TALiNT International September & October 2020

Sept / Oct 2020

The Diversity Issue

What are Recruiters, RPOs & HR tech providers doing to drive diversity & inclusion?

Plus...TIARA 2020 Winner Supplement...

Talent Solutions Awards: Recognising the best RPOs and MSPs Talent Tech Star Awards: Celebrating innovation and impact in HR & Recruitment Technology

The recruitment software that you wished for

The next chapter in recruitment software. www.itris.co.uk

01 Leader

Diversity is dissent If we are all serious about embracing diversity and enabling inclusion in our organisations, we need to create cultures that can manage conflict and challenges to the norm Has BLM turned BAME into a blame game?

Are people still turning a blind eye to their unconscious bias? Are blind CVs the answer? Can humans be trusted to recruit without prejudice?

Do these questions sound strangely familiar?

Despite a lot of work (and, to be fair, some progress), most people would agree that we still haven't cracked diversity or inclusion. It's still just as big a challenge for small businesses as it is for large organisations. Perhaps even more so.

Start-up founders tend to (personally) recruit people that they can trust to do things the way they do them.

In my experience of chairing hundreds of entrepreneur roundtables about barriers to scale, the lightbulb moment for many founders is that they too often recruit in their own image.

At the other end of the scale, large corporations with established processes tend to evolve a corporate profile and language that end up excluding people. How many times have you heard someone repeat what someone said in a meeting to translate it into 'company speak' or 'cool aid conversation’?

Our first ever virtual award ceremonies celebrated innovation and impact in the delivery of talent solutions and talent technology, with some fantastic solutions and approaches to D&I that are helping to truly transform talent acquisition.

Alex Evans, Executive Editor

Diversity is dissent. Different backgrounds, lifestyles and experiences bring new perspectives but they also bring conflict. Avoidance of conflict is a classic management fail.

It's an example of a cultural norm that doesn't sound anything like real people in the real world.

About TALiNT Partners TALiNT Partners provides insight, content, connections and strategic support to the world’s recruitment & talent acquisition leaders.

We work hard to connect, collaborate and concentrate our efforts to ensure our events, experiences, consultancy and media solutions offer the best support for the talent industry.

Diversity is dissent. Different backgrounds, lifestyles and experiences can bring new perspectives but they can also bring conflict.

Avoidance of conflict is a classic management fail. Diversity can be engineered or retro-fitted into recruitment but the inclusion part won't work - so that talent will leave anyway.

With a large part of this month's TALiNT International given to winners of our TIARA Talent Solutions Awards and Talent Tech Star Awards, we wanted to focus on one big issue D&I. We asked industry experts from across the talent ecosystem about the impact of COVID and BLM on D&I; how technology can drive improvement; and the role of recruiters and RPOs. Read what they said from page 14.

We hope this helps the TA and recruitment industry to re-frame the conversation and achieve lasting change.

72% of startups are founded by an all-male team & only 28% have at least one woman co-founder, according to the 2019 Women in Technology Leadership Report from Silicon Valley Bank

Published by Talent Intelligence Partners Ltd Upper Ground Floor 18 Farnham Road Guildford Surrey GU1 4XA www.talint.co.uk Editorial: alex@talint.co.uk Features: dawncreativemedia@outlook.com Advertising & Sponsorship: andy@talint.co.uk

02 TALiNT Scene TALiNT spent its summer staycation talking to Inhouse, RPO, HR Tech and Recruitment leaders about hiring agility, re-boarding and furlough fraud and clawback...

8th September 2020 - TALiNT Partners MD Ken Brotherston and Peter Jones of CornerstoneOnDemand co-chaired a virtual roundtable on hiring agility for Inhouse Leaders with special guest Mark Thomas of Abcam. The session highlighted the importance of a diverse range of hiring techniques and keeping candidate experience front of mind all the time.

They were joined by leading heads of TA including Jane Upton from NatWest; Joanne Ford of AXA UK; Louise Shaw and Paula Dutton of Omni RMS; and Matt Heather from Reed.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

03 "The impact of lockdown, furlough and fear of change has been different for each employee. Managers are best placed to understand their unique concerns and adapt to their individual needs."

25th August 2020 - Elizabeth Stokoe, a professor of Social Interaction at Loughborough University, joined Hollaroo CEO Hugh Fordham for our webinar on Re-boarding – The Next Big Talent Challenge.

Ricoh's Head of Resouring, Andy Nicholls, and Catherine Morell, Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager also shared practical insights on how to give workers more confidence about returning to work.

15th July 2020 - Our PointSix session on How to Reduce the Risk of Furlough Fraud & Clawback presented timely insight on how the JRS scheme should and shouldn't be used from Ian Hyde, head of Osborne Clarke’s tax dispute practice and tax tribunal judge.

Kim Collins, Lloyds Banking Group's Relationship Director for Recruitment Businesses, presented some tactics for improving profitability and updated on funding options.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

06 Contents

Contributors

08 News analysis

08 Youth employment now at record low 09 UK braces for huge job losses 10 Employees not sold on skills development 11 Are full-time office jobs over?

12 Employers need remote working rules

14 Cover feature

14 The new rules of D&I post COVID and BLM

Vinda Souza, Bullhorn

Claire Holness, Ericsson

20 Global Recruitment

20 Which international recruitment sectors have best weathered the COVID storm?

22 Power List

22 Why we need fewer start-ups and higher retention of top talent in large recruiters

24 The big interview

Emily Ayre, BRUIN Financial

Guy Hayward, Goodman Masson

24 Ken Brotherston talks to Simon Bradberry, EMEA chief for Allegis Global Solutions about flexible workers and the future of talent tech

26 Talent Solutions Awards Winners

27 Profiling ten award winning RPOs & MSPs

50 Talent Tech Star Award Winners

51 Insights on what set our ten talent tech award winners apart from judges

James Saoulli, Rullion

Lisa Cherry, Post Office

Melanie Hayes, Harvey Nash

Raj Tulsiani, Green Park

Suki Sandhu, INvolve

Simon Bradberry, Allegis Talent Solutions

68 TALiNT Talk

68 Ken Brotherston on why unconscious bias training is fundamentally flawed

Picture credits: Shutterstock, iStockphoto and Unsplash Cover: iStockphoto Disclaimer: This publication has been prepared for the exclusive use and benefit of the readers of TALiNT International and other contacts of TALiNT Partners and is for information purposes only.

Unless we provide express prior written consent, no part of this publication should be reproduced, distributed, or communicated to any third party. You must not rely on the information in this publication as an alternative to advice from an appropriately qualified professional. In no event shall TALiNT Partners or any of those contributing to this publication be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence, or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the contents of this publication. © Talent Intelligence Partners

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

Joining the dots of the talent ecosystem...

...to help employers find and keep the people they need talint.co.uk

08 News analysis

Youth employment now at record low Almost 100 UK graduates are competing for every job amid a record slump in youth employment.

However, big companies are pushing ahead with graduate intake programmes, giving much-needed opportunities in a particularly harsh market for young job-seekers.

The official government employment update for September reveals the number of 16 to 24 year olds in work decreased by 156,000 to 3.63 million in the May to July quarter, with a record decrease in employment for those aged 18 to 24.

Meanwhile, competition for graduate jobs has hit a 10-year high, according to research from leading job site Adzuna and graduate employment agency Bright Network.

July data from Adzuna shows 93 applications per graduate job and a 58.9% year-on-year slump in graduate positions.

However, a report by Adzuna’s communications manager Becky Speake pointed out that, despite the intense competition, there were still almost 4,700 graduate jobs up for grabs across the country during August. More than 50% of these roles

There are were 93 applications per graduate job in July, says Adzuna

were in London and the South East, with the teaching, healthcare, finance and engineering sectors dominating hiring activity.

Cambridge AI firm ARM, JP Morgan, Amazon and Barclays were among the big names seeking graduate employees.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna.co.uk, says while graduates entering the job market this year will need to be resilient, and uncertainty around travel restrictions and the possibility of a second wave is doing little to help economic recovery, it was pleasing to hear that big firms

156k

fewer 16 to 24 year olds in work in May to July

such as JP Morgan and Amazon are still hiring graduates into their 20202021 cohort. “The impact this will have on businesses and the wider economy will be great and we want to see this continue,” he says.

The survey data also shows that travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic have dampened appetites for overseas adventure. Only 3% of the 600 UK university graduates surveyed planned to take a gap year or pursue employment overseas.

Gen X to spark business resurgence Covid-19 will be the catalyst for Generation Xers to change career and put their business ideas into action, predicts Justin Small, founder and CEO of The Future Strategy Club.

“We work with a body of these experienced individuals who now have circa 15 years’ worth of skills to tap in to, having weathered the 2008 crisis and now Covid-19,” Small says.

While millennials, in their 20s and 30s, are touted as the ‘entrepreneurial generation’, the average UK entrepreneur is actually over 40, he says, adding that the pandemic will encourage thousands more Gen Xers (aged between 40 and 55) to start their own businesses.

