Last week I celebrated my 9 year work anniversary with AMS and having recently read this Gartner article it made me think how much has changed across TA and DEI in that time. So, the following are my 9 observations of the key changes in Hiring and DEI in that time.
There is much less focus on the business case for DEI and it is now seen as key lever in an organisation’s core business strategy
Technology has fundamentally changed the way that organisations are hiring – the TA technology eco-system is vast and continually changing!
The world of work has changed and we are all still grasping what this means (post COVID) in relation to flexibility and hybrid working – organisations need to get this right to continue to attract under-represented talent
As a working class man from Wales, the emergence of social mobility has been a welcome and much needed change
Hiring of skilled talent continues to be challenging, organisations who do this well are implementing multi pronged hiring and re-skilling programmes to meet their business demands
The current mix of multi-generational workers is fascinating and employer brands need to flex to appeal to the needs of the different generations
Internal mobility has become akey enabler to retain talent – from a personal perspective, I have had seven different jobs in my time with AMS and this is a key reason for the longevity of tenure with AMS
I’ve loved the emergence of Belonging as a way of companies attracting diverse talent and ensuring that their inclusive cultures ensure they retain that talent
AI – I’ve already referenced technology, but AI is a different level and with the recent emergence of ChatGPT, who knows what the future holds for how this will change hiring functions!
This is an exciting time to be in the TA industry – who knows what changes and developments will emerge in the next 9 years. As ever, I would love to hear your thoughts on what changes you have observed.
Storytelling remains a powerful means of communication for employer branding, yet it’s something many organisations struggle to get to grips with. Through storytelling, we’ve helped clients identify and express their work’s meaning and purpose, bringing to life the true values of an organisation and its people.
Here, we share our approach to uncovering good stories, so they stand out from the crowd.
Striving for authenticity
Remember: authenticity is key, so while some employers might want to wax lyrical about how great their benefits package is, if it’s not what’s motivating the employee, it’ll only come across as contrived.
Instead, we focus on what their employees are talking about and hone in on it. What’s important to current employees will likely resonate with potential employees, so we’ll get an accurate insight into what matters to the people and work it back from there.
Staying relevant
Clients need to stay relevant, so we apply our experience and knowledge to the latest trends in employer branding and see what everyone else is doing, including competitors. For example, in 2022 just some of the trends were:
Workplace flexibility
DE&I-focused strategies
Employee wellbeing
Work-life integration
Leadership buy-in
It’s one thing for the employer to have an opinion on how well they’re handling these topics, but the authentic voice on this will always be the employee – and the one that will pique more interest.
Finding and keeping the storytellers
We’ve chosen what topics to focus on, so what’s next? Well, this is the tricky part; we need to find employees willing to open themselves up and be one hundred per cent authentic. Not only that, but they must be able to confidently articulate their story on whatever platform we’re using, be that video, podcast or any social platform.
So first, the buy-in. What’s in it for the employee? Is this an opportunity for them to speak on something they’re passionate about? Can sharing their story help others? Will they become brand ambassadors? Can they expect recognition for their involvement?
It may be one or all these things, but whatever is decided, we map out how to reach people with this message. Depending on the audience and budget, this will vary from client to client. For example, internal comms and social campaigns are some of the most effective tools we use to attract storytellers.
Providing freedom and transparency
Transparency around the process and expectations from the outset is vital. We involve the participant across all stages and share the full transcript with them before it gets published. This helps them to better tell their story, gives them control, and ensures nothing goes out without their consent. It also gives them a sense of freedom should they want to change anything before it goes live.
Empowering the storyteller
The whole storytelling experience must be a positive one. While this might sound obvious, don’t underestimate the importance of employees feeling empowered through sharing their stories. It’s more than just dispensing a sound bite; it’s about delivering personal insight into an experience they choose to share.
So how do we empower someone in the context of storytelling?
We make sure the person telling the story feels comfortable and supported to be themselves – it will make the story believable and engaging. Not only this, but we ensure the organisation and individual are aligned in seeing the importance of the story they want to share. It’s a big part of the authenticity process.
