2023 is set to be the year of the ‘job full recession’ – an economic slowdown where we see declining GDP but little to no growth in unemployment.

Strategic influencers: Talent acquisition’s time to lead on addressing global skills gaps

Contributors

Nicola Hancock
Regional Managing Director, Americas & Investment Banking, AMS
Jim Sykes
Global Managing Director, Operations, AMS

2023 is set to be the year of the ‘job full recession’ – an economic slowdown where we see declining GDP but little to no growth in unemployment.

In fact, the latest release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the US economy added more than 500,000 jobs in January (nearly triple the predicted forecast of 185,000), with unemployment at a historic low of 3.4%. This comes off the back of Labor Department numbers showing 10.46 million job vacancies in November 2022, with 1.8 jobs available for every unemployed person in the US.

Commenting on the report, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell suggested the US was now moving “beyond” maximum employment, with unemployment rates needing to rise for inflation to return to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

So how can we have an economic slowdown when jobs growth remains so robust?

“Things are complex. While the overall economy is a concern and there is a lot of talk about inflation, if you look at it from a pure jobs and talent perspective, things remain very competitive,” says Nicky Hancock, President and Regional Managing Director, Americas and Investment Banking, AMS.

“At the end of last year, there was a slowdown in certain industries, with significant layoffs in tech companies and the banking and finance sector. The context is that slowdowns are normal in quarter four, but we haven’t seen that recently due to the impact of the pandemic.
“Secondly, some sectors like technology have seen exceptionally high recruitment over the past few years to backfill attrition and deal with growth. It’s likely that we’re seeing some normalization of hiring as organizations look at headcount,” adds Hancock.

An opportunity to recruit hidden talent

This ‘normalization’ provides an opportunity to businesses outside the tech sector, who are desperately seeking talent with technology and digital skills. The growing technology skills gaps means millions of jobs in America are projected to go unfilled by 2030 – and businesses are competing hard for people who do have those skills.

However, the scramble for talent is so fierce that many organizations are significantly hiking salaries for new hires. A typical job switcher saw their earnings jump 9.7% year-on-year, compared with a 1.7% salary decrease in real terms for those that stayed in roles, according to a report by Pew Research Center. This presents a ‘ticking time bomb’ for organizations, says Jim Sykes, Global Managing Director, Operations and Sourcing, AMS.

“Companies have been hiring massively post-COVID, bringing on talent at a premium. The disparity in pay between tenured employees and new ones is a risk to organizations, particularly when young people are far more likely to talk about pay and conditions than other generations. This could drive attrition as people forget loyalty and move for money during a cost-of-living crisis,” warns Sykes.

Talent acquisition as strategic influencers

Focusing on pay hikes and hiring from competitors is a short-term solution to a long-term issue, believes Sykes. Instead, organizations need to be making strategic changes to how they hire and retain talent.

This starts with talent acquisition professionals moving from being pure recruiters to strategic skills advisers. When a manager has a requirement for a role, talent acquisition shouldn’t simply look to fill the role – they should also consult, collaborate and influence the hiring manager on the requirements and skills needed for the position.

Doing so will allow companies to tap into skills-adjacent talent, broadening the scope and potential of new hires. A good example comes from a recent HBR podcast with LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. In it, he posits the need for companies to move away from qualifications and education when assessing talent, to skills and behaviors.

“For far too long we’ve used degrees, or previous companies or networks as we didn’t have anything better to assess talent. But with the labor market moving so quickly, we really need to figure out something to focus on. And I think that alternative, flexible, accessible path is really going to be based on skills,” said Roslansky.

Roslansky cites an example from the pandemic, where hospitality workers were laid off during lockdowns. At the same time, LinkedIn saw a huge rise in demand for digital customer service roles. When examining the skills needed for these roles, LinkedIn found that the average food service worker had 70% of the skills needed to be an entry level customer service agent.

However, rather than mapping the skills between the two groups and retraining people, most of the hospitality workers remained unemployed and many of the customer service roles went unfilled, as organizations focused on past experience instead of skills.

“Organizations need access to market insights to understand what skills are available in the marketplace. We need to understand that if we’re not looking for a like-for-like replacement, what are some of those hidden talents and markets we can map across?,” says Sykes.

However, market pressures brought about by the pandemic and an uncertain future means many businesses have simply reverted to type when it comes to hiring – ramping up recruitment, handing out high salaries and driving up attrition – rather than addressing strategic challenges.

“We haven’t changed the fact that demand for certain skills outstrips supply. What we’ve done is solve the problem by stealing talent from each other. But this won’t address the root problem – which is that our companies are growing faster than we can produce talent,” says Sykes.
“The only way to solve this is to break the cycle. Organizations need to look at talent strategically, invest in reskilling internal talent and hire from other fields based on skills and potential. Otherwise, you’ll soon run out of talent,” he adds.

Be fast to market – Talent is in high demand, so the speed at which you move is critical
Tap into hidden talent pools – Look for skills and abilities rather than past experience and profiles
Excellent candidate experience – The candidate is king. Engage, support and encourage candidates at all stages
Streamline processes – Technology needs to be aligned with and supportive of talent acquisition strategies. Too often, talent processes become complex over time and technology no longer fits its purpose. Strip this out and invest in new areas.
Be a strategic adviser – Talent acquisition professionals need to take on a more strategic advisory role to leaders. Understand the market, influence recruiters and shape strategy.

Tech skilling

With demand for tech talent far higher than supply, it’s no longer viable for organizations to simply continue buying in talent. Instead, forward thinking businesses are reevaluating how to upskill, reskill and train employees to meet the digital demands of a technology first future.

With 87% of executives saying they are experiencing skills gaps in their workforce and millions of jobs set to go unfilled by 2030 due to tech skill shortages, it is incumbent upon businesses to look at new strategies to develop the talent they’ll need for the future.

Our latest tech skilling digital whitepaper outlines new initiatives to plug future tech talent shortages. Download the paper here.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Nicola Hancock
Regional Managing Director, Americas & Investment Banking, AMS
Jim Sykes
Global Managing Director, Operations, AMS

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is an established market globally. Every day, thousands of the world’s best-known organizations trust RPO partners to source and recruit candidates, in the process trusting them with their brand and Employment Value Proposition

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Now is time for the rise of Contingent Process Outsourcing

Contributors

Mark Jones
Executive Vice President/Managing Director, Contingent Workforce Services, Americas, AMS

In the US, RPO providers are closely integrated into organizations, working with talent acquisition to attract the very best people. When it comes to contingent labor however, things are very different.

In the majority of cases across the US, contingent workers have historically been treated more as commodities – a service that is procured via organizations supply chain function and recruited via staffing agencies who have little to no affinity with an organization’s brand.

Talent attraction

Historically, contingent labor has been about ‘can you find me someone, how much will it cost and when can they start?’ It is a very different conversation for full-time employees, who are seen as a segment to invest in and develop. Contingent and full-time hiring are kept as two separate operations, recruited and managed in separate ways.

The challenge is that finding talent in the current climate is difficult, and, in my opinion this is not going to change any time soon. In addition, organizational demand for contingent labor is also growing as are the expectations of the US workforce to be able to operate via a contingent channel. Companies have grown their contingent worker population by over 50% since pre-pandemic (Brightfield). According to a US Government accountability report, 40% of the US workforce is made up of contingent/freelance workers which will rise to 50% by 2050. The pandemic has only increased the trend that was already being established towards flexibility in working models and approach.