“Now, with kids and mortgages in tow, stepping back onto an upwards facing career ladder is not on the agenda. The majority of these self-starters see the Covid-19 period as an opportunity to work for themselves and gain true security from their knowledge and skillset.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

09

UK braces for huge job losses

Experts predict a massive spike in job losses and redundancies this autumn as the government’s furlough scheme comes to an end.

The workforce shrunk by almost 700,000 people between March and August amid the biggest increase in redundancies for over a decade, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), but hiring experts warn that far worse is to come before Christmas.

The number of people who are estimated to be temporarily away from work (including furloughed workers) has fallen, but it was still more than five million in July, with over 2.5 million of these being away from their jobs for three months or more. There are also around 250,000 people away from work because of the pandemic and receiving no pay.

Companies across the UK are now deciding whether they can afford to keep on all their staff once the furlough scheme finishes on October 31.

REED chairman James Reed says,

Reed chairman James Reed believes the furlough scheme should not be extended while the latest statistics will cause concern, “now is not the time to panic and extend the furlough scheme.”

“It’s time for the country to move on,” he says. “Businesses need to level with their furloughed staff about their future as soon as they are able to.

“The good news is that job opportunities are remerging. Over 128,000 new jobs were added onto reed.co.uk in August – a 7.5% month-on-month increase – and opportunities increased in nearly all the sectors featured on the site.”

700k

more redundancies between March and August according to the ONS

Jack Kennedy, UK economist at global job site Indeed, says that while vacancies are slowly picking up, there are still far fewer jobs available than there were at the start of 2020, with an ever-rising number of people chasing after them. “For months, the official unemployment rate has resembled an iceberg – deceptively small and with the true toll of the pandemic largely hidden beneath the surface,” he says.

Employers 'are neglecting mental health' More than half of UK workers haven’t received any mental health support or advice from their employers since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March – and only 15% would be comfortable speaking to HR if they felt anxious or stressed.

Those were some of the findings from a September survey of 1,500 employees by mental health group TalkOut, which also reveals that 85% of workers don’t think mental wellbeing has been their employer’s priority during the pandemic.

TalkOut CEO Jill Mead says, while businesses have been quick to adapt to social distancing and working from home, for many, the emotional wellbeing of employees was an afterthought.

Kathryn Barnes, European employment counsel at Globalization Partners, points out that employers’ duty of care for employees extends to mental health.

“Now is a good time for business leaders to put policies in place and to practice what they preach,” she says.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

10 News analysis

Are full-time office jobs over?

Most workers believe the Covid-19 crisis marks the end of full-time work in the office and are looking for a hybrid model that blends work and home, new research from ManpowerGroup reveals.

Employees are worried about returning to the old way of working and losing the flexibility they have gained, a sentiment which underlines why UK workers have resisted government exhortations to get back in the office for the sake of the economy.

‘The Future for Workers, By Workers’, the second in ManpowerGroup's ‘What Workers Want’ series, draws on a survey of more than 8,000 workers in eight countries, including the UK. The findings show shared priorities among workers across the globe, although there are significant differences in attitudes between men and women, and between generations.

NEW PRIORITIES Generally, workers everywhere have three key priorities – autonomy and their personalised version of a hybrid workplace with the opportunity to work remotely, yet not all the time; learning on demand – more opportunities to learn virtually and develop skills to stay employable; and finally a focus on blending work and

Only a third of women and 46% of men feel positive about returning to offices.

family life for the long term. Most respondents believe that work-life balance will be better going forward.

Almost half of men (46%) feel positive about returning to their workplace, compared to only one third of women (35%). Unsurprisingly, women with children aged five and under were the most likely to feel concerned or nervous. Both men and women rank not having to commute and the flexibility of being able to work when convenient as some of the top benefits of working from home.

When it comes to generational

To download the report: https:// go.manpowergroup. com/futureforworkers

differences, Gen Z is most keen to return to the workplace to develop their careers and socialise, perhaps reflecting that people in their mid-twenties or younger are less likely to have the space and privacy for a comfortable at-home working environment.

Millennials are the least positive, while Gen X values the workplace as a place to concentrate and collaborate away from household responsibilities.

Boomers say socialising and collaborating with colleagues is the top reason to return.

BP leads the city office exodus BP’s plan to sell its international headquarters in central London and dramatically downsize its property portfolio is the biggest sign yet that Covid-19 will reshape the office market permanently.

The energy behemoth intends to rent back the building from the new

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

owner for up to two years before leaving permanently as it cuts 10,000 jobs and scales back office space, according to a Sunday Times report.

Numerous companies are reassessing their office space requirements, especially in expensive city locations, as they pivot towards

more remote and flexible working arrangements.

UK office space rental agency Free Office Finder reported a 45% increase in requirements for offices outside of the M25 since May, almost double the rise in demand for central London offices.

11

Employees not sold on skills development Business leaders are confident they have the ability and resources to upskill the workforce – but employees are not so sure.

The gap in confidence between employers and employees is one key finding from a new workforce trends report by Cornerstone OnDemand, indicating that organisations may have to rethink how they approach and resource inhouse skills development programmes.

The trend towards upskilling and career pivoting has gained enormous traction during the coronavirus pandemic, but savvy talent teams have been shifting from buying talent to building talent for some time.

However, the new research reveals leaders have their work cut out for them to get buy-in from their staff.

Just 60% of employees are confident in their organisation’s ability to develop their skills for the future, and almost 40% say they are not enabled by the learning resources provided. In stark contrast, 90% of leaders are confident in their ability to develop the skills of their workers and 87% believe their companies are

Meaningful work is as important to pay for two thirds of employees adequately equipped.

The research highlights how workers value a sense of meaning in their careers just as highly as money. A total of 66% of respondents say meaningful work is “extremely” or “very” important when choosing an employer, and 65% say the same about competitive pay.

Conducted as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded in spring, the two-part survey compares the views of 1,000 employees and 500 business leaders from across the world, including C-level executives and HR managers.

40%

of employees don't feel enabled to develop future skills by employers

Entitled ‘A License to Skill: Embracing the Reskilling Revolution’, the report was released in September during the company’s virtual Convergence Unbound conference and coincides with the launch of its latest product, the Cornerstone Skills Graph, an AI-powered skills engine which enables organisations to match skills to people, learning content and job roles. The company has also launched a free online training platform for health workers, Project HOPE.

Workr acquires Easypay, Celsus sells UK global employment services provider Workr Group has added funding to its service offering with the acquisition of Easypay Services, a Leeds company that provides funding and back office services to recruitment agencies.

Easypay will join Workr Solutions, an existing business unit of Workr Group that specialises in accelerating time to value for agencies and clients by providing specialist consultancy services and back office solutions.

Workr Group were represented by Fieldfisher LLP and supported by EY for financial and tax due diligence and Easypay Services was represented by Gordons LLP. In other acquisition news, a newco backed by UK investment firm Sullivan Street Partners has bought Celsus Group, a UK-based provider of medical and locum staffing. Gateley Legal advised the shareholders of Celsus, while Deloitte LLP provided corporate finance advice.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

12 News analysis

Employers need clear remote working rules Setting clear expectations around work communications, being selective about digital tools and upskilling managers are some of the most important ways employers can ensure effective remote workin.

Adopting realistic response timeframes – and making sure everyone is aware of them – as well as setting out when it is appropriate to use a video call versus an email is essential, according to Ben Wright, founder and CEO at global expansion solutions provider Velocity Global.

“It’s easy for people to feel disconnected from their teams in a more dispersed, remote working environment. Companies need to provide the tools for communication to support workflow, but also morale,” he says.

“Getting feedback from employees is crucial as firms look to fully embrace remote working. It is part of the future, but it is not yet fully defined.

Employers and employees navigate it together, so a constant dialogue between the two is needed. This is how businesses will find out what flexibility employees want and enable them to adapt policies to attract top talent – and retain it.”

David Storey, EY EMEIA workforce advisory leader, says lockdown has

Managers need to be able motivate and develop a more dispersed workforce provided valuable lessons. “Key challenges around people management will include ensuring a strong, consistent culture, and equitable talent opportunities across different modes of work, all the while ensuring that the new approach sustains collaboration, innovation and productivity,” he says.

To solve these challenges, and keep remote talent engaged and connected, Storey suggests: • Upskilling leaders and managers to be able to inspire, operate and engage in a hybrid model, and to be confident in managing performance • Empowering employees by building trust, based on clear expectations and outcome-based results • Reviewing talent and reward

policies, frameworks and processes • Ensuring continued opportunities for intra and inter-team collaboration.

Simon Blockley, CEO of Guidant Global, says employers are now less concerned about hours worked and more focused on outputs delivered.