Also, we’re always mindful of how information is collected, edited and used, allowing the storyteller to be part of the process, and any changes, along the way. It’s about creating a story together, helping the organisation and the employee unite in seeing its value.
The last word
Storytelling in employer branding is about finding a truthful representation of people and their organisations. It’s a powerful tool that provides a brilliant platform to express a company’s values and demonstrate its commitment to important topics affecting us in the work-sphere, from the micro to the macro.
By keeping it real, using real people, experiences, and authentic voices, we can help create stories that are as unique and honest as powerful and thought-provoking.
If you need help telling your story or want further information, please get in touch with our Employer Brand Advisory team.
It is a fairly recent thing for ADHD to be diagnosed in adults. In children, more males than females tend to be getting diagnosed. The gender imbalance in diagnosis is thought to be due to how ADHD presents in females – as an inattentive rather than a hyperactive type (you can have one or other, or combined type).
The research into adult ADHD presentation, effects and therapies is still emerging. In recent years, a range of personal bloggers, coaches and YouTubers have helped significantly increase awareness and understanding too, through sharing experiences of their own personal journeys or experiences of the condition. I enjoyed this article from Leanne Maskell (ADHD Coach and author of ADHD: an A to Z), writing for the of association of MBAs, where she explains how ADHD may show up at work.
By understanding and supporting ADHD at work, the benefits can be harnessed, resulting in an inclusive, diverse workplace, where people feel empowered to show up as themselves.
I would like to start 2023 with a recommendation. ‘Net Positive: How courageous companies thrive by giving more than they take’ by Paul Polman (the former inspirational CEO of Unilever) and Andrew Winston (published by Harvard Business Review Press), is a book that asks the question ‘Is the world better off because your company is in it?’.
As more and more employees seek purpose in their lives, more and more jobseekers around the world will be asking themselves a similar question when considering their next move……. ‘Which companies make the world a better place?’.
I’m very keen as I set my goals for 2023 to ensure AMS and our clients are on this list. Those companies that think very carefully as to how they address this question and put in place a vision to act on it will attract the talent they need, and those that don’t, will not.
The authors of this book see 5 critical traits that help a ‘net positive’ leader and I will embrace these throughout 2023 and beyond;
– A sense of purpose, duty and service
– Empathy: a high level of compassion, humility, and humanity
– More courage
– The ability to inspire and show moral leadership
– Seeking transformative partnerships
I look forward to 2023 and helping AMS and our clients make the world a better place (this is an example of me showing more courage already!).
Is the world better off because your company is in it?
One in seven of us is neurodiverse. That is roughly 14% of us who have a different way of thinking compared to the ‘typical’ brain. That’s a sizeable number. Individuals with neurodiverse conditions include those who are Autistic, or who have ADHD, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyspraxia, Tourette’s Syndrome or Dyscalculia. These conditions might be formally diagnosed, or they might not.
Some in the neurodiverse community consider that they are disabled, whilst, for a number of reasons, many do not recognise their different way of experiencing the world as a disability. It is often personal choice and more so can depend on the difficulties the neurodiverse person faces whilst living their everyday life.
The benefits in business of cognitive diversity and neurodiversity feature across many articles and pieces of research, and include improved profitability through enhanced business performance, as well as unlocking better creativity and innovation. In this article we consider some problems that exist when attracting and retaining neurodiverse talent.
