducted by Healthcare Recruiters International found that over 90 percent of candidates think employer branding is an essential recruiting resource. So, how can you ensure you have an impactful employer brand?

How RPO Can Solve The Top Challenges In Healthcare Talent Acquisition

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Conduct an Employer Brand Audit

Before developing your employer brand, you should conduct an employer brand audit. Your employer brand audit will help you understand how your brand distinguishes itself from competitors and provide a starting point from which you can build your strategy. Below are key questions to ask yourself during the audit:

  • Why would someone want to work for you?
  • What is the perception employees and candidates have about your organization?
  • What percentage of your employees would recommend your company as a great place to work?

Set your Employer Brand Strategy

Prospective healthcare employees are similar to patients in that both select the healthcare provider they feel most comfortable with. Your employer brand strategy should help make a candidate’s choice easier and provide assurance that he or she has chosen the right employer. Your employer brand strategy should contain the following three components:

  • Differentiators: A list of the benefits and unique qualities that are different or better about working at your healthcare facility.
  • Employee Value Proposition: Using your list of differentiators, craft a brief paragraph that positions your organization against other healthcare employers and demonstrates why candidates view you as an employer of choice.
  • Employer Brand Promotional Plan: Develop a plan to share your employee value proportion with candidates, including the tactics you will use, the tools you need and the schedule you will follow to attract potential new hires and retain current employees.

Promote Your Employer Brand to the Healthcare Workforce 

Once you have established your employer brand, it is time to promote it. You can promote your employer brand by highlighting your workplace benefits and culture in recruiting materials, on your website and social media channels and in your job postings and candidate outreach emails. Some examples of ways to promote your employer brand include:

  • Sharing videos and pictures of your workplace to show what working for your healthcare organization is like.
  • Leveraging your social channels to show off your workplace and company perks so that a candidate can assess what you have to offer.
  • Building a career site that makes visitors feel welcome and gives applicants the information they are looking for, such as details about employment opportunities, company culture and work environment.
  • Telling engaging stories from current and former employees to better attract the type of healthcare candidates who could see themselves in those stories.

Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce

Healthcare is experiencing a shortage of workers, and professionals of diverse backgrounds are particularly underrepresented in many occupations and in the upper ranks of many healthcare organizations.

Minority Workers in the Healthcare Workforce

With demand in many healthcare professions at record levels, career opportunities abound for individuals of all backgrounds. However, Black, Hispanic and Indigenous Americans make up almost a quarter of the U.S. population, yet as a group, they account for only 6 percent of physicians, 9 percent of nurses and 5 percent of dentists according to the Sullivan Commission on Diversity.

Healthcare organizations can play a significant role in addressing this issue by:

  • Promoting healthcare careers to diverse populations via school programs and community organizations.
  • Encouraging students to shadow healthcare professionals and explore careers in healthcare.
  • Recruiting ethnically diverse individuals for every-level positions to increase current minority representation.
  • Offering internships, residencies and fellowships to ethnically diverse students. For example, the Institute for Diversity in Health Management in Chicago offers summer internships to college students.

Healthcare Workers with Disabilities

Individuals with disabilities can pursue successful careers in the healthcare field. Opportunities are available, but so are obstacles, from expensive equipment to accommodate workers to licensing requirements.

Some disabled healthcare workers take advantage of programs specifically designed to recruit those with disabilities. Project Search at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center gives high school students with disabilities the opportunity to learn about careers in healthcare. Healthcare organizations can also provide assistance to workers with disabilities by:

  • Creating formal policies and procedures on accommodations for staff with disabilities. Invite employees with disabilities to work with on these policies.
  • Making the online application process easier to use, with fonts that can be enlarged or a site that can be used with a screen reader.
  • Advertising your healthcare organization as an equal opportunity employer and including contact information for anyone having problems accessing your organization because of a disability.

Aging Healthcare Workforce

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing the median age of a Registered Nurse (RN) is 46 years old. Plus, more than a quarter of RNs report they plan to retire or leave nursing over the next five years. These demographic trends portend significant employment challenges in the near future in the U.S.

