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RPO & the India Advantage

Contributors:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Roop Kaistha

Regional Managing Director, APAC, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

CEO, Valoir

Long known as the destination for call centers and back-office processing, the outsourcing and offshoring giant is pivoting to R&D, engineering, data analytics and now AI.

Here’s why your organization must join Team India.

When it comes to outsourcing, India remains the gold standard.

Starting around 2000, India’s outsourcing firms have blossomed from a collection of industrious, savvy, and reliable business processing services that oversaw western companies’ call centers and back office operations to become the go-to destination for offshoring, nearshoring and captive sites for major global businesses. And despite the global and regional booms and busts of those past two decades, India remains the top partner for companies seeking to streamline operations, centralize business tasks, and achieve greater savings.

In the years since the global pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, India pivoted to become a center of true technological innovation that is dedicated to the next-wave advancements in programming, research and development, engineering, data analysis and the newly introduced business tools: artificial intelligence and Generative AI. India outsourcing centers also embrace hybrid and office-based working models which help broaden the search for candidates who are entertaining multiple job offers in a tight labor market.

Let’s look at the India RPO advantage by the numbers:

– India’s total labor force is an estimated 437.2 million, i.e., larger than the total population of the United States (338.3 million)

– India’s Global Capability Centers employ up to 70% of the world’s GCC headcount

– Last year, India reported an overall leasing volume of 27.3 million sqft in the offshoring industry, a 26% increase from the previous year

– Demand for AI services could reach $17 billion by 2027, according to a report by IT industry body Nasscom

– Last year, around 45% of high-tech and travel companies, and 43% of telecom, manufacturing, and construction firms, nearshored operations to India, per media reports

In a few short years, India is now not only an exporter of high talent, it’s attracting and retaining talent as well. As forward-thinking talent acquisition leaders looking to expand its recruitment process outsourcing, it’s time to prepare for the next India business revolution.

Why does India continue to remain an attractive offshoring partner especially when it comes to RPO? According to Roop Kaistha, regional managing director of APAC for AMS, it all boils down to India’s advantages as an outsourcing partner. The nation is politically stable (Prime Minister Modi was re-elected in June 2024); its young and well-educated workforce, and investments into infrastructure. The world’s largest democracy also created the 18th largest exclusive economic zones inside the country, and around Asia, Europe, Africa and North and South America.

“It’s not that people are flocking to India without the country doing anything. We all know that India was the back-office call-center hub twenty years ago, but the government and Indian businesses have moved outsourcing up the value chain to offer more services,” says Kaistha.  “India is now a net giver of talent,” she says.

Talent acquisition industry experts have witnessed the same transformation.

“While many call centers and back office operations were staffed in India for cost reduction, companies now use Indian talent for engineering, research, sales, and other design and innovation needs. Professionals in India are well educated and ambitious to succeed, making such teams highly competitive and often much less expensive to hire,” says Josh Bersin, founder of the HR technology consultancy The Josh Bersin Company.

Rebecca Wettemann, CEO of the HR technology market research firm Valoir, says she and her colleagues are seeing organizations look to hire Indian resources to support research and development, data science, and AI, as well as support for cloud applications.

“The growing availability of qualified resources in India is certainly part of this but so is the growth of indigenous Indian technology companies such as Zoho raising awareness of India’s ability to deliver innovation in the tech sector,” says Wettemann.

The India Partnership

 This is not news to AMS customers.

According to Kaistha, roughly 70% of AMS RPO clients have either established GCCs in India or they are in the process of performing due diligence or establishing these centers right now. India recently began offering what Kaistha calls “end-to-end integrated service centers” that handle business tasks ranging from operations to HR.

“Companies in the U.S. and Europe are establishing innovation centers, including sandbox and digital innovation facilities, for this growing market,” she says. She adds that many, well known, financial giants credit India’s centers of excellence (COEs) as a critical part of their tech transformation.

AMS also helped a global pharma giant that operated its tech development center in India. This project requires incorporating IT recruiters and sourcers into the AMS team, while advising on skills availability and salary market insights. AMS also targeted specific talent pools for aspirational candidates to meet salary bandings. Together with AMS guidance, the client hired more than 260 IT and data analytics employees with a 45-day time to offer.

A major European bank that operates a multi-location GCC in India needed sourcing and admin for 6,000 hires across India, including 2,700 technology roles. In 10 weeks, AMS deployed a team of 100 TA experts in less than three months, managing 1,500 requisitions within weeks, optimizing processes and cleansing data to remove backlogs, while reducing agency reliance and improving compliance. This RPO initiative delivered 225 technology hires per month, 44 days time-to-offer, 50 hires per month in all roles, and an 82% offer-to-start ratio.

Skills, Education and Infrastructure: The Right Stuff

When finding talent in India, it comes down to attracting, interviewing and nurturing the right candidate with the right skills. Thanks to India’s young population and their knowledge of English, Mandarin, French and German among other languages, Indian firms have near bottomless offering of highly skilled labor. But there are challenges when it comes to outsourcing to India — as well as other nations.

“The main issues to consider are leadership and alignment with other international teams, as well as the broad time zone differences to manage. Many of the high-performing Indian teams I meet work nights or other hours to align well with their US or European teammates,” adds Bersin. “It’s also important for teams around the world to get to know each other and meet face to face regularly.”

TA leaders looking to hire in India must determine and pinpoint the skills the open positions require currently and in the future. And any organizations looking to hire must budget for a realistic time frame. This is not a rush job, says Kaistha. “Sometimes clients expect that they can simply lift and shift people from one project or division to another,” she says.

Plus, the time-to-productivity must be monitored and addressed. “We find that if clients don’t have the right outsourcing and RPO partner, uncertainty can begin to take root,” says Kaistha. She adds that HR and TA leaders are usually informed by the business divisions about the open roles and the selected skills and then told to “go find them.”

“At AMS we know how talent acquisition processes work,” says Kaistha. “TA searches need to be calibrated so we find sometimes that [filling these roles] is a big challenge.”

And outsourcing is not just for Fortune 500 companies. AMS recently partnered with a modestly-sized Japanese pharmaceutical client that operated in a niche segment. Although it is not a household company name, they were looking to hire around 400 new workers per annum in India. The clock was ticking. Like similarly-sized clients, the pharmaceutical company considered relying on agencies that typically charge less than RPO firms. AMS was able to hire new staff without relying on agencies in what Kaistha called a “commoditized market.”

“Sometimes clients say ‘we’re just going to use agencies because it’s so cheap,’ and they can very easily get into that trap if they cannot find the right TA partner,” she says.

The Future of Outsourcing: India

Even with these challenges, India will remain the top outsourcing provider in the decade to come. Kaistha believes that the technology layoffs that occurred in the U.S. and Europe in late 2022 are not in the India outsourcing forecast.

“My crystal ball is looking very optimistically into the future, and it says that we are going to go back to pandemic hiring numbers. There will be ups and downs in economies and a bit of decoupling has happened globally, like in China, but it can’t be sustained for too long,” she says.

“I truly think that hiring numbers will come back up in the second half of 2024 but going into 2025, we will see pre-COVID hiring numbers thanks to the huge focus on employee skills,” she says. “Unemployment rates are still relatively low and spending is kind of back because interest rates are likely to go down. So just based on those factors, I do think hiring numbers will come back.”

To find the workers in India with the right, cutting-edge skills,
AMS experts will be able to help.

Written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

The Future of Outsourcing: India

Even with these challenges, India will remain the top outsourcing provider in the decade to come. Kaistha believes that the technology layoffs that occurred in the U.S. and Europe in late 2022 are not in the India outsourcing forecast.

“My crystal ball is looking very optimistically into the future, and it says that we are going to go back to pandemic hiring numbers. There will be ups and downs in economies and a bit of decoupling has happened globally, like in China, but it can’t be sustained for too long,” she says.

“I truly think that hiring numbers will come back up in the second half of 2024 but going into 2025, we will see pre-COVID hiring numbers thanks to the huge focus on employee skills,” she says. “Unemployment rates are still relatively low and spending is kind of back because interest rates are likely to go down. So just based on those factors, I do think hiring numbers will come back.”