True freelance workers enjoy the ability to work at different times, in different opportunities, often for more than one client at a time. Secondly, if you look through history, you see that contingent workforce hiring goes up in a downturn and vice-versa. As economic conditions tighten, organizations want more flexibility on their workforce base to allow strategic goals to be achieved whilst minimising fixed costs.

This is compounded by the demographics of the US labor market being relatively stagnant. We have restrictions on immigration, an ageing population, a workforce that through illness haven’t been able to return to work post-pandemic, and another segment who don’t want to go back to the way things were. Organizations are fishing in the same pond for talent and coming up short, as we’re not putting any fresh water into the pond.

One way to change the status quo is change the way we fish for talent. Can we use the power of an organization’s brand to better attract contingent workers? Can we do some of the things we do from an RPO perspective to help contingent talent? And, in doing so, can we narrow the train tracks between contingent and full-time labor?

I believe that because there is an increasing demand for non-permanent, flexible working, the US is going to see increased investment in contingent labor and it is going to force the twin tracks of traditional recruitment closer to contingent hiring – with some even merging together in the quest for achieving total talent. The gap between how and why we recruit contingent labor and full-time employees will narrow. However, from an employment and compliance perspective, it’s important to keep some elements of how workers are engaged and managed separate and defined.

As I reflect on the major changes and challenges that have impacted the world we all live in, and look at how the contingent market is changing, the phrase I kept coming back to in articulating this evolution of the market is ‘contingent process outsourcing’ which includes direct sourcing of contract labor.

As I have already said, RPO is already very well-established. Organizations outsource all or part of their recruitment to companies who are entrusted to find talent, manage branding and deal with back-end administration like onboarding and payroll.

Contingent process outsourcing can act in a very similar way. How you attract people and manage them can be the same and the process outsourcing element can be the same. The only difference is that the process is designed for a specific population of workers who have a specific way of being onboarded and employed. They are not ever going to be your full-time employees, but that doesn’t mean you can’t attract them and operate in the same fashion as those who are. In fact, this is only beneficial for you if you like to try before you buy and regularly convert contingent labor to full-time employees. Virtually every organization has an EVP for their full-time workforce, but very few have a Contingent Value Proposition (CVP) and I see this as a significant missed opportunity when 50% of US workers will operate this way by 2050!

Contingent Process Outsourcing is different from what staffing agencies offer. Staffing agencies play an invaluable role in sourcing workers and there will always be needed for a robust staffing industry. However, the US market is big enough for organizations to introduce the concept of contingent direct sourcing for a certain element of their contingent needs. These workers are attracted to an organizations brand and our managed and treated as such with an eye to long term relationships.

Why choose process outsourcing?

The benefits for employers are clear. Organizations will have people who want to work for them irrespective of how they work for them – contractor, freelancer, full-time etc. All talent will believe in the mission and values of the business, rather than simply being a transitional asset.

Another benefit is cost. On average, our contingent direct sourcing saves companies 10% versus using a traditional staffing agency. However, while cost savings are always nice to have, the biggest driver currently is simply finding the best talent and attracting it to your brand in a very competitive market. With unemployment in the US at a 60-year low, finding the right talent however they are engaged and managed is the biggest reason organizations are turning to contingent direct sourcing.

Why? Firstly, because it drives quality. Contingent direct sourcing creates and nurtures talent that wants to work for an organization and has an affinity for it. Companies have some ownership of that talent pool, with the outsourcer nurturing contingent talent and building a pool of talent that will return to work for the organization again and again.

Of course, this concept of contingent direct sourcing is already established and has become more popular over the last 18-24 months. However, I believe there is a huge opportunity to develop this further especially given the significant and likely permanent shifts in the labor market.

Future of contingent hiring

Adoption of direct sourcing programs has been sporadic and challenging because it means different things to different organizations. A lot of organizations have dipped their toe in the water, but they’re not all leveraging this new way of hiring in the US market to its full extent. That’s a challenge as the only way you create significant savings in contingent labor is through volume.

This will change. Contingent Process Outsourcing leveraging direct sourcing is another way of engaging and attracting talent by harnessing an organization’s brand. With contingent hiring on the rise and flexibility key for both employer and workers – think about the need for skilled technology workers in our talent pools. We’ll see more organizations looking at how they can better leverage contingent workers as a strategic advantage rather than just as a commodity.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Mark Jones
Executive Vice President/Managing Director, Contingent Workforce Services, Americas, AMS

Social mobility is very much on the agenda in the UK. The first round of the government’s Levelling Up funding saw £1.7bn distributed among 105 UK towns and cities, with further plans in place to invest regionally, in skills training and in some of the UK’s most deprived areas.

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The UK needs to talk about why social mobility and social value matter

Contributors

Matthew Rodger Chief Growth and Commercial Officer, AMS
Mel Barnett Managing Director, PSR, AMS
Anna Crowe Client Operations Director, AMS

It’s not before time. Research from the Institute of Fiscal Studies suggested that “on a wide variety of measures, regional disparities in the UK are greater than in most comparable countries.” At the same time, research from the Office for National Statistics shows that only London and Northern Ireland have seen economic growth since the start of the pandemic.

With social mobility levels in the UK languishing behind our neighbours, it’s obvious that businesses have a part to play in spreading opportunities more evenly across society – not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes commercial sense.

But there is still a long way to go. Research by the Social Mobility Foundation found that working class professionals earn an average of £6,718 less than their middle class peers – a pay gap of 13%. This means underprivileged professionals essentially work 13% of the year for nothing – almost one day in every seven.

“This class pay gap is not just an indictment of professional employers. It is morally unjust and economically illiterate,” said Social Mobility Foundation chair Alan Milburn on the release of the research.

Britain’s professions are a cornerstone of the modern economy. In 2021, services industries contributed £1.7bn in gross value added to the economy, 80% of the total figure. Britain’s success in the global economy relies on the very best people, regardless of their background, being attracted, not deterred, from working in the professions,” he added.

In addition to factors relating directly to social mobility and inequality, the way in which businesses interact with the environment, and how their leaders communicate on issues is becoming ever-more important. It’s no surprise that ESG (environment, social and governance) and the need to focus on sustainability are top of mind for many c-suite leaders as we move into the post-pandemic era.

Take Larry Fink, CEO of asset management giant Blackrock, who used his annual letter to CEOs to discuss how “stakeholder capitalism is all about delivering long-term, durable returns for shareholders” and that “it is more important than ever that your company and its management be guided by its purpose”.

Or how about the media frenzy around Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard’s decision to give away all future profits to combating climate change, proclaiming “as of now, earth is our only shareholder”?

However, it’s not only the private sector who are making an increased commitment to responsible business. Increasingly, public sector organisations are paving the way and selecting suppliers based on ethics, social responsibility and how much social value they provide to the wider community that they serve.

What is social value?

Put simply, social value refers to the meaningful impact an organisation has on society. When it comes to public sector procurement, it looks at how the partnership can have a positive and lasting effect on the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of a community.