“Managers are more open to accessing contingent and remote workers and this mindset is the biggest step towards progress for truly strategic workforce management,” he says. “Success now pivots on using the right technology to locate and manage this flexible workforce. Given how quickly everything is changing at the moment, simple data management and automation can deliver the best financial and efficiency results.”

Executives push for better exit deals post COVID Senior executives changing roles during the pandemic are negotiating sweeter contract terms to protect themselves against a sudden deterioration in trading conditions beyond their control, says private wealth law firm Boodle Hatfield.

Executives choosing to join a business during this period of economic volatility face a far greater

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

risk than normal of seeing their contract terminated early, according to the firm.

Simon Gorham, employment partner at Boodle Hatfield, says executives are increasingly negotiating longer notice periods, payment in lieu of notice, less onerous non-compete clauses and a more equitable buyout of shares or bonus on exit.

“They aren’t necessarily looking to be compensated for risk through bigger salaries but rather on the terms of their exit, particularly if they have to leave early because of restructuring or more economic shocks,” he says.

“If talented executives don’t move from stable jobs at strong companies to jobs at weaker or smaller companies then UK PLCs suffer.”

14 Cover feature - D&I

“Many D&I initiatives fail because they are standardised, cut and pasted solutions that don’t resonate with all the intended target audiences.”

Raj Tulsiani, co-founder and CEO, Green Park

The new rules

HR, Recruitment, RPO and HR Tech leaders share their views on the impact of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter on diversity and inclusion - and where we go from here Our reality has been turned upside down in 2020. We are learning to play by new rules, and the rules change as we go along. Employers, recruiters, RPOs, HR tech providers and workers have all been thrust into new ways of working.

The Black Lives Matter movement has exploded following the death of African-American man George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in the US; mass rallies around the world have highlighted systemic injustice to people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds.

By Dawn Gibson, Features Editor

“Rullion is very passionate about D&I, but it is not getting prominence at the moment because we’re not recruiting. We’re focusing on getting our balance sheet in order.” Saoulli points out that the momentum behind D&I will continue to be a key driver at Rullion and other big companies in the medium to long-term.

How is this climate of uncertainty and change impacting on Diversity & Inclusion among UK businesses and recruiters? Have the key drivers changed? How do employers want recruiters and tech providers to work with them to reach their goals? What strategies are most effective?

We approached large employers as well as some of the UK’s premier recruitment, RPO and talent tech experts, including several D&I judges and award-winners from Tthe TALiNT International Annual Recruitment Awards (TIARAs).

D&I DRIVERS IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD It’s questionable whether employers still see D&I as an immediate priority when many organisations are struggling to survive.

Claire Holness, VP, global head of talent acquisition at Ericsson and a D&I judge for the 2020 TIARAs, says companies may pull back from events and attraction spend. “Some hiring managers may face new hiring volume limits,” she says. “This means recruiters will need to find new ways of identifying and shortlisting diverse candidates, and CVs alone will not suffice.”

James Saoulli, CEO at UK recruitment and

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

workforce solution consultancy Rullion, says D&I has taken a temporary hit alongside other long-term strategically important initiatives.

“When I took over in 2017, the executive team was completely male, white, and very homogenous,” he says. “We are now 50% female, we have people from their 30s to their 60s, of different experiences, so it’s a real change permeating throughout the organisation.

Less than a third of workers would feel comfortable raising a claim in the event of discrimination at work.

Source: ADP

Lisa Cherry, group chief people officer at the Post Office, says D&I is more of a priority than it has ever been. Building on initiatives such as employee-led disability, BAME, and LGBT+ networking groups, the Post Office aims to achieve 50% gender equality and 14% minimum BAME representation by 2024.

“We’re doing this in three main ways: ensuring that unconscious bias is removed from the recruitment process in all ways possible; ensuring that we have a mix of CVs for all employment opportunities; and by developing a robust talent pipeline,” Cherry says.

Some of this involves working with external partners specialising in D&I recruitment, which Cherry sees as adding the most value in ‘hard to fill’ roles such as niche IT, though she adds that the Post Office wants to rely less on external partners in future.

“And when it comes to tough decisions, these

have to be made with D&I front and centre,” she says. “It can’t be something that gets put to one side when things get tough because it plays a role in how a business manages tough times.”

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR D&I It’s widely acknowledged that effective D&I strategies give employers a commercial and branding edge – an international Boston Consulting Group study found companies with more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenues due to innovation.

“The business case for diversity has been proven without doubt, with countless studies demonstrating that more inclusive teams bring greater innovation, increases in financial returns, and better businesses,” agrees Emily Ayre, MD, BRUIN Financial, which won a TIARA 2019 D&I Award, and is shortlisted again this year.

“We’ve been running regular webinars on D&I topics and had massive demand from clients,” says Ayre. “What we’ve seen over the last few months demonstrates clearly to us that organisations are now looking at D&I as a business issue, not just an HR issue, and prioritising it as such.”

A Hays survey conducted in August-September highlights the importance of D&I in candidate experience; 73% of UK candidates viewed D&I policies as important when considering a new role, and 74% think their company should have a voice on issues like Black Lives Matter.

D&I dialogue is becoming more meaningful, as companies accept it is no longer enough to launch a glitzy PR campaign which glosses over inherent failings in company culture. Remote and flexible working has widened opportunities

By 2024, the Post Office wants to achieve: 50% gender equality and 14% BAME representation

for many, including women with children, people with disabilities and those working outside major cities while rising unemployment is impacting big sectors of society, like young people.

“Covid has led to many organisations reflecting on what they want to look like and what workplace they want to create once we come out the other side of this pandemic,” says Guy Hayward, CEO at recruiter Goodman Masson.

“Conversations are happening on a wider scale than we’ve seen previously and in a manner that seems to be about making change and taking action for the long-term. Since George Floyd’s death and the rise of the BLM movement, there has been a significant increase in clients asking us questions like: 'How many BAME candidates have you placed in the last year?' We feel there is a recognition from corporates that they must and want to make it clear that they are antiracist and being vocal about their views.”

Melanie Hayes, the new Chief People Officer at Harvey Nash Group, agrees it has become more acceptable to raise issues about lack of inclusivity and to call out poor behaviour. “There has been a spotlight on gender and equality, and BLM has put a spotlight on racial inequality, so organisations are now considering whether their ethnic mix reflects their local area, their clients

“Organisations are now looking at D&I as a business issue, not just an HR issue, and prioritising it as such.”

Emily Ayre, Managing Director, BRUIN Financial

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

Top 10 Ways Employers Can Boost D&I

43%

and their customer base,” she says.

Tiffany St James, founder of UK digital consultancy Transmute, says organisations are seeking to evolve rather than switch back to pre-Covid ways of working. She believes there is a fundamental opportunity for change now and in the next two years, but critically before a financial downturn makes it impossible for change to happen at scale.

WHY THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN Introducing measures such as blind CVs or diverse candidate shortlists makes little difference if not part of a holistic approach.

Despite much talk about a commitment to diversity, just 52 out of 1099 of the most powerful roles in the UK are filled by non-white people – less than 5% – according to The Colour of Power 2020 report by executive search and diversity consultancy Green Park. There has been little progress since it conducted the same study three years ago, despite ethnic minorities representing 13% of the UK population.

Green Park CEO Raj Tulsiani says little will change without a different type of thinking influencing boards: “We consistently find that many organisations simply don’t know how to respond to the diversity challenges they face.

The common theme is a deep discomfort in confronting the issues of D&I with credible candour and relevant data, often disguised by a well-honed facility for talking about and around the subject – the recruitment industry being a fabulous example of talking it up.

“Many D&I initiatives fail because they are

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

British people who feel their career progression has been limited by age, gender, ethnicity, mental health, neurodivergency, sexual orientation or disability. Source: Hays Diversity & Inclusion survey, August-September 2020

1. Combining a top-down and bottom-up 2. Ensuring strategic decision-making is not confined to a homogenous group 3. Aiming for buy-in at every level 4. Pinpointing best practice throughout the talent pipeline 5. Appointing a Chief Diversity Officer 6. Partnering with a specialist RPO 7. Tracking diversity metrics over time 8. Employee-led networking groups 9. Working with external organisations 10. Introducing a D&I lens to all internal processes and policies

standardised, cut and pasted solutions that don’t resonate with all the intended audiences.”

The first step is making a conscious effort to move away from lip service and PR puffery.

“There is no point in making a song and dance about being a diverse and inclusive employer unless that is actually happening on the frontline – otherwise your diverse workforce will feel misled and excluded and will not stay,” says Derek Skelton, Meridian Business Support chief executive. “This needs to happen top down so that – especially at board level – diversity and inclusion is seen to be part of how things are done. Get awareness and good practice into the business and promote the stories, ideas and business values that happen as a result.”

An authentic narrative around staff experience can be a powerful employer tool. Melanie Hayes from Harvey Nash says: “People want to feel like they are joining a diverse organisation and one they feel where they can belong – that’s really important. I’ve seen organisations that have put in place processes to counteract issues they have identified internally through looking at data, but I’ve also seen organisations that have really been able to tell stories that help people connect with their business and want to join.”