Healthcare employers will need to rethink their current employment policies and practices to simultaneously retain talented older staff and create job opportunities for new workers of all ages. Many healthcare organizations are taking proactive steps to confront the problems that will occur as the healthcare workforce matures. Some of these strategies include:

  • Developing strong outreach mechanisms to attract promising senior candidates to healthcare management careers.
  • Publicizing career advancement opportunities, such as continuing education, professional development organizations, networking events and vacancies inside the organization, in a manner that appeals to everyone, especially older individuals.
  • Creating environments that encourage retention, development and promotion of qualified elderly or senior employees.

Greater Use of Technology

As technology continues to become more sophisticated, it will play an increasingly important role in finding and hiring talent in healthcare. In fact, according to Ideal, 96% of senior HR professionals believe AI has the potential to greatly enhance talent acquisition and retention.

AI can help reduce unconscious bias during the hiring process by anonymizing candidates and focusing on skills, not age, gender or race, auto. AI technology can also be used to improve the screening process and manage interview scheduling.

Drafting Better Job Posts

Finding the right candidate in the healthcare workforce begins with the right job posting. In fact, it is often the first thing candidates see from your organization, so it is important to make a good impression.

Today, AI technology can utilize algorithms to assess and analyze language patterns in job postings to determine why some fail and others succeed and suggest keywords to make job descriptions more appealing to candidates. As the AI technology analyzes more job posts, it becomes more accurate with its language suggestions, helping employers draft precise job descriptions.

While there may never be a perfect job posting, AI technology is getting us closer.

Advanced Candidate Screening

Traditionally, candidate screenings begin with reviewing an applicant’s resume followed by a brief phone call. This means that recruiters and hiring managers have only their judgment of a resume to assess whether a healthcare candidate would make a good hire.

Healthcare recruiters know that resumes are an incomplete picture of someone’s skills, achievements, capabilities and most importantly, personality and culture fit.

AI technology can also be used to cull data and metrics healthcare organizations have on their employees to build predictive models and personality profiles that help lead to candidates who fit the company culture and job requirements more accurately and can reduce time-to-fill metrics.

Automating Recruiting Tasks

In healthcare recruiting, administrative tasks such as resume screenings and scheduling interviews can be time-consuming. With the assistance of AI, recruiters and hiring managers can reduce their time spent conducting administrative work by using AI and Robotic Process Automation technology to automatically screen candidates’ resumes using keyword and qualification searches.

AI can also help schedule interviews with candidates through email or chatbot programs that bring more personalization to the communication process. Not only does this save time that recruiters can spend on more critical tasks, it also accelerates the interview process, helping reduce time-to-hire and ultimately providing healthcare organizations with an advantage when competing for talent.

Conclusion

Your healthcare organization’s success depends on your ability to adapt to changes in recruiting and healthcare talent management. Healthcare RPO is one way the sector is staying on top of a difficult hiring environment.

Talking Talent: Using Robotic Process Automation to Streamline Recruiting Processes

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In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about robotic process automation, also known as RPA, and how it can be used to streamline recruiting processes.

Our guest is Chad Getchell, leader of innovation at PeopleScout. Chad has been with the company since the start of the year and has project ownership responsibilities for AffinixTM. Affinix is a mobile-first, cloud-based platform that creates a consumer-like candidate experience and streamlines the sourcing process.

Robotic process automation refers to technology that utilizes bots to replicate human actions for time-consuming but straightforward back-office administrative tasks. RPA software allows users to configure bots to collect data, trigger responses and communicate with other business systems. RPA software integrates with existing tools, so it does not require a complete update of a legacy system; rather, RPA acts as a supplemental enhancement. RPA applications can handle automations that range from a simple task such as automated email responses to managing thousands of bots that complete individual tasks.

For organizations looking to optimize their recruiting, RPA software can provide time savings, increase recruiting accuracy and help reduce bias in the recruiting process. RPA technology can also be utilized for high-level repetitive tasks such as candidate and resume screening. RPA systems can work every hour of every day to source, screen and organize candidates. This gives recruiters more time to establish a more consultative relationship with clients and better engage candidates in a personal one-on-one relationship.

