The market for Shared Service Centres (SSCs) in India is dynamic. Finding the right people is increasingly challenging due to the rapidly evolving trends that are impacting the supply and demand of talent.
A recent survey by Ernst & Young India highlighted that the expansion of SSCs in India could reach $110 billion (USD) by 2030. That’s a $65 billion (USD) increase from today’s market. As India continues to be a global hotspot for SSCs, addressing the escalating demand for talent becomes a pivotal question.
Navigating talent shortages
In a constantly evolving market, SSCs’ success hinges on being able to react quickly. Whether it is launching a new SSC or expanding the current workforce for a particular project, it is vital to be able to scale talent functions up and down at speed to avoid unnecessary hold ups.
There is a considerable need for talent in the market, as evidenced by the fact that 57% of SSCs in India want to increase their workforce, maybe even doubling it over the course of the next year. In fact, according to a recent NLB Services report, SSCs will add 3.64 lac new jobs over the next year – an approximate 38% growth from the previous year.
An RPO partner can provide the agility a business needs in view of market demands. Hiring managers can source, engage, and acquire the right talent more quickly and effectively, leveraging on the scalability the RPO partner offers during peaks and troughs.
Accessing expertise when you need it
Businesses are shifting away from general positions toward hiring for specific niches. There is currently a great need for employees to retrain and upskill in hard-to-find technology skills. The need for talent with expertise in technical skills such as AI/ML, ERP, advance engineering and cyber security has increased dramatically over the past 12 to 18 months.
When working closely with an RPO partner, businesses can harness decades of market experience across a range of global industries and recruitment campaigns. This includes working with specialist sourcing teams with access to wide talent pools, from entry-level roles to specialist and niche skills.
Leveraging this depth and breadth of expertise and insight, SSCs will be well-supported at every step of the recruitment journey. From sourcing to onboarding, an RPO partner can help design, build, and run a fully optimized talent acquisition function that is tailored to the needs of the business.
However, crafting such a strategy can be challenging. Businesses can partner with RPO providers equipped with expert advisory teams embedded in every aspect of TA – from Employee Value Proposition (EVP), technology, to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and employer branding. With access to their data and market insights, and the ability to tap into a wide client base covering many sectors, this advantage can help businesses create a successful candidate attraction strategy and position themselves as an employer of choice.
Investing in the right technology
Technology is changing the way we work. As SSCs move towards a more technical and data-driven approach to recruitment, many agree that having the right technology in place will deliver better candidate outcomes.
However, it can be overwhelming to choose the best talent technology tools for your business when there are plenty of options available.
An experienced RPO partner will determine the best technology stack for your business goals – evaluating, implementing, deploying, and optimizing the right technology for your specific challenges. They can even train TA teams on using the new technology if businesses opt for in-house integration.
In conclusion, as SSCs navigate the multifaceted challenges of talent acquisition, strategic partnerships with RPO providers can emerge as a linchpin for success, ensuring that SSCs are well-equipped to thrive in the evolving landscape and secure the right talent every time.
Look out for the next article in this series, where we will do a deep dive into each of the above on how AMS can sharpen your hiring strategy.
As the father of a Gen Alpha (2010 onwards) girl, I have a vested interest in giving Gen Z what they want, so Gen Alpha don’t have to fight quite so hard! I came across the ‘Energy Transition Skills Project’ report recently that has been written by ‘Student Energy (studentenergy.org)’ in partnership with Ørsted (the renewable energy leader). I found it incredibly insightful.
Those of you who know me, know that I love data, and some of the insights I have gleaned from the report I find fascinating. Here are just three insights from this very interesting read;
Youth respondents globally rank ‘Purpose of Work’ (19.9%) as most important when looking for a job, comprehensively beating ‘Opportunities for Growth’ (14.8%) and ‘Salary and Compensation’ (13.8%)
This is great news for the Energy Sector companies who are on the right path for transition! However…..
