Eliana Willis

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    in Talent Acquisition

    How Do You Recruit and Retain Flexible Workers?

    Since the pandemic hit, we’ve been inundated with research, articles, news, discussions, and content of all kinds around the dramatic shift in the world of work.
    And so here’s another for you.
    But perhaps with an idea that goes slightly against the grain.
    We’ve heard much about the steep rise in demand for flexible working, with LinkedIn reporting a 60% increase in searches for ‘remote work’ and a 189% growth in applications for these positions.
    And providing the option of flexible working appears to be vital not just for recruiting talent, but also for keeping it.
    74% of employees have said they would be less likely to leave a company if given the opportunity to work remotely.
    So, just offer flexible working and all your talent acquisition and retention problems are solved, right?
    You of course know it’s not that simple.
    So, although the headlines read flexible working increases employee loyalty, it’s what’s under the headline that can be the difference between whether an employee chooses to stay or go.
    It’s how that flexible work is managed that’s key.
    Just because a team isn’t physically together 9 – 5 Monday to Friday, doesn’t mean company culture is abandoned. Especially since 77% of job seekers consider a company’s culture before applying and almost two-thirds of employees cite culture amongst the top reasons for staying in a job.
    So, whilst meeting that demand for flexible working is necessary, it can’t be offered in isolation. Think of it more as a strategy of recruiting and retaining talent. Here we run through the components that can make up that strategy.
    Ensure a strong line of communication
    This is obvious, we know. But that doesn’t make it any less crucial. Remote means no longer being able to turn to a colleague and get an immediate answer. Waiting ages for a reply or even not receiving one can be frustrating and slow down progress.
    This doesn’t mean immediate answers should be expected when working remotely. A downfall of working at home for some has been the expectation placed on them to be reachable and responsive 24/7. This, of course, is not what we’re suggesting.
    What we are saying is that there should be lots of opportunities for employees to reach out and get a response. So, that could be using a project management platform, setting up a WhatsApp group, and having weekly team meetings.
    Don’t abandon the onboarding process
    Hiring remotely comes with many obstacles. One of which is showing new recruits the ropes. But that first impression is key. Having a schedule set over 2 weeks that runs through projects, platforms, and meet and greets gives you a structure, plus the confidence that everything important has been covered.
    If meeting in person is an available option, take it. Even if it’s just one day, that physical meet can make all the difference to a new employee. If it’s not an option, then there’s always the trusty Zoom and screen shares.
    Celebrate employee success
    When an employee has done a great piece of work, gone above and beyond, or mastered a new skill, it’s easy to say well done when you walk past them in an office.
    It takes a little more time and conscious effort when remote. But only a little. And that small amount of extra effort can go a long way. So, be sure to send that email or publish that social media post to show your appreciation.
    Adopt a virtual open-door policy
    An open-door policy is often used as a way of encouraging effective communication, showing mutual respect, and building relationships. And just because you no longer have the physical door between you and your employees, doesn’t mean this sense of accessibility has to be lost.
    Make sure your employees know you’re available at the end of the phone, share your calendar, or add a Zoom link to your email signature that allows catch-ups to be booked with ease.
    Create a virtual water cooler
    We all know the cliche, office workers gathering around the water cooler to chat about their lives outside of work. General office chit-chat was a way for colleagues to build friendships. Being in the same room as someone all day meant talk wouldn’t just be about work, you could strike up a spontaneous conversation with someone with ease.
    And so, because flexible working can mean more varied schedules, there’s a risk that any conversation between colleagues only takes place when tasks need to be discussed. Spontaneity is lost and with it the chance to get to know one another.
    But that doesn’t have to be the case. Arrange Microsoft Teams or Zoom calls for colleagues to talk about anything but work. You could include activities and games, or simply keep it as a chance to just chat.
    Arrange meet-ups
    Why not go a step further than the virtual water cooler and organize in-person get-togethers? Team lunches or away days can be a real boost for morale and give you all the chance to create actual connections that can lead to more investment from your team.
    Help with home setup
    Wanting and being able to work from home are two separate things. That’s why it’s important to support your employees with their home office setup. Make sure they have all the equipment they need to work comfortably and effectively, such as a laptop, desk, chair, and phone. And if they don’t, offer to help.
    Offer expenses allowance
    Typically, tea and coffee are on tap when you’re in the office. A kettle, coffee, and tea bags are staple office items, being without would probably cause the same stir as an office without, say, computers.
    But when you work from home, you no longer get the free coffee and tea bonus. Then again, why shouldn’t you? Offering a small expenses allowance for team members gives them the option of working from a coffee shop, this way they still get the drinks and benefit from a change of scene.
    Make sure remote also means flexible
    Just because a company offers remote working, doesn’t mean flexibility is guaranteed. Directors may fear a loss of control and productivity when their employees are working from home, leading to micromanagement.
    A big reason why so many want the option to work remotely is that they want flexibility. They want to be able to work when they’re most productive, pick up their children, do the washing in their lunch break, and start earlier to finish earlier. Make sure your form of remote working incorporates this fundamental flexibility.
    To sum up
    People want flexible work. It’s a fact. But that doesn’t mean they want to be left alone (not all the time anyway). Merely offering flexible working won’t win you the top talent and ensure you keep it. It’s what comes with flexible working that counts. It’s the communication, the increased freedom, the chance to connect, and the continued support, that’s what makes the difference.
    By Amy Nelson, Commercial Director at Nelson Recruitment Services.
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    How to Secure the ‘Passive’ Candidate