“Recruiters need to find new ways of identifying and shortlisting diverse candidates, and CVs alone will not suffice.”

Claire Holness, VP, global head of talent acquisition, Ericsson

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TALiNT International July / August 2020

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18 Cover feature - D&I Green Park proposes organisations commit to no major strategic decisions being made by a leadership team which is all-male or all-white – if this is unavoidable, this should be minuted and noted in the annual report – and that larger UK firms follow the US trend of appointing a Chief Diversity Officer or outsourced D&I partner.

experiments, we have been able to build improvements, enabling us to deploy our learnings more quickly on a larger scale.”

Vinda Souza, Bullhorn

“It is crucial that leadership consider diversity an absolute business priority,” says Suki Sandhu OBE, founder and CEO of INvolve. “They need to be rewarding (financially and in other forms) behaviours that are in line with inclusive cultures and clamping down on behaviours that are not.

“It is also important to understand the lived experiences for diverse people already within the organisation – as well as those recently joined. Letting these individuals talk openly about the challenges they face and putting forward solutions to those problems will help diverse thinking to permeate at all levels.

“Collecting data on the make-up of the organisation and tracking this over time will show whether there is equality in employment and progression at all levels for minority groups and allow targeted actions to be taken.”

WHERE DOES TECH FIT IN? Vinda Souza, VP of Global Communications at recruiting software company Bullhorn, says businesses should take this opportunity to rethink the meaning of diversity: “It’s not just about race and gender, but socioeconomic background, parental status, disability, and all sorts of other characteristics.

“A real commitment to DEI means going beyond the checkboxes to create a genuine feeling of belonging. Metrics are useful for understanding the areas that need improving, but a staunch adherence to targets and checkboxes misses the point. Nothing compares to a real commitment to diversity with buy-in at every level.”

Machine learning, AI and talent tech are integral to many D&I strategies, specifically by overriding unconscious bias.

Claire Holness at Ericsson says they have accelerated hiring diversity through technology alongside a focus on personalised attraction and unconscious bias awareness. “In 2019 we launched a new approach, using behavioural science to better understand how candidates and hirers act in order to drive decision making with D&I,” she says. “Through a series of small

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

Jamees Saoulli, Rullion

Lisa Cherry, Post Office

Suki Sandhu, INvolve

Melanie Hayes, Harvey Nash

Tiffany St James at Transmute says there had been a rise in great talent start-ups, locating and finding more diverse talent, amalgamating data to create diverse teams, serving more automated talent pitch videos for more useful qualitative feedback and finding niche skills or qualifying people at speed and scale.

Transmute has embraced virtual working for years – one team member continued to work full-time after moving to Barbados – and prides itself on embracing D&I. “Our fluctuating project teams consist of a wide age range of talented in individuals from different backgrounds, ethnicities and commercial disciplines bringing equally valuable experiences to bear on our programmes,” St James explains. “As a digital consultancy, we’re used to testing before scaling and we will test internal initiatives and ensure we get those right in makeup of skills and diverse thinking for client programmes.”

However, tech platforms aren’t a magic wand for removing unconscious bias, warns Chief Science Advisor Lara Montefiori from recruitment tech company Arctic Shores.

“We’re in a great position to halt the downward spiral of unconscious bias – we’re already seeing exciting data on how, with support, companies in typically less diverse sectors like technology can outperform their competitors with a much higher proportion of BAME individuals in their new cohorts,” Montefiori says.

“Diversity will be hampered by any tool that’s too heavily focused on acquired knowledge, rather than on potential. Ultimately, whether remote or in-person, unconscious bias is rooted in the underlying mechanisms of an assessment method. It won’t increase or dissipate just as a result of using an online platform. Eradicating unconscious bias requires a genuine commitment to change”.

James Saoulli, Rullion CEO, points out that there has always been a disconnect between senior stakeholders and hiring managers. While those higher up in an organisation are typically more concerned about D&I, those on the shop floor are under pressure to deliver against deadlines and candidates who fit with the right skill set.

The Post Office’s Lisa Cherry says it is difficult to

Recruiter launches campaign to improve workplace racial equality Diversity and executive recruitment consultancy Green Park has partnered with The Collaboratory and Black History Month to launch a not-for-profit community interest company to improve racial equality in the workplace. Formed in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Race Equality Matters aims to turn declarations of commitment and support from organisations and individuals into meaningful change. The company plans to launch an annual UK-wide Race Equality Week, taking place in February.

identify any one initiative as being ‘most successful’. “Creating a truly inclusive culture requires the D&I policy to touch almost everything about a business,” she says. “And of course, it’s being able to talk about anything with your network group; it’s about enfranchising everyone when they join with the knowledge that they can help shape the D&I agenda if they so choose. It’s about community and demonstrating that everyone is valued; everyone has a voice; our policies reflect that.”

HOW CAN RECRUITERS DRIVE D&I? While savvy recruiters have been pushing D&I for years, internally and externally, the statistics show there is still a huge task ahead. What do companies expect from recruitment partners and how can they more effectively drive D&I? Claire Holness from Ericsson says the talent industry has a significant opportunity to enable companies to deliver on their people priorities: “Diversity in recruitment practices no longer requires ‘best efforts’ but is now essential for customers and candidates. Recruitment partners will only be successful if they deeply care about D&I and it is embedded in all that they do.

Recruiters need to dig deeply into each and every candidates’ broader experiences, coupled with the conviction to drive this topic with hiring decision makers.”

Recruiters can be important agents for change, tapping into new or under-used talent pools, and setting an example for their clients.

“We sit at the centre of how organisations grow by finding great talent and should be instrumental in helping them access talent from more diverse backgrounds,” says Guy Hayward from Goodman Masson, adding that his company’s Programme for Change started last October, when the internal D&I team set out

52 out of 1099: The number of leadership roles in the UK filled by non-white people Source: The Colour of Power 2020, Green Park

clear objectives to support gender diversity, an accepting environment for LGBTQ+ employees and a race-inclusive culture.

“As an industry our search and advertising techniques need to reach the widest and most diverse talent pools. Recruiters need to be confident in their language around D&I, have a strong understanding on what bias is and hold knowledge of how to reduce unconscious bias.”

Emily Ayre, BRUIN Financial

BRUIN’s Emily Ayre says a big part of the process is educating clients on best practice for the entire candidate pipeline – from how to write inclusive job descriptions to conducting CV assessments and interviews. “We’re regularly asked by clients to present to their senior leadership teams on how diverse talent management strategies can be implemented and have on a number of occasions designed their RFIs for other suppliers,” she says.

Raj Tulsiani, Green Park

“It’s also our role as recruiters to give our clients the fullest possible picture of the market, so alongside the standard market information about hiring trends and salary, we’re supporting our clients by highlighting diversity charters, programmes, and sector focused initiatives that they can get involved in which strengthens their brand and employee proposition.”

Claire Holness, Ericsson

Raj Tulsiani from Green Park says the coronavirus and BLM have highlighted inequalities but also given HR and talent leaders a unique opportunity to transform UK working culture.

“We can accelerate digital transformation and create a more flexible and inclusive working environment," he says. "We can take advantage of the slower market and wider talent pools to build and improve our employee brand, culture and company values, recruitment and HR processes, and build more diverse teams moving forward."

Guy Hayward, Goodman Masson

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

20 Industry View - Global Recruitment "What started as a health crisis has evolved into an economic and social crisis. While thankfully a small proportion of the population will be infected by COVID-19, 100% of us will be impacted by it."

Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO

Survive & thrive Every recruitment market around the world has been impacted by COVID 19, but some have weathered the storm better than others The world of talent acquisition and for the recruitment companies who operate in the sector has changed exponentially.

In simplistic terms, the past seven years have been extremely good for the sector. Our newly published Recruitment Powerlist shows the total industry revenue for recruiters in the UK has surpassed £50 billion. The conditions and circumstances that enabled this growth have gone and what was previously regarded as the ‘war for talent’ has quickly turned into a ‘war for survival’.

Like most businesses, recruitment companies are cutting staff and signing up to Government led schemes such as furlough in the UK or the JobKeeper initiative in Australia. These programmes are now being scaled back, which will inevitably lead to even higher numbers of unemployed workers. It is a challenge that we all need to face.

"What started as a health crisis has evolved into an economic and social crisis," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO. "While thankfully a small proportion of the population will be infected by COVID-19, 100% of us will be impacted by it."

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT Manpower is just one of thirty-five recruitment and staffing companies that we have studied for this look into the financial impact of Covid-19.

Between them these businesses cover virtually every market, every discipline and as such they provide a robust sample size and a diverse cross section of reference points.