To find the workers in India with the right, cutting-edge skills,
AMS experts will be able to help.

Written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contributions from:

Josh Bersin

Founder, The Josh Bersin Company

Roop Kaistha

Regional Managing Director, APAC, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

Rebecca Wettemann, CEO, Valoir

TopBuilt with Shorthand


When ChatGPT made its debut in late 2022, the initial reaction was varied to say the least. Some technology experts predicted a bold new future of automation and innovation, business leaders predicted massive savings due to the elimination of huge swaths of jobs for millions of people while doomsayers predicted the end of the world when AI becomes self-aware.

View the story

AI by 2025:
The urgent need for Training and Skilling

Contributors:

Allyn Bailey

Senior Director, SmartRecruiters

Julian Thomas

Managing Director of Digital Product, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

CEO & Principal Analyst, Valoir

Generative AI (Gen AI) is an important part of the future of work but what does that mean for talent leaders?

Our experts agree that a new approach to skilling current and future employees in the ethical use of artificial intelligence is a must.

When ChatGPT made its debut in late 2022, the initial reaction was varied to say the least. Some technology experts predicted a bold new future of automation and innovation, business leaders predicted massive savings due to the elimination of huge swaths of jobs for millions of people while doomsayers predicted the end of the world when AI becomes self-aware. Thankfully, the more dire predictions haven’t materialized as organizations have proceeded with caution when it comes to handing the keys over to a tool that some critics have called “spicy autocomplete” in online memes.   

Talent leaders and their human resource counterparts have taken a keen interest in using Generative AI in their operations with plans to expand its use by 2025. And they are taking steps right now to make the promise of Gen AI in the organization a productive and profitable reality. To achieve these goals, TA leaders will need to focus on AI training so that current and future employees have the right skills to use AI as effectively and as ethically as possible.

Unfortunately, most modern talent acquisition teams have not adequately addressed skilling for using AI in the coming year, according to “Is HR Ready for AI,” a new report from market research firm Valoir.

In a study of 150 global HR leaders, Valoir found that nearly one quarter of businesses have adopted some form of Gen AI for talent acquisition, making it the leading area for Gen AI adoption to date. Meanwhile, 30 percent plan to adopt it in the next 24 months. In terms of training employees for using AI, however, only 14 percent have an established training policy, and a shockingly low eight percent have a skills development program in place for workers whose positions could be made extinct by machine learning.

According to Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and principal analyst for the Arlington, Virginia-based Valoir, TA leaders and their HR counterparts need to establish policies that provide guardrails for the safe and effective use of AI for all employees including their recruitment teams.

“Given how rapidly the field is evolving, TA leaders are going to have to look beyond their traditional training strategies to deliver effective AI training that is tailored to individual roles and existing skills levels,” says Wettemann.

And today’s Gen AI tools can help create the training and skilling programs for new and current employees. “Talent leaders need to move to a skills-based approach — if they haven’t already — to identify opportunities for retraining and upskilling as well as skills gaps,” adds Wettemann. “The good news (and irony) is that AI is well suited to helping them build dynamic skills taxonomies and map skills to learning and development opportunities.”

Gen AI Training Needs for Today and Tomorrow

TA leaders and their recruiting teams using machine learning is fairly old news. TA solutions have used AI to scour resumes, cover letters and job applications in recent years, but with the release of ChatGPT and similar tools that use large language models (LLMs), some recruiters are relying on Gen AI tools to craft interview questions and candidate emails, power chatbots that interact with candidates and guide them through the application and interview process, as well as establish that the hiring process complies with DEI mandates and current employment laws.

Along with this innovation, greater use of AI is coming to the hiring process and the training required may never stop, says Allyn Bailey, senior director of customer marketing for TA solution provider SmartRecruiters and a former global recruiter for Intel Corp.

“This technology isn’t just tinkering around the edges; it’s poised to fundamentally overhaul key aspects of the recruitment process,” says Bailey. “From recruitment marketing to candidate communication, assessment, and even the aggregation of hiring manager feedback, the potential for change is enormous.”

That said, Bailey says that machine learning’s most significant impact will come from businesses that don’t just stop at implementing Gen AI solutions. “The real game-changers will be those that strategically integrate these AI capabilities with a wide range of automation solutions, creating a seamless, efficient, and highly effective recruitment ecosystem,” she says.

“This holistic approach is where the future of talent acquisition lies, and we’re on the cusp of that exciting frontier,” adds Bailey.

Julian Thomas, Managing Director of Digital Product for AMS, paraphrases the advice that Uncle Ben gave Peter Parker in the origin story of Spider-Man: With great power comes great responsibility. And this means training employees with a new set of AI skills for the future.

“The training must focus on judgment and knowing the limitations of the technology. The people that are going to win are those who understand the limitations of this new technology as well as the opportunities,” he says. “The market is moving very fast and the technology’s moving even faster, so we need good training.”

One key area for training is data. SmartRecruiters’s Bailey predicts that TA professionals who use Gen AI will have to become data experts or become more comfortable with gathering and analyzing reams of information.

“In the Gen AI-driven hiring landscape, recruiters need to become maestros of tech, data, ethics, and experience design,” she says. “It’s about getting smart with automation tools to streamline TA operations, diving deep into data analytics for sharper insights, and navigating the ethical maze of AI with a clear compass.”

This new data generated by AI can be analyzed for greater insights into the organization and the people who use these tools. “While we have reports on time to hire and things like that, AI is applying a large language model to the structured data we generate. This will make a much more natural way of reading insight from our process and the data we generate,” says Thomas.

One of those insights is the candidate experience in the recruitment process, or what Bailey calls the “secret sauce” in creating “journeys” through the hiring process that resonate with candidates and TA teams alike to make every touchpoint meaningful with AI.

“Savvy recruiters will weave these elements together, creating a recruitment symphony that’s both efficient and human-centric,” she says. “As companies catch the beat, those leading the charge in blending these skills will not just fill positions but will shape the future of work itself. It’s time to remix recruitment with a blend of tech, heart, and art.”

Avoiding AI Hallucinations and Other Traps

But not all is wine and roses when using current ChatGPT and similar tools. Ask anyone who has used ChatGPT to write their obituary; the results are often ludicrous. The current batch of machine-learning tools have a propensity to generate responses that are flat-out false when given low-quality data;  improper or misleading prompts; or unique interpretations of different AI systems. These are called “AI Hallucinations” when a Gen AI tool fabricates answers from whole cloth.

And there are real-world repercussions when AI Hallucinations occur. ChatGPT, for example, inferred that an Australian politician was guilty in a bribery scandal when he was in fact the whistleblower. In the summer of 2023, a U.S. judge fined two New York lawyers who submitted a legal brief that included six fabricated case citations generated by the same Gen AI platform. This illicit action came at a price: a fine of $5,000.

“TA leaders need to be thinking about training beyond the technical use of AI in areas like critical thinking, so employees will be prepared to evaluate and interpret recommendations that AI delivers,” advises Wettemann.

Thomas agrees. “TA teams also need measurement of the effectiveness and outcomes of their work. We need to establish controls to understand the efficacy and ensure everyone is using it in the same way,” he says. “The organizations that do that will be successful.”

Right now, challenges have emerged in adopting policies and practices for AI training. Valoir found that the biggest hurdle inside organizations is a lack of AI skills and expertise (26 percent), followed by the fear of risk or compliance issues (23 percent), and lack of resources or budget (22 percent).

Training for Using AI Ethically

Employees using AI must also be trained in its ethical use, especially in terms of achieving DEI mandates and complying with government regulations. The current iteration of Gen AI may be a modern, cutting-edge tool that is less than two years old, employers cannot ignore anti-discrimination employment laws that have been on the book for decades. But the potential is there, warns AMS’ Thomas. These large language models (LLMs) based on public Internet content and data gathered inside an organization has the potential to, in his words, “institutionalize corporate biases.” In short, recruiters using AI may inadvertently end up interviewing and recruiting people who look like them and share their backgrounds.

At the same time, recruiters must train for the day when recruiters will allow Gen AI to make hiring decisions, even if this reality could be years in the future.