    Thanks to the sudden shift from a client-driven market to a candidate-driven market, recruiters and employers across all industries, including accountancy and finance, are having to change tact to source and secure top talent.
    With many of the most desirable candidates having already been snapped up by the competition, knowing how to target the ‘passive’ candidate is more important than ever. Passive candidates are not on job boards or #OpenToWork on LinkedIn. Basically, they are not actively looking for new employment. But that does not mean they are not interested…
    What is in it for them?
    Passive recruiting is all about showing suitable candidates why a position within your company is the best possible fit for them.
    But how do you convince them to leave the comfort of their current role to join your team? Simple (sort of) — give them an offer they cannot refuse. When recruiting passive candidates, you are trying to convince them that the grass really is greener on the other side.
    So, what are the primary things you should focus on as an employer to impress your ideal candidate and sway them towards your business? There are several ways for companies to stand out against the competition and secure the best fit for the job when actively seeking passive candidates…
    Do your research

    How long have they been in their current position?
    What could you offer them that their current employer cannot?
    What is their experience, and why does it make them a perfect fit for this role?

    To make extra sure you are right to invest your time and energy into attempting to recruit a person not actively looking for a new job, it is essential to establish what it is about them that makes them ideally suited to this opportunity. This will make your communications with them more personalized and targeted from the first contact.
    Offer a competitive salary
    Unfortunately, it is not enough to slap a high salary on the offer and expect it to do all the talking. But although it is by no means the sole deciding factor for job seekers these days, salary will always remain an important draw for candidates. With both starting salaries and temp pay expanding at a sharp rate, it is imperative that the salary you are offering is attractive when reaching out to prospective candidates — and in line with industry benchmarks.
    Consider flexible working
    A recent survey found that 34% of UK workers said they would resign from their current position if their employer failed to offer flexible working options. In the new age of hybrid working, this will continue to be an important factor for candidates to consider. Employers must seamlessly incorporate and facilitate the new style of working if they want to secure — and retain — new talent, from early recruitment and onboarding procedures to long-term, flexible working policies.
    Demonstrate company culture and values
    Ensuring your company’s brand and values are consistently represented across all channels and communications is integral to making you stand out in the industry. Many candidates are growing increasingly aware of company values and how they are being implemented — both in policy and the workplace. This could refer to diversity and inclusion programs, gender equality initiatives, emphasis on work-life balance, or any other aspects of your company’s culture that make it a desirable place to work.
    Build a good reputation with existing staff
    Your current employees could become one of your greatest assets in the hunt for passive candidates. A positive review can make all the difference to a candidate weighing up whether or not to take up an offer. If past and existing staff speak highly of a company, it will create a positive overall impression and provide all the evidence needed to reinforce any claims about why a candidate should leave their role for a different one.
    By Julie Mott, Managing Director at Howett Thorpe. Julie is a highly respected and well-connected recruitment individual with over 20 years of experience working in the ever-changing industry.
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    How Recruitment Marketers Can Utilize Data to Drive Candidate Success