Whilst each has its own reporting lines, we have

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tried to adopt ‘like for like’ analysis by focusing purely on reported revenues and/or net fee income for the first 6 months of 2020. This is not an exact science but it has enabled us to gain a better understanding of how selected regions have been adversely affected.

David Head, TALiNT Partners

On average the fall in revenues across the board has been 19.3%, and we expect this number to rise as soon as the Q3 numbers are factored in.

GLOBAL VIEW Under the microscope on a global basis we looked at twenty plus companies. None were able to report revenues up on the previous year.

The average fall in global turnover stands at 22.5%. Alarmingly, although not that surprising is that in most cases the fall in profits have been much higher.

“Trading conditions in the second quarter reached the low point in April when country lockdowns were most intensified," said Randstad, CEO Jacques van den Broek. "Since then, the revenue decline started to gradually ease into May and June in most of our geographies.”

Adecco Group CEO, Alain Dehaze performance in the first half "remained solidly profitable with strong gross margin performance despite the steep revenue declines".

Daniel Augereau, Chairman of Synergie Europe said: "After a first quarter during which business performed particularly well, the Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected the temporary employment market in France and abroad.”

Including most of the global recruiters covering

Summary

Japan has been least affected by COVID 19, with turnover falling by an average of 9.9% and several companies reporting an increase in revenues

Europe and adding in some of the regional companies, turnover was down on average 21.6%.

Jilko Andringa, CEO of Brunel International N.V., said: “In Q2, we continued to see project delays, reductions and cancellations due to the pandemic. The DACH region has seen the biggest impact and reports a loss in the quarter, which is also the result of seasonality and the first impact of a restructuring. The Netherlands is flattening out and shows improved profitability versus last year, through bench and cost management.”

BIG IN JAPAN Japan was the least affected of the regions we studied. Of the dozen or so recruiters who reported the country individually, their turnover fell on average by 9.9%. In fact, in several cases companies were able to report increased revenues.

Many of the listed Japanese companies report their year-end results to the end of March 2020, once their Q1 numbers are included the percentage is bound to rise. Another useful measurement of the market is how many people are classed as unemployed. Japan began the year at 2.2% and by the end of June this had risen to 2.8%.

US DECLINE The average fall in revenues across the US was 16.0%, helped by several ‘specialist’ recruiters turning in relatively good performances yielding extremely low losses in revenue. Remove these from the equation and the average fall would have been closer to 22%. This is against a backdrop where unemployment at the start of the year was 3.5% and now stands at 11.1%.

• No single region, sector or recruitment company has been immune to the impact of COVID 19 • Q1 performance typically remained robust • Falls in Q2 revenue not seen since the global financial crisis • Recruiter revenues have fallen by an average of 19.3% in H1 2020

“We will continue to face revenue challenges until the economic recovery from COVID-19 gains greater momentum and clients are back on their feet,” said Patrick Beharelle, CEO of TrueBlue.

International and UK rankings are both featured in the Recruitment Power List Report. To subscribe for your copy, register at https://powerlist.talint. co.uk/talint-powerlist/ register/

UK IMPACT The hardest hit, the UK, has reported turnover down on average 26.8%. Like most other regions the first quarter showed resilience, but Q2 has been brutal as the country went into total lockdown. Hays plc CEO Alistair Cox said "the pandemic severely impacted all our markets globally".

Robert Walters plc UK net fee income was down 31%. "The Covid-19 global pandemic presented the Group with an unprecedented set of challenges to navigate during the first six months of the year," said Robert Walters CEO Chris Hickey. "The way our people across the globe have responded to these challenges with a unity of purpose and steadfastness has been truly inspiring and is testament to the strength of the Group's culture.”

The remainder of 2020 will present challenges for the recruitment industry, but its ‘can do’ attitude and entrepreneurialism will help the world back to work.

Japan was the least affected of the regions we studied. Of the dozen or so recruiters who reported the country individually, their turnover fell on average by 9.9%. In several cases, companies reported increased revenues.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

22 Recruitment Power List

Wagging the sector

If 39,500 recruitment startups only generated 20% of the sector's revenues in 2019, are they really the engine of growth? Or are the top 500 the real power behind industry transformation?

Proliferating recruitment start-ups were fragmenting the sector before COVID 19, but very few have achieved scale. As redundancies are likely to drive another start-up boom, what impact will this have on the sector?

To help answer that question, TALiNT Partners spent the last six months researching the financial contribution of the top recruiters. Our newly published Recruitment Power List ranks the top 500 UK recruiters by turnover, NFI and PBT using verified data and Companies House records for the 2019 fiscal year.

While the true impact of the pandemic will be measured in next year’s Power List, this reflects the final year of a ten-year growth period for the sector.

There are 40,000 recruitment, search and staffing businesses registered at Companies House, but these 500 UK recruiters generate 80% of total sector sales. TALiNT Partners estimates there are only 1,000 companies with a UK turnover above £5 million per annum. Our research also indicates that there are just 128 companies with turnover above £50 million and only 328 with sales over £20 million.

POINTSIX Why are there so many start-ups and so few scale-ups? With only 0.6% of the industry generating revenues of £50m or above, who has the potential to scale and how can they achieve their full growth potential?

Our TALiNT International Recruitment Power List Report found that the 500 biggest companies by turnover grew revenues by over £2 billion to £39.4 billion (up from £37.1 billion in 2018).

With revenues almost doubling over the last decade, we estimate that total industry turnover is now just over £50 billion.

While the long tail of 39,500 recruitment start-ups generates over £10 billion between

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

them, the top 500 are still achieving growth. So, who will have the biggest impact on the sector over the next few years?

Alex Evans, Programme Director TALiNT Partners

To subscribe for access to the Recruitment Power List and full ranking information of the UK's top 500 recruiters, register at https://powerlist. talint.co.uk/talintpowerlist/register/

To put this into a broader economic context, the number of scale-ups across all sectors increased by 12% to 35,210 in 2019 according to the Scale-Up Institute. Collectively, they generated £1trillion in revenues and created 3.5m jobs, according to the Office for National Statistics.

A record 8,488 new recruitment agencies were registered in 2018, up 46%, and record 681,702 new companies were founded in 2019 but how many will achieve scale – or even survive? ONS figures indicate that 60% of start-ups fail within three years.

INVEST IN YOUR TALENT Do we need more start-ups? Probably not. Do we need more scale-ups? Definitely. Should the top recruiters be doing more to stop top performers leaving to start their own businesses? Undoubtedly.

All of the Inhouse, Agency, RPO and HR Tech leaders who contributed to the Recruitment Power List Report agreed that an investment in training and technology is the key to optimal commercial performance.

It's no coincidence that the winners of the 2020 TIARA Recruitment Awards have all demonstrated the return on investing in their people and tech transformation. It's enabling them to do more for less while justifying a premium for more value-added services.

The future of the recruitment sector is in the hands of those who have scaled their businesses. There is enormous unrealised potential in more mature recruitment firms with established brands, great teams and valuable expertise. The trick is to keep building the equity of the first without letting the other two walk out of the business.

24 The big interview - Simon Bradberry

“Major economies are bouncing back a bit faster than we thought they might...Obviously, recruitment is a leading indicator.”

The Seismic Shift

Ken Brotherston speaks to Simon Bradberry, the new EMEA chief for Allegis Global Solutions, about the rise of the flexible workforce and the future of talent tech Starting a major new role remotely during lockdown would be a challenging prospect for anyone, but Simon Bradberry appears to have taken it in his stride.

Appointed in June as vice president of operations, EMEA, for international talent leader Allegis Global Solutions (AGS), Bradberry has swapped the tropical heat of Singapore, where he was based with Resource Solutions, for the cooler charms of the Surrey countryside. He is now in charge of replicating AGS’ market leading success in North America in the EMEA, focussing on both the RPO and MSP markets.

“The UK is by far the biggest market here, but we have clients we are supporting right across continental Europe, and we are about to expand significantly in Ireland as well,” he says.

“There’s an opportunity to tailor our message in a way that recognises the differences in the markets in different regions.”

A NEW MINDSET Bradberry sees international labour markets being shaped more by changing organisational attitudes, rather than geography, in the new age ushered in by Covid-19.

He predicts companies will take an increasingly holistic, flexible approach to their workforce, being more concerned about ensuring a specific skill range than whether staff are permanent or contractors, working from home or in an office.

He points out that the contingent workforce has borne the upheaval of the pandemic far better

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

than the permanent sector. “The contingent workforce is bouncing back – the volume of new requirements coming through is up in the hundreds of percent from previous months.

We’re already seeing that in May and June across a number of economies,” he says.

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners

“The big change we’re seeing is a morphing of the way that talent is acquired, or perhaps I should say the way skills are acquired into an organisation.

“Organisations don’t really mind if they hire someone in Spain, or Hungary, or England, or Singapore – they want to know what the availability of talent is and what the strengths and weaknesses are.