AI will indeed take the reins in hiring decisions, predicts Bailey. “While we’re often hesitant to sideline human judgment, the reality is that humans bring biases, delays, and inconsistencies to the table,” she says. “AI, on the other hand, offers a path to more objective, efficient, and streamlined recruitment processes.”

Despite what Bailey calls “popular resistance” to the idea that a machine will eventually hire human beings, she believes that the future of hiring leans heavily towards AI-driven decisions. “The question isn’t if AI will lead in hiring, but when and how we’ll adapt to this shift,” she says.

Thomas agrees that it would be naive for TA leaders to assume that Gen AI hiring new workers won’t happen in the near future in the same way that medical AI tools won’t diagnose illnesses and prescribe medications. Not only will AI hire new workers, Thomas believes it will decide which AI technology to deploy inside an enterprise.

“Will AI recruit people? If it does, it’ll be because it’s trusted, understood and measured to be more effective than a human recruiter. But while it isn’t measured and known to be more effective right now, then it shouldn’t do so,” he says.

“This is one reason that recruiters should be trained and not currently hand over the hiring of a candidate to Generative AI, no matter how smart it appears to be,” advises Thomas.

Ultimately, employees and especially TA teams must be trained in the potential power of Gen AI as a productive and potentially disruptive form of workplace technology. At the same time, everyone who trains employees in using this new gear must not lose sight of the people it is designed to serve.

“This is really about putting human factors first and understanding that while there’s plenty of potential benefit from AI, there’s also a lot of fear and it’s not all unfounded,” warns Wettemann. “Rather than taking a technology-first generative AI strategy, leaders will need to take a human-first approach, giving employees both the guardrails and incentives they need to maximize value and minimize risk from AI.”

 written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Training for Using AI Ethically

Employees using AI must also be trained in its ethical use, especially in terms of achieving DEI mandates and complying with government regulations. The current iteration of Gen AI may be a modern, cutting-edge tool that is less than two years old, employers cannot ignore anti-discrimination employment laws that have been on the book for decades. But the potential is there, warns AMS’ Thomas. These large language models (LLMs) based on public Internet content and data gathered inside an organization has the potential to, in his words, “institutionalize corporate biases.” In short, recruiters using AI may inadvertently end up interviewing and recruiting people who look like them and share their backgrounds.

At the same time, recruiters must train for the day when recruiters will allow Gen AI to make hiring decisions, even if this reality could be years in the future.

AI will indeed take the reins in hiring decisions, predicts Bailey. “While we’re often hesitant to sideline human judgment, the reality is that humans bring biases, delays, and inconsistencies to the table,” she says. “AI, on the other hand, offers a path to more objective, efficient, and streamlined recruitment processes.”

Despite what Bailey calls “popular resistance” to the idea that a machine will eventually hire human beings, she believes that the future of hiring leans heavily towards AI-driven decisions. “The question isn’t if AI will lead in hiring, but when and how we’ll adapt to this shift,” she says.

Thomas agrees that it would be naive for TA leaders to assume that Gen AI hiring new workers won’t happen in the near future in the same way that medical AI tools won’t diagnose illnesses and prescribe medications. Not only will AI hire new workers, Thomas believes it will decide which AI technology to deploy inside an enterprise.

“Will AI recruit people? If it does, it’ll be because it’s trusted, understood and measured to be more effective than a human recruiter. But while it isn’t measured and known to be more effective right now, then it shouldn’t do so,” he says.

“This is one reason that recruiters should be trained and not currently hand over the hiring of a candidate to Generative AI, no matter how smart it appears to be,” advises Thomas.

Ultimately, employees and especially TA teams must be trained in the potential power of Gen AI as a productive and potentially disruptive form of workplace technology. At the same time, everyone who trains employees in using this new gear must not lose sight of the people it is designed to serve.

“This is really about putting human factors first and understanding that while there’s plenty of potential benefit from AI, there’s also a lot of fear and it’s not all unfounded,” warns Wettemann. “Rather than taking a technology-first generative AI strategy, leaders will need to take a human-first approach, giving employees both the guardrails and incentives they need to maximize value and minimize risk from AI.”

 written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Allyn Bailey

Senior Director, SmartRecruiters

Julian Thomas

Managing Director of Digital Product, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

CEO & Principal Analyst, Valoir

TopBuilt with Shorthand


Building talent is often more effective than recruiting, and is now considered essential for enterprise success, candidate attraction and employee retention. Here’s what forward-looking TA and HR leaders must remember to retain talent and drive productivity.

View the story

The Art of Skills-Based Hiring:

How to increase productivity and growth while averting the current skills crisis

Contributors:

April Hicks

Head of Global Talent Acquisition, People Strategy & Enablement, Bank of America

Tim Gillespie

Interim Head of The Academy, Bank of America

Josh Bersin

Founder, Josh Bersin Company

Lisa Forrest

Managing Director, Client Services, Americas, AMS

Bernard Marr

Futurist, strategic advisor and business author

Building talent is often more effective than recruiting, and is now considered essential for enterprise success, candidate attraction and employee retention.

Here’s what forward-looking TA and HR leaders must remember to retain talent and drive productivity.

Do you hear that sound? Throughout nearly every business, human resource and talent acquisition leaders can hear the quiet rumble of a crisis resulting in the lack of skilled employees and recruits. It’s getting louder and most C-suite executives are only just beginning to respond to these ominous signs.

Look at some headlines:

  • Recently, Slack, the workplace chat platform owned by Salesforce, placed its employees on a one-week hiatus to earn “Ranger Status” via its Trailhead online learning platform
  • A recent Enterprise Strategy Report found that 71% cybersecurity executives admit that they’ve been impacted by the cybersecurity skills shortage, which has increased workload for cybersecurity teams (61%), left job openings unfilled (49%), and caused high burnout among staff (43%) 
  • Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company postponed the opening of its Arizona chip factory to 2025 due to a shortage of technical workers

We are in the midst of a critical skills crisis. According to news reports, HR and TA experts believe that by 2030, demand for skilled professionals will far outstrip supply, and will result in a financial impact of $8.452 trillion in unrealized revenue. This crisis has spread to many fields that were once seen as desirable and lucrative by candidates and were once easy to find capable workers: IT, cybersecurity, finance and environmental science among others. But there is hope, say TA and HR leaders. The good news is that there are solutions to this crisis if companies address this challenge head on by evaluating how and where they find talented people. In short, they must invest in their future with the skills they need to be producers and leaders inside their companies. 

This is where reskilling, upskilling and new skills can become the differentiator between failure and success. 

According to HR technology analyst Josh Bersin, one answer to the ever-expanding skills crisis is to lean in “fast and hard” to reskilling the existing workforce. But this is easier said than done, he adds.

“Reskilling is an intentional shift in how your company thinks about employee learning and development as well as retention, and it requires coordination at all levels of your organization,” says the founder of HR technology market research firm The Josh Bersin Company. “But if you get it right, you will reap the benefits from increased productivity—aka profitability—as well as developing higher rates of employee retention and a deeper commitment towards your brand.”

TA leaders have heard this message loud and clear and are responding to the changing nature of employee and candidate skills. Not long ago, a candidate’s resume lead with their job experience and education on top of the paper or electronic resume with a small list of skills at the bottom of the document.

“Now, skills have switched places in importance and priority with education and experience thanks to the increased demands of modern work,” says Lisa Forrest, Managing Director of Client Services for AMS. 

“The skills that I had at the bottom of my CV were relevant when I started my job and were probably relevant 10 years into my job, but those skills might no longer be relevant two years from now,” she says. 

The increased and insatiable demand for new skills has spurred employers to hire candidates for the skills that they currently possess, but HR and TA leaders must also be aware of the skills they will need for the same role in the years to come. If that were not challenging enough, employers must screen for candidate’s willingness to learn new skills as well.

“It’s not just the skills that the candidate has today. It’s their ability that I see in them to acquire additional skills as they work,” says Forrest. “I may not care if they worked on a legal, sales or an operations team I want to know if they can learn new ones along the way.”

Unfortunately, Forrest says this is where leaders get “stuck.” Hiring managers may know the hard skills that a role requires—knowledge and experience with risk and compliance in financial services, for example—but they may not know the soft skills that are also necessary for filling a new role.