The UK’s Social Value Act should be applauded for what it sets out to do. Pre-pandemic, the launch of the government’s Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 encouraged public sector bodies to consider social value alongside cost and quality in any tender process. This was reinforced in 2018-19, with the introduction of the common values procurement framework, which recommends that social value should make up a minimum 10% weighting of any tender.

The pandemic and ongoing economic recovery has thrown social value into even sharper focus, with greater importance being placed on the impact organisations have on local communities and social responsibility.

“When it comes to social mobility and sustainability, if we can support our customers’ goals in these areas, it’s a win/win. In the public sector, social value is a crucial factor, so being able to demonstrate our work in this area is incredibly important and we have a real responsibility to do the right thing,” says Anna Crowe, client operations director at AMS and the company’s social value lead.

AMS’s public sector resourcing (PSR) service provides more than 19,000 skilled workers across the UK government at any one time, meeting contingent resourcing demands on large projects including Brexit and the pandemic. And while PSR has no commercial obligation to respond to the impact of social value, Crowe argues that doing so is the right thing to do.

To this end, PSR formed its own social value strategy to align with the challenges facing the public sector and began working collaboratively with its clients.

“The Social Value Model was built to address five key themes that include Equal Opportunity, Tackling Economic Inequality and Fighting Climate Change each with subsequent policy outcomes. On the PSR framework we have projects and programmes aligned to each of these areas to drive positive change, as well as repurposing initiatives already in place at AMS to make them applicable to our public sector customers,” says Crowe.

For example, Crowe’s team identified that they didn’t have detailed information around the DEI demographics of the contingent workforce they supplied through PSR. So, they created a pulse survey to capture that information and reported back to their customers, giving them full visibility over their entire workforce, not just permanent employees.

A future objective is to create technology that can provide ongoing reporting on a live basis, allowing customers to check the efficacy of targeted interventions on an individual basis, providing greater depth on DEI impact.

AMS has also introduced a new service line in PSR, called recruit, train, deploy. This will bring in trainees from under-represented or those from lower socio-economic backgrounds, upskill them and then place them in a client’s business, providing both commercial and social value. Partnerships with inclusive recruiters like Recruit for Spouses, Auticon and Bridge of Hope will help to provide opportunities to individuals who might not think public sector roles are for them.

“The commercial value comes from upskilling these people,” says Crowe. “Clients get individuals more cost effectively who can be trained into new roles. Given where the market is and the high day-rate of skilled workers, bringing these individuals in from different backgrounds, training them and putting them into the public sector is both cost-effective and has a significant impact on social mobility.”

Matthew Rodger, chief commercial officer and ExCo sponsor for social mobility advocacy at AMS, agrees: “Driving social mobility is central to AMS and something we openly focus on and actively celebrate. This year, for the first time, we entered the Social Mobility Employer Index, the leading authority on employer led social mobility and we are honoured to be a top 75 employer in the Index. It is also promising that 15% of all entrants were from the public sector which shows a clear commitment to social mobility. We still have so much more to do in this space and partnering with our public sector stakeholders allows us to further engage and amplify our efforts,” adds Rodger.

An important driver for social mobility is the ability to collect and analyse data on the socio-economic background of potential hires. AMS now collects data from all new hires on type of school attended, parental occupation and eligibility for free school meals.

Tech skilling

Another area which is top of mind for government and business leaders globally is the dearth of relevant skills, particularly in the tech and digital space. AMS, in partnership with its public sector stakeholders, will be hosting a roundtable specifically on tech skilling and social mobility which will address the myth that tech talent hiring is only possible through traditional routes to market.

“As the hiring demands for tech skills in the UK continues to rise, organisations are finding it challenging to access the talent they need to innovate and progress. The UK government recognises the importance of the tech sector and tech skills for improving the UK economy, but also acknowledges there is a significant shortage of available candidates in the market,” says Mel Barnett, managing director, PSR.

“It is no surprise we see digital skills alongside levelling up at the heart of the UK Digital Strategy launched earlier this year. With this market reality and with the government’s digital strategy clearly outlined, it is evident that traditional routes to talent are not going to deliver the candidates hiring managers need. As such, a fresh approach is needed by organisations hoping to build digital-ready workforces that can carry their businesses into the future and we hope roundtables like the one we will be holding in January will allow us to openly discuss what is urgently needed to help individuals and businesses to succeed,” she adds.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Matthew Rodger
Chief Growth and Commercial Officer, AMS
Mel Barnett
Managing Director, PSR, AMS
Anna Crowe
Client Operations Director, AMS

When you think about the future of the workforce in Germany, you have to think about demographics. For over 30 years Germany’s population has stayed at 80-84 million, what has changed significantly is the age of the workforce.

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The future of the workforce in Germany

Lead author
Brett O’Connor Client Director, EMEA, AMS

Contributors
Ute Neher Head of Executive Engagement, Indeed.com
Heike Lipinski Client Director, AMS

When East and West Germany reunified in 1990, around 1.2 million Germans were born each year. Now, it’s nearer to 900,000. Around 10% of the population is aged 15-24, which has fallen from 16-17% in the mid-80s. This means that it is increasingly difficult for companies – both big and small – to fill job roles with the talent required.

In fact, there are currently 1.7 million unfilled jobs in Germany, with critical labour shortages across all industries. With such an ageing population, if the country doesn’t bring in skilled people in their 20s and 30s soon, they’re going to face huge talent shortages for years to come. By 2030, Germany could have 5 million fewer workers than it does today to which automation cannot compensate.

The need for new talent

The most pragmatic solution that is going to address the challenges is increasing net migration, which before COVID-19 was just over 300,000 people per year. This is a similar amount of people that migrate to Canada and Australia each year, yet with smaller populations there is a vastly greater demographic and economic impact than in comparison to Germany.

The current German federal government is determined to bring in more immigration, to which the challenge is the attractiveness of Germany to global talent. Changes have been proposed to visa regulations and opening dual citizenship for people from outside the EU. However, a key challenge is mastery of the German language. It is not a global language, therefore English-speaking business cultures have the edge in attracting global talent be it Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, the US, or Singapore – all vastly easier countries to integrate into when compared with Germany.

To combat this, some German companies have adopted English as the first language – especially in IT departments. This is particularly prevalent in fintech and start-ups, which are more international in nature. For example, N26 the market leading German mobile bank has adopted English and French as its internal language, which helps them to bring in international talent from the US, South Asia, and other regions.

However, this doesn’t work in all industries. One of the benefits, yet also a challenge, is that Germany has one of the world’s most highly advanced and unique vocational training systems. Germany not only makes products – engineering, pharmaceutical, biotechnology – but it also designs and produces the capital equipment that makes those products giving it a unique place in the global supply chain market.

Changing how those organisations operate is not easy. One multi-national engineering company AMS partnered with, had an executive board who wanted to bring in more English-speaking talent. However, they found that their engineering leadership teams weren’t comfortable speaking in English. More importantly, their customers weren’t comfortable speaking in English.

When you’re setting up a high-technology manufacturing facility in Germany, it is not practical to do this just in English. A reliance on support from the local community and the vocational education system – would be a very challenging transformation. Tesla has adopted a dual running system of German and English-speaking shifts, which may point the way to future ways of working for some production and assembly roles.

What talent wants is changing

The second challenge for these types of organisations is that the changing demographics of Germany mean that 40% of apprenticeships went unfilled in 2021. Whereas these organisations might have had a significant number of applicants per role previously, they’re now lucky to get half of those – or even no applicants in some cases. This means that they can no longer rely on their employer brand to attract applicants.

