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March 11, 2020
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The future of talent acquisition

HR Grapevine pulled together talent acquisition leaders in London to discuss the future of this crucial business function.

Importance of talent acquisition

Talent is increasingly seen as the core foundation of success in the business sphere. In fact, organisations consider getting hold of the right talent to be so important that according to a recent PwC survey of CEOs, 80% are either extremely or somewhat concerned about getting access to the skills their business needs. This has rocketed up from just over 50% in 2012. But why the anxiety?

It could be that businesses know if they cannot get the right talent then they will not be able to innovate nor pursue market opportunities, resulting in delays to overall strategy. They also might be aware that the talent acquisition space is rapidly changing with, as Deloitte’s 2019 Human Capital report lays out, ‘recruiting becoming harder than ever’. Half of respondents to a separate HR survey noted that competition for the best applicants is fiercer than ever.

The above is compounded by changes that are happening within the talent acquisition function itself. New choices of technology, the rising prominence of data and analytics, the importance of communication, community and networks and better understanding of the impact of branding means that the function now finds itself at a critical moment of change whilst also being seen as critical to business.

This is why Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) and HR Grapevine recently hosted a roundtable of senior HR and talent acquisition leaders from a broad cross-section of different industries: to find out how they perceive their own talent acquisition function’s ability, where the pressure points lie, and how it could change for the better.

Chaired by Ewan Greig, Talent Solutions Analyst at AGS, the leaders discussed why and how they measure their talent acquisition process, how important managers are to the process, as well as the importance of branding, networking, data collection, vendor support and leadership.

Measuring talent acquisition

“In theory, running a project to capture hard metrics and experiential data across the hiring process before deciding on an improvement plan seems like common sense,” explains Greig. His words were corroborated by the roundtable attendees, many of whom agreed that a good place to begin assessment would be whether talent acquisition strategy matches overall organisational strategy, before delving into measuring specific parts of the process.

However, whilst there was an agreement that collecting measurements after each stage of the hiring process would be useful – as well as surveying candidates on their hiring experience – there were questions of how often measurements should take place, with worries over whether too much measurement might cause candidate fatigue. Yet, consensus was that not all data needs to come from candidate feedback. In fact, high-performing talent acquisition functions could be collating data from the performance of everything from their career site to time-to-hire; it’s whether they had the resource to do anything with this data afterwards that most seemed to worry about.

Managerial capability

A recurring theme to the roundtable discussion regarded the importance of line managers to the talent acquisition process. Many believed that talent acquisition should be a supporting function to many hiring processes, creating best practice documents and development programmes for managers to drive their own hiring.

As the leaders in the room saw it, talent acquisition cannot carry out every aspect of hiring due to lack of resources; therefore, it makes sense the function should better align with managers to drive better hiring behaviours.

The danger is, as one or two in the room stated, that if they do not clearly communicate and develop best practice hiring behaviours then poor managerial capability will hurt everything from the success of talent acquisition to employer branding and the bottom line.

Branding

One company who attended the roundtable laid out that it treats its employer branding – branding is a crucial part of talent acquisition, as found by an AGS and HR Grapevine research on The Shape of Talent Acquisition Across Europe – like a marketing function, who are tasked with selling the company and the role. Its talent acquisition is interested in ‘selling’ the candidate ‘more than a job’.

Yet, there was a heated discussion over whether employer brand should be left to grow organically or push the brand to grow, what the best way to use social media to grow the brand is, how branding efforts turn into an actual hire and whether it is possible to know if branding engages with the right talent personas.

Regardless, branding was seen as crucial. “The employer brand is the image and representation of what it’s really like to work at an organisation. From a consumer and B2B perspective, having a compelling brand is critical to driving business success,” explains Kristin Shulman, Global Director of Marketing and Brand at AGS.

The employer brand is the image and representation of what it’s really like to work at an organisation

So, where is the talent?