“When you ask a company to work out what skills they need, they typically are asking for soft skills. They might be negotiation skills, a level of moral conduct and code of behavior. It could be the need for people to pay a high attention to detail or adherence to a framework of rules,” says Forrest. “Hiring managers and recruiters often find it difficult to pinpoint what they’re asking for.”

Fortunately, there is no shortage of TA solution providers—many of which are AMS partners— whose tools can assess and infer current and emerging skills. According to Bersin, vendors like Eightfold, Gloat, Phenom, Beamery, and others use advanced AI to identify candidate skills from their job experiences and other relationships. 

“The big challenges companies have is deciding what skills to associate with a given job, and then building a taxonomy. Most companies have over-engineered themselves to death and unfortunately, some tools are not really that useful yet,” says Bersin. “SAP is actually there but in general most companies are relying upon a new generation of talent intelligence tools to do this.”

When asked to name the hot skills for the future, Forrest calls this “the golden question.” Ironically, the quest for many of these hot skills in the coming two to four years are not entirely brand new. Just ask Bernard Marr. The futurist, strategic advisor and business author believes that the hot skills for 2024 will be found in Generative AI and machine learning, sustainability, project management and communications, healthcare, data, interpersonal networking, cloud computing, and cybersecurity. Although these topics have been around for years—the concepts of cloud computing have been around since the 1960s—the skills required to master these constantly developing fields continue to grow at a rapid pace.

This is why employers must focus on skills and reskilling candidates and current employees like never before.

Enter “The Academy” at Bank of America

One employer that did just that is Bank of America. One of the world’s largest financial institutions, it offers skilling and reskilling to its 213,000 global employees via The Academy of Bank of America.

According to Tim Gillespie, interim head of The Academy, the bank’s in-house education initiative began in 2016 with a focus on its consumer business and financial centers and expanded to wealth management in 2019. In 2021, Bank of America merged its global learning organizations and officially launched The Academy at Bank of America to support the career development of all employees.

Gillespie says that The Academy is a “shining example of true partnership” across Bank of America’s different functions including lines of business, global human resources and other divisions. “We knew that there was variability in the employee experience happening across the board, both in onboarding and upskilling, and making sure that people understood what’s expected of them in that role,” he says.

Once it started its skilling initiative, Bank of America soon realized that it had to gather disparate groups inside the bank to deliver consistency for new employees. “We know that if new recruits can be onboarded and feel like they’re cared for, set up for success, understand the values and expectations of our company, that we are far more likely to improve retention, and therefore reduce attrition,” Gillespie says. He adds that the bank wanted to increase the speed to proficiency and productivity, which ultimately helps to serve the client better.

The Academy also supports industry licenses and designations such as the Series 7 – aka the General Securities Representative Exam—and Certified Financial Planner degree. “We provide them with a calendar, the resources, and in many cases, instructor-led training to allow them to do that while they continue in their role at Bank of America,” he says.

The Academy also leverages immersive technology for learning – including deploying virtual reality (VR) headsets at 4,000 financial centers to better equip employees for challenging conversations, train for banking and advising procedures, and even how to respond to dangerous situations like a bank robbery. Last year, The Academy conducted more than 940,000 practice sessions in its immersive technology modalities, and teammates shared that the exercises helped them deliver better service to bank clients and customers.

Along with building up The Academy with cutting-edge technology, the bank is in its third year of creating a job architecture, which includes a robust skills library to help the bank create a job framework that groups similar jobs inside the organization. 

“This ensures that people have a clear understanding of what we call ‘job families’ to help anyone who wants to move across the company,” says April Hicks, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, People Strategy & Enablement at Bank of America. Prior to the creation of this job architecture, Hicks says the bank didn’t have a consistent language or framework to entice people to pursue new skills. “It became challenging for people to assess a skill when we’re not talking about that skill in the same way,” she recalls. 

In response, Bank of America created a skills library that boasts more than 200 skills and is in the process of embedding those skills into its HR processes with plans to link them to its employee learning solutions. 

“We’ve used it to create job descriptions that are standardized and make it easy for employees to look at it and say, ‘now I get it,’ ” she says. 

While The Academy and the skills taxonomy are powered by a variety of HR and TA technology solutions, they all operate with Bank of America’s core HR solution, Workday. The bank also built a custom jobs portal that houses every job description, related information, and how it connects with the Bank of America workforce. “All of that information flows between Workday and the other solutions to ensure that that information can be fed into our hiring processes,” says Hicks.

The good news, the reskilling program inside Bank of America has had a positive impact on employee retention even as other global companies struggle to address the skills crisis. Bank of America’s internal talent communities have helped drive employee retention as employees have the ability to learn about new roles and opportunities inside the bank and obtain the skills needed for those positions. In 2022, Hicks says that 30,000 Bank of America employees moved to new roles within the organization. 

“We want individuals to work for us for a career, not a job. We absolutely believe in making it easy for our employees to move throughout the company,” says Hicks. 

“We’re a big company and frankly, there’s no reason to go down the street,” she says. “Why not stay with us and let us help you find that opportunity inside Bank of America?”

 written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Enter “The Academy” at Bank of America

One employer that did just that is Bank of America. One of the world’s largest financial institutions, it offers skilling and reskilling to its 213,000 global employees via The Academy of Bank of America.

According to Tim Gillespie, interim head of The Academy, the bank’s in-house education initiative began in 2016 with a focus on its consumer business and financial centers and expanded to wealth management in 2019. In 2021, Bank of America merged its global learning organizations and officially launched The Academy at Bank of America to support the career development of all employees.

Gillespie says that The Academy is a “shining example of true partnership” across Bank of America’s different functions including lines of business, global human resources and other divisions. “We knew that there was variability in the employee experience happening across the board, both in onboarding and upskilling, and making sure that people understood what’s expected of them in that role,” he says.

Once it started its skilling initiative, Bank of America soon realized that it had to gather disparate groups inside the bank to deliver consistency for new employees. “We know that if new recruits can be onboarded and feel like they’re cared for, set up for success, understand the values and expectations of our company, that we are far more likely to improve retention, and therefore reduce attrition,” Gillespie says. He adds that the bank wanted to increase the speed to proficiency and productivity, which ultimately helps to serve the client better.

The Academy also supports industry licenses and designations such as the Series 7 – aka the General Securities Representative Exam—and Certified Financial Planner degree. “We provide them with a calendar, the resources, and in many cases, instructor-led training to allow them to do that while they continue in their role at Bank of America,” he says.

The Academy also leverages immersive technology for learning – including deploying virtual reality (VR) headsets at 4,000 financial centers to better equip employees for challenging conversations, train for banking and advising procedures, and even how to respond to dangerous situations like a bank robbery. Last year, The Academy conducted more than 940,000 practice sessions in its immersive technology modalities, and teammates shared that the exercises helped them deliver better service to bank clients and customers.

Along with building up The Academy with cutting-edge technology, the bank is in its third year of creating a job architecture, which includes a robust skills library to help the bank create a job framework that groups similar jobs inside the organization. 

“This ensures that people have a clear understanding of what we call ‘job families’ to help anyone who wants to move across the company,” says April Hicks, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, People Strategy & Enablement at Bank of America. Prior to the creation of this job architecture, Hicks says the bank didn’t have a consistent language or framework to entice people to pursue new skills. “It became challenging for people to assess a skill when we’re not talking about that skill in the same way,” she recalls. 

In response, Bank of America created a skills library that boasts more than 200 skills and is in the process of embedding those skills into its HR processes with plans to link them to its employee learning solutions. 

“We’ve used it to create job descriptions that are standardized and make it easy for employees to look at it and say, ‘now I get it,’ ” she says. 

While The Academy and the skills taxonomy are powered by a variety of HR and TA technology solutions, they all operate with Bank of America’s core HR solution, Workday. The bank also built a custom jobs portal that houses every job description, related information, and how it connects with the Bank of America workforce. “All of that information flows between Workday and the other solutions to ensure that that information can be fed into our hiring processes,” says Hicks.

