Mark Tobin

A new report commissioned by Eploy, in association with HR & Recruitment Grapevine, has revealed some interesting findings for how candidates are sourced by sector and how successful sourcing channels are in generating the right quantity and quality of candidates.

The UK Candidate Attraction Survey 2017, now in its second year, surveyed over 700 UK recruiters from both in-house and agency across various industries, sectors and size of organisation. The aims were to:

• Discover the biggest challenges in candidate sourcing
• Identify which sources of candidates provide the best quantity / quality
• Compare differences between in-house & agency strategies and tactics
• Identify differences within specific business sectors & company sizes
• Assess the impact of recruitment marketing tactics on candidate attraction

Sourcing channels analysed include Company Website/Careers Site, Professional Social Networks, Generalist Job Boards, Specialist Job Boards, Employee Referrals, CV Databases, Social Media, Employee Referrals, Print and ATS/CRM.

Both in-house and agency recruiters were asked to rate each of the sourcing channels they use on a regular basis for the quantity of candidates they generate and the quality of candidates they provide.

These responses were then analysed and presented visually in a quadrant by sector to illustrate the results. An example of this is shown here.

The midpoint of the quadrants would indicate a marketing channel that is producing sufficient numbers of candidates of average quality.

 

Summary of the key findings of the report:

1. Scarcity of qualified candidates is still the #1 challenge for recruiters. Although down from last year (70%), 62% of in-house recruiters report the lack of suitably qualified, skilled or experienced candidates is still their biggest issue.

2. There is a squeeze on recruitment marketing budgets. In the hospitality, leisure and tourism industry – as well as the government, not-for-profit and charity sectors, a lack of recruitment marketing budget is forcing in-house recruiters to do ‘more with less’ – 36% of in-house recruiting teams cited this as an issue.

3. Recruitment content marketing drives careers site improvements. Companies with an active recruitment content marketing strategy also have the best performing careers sites. The more content they publish, the higher the quantity and quality of candidate applications they receive.

4. You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Only a third of in-house recruiters regularly measure the effectiveness of their sourcing channels. But those that do see significantly improved returns across every sourcing channel except for job boards.

5. Health and social care in talent attraction crisis? The health and social care sector is struggling to find the right mix of talent across all sourcing channels. Candidate scarcity is a huge issue affecting 78% of recruitment teams in this sector. This sector also can’t rely on professional social networks to identify suitable talent.

6. Only 50% of in-house recruiters market to their existing candidate database. We found that only half of in-house recruitment teams can match new jobs with candidates they already have in their talent CRM or ATS. Agencies rank their candidate database as the number one source for both quality and quantity – it’s the #1 source for 94% of agencies.

7. Social Media continues to disappoint, but Professional Social Networks excel. As with the 2016 survey, Social Media consistently lags behind in candidate attraction despite being used by 64% of in-house recruiters and 67% of agencies, while professional social networks like LinkedIn perform well in many sectors and industries.

8. Job Boards providing uncertain results. While both generalist and specialist job boards are regularly used for sourcing candidates, results are mixed. And while specialist boards rank high for candidate quality recruiters who regularly measure their performance report the reality is somewhat less impressive.

9. Employee Referrals generate the greatest candidate quality. Once again employee referrals are ranked number one for candidate quality, with 70% of in-house teams having an active referral programme, but this comes at the expense of quantity – even for the largest organisations.

10. Company Careers Sites improve with scale. Still the most utilised sourcing channel, used by 94% of in-house recruiters, posting jobs to your company website or dedicated careers site alone can’t be relied upon to generate the levels of candidates required – except for larger organisations.

The full report shows some interesting results across industries/company size and provides actionable insight for recruiters on both sides of the recruiting fence.

You can download your free copy of the Candidate Attraction Report 2017 and examine each channel based on company size and industry sector on the link below.

Full article on HRGrapevine

Policies and good intentions will not be enough to drive change, expert panel agrees

British businesses must be persuaded or forced to publish data on the numbers of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) employees in their ranks to tackle a ‘dire’ lack of inclusion, according to an influential panel.

A requirement to account for the level of racial diversity among employees – potentially alongside mandatory reporting of race pay gaps – may be the only way to effect genuine change, experts told a CIPD event in London.

The panel was convened to discuss a recent CIPD report that laid bare some of the barriers to BAME progression inside businesses. The report found that BAME staff were three times more likely than their white British colleagues to feel discrimination had held them back, and were also more likely to report that their career had failed to meet their expectations.

“The position is absolutely dire,” said Iain Wright, former MP and chair of the parliamentary business select committee, who now chairs the CIPD’s Policy Forum. “Eight per cent of directors of FTSE 100 companies have a BAME background, but that is an international field. Only 1.5 per cent are British citizens.

“It is good business practice that if your workforce, senior management team and board look like the society you are interacting with, your business benefits – not just wider society.”

The stats were “horrendous”, added Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, author of an influential government report on race in business that made recommendations for a strong reporting regime on BAME inclusion.

“Whatever sector you are in, if you are of a BAME background and get a job at an entry level, you might be lucky enough to be promoted once but then the stats fall through the floor,” said McGregor-Smith.

BAME employees were three times more likely to say that having a supportive line manager would be key to improving their development and career progression, according to the CIPD report. The panel discussed better line manager training, the importance of role models, and the role of employee networks and mentoring.

But data may be the most powerful lever in improving the bigger picture, the panel agreed. “If organisations published their data once every year and said where they stood and what interventions they were making, I genuinely think it would make a big difference,” said McGregor-Smith. “Every chief executive should have targets and incentives aligned to change [in this area].”