The most common barriers facing those who want to enter the Energy Sector are ‘lack of awareness of opportunities’, ‘lack of available entry-level positions’ and ‘lack of access to skills training’
So this means if Energy Sector companies can improve their employer branding and market outreach (no greenwash please!) they can access talent that desperately wants to work for them, but only as long as they have the development programs and entry level roles available. This will of course depend on the right approach to talent acquisition, workforce planning and development.
41.5% of all respondents chose ‘working at a renewable energy company’ as their ideal energy transition job
So let’s hope that through collaboration between education, industry and government we can establish the right frameworks for skills development, because it seems like the renewable energy companies are in pole position to attract motivated and engaged talent.
If you are interested in talking to AMS about how to tackle the ‘green skills’ challenge and attract the best talent in your organisation, please reach out to me – at AMS we want to be part of the solution, and make a brighter future for all the ‘Gen Alphers’ out there (and everyone else!)
ENERGY TRANSITION SKILLS PROJECT
The Energy Transition Skills Project led by Student Energy, explores what is most important to young people when looking for employment and what barriers they face to entering the energy transition jobs labour market.
The shift from role-based to skills-based recruitment
The competition for talent in the APAC region is at a melting point. More than ever, finding the right candidates is a major challenge. This skills crisis is transforming talent acquisition (TA) strategies, requiring new technology and fresh approaches to meet workforce demands.
Recently, AMS spoke with TA leaders across the region from some of the world’s leading corporations about how recruitment is evolving to secure and retain tomorrow’s talent. Our conversations revolved around the challenges of skills-based recruitment, and how tech tools are becoming more important in enhancing candidate engagement and loyalty.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the session.
The future is uncertain – is demand planning still relevant?
Most of the panel experts agreed they are struggling to deliver a long-term talent plan. So, how are TA leaders putting together their strategy to hire effectively for tomorrow?
One of the panelists spoke candidly about the challenges of navigating this difficult market. Their approach is to have regular conversations with management around future talent pipelining. By challenging management teams early on what’s needed, and how roles are changing, it allows them to be proactive and create a forecast for the next 6 to 12 months. This means TA can start looking for tomorrow’s people, today.
Another talent leader said they were using new technology to stay ahead. AI talent pooling tools are allowing them to be proactive in finding new roles and skillsets that will meet their business needs – even before they come up. In this way, they are focused on looking ahead, so they can quickly adapt as the skills required to drive their organisation forward begin to change.
Other businesses, however, are simply taking a pause. With so much turbulence in the market, they’ve taken time out to understand what skills will be needed in the future before introducing new technologies to support the process. They’re working closely with their wider business to create talent mapping as they realise that skills requirements are changing. This way, they are allowing for more focused and informed decisions about the kinds of talent technology they would eventually like to bring in.
With so much emphasis on skills, many of the businesses on the panel said they are now shifting their recruitment focus to look at skills, rather than jobs, to ensure they are ready for tomorrow’s talent demands.
Shifting the mindset
To enable a business to start looking at hiring processes differently, a change in mindset is crucial. Not just with one department, but across the entire business. Shifting to skills-based recruitment is no easy task. Everyone has different ideas on what essential skills are. If you ask three hiring managers to define critical roles, for example, you may get three very different answers.
To enable a true shift to a skills-based mindset, recruiters and hiring managers must be educated on looking at roles from a different perspective. As one panel expert put it, “hiring managers can get stuck in this role-based view and don’t really understand what is meant by skills. They tend to focus on roles and responsibilities, and not on the core skills that are needed for the role.”
But it’s not just the recruiters that need to adapt, so does the wider business outside of TA. To deliver a change of this magnitude requires buy-in from the top down. Management needs to agree the importance of focusing on skills and understand that day-to-day hiring processes must undergo some change. As one expert put it, “for skills-based to be successful it’s not just the TA team that needs to change, it’s the whole HR eco-system.”
Making skills-based hiring a success
Overall, the panelists agreed that moving towards a skills-based hiring approach was the way forward. The general belief was that “getting stuck in role-based hiring will not bring the right talent for the future”.
But as most businesses have realised, implementing skills-based is a journey, not a switch. And that journey requires small steps rather than big leaps.