Like other countries, Germany has a model that is seeing an increase in digitisation, automation and changing attitudes to what people want in life and work. The modern workforce is not so keen to commit to working their way up in one company for 20 years – especially when the work is often specialised.

Take two famous companies – Roche pharmaceuticals and Deutsche Bank. Roche is a family owned business and has been for 125 years. The current CEO started as a trainee, and so will the next CEO. Deutsche Bank’s CEO also started as a trainee. This mindset of lateral movements through an organisation is changing for many companies.

A need to do things differently

To sum up – the practices that have made Germany successful in the past are not going to be successful in the future. Germany has a world leading education system, scientific and academic employment market that other countries would strive for. There is however more work that needs to be done to accelerate immigration, integrate people into the community and workforce and make the country even more attractive because the best global talent has a choice.

The changing demographics across a range of sectors means that organisations will continue to have a limit on application numbers, so they need to work on brand, engagement, community and think very carefully about accommodating migrants into the workforce. It is less likely they will find the perfect candidate from a robust shortlist of choice, so companies need to be open to accommodating people from different backgrounds, life experiences and of different ages.

The last twenty years has seen the nature of work change. People want more balance in their lives, from remote working to reskilling and having different careers. Organisations need to allow people to bring more of their culture and themselves to work.

Finally, it is also about changing the mindset of how we operate. Organisations should consider a total transformation of their recruitment, engagement, induction, and work practices that are in place. Whilst, recognising that people now have significant choice in their careers.

“With the prospect of huge retirement and labour shortages in the upcoming years, organisations need to transform their attraction, retention, sourcing and recruitment strategies. They will need strong partners and new perspectives to master the challenge and to navigate the future of work. We still have untapped talent creating big opportunities for employers across the region who are ready to change their mindset, build on DE&I and transform their workforce”, comments Ute Neher, Head of Executive Engagement at Indeed.com.

This isn’t a new topic for Germany, it has been widely discussed for decades. However, Germany should be confident about its potential to succeed in the future of work – but it needs to face these challenges head on.

If you find yourself facing these challenges please contact us here.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

Lead author:
Brett O’Connor
Client Director, EMEA, AMS

with contributions from:
Ute Neher
Head of Executive Engagement, Indeed.com
Heike Lipinski
Client Director, AMS

The war for talent is raging.In September, a record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the US Labor Department. That was after 4.3 million people left their jobs the month before, with more than 10.4 million jobs going unfilled at the end of the month.

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How America’s talent wars are reshaping business

Contributors
Nicola Hancock
Regional Managing Director, Americas & Investment Banking, AMS
Ron Thomas
Managing Director, Strategy Focused Group

The war for talent is raging. In September, a record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs, according to the US Labor Department. That was after 4.3 million people left their jobs the month before, with more than 10.4 million jobs going unfilled at the end of the month.

Things haven’t gotten much better in 2022. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 11.3 million job openings were still on the market at the end of May. As organizations compete to fill roles, wages have increased, with average hourly earnings up 0.3% month-on-month in June and 5.1% on the year.

Some of America’s biggest institutions are facing the squeeze. Speaking on a Fortune panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Bank of America CEO, Brian Moynihan, admitted that the war for talent is on.

“Our attrition rate came down throughout the decade and dropped in half during the pandemic, but has come back up to where it was in 2019. Part of this is a natural recovery in attrition rates, but a real part of it is in the tightness of the labor market. A lot of people left the labor market and are not going to come back, even with a strong bid for their services,” he said.

“That’s the reality we’re going to be facing. We’re chasing that dynamic of not enough people working. In the US, the immigration issue is also heavily impacting this. Our population growth rate has fallen in half over the last decade and we just don’t have enough people now. It’s going to be a big bid for a while,” added Moynihan.

To combat this, Bank of America bumped its minimum wage to $22 a hour, equivalent to nearly $45,000 a year for full-time employees. It also expanded its stock awards program to employees who make up to $100,000 annually – nearly 97% of total employees – who previously received a one-off cash bonus. The move could cost the bank up to $1 billion.

Beyond salary

Other businesses are following suit, with those working in service industries just as likely to see a wage increase as those in offices. However, the labor market squeeze means that continuous pay bumps are not sustainable. Instead, organizations are looking for new strategies to recruit, upskill and engage their employees.

“While salary plays a role in attracting talent, it shouldn’t be the dominant piece of the puzzle,” says Ron Thomas, Managing Director at consulting firm Strategy Focused Group.

“Can you sell your brand and purpose? Can you tell the story of how you build a career in the organization? What success stories do you have? People today are looking to connect and be a part of something bigger,” he adds.

“Organizations recognize that they have to think differently about their talent strategies,” agrees Nicola Hancock, Regional Manager Director, Americas & Investment Banking at AMS. “There aren’t enough people out there to simply think about constantly buying in more talent. Instead, they have to think more holistically and start developing their own talent and retrain existing employees.”

Internal mobility

For Hancock, this starts with organizations being less reactive in sourcing talent and more strategic. Such is the competition for hires, that even the biggest businesses are having to rethink how they attract the people they need.

“Everybody is looking at their employee value proposition, even those organizations that haven’t had to traditionally rely on that. Just look at the big corporate players, across all sectors, they’re all leaders in their respective industries who have been able to rely on their logos to attract and retain talent. Now, they’re recognizing that they’re having to work a lot harder,” she says.

One way to do this is to focus on building talent from within. However, internal hiring isn’t the same as internal mobility, warns Hancock. Instead, businesses need to think about how they can be agile in moving talent around the business depending on strategic needs.

“Internal mobility is cheaper and creates better engagement. Internal candidates get to productivity quicker, understand culture and know who to collaborate with to succeed,” says Thomas.

There are other ways American organizations are looking beyond salary. Some are increasing employee flexibility – whether location, remote work or compressed work weeks. They’re re-examining the benefits they offer in a post-pandemic era, moving away from office perks to offerings around mental health and wellbeing, and they’re particularly looking at career development, training and reskilling programs.

Reskilling programs

Back in 2019, JPMorgan announced a $350 million investment in skills development and social mobility. The investment created training programs upskilling the bank’s workforce for changes in technology and business, while also forecasting future workplace skills to build opportunities for internal employee development. It also made it compulsory for incoming asset management and investment banking analysts to take coding classes.

This allowed the bank to refocus its skillset – JPMorgan sees itself as a technology group, not just a bank, with technologists now accounting for a fifth of the organization’s 250,000 plus workforce. However, such large-scale reskilling programs are the exception, not the norm, says Hancock.

“The skills gap has always been there and it has gotten worse during the pandemic. This means that organizations need to fundamentally rethink how they approach talent acquisition. With digitalization, the skills organizations need change much more quickly than previously and the idea of a job for life doesn’t really exist anymore,” she says.

“Fundamentally, businesses need to be more agile and think about talent acquisition differently. Those that do will gain a competitive advantage, as it’s no longer affordable to keep buying in talent as it becomes even more of a premium,” adds Hancock.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Nicola Hancock
Regional Managing Director, Americas & Investment Banking, AMS
Ron Thomas
Managing Director, Strategy Focused Group

Global travel restrictions, the impact of remote working and the growth of workplace technology means that the need for employees to be office-based is diminishing. However, it’s not just the office that employers are foregoing, with an increasing number of organisations looking beyond location and geography when it comes to recruitment. Welcome to the era of ‘borderless’ hiring.