    More than two million job vacancies are currently available throughout the UK. And so, while it’s still a difficult market to cut through the noise as several organizations restructure in a post-pandemic world, savvy recruiters – and their marketing departments – are tapping into insight in a bid to stand out from the crowd.
    That’s because they realize that a generic ‘InMail’ message via LinkedIn or cold email sent off-the-cuff is unlikely to pique interest in a job seeker who wants more from their recruitment contact if they’re searching for a role with an organization that displays a similar level of passion as them and fits with their culture and values, a flat, impersonal piece of communication simply won’t cut it.
    Yes, there will be recruiters out there who will experience some success when they send out hundreds of ‘batch and blast’ marketing messages to scores of recipients in their contact base. But when a blanket piece of irrelevant content is loosely received by all – and subsequently ignored or deleted altogether – are they making the most of their time, effort, and resources?
    Plus, does this type of content show that they’re genuinely interested in ensuring the right candidate applies for the right job? Perhaps not.
    Like customers searching for products or services, candidates want to feel like the brands they’re communicating with and understand their wants and needs in real-time. That means delivering hyper-personalized content covering available roles that suit that individual’s of-the-moment circumstances – from location to salary requirements – and skillset.
    When that type of marketing message hits the bullseye, recruiters are in a solid position to not only successfully fill a vacancy but attract more talent in the future because they’ve taken the time to get to know their recipients and have responded to their interests. Plus, word-of-mouth endorsement can be an exciting thing.
    Moving away from delivering bland messages
    So, can recruiters make sure they’re sending ultra-individualized comms that effectively cut through the online noise? It comes back to data. When savvy professionals unlock and understand their insight, they’re better placed to deliver digital comms to the right person at the right time.
    Many recruiters have seen them plug in marketing automation to do the ‘heavy lifting’ for them. Armed with an intuitive tool, users can extract critical information on each candidate’s preferences and respond swiftly to their online behaviors.
    To put this into context, if a candidate searches for a particular role and has downloaded a recruitment brand’s guide on ‘The X skills a modern-day construction manager needs,’ users can take this piece of detail and tailor comms specifically for that individual. It could be an invite to a relevant webinar with a construction company CEO or a blog covering the questions to ask in an interview.
    It’s all about utilizing the data they’re already sat on and creating something meaningful for each audience member.
    How to evaluate the strength of your content
    When roles become available, many recruitment marketers might opt to place all their vacancies in a newsletter sent to their database. And for them, a high open and click rate of that email is the measure of success.
    However, while it might be a good piece of content, these ‘vanity metrics’ don’t always tell the whole story. For example, a candidate could have accidentally gone into the email while scrolling through their newsfeed. If they’ve then hit ‘delete’ seconds later, it shows they’re not interested, but the statistics will tell a different tale.
    Instead, recruiters who have plugged in automation can unlock the powers of lead scoring. This means placing a metaphorical figure against each interaction – a ‘9’ for highly engaged recipients down to a ‘1’ for those who aren’t that bothered. As a result, recruiters, and their marketing teams, can prioritize the more significant numbers for further communication because they know they’re speaking to someone keen.
    Not every piece of comms will work
    And finally, it might not be something recruiters, and their marketing teams want to hear, but there won’t always be a winning outcome to every single email sent. That’s because nobody gets things spot-on all the time. So, why should they expect their content to achieve the impossible?
    The difference here though is that, when professionals have data and marketing automation to lean on, they’re immediately in a better position to deliver digital comms that land perfectly into the right person’s inbox at the right time.
    They can also use their clever tool to analyze each email, newsletter, or webpage to understand what’s working and what’s not. And when the latter occurs, they can swiftly tweak and alter copy to try another way of breaking through the noise.
    Overall, recruitment marketers who arm themselves with data – and use it to drive effective content – should soon see their success rate soar, putting themselves way ahead of the competition as a result.
    By Adam Oldfield, CEO at marketing automation platform Force24.
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    Want to Hire in Q4? Tap the Passive Market and Flex Your Hiring Muscle