For example, many of the panelists in the session had started to slowly introduce skills-based hiring by using a combination of role-based and skills-based approaches, which is working well. Some are shifting to skills-based hiring for some areas of the business where it is clear how those transferable skills are relevant – such as tech. But as skills-based hiring is not a one-size-fits-all approach, other business areas (where the case for change isn’t as obvious) have not yet had the same treatment.
As an alternative view point, one talent expert said they had been using skills-based hiring for only internal mobility. They found this was particularly beneficial, as it gave them the ability to get feedback on the process directly from the employees being moved around the business, and how their skills were being put to use elsewhere.
Driving skills externally
Since making skills-based hiring a success internally is so challenging, some businesses are getting proactive, and taking it beyond their own workplace.
One of the panel experts discussed their focus on talking to colleges and universities about skills-based hiring. They spoke to training institutes about the need for this additional area of education, some of which then implemented new courses to address glaring skills gaps. This was a truly innovative solution to get more future-fit skills taught in the region’s colleges and schools. In this way, the business helped to ensure the right skilled talent would be there when they needed it.
Another panelist highlighted a new way of promoting skills through recruiters themselves. They suggested that recruiters could actively encourage candidates to highlight their skills, and then put them into the assessment notes. This way, when the candidate is applying for roles, the skills they could offer would be available ‘at a glance’.
Better diversity
Another benefit many talent leaders were seeing is that, by making the shift to a skills-based approach, they are able to deliver better against their diversity and inclusion (DEI) ambitions.
Skills-based hiring opens a whole new world of possibilities for talent pools who may have otherwise been overlooked in a focus on role-based hiring. By evaluating candidates (both internal and external) by skillset, rather than by university degrees or specific job experience, this serves to create more opportunities for underrepresented groups in the workforce.
As one expert put it, “just because the person before had 10 years’ experience doesn’t mean the next person requires the same level of experience. When you only focus on the role-based approach you are doing people a disservice.”
It’s time for change
The major takeaway from the webinar session is that everyone is moving towards a skills-based hiring strategy. Some are already far down the road, while others are still on the starting line.
There are many obstacles to overcome – from changing perceptions, to choosing the right initiatives to implement. But one thing was clear, focusing on skills is about mutual ownership and accountability. As one expert said, “It’s not just a TA problem, it’s a joint challenge everyone needs to be involved in.”
Need help in getting the right people for your business? AMS has the expertise to deliver the right long-term talent strategy for your business. Get in touch today.
Insights from top early career talent leaders
Recruiting early career talent in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) is a real challenge for businesses. Not only must they navigate the changing attitudes and behaviours of young talent, they also need to create attractive and effective early career programmes in a world where talent is moving quickly.
As well as the behaviour shifts, in most major locations the number of young people is declining. For example, 10 years ago there were over 1 million 20-year-olds in Germany. Now there are just 800,000.
At a time in which skills shortages are rising, businesses are looking at early career talent with great hope. There’s an urgency to get them in, get them trained up, develop their skills and retain them. And here’s the challenge – how do you do this in a shifting market? How do you make sure you keep young people working for you once you’ve invested time and money to train them?
AMS and Talint Partners held a roundtable with some of the DACH region’s leading talent acquisition professionals. They discussed the changes in the early career talent market and the impact these were having on their early career programmes.
Adding value through diversity
More and more companies are competing for candidates. The talent pool is getting smaller and there aren’t enough candidates to go around. Widening the net for talent in the DACH region has become critical if organisations want to fill their early career roles. One of the reasons the German talent market is so competitive is the requirement for German-speaking candidates. Many of the roundtable experts agreed this is a problem,as finding these candidates is challenging. What’s more, German speakers with the right skills know they’re in demand, so they are increasingly more expensive.
Many companies in the region have decided to make English their working language, so they can attract more people and fight the talent crisis. As one expert said, “German is nice to have, but English is a deal-breaker.”