View the story

The boom of borderless hiring in the APAC region

Joy Koh
Head of Growth and Advisory (APAC), AMS
Siddharth Suhas
Head of Growth Initiatives and Partnerships (APAC), AMS
Michael Uhlmann
Senior Manager, RPO Solutions Design (APAC), AMS

While the pandemic has increased opportunities for employees used to working from home (WFH) to try working from anywhere (WFA), the concept is not a new one. Companies as diverse as Amazon, American Express and Siemens have adopted long-term work from anywhere policies, while Salesforce President and CPO Brent Hyder even called the 9-5 workday ‘dead’.

The benefits of being borderless

Another organisation that introduced a work from anywhere policy in 2021 was Swedish audio streaming service Spotify. It allowed its 6,500 employees to determine how often they worked in an office and even where the location they chose to work from (providing the company had operations there).

It also revamped how it set salary bands, setting them by country rather than city or region, encouraging employees to move within locations.

The result? One year on, Spotify has seen attrition rates fall – 15% lower in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same quarter in 2019 – and diverse representation grow. In Europe, the streaming platform has grown its operations beyond its Stockholm headquarters into Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. At the same time, its location flexibility in the USA has seen half of hires come from cities outside its main US hubs of Los Angeles and San Francisco, helping it to meet diversity targets.

Growth in APAC region

In the APAC region, many organisations are choosing to hire from geographies or locations beyond their headquarters too.

A survey by global banking giant HSBC found that 40% of companies are encouraging more flexibility around the location or office employees work from over the next three years, with more than a third (36%) increasing the number of international remote workers they employ. Companies in India (51%), China (48%) and Australia (47%) had the greatest appetite for borderless workplaces, according to the Future of Work survey.

Meanwhile, at Indian IT services consulting giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), CEO Rajesh Gopinathan has plans to make 75% of the company’s 450,000 employees fully remote by 2025, reducing its global carbon footprint by 70% compared to a decade earlier. COVID-19 offers an opportunity to ‘leapfrog us into a new model’.

So what is driving cross-border hiring in the region?

“A lack of talent in the market and organisations fighting for the same talent, coupled with border closures due to COVID-19 limiting relocations, means many organisations have been forced to think about increasing borderless hiring programmes in the past year,” says Joy Koh, Head of Growth and Advisory, APAC for AMS.

“Secondly, companies are increasingly recognising that diversity is important to innovative and successful teams. It’s not just about diversity of location, but also the diversity of thought and problem-solving that people from different backgrounds bring. Companies are realising that a diverse workforce strengthens the organisation,” she adds.

Countries with the greatest appetite for borderless hiring

Australia

China

India

Three things companies should be doing to capitalise on borderless hiring

The way companies post jobs, screen resumes, make offers and onboard hires needs to change in the face of borderless recruitment. Furthermore, company culture is evolving as we move away from office-based organisations to remote ones. So while borderless hiring opens up new and exciting talent pools, it’s important to remember that the way these employees interact and engage with your business is also different.

To succeed, organisations need to think about the following:

Be aware of compliance and tax issues
Hiring employees from different geographies may mean a change in how organisational and employee taxation is calculated. Structuring globally compliant payrolls or industry-specific issues always requires detailed analysis before you go borderless.

Understand culture and how to engage remotely
While the pandemic has helped many organisations develop employee engagement programmes remotely, borderless hiring requires you to take this up a level. How are you going to build teamwork and a sense of belonging if employees never meet face-to-face? How are you going to ensure that those working remotely have the same opportunities as those in office? How will your culture evolve to be inclusive of people from new geographies and locations?

Plan for growth
Borderless hiring provides an opportunity for rapid growth, but businesses need to be prepared for this eventuality. If you suddenly find you have several hires in a region, are you prepared to set up regional hubs to facilitate more efficient work? Should this affect where you look to hire from? Prepare for borderless hiring to be a long-term strategy, not a short-term solution.

Siddharth Suhas, Head of Growth Initiatives and Partnerships APAC at AMS agrees that the combination of closed borders, tighter international talent mobility and dwindling local talent pools has forced businesses in the region to look further into borderless hiring, as well as outsourcing. However, it is the scope and speed at which borderless hiring is taking place that makes it a trend worth following.

“As with any new emerging talent channel or phenomenon, APAC is very much at the forefront and leapfrogging other regions. Tech hiring in particular, followed by certain operational and functional roles seem to be paving the way. What is different is that it is not just teams, but also leadership roles that are now being looked at with no location barrier,” says Suhas.

“It’s also probably one of the few times when both ends of the employer spectrum – big multinational companies and startups – are following and leveraging the trend. They might be doing it with different EVP spins, but the truth is borderless recruitment is now a very key part of hiring strategy,” he adds.

What this means for recruiters

Borderless hiring opens up a new set of challenges for recruiters and hiring managers used to more traditional recruitment methods. Historically, recruiters would be assigned to specific sectors and geographies. Now, they need to cast their net wider meaning a greater need for data analysis and automation to improve the efficiency and impact of the profession as search goes global.

There are also compliance and tax considerations – both corporate and individual – to take into account. However, one of the biggest shifts is a need to focus on cultural fit over skillset.

“Because borderless hires are not in the office, you can’t engage with them in the same way you used to,” says Koh. “It’s really important to screen them for cultural fit, so there is a sense of belonging and engagement. Someone sitting in a different country who doesn’t get to meet colleagues face-to-face can be at a higher attrition risk.”

However, companies thinking about borderless hiring can lean on the remote working experiment of the pandemic for ideas when it comes to culture, argues another AMS colleague.

“Companies have experimented with different strategies to engage staff whilst working remotely. We’ve seen some of the best organisations have adapted their approach and culture to almost a remote working first mindset. Although touch points between employees are less frequent, they can be more meaningful as organisations take the time to build connections and culture,” says Michael Uhlmann, Senior Manager, RPO Solutions Design APAC.

This requires a reset of traditional hiring practices. Is your organisation ready to make the change?

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Joy Koh
Head of Growth and Advisory (APAC), AMS
Siddharth Suhas
Head of Growth Initiatives and Partnerships (APAC), AMS
Michael Uhlmann
Senior Manager, RPO Solutions Design (APAC), AMS

Jim Sykes – Sector Managing Director, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences and Professional Services, AMSChip Holmes – Managing Director, Client Services, AMSCeline Raffray – VP Talent Acquisitions, BMSBeth Keeler – Associate Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition, Merck

View the story

Closing the US pharmaceutical industry’s growing skills gap

Jim Sykes – Sector Managing Director, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences and Professional Services, AMS
Chip Holmes – Managing Director, Client Services, AMS
Celine Raffray – VP Talent Acquisition, BMS
Beth Keeler – Associate Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition, Merck

The world is facing a talent crisis. In the US, there were almost two jobs available for every unemployed person in July, with wage inflation rampant and the Great Resignation making it even harder to keep the talent that organisations are able to bring in.