The good news, the reskilling program inside Bank of America has had a positive impact on employee retention even as other global companies struggle to address the skills crisis. Bank of America’s internal talent communities have helped drive employee retention as employees have the ability to learn about new roles and opportunities inside the bank and obtain the skills needed for those positions. In 2022, Hicks says that 30,000 Bank of America employees moved to new roles within the organization. 

“We want individuals to work for us for a career, not a job. We absolutely believe in making it easy for our employees to move throughout the company,” says Hicks. 

“We’re a big company and frankly, there’s no reason to go down the street,” she says. “Why not stay with us and let us help you find that opportunity inside Bank of America?”

 written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

April Hicks

Head of Global Talent Acquisition, People Strategy & Enablement, Bank of America

Tim Gillespie

Interim Head of The Academy, Bank of America

Josh Bersin

Founder, Josh Bersin Company

Lisa Forrest

Managing Director, Client Services, Americas, AMS

Bernard Marr

Futurist, strategic advisor and business author

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It’s a wakeup call for the planet — and recruiters and TA leaders are searching for candidates with the right skills to help bring the Earth from the brink of destruction for the sake of future generations.

View the story

Are we ready for the Green Skills Revolution?

Contributors:

Veronika Bougioukli

IO Psychologist, Bryq

David Ingleson

Sector Managing Director, AMS

Caitlin McGregor

CEO, Plum

It’s a wakeup call for the planet — and recruiters and TA leaders are searching for candidates with the right skills to help bring the Earth from the brink of destruction for the sake of future generations. Here’s how your team can play a crucial role in a global existential crisis.

The alarm clock is ringing.

At the United Nations COP28 World Climate Action Summit that took place in Dubai in December, politicians, business leaders and scientists heard a stark warning from the UN Secretary General.

“Excellencies,” UN General Secretary Antonio Gutteres told the gathered guests, “the climate challenge is not just another issue in your inbox. Protecting our climate is the world’s greatest test of leadership.”

It’s a great test for HR leaders, recruiters and the technology firms that provide them with solutions as well. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions caused by fossil fuels by 2030, forward-thinking talent acquisition leaders are actively seeking to hire a new breed of employee: People with green skills — in both white, gray and blue-collar fields — who can help companies fight emissions, create clean technologies and reduce carbon footprints inside and outside the workplace. But in order to reach these goals, TA teams and the vendors that supply them with their technology are adapting to the new hiring demands to attract these valuable workers.

Adapting to modern realities of the job market is part of the job for TA leaders, whether it’s hiring essential workers during a global pandemic, shifting employees from the office to remote work, meeting the needs of DEI mandates and mastering disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence. The recent focus on green skills is an off-shoot of the recent emphasis on employee skills, both hard and soft ones. Not long ago, recruiters looked at a candidate’s resume for their educational background and work experience and their skills almost always sat in the bottom of their CV. Not only have skills risen to the top of nearly everyone’s resumes, they are now front of mind for recruiters and hiring managers.

And the greener the skills, the better.

What are green skills? According to the UN Industrial Development Organization, this set of expertise and strengths encompass “the knowledge, abilities, values, and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society.”

While this definition is a good start, David Ingleson, Sector Managing Director at AMS, believes that the modern definition of green skills should be broader as many roles in the current green economy are based on established skillsets but are still not seen as uniquely green skills.

“We need to demystify the whole idea of ‘green skills’ as being some kind of technical skillset that can only be achieved with a specialist Masters’ Degree in a scientific field,” says Ingleson.

The demand for green skills will only grow as more organizations, businesses, universities and other entities look for candidates with what Liam Neeson would call “a very particular set of skills.” Ingleson points out that “countless” organizations and nations have now signed commitments such as the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals among others.

“Every large organization in the global economy that wants to be perceived as an attractive employer with a sustainable long-term future has committed to their own individually imposed targets of net-zero or net-neutral by a certain date in the future,” says Ingleson.

Green skills are not just for energy producers.

As little as a decade ago, it would have been safe to assume that primary businesses in need of green skills were limited to energy companies, but this notion has been shattered. Modern green skills are in demand in every sector of business, argues Ingleson. An exemplar in the consumer goods sector is Unilever (an AMS client) who are leading the way in decarbonizing their supply chains and focusing on sustainable product design in their business operations. Unilever’s aspiration to be a ‘net positive’ company is clear to see. Government and education sectors need more policy advisors, researchers, scientists, and environmental experts, and the financial services sector is also scrambling to keep track of sustainability-related reporting as they create and grow their portfolios. They also need to address the increased energy needs for recalculating investment positions for super-fast, sub-second trading manoeuvres and satisfying their power-hungry data server farms for their blockchain operations for cryptocurrency and other asset classes. 

“In the digital and technology sector, we see the need to develop clean technology that is energy efficient, such as using data scientists to analyze complex data sets to see ways to reduce emissions,” adds Ingleson.

According to Veronika Bougioukli, IO Psychologist for TA solution provider and AMS Verified partner Bryq, marquis-name companies are pursuing green skills with enthusiasm and a sense of purpose.

“Consultancies like Deloitte have invested in upskilling their consultants in green skills, Ikea has trained over 20,000 food workers in technology which resulted in 50% cut in food waste, and Walmart has integrated green skills into its operations by hiring professionals with expertise in sustainable supply chain management, energy efficiency, and waste reduction,” she says.

As expected, leading technology firms are all aboard the green skills train, including Siemens Energy, Microsoft, Tesla, Baker Hughes, IBM, AXA among others. “Google has a workforce that includes professionals with green skills in data center efficiency, renewable energy procurement, and sustainable business practices,” adds Bougioukli.

Specific technical expertise varies across sectors. In the renewable energy sector, for example, specific technical expertise may include knowledge of solar panel installation and grid integration. Similarly, in eco-friendly construction, skills related to green building design, and sustainable materials are highly sought after.

“However, there is a universal pattern when it comes to sought-after soft skills,” says Bougioukli. “Recruiters and employers highly value critical thinking, problem-solving, design thinking, creativity, adaptability, empathy, and self-management skills like resilience.”

“Excellencies, the climate challenge is not just another issue in your inbox. Protecting our climate is the world’s greatest test of leadership.”

Antonio Gutteres, UN General Secretary

Where are the workers with green skills?

If employers are eager to hire workers with green skills, why are they facing hurdles in filling these urgent roles? LinkedIn has an idea. In its Global Green Skills Report 2023, the online job and professional networking site scoured its 930 million subscribers for data about the status of hiring for jobs that require green skills and the companies that are hiring for them. The verdict? Green skills may be in high demand but there aren’t nearly enough candidates with these skills looking for work.

The rise of green skills: Between 2022 and 2023 the % of green talent rose by 12.3%; Job postings requiring at least one green skill rose by 22.4%; Hiring rate for workers with at least one green skill is 29%, higher than the workforce average.

Source:  Global Green Skilling Report 2023, LinkedIn

The numbers are eye-opening. LinkedIn found that only one in eight workers have what recruiters would consider to be a green skill. Between 2022 and 2023, the percentage of green talent in the 48 countries that the online career site examined rose by 12.3% while the share of job postings requiring at least one green skill rose by 22.4%.  

While overall hiring slowed globally between 2022 and 2023, job postings requiring at least one green skill increased 15.2% over the same timeframe. The hiring rate for workers with at least one green skill is 29% higher than the workforce average, and since March 2020, workers with green skills have been hired for new jobs at a higher rate than those without these same attributes in every single country examined for the report, LinkedIn says.

Speaking of different nations, from 2015 to 2023, the renewable energy industry hired new employees in every country studied by LinkedIn. As of last March, Sweden boasted the largest slice of auto workers with electric vehicle (EV) skills with 8.1% of workers, while the UK and Germany had the second and third largest percentage of workers with EV skills at 7.3% and 6.1% respectively. The U.S. trailed behind its European counterparts with only 3.7% of auto workers possessing EV skills.

And the green energy space is reasonably secure for employees that possess this expertise. LinkedIn found that for every 100 workers who left the global renewable energy sector, 120 joined to take their place.

Global renewable energy hires of auto workers with EV skills - Sweden:8.1%; UK:7.3%; Germany: 6.1%; US: 3.7%.