Organisations must also look at removing barriers and lowering the bar to entry. It’s important to broaden the scope of the candidate pool; to consider those who don’t usually fall within the business ‘norms’. People with different backgrounds and skillsets, for example. It’s about not expecting everything on the shortlist when looking for skills and training hiring managers to avoid unconscious bias.
As one of the experts said during the discussion, “it’s not about meeting all the criteria. If they are 80% there and we can develop them for the further 20% then that’s fine. Because if we don’t take them, one of our competitors will. And we’ll lose the opportunity to bring early career talent into the company.”
Businesses in Germany are starting to wake up to this new way to recruit.
One of the AMS experts at the roundtable noted that, five years ago, German hiring managers were reluctant to try something different. German businesses valued things other countries were moving away from in order to broaden the net of talent, like degree-grade or technical exercises. But, as things have got tougher, some organisations in the region have started getting creative and are now relaxing entry requirements.
This has only been made possible with hard facts, because German business is built on a bedrock of data. Data that shows how diverse candidates are retained and perform well is important. As one TA expert said, “it’s about being realistic about what you are looking for and having the evidence to back it up. After all, people can’t argue with data.”
So, in filling your early career roles, it’s critical to work with the hiring community and educate them on why your organisation is broadening the talent pool. It’s also important review your end-to-end assessment and selection process, to ensure its not having an adverse impact on potential candidates. Together, these changes will support hiring manages to recruit effectively.
Embrace a more remote approach
One of the biggest challenges the experts spoke about was the shift to remote working. Many early career candidates now demand this when joining a business. Working from home three to four days a week is a given.
And it’s not just the freedom to work anywhere; some candidates also want to work less. Early career talent is asking to reduce the 40-hour week. Some want to work 20 hours.
Flexible working is here to stay, so businesses need to be flexible too. For TA and early career leads, having these discussions with stakeholders can be difficult, especially if they work in a heavily face-to-face environment. Plus, it’s not the traditional way to bring early career talent into the business. As another of our roundtable experts said, “understanding how to manage interns and graduates when they’re remote working is a real challenge.”
One thing’s certain, though: remote working allows employers to recruit from a wider and more diverse talent pool, which can make it easier to find the right candidate. With current shortages, this could make a positive difference.
Purpose, value and culture
Many of the experts spoke about the importance of the way businesses brand themselves to attract candidates.
Early career talent want to work for a business with purpose. It’s why more and more young people are keen to join start-ups. They get better autonomy, learn a lot more and see the impact of their work – something larger businesses are sometimes not very good at.
Many businesses have now started approaching students before they reach university. They’re talking early and building relationships to get students excited about their business. They’re inviting them to the company, showing them around and telling them why it’s a great place to work.
This isn’t just getting them excited; it’s also presenting a career path. One expert noted that everyone who joins their business really values their career development plan. And it’s not just in the short term. They explained, “we aren’t just having to sell them an opportunity to join a career path at an initial stage, but long-term. I use the term lifetime career.”
Businesses need to up their game if they want to keep talent. Building long-term career paths and re-skilling opportunities creates an attractive proposition for early career talentand helps to maximise their role in the organisation once they’ve joined. Finding ways to articulate this to the early career market will help organisations attract more candidates.
It’s time to use technology
Another topic the experts discussed was the shift from human intervention to using technology to identify and assess new talent.
None of the expert panellists were truly embracing technology to funnel new talent into the business. They felt the German market is still very traditional, with a lot of face-to-face when it comes to recruiting early talent. But some businesses are beginning to move their early careers recruitment online.
One of the AMS experts said they’re now working with several German organisations who are using a digital process for attracting and recruiting graduates. As well as applying online, candidates now go through an online assessment and get digital feedback reports, so the whole process is automated. This helps bring in a much broader pool of talent and makes sure it’s a fair process for everyone.
Some businesses have gone even further. They’ve introduced the option of virtual final-stage assessments or interviews, giving candidates the option to engage online or face-to-face, offering more flexibility.
As for utilising technology for events, the AMS experts said there weren’t many businesses in the DACH region doing large virtual webinars. But they’re helping to run small webinars that have been successful in attracting candidates, as well as keeping them warm post-offer. Extremely cost-effective, they allow students to interact with businesses and hear what it’s like to work there.