One industry facing particular skills shortages is the life sciences and pharmaceuticals industry. Buoyed by rapid investment and hiring during the pandemic – as the sector ramped up manufacturing to deliver life-saving vaccines to millions of people – life sciences has nevertheless faced long standing challenges in bringing new talent and skills into the sector.

Back in 2017, industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) warned that the US would need to hire 3.4 million employees to meet demand in life sciences and pharma by 2025, but that 60% of those jobs would be vacant due to skills shortages, a lack of effective education policies and increased competition for talent from other countries.

Skills mismatch

By 2020, a McKinsey & Co report into future pharma workforces concluded that 80% of pharma-manufacturing companies were reporting a skills mismatch, with the pace and scale of technological disruption key.

“Manufacturers are introducing advanced technologies, automating and digitising processes and applying advanced analytics to data. Pharma is also facing its own disruptions – for example, new business models (such as direct-to-customer sales and personalised medicine) and new product modalities,” suggests the report.

This reflects what Celine Raffray, VP Talent Acquisitions at BMS, sees in the modern day market.

“Like all companies in the life sciences sector we’re feeling the competitive nature of the jobs market, particularly for scarce skills such as digital or cell therapy. Whilst BMS has an incredible brand to leverage in order to acquire the best talent, I am very aware the challenge will only get greater in the coming years,” she says.

“As such, I see the need to be more agile and flexible and turn to innovative or inhouse solutions such as upskilling and reskilling of staff, enhanced internal mobility and the need to take a skills-based approach to talent acquisition as being of great strategic importance,” adds Raffray.

So how can the pharmaceutical industry meet the twin challenges of digital innovation and a growing skills gap?

“Historically, the life sciences sector hasn’t done a good job attracting talent from outside the sector. Instead, it has had a very heavy reliance on hiring job ready candidates rather than investing in campus or internship programs,” says Jim Sykes, Sector Managing Director, Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences and Professional Services, AMS.

“The challenge of this is that when you’re hiring job-ready candidates, you’re limited to headhunting talent from competitors. If you look at the market, you have increasing demand for pretty much any skillset, with attrition going up and unemployment going down. For me, the answer isn’t tactical, but rather it’s about more strategic approaches to how businesses approach talent,” he adds.

Sykes’ colleague, Chip Holmes, Managing Director Client Services at AMS agrees that the shortage of talent means that pharmaceutical companies have to rethink their talent strategies.

“For the first time, we have seen a greater willingness for talent to migrate out of the life science sector. Where organisations previously had attrition, it would usually be leaving one company in the sector to move to another. Now, we’re seeing people leave the industry altogether which is exacerbating the problems facing the sector,” he says.

New approach to talent acquisition

Changing the headhunting approach to talent means rethinking how pharmaceutical companies approach internal mobility, training and development and reskilling. Like other industries, more needs to be done in the life sciences to help existing employees update their skillsets to meet future demands – as well as engage them so that attrition falls.

However, actually creating effective reskilling programmes is still a challenge.

“A client of mine was going through a significant restructure. One therapeutic area was reducing significantly, while another was growing massively. You had a hiring freeze here, and a big recruitment drive there, but there was very little investment in crosstraining talent to facilitate moves between these therapeutic areas. With big pharma, the business units can be so big in their own right that they miss the opportunities to retrain talent,” says Sykes.

Those in industry agree that new ways of sourcing talent need to be developed to meet demand – but that doing so could also help diversify the industry. Beth Keeler is Associate Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition at Merck. She believes that transforming talent acquisition processes in the life sciences can bring new people into the sector.

“Hiring volumes at Merck, as with most companies inside and outside our sector, continue to be high and we certainly feel the competitiveness of the market when it comes to particular skills and geographies,” says Keeler.

“Amongst many initiatives, we are focused on transforming our talent acquisition processes to build long-term and diverse talent pipelines, creating more opportunities for those who haven’t been given a fair chance to gain qualifications for these roles. In doing so, we’re addressing the skills gap and building a better and more diverse organisation at the same time,” she adds. “We are proud to offer opportunities that provide purpose within a career through saving and improving lives while encouraging our employees to bring their authentic selves and various skill sets to our company to mirror the patients that we serve.”

Changing approaches to talent acquisition is one challenge – but how do you source people with niche digital skills who are in demand across different industries? As Sykes puts it – if your technological skills are such that you can work for tech companies like Apple or big banks like JPMorgan, pharmaceuticals is probably not going to be top of your list of employees.

Develop branding

The solution requires swallowing some pride and reasserting why the industry is a great place to work.

“In a lot of larger companies, there’s an assumption that everyone wants to work for them. The reality is that people now are less concerned with where they work than with what they do,” says Holmes.

“Organisations need to think about segmenting and differentiating their brand to target different groups of talent,” agrees Sykes. “The idea that you would go to market with a brand just as adept at hiring manufacturing talent as digital or clinical talent is nonsense. Tailor your brand to talk specifically to the talent you want to attract.”

“There is a golden opportunity now for Life Sciences companies. As a result of COVID, people now hold pharma and life sciences in higher esteem than ever before due to the amazing contribution to society that the companies have made. There is an opportunity to make a massive leap in attracting talent from other sectors.”

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Jim Sykes
Sector Managing Director
Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences and Professional Services, AMS
Chip Holmes
Managing Director, Client Services, AMS
Celine Raffray
VP Talent Acquisition, BMS
Beth Keeler
Associate Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition, Merck

Post-pandemic, most organisations are on a recruitment drive. However, the war for talent is fierce and businesses are having to get creative and look beyond salary to attract the right people. If your company is looking to hire more Gen Z talent, there are several things you’ll need to consider.

View the story

DEI & early careers:
Why it’s so important to start here

Terina Matthews-Davis
Client Director, Early Careers & Campus Americas, AMS

Jaymie Hinton
HR Operations Manager, AMS

Kahlil Greene
Online Educator and Senior, Yale University

Chief among these is understanding the desires, needs and interests of this generation. While it’s always dangerous to generalise about an entire population, it’s clear that Gen Z has different expectations about work and careers than previous ones.

Having seen older family members experience burnout, economic insecurity through recessions and poor work/life balance, they’re now demanding better from the companies they work for – better pay, better balance and a better impact on society and the environment.

Representation matters

This also means a more diverse and inclusive workplace. The business case for diversity has long been clear – a McKinsey & Co report found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above average profitability, while those in the top quartile for ethnic diversity were 33% more likely to be profitable – but businesses are still struggling to meet DEI targets.

However, for Gen Z, the debate around the merits of diversity are old news. As online educator and Yale’s first black student body president Kahlil Greene recounts in this piece for HBR:

“As a freshman, I attended an investment banking event for underrepresented minorities where a recruiter told us about the efforts of the company’s diversity recruiting team. The team struggled to get adequate buy-in and investment to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace. What finally broke the inertia was a robust business case that proved that diversity was good for profits.

“Although the recruiter didn’t intend for her story to be received this way, our big takeaway was: When it comes to DEI, that firm would only make progress if it was directly framed around profits, not because it was the right thing to do. It told me that they may not value ideas I bring to the workplace unless there was a direct link to revenue growth. I stopped considering working there after that session.

As one of my peers recounted, “If you care about your people, you care about what your people care about.”

Despite increased attention on diversity in the US, black and Hispanic early careers professionals remain 50-70% more likely to be unemployed than their white counterparts, according to research from the Brookings Institution. So how can we change this?

