Category: Blog

National Recruitment Federation

I read with interest the recent Linkedin Global Recruiting Trends report highlighting trends in the recruitment industry over the coming years. The report surveyed 4,000 Corporate Talent Acquisition leaders across 35 countries and while some of the results were predictable;

  • Talent acquisition will retain a prominent seat at the executive table
  • The majority of hiring managers are planning increased hiring over the coming 18 months
  • Sales, Operations and Engineering are the key focus for the next year
  • The bulk of the talent acquisition budget will continue to go towards traditional recruitment tactics and tools

Others did raise an eyebrow and one in particular;

  • If money wasn’t an inhibitor, hiring managers would invest most in their employer brand.

Why this caught my attention is rather simple, you don’t have to have a budget to improve employer branding…you need to have a clear vision and strategy which is part and parcel of a company culture so that every external touchpoint leaves a positive impression with the external market.

There are many definitions for employer branding but they all essentially seek to explain a company’s ability to differentiate itself from competitors through a unique Employee Value Proposition (EVP).  A strong EVP will communicate the company values in a way that highlights what makes that workplace unique and attractive to individuals sharing the same values. As employer brands are based on intangible factors such as image, identity, and perception, being able to discover what it is about a brand that creates an emotional inclination and a sense of identification with the company, can prove invaluable to employers.  

 

The importance of a strong employer brand

A strong brand successfully connects an organisation’s values and HR policies to its corporate brand. It is the image a company seeks to project as a potential employer. Think John Lewis with their emotive Christmas ads. Think Red Bull with their extreme sports ethos. Mastering the art of employer branding can translate into a workplace that is attractive to individuals who share the same values. As a result, these companies are considered coveted places to work and are much more likely to attract the right candidates.

This is true of global giants such as Apple, Google and Intel as well as smaller companies closer to home like Core HR and Teamwork. It’s about more than being perceived as hip incidentally; sure the fussball table, beer fridge and complimentary creche are a nice touch, but great brands offer more than mere freebies. Fun or cool; intelligent or inspirational: how would you describe the values that define your workplace?

The best place to start exploring what motivates people to join a particular organisation, why they stay and why they leave is internal feedback. Existing data from employee feedback, employee engagement and culture surveys, focus groups, employee forums, new hire surveys or exit interviews can often paint a good picture of the prospective and existing employees’ experiences.

 

How to make your brand stand out

 Candidates = Customers

If our experience as recruiters has taught us anything, it’s that the brands people want to work for and those focused on delivering the best possible “candidate experience” throughout their recruitment processes are one and the same.

Candidates who feel valued may be more likely to shares their positive experiences with peers and across online and social media channels (Facebook, Glassdoor and Payscale in particular) which in turn, serves to strengthen the employer brand. The quality of this experience, whether the candidate is offered the role or not, will shape their opinion of an employer and could determine whether or not they would recommend or revisit opportunities with them again in the future.

Building great relationships and creating a positive professional impression will enhance your employer profile and assist with succession planning and growth strategies. In other words, candidates will think you’re the bomb.

Don’t underestimate the power of social media

Having opened new channels of engagement between candidates and employers, social media is a critical channel in any employer’s recruitment strategy. Revolutionising the way in which we search and apply for jobs and assess our future employers and managers, this immediate, and occasionally ruthless platform allows employer brands to be amplified or discredited in an instant.

In the past, companies’ claims would rarely get publicly contested. Social media has ripped up the rule book, allowing current and prospective employees to voice their views and painting a more realistic picture of the workplace. When the company shines, the resultant feedback generates more goodwill than any marketing campaign ever could. When it doesn’t, well, Google “how to commit brand suicide on Twitter” for tales that will give you sleepless nights.

Social media is a critical channel in any employer’s recruitment strategy. LinkedIn remains recruiters’ preferred social channel for finding, contacting and keeping track of candidates (94%), while Facebook (65%) and Twitter (55%) are used by businesses to showcase the employer brand. Platforms such as YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram are gaining popularity with employers, who use them to engage with candidates. Video, in particular, is an increasingly popular medium for communicating companies’ organisational culture and the main things they value in prospective employees.