“But few organisations are set up for this. They make a decision early about whether they are going to go down the contractor, permanent or temporary routes, and then they subsequently look at talent availability, and that is because a combination of processes and technology don’t allow them to approach this differently.

“That is what we are focusing on – to allow organisations to transition to that over a period of time. I think that’s the change that will come out of Covid-19.”

Bradberry points out that AGS’ position as a global player in more than 60 countries puts them in a prime position to orchestrate this new way of working. “It hasn’t been about incrementally building on what we were doing last month or last quarter. We need to

25

example. “What we’re implementing with customers now are bespoke tools that allow them to have that fully holistic view and to assess from all these different aspects, including all internal and external channels, to determine what skills are available. That is, undoubtedly, the future.”

completely change the way we’re thinking.”

That’s not to say that Bradberry sees the future as a giant gig economy, with everyone working from laptops on the sofa. He says many organisations will continue to recognise the intrinsic value of permanent workers who have “bought into their brand”.

However, while many companies have a good understanding of their staff’s roles, and who is more mobile, they are not as adept at identifying hidden skills within their workforce, or capitalising on them.

“Clients do want to access internal talent and move people around as much as possible, because we have seen that the average tenure of people across all industries is reducing,” he says. “They want to know who in their business might have skills that they are not aware of, as well as [the skills of] contractor workforces and permanent hires.”

TECH INNOVATION The route to accessing this depth of market insight is recruitment tech, one of the positive pandemic news stories – both its widespread adoption and accelerated innovation.

AGS has been among the companies introducing new products, specifically client-specific tools called Quantum Work and ACUMEN. Bradberry said Quantum Work is a highly advanced tool with “phenomenal sourcing ability”, while ACUMEN is a data aggregation device that enables clients to instantly benchmark and share data, on salaries, for

In contrast to some market experts, Bradberry does not believe automation necessarily risks alienating staff or customers; it all depends on how the technology is managed. He points to Netflix and Amazon as companies that had the fine balance between human and digital touch right. “Very few people complain – about the interaction they have with Netflix or Amazon because they are just so easy,” he says. “When you have what I would call a consumer grade digital experience, people feel that their experience has been enhanced.”

He points out that as companies approach digitization, they must do so in tandem with an approach that considers generational differences – for example, Generation X were typically happier to make a phone call if they encountered a website problem, while younger people were more comfortable messaging via What’s App or talking to a chat-bot.

Bradberry acknowledges that the current scenario is so unusual that admitting not knowing all the answers is wisest.

“Funnily enough, my kids were saying to me in January: ‘Dad, did you know there were global pandemics in 1820 and 1920? What’s going to happen in 2020?” he recounts with a wry laugh.

“I would be lying if I said I know the answer.

What I can say is that what we are seeing so far is that a lot of the major economies are bouncing back a bit faster than we thought they might, definitely for contingents, and, to a certain extent, for permanents. Obviously, recruitment is a leading indicator. Do I think things will get back to normal? I don’t think anything will ever be the same as it was before.

“Twelve months from now, I think we’ll see greater unification of how talent is brought into organisations, greater digitalisation, and people will start thinking slightly more long-term.

Organisations have worked on a year-to-year basis and the real three to five year plans have been few and far between. We’ll see a trend towards greater flexibility and more long-term planning.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

#talentsolutionsawards

27 Thank you to our TIARA Sponsors Our partners not only support the TIARA campaign to recognise the industry’s best RPO & MSP companies but help them to improve performance, deliver value and win new business.

Reassuringly innovative Winners of the inaugural Talent Solutions Awards demonstrated innovation and client value to an independent panel of industry judges When transformation was chosen as the central campaign theme for TALiNT Partners’ TIARA awards programme in 2020, it was primarily to recognise the impact of technology on recruitment and talent acquisition.

However, as the impact of COVID 19 becomes increasingly clear, the need for business transformation has been brought into the sharpest possible focus and provided an incredible opportunity for agile and innovative businesses to prove their worth.

Ken Brotherston, Managing Director, TALiNT Partners

TIMELY RECOGNITION The RPO/MSP sector is a hugely important and fast-growing global industry that enables employers and recruiters to put the right people in the right jobs and perform better.

All 21 finalists shortlisted for the inaugural TIARA Talent Solutions Awards are an inspiration to the RPO and MSP sector. From bold and innovative scale-ups to the largest global players there has been a clear demonstration of the impact they have and the value they deliver at a time employers are embracing technology and new ways of working.

As we emerge from lockdown, the shape of the hiring market will continue to be uncertain for some time to come so agility and responsiveness

“We believe the TIARA Talent Solutions Awards offer a powerful endorsement to differentiate solutions for buyers looking for reassurance on agility, responsiveness and value for money.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

#talentsolutionsawards

29 will be every bit as important as value for money.

We believe the TIARA Talent Solutions Awards offer a powerful endorsement to differentiate solutions for buyers looking for reassurance on these points.

CREDIBILITY & PRESTIGE The judging process was designed to be independent and rigorous and built around the expectations of demanding and often highly complex employer requirements, and based on key performance metrics, case studies and testimonials.

As our chair of judges and industry guru Jim Richardson commented: "The RPO industry has evolved spectacularly over the last 30 years and, whilst being able to fulfil open requisitions quickly and cost-effectively remains as important as ever, as TA has become more strategic, the RPO industry has had to respond by developing best in class services not just in fulfilment but in areas such as, branding, onboarding and strategic workforce planning.

"It is vitally important that there is an outlet for their services to assessed, judged and recognised by an independent panel of judges. This can play a key role in helping firms to constantly improve and guide those organisations considering the RPO route.

"The TIARA Talent Solutions Awards has been set up by those who really understand TA functions and RPO. The array of judges is very impressive and represents expertise across a wide range of industries. I have been incredibly impressed by the quality of the responses this year and would like to thank every firm who entered."

I would like to offer my thanks to our esteemed panel of judges, and Jim Richardson, for their time and commitment in choosing this year’s winners and in providing the feedback that will help both winners and finalists improve their solutions and grow their businesses.

Thank you also to all of our sponsors, and in particular our headline sponsor, Cornerstone, for their support of the creation and launch of the very first TIARA Talent Solutions Awards programme.

Thank you to our TIARA 2020 Judges Our judging process is supported by over 20 judges who score each entry and debate the highest scorers to decide each winner: • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Alison Westwood, Head of Resourcing & Recruitement Services, Royal Mail Andrew Brown, Global Head of RPO, Partners & Alliances, Cornerstone OnDemand Annabel Morris, Global Head of Recruitment, Credit Suisse Daniel Haslam, Sales Director, Giant Group David Brammer, Head of Recruitment, Stonegate Pub Company Graham Palfery-Smith, Chairman, 6CATS International Hugh Fordham, CEO, Hollaroo James Harvey, Global Head of Vendor Strategy, Deutsche Bank Jane Upton, Talent Acquisition Lead, NatWest Holdings Customer Businesses Jeff Uden, Head of Talent & L&D, Iceland Foods Jim Richardson, Chair of Judges Jon Clarke, Commercial Compliance Director, 6CATS International Julie-Ann Page, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, Rolls Royce Kirsty Jerome, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, Specsavers Neil Griffiths, Director, Ceriph Neil Kelly, Global Talent Acquisition Leader, Thermo Fisher Scientific Noura Dadzie, VP Sales, UK & International Markets, Talent.com Sandy Scott, CEO, Zeel Solutions Sharron O'Donnell, Head of Resourcing, Virgin Media Steve Beckitt, Founder, SourceBreaker Umang Panchal, Head of RPO Sales, LinkedIn

“It is vitally important that there is an outlet for RPO services to assessed, judged and recognised by an independent panel of judges."

Jim Richardson, Chair of Judges

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

AMS triumphed with their project to improve Santander’s graduate programme with a strong focus on social mobility Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) have a team of over 200 dedicated early career experts who support clients around the world to help them meet the challenges they face in recruiting early careers talent. They offer a range of flexible solutions from supporting inhouse teams with campus administration and sourcing, to delivering end-to-end programmes for attraction, screening, assessment and programme management for graduates, postgraduates, interns, school leavers, apprentices, vacation schemes and co-op programmes.

Their winning entry was for their work with Santander on the most recent initiative: Enhanced social mobility, improved candidate experience and a digital journey; creating the new norm.

The project significantly improved Santander’s position in the UK Social Mobility Index and created more support for parents, carers and career advisors.

The judges also commended AMS on the degree of innovation deployed in the project, including gamified assessment, and a digital and virtual assessment centre with feedback saying how it had missing word as well as (and possibly even better than) previous face-to-face approaches.

The project enabled Santander to authentically tell its story by focusing on diverse stories and experiences of real employees which had a hugely positive impact on the number of diverse applications they received.

The judges were also impressed with the fact that the work is very well aligned with the bank’s overall strategy and EVP, ‘the Santander Effect’.

Ian Gallagher, Senior Manager of Emerging Talent at Santander commented: ‘our success is based on collaboration from business representatives, AMS and the Learning Team.