    Contrary to the popular narrative – these aren’t “crazy times”. This suggests that things will eventually go back to normal – which is far from the truth. The reality is that these are “new times”, and employers struggling to hire and retain talent need to adapt accordingly.
    Listen: In a detailed analysis of the Great Resignation earlier in September, Business Insider pointed out that September will see even more significant data once numbers for the month are released. They write that COVID-19’s resurgence under the guise of Delta coupled with the lack of available childcare as kids return to school will send quit rates even higher.
    Add to that a new report from Manpower finding that 59% of US businesses are planning to add to payroll in the final quarter of 2021. Not backfill. Not rehire. Add to payroll. This suggests economically healthier times, but with job quit rates and job openings already at levels unseen in two decades, Q4 2021 will see even more challenges for recruiters.
    Are recruiters nervous? You bet they are, and a GetApp survey confirms this: 56% of recruiters fear that they have job openings that they will never be able to fill.
    Employers are at an urgent time. They don’t have time to pontificate over the “why” of all this stuff. They need to fill roles – and fast.
    The rules of engagement have changed
    Ultimately, these numbers show that the traditional recruitment process no longer applies to today’s working world. The rules of engagement have changed – nay, evolved – and smart-thinking recruiters and employers would do well to stay ahead of these changes. What’s normally a hiring frenzy in Q4 is going to be weird and different this time around.
    So, it’s important to look at what matters right now to potential job candidates. At the start of summer, recruitment technology leader Workable surveyed 1,250 workers in the US and UK to find out what matters most to them in a job. The resultant Great Discontent survey reports – one for the US, and one for the UK – find that, in the midst of all the findings around salary and other hiring topics, two themes really stand out: the high number of passive candidates among those open to new jobs and the high value of flexible schedules for many employees and job seekers.
    Passive candidates
    Let’s start with passive candidates. In the survey, Workable found that in the US, 70.7% of eligible workers are open to the idea of a new job – with 37.3% passively open to new opportunities. In the UK, those numbers are even higher – 75.6% are open to new opportunities, and 45.1% are passively open to new work.
    So, it’s not just about putting up a job ad and watching the applications roll in. Workable’s Hiring Pulse for September 2021 identified a sharp downward trend in candidates per hire right up to the end of July – so recruiters need to work a little harder to root out those valuable candidates.
    Part of that could be a need for better recruitment marketing, but it also means that recruiters will need to actively source candidates with cold calls and emails. Why? More than half of those open to new roles are passive candidates. That’s an incredible resource worth tapping into.
    While passive candidates aren’t actively looking for new work, they are open to having a conversation with you about a new opportunity. They’ll make a big career shift if it suits them.
    The other thing is, these are people who haven’t quit. They may actually be easier to recruit than those who left the workforce altogether.
    That’s a pretty good opportunity for recruiters looking to woo new talent to their organization.
    Flexible schedules
    Let’s move on to the other topic dominating the recruitment world: flexible work. But don’t fall into the trap of understanding it as one entity. There are two very distinct aspects of flexible work: remote work and flexible schedules.
    The data in the Great Discontent report shows why this distinction is important: 31.6% in the US and 25.3% in the UK said their job can’t be worked remotely at all. That compares to just 19.4% and 14.6% respectively in that they can’t realistically work on a flexible schedule – significantly lower numbers.
    The number of those who do think their work can be performed on a flexible schedule is significantly higher – 57.1% in the US and 53.8% in the UK voted 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 in terms of how easily they can work flexible hours (1=not at all, 5=completely).
    Plus, 58.2% of US and 57.7% of UK workers consider flexible work schedules to be quite important to them. Again, these numbers are notably higher than the importance placed on remote work.
    We also asked why flexible schedules are important to workers. More than half in both countries – 55.8% of US workers and 57.3% of UK workers – say having flexible schedules makes it easier to balance personal and professional priorities. At the core of this, of course, is maintaining your personal life obligations such as being there for your loved ones.
    So what does that mean for recruiters and employers? If you offer flexible schedules in your workplace, you’re helping your employees integrate their home and work lives rather than forcing them to find a balance between the two. That can be a powerful attractor for your business.
    Overcome those hiring challenges
    These aren’t the be-all and end-all solutions, of course. There’s a lot more. But as mentioned above, employers need to act quickly if they want to attract new job applicants.
    Actively sourcing passive candidates and building out flexible work schedule policies can help fill those crucial roles as you head into the traditional hiring season of Q4.
    The times have changed – and the onus may well be on you to adapt accordingly.
    Keith MacKenzie is Content Strategy Manager at Workable, a recruitment software company, and is the author of the Great Discontent survey reports which were published in September 2021. 
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    Top 10 Tips to Avoid Ghosting Your Candidates