Responsible companies stand out from the crowd

Corporate social responsibility covers a wide range of concerns, from an organisation’s environmental impact to the social-political ramifications of its conduct, its involvement in charitable causes and relationships with the wider community. The general consensus, as it stands, is that millennials are typically more sensitive to environmental and social concerns than previous generations.

As a case in point, several major brands were recently taken to task over their adverts appearing on controversial political website Breitbart.com. Angry consumers threatened to boycott the brands until they remedied the situation. This illustrates the need for employers to tread carefully, being mindful of how they’re perceived both on- and offline.

 

Your best brand ambassadors are those closest to home

When employees are happy, they become the greatest ambassadors a company could wish for. Nurture your referral network, incentivise and use the talent you already have to help shape your employer brand. Employees help create the culture within your organisation. Working on strategies to involve them in growing your employer brand and talent attraction will only add to the sense of belonging and investment for all.

Planning for change

Having an adaptable employer branding strategy is becoming increasingly important in today’s competitive landscape. Changing employment trends mean that companies need to stay agile and more aware of the social environment than ever before.

 

Bryan Hyland
Regional Chairman – NRF

Jackie Gaughan

The simple answer is that they should not compete directly, as larger employers have advantages based on scale or employer brand. Most forward thinking companies have been investing in their ‘Employer brands’ for year. You will not be able to replicate quickly, cheaply or most importantly authentically.

 

Nobody likes ‘fake’, we may buy ‘fake’ from time to time but we don’t treasure it or respect it. When we find out something is a fake after the fact then we feel betrayed, annoyed or embarrassed.

 

In an employment context where candidates have taken a job based on mistruths, withheld information or an unauthentic employer brand there will be high attrition. Furthermore, candidates will not be engaged fully while working causing further problems.

 

SMEs do have the advantages of being more nimble, responsive and they can make more timely decisions.

 

There are no magic bullets but there are steps you can follow.

 

Step 1 – ‘Be Authentic’, ‘Be Realistic’ and be prepared to invest time and money in developing and maintaining your ‘Employer Brand’.

Think of the Cost, Quality & Timeline triangle. Prioritise two of these and compromise on the third.  As I mentioned above, time to hire is where I would compromise.  I know sometimes you cannot be this strategic but recognise you should compromise elsewhere.

 

Step 2 – Write an original job specification. The job must have both the facts about the job and the story of the job.  It should include a piece on the employer.  It should include a ‘Call to action’ which differentiates it from other roles.  Talk to current employees about what they like, about what impact they make and how they make a difference to customers, colleagues or society every day.

Write it in the language that your target audience understands. Too many job specs are undecipherable and overloaded with adjectives!

It is important to benchmark your salary & benefits against the markets. Depending on the job, new tools or flexible work location will trump ‘fuss ball’ tables and sugary snacks.

 

Step 3 – Exhaust your own personal and professional networks. Everyone should know what a great opportunity you have.  Set up an employee referral program.  Leverage off Employees networks to get unique candidates.

 

Step 4 – Use other channels including advertising and recruitment companies who are NRF members. Recruitment Agencies have many advantages especially around their reach.  A specialist recruiter will provide you with timely access to more available talent than any other channel.

Agencies will also provide free advice on the job specification, labour market, benchmarked salaries/benefits, interview advice etc.

 

Step 5 – Win through your interview process.

  • Explain in advance to candidates what is required and who is involved. Don’t have too many interview stages or big gaps between interviews, if there are over 4 stages then have 2/3 on the same day. Once candidates commit to a process their focus is on the outcome.
  • Earn the right to ask.
  • Manage expectations. Put aside time in advance to interview, stick to it.
  • Have all stakeholders and a final decision maker identified in advance. Make decisions, as not deciding turns into the worst type of ‘No’ a candidate can get.
  • Provide timely feedback. This is the biggest complaints candidates have and bad experiences tend to be shared more than positive ones.

 

In recent years’ processes, have become too long. This has backfired on many companies.  Smaller companies who have the advantage of being nimbler can make impact here.