Technology is certainly making a big difference in engagement between employer and staff.It’s helping to broaden the talent pool, allowing businesses to reach candidates that haven’t normally been found through the more traditional methods. Although this is a big change for many in the region, utilising a more digital approach to attraction and assessment is another way to create a strategy to overcome current challenges.
Need help in solving your talent shortages? Speak to one of our experts about how AMS can put together award-winning early careers programmes and strategies to help your business.
When Geoff walked into a Mercedes showroom to buy a new car, at that point every other manufacturer had failed. But what was it that led him to make that important decision? What was the catalyst?
It’s not easy to know for sure, but the truth is it probably started about a year beforehand, when his current car went in for a routine service that was going to cost him 5 times more than what he was expecting (lots of unbudgeted & expensive ‘work’). What did he do? Nothing. He begrudgingly paid the invoice and carried on as normal. But subliminally, at that point in time, an important seed had been sowed. He didn’t know it, but that seed was called ‘we really need to have a plan for replacing the car’.
Life carried on, and a conversation was had in the pub about cars. Someone says ‘Hey Geoff, I’ve just got a new Mercedes and its fantastic. Incredible mpg, affordable servicing… it’s great’.
Seed #2 has been sown. Again, what does he do with this new information? Not much, although this time he starts to make a few online searches into the prices of approved used Mercedes and the trade-in value of his current car – This direct action now gets the attention of the Mercedes programmatic ad team, and Geoff begins to be served ‘Mercedes’ run of site ads while browsing the web.
He continues to do nothing. He sees Lewis Hamilton on TV on the podium wearing a Mercedes cap. He does nothing. He gets invited to a Mercedes sales event through social media; He doesn’t go (Geoff thinks ‘what’s the point, we can’t afford to replace the car right now’). But then, completely out of the blue, he receives a financial windfall. The company he works for is being bought out and all long-standing employees with a share option in the business are set to receive a financial bonus.
Boom – At this point everything comes together; All of the ads he’s seen, the conversations he’s been privy to, the whole ‘experience’ delivers him into the Mercedes showroom, not to ask, ‘Should I buy one?’ but to have an informed discussion about which model to buy? Estate or saloon? Metallic or non-metallic paint? What’s the servicing package? In short, he’s buying one!
Now, let’s put all of this into a recruitment context. Our world of talent. Let’s think about the ‘Hard-to-fill roles’. ‘Skills shortages. ‘DE&I’. And, let’s think about all of the people that we want to get to come and work for us, but who are currently happily working somewhere else, with absolutely no thought of changing jobs. They are committed, they are hard-working and they are dedicated to their incumbent employer.
That is until they get overlooked for a promotion … and that is the point when they subliminally start to become ‘activated’ just like Geoff did when his car went in for a service.
Having a long-tailed, brand-led attraction plan for these scenarios is a consumer marketing concept that we should all be exploiting in the employer brand space. Passive audience targeting and buying audiences is a key shift in the way we are moving forward with our clients. It’s something that we will be discussing in detail at our ‘Employer branding webinar’ on 13 September, 2023 and we would very much like you to join us – So please click here to register and hear what our panel of experts have to say on ‘winning the war for talent’.
Authors Vangie Sison, Head of Employer Brand Advisory, Americas Richard Clough, Media Strategy Manager
When clients approach us to come up with something transformative, we know it’s going to be a challenge we can help solve. So, when US-based healthcare service providers, LHC Group, asked us to help redefine them as the “destination of choice” for healthcare workers, we jumped at the chance.
The task for our Employer Brand and Advisory team was to attract and retain quality healthcare workers in a saturated US-market, while preserving the community-owned business feel, and positioning the client in a relatable, authentic way. We knew that to elevate the employer brand and make it connect with the targeted candidates, a well-thought-out mobilization plan was needed – starting with an EVP.