    A bad candidate experience can have a detrimental effect on both brands and those applying to work with them. During the pandemic, we saw a huge increase in volume of applicants for different positions. Rumors ran rife about being ghosted deep into the recruitment process. We wanted to investigate the scale of the problem and the damage being done, so we commissioned some research.
    The findings were shocking. 65% of people have been ghosted, according to our research of 2000 UK adults. 86% said their experience of being ghosted left them feeling down and 43% said it took weeks, or even months, to rebuild and move on. The damage to brands also became clear, with 94% saying it left them with negative thoughts or feelings towards the company they applied to.
    Most small companies manage with spreadsheets and simple trackers while large companies and recruitment agencies invest in technology, customized to their needs. Here are some tips to ensure your company can confidently avoid ghosting candidates.

    Get everyone on board. Recruitment is an area that most department managers get involved in as well as HR teams. Step one is to take the facts about the impacts of ghosting and educate everyone internally. Once you have company-wide support to ensure this doesn’t happen in your organization it’s time to make a plan on how you’re going to tackle ghosting head-on.
    Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. What sort of communication would you want at each stage? A quick email takes seconds and can really help a candidate.
    Set up automated emails. If you have one, use your applicant tracking system (ATS) to set up automated emails to candidates at each stage of the application process. This means they will always be kept informed of the stage of their application.
    Send updates promptly. No news is good news, except for when you’re waiting to hear about an application. As soon as you’ve made a decision, positive or negative, then let the candidate know.
    Make notes straight after a call or interview. ‘Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today’ as the old adage goes. Take thorough notes each time you speak to a candidate, this will make it easier to make a decision and also give you plenty of information to use when you go back to them.
    Use bulk email or SMS. Communicating with multiple candidates quickly and simply, a standardized message is better than no contact at all.
    Use your ATS reporting feature or keep a log. This helps to ensure that no candidate gets forgotten, know how many candidates have applied to each role, what stage they’re at, and when you last contacted them, save all that inbox searching time.
    Close down the role. When you hire someone make sure to go back and check you have processed and responded to all of the other applicants.
    Get feedback from your applicants. They’re the ones that have been through your process so can offer some valuable insight. Make sure you speak to both successful and unsuccessful candidates for a well-rounded view.
    Review and improve your process. There’s always room for improvement, ensure you revisit your plan and the tactics you’re using every few months to make sure they’re still impactful and to implement any new ideas.

    Telling candidates they haven’t been selected is a tough call to make, especially when you’ve been positive up until that point. But doing so quickly and kindly provides closure and allows them to move on with their career elsewhere.
    No one ever intends to ghost a candidate part-way through the recruitment process, but it’s important to acknowledge that it does sometimes happen. We need to tackle this problem together. By supporting this campaign and following the best practice guidelines, employers can show that they care about each applicant as an individual. We invite readers to join the campaign or share their stories at www.end-ghosting.com.
    By Neil Armstrong of Tribepad.
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    Why Organizations Need to Show an Empathetic Approach to Recruiting Post-pandemic