In the podcast, Chad talks about how RPA can be used in the sourcing process and to improve the candidate experience. He digs into common challenges employers face as they deploy RPA solutions and what to look for in an RPA partner. Additionally, Chad shares how RPA is integrated into PeopleScout’s Affinix technology.

Talking Talent: Using Predictive Analytics to Hire Best Talent Faster

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In this episode of Talking Talent, we’re talking about how you can use predictive analytics to make your recruiting funnel more efficient and hire top talent, faster.


Our guest is Allison Brigden, Global Leader of Innovation and Support at PeopleScout. Allison has been with the company for more than 20 years, and in that time, she has gained a wealth of knowledge through implementing and managing complex RPO engagements. In her current role, Allison oversees Affinix®, PeopleScout’s proprietary total talent suite of AI-powered tools that streamlines the sourcing process. Allison has been instrumental throughout the development and rollout of Affinix.


In this tightening talent market with unemployment rates at record lows, predictive analytics is emerging as an essential AI tool for employers looking to stay ahead of the competition. Predictive analytics allows employers to use the power of data to make predictions about candidates and drive efficiencies throughout the entire talent acquisition process.


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. It’s as close as employers can get to predicting the future.


The ability to make these predictions helps shorten the entire recruiting process while making stronger hires. In a competitive talent market, this allows employers to identify the top talent for a particular role and make an offer to the best candidates faster than the competition. For employers, this results in improvements in time-to-hire and quality-of-hire, and for candidates, it builds a better experience, leaving a positive impression that will factor into their decision to accept an offer.


In this podcast episode, Allison covers how predictive analytics can be used during the sourcing process, how it can be used throughout the recruitment funnel and what employers should consider when implementing a predictive analytics tool.

How to Leverage Workforce Analytics and HR Data in Workforce Planning

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According to a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 15 percent of respondents said they use “predictive analytics based on HR data and data from other sources within or outside the organization,” while 48 percent predicted they would be doing so in two years.

While organizations are increasingly incorporating data into the HR mix, there are still areas for improvement and to further adopt workforce analytics. Below, we outline some of the best practices for building an analytics-oriented workforce planning program along with some of the analytics processes essential for success.

Building an Analytics-Oriented HR Data Team

Organizations need to solicit input from a variety of stakeholders like talent acquisition program managers, human resource leaders, data specialists, budget and finance leaders and IT specialists to create a multidisciplinary team. When building your team, considering the following:

  • Does your organization have an individual with experience and expertise in data analysis with the leadership skills to manage a workforce analytics team?
  • Does the team you have assembled include analysts with data management, statistics and data visualization skills?
  • Do you have your IT department’s support to choose the right tools to integrate HR data with other data sources in the organization?
  • Can your team confidently present data-oriented solutions to senior leadership even if the solutions are counter to past workforce plans?

Collecting the Right Data

Collecting essential data points is a key step in a data-driven HR program. The data needed for analysis may come from multiple divisions within an organization. Organizations need to communicate the importance of sharing data with leaders organization-wide. Evaluating current internal HR data can help organizations identify future needs and draft a workforce strategy around them. Below is a list of data needed for workforce analytics.

Internal HR data:

  • What are the demographics of the current workforce? (Gender, ethnicity, disabilities, full/part-time, etc.)
  • How many people work in each position?
  • Where are positions located?
  • What is the employee to supervisor ratio?
  • What are the pay rates of current employees?
  • What is the likelihood of attrition through retirement?
  • What recruitment activities have been completed in the last two to three years?
  • What recruitment activities and resources were used?
  • How many qualified applicants were found?
  • Where did the most qualified applicants come from?
  • What do new employees think of your recruitment practices?
  • How many employees are needed to fill each position?
  • What knowledge, skills, competencies and abilities are needed to perform anticipated job functions?
  • What processes could be done more efficiently or effectively?
  • What are the organization’s strategic objectives?
  • What are the organization’s diversity objectives?

External Data Sources

Many organizations have inward-focused approach to workforce analytics and HR data and do not take into account what is going on outside the organization. The labor market is rapidly changing. Labor market data can inform organizations about talent supply in different locations and provide critical market intelligence on issues like competitiveness and salary range.