“A lot of times when I’m conducting interviews, when I get on the screen and I’m a person of colour and a woman, people are excited. Why? One, I’m doing an interview at that level. Two, the person being interviewed is making a conscious decision in their head about this being a place they want to work because I’m in this role. They can see themselves progressing in the company – representation matters,” says Terina Matthews-Davis, Americas Client Director, Early Careers & Campus at AMS.

Matthews-Davis’ colleague Jaymie Hinton is an HR Operations Manager at AMS. As a military veteran, she understands what it’s like to be on the outside looking in when it comes to finding a job. Hinton argues that many young people have the same feeling when it comes to current hiring processes, but that things are beginning to change.

“Sometimes people don’t feel like they’re included and safe to be themselves, whether they’re gay, straight or ‘different’ somehow. I’m ex-military and I’ve had doors shut in my face because hiring managers don’t understand transferable skills,” says Hinton.

“Younger generations can feel distant from the hiring process. When I got out of the military 20 years ago, it was about who you knew. Now, you have different ways of applying for jobs and companies are looking to be more diverse. There has been a change in awareness,” she adds.

Representation matters

However, for Gen Z, the debate around the merits of diversity are old news. As online educator and Yale’s first black student body president Kahlil Greene recounts in this piece for HBR:

As one of my peers recounted, “If you care about your people, you care about what your people care about.”

Be authentic – performative allyship
doesn’t work

When it comes to attracting future talent, it’s important to be authentic. Gen Zers aren’t falling for performative allyship, so simply sticking a Black Lives Matter poster in the window or showing support on social media isn’t enough.

Organisations need to be truthful about where they stand and what they’re doing to make a change, especially if they’re currently struggling with diversity. The more authentic and open you are, the more early careers talent will support you.

“It’s 100% about calling out where you are as an organisation. It shows your authenticity, it shows you are working on it and it shows candidates they can be part of a change,” says Matthews-Davis.

It’s also about actively going out into the communities you want to hire from and meeting talent where they are. This might mean partnering with HBCUs, sponsoring societies or getting involved in community events. Early careers talent is big on altruism and being active locally. If you’re not building local relationships, you’re not getting in front of them.

As Hinton says: “Everybody is in the war for talent and everybody is in the war for diverse talent. It has to be about more than expecting them to come to you.”

Go beyond your usual hiring routes

Hinton and Matthews-Davis help clients looking to hire more diverse candidates create strategies that have an impact. Practically, this might be about providing tools that match roles to candidates, such as platforms like WayUp or RippleMatch. It might be about partnering with new colleges or institutions to look for interns. Ultimately, it’s about looking beyond your traditional hiring routes.

“People hire people who look like them. They hire from where they went to university, so it’s about being intentional and understanding your strategy. If you say you want 50% of your incoming class being diverse, but you’re mainly hiring from Stanford, Harvard and Notre Dame, you’re probably not going to reach your target if you look at the percentage of students of colour from those campuses,” says Matthews-Davis.

“When you go outside your target schools, you find amazing talent that is hungry. Students there know they aren’t part of the core target list, so they have to get in early and prove themselves. Companies are starting to think more broadly about where their talent comes from,” she adds.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Terina Matthews-Davis
Client Director, Early Careers & Campus Americas, AMS
Jaymie Hinton
HR Operations Manager, AMS
Kahlil Greene
Online Educator and Senior, Yale University

Be authentic – performative allyship
doesn’t work

As Hinton says: “Everybody is in the war for talent and everybody is in the war for diverse talent. It has to be about more than expecting them to come to you.”

Go beyond your usual hiring routes

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Terina Matthews-Davis
Client Director, Early Careers & Campus Americas, AMS
Jaymie Hinton
HR Operations Manager, AMS
Kahlil Greene
Online Educator and Senior, Yale University

The COVID-19 pandemic left retailers scrambling for talent as employees moved on to other industries with higher wages, better job security and improved benefits.

View the story

Three ways retail organisations can use technology to engage and hire frontline workers

Contributors:
Jeanette Leeds
Managing Director, Hourly by AMS
Adam Lukoskie
Vice President, National Retail Federation Foundation

The COVID-19 pandemic left retailers scrambling for talent as employees moved on to other industries with higher wages, better job security and improved benefits. Many traditional retail employees simply left the job market altogether, meaning the war for talent in the sector is intensifying.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics more than 1 million of the 11 million jobs available in the US are in retail, with one retail industry figure speculating that applicant numbers had fallen by 40% in just a year. With nearly two jobs available for every unemployed person, companies are having to get creative in their hiring processes to get the volume of workers they need.

For many retailers, this has naturally led to a reappraisal of how technology can make hiring more efficient and effective.

“Like many other industries, retailers have faced an increasingly tight labour market in recent years. In order to compete for talent, many have integrated technologies to further attract candidates and streamline the overall hiring process,” says Adam Lukoskie, Vice President at National Retail Federation Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the world’s largest retail trade association.

“From advertising on social platforms such as TikTok, to enhancing the user experience with clear and frictionless job applications, along with convenience factors like conducting interviews virtually and extending job offers earlier in the application process, retailers are creating more opportunities for people of all backgrounds to quickly secure roles in an industry that offers tremendous growth potential,” adds Lukoskie.

Enforced online shopping during the pandemic has also shifted the dial on digital transformation in the sector, with customers trialling new ways to shop.

A McKinsey & Co report found that 10% of UK shoppers tried grocery delivery during the pandemic, with 12% expecting to shop less at non-essential stores post-lockdown. The same report predicts that a third of all tasks in retail will be affected by technology by 2030. The seismic shift in how we shop means that recruiters are having to contend with both a shortage of currently available talent and the need to build in skills of the future.

“What big retailers tell me is their biggest problem is getting enough people to fill jobs. The supply of people and talent isn’t enough to fill available roles. The second part is about attrition. How do you keep people once you get them?”, says Jeanette Leeds, Managing Director Hourly by AMS.

For retailers, the competitive nature of the labour market is pushing them to streamline their recruitment processes, introducing artificial intelligence and automation into the early stages of hiring to help talent acquisition employees hire more efficiently. In a candidate-driven market, speed is vital. But how can technology improve retail recruiting?

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Jeanette Leeds
Managing Director, Hourly by AMS
Adam Lukoskie
Vice President, National Retail Federation Foundation

In a tough, candidate-led jobs market, the traditional approach to talent acquisition is over. Employers are increasingly having to convince candidates that their company is the right one to join, offering a combination of purposeful work, development opportunities and values that match the individual

View the story

It’s plain as day –
employer brand really is everything

Contributors:
Bryan Adams, CEO, Ph.Creative
Bill Cleary, Managing Director, AMS
Terina Matthews-Davis, Client Director, AMS

As with many other future of work concepts, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a catalysing effect on employer branding. Faced with a genuine global crisis, business leaders were forced to not only communicate their values, but demonstrate them.

Lockdowns, physical and mental health challenges and a potential recession meant that employers had to decide whether common company values like trust, honesty and integrity were things to live by, or just words that sounded good.

Now the Great Resignation has hit and employers are struggling to fill talent gaps. Differentiating yourself from your competitors is key when the talent pool is shrinking – and talent is watching.