    Many industries were forced to halt their recruitment initiatives at the start of the pandemic and have since had to place existing employees on furlough or make redundancies. But as the UK economy is beginning to bounce back, so is employment, with record vacancies continuing to be reported in the UK. At Cognizant, for example, we are looking to hire more than 2,000 new recruits in the UK&I in 2021 alone.
    One of the key conversations to have come out of the pandemic is how it has fundamentally changed the workplace and the way we work – in many cases, for the better. The rise of remote working is the most obvious trend many of us have been talking about. Recent research shows that flexible working is now a basic expectation, with 66% of employees backing a hybrid approach to remote working.
    But this isn’t the only trend to have been sparked by the crisis. Businesses’ approaches to hiring are also changing – and if they’re not, then they need to if they are to reflect the changing attitudes towards work and culture. This needs to start by placing empathy at the core of the process.
    A new recruitment landscape:  Why we need a high level of candidate empathy
    The remote working boom enabled a private, digital window to open in employees’ and colleagues’ lives – as a result, we’re now all used to family members and pets making brief appearances on video calls. The psychology behind this is powerful, humanizing personnel in a way that has never been experienced before. This has created a drive to emphasize and improve the fickle work/life balance, highlighting the need for businesses to conform to employee and candidate needs, instead of expecting individuals to conform to the organization.
    At the same time, the pandemic brought with it a lot of anxiety and stress for individuals whose jobs were put at risk or lost altogether. It has left many wondering what the future of work will look like and reimagining their careers, making it even more crucial for companies to make a conscious effort every day to create the appropriate environment for everyone to thrive. So, while competitive salaries, benefits, and perks can be attractive, it’s also important that organizations consider a more empathetic approach to their recruitment processes to fall in line with this new landscape.
    This starts by demonstrating a clear effort to understand what each individual’s values and interests are right from the beginning of the interview process. Companies should also be making a proactive effort to involve employees in their culture as well as any extracurricular initiatives that are in place, to help create a more fulfilling and satisfying work experience.
    This will help organizations to take a step back and understand more about the individual and their circumstances and values, instead of just their qualifications, which will lead to better long-term results for staff retention.
    How to make the recruitment process more empathetic
    Business leaders need to demonstrate themselves to be inclusive leaders. This means being deeply aware of and empathetic towards others, with the courage to harness the power of diversity in everything they and their company does. Embracing this approach helps to elevate our work and create a powerful ripple effect on our teams, clients, and communities.
    In fact, empathy should be a key attribute in all organizations’ wider diversity and inclusion initiatives as well as their recruitment processes. There are a number of steps and considerations businesses can make to improve their recruitment processes and put empathy at their heart, including:

    A humble point of view: Interview assessors need to demonstrate throughout the recruitment process a humble point of view. If organizations seek to set a perfect environment, they won’t come across as authentic, but instead misleading – no company is perfect.
    Retrospect: It’s important to retrospectively refer to how organizations have supported people through the pandemic to demonstrate a company’s value for their employees. It’s a good litmus test to show where an organization has shown resilience and compassion.
    Never underestimate the value of listening: Understanding what a candidate’s career aspirations are can be achieved by having an open dialogue with them in the interview. This will help a business understand how they can support that individual with the right training to help them achieve their goals, which is incredibly important.
    Involve the candidate in the journey: Most successful organizations today know they must continuously evolve to maintain their success. Demonstrating how a business is doing this, for example implementing new digital tools or adopting updated ESG goals, in an interview can help build a picture for the candidate of the journey that they can be a part of, which aligns with their values.
    Demonstrate trust: Ultimately, people want to contribute to driving change and influence. It demonstrates cultural and social empathy. It also allows people to feel as if they can be a true representation of their authentic selves. With this in mind, candidates should be given the opportunity during the interview process to express their values and opinions.

    A new approach to recruitment strategy post-pandemic
    Empathy is and should be considered by all a crucial attribute in today’s business leaders. This includes being proactive and persistent in working towards creating an environment where each and every employee feels welcome, heard, and equal. And this must start with the first step of an employee’s experience: the recruitment process.
    Organizations need talent to build themselves back up and make a success of the future. To do this, they must demonstrate themselves as a collaborative and supportive workforce – one that individuals want to be a part of. Putting empathy at the core of any recruitment process will not only help businesses attract the right talent, but it will help them to build honest and open relationships with new employees right from the start and ultimately improve retention.
    With remote working here to stay, it’s vital that recruiters and businesses as a whole find new ways to engage with their remote workforce. Adopting an empathetic approach shouldn’t just be applied to recruitment, but to all areas of business. It helps to ensure candidates and staff feels cared for, which keeps them engaged in their roles.
    By Rob Walker, Managing Director UK&I of Cognizant.
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    A Renewed Focus on Candidates in the Ever-Changing Market 