With so many considerations, it can be difficult to understand where the talent is, let alone how to acquire it. As one roundtable attendee says: “How can we hire for future talent if we don’t know what it will be?” Of course, there are many ways to get around this, including understanding the organisational strategy, better understanding the shape of the market and incubating specific communities of talent with key talent personas within this. It’s how they go about this that will be crucial.

Will organisations use technology, data and external partners to drive these necessary changes? Responses from within the room suggest a mixed approach but any change was considered good.

As Jade Clifford, Executive Director and Head of RPO EMEA for AGS, explains: “Each change to improve talent acquisition will make an incrementally positive impact on the chances of success, where key differentiators will fundamentally link back to how easy, fast, and enjoyable the process is.”

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March 11, 2020
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MSPs to vote on putting politicians through same background checks as people working with children

MSPs will vote this week on plans to make politicians undergo the same background checks as people working with children, according to the Sunday Post.

The move comes in the wake of Derek Mackay resigning as Finance Secretary after sending unsolicited messages to a 16-year-old boy.

Lib Dem health spokesman, Alex Cole-Hamilton, described his proposed amendments to the Disclosure (Scotland) Bill as a “common sense safety move”.

They would make it an offence for any MP, MSP or councillor to meet with a child or vulnerable person without undergoing a Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) check.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “My proposal to extend PVG checks to politicians is a common sense safety move designed to ensure there are proper protections in place for children and vulnerable adults who come into contact with them.

“These checks are commonplace in sports clubs, community groups and health and social care settings. There is no good reason to exempt elected politicians and other powerful figures working within political parties.”

He added: “There is often a significant power imbalance between those in elected office and those who encounter them.”

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March 9, 2020
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Relaxed care worker background checks considered under virus strategy

Emergency workforce plans are being made to mitigate the impact of a potential severe coronavirus outbreak on the UK social care sector, reports the Nursing Times.

Criminal record checks on former social care workers seeking to return to practice may be loosened and staff may be redeployed to areas where the impact of coronavirus is more severe.

"It must be recognised that smaller homes will be challenged in many ways"

Crystal Oldman

Yesterday, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty confirmed to the Health and Social Care Select Committee that the UK was moving towards the second “delay” stage of the government’s virus action plan.

Without emergency measures, care homes may have to close and residents be relocated to NHS facilities, adding more pressure on overstretched services.

The Department of Health and Social Care has asked providers if background checks might impede emergency care plans, according to reports in the Guardian newspaper, which were not disputed by the government.

Workers who have recently left work or retired and whose background checks have expired as a result may be allowed back to work during a coronavirus outbreak without having to wait for several weeks for approval.

Background checks include enhanced criminal record bureau (CRB) checks, also known as a disclosure and barring service (DBS) check.

As many social care workers may become unable to work due to sickness or self-isolation, the government is also asking care providers to consider staff redeployment.

In preparation for an outbreak, nursing homes and care home operators may also have to pool carers in areas where there is the most need.

Dr Crystal Oldman, chief executive of the Queen’s Nursing Institute, said the charity was concerned about potentially removing background checks, and a full risk assessment would be needed in the meantime for such workers.

“The department should be including social care providers in every aspect of the planning"

Martin Green

Regarding redeployment, she added: “It may be possible for larger care home providers to support this approach, but I think it must be recognised that smaller homes will be challenged in many ways to provide the care needed in the event of the anticipated numbers of people (both residents and carers) who will contract the coronavirus."

Martin Green, chief executive of charity Care England, said it was vital that the social care sector was given the same support in regards to the coronavirus outbreak as the NHS.

He said: “The Department of Health and Social Care should be including social care providers in every aspect of the planning, and anything, such as procurement of drugs, goods, and services that might be required for the NHS should also include social care providers.

“This is an opportunity for the Department of Health and Social Care to show that it's not only its name that has changed, but its attitude to how it plans and delivers in a crisis.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The UK is extremely well prepared for these types of outbreaks and Public Health England has issued tailored guidance for care providers setting out action to be taken in a variety of circumstances."

The department is working with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and Care Provider's Alliance to plan with both local authorities and other care providers to prepare for the event of a more serious outbreak.

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