Data and job projection reports from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, for example, can lead to a better understanding of the supply and demand for essential occupations and the competitiveness of the job market.

Putting HR Data in Action  

Organizations should take the insights gained through workforce analytics initiatives and develop a workforce plan to fill the gaps between current and future hiring needs. Some strategies and considerations when drafting a data-oriented workforce plan include:

  • Plan for employees to receive skills training when needed to prepare for changing roles within the company.
  • Hire and retain employees with skills that are critical to the success of the business.
  • Create programs focused on employee retention.
  • Increase efficiencies in recruitment and hiring processes by proactively identifying vacancies through succession planning and forecasting future business requirements.
  • Identify training needs, classification and compensation issues, organizational or position changes that may affect employee retention.
  • Create workplace diversity strategies to reach organizational diversity goals.

Managing a Workforce Analytics Program and HR Data

Workforce analytics is a continuous process that is highly susceptible to changes in the economy and labor market. To stay on top of new developments, organizations need to ensure their workforce analytics process is managed properly. Below, we share advice on how to best manage a workforce analytics program.

Prioritize Business Goals

For workforce analytics to drive real value, it has to be aligned with an organization’s business goals. Everyone contributing to workforce analytics process needs to be briefed on the overarching business strategies, so they can understand how their analysis contributes.

Common workforce goals include:

  • Reduce turnover on a particular team or organization-wide
  • Retain high-performing individuals
  • Improve staffing and recruiting efficiency
  • Lower the cost of operations
  • Ensure the organization has talent aligned to expansion plans or planned new product offerings

Stakeholder Management

Because workforce analytics involve stakeholders from HR, finance, IT and others within an organization, clear and open communication should be emphasized early in the process. This will help stakeholders and their teams understand expectations up front and establish relationships between teams for success.

Data Quality

At the start of a workforce analytics initiative, it makes sense for organizations to conduct basic data hygiene practices like assessing the quality of data, gauging the need for data clean-up and documenting data-gathering and reporting processes.

Data Governance

Because employee data is personal, privacy rules must be respected. Proper data governance should be the responsibility of everyone involved in workforce analytics. However, someone should be assigned ownership to ensure that data and HR teams are following the processes established for data security.

Flexibility

Economic and business climates are not static; even the best workforce analytics program may miss emerging talent shortages or inadequately take certain contingencies into account. To make sure workforce analytics program reflect the latest internal and external developments, organizations should regularly re-calibrate and revise assumptions made from previous HR data analysis.

RPO Providers Can Assist Organizations with Workforce Planning, HR Data and Analytics

There is no one-size-fits-all workforce planning program, even for global organizations that have similar needs. What’s right for one organization may not be what another organization needs.

However, workforce planning does not have to be mysterious or complex. Organizations more than likely have a lot of the data they need, it is just a matter of creating the right management and reporting practices to interpret the data in meaningful ways.

The right RPO partner can help organizations make sense of their workforce analytics with their experience and deep understanding of labor market data and trends. An RPO partner can also work with an organization to create methodologies adapted to suit their needs. Click here to learn more about PeopleScout’s RPO solutions.

Virtual Reality: Enhancing the Candidate Experience

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While virtual reality (VR) is not new, it is gaining popularity in talent acquisition as a powerful tool for elevating the candidate experience. If used correctly, VR can help companies win talent by standing out from the content companies send to candidates. VR is also a strong tool to promote an employer’s brand.

VR allows users to experience their surroundings in an imaginary immersive environment. From flying on a broomstick at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios to entering a haunted house simulation, virtual reality is a first-person, other-world experience. In recruiting, virtual reality gives candidates a look into real-world activities, virtually experiencing a day-in-the-life of a potential job while helping employers promote their brands in an uninterrupted way.