 

Step 6 – Mind your brand. The best way to start is to treat all applicants well and ask their permission to call them again if a more relevant position arises.  Treat them right and your network becomes more powerful.

 

 

National Recruitment Federation

Charles Darwin is frequently misquoted in terms of the central thesis of the Origin of the Species, in popular culture his idea has been distilled down to the “Survival of the Fittest” what in actual fact he said was “Survival of the Most Adaptable” it’s a subtle, but very important distinction.

I started working in the industry over twenty years ago and have seen the industry evolve and adapt numerous times. At the time the industry was still coming to terms with the introduction of what would now be called a disruptive technology a few years earlier. What was it? The Fax! When you speak to junior recruiters and talk to them about getting CV’s in the post or using concealer tape to hide contact details when you got a CV that a client was screaming for and you had to fax straight away they look at you like you have two heads. Only recruiters of a certain vintage can remember the pang when the post came and that promised CV did not materialise. Today we call the candidate and the CV arrives minutes later.

Fax technology offered the facility to radically shorten turnaround times. It was also the beginning of the process that allowed candidates to engage with large numbers of recruiters with relative ease at the same time. The Fax Coversheet template was a key part of Microsoft word and was in daily use. There were catfights in the fax queue as everyone wanted to use the same line and in the early day’s faxes seemed to work in one direction only, either incoming or outgoing. The sound of the fax actually connecting when you had a great CV in the out tray was very satisfying, the ping of a sent email for me just does come close, you knew you had got your connection. However this technology that changed how the industry operated became obsolete within 15 years. To be perfectly honest since the advent of scanning I struggle to remember the last time I sent a business fax.

Internet addresses were also in their infancy, addresses such as 12345678@compuserve.com (no idea whose address that was/is by the way) were the norm and you took the address your ISP gave you in many instances. Free webmail was a novel concept, Google did not exist, Yahoo! was in short pants and Hotmail owned this particular niche. Netscape was fighting a rear guard action against Internet Explorer to be the browser of choice and suffering death by a thousand cuts. Email communication was a quantum leap in terms of the scale and speed of communication and offered huge potential for better communications. Spam at that time to most people was still a cheap meat product.

The mid to late 90’s saw another massive disruption in the shape of the growing importance of the web. The next few years saw a huge change in how things operated. Web boards like Jobserve which opened in 1993 (Mark Zuckerberg was 11 to give you a frame of reference), StepStone 1996 and Monster1999 grew massively and became very successful. It says a lot that by 2003 Jobserve were in a position to pay to be the principal shirt sponsor for West Ham United in the Premiership. Job Boards were announced with much fanfare as marking the death knell for the recruitment industry. The social media tsunami followed in the late 2000’s with the advent of tools like LinkedIn in 2003 and Facebook in 2004, while Nokia ruled the mobile phone market Apple was working away on a device that would change both personal and business lives in an even more fundamental way than the advent of the personal computer had done 20 odd years earlier. The smartphone has utterly changed how we communicate and Clients we were told with this array of tools at their disposal would never need to use an agency again.

For those of you in the industry less than 5 years reading this does any of this sound familiar?  How often have you heard about this great new tool that is going to change the way the recruitment industry operates? From an agency perspective you might say now the biggest challenges are direct Social Recruitment and In-House Talent teams. So what’s my point? Simple, in the broad scheme of things nothing has really changed from the industry perspective. Disruption and evolution has been a key feature of the industry since its inception. We operate in an industry that is hugely dynamic, the drivers and the challenges faced today are different but the constant is that the industry is being disrupted. There are disruptive technologies being dreamed up in garages and universities today which in 5 years’ time we’ll wonder how we ever survived without them.

The one constant in recruitment ecosystem is change. The Darwinian principle of the survival of the most adaptable is one that everyone needs to bear in mind, but the old adage that people buy people should never be forgotten. As long as you concentrate on, nurture and manage your key relationships, both client and candidate, the disruptors will find their space and frequently in time they become key tools.

The Recruitment Industry will adapt as it has always done.