Source:  Global Green Skilling Report 2023, LinkedIn

Why is hiring candidates with green skills such a challenge? Typically, green jobs have a high bar for entry because they typically “require combinations of multiple green skills,” Efrem Bycer, Sr., Lead Manager, Public Policy & Economic Graph at LinkedIn said in an interview with Forbes. “Typically, 81% of workers who transition into green jobs have at least some green skills or prior green experience,” he added.

Given the emergence of many new green roles and the scarcity of candidates with direct experience in these positions, it’s crucial for recruiters to identify transferable skills to help them deepen their talent pool, advises Caitlin MacGregor, CEO of TA technology provider and AMS Verified partner Plum.

“You’re not going to find many applicants with 10, 15, 20 years of experience to fill every single role, but you’d be missing out on great people if you limited yourself in that regard,” she says. “By emphasizing soft skills such as innovation, communication, and execution, recruiters can screen-in a wider and more diverse pool of candidates who possess the aligned behaviors necessary to excel in these jobs.”

This is where an assessment platform, like the one Plum provided to clients such as Scotiabank, Whirlpool and others, can play a role. “Given that these competencies are challenging to identify in a consistent, non-biased way, assessment platforms like Plum enable you to gain insights beyond what is evident from a candidate’s resume,” she says. “This enables a more holistic understanding of a candidate’s potential to thrive in a green role while simultaneously ensuring a broad range of perspectives in these roles as well.”

Recruiters can effectively identify candidates with robust green skills during the hiring process by prioritizing objectivity, credibility, and fairness, recommends Bryq’s Bougioukli. “Structured interviews further enhance the identification of candidates with robust green skills during the hiring process,” she says. “This approach ensures a systematic evaluation of both technical proficiency in industry-specific green practices and essential soft skills like problem-solving and critical thinking.”

While up-to-date talent technology is needed in the pursuit of workers with green skills, recruiters need a different mindset when searching and assessing for these new skillsets. AMS’ Ingleson says recruiters ignore the transferability and adjacency of skills at their own risk. For example, he says that engineering problems are similar across many industries, and engineers are equipped with solving complicated engineering problems in whatever industry they might be.

“Analysis of data and critical thinking are skills that can be transferred across many different data-sets and it may just be that it is green data that needs to be analyzed,” he says. Machinery and infrastructure will need to be operated and maintained in the coming years, but it may simply be part of what Ingleson calls a “green infrastructure.” Likewise, leadership skills are “highly transferable” across any industry and can be applied to the green economy.

“It is therefore crucially important that recruiters and hiring managers keep an open mind as to what skills are genuinely needed to operate in a given environment,” says Ingleson.

TA and HR leaders also need to embrace candidate and employee training if they are desperate to fill new ranks of green jobs. TA models like “recruit, train, deploy” could be a highly effective route for green skills hiring, offering a comprehensive approach to address the increasing demand for workers with expertise in sustainable practices and environmental conservation, according to Anna Crowe, Client Operations Director for AMS.

“Such a model can Identify individuals from diverse backgrounds who have the potential and interest in acquiring green skills and design training programs that are tailored to the specific needs of the green economy,” she says.

DEI on the road to being green

The experts we interviewed agree that one of the most exciting aspects of the green skills revolution is the building up of the green collar workforce.

“We have the chance to start from a near blank piece of paper and build a diverse workforce in the green economy, rather than recycling the same non-diverse group of people,” says Ingleson.

“This is where the change of mindset is really important. If we embrace a diversity-led approach to attracting talent into the green economy, we can bring whole new diverse categories of talent into the sector to help accelerate the energy transition,” he says.

The green economy is proving to be an attractive destination for more diverse talent. Renewables-focused university courses attract nearly twice as many more women than pure engineering courses, with around half (48.5%) of students in the renewables-focused courses being women, compared to just 24.9% of students in the pure engineering courses. 

“There needs to be a concerted effort to promote the purpose-led careers available in the green economy. Working practices, remuneration and reward also need to be positioned to ensure all talent consider a career in the sector,” says Ingleson. “Recruiters will play an important role in bringing these aspects to life.”

Ingleson isn’t done with DEI’s role in green skills just yet. “Ongoing investments in green skills development contribute to social fairness and inclusivity,” he says. “By actively promoting training and educational opportunities for underrepresented groups, recruiters can play a proactive role in creating a workforce that reflects diverse perspectives in environmental sustainability roles.”

Despite these dire warnings and signs that governments and industry have put off action against climate change for too long, the UN Secretary General rang a note of hope for the future at the COP28 World Climate Action Summit and the key role that technologists can play in this cause.

“We have the technologies to avoid the worst of climate chaos,” he told the assembled dignitaries, “if we act now.”

written by Phil Albinus and reviewed by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Veronika Bougioukli

IO Psychologist, Bryq

David Ingleson

Sector Managing Director, AMS

Caitlin McGregor

CEO, Plum

TopBuilt with Shorthand




Contributors:

View the story

Think your business is too small for RPO?
Think again.

Contributors:

Josh Bersin

Founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company and HR and TA technology analyst

Kimberly Kelly

EVP, Managing Director Client Services Americas, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

Founder and CEO of market analysis firm, Valoir

Understanding when to delegate tasks and let go is a challenge for all business leaders, but it is especially difficult for those running startups and small to medium size enterprises.

When is the right time to hand over the reins to an expert and focus on something different? How do you know when you need help? Most importantly, when will the benefits of outsourcing outweigh the costs?

The US is home to more than 33 million small businesses employing approximately half of its entire workforce. Millions of new small firms are created each year, boosting the economy and building new jobs. Yet finding, attracting and onboarding quality talent can be a problem for small businesses.

There is a misconception in talent acquisition that recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is only for big businesses with big turnovers. However, RPO can be hugely effective for SMEs and mid-size companies who are growing rapidly in scale and geographic reach.

Expertise and access

This is because RPO isn’t just about delivering quality recruits at a reduced cost. It’s also about tapping into expertise, talent pools and capacity that you might not otherwise have access to.

“In SMEs there is a feeling that what makes you great is that you do everything. They are concerned that when they leverage a company like AMS they will lose control of what makes their business theirs,” says Kimberly Kelly, EVP, managing director client services Americas at AMS.

“In reality, when we partner with SMEs we are an extension of their organization. We aren’t AMS, we are them,” she adds.

Kelly gives three ways that a RPO provider can help small and midsize companies develop talent acquisition.

“Right now, hiring is on the side of corporations, not talent. There is a deluge of people coming in, but they aren’t always the right people with the right skills.

“Hiring managers are misusing their time as they can’t get through all the candidates applying for roles. The knock-on effect of this is that the candidate experience is really bad as hiring managers are spread too thin. Candidates don’t get responses and this erodes the company’s brand,” says Kelly.

As the talent market fluctuates and becomes a candidate market again, these brands become less desirable as candidates recall previous poor experiences and share them with other potential recruits. Working with a RPO provider allows SMEs to consistently offer candidates a good experience while also identifying the right talent to pursue.

Your voice and brand

Secondly, outsourcing recruitment to an RPO provider gives SMEs better agility and creativity in the talent market.

“We’re often able to help clients by taking on a portion of their business so that they can focus on other areas,” says Kelly.

“They can choose to invest in training their people to get better in certain areas, whether sourcing, skills development or identifying more diverse candidates, or simply focus on what they are best at from a talent acquisition perspective,” she adds.

Finally, recruitment process outsourcing allows businesses to access expertise, knowledge and experience in a way they wouldn’t be able to do so in-house – while retaining control of their business.

“Dependent on size, some small to mid-sized businesses might not even have a ‘true’ recruitment function. Their talent teams might do benefits, employee relations and recruitment all as part of the same job, pulling people in different directions and taking them away from what they are good at,” says Kelly.

“When SMEs work with us, they control the process. They can choose to purchase the piece where they need expertise, whether that’s people who understand how to use recruitment technology, know where to find people or develop procedures – and they do it efficiently in the client’s mechanisms.”

According to HR and TA technology analyst Josh Bersin, recruiting has grown more challenging thanks to a labor shortage and the high demand for skilled candidates.  Not only are highly-skilled roles in great demand, but recruiting technologies, tools, and systems are radically changing, according to the founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company.