    Change is afoot in the world of work. We are in the midst of a concentrated shift from a client-driven job market to a candidate-driven one, meaning recruiters and HR teams need to adopt a new stance when it comes to sourcing talent.
    The enormous upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic means candidates are in high demand. However, many companies are struggling to find the right people as the pool of suitable candidates is scarce. To add to the challenge, prospective employees also have a refreshed set of expectations around a more hybrid approach to working in this ultra-digital age.
    As such, striking a balance between recruiting the best talent for the job while quickly fulfilling businesses’ urgent need for staff is becoming a challenge, particularly when looking to maintain desirable levels of staff retention. Perhaps recruitment strategies need a rethink as the world changes?
    A striking set of statistics
    The latest figures from Reed and the ‘UK Report on Jobs’ survey by KPMG and REC lay out how the most recent lockdown developments and further reopening of the UK economy have impacted recruitment:

    Permanent placements have hit record growth
    An upturn in temp billings is the fastest it has been for six years
    May 2021 was Reed’s best month for job postings since before the 2008 financial crash
    The demand for workers has increased at the fastest rate for over 23 years
    The supply of permanent and temporary staff fell at the quickest rates on record.

    However, although these results may be good news for job seekers, they present new challenges to recruiters looking to help businesses hire, as the spike in demand brings the labor and skills shortages that already existed in the UK into sharper focus.
    With overall candidate availability declining at the quickest rate since May 2017, recruiters and HR teams must now pick out top talent from a rapidly shrinking pool. Plus, both starting salaries and temp pay are expanding at a sharp rate. Coupled with a growing desire for flexibility and a more hybrid approach to working, companies are under more pressure than ever to match up to candidates’ increasing expectations if they want to attract and retain the best staff.
    Leveraging the opportunity
    The shift from a client-driven market to a candidate-driven market means recruiters must adapt their approach to finding new talent by targeting passive candidates. When the demand outstrips supply, speed is of the essence, and consultants must move quickly if they want to snap up the best candidates for their clients.
    As a recruiter, top talent will rarely fall into your lap — particularly in a highly competitive job market. Plus, just because someone is not actively looking for a new role does not mean they are not open to discussing and learning more about new opportunities. So, it is essential to proactively search for candidates already in employment and reach out to them to capture their interest in vacant positions.
    Sourcing passive candidates, rather than waiting for them to come to you, has consistently garnered highly effective hiring success rates, with candidates sourced in this way proving to be more than twice as efficient as independent applicants.
    For this strategy to be effective, recruiters and HR teams must make the best use of the digital resources at their disposal — as well as their professional network. For example, there are a wealth of finance and accounting candidates on social media, and platforms like LinkedIn are ideal for ‘headhunting’ skilled and high-level talent.
    Step into the digital era
    Recruitment is more competitive than ever before. And now that the market has become increasingly driven by candidates and their desires, it is the employer (and, in turn, their recruitment specialist) that needs to stand out and impress.
    Candidates have come to expect more from prospective employers, and not just in terms of substantial pay packets and training programs — although these are also important to consider. After over a year of home working, many have come to enjoy a more flexible way of working and expect companies to offer it as a benefit. In fact, a recent survey by Barnett Waddingham found 34% of UK workers said they would resign from their current position if their employer failed to offer flexible working options.
    In a climate where unsatisfied staff may be approached for — or seek out — alternative employment, employee retention is also more crucial than ever. Benefits such as flexible working can greatly improve productivity and job satisfaction, meaning staff is more likely to stay at a company.
    Retaining new hires starts with the hiring process. The process must be tailored to employees’ new drive for a more remote and digitized experience while ensuring clear and consistent communication. To do this, recruiters need to make the most of the abundance of digital platforms available, using them in conjunction with more conventional hiring practices to provide the smoothest recruitment and onboarding experience possible.
    By Julie Mott, Managing Director at Howett Thorpe. Julie is a highly respected and well-connected recruitment individual with over 20 years of experience working in the ever-changing industry.
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    The Marketing Metrics that Matter for Recruitment Brands