Our priority has always been the candidate experience and we’re extremely proud of the results.’

Alexander Mann Solutions Client Services Manager Linzi Hayward accepts the award for The Hollaroo Best Early Career Initiative

The Hollaroo Best Early Career Award Finalists Alexander mann Solutions GTI Hudson RPO

“Judges praised AMS for clearly demonstrating the results and benefits of the project along with a strong focus on social mobility, Alexander Mann were a worthy winner.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

#talentsolutionsawards

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TIARA 2020 Talent Solutions Awards

PeopleScout are a global RPO solutions business combining awardwinning talent advisory and industry leading communications.

Their winning project was for the AA, established in 1905 and the UK’s largest motoring organisation, operating in a highly competitive sector with several challenger brands.

Robert Peasnell, Deputy Managing Director at PeopleScout is presented with The Employer Brand Award

The key objective was to address inaccurate pre-conceptions about the AA as an employer and the types of roles it offered as well as to demonstrate the AA’s vibrant culture encapsulated by the phrase ‘Ready for ANYTHING.’ The project had two key components: trigger image augmented reality postcards to help the AA reach a new audience, increase site visitors, boost applications and make successful hires; and then crowned with a live event featuring ex-SBS soldier Ant Middleton taking volunteers into the wilderness for 24 hours. This culminated in millions of views, hundreds of thousands of site visits and a huge rise in social media engagement and applications.

This, ultimately, was the key factor in determining the winner with judges praising the boldness and innovation of the live streaming adventure.

The Ready for ANYTHING brand is now embedded across the entire candidate journey, providing a fine example of a resourcing strategy being perfectly aligned with the business strategy.

A real ground-breaking entry and deserving winner.

The Employer Brand Award Finalists Alexander Mann Solutions PeopleScout

“Judges especially commended PeopleScout for being very strong on augmentation, use of social media and end user engagement.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

35

Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

Guidant Global have taken D&I to the next level, with a fresh approach with strong case studies demonstrating the company walks the talk and delivers innovative solutions Guidant Global provide global workforce management solutions that help companies find the best permanent and contingent talent.

They champion #ABetterWay and have sought to make inclusivity the cornerstone of their peoplefirst culture.

Nicky Hale, Head of Talent Engagement at Guidant Global, accepts the Giant Group Diversity & Inclusion Award

Guidant are the first recruitment organisation to be awarded a Level Three Disability Confident Leader status and the first business in the UK to attain a Clear Assured Silver Status. They have partnered with a wide range of organisations who help people with protected characteristics and backgrounds find work.

A particular statistic which impressed the judges was that 82% of their people were already working flexibly before the Covid pandemic. They especially liked the work around disability and pushing the agenda through their supply chain.

Guidant’s own approach to D&I is also demonstrated in their ability to deliver a D&! agenda across multiple clients.

They continue to look for new ways to drive diversity and inclusion forward including trialling an accessible freelance marketplace and using technology to ensure their site is optimised to work for whomever uses it. For example by using audio files and different colour filters.

They also lead the way in enabling people with criminal convictions to find a way back into the workforce.

The Giant Group Diversity & Inclusion Award Finalists Guidant Global Lorien

By ensuring an inclusive culture is the bedrock of their own business was the key factor in Guidant winning this category.

“Judges loved that Guidant took a genuinely holistic approach to D&I with themselves as their case study. ‘Integrity in a nutshell’ was one judge’s quote.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

TalentLink supports RPO and MSP’s to: • Deliver a class-leading user experience • Drive innovation into your hiring community • Manage multiple projects and clients • Drive efficiencies into your hiring process leading to cost savings • Deliver a ‘Total Talent’ strategy, creating the right hiring outcomes for clients whatever their needs.

Working with 80% of the HRO’s Bakers Dozen for best in class RPO vendors, Cornerstone TalentLink provides the technology foundation for your Total Talent Approach

Find Out More

37

Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

Gattaca demonstrated the importance of getting the basics right with brilliant execution.

Gattaca Solutions deliver flexible, permanent and total workforce solutions to the engineering and technology markets with the motto ‘Collaborative Workforce Solutions, Expertly Delivered’.

The SourceBreaker Candidate Experience Award is presented to Gattaca for their work with the Ministry of Defence

The winning project was for a key part of the Ministry of Defence, which routinely manages a range of complex projects.

The client typically has c2000 hires per year, with Gattaca building a consistent communication programme into all candidate touch points resulting in fulfilment rates rising to almost 100%.

The Head of TA at the client stated: ‘with Gattaca Solutions we have seen significant process improvements and achieved unprecedented hiring volumes and now have the capability to implement continuous improvement initiatives’ There was also an impressive focus on improving neurodiverse candidates and Gattaca worked with the clients to develop an innovative Autism Recruitment Programme including redefining job roles to suit candidates’ strengths and delivering a more accessible candidate journey.

The judges recognised this would have been a big a change for the client, who also stated ‘Gattaca collaborated with us to sensitively challenge the norm, helping us more effectively compete for talent and develop campaigns to reach diverse talent’.

A fine example of a great candidate experience with clear improvement in outcomes.

The SourceBreaker Candidate Experience Award Finalists Alexander Mann Solutions Gattaca MBA PeopleScout Volt

“Judges said this was a great story of a provider that listened well to the issues and looked to solve them rather than throwing everything at the client.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

TalentLink supports RPO and MSP’s to: • Deliver a class-leading user experience • Drive innovation into your hiring community • Manage multiple projects and clients • Drive efficiencies into your hiring process leading to cost savings • Deliver a ‘Total Talent’ strategy, creating the right hiring outcomes for clients whatever their needs.

Working with 80% of the HRO’s Bakers Dozen for best in class RPO vendors, Cornerstone TalentLink provides the technology foundation for your Total Talent Approach

Find Out More

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

AMS took the prize for the creation of a bespoke, end-to-end employee lifecycle talent management platform which delivered outstanding results Alexander Mann Solutions Technology Consulting team possess unrivalled global TA Technology consulting expertise with a team of over 60 experts around the world.

The Cornerstone OnDemand Best use of Technology Award is accepted by Stephen Gordon, Recruitment Tech Lead at Talent Collective / AMS

This was a great example of a talent management and internal mobility challenge and judges said that ‘AMS demonstrated that they really listened to their client’s challenge and used technology to design a bespoke solution to support internal career pathways and options’.

The ‘Find your Fit’ technology solution identified employees’ personal preferences and assessed them to fit future growth areas of the business by building learning pathways to help employees develop their technology skills.

The technology platform included an interactive video, blended online assessment, personalised one-to-one calls and a platform to match their skills with roles. The project gained rapid user acceptance with over 1,200 employees enrolling within six months.

This has enabled employees to understand which areas of the business are growing and how they can then develop the right attributes to take advantage of opportunities and enhance their own careers.

The Cornerstone Best Use of Technology Award Finalists

The client’s long-term commitment to internal mobility is now embedded in their organisation although the Find your Fit solution continues to evolve and engage new employee populations, for example in promoting females into executive leadership positions.

Alexander Mann Solutions IBM Reed Talent Solutions Resource Solutions

“Judges commended this entry for the clear way in which an innovative technology solution clearly delivered in results.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

PeopleScout presented a great example of a challenging hiring project delivered at pace PeopleScout is the world’s largest RPO provider offering solutions across over 70 countries with their customer surveys showing that they value the quality, availability and stability of their client service.

James Chorley, Client Relationship Director at PeopleScout accepts The Zeel Solutions Client Service Award

This project was for Virgin Media and was in response to Covid and required over 500 permanent hires required to be in place as quickly as possible. This had complex challenges to ensure safe working conditions for new and existing employees.

The judges were especially impressed with the clear, measurable results which incorporated a considered process, tech innovation and which dovetailed into Virgin Media’s diversity strategy.

The first applicants were screened within nine working days of the project launch with 527 offers made within eight weeks and over 6000 applications generated.

The project has enabled Virgin Media to re-model its future recruitment by building in virtual interviewing and assessment for volume hiring. Especially as, in a sample of 351 applications, managers agreed with 97% of the scoring, giving them complete confidence in the process and saving them huge amounts of time.

Virgin Media’s Head of Resourcing said: Peoplescout helped us build a new level of trust with our hiring managers, enabling us to work in a far more efficient and safe way. The success of this project means that we now have a new way of recruiting to build on in the future’.

The Zeel Client Service Award Finalists Avencia Hudson RPO KellyOCG Linx MBA Optamor PeopleScout Resource Solutions WilsonHCG

“The judges were especially impressed with the clear, measurable results which incorporated a considered process, tech innovation and which dovetailed into Virgin Media’s diversity strategy. ”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

A winning, client centric response which also showcased how two providers can work together to drive continuous improvement whilst managing complex growth NES is an international workforce specialist in the global energy sector and has been the RPO and MSP provider for Baker Hughes since 2010 in partnership with Alexander Mann Solutions, another global leader in RPO, MSP and talent consulting. Together they have delivered worldclass capabilities to their client.