The most common barrier to understanding your neurodiverse talent (and other diverse talent) can be the lifelong expertise they have developed for ‘masking’ who they are. Masking really helps with fitting in to environments that are set up for typical brains to flourish. Masking when you’re neurodiverse can take a number of forms, including:
Having to rehearse conversations to make social interactions at work easier, including small talk
Stopping yourself from stimming – may be a movement or noise you make that has a calming effect on you but can be judged as strange to neurotypicals
Making eye contact when it makes you uncomfortable to do so
Pretending not to be bothered by things that are causing you physically painful sensory overload – sounds, smells, touch
Holding back from pointing out when someone says one thing but does another
Mirroring someone’s tone of voice and mannerisms when unsure how to behave in a certain situation
Avoiding some tasks that are more difficult to do
Hiding weaknesses to avoid stigma or judgement from those around you
To some extent or other, we all have cause to mask how we feel or what we are thinking at work from time to time. We will act professionally for the most part and according to the guidelines and policies in place. Now magnify this and consider that almost every conversation or interaction you have – will require you to consider how your mask is, because it is necessary in order to fit in at work all the time. It is stressful and can be impossible to be in an environment where you must fit in at a personal level and be someone who you are not.
In today’s modern working world, there is a growing field of choice for talent, and the opportunities to build a career that suits you are also on the rise. So how can business provide the right environment to retain neurodiverse talent in this competitive world? Here are seven ideas to consider.
Where it is possible, provide the option to work from home for at least some of the time, to release some of the ongoing pressure and stress of masking
Give people leadership responsibilities to those who are assessed as being good at working with people
Eliminate as much subjectivity as possible from individual performance reviews, and allow for measurable and clear goals and targets
Freely allow any basic accommodations at work that people may need e.g. the wearing of headphones, and the ability to work in a quiet zone for focus or sensory needs, flexible working hours and autonomy on how a job gets done
Provide leadership and management training and reinforce a focus on listening, building empathy and understanding of how to get the best out of individual team members
Actively encourage and support employee resource groups (ERGs) and their activities
Encourage sharing of the lived experiences of diverse talent inside and outside of your business, so that everyone in your business can keep hearing, listening and learning.
Your thoughts
I welcome your thoughts on this article and the topics raised, and please do comment and add to the conversation, about the problems faced and how business can provide what the neurodiverse community would value most at work. Of course, if you want to know how we can help and support with these challenge please contact us here.
About me
I work at AMS, the global workforce solutions organisation who specialize in talent acquisition and talent advisory organisation. I’ve worked in the talent arena for over 20 years, and as a people leader for more than 15 years. I also co-lead one of our internal neurodiversity ERG groups at AMS. I am coming near to the end of two years of study for a Masters in Autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.
Despite the pace of hiring slowing down, in-demand skills are still in short supply. Continued planning when it comes to acquiring talent, will ensure that your organisations are equipped to deal with the ongoing requirements to deliver on tech transfomations and digitisation.
Tech Skilling takes individuals with adjacent skills and retrains them into new tech roles, before placing them with clients. Again, the aim is to diversify the sector and solve skill shortages, which has seen demand sky rocket.
“Recently I’ve heard a lot about candidates ghosting. They have so much choice that they don’t even bother to tell you they’re not turning up on day one after they’ve accepted the job. They’re getting multiple offers and buy-back from existing employers,” says Hainsworth.
The solution isn’t simply offering higher salaries, although they are yet to slow down. Rather, says Hainsworth, it’s also about organisations offering purpose at work, development opportunities and work/life balance - and recruiters knowing how to sell this. Candidate engagement and experience has never been more important.
Performance reviews are essential to employee development, and when executed well, they positively impact individual performance and overall talent goals. However, research shows that bias disproportionately affects the performance evaluations of women, Black, and Latino talent. In an article I wrote for Talent Development magazine, I discuss common biases that impact performance evaluations and ways to mitigate them.
Textio, a linguistics software company, found significant demographic bias in their research of over 25,000 performance reviews written for employees. Fortune magazine refers to the analysis: “…some stark facts emerge: different groups of people do get different kinds of feedback at work—with women, Black people, Latinx people, and older workers receiving the lowest-quality feedback. These findings cut across organizations, meaning that the patterns are not specific to just one entity or its feedback culture.”