CIPD adviser Dr Jill Miller added: “Some organisations are sitting on a huge amount of data that is not being interrogated – who’s applying for jobs, who’s being hired, who’s being promoted.” She said the CIPD would support the idea of mandatory race pay reporting, modelled on the nascent gender pay reporting regime.

The event heard that the Civil Service has made BAME inclusion and progression a priority. It wants to be the country’s most inclusive employer, and Suzanne Semedo, Cabinet Office lead on diversity, said it was attacking the issue from numerous angles, including data, creating a centre of excellence for research into the topic and working with employee networks.

“As soon as we get into middle manager level, we see a dramatic drop in [BAME] representation,” said Semedo. “It’s not a question of lack of talent – it’s about welcoming that talent and removing barriers to getting them into senior posts. There is hidden BAME talent in organisations – ethnic minorities are likely to have more professional qualifications, for example, than some groups of white people, but is that being recognised?”

Ultimately, concluded McGregor-Smith, the situation depends on visible and successful BAME leaders taking the inclusion agenda to heart: “Nothing will change until we have more BAME people [in positions of power]. Great inclusive policies aren’t good enough. You can’t have a policy that says you’re going to be great on race until you have someone in an executive capacity with a BAME background. Not a tick-box non-executive role, but a senior operational role.”

Full article on CIPD

HMRC has dropped strong hints that IR35 changes could soon be rolled out to the private sector, despite being slammed as a ‘failed’ reform.

The news will put private sector recruiters on high alert, having witnessed the disdain with which their public-sector hiring colleagues treated the tax law changes.

At the time, recruiters and contractors called the changes ‘chaotic’ and ‘open to misinterpretation’. Many feared an exodus of contractors from the public-sector roles they were placing them in.

Yet, it is increasingly likely, despite strong condemnation from recruiters, recruitment trade bodies and contractors, that in the Government’s next budget, IR35 changes will be extended.

Both The Times and The Financial Times are running stories that claims the Government is considering enlarging its fight against ‘bogus self-employment’ in efforts to crack down on tax avoidance.

Cast your minds back to before April, and there are similarities between the words used in this article and the words used before IR35 rules were changed in the public sector. Earlier this year, HMRC claimed tax law needed to evolve to stymie a £400million black hole in the treasury coffers.

In an interview with the FT, Mel Stride, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said that there was an issue of fairness between the way public sector and private sector contractors were taxed.

These, by the way, are changes the Treasury implemented themselves – thus tilting the public sector-private sector playing field they now appear to be so interested in levelling.

Chancellor Philip Hammond is also reported as planning to ‘raid’ freelancers and contractors – workers who set up as public limited companies.

However, a recent forum meeting on IR35 found that the tool used to determine whether a contractor falls inside or outside the tax law changes, isn’t working all of the time.

Seb Maley, CEO, Qdos Contractor, shared his concerns with Recruitment Grapevine: “HMRC were slow to announce public sector IR35 reform, causing chaos for contractors, recruitment agencies and the public sector itself.

“If they have plans to extend reform to the private sector – which these minutes hint at – they have a responsibility to end the ambiguity and give contractors and agencies suitable time to prepare.”

Recently, Recruitment Grapevine covered IR35 from its inception to implementation. You can read more about the IR35 journey, in this month’s cover feature, here.

Article on Recruitment Grapevine

But former pensions minister warns of ‘unhappy older workforce’ who can’t afford to quit

Around a quarter of retirees return to work, with most of those heading back to the daily grind within five years of retiring, according to a new study.

The research by the University of Manchester and King’s College London also found that men were 26 per cent more likely than women to return to paid work following retirement, while people whose partner still worked were 31 per cent more likely to return following retirement than those whose partner did not work.

Additionally, those with post-secondary qualifications were almost twice as likely to return to work than those with no qualifications.

“The fact that older people with more human capital are more likely to ‘unretire’ suggests that it may be difficult for those in poorer financial circumstances to find paid work,” said Professor Karen Glaser, professor of gerontology at King’s College London and a senior investigator on the study. “This may lead to future disparities in later life income.”

Professor Debora Price, director of the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing and a co-author of the research, added: “This research points to the changing nature of retirement transitions, and the more fluid relationships that people have with paid work around mid and into later life. There are messages here for employers that might want to think about these new demographics, but also for policymakers as it looks like the possibilities to supplement savings or retirement income in later life through ‘unretirement’ are available to a greater extent to the already advantaged.”

And Dr Jill Miller, diversity and inclusion adviser at the CIPD, said: “With our ageing population, and the experience and skills older workers offer, employers need to consider how they can attract and retain the significant talent pool of older workers. Often, simple adjustments to working time or the job role can enable people to continue to contribute to the success of the organisation.”

However, other commentators noted that the research may have uncovered an issue with people financially having no other option than to work in their golden years. Steve Webb, former pensions minister and now director of policy at Royal London, told People Management that although many of those who head back to work after retirement do so because they “miss the stimulation and social contact”, there is a “real danger” that a whole generation of people will simply be unable to retire in the first place because they have failed to save enough into their pension pot.

“If employers do not address this issue they could find themselves with an unhappy older workforce that does not want to work but cannot afford to stop,” Webb said.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon, added that it is in “employers’ best interests to encourage pension saving and retirement planning”, as what people have saved in their pensions will ultimately dictate when they can retire.

However, the University of Manchester and King’s College London study found that people who reported having financial problems before retiring or were on a low income were not more likely to return to work than those who had no such issues, although those who were still paying off their mortgage were more likely to return to work.

Article on CIPD