“By working with a deeply experienced RPO firm, regardless of size, companies can quickly upgrade their process and technology, and take advantage of deep expertise in this complex area”, he tells AMS Catalyst.  “I see RPO as a steady and increasingly important part of the HR marketplace, growing in importance over time.”

Your voice and brand

Secondly, outsourcing recruitment to an RPO provider gives SMEs better agility and creativity in the talent market.

“We’re often able to help clients by taking on a portion of their business so that they can focus on other areas,” says Kelly.

“They can choose to invest in training their people to get better in certain areas, whether sourcing, skills development or identifying more diverse candidates, or simply focus on what they are best at from a talent acquisition perspective,” she adds.

Finally, recruitment process outsourcing allows businesses to access expertise, knowledge and experience in a way they wouldn’t be able to do so in-house – while retaining control of their business.

“Dependent on size, some small to mid-sized businesses might not even have a ‘true’ recruitment function. Their talent teams might do benefits, employee relations and recruitment all as part of the same job, pulling people in different directions and taking them away from what they are good at,” says Kelly.

“When SMEs work with us, they control the process. They can choose to purchase the piece where they need expertise, whether that’s people who understand how to use recruitment technology, know where to find people or develop procedures – and they do it efficiently in the client’s mechanisms.”

According to HR and TA technology analyst Josh Bersin, recruiting has grown more challenging thanks to a labor shortage and the high demand for skilled candidates.  Not only are highly-skilled roles in great demand, but recruiting technologies, tools, and systems are radically changing, according to the founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company.

“By working with a deeply experienced RPO firm, regardless of size, companies can quickly upgrade their process and technology, and take advantage of deep expertise in this complex area”, he tells AMS Catalyst.  “I see RPO as a steady and increasingly important part of the HR marketplace, growing in importance over time.”

Project RPO

Recruitment is a labor intensive process that takes time and effort, often with specialist knowledge. Very few mid-sized businesses have the finances and desire to employ a single recruitment specialist, let alone an entire team. Partnering with a RPO provider gives expanding organizations access to expertise at a fraction of the cost. Effectively, SMEs can get recruitment expertise on a pay-per-use model.

This can be particularly useful to businesses that are expanding rapidly into new geographies and sectors. Buying region-specific recruitment knowledge around hiring laws and talent expectations can be invaluable in moving quickly and effectively.

This leads to another misconception around RPO. Many talent professionals believe that RPO is only effective for long-term, complex recruitment challenges. In reality, RPO can be hugely helpful in managing capacity gaps and talent acquisition capability on a project by project basis and Rebecca Wettemann, founder and CEO of market analysis firm Valoir, supports this view. 

“For HR and talent acquisition teams with limited bandwidth, which is almost everyone, RPO is more than just an augmentation of existing resources. RPO can enable HR and talent leaders to scale up and down their recruitment efforts as needed while maintaining access to a broader and diverse field of talent.”

Wettemann went on to explain that “because RPO’s are focused specifically on the talent acquisition process, they can bring up to date knowledge to talent pools and the most effective means to reach them. This is particularly important in areas of new demand or high specialization, or hard-to-find candidates. And of course, RPO’s provide strategic advice and develop recruiting strategies based on in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of evolving regulations and different compliance requirements for different locations, industries, and job roles. Critically, RPO’s are able to leverage their investments and knowledge in people analytics and other cutting-edge technologies to deliver their benefits to their clients without clients having to tackle investments.”

So why should smaller companies consider partnering with a recruitment process outsourcing company to deal with their talent acquisition needs?

By providing access to expert, experienced recruiters, RPO providers can improve your recruitment processes and outcomes, allowing you to focus more on the day-to-day requirements of your business. It can save you money in the long-term on recruitment, while also bringing you better and more diverse candidates. It can also help you develop better internal processes and procedures, all while maintaining your voice and branding.

“If you embrace walking shoulder to shoulder with an RPO provider on the journey of talent attraction, it can only make your talent acquisition team stronger,” smiles Kelly.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Josh Bersin

Founder and CEO, The Josh Bersin Company and HR and TA technology analyst

Kimberly Kelly

EVP, Managing Director Client Services Americas, AMS

Rebecca Wettemann

Founder and CEO of market analysis firm, Valoir

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The emergence of AI has the potential to radically transform talent acquisition and retention. From enhanced efficiency and improved candidate matching to smoother application journeys and predictive culture fits, up to 80% of American workplaces are already using AI.

View the story

Artificial intelligence, ethics and the world of talent

Contributors:

Kira Makagon

Chief Innovation Officer, RingCentral

Annie Hammer

Head of technology and analytics advisory Americas, AMS

The emergence of AI has the potential to radically transform talent acquisition and retention. From enhanced efficiency and improved candidate matching to smoother application journeys and predictive culture fits, up to 80% of American workplaces are already using AI in some form for employment decision making, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

However, the implementation of any new technology comes with potential downsides. The use of AI in talent acquisition poses several ethical challenges, particularly around issues of bias and discrimination. While AI aims to minimize biases, it can actually amplify existing ones if not calibrated and monitored correctly.

For example, AI systems that evaluate candidates’ facial expressions have been shown to prioritize male, white and able-bodied individuals, according to research by MIT and Stanford University. Startlingly, the study found that the facial recognition systems tested incorrectly assigned gender in more than a third (34.7%) of images of dark-skinned women.

Regulation is coming

Perhaps with such issues in mind, New York City became the first state to implement an AI hiring law, with its Automated Employment Decision Tool law coming into force in July 2023. The legislation forces employers to tell candidates when they are using AI in the hiring process as well as submit to annual audits examining the technology to ensure their systems are not discriminatory. Companies violating the rules face fines.

With further AI regulation in the pipeline, how can organizations create ethical, responsible AI systems that both future proof their workforces and stay on the right side of regulation?

“A lot of organizations that have been excited by AI are now having to grapple with regulation and understand how it affects their systems,” says Annie Hammer, head of technology and analytics advisory Americas at AMS.

“The big thing to understand is whether the technology you are using is actually AI in the first place. If it is, you need to consider the use case. Is it being used for automated decision-making or not? That’s the key issue,” she adds.

New York City’s law has been met with criticism from all sides. Some argue that it is hard to enforce and potentially excludes many uses of automated systems in hiring, while businesses argue that it is an unnecessary burden on the recruitment process.

Such is the uncertainty of its impact that many businesses are ‘waiting and watching’ on its impact before committing to further AI tools, says Hammer.

Meeting ethical challenges

At the heart of this is the need for businesses to stay up to date with technological advances and the impact artificial intelligence is having on their processes. Without adequate training, monitoring and process validation, companies open themselves up to both regulatory issues and to poor adoption of technology.

“We often see organizations that have implemented technology with AI capabilities over a year ago, but haven’t done any refresher training or updates. Not only do they have risk associated with this lack of training, but they also see falling adoption of the technology as they don’t adapt and develop their capabilities. There simply isn’t a maturity around training and governance with AI technology,” says Hammer.

Combating potential challenges around bias and discrimination requires a robust strategy examining the outcomes of technology usage. This might mean running parallel processes, with one group using AI technology and another not, to evaluate outcomes and how the tool is impacting decision-making.

It could also mean creating specific teams responsible for ethical regulation of AI usage in talent tools.

“We’re increasingly seeing new teams being set up to be responsible for hiring technology and their ethical use in business – groups like talent acquisition enablement, talent acquisition operations, talent acquisition innovation and solutions. Essentially, they are teams of business partners working across talent acquisition, legal and compliance, HR and IT to enable new ways of working in the recruitment function,” says Hammer.

The crux of the matter is that decision-making in talent acquisition must ultimately be made by a human. AI can aid the process and make the candidate journey easier, but it cannot be allowed to make the final decision. Organizations need to check that the recommendations technology is making are being challenged by their people, not just waved through.

People-first approach

This applies to other AI use cases at work. Kira Makagon is chief innovation officer at cloud communications platform RingCentral. She believes that businesses need to take a ‘people-first’ approach to the transformative potential of AI.