A few of the specific findings:
Women receive 22% more feedback than men about their personality vs. their performance
Black men get 1/3 less feedback than White women on average, as measured by word count — the least input of all groups
Black women receive nearly 9x as much non-actionable feedback as white men under 40
Other marginalized groups face workplace bias, as well. A series of recent studies from Yale showed that when hiring managers listened to recorded introductions of candidates of different social classes, they judged people from a higher social class as more competent and a better fit for the role. This type of bias can impact performance evaluation and hinder social mobility.
You might ask why this all matters. It matters because people with access to constructive feedback progress faster in their careers, earn more, and have more leadership opportunities.
There is no one-off solution as reasons behind bias at the workplace lie in a complex interplay of interpersonal, individual, organizational and societal attitudes. However, more equitable actions start with accepting that we all have inherent biases. On a personal level, we each must determine which biases we hold and then intentionally set them aside when writing performance reviews. I include organizational strategies to mitigate bias in the article. While it’s available at no cost to ATD members, you can find a free checklist to combat performance review bias here from the Center for WorkLife Law.
Teach managers to recognize their biases and provide guidance on setting objective criteria to evaluate performance.
Are you capitalizing on the wealth of talent that exists within your organization? Overlooking the skills of current employees in favor of external hires is a common bias that can have a detrimental impact on employees’ morale and work against diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Focusing on building a healthy internal mobility program, however, can foster a culture of inclusion and promote the development and progression of underrepresented talent.
In this ERE/TLNT article, I describe 5 key areas important for advancing DEI goals via internal mobility:
Using data to accurately understand each employee group’s mobility challenges
Creating a trusted, transparent internal mobility process
Opening networks by developing programs to support underrepresented talent
Celebrating internal moves as a means of talent development
Above all, for internal mobility to drive DEI, your business must have a culture that celebrates mobility. This is created with visible leadership commitment.
Recently we held our annual DEI & Citizenship week, an opportunity for our colleagues to come together to learn, share and celebrate all things DEI & Citizenship. This year we chose the theme of “Belonging” to link all of the planned activities.
We held a number of compelling time to talk sessions where our employee resource groups delivered inspiring and compelling sessions. Some of the notable ones included: a session delivered by Luke Manton on his experience of living with Tourette’s. We also held a session around living in conflict and we had colleagues talking about living through the war un Ukraine as well as the Balkans conflict in the 1990s. These topics highlighted the importance of belonging from very different and challenging perspectives.
When we asked colleagues to share what belonging meant to them, we heard many things, but core themes included:
“feeling heard and seen” “sense of community” “being accepted” “connection to shared values”
It is clear that having an integrated approach to DEI, helps to build a strong sense of belonging. This is something that we will continue to focus on going in to 2023, we know that it makes a difference to our colleagues and to our business, as highlighted in the attached article.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on what belonging means to you and how you are incorporating it in to your plans.
Belonging is good for business
If workers feel like they belong, companies reap substantial bottom-line benefits. High belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days.
I recently wrote a piece for Diversity Q on my thoughts on what HR professionals and Business Leaders need to do, to move the dial on gender equity in the UK.
Whilst we have seen significant progress in women’s representation in the UK, there is still more to be done. Some of the key initiatives organisations should be considering include:
Surveying female employees – engaging directly with women in the business offers an outlet for their thoughts and opinions and allows them to contribute to shaping the workplace culture.
Return to work programmes – women can be daunted by the return to work and I have seen how these programmes can support women by offering skilling and reskilling as well a connecting them back to peers and connecting them with new team members.
Reverse mentoring – this is a programme that works well for our leaders in AMS. The programme equips leaders with inclusive leadership skills and cultural awareness by having junior employees from under-represented groups guide leaders.
Sponsorship – this is a more active approach to mentoring female talent and is starting to take traction across many organsiations. Essentially a sponsor is a leader who is going to advocate for an individual in that organisation.
Organisations who actively consider and implement these initiatives will continue to make progress on their gender equity representation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on what more you would like to see businesses incorporating in their plans.
While the UK has certainly made significant progress in women’s representation in the workplace, with nearly 40% of UK FTSE 100 board positions now held by women, there is certainly room for improvement.