VR is usually a blanket term for any immersive virtual experience. However, other concepts related to VR add to the landscape of tools in production or now available. These technologies include 360-degree videos (e.g., home tours), computer-generated VR, augmented reality (e.g., wearing Google glass) and the further-out-there mixed reality technology (e.g., the real world and virtual world interact with one another). Mobile AR is also emerging; think the popularity of Pokemon Go. Mobile AR is predicted to one day potentially drive the majority of the growth of VR/AR. However, the 2014 VR market revenue was $62.1B and is expected to balloon to $310B by 2025.

Virtual Reality Applications in Talent Acquisition

VR is used in many different formats in talent acquisition. Career fairs are a popular example. Candidates use VR headsets to experience a first-hand look at what a day-in-the-life might look like before they pursue a position. The British Army used this tactic successfully, allowing candidates to virtually ride tanks in a simulated drill; as a result, the British Army saw its recruitment applications rise by 66 percent. Similarly, the U.S. Navy is also experimenting with virtual reality at career forums, where recruits can immerse themselves in virtual reality combat situations by acting as Navy Seals.

Deutsche Bahn also demonstrates different job roles using VR. Various simulation videos show candidates what it would be like to be a construction worker, a train conductor or work in various other roles. Deutsche Bahn reports that having candidates experience VR has increased the focus and volume of candidates applying.

Some VR applications have merged with gamification techniques. One example of this has been successfully measured by Jaguar. Jaguar developed a skills-based mixed-reality game to attract electronic and software engineers. Available as a mobile app, users engage willingly in a skills test when in-game. Those with interest in Jaguar and who exhibit high aptitude on these tests are green-lighted through the recruitment process.

When new workers join an organization, onboarding and training play a critical role in helping them assimilate faster and reduce turnover. Being trained in a more immersive environment using VR increases learning retention in a more present, focused state. It can also be fun. Kentucky Fried Chicken recently rolled out a program where new cooks are taught the Colonel’s famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe through a VR game.

Using Virtual Reality to Attract Candidates

Candidates have a blind spot when they apply to companies they do not know professionally. Part of the true picture of how an organization operates remains unknown, even after reading employer branding materials, social media posts and company-review websites like Glassdoor or Yelp!.

VR helps candidates feel more confident about accepting a role because they know more about how an employer operates. With VR, there is a deeper level of personalization and engagement that gives candidates a real-world look into their potential employer’s world. Similar to video, but in a more immersive way, VR creates an emotional connection.

Candidates who do not feel attached to a company’s mission, vision or brand also have the opportunity of self-selecting out of the process. If a candidate makes that decision, then possible costs associated with an in-person interview can be avoided.

One item to keep in mind when attracting candidates is that younger audiences are more closely drawn to VR than older audiences. Younger candidates are potentially more familiar with modern technologies than their older peers. If a company is looking to attract an older workforce, VR may not be the right path. Or, it should be supplemented with other tools, so more senior candidates are not discouraged from applying.

Getting Started with Virtual Reality

Today, most examples of talent acquisition applications of VR are organizations with the scale to run enterprise-wide programs or those with an RPO partner experienced in deploying new technology.

If you’re thinking about adding virtual reality efforts to your recruiting program, we recommend taking the following steps before getting started.

  • Confirm your existing talent acquisition program is complete. Are your processes and candidate flow aligned? Do you have the right ecosystem in place for your entire talent acquisition process? Adding VR will help you measure if it differentiates your organization to new candidates. An optimized program will be flexible, allowing you to add VR where it is needed.
  • Understand your target audience. The content you design needs to target a particular audience. You should already have persona-specific content related to your candidate journey. This targeting needs to come to life with VR too.
  • Use VR in conjunction with other tools in the technology ecosystem. VR is a great way to promote your employer brand and attract candidates. Once interested, candidates still need to be assessed before moving on in the process. Consider doing this through on-line assessments, video interviewing or a combination of related strategies.
  • Monitor the talent acquisition technology ecosystem market. VR is mature in the consumer world, but still in its infancy in the B2B world. As VR matures in talent acquisition, monitor similar and complementary technologies that may also be used in the future, such as augmented reality or mobile applications.

Virtual reality should be geared to the right audience as part of an overall recruitment program. Organizations should consider VR and track the growth of associated technologies to stay ahead of the competition.