The EVP would serve as the foundation for all the LHC Groups’ brand and attraction strategies and used across all candidate platforms. But first, using our diverse perspectives and expertise, our team needed to understand the challenges, successes and candidate profiles to inform personas and key messages. Once we’d gathered this information from the client, the EVP pillars were created and tailored to each audience, along with messaging pillars and an activation strategy.
As part of the solution, we delivered an employer brand story, a relatable and engaging narrative, a new career website, and an employer brand and recruiter toolkit. We also provided LHC Group local care providers with customizable branded attraction materials, brand messaging, and assets to elevate the candidate and employee experience.
And the result? Through delivering a robust EVP strategy, we’ve seen an increase in social metrics and Google Ad clicks, attracting and retaining the best healthcare professionals and helping establish LHC Group as the employer of choice in the healthcare industry. If you’d like to find out more, read the case study here.
Universal design refers to the concept of creating products, environments, and systems that are accessible and usable by as many people as possible, regardless of their age, abilities, or disabilities. The goal of universal design is to allow everyone to experience the workplace to the fullest extent possible without the need for adaptations. By incorporating universal design principles into your workplace, you can make it more inclusive and appealing to a diverse range of talent.
Here are a few reasons why universal design can help you attract more talent:
Inclusivity:
Universal design promotes an inclusive work environment that welcomes individuals with diverse backgrounds and abilities. By prioritizing accessibility, demonstrate that your company values diversity and is committed to providing equal opportunities for all employees.
Attracting diverse talent:
When your workplace embraces universal design, it becomes an attractive option for individuals with disabilities or special needs. These candidates will bring unique perspectives, skills, and problem-solving abilities to your team, contributing to innovation and creativity.
Employee satisfaction:
A universally designed workplace fosters a positive work experience for all employees. When employees feel supported and accommodated, they are more likely to be satisfied and engaged in their work. This, in turn, can lead to higher productivity, lower turnover rates, and a positive employer brand.
Customer appeal:
Universal design extends beyond the workplace to include products and services. By considering the diverse needs of your customers and incorporating universal design principles into your offerings, you can attract a wider customer base. This broader appeal can lead to increased market share and business growth.
Legal compliance:
In many countries, there are laws and regulations in place to promote accessibility and prohibit discrimination based on disabilities. By adopting universal design, you ensure compliance with these legal requirements, minimizing the risk of legal issues or negative publicity.
By embracing universal design, you not only create an inclusive work environment but also tap into a larger talent pool, enhance employee satisfaction, and potentially increase your customer base.
Employers can embrace universal design by taking the following steps:
Accessibility in the workplace:
Ensure that your physical workspace is accessible to employees with disabilities. This includes providing ramps, elevators, accessible restrooms, designated parking spaces, and adjustable workstations. Consider the needs of individuals with mobility challenges, visual impairments, hearing impairments, and other disabilities.
Inclusive policies and practices:
Review your company policies and practices to ensure they are inclusive. This includes policies related to recruitment, hiring, training, career development, and accommodation. Implement practices that promote equal opportunities, such as providing reasonable accommodations during the hiring process and creating mentorship programs for employees with disabilities.
Communication and information accessibility:
Make sure your communication channels and information are accessible to all employees. Provide alternative formats for documents (e.g., large print, Braille, accessible PDFs) and ensure that your website, intranet, and other digital platforms comply with accessibility standards. Consider how meetings and events are conducted and whether these are accessible and take account of all types of thinkers and all types of disabilities.
Training and awareness:
Offer training programs and awareness sessions to educate your employees about disability inclusion and the benefits of universal design. This can help foster a more inclusive and respectful workplace culture, promoting empathy, understanding, and collaboration.
Flexible work arrangements:
Implement flexible work arrangements that accommodate the diverse needs of your employees. This may include options such as telecommuting, flexible working hours, part-time schedules, or job sharing. Recognize that different individuals may have different needs and preferences and be open to discussing and accommodating them on a case-by-case basis.
Collaborate with disability organisations:
Engage with disability organisations or consultants who specialise in accessibility and universal design. They can provide guidance, resources, and insights to help you create a more inclusive workplace.