    When it comes to crafting and delivering an email marketing campaign that attracts candidates and encourages them to find out more about the latest vacancy, measuring how each piece of content has done can help recruiters to truly understand if what they’re saying is hitting the mark.
    As 300 billion marketing emails are sent to people’s inboxes every single day – on a global scale – it’s often difficult to not only achieve the desired cut-through when there’s so much competition from brands, but also know how well it’s been received… or not.
    To overcome this hurdle, many recruiters might take this opportunity to analyze open and click-through rates to determine the success or failure of their latest email campaign – after all, many free email marketing platforms have this insight available at the click of a button. However, while these measurements are giving some of the detail, are they really telling the full story? Perhaps not.
    That’s because this data doesn’t delve into the fact that several recipients might’ve seen the email and given it a short glance, but then hit ‘delete’ without truly engaging with it. Others could’ve accidentally clicked on the comms before discarding it altogether.
    The point is, open and click-through rates never truly tell the whole tale. Yes, they might show how the latest email campaign has achieved above-industry rates because recipients have opened it, but there’s no bearing of the level of engagement that’s also been involved. And, for a savvy recruiter, they want to know that their vacancy or top tips email is driving the type of interaction that helps to get the right person into the right job.
    So, while other recruiters are still accessing these so-called ‘vanity metrics’, forward-thinking professionals – who want to get ahead of the competition – should be exploring another form of analysis to truly cut through the online noise. That means plugging in marketing automation and tapping into the powers of lead scoring.
    What is lead scoring?
    This is where imaginary numbers are placed above the heads of every individual who has engaged with the recruiter. For those who have interacted with the brand lots – for example, downloaded a guide on interview techniques or spent time on a specific webpage covering a sector they’re interested in – they’re classed as being the ‘hottest leads’ and could therefore have a figure of ‘9’ or ‘99’ attached to them.
    These individuals are the ones recruitment firms should be prioritizing with hyper-personalized comms because they’re already ‘bought in’ to what the organization has to say. What that results in is typically a greater level of engagement too because they want to hear from the company.
    By focusing on those who are the most interactive, there is also a greater chance of a conversion-rich opportunity via a human touchpoint – such as a one-on-one phone call – and this can go a lot further than sending an irrelevant message that’s loosely received by all.
    Always segment the audience
    Technically this isn’t a metric, however, it plays a pivotal role in exactly how a recruiter analyses if their latest campaign delivers the correct message to the desired person, at the perfect time.
    Segmenting individuals into specific groups based on their of-the-moment interests and interactions with the brand means that recruiters can send hyper-relevant content the recipient wants to read, rather than what the organization thinks they might be interested in.
    This is a great way for recruiters to have a laser-beam focus on who to speak to, and when – all of which can be made possible in minutes, rather than hours, via savvy marketing automation.
    Web engagement can tell a far greater story
    Having discussed the powers of lead scoring and the importance of segmentation, another step recruiters should take if they’re to evaluate their campaigns effectively is via website interactions.
    For example, is a candidate viewing videos on the ‘most frequently asked questions in an interview’? Or maybe they’re trawling a top tips guide on how to craft a must-see cover letter. These are critical areas that a recruiter can respond to in terms of personalizing their content. If they’re not tracking this type of activity, it’s a missed opportunity.
    Plugging in marketing automation and accessing website data can equip recruitment brands with a deeper level of insight from each individual’s online experience, and provide detail into what they’re most interested in, in real-time.
    While these metrics only scratch the surface at to what recruiters can do when armed with marketing automation, the important thing for them to remember is that they must be responsive to what the data is telling them. And, while it might seem disheartening to have unsubscribers or discover a piece of digital comms has received little engagement, it often tells a lot about a contact base – from the level of interaction to identifying whether they need to address the ‘send frequency’ or refresh content… before a competitor does.
    About Sam Duggan: Head of marketing for marketing automation platform Force24, Sam has a laser-beam focus on driving bottom-line revenues by utilizing customer data. 
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