“In this digital age of communications and enhanced collaboration, artificial intelligence (AI) promises to be the driving force for most, if not all, of the transformation when it comes to ways of working. That promise, however, still depends on the millions of workers who will have an everyday experience with this new technology and therefore, workers must have a say in how it’s implemented and used,” says Makagon.

“Business leaders need to strike the right balance in a people-first approach to AI, as this is crucial to ensuring that the most efficient and functional foundations are laid for the smoothest adoption of AI. Humans make AI better and without their input, businesses will miss out on valuable insight that could determine how successful they are in the future,” she adds.

Hammer agrees that businesses need to look at the impact technology has on their people in a more concerted way. One way of doing this is to utilize AI to engage and develop existing employees.

“We focus a lot of content on external attraction, but AI can be better used to help existing employees find mobility opportunities and new roles. Another growing area is using AI to help guide employees on what skills they need to develop and what jobs they should take.

“A recent study on employee coaching found that some people actually trust AI more than their line managers when it comes to planning their next move,” adds Hammer.

AI regulation is set to grow globally and businesses need to constantly be aware of how changes affect their organization. Effective planning, people-led decision making and skills development are key to meeting this challenge.

Navigating Talent Technology at AMS

If you wish to stay ahead of the curve and be AI-ready be sure to keep regularly informed by visiting the new AMS Navigating Talent Technology resource where you will find up to date and relevant thought leadership focusing on the central role that AI and technology plays within the world of talent.  Explore whitepapers and thought leadership articles and our recently launched Talent Technology Translator helping  you to talk tech fluently and make informed talent decisions, faster. 

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Kira Makagon

Chief Innovation Officer, RingCentral

Annie Hammer

Head of technology and analytics advisory Americas, AMS

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Freelancers and contingent workers form an increasingly important part of an organization’s workforce. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, there were 51.5 million contingent workers in the US in 2021, representing more than a third of the region’s workforce and generating $1.3tn in revenue.

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Integrating contingent labor into strategic talent planning

Contributors:

Dustin Talley
Founder & CEO, Talent Simplified

Mark Jones
Executive Vice President, AMS

Laurie Padua
Managing Director, Talent Advisory Services, AMS

Freelancers and contingent workers form an increasingly important part of an organization’s workforce. According to Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), there were 51.5 million contingent workers in the US in 2021, representing more than a third (35%) of the region’s workforce and generating $1.3tn in revenue.

This number is almost certain to grow. Companies have weathered an unprecedented level of chaos over recent years, from the impact of the Great Resignation and skills gaps to rising interest rates and heightened production and supply chain costs. At the same time, demand for talent remains high, with 1.9 jobs available for every unemployed person in the US in January, according to data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

The consequence of this state of flux is that companies are increasingly attracted to the flexibility provided by contingent workers. The ability to access experienced, readily available talent at the right variable cost offers employers the agility to meet current talent requirements without the cost of full-time employees. It is also the perfect marriage with more and more workers wanting flexibility in the post pandemic age.

“After the 2008 financial crisis, we saw heavy utilization of contract workers. At that time, it was driven by necessity, but not strategic in most cases. This time around is proving to be different. The organizations that get it right will find ways to use budget wisely in place of headcount. Instead of just filling roles reactively, companies are taking proactive measures like building talent pools and equipping their teams with access to on-demand resources,” says Dustin Talley, CEO and founder of Talent Simplified.

However, if done without proper thought, the growth in contingent hiring also brings challenges for organizations – not least in terms of reputational risk and potential damage to existing employees’ engagement.

Skills not silos

One of the main challenges with contingent hiring is that it is often run in a silo, separate from other talent functions. In the US, contingent hiring is often the remit of the procurement department with permanent recruitment run by human resources. The reality is that these two functions often operate individually and with little interaction, making the integration of contingent hiring into strategic workforce planning difficult.

“The operational reality shows that the idea of total talent management is still theoretical,” says Mark Jones, Executive Vice President at AMS.

“One of the challenges of contingent labor is that it is by default a tactical solution to find people quickly. When you do that, you use a staffing agency. It is ingrained in how supply chains including internally and externally run MSP’s operate. So, this whole concept of brand and loyalty is nice in theory but will only work if talent acquisition leaders genuinely change how resources are procured.” He goes on to add: “It requires an extra layer of thought, joined up planning and thinking which until recently, often is simply put into the nice to have, but not now category.”

Progress may be slow, but the move towards a more innovative approach to contingent hiring is undeniable. The growth in skills-based approaches to hiring – which puts an individual’s skills profile above employment method, experience and location – is furthering this trend.

“A lot of this is about undoing an existing mindset of needing to hire someone versus needing to get something done. As we enter the skills-based economy, work is about getting a project done rather than completing a 40-hour working week,” says Talley.

According to a SIA report released in May, while only 28% of organizations currently have a strategy for contingent workforce planning as part of their corporate strategy, more than half (55%) are exploring it. The same study indicated that 27% of organizations have a talent pool of some description in place to source contingent workers but 46% were considering it.

“Skills-based companies will win in the future. It will be slow, but it will play out. I see mid-sized companies gaining market share as they’re being smarter around talent and tagging the skills so they know what they have. They are the ones competing and winning, as they’re quick to respond to both clients’ needs and their own internal talent requirements,” adds Talley.

“We’re in the first innings of a nine innings game and skills-based hiring is a part of that,” agrees Jones.

“However, the best time to outsource is in an environment like today, where organizations are coming off all-time highs in hiring. There is a reduction in open roles and all our clients are hiring less, which means there is more capacity in the contingent market,” he adds.

Part of the challenge in integrating contingent hiring into a more holistic approach to talent management is the need for change management. Moving away from a historic way of working with staffing agencies to a direct sourcing strategy requires a different approach across the talent acquisition supply chain. This is where strong leadership and a fully thought out workforce planning strategy is needed.

Data-led decision making

Laurie Padua is managing director of Talent Advisory Services at AMS. She believes that companies need to be more strategic about the talent they attract and employ.

“What we do at advisory is think about the skills and capabilities that an organization needs to drive the end goal it’s trying to achieve, rather than just filling job roles. The worker type is almost irrelevant – it’s about focusing on what your organization needs from a talent perspective, then using data to learn more about the skills and capabilities you are trying to attract,” she says.

“For example, can you get the people you need permanently? Where do they need to be located? Do you need to bring in cohorts of individuals with the skills you need and upskill other employees? We take a holistic, thoughtful approach to talent solutions and contingent hiring is certainly part of that conversation, particularly with the agility and scalability it gives businesses when it comes to costs,” adds Padua.

It’s fine for operational processes and technology to vary between contingent and permanent hiring, says Padua, but your overall strategy must align. Communication is key, otherwise companies can end up in a situation where the contingent hiring team is trying to recruit for the same role as the permanent team.

“The reason some organizations are resistant to change is that they don’t know where to start. Our advisory service can provide expertise on the transformational change journey and get them to the starting point,” says Padua.

Ultimately, change management is a difficult process to go through, but corporations should focus on the benefits of direct sourcing within contingent labor.

“Building contingent recruitment into your holistic talent strategy creates cost savings, allows you to access talent faster and without intermediaries and puts control of talent back into your own hands,” says Padua.

AMS’s own figures back up data around direct sourcing of contingent labor. In the US, AMS clients are achieving in excess of 10% cost savings, with improved candidate quality and quicker submission. Some clients are seeing talent pools in excess of 20,000 contractors after 12-24 months adoption, with other areas of the business using these candidates as part of their emerging skills-based hiring strategy.

“Right now, the traditional routes to market are working. However, our thesis is that things are going to continue to change, the labor market will tighten and that these types of strategies will allow companies to leverage their brand loyalty to make cost savings and generate more hiring options than they currently have,” says Jones.

written by the Catalyst Editorial Board

with contribution from:

Dustin Talley

Founder & CEO, Talent Simplified

Mark Jones

Executive Vice President, AMS

Laurie Padua

Managing Director, Talent Advisory Services, AMS

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Leverage Contingent Process Outsourcing to attract top-tier contingent workers, streamline hiring, and adapt to an evolving workforce.

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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

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 (EVP).

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

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