Remember that embracing universal design is an ongoing process. Regularly assess and evaluate your practices, solicit feedback from employees, and make adjustments as needed. By actively promoting inclusivity, you create a work environment that is attractive to new hires and where all employees can thrive and contribute their best.
If you would like to know more about how AMS can help you build a diverse workforce – then please reach out to me at [email protected]
By embracing universal design, you not only create an inclusive work environment, but also tap into a larger talent pool.
Skills-based hiring is a recruitment strategy that focuses on identifying and hiring candidates based on their skills and abilities, rather than their educational background or work experience. One of the main advantages of skills-based hiring is that it helps to reduce bias in the recruitment process. Traditional hiring methods often rely on factors such as educational background, work experience, and personal connections, which can lead to discrimination against certain groups of people. By focusing on skills, employers can ensure that they are hiring the most qualified candidates, regardless of their background.
Another benefit of skills-based hiring is that it allows employers to identify candidates who have transferable skills. Transferable skills are those that can be applied to different jobs and industries, such as communication, problem-solving, and teamwork. By hiring candidates with transferable skills, employers can build a more diverse and adaptable workforce that can easily transition between different roles and projects.
Skills-based hiring also benefits job seekers, particularly those who may not have a traditional educational background or work experience. By focusing on skills, employers can provide opportunities for individuals who may have been overlooked in the past due to their lack of formal qualifications. This can help to promote social mobility and create a more inclusive workforce.
To effectively implement this strategy, employers need to use a variety of tools and techniques to assess candidates’ skills and identify the most qualified candidates. Some of the most important tools for skills-based hiring are:
1. Skills assessments: These assessments can be used to evaluate candidates’ skills in a variety of areas, such as communication, problem-solving, and technical skills. Skills assessments can be conducted online or in-person, and can be customized to fit the specific needs of the employer.
2. Behavioral interviews: These interviews focus on asking candidates about their past experiences and how they have demonstrated specific skills in the past. Behavioral interviews can help employers to identify candidates who have the necessary skills and experience to perform the job successfully.
3. Reference checks: Employers can contact previous employers or colleagues to ask about the candidate’s skills and work performance. This can help to confirm that the candidate has the necessary skills and experience to perform the job successfully.
4. Online portfolios: Online portfolios are becoming increasingly popular as a tool for skills-based hiring. Candidates can create online portfolios that showcase their skills and work experience, including examples of their work and projects they have completed. Employers can review these portfolios to get a better sense of the candidate’s skills and experience.
5. Applicant tracking systems: Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are software tools that can help employers to manage the recruitment process more efficiently. ATS can be used to screen resumes, track candidate progress, and schedule interviews. This can help to streamline the recruitment process and identify the most qualified candidates more quickly.
The role of AI in skills-based hiring
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming the recruitment industry, and its role in skills-based hiring is becoming increasingly important. AI can help employers to identify and assess candidates’ skills more accurately and efficiently, making the recruitment process faster and more effective.
One of the main benefits of AI in skills-based hiring is that it can help to reduce bias in the recruitment process. AI algorithms can be programmed to focus solely on a candidate’s skills and abilities, without being influenced by factors such as gender, race, or age. This can help to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce, as candidates are evaluated solely on their skills and not on any other irrelevant factors.
AI can also help to identify candidates with transferable skills. By analyzing a candidate’s work history, education, and other relevant data, AI algorithms can identify skills that are transferable to different roles and industries. This can help employers to build a more adaptable and diverse workforce, as candidates with transferable skills can easily transition between different roles and projects.
Another benefit of AI in skills-based hiring is that it can help to automate the recruitment process. AI algorithms can be used to screen resumes, conduct initial interviews, and even evaluate candidates’ skills through online assessments. This can save employers time and resources, as they can quickly identify the most qualified candidates without having to manually review hundreds of resumes or conduct multiple interviews.