According to Glassdoor, 86% of women and 67% of men wouldn’t join a company with a bad reputation. Half of all candidates wouldn’t join a company with a bad reputation even if they offered them a pay rise. On the flipside, three-quarters of jobseekers are more likely to apply to a job if the employer actively manages its employer brand and 92% of people would consider switching jobs to a company with an excellent corporate reputation.

For recruiters, employer brand is important too. The same report suggests that a strong employer brand can reduce cost per hire by as much as 50%, with a negative reputation adding an extra 10% onto each hire.

“Brand is a differentiator, so for companies it’s about how do I promote my brand and make candidates aware of it, but also meet them where they’re at,” says Bill Cleary, managing director, advisory at AMS.

“This might mean identifying the different personas of the candidates you’re trying to hire and differentiating your brand message along those lines. It’s about being custom to the individuals and personas you’re trying to attract,” adds Cleary.

Creating an employer brand

Bryan Adams is CEO and founder of North American based employer brand agency Ph.Creative. He believes that there are plenty of misconceptions around how organisations can create an authentic employer brand. To begin with, he advises companies to focus on three key components: reputation, proposition and experience.

“Modern jobseekers weigh a prospective employer’s reputation heavily in their decision to apply for a job or accept an offer, because they’re keenly aware of the impact it will have on their own reputation and the way others perceive them,” he writes.

Like Cleary, Adams believes reputation can mean different things to different employees, so it’s important to segment different personas. This leads onto proposition, which defines the employee-employer relationship. This establishes the expectations that the company has for employees and how they will be rewarded. The key here is honesty – a mismatch in expectations can lead to lasting damage on your brand.

Finally comes experience. Good employee experience is vital in building your reputation, providing excellent – and sometimes vocal – feedback on what it’s like to work at your organisation.

As Adams writes: “Much as satisfied customers can often make the best salespeople, satisfied current and former employees can be an invaluable source of candidate referrals, strengthening your ability to attract top talent.”

The graduate landscape

One of the most competitive areas of recruitment is in the graduate and future talent area – and it’s a demographic that is heavily invested in employer branding.

Terina Matthews-Davis is Americas client director, early careers and campus for AMS. She believes that companies are having to be more creative and personalize their offerings to attract the next generation of candidates. It’s about giving students the opportunity to see places they wouldn’t normally get to go to on their own.

“In New York for example, instead of taking all interns to a Yankees or Mets game, companies are thinking ‘maybe not all our people are interested in baseball, so let’s give them a choice and split up our business leaders to go to different events/locations such as: Radio City Music Hall, backstage tour of a Broadway production, an event at the Metropolitan Museum Art, or even a guided tour of Central Park.’ It’s about giving them options to not only engage with the company, but also the city they’re going to be living and working in,” she says.

The candidate-driven market means that employers are having to temper expectations about when interns accept offers. Such is the volume of opportunities, that all candidates can be more selective about where they work.

“Companies used to ask interns to make decisions about offers immediately or within 2 – 4 weeks. In the current market, organizations have to be OK with interns shopping around for additional full-time opportunities, before making their final decision to accept or decline their intern conversion offer.” says Matthews-Davis.

To combat this, businesses need to up their engagement strategies. A starting point is to focus on young talent as mentors, giving prospective employees the opportunity to learn and hear from employees who have just been through the journey they’re starting.

Secondly, companies are recruiting from more diverse populations and colleges, doing away with the core school mentality of only recruiting from certain institutions.

Now the Great Resignation has hit and employers are struggling to fill talent gaps. Differentiating yourself from your competitors is key when the talent pool is shrinking – and talent is watching.

Creating an employer brand

Finally comes experience. Good employee experience is vital in building your reputation, providing excellent – and sometimes vocal – feedback on what it’s like to work at your organisation.

The graduate landscape

One of the most competitive areas of recruitment is in the graduate and future talent area – and it’s a demographic that is heavily invested in employer branding.

Secondly, companies are recruiting from more diverse populations and colleges, doing away with the core school mentality of only recruiting from certain institutions.

Finally, Matthews-Davis says companies are learning to invest in student populations over the long-term.

“When I was in-house building this population, we had a ‘keep warm’ policy. From when an intern accepts an offer to when they actually start can be nearly a year, so you need to keep them engaged so they don’t shop around.

“One way is to send them gifts. In certain sectors, it’s a badge of honor to have a duffel bag or vest with a company logo. So, companies are upping their game, sending out brands like Patagonia and North Face to keep engaged,” says Matthews-Davis.

This also provides employers with a chance to interact with future hires by surveying them on the sort of gifts they would like. By asking their opinion, brands can show this talent pool that their thoughts are valued, turning them into potential brand ambassadors as they show off their gifts to fellow students.

The challenge of this focus on employer branding is to match expectation with reality. Matthews-Davis believes there is a danger that entry-level talent could become ‘over-entitled’ and have unrealistic expectations around the speed of career trajectories. To combat this, she suggests that companies should provide mentoring from other employees explaining their career paths.

Ultimately, no amount of good branding can keep talent if the actual experience of working somewhere is different.

“What talent wants is true, authentic leaders that they can engage with. They want a balance of value-added work and development within the organization. Those things haven’t changed,” says Matthews-Davis.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:
Bryan Adams, CEO, Ph.Creative
Bill Cleary, Managing Director, AMS
Terina Matthews-Davis, Client Director, AMS

Finally, Matthews-Davis says companies are learning to invest in student populations over the long-term.

Ultimately, no amount of good branding can keep talent if the actual experience of working somewhere is different.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:
Bryan Adams, CEO, Ph.Creative
Bill Cleary, Managing Director, AMS
Terina Matthews-Davis, Client Director, AMS

An opportunity to recruit hidden talent

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Talent acquisition as strategic influencers

Tech skilling

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Talent attraction

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Why choose process outsourcing?

Future of contingent hiring

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What is social value?

Tech skilling

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The need for new talent

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There are 1.7 million unfilled jobs in Germany

The population aged 15-24 has fallen from 17% in the 80s to 10% now

By 2035, Germany is estimated to have 7 million fewer workers than today

What talent wants is changing

A need to do things differently

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Beyond salary

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Internal mobility

Reskilling programs

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The benefits of being borderless

Growth in APAC region

Countries with the greatest appetite for borderless hiring

Australia

China

India

Three things companies should be doing to capitalise on borderless hiring

What this means for recruiters

Skills mismatch

The US life sciences industry needs to hire 3.4 million people by 2025

80% of pharmaceutical companies report a skills mismatch

The US life sciences industry needs to hire 3.4 million people by 2025

80% of pharmaceutical companies report a skills mismatch

New approach to talent acquisition

Develop branding

Representation matters

Image captions

Representation matters

Companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 25% more likely to have above average profitability

Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 33% more likely to have above average profitability

But Black and Hispanic early career professionals are 50-70% more likely to be unemployed

Be authentic – performative allyshipdoesn’t work

Go beyond your usual hiring routes

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Be authentic – performative allyshipdoesn’t work

Go beyond your usual hiring routes

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Creating an employer brand

The graduate landscape

Creating an employer brand

The graduate landscape

The US life sciences industry needs to hire
3.4 million people by 2025

The US life sciences industry needs to hire
3.4 million people by 2025

Be authentic – performative allyship
doesn’t work

Be authentic – performative allyship
doesn’t work