However, there are also some challenges associated with AI in skills-based hiring. One of the main challenges is that AI algorithms can be biased if they are not programmed correctly. For example, if the algorithm is trained on data that is biased towards a certain group of people, it may inadvertently discriminate against other groups. To avoid this, employers need to ensure that their AI algorithms are trained on unbiased data and are regularly audited to ensure that they are not discriminating against any particular group.
Overall, AI has the potential to revolutionize the recruitment industry and make skills-based hiring more efficient and effective.
To thrive, an organisation needs to have a sense of purpose that’s shared by everyone in it. But many don’t have this, leaving employees struggling to find a connection. Here, we explain how bringing purpose front and centre makes all the difference to an organisation.
No purpose, no point
Organisational purpose and employee engagement are intrinsically linked, playing a big part in a workforce’s productivity, passion, and drive. In many organisations, however, a distinct lack of meaning attributed to people’s roles can leave them questioning if what they do even matters.
A lack of connection to the organisational purpose means employees don’t fully understand the organisation’s mission, what it stands for, or what it hopes to achieve in the future. As a result, they don’t see what impact or positive changes their company is making.
So where’s the motivation?
Moving purpose centre stage
For a workforce to feel proud of their job, they need an organisation’s purpose to be clearly defined. Regardless of where an employee is in the organisational chart, whether they’re back office or customer-facing, there should be a focus on what they do and how it fits into the bigger picture. The meaning of their day-to-day job needs to be spotlit and they need to see value in what they do.
We’ve identified three main factors that help drive purpose among employees and across an organisation.
1. Communicate the mission
Employees need to identify with the cause of an organisation. Having common goals and a shared vision is about understanding a company’s culture and values; this is where the mission comes in.
A company’s mission shouldn’t be considered an HR exercise but an explicit part of its culture discussed at all levels between its people. It plays an essential part in uniting beliefs among employees, enabling them to identify with their company’s meaningful work.
How a mission is communicated will vary from company to company. While it will undoubtedly form part of an Employee Value Proposition, the core narrative must be present across all messaging. It can become part of why people want to work for an organisation, something relatable that drives their pride, productivity, and engagement.
As Facebook’s employee research found, “When people are committed to the mission, their relationship with the company changes. Work is more than a job or a career—it becomes a calling.”
2. Recognise the human factor
Establishing a more human-emotional connection with the purpose isn’t just about helping employees understand the impact of their day-to-day work. It’s also about an organisation understanding their employees, what inspires them, and giving them a platform to express this openly.
While employees want to know their voices are valid and acknowledged, they also want to be aware of the broader decision-making processes beyond their departments and the corporate strategy. So open communication and information sharing are critical and are far more effective than a siloed approach.
It’s also essential to take the time to understand employees’ expectations of the company and whether it’s met. Do they feel valued? If not, what can be done about it? How supportive is the organisation in acting on feedback from employees? Are they aware they’re making a positive difference to the organisation?
Building these emotional connections can be achieved by connecting the dots between individuals and management. When a shared purpose joins a team of individuals, they can move together towards the same goals, strengthening a sense of belonging to the company’s shared vision. And when individuals connect with their managers, more explicit goals can be set, with a more focused output.
3. Lead with purpose
While we know a clear sense of purpose among employees leads to higher engagement and commitment to the cause, the purpose risks just being words on a page without meaning. It’s only useful having a purpose if it’s articulated among employees and communicated clearly as part of a shared goal.
Leaders must help their people link what they do on an individual level and within a team, highlighting how it impacts the excellent work a company is doing. They should cultivate purpose, putting it at the centre of any employee engagement strategy, driving it into their organisation’s culture.
Happiness from within
While many companies have tapped into the importance of employee engagement and its link to heightened productivity and better performance – for its people and the organisation – it’s not just about creating a fleeting feeling of satisfaction for employees through financial perks, autonomy, or a supportive manager.
Instead, it’s about creating an organisation’s purpose laced into a vision of the future, shared by all, and at the core of every interaction. Employees can connect to this shared purpose and be proud of their organisation. Not only that, but they are far more likely to be happier at work. And happier employees equal better commercial performance and healthy workplace culture.
By Charlotte Brett, Copywriter, Employer Brand Advisory