The Talint.com Long Term Partnership Award, won by NES Global Talent and AMS, was accepted by David Barnes, Recruitment Operations Director, EARC at Baker Hughes

Judges could see that this partnership works well and has stood the test of time but still has a strong drive to continue to evolve collaboratively.

The combined team is nearly 200 strong, spread across 24 countries and, for example, also demonstrates success in placing females in regions with historically poor female engagement.

The HR Director at Baker Hughes comments: ‘the partnership has been instrumental in driving numerous internal efficiencies. They continue to demonstrate flexibility and customer-centricity in the delivery of their services’.

The relationship has stood the test of many market challenges as well as significant M&A activity within the client but continues to go from strength to strength.

There is a relentless focus on best practice which has been supported by a consistent structure and management team which has also allowed NES and AMS to maintain their own corporate identities whilst always putting the client first.

The Talent.com Long Term Partnership Award Alexander Mann Solutions Guidant Global HudsonRPO KellyOCG Manpower Talent Solutions MCG Construction NES Global Talent

“Judges remarked that this a fine model of a modern business partnership of which any industry sector would be proud.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

Join Talent proved their winning formula based on the boutique feel of their service and backed up by their strong in-house expertise JOIN Talent are a talent solution management consultancy and boutique RPO. Although they only commenced formal trading in May 2019, they already have a broad range of clients across multiple industries targeting start-ups/ ramp ups. Whilst their services are principally aimed at scale-ups they are also able to augment services that larger corporates have themselves. Indeed, their roster of well-known and international clients was seen as impressive by the judges.

The judges especially warmed to their agile approach and a genuine desire to see things from their clients’ point of view.

They currently have a 100% score on ‘would you re-engage’ and a 62% repeat customer score and can demonstrate clear and compelling metrics.

Their consultative approach means that each approach is bespoke for each client to maximise the deliverability of the project and ensure a strong ROI. At the same time, the business has achieved a solid financial footing even against the backdrop of Covid-related challenges with no staff furloughed. The flexibility of their own orgsnaiton structure combined with a strong training ethos also pays dividends.

Overall, judges loved their innovative and agile approach and definitely have them down as a ‘one to watch’.

Katrina Hutchinson O’Neil, CEO & Founder of Join Talent, accepts the award for the Talent.com Best New Talent Solutions Provider

The Talent.com New Talent Solutions Award Finalists Avencia Join Talent

“The judges especially warmed to Join Talent's agile approach and a genuine desire to see things from their clients’ point of view.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Winner

Guidant’s ‘people lead growth’ strategy seen as the key driver in creating a great place to work.

Guidant Global provide global workforce management solutions that help companies find the best permanent and contingent talent and deliver complete visibility of their workforce.

Charlotte Woodward, Director of People Services at Guidant Global, accepts the award for 6CATS Best RPO/MSP To Work For

They have a variety of programmes aimed at inclusion and development, the most influential of which is their Virtuoso programme, which focuses on unlocking the potential of their people. This has clearly impacted results on their internal hire statistics.

As importantly, this feeds into their commercial results with industry leading client retention rates and a clear connection between internal promotion and new business wins.

Guidant have the highest industry ranking in the Sunday Times Best Companies and a 4.8 Glassdoor review score.

Judges were also impressed with how Guidant use ‘failure’ as a key learning tool with an open an active approach to reviewing things that haven’t worked as well as planned in order to drive further improvement and engagement.

In summary, Guidant Global were seen as an outstanding example of what a great, modern employer should look like.

The 6CATS Best MSP/RPO Award Finalists Aleexander Mann Solutions Gattaca Guidant Global KellyOCG PeopleScout

“Judges loved that their people-led strategy also extends to suppliers and candidates as well as their own people and clients.

They also noted that 82% of Guidant’s people were working flexibly even before Covid.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

TalentLink supports RPO and MSP’s to: • Deliver a class-leading user experience • Drive innovation into your hiring community • Manage multiple projects and clients • Drive efficiencies into your hiring process leading to cost savings • Deliver a ‘Total Talent’ strategy, creating the right hiring outcomes for clients whatever their needs.

Working with 80% of the HRO’s Bakers Dozen for best in class RPO vendors, Cornerstone TalentLink provides the technology foundation for your Total Talent Approach

Find Out More

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Talent Solutions Awards 2020 Overall Winner

Overall Winner Chair of Judges Jim Richardson explains why Alexander Mann Solutions triumphed as the overall winner of the 2020 Talent Solutions Awards All of this year's finalists are at the forefront of championing transformation and innovation in across the talent ecosystem.

The overall winner is based on the organisation that consistently demonstrates excellence and innovation across all of its activities, but the judges felt very strongly that two firms should be highly commended.

The first is Peoplescout, who demonstrated very high standards across the board but really stood out for their boldness, creativity and

exceptionally high client service The second is Guidant Global who were recognised for being contemporary and values based. They lead the field from a D&I perspective and truly walk the talk.

However our overall winner, Alexander mann Solutions, demonstrated consistently high standards across all areas and, although they have the resources to support a lot of initiatives they still manage to consistently deliver on large, complex global projects.

Marisa Kacary, Marketing Director of AMS, accepts the award for Overall Winner of the 2020 Talent Solutions Awards

Alexander mann Solutions demonstrated consistently high standards across all areas and, although they have the resources to support a lot of initiatives they still manage to consistently deliver on large, complex global projects.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

#talenttechstarawards

51 Thank you to our Talent Tech Star Awards Judges...

The transformers

Winners of the Talent Tech Star Awards are enabling transformation across the talent acquisition industry On Friday 18th September 2020, the winners of the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards were revealed in a virtual ceremony attended by CEOs and founders of some of the UK’s leading HR and Recruitment companies.

All of the finalists shortlisted for the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards are an inspiration to the HR Tech industry, with 33 high potential start-ups and scale-ups generating over a billion revenues and employing over 8,500 people in this transformational industry.

An impressive panel of judges was chaired

by Martin McCourt, former Dyson CEO and now Chairman and Non Executive Director of companies including Weber, HeadBox, Lightfoot, FreeFlow Technologies and The learning Curve Group.

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Alex Evans, Programme Director, TALiNT Partners

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The winners are doubly impressive, demonstrating the value and impact of their solutions to a respected panel of judges.

This makes a TIARA Talent Tech Star Award a powerful and prestigious endorsement.

SETTING THE STANDARD The judging process was designed around the expectations of buyers and investors, based on key performance metrics, case studies and testimonials. The 2020 judging panel brought together expert perspectives from senior HR and Recruitment industry leaders, investors, and advisors including: Adam Hawkins, Head of Search & Staffing UK&I and EMEA at LinkedIn; Umerah Akram, Head of London Stock Exchange Group’s ELITE programme; and Michael Rendell, founding partner of Nala Ventures and former Partner and Head of Innovation and Transformation at PwC.

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• • • •

The TIARA 2020 Talent Tech Star Awards campaign was supported by sponsors Optima Corporate Finance and the Freelance & Contractor Services Association.

“It takes more than good financial performance, well-executed innovation, and customer service to win awards. It has to be exemplary to inspire others to aspire to greater ambition."

Adam Hawkins, Head of Search & Staffing UK&I, EMEA, LinkedIN Chris Gray, Sales and Marketing Director, ManpowerGroup UK Devyani Vaishampayan, Managing Partner, HR TECH Partnership Kirstie Kelly-Batt, HR Tech Investor & Advisor Laurie Padua, MD, Talent Collective Martin Ewings, Brand & Operations Director, Experis Martin McCourt, Chair of Judges Michael Rendell, Founder Partner, Nala Ventures Mike Lander, CEO, Piscari Parveen Dhanda, Head of Programmes/ Future Fifty, Tech Nation Phil Pluck, CEO, FCSA Philip Ellis, CEO, Optima Corporate Finance Rebecca Martin-Cortez, Benchmark Director, TALiNT Partners Sophie Devonshire, CEO, The Marketing Society Tiffany St James, Founder, Transmute Umerah Akram, Head of Elite UK, London Stock Exchange Group

“This year’s Talent Tech Star Award winners all demonstrated great focus, execution, and ambition,” commented Martin McCourt. “It takes more than good financial performance, well-executed innovation, and customer service to win awards. It has to be exemplary to inspire others to aspire to greater ambition and impact.

That’s what transforms industries.

“It was difficult for the judges to choose winners from such strong shortlists. Imagine, then, how much harder it was to choose a Champion of Champions from ten very strong contenders.”

INDUSTRY CHAMPION Clear Review was crowned TIARA Champion of Champions after winning the Talent Tech Customer Service Award. Judges praised Clear Review for “successfully applying performance data to enable continual professional development whilst improving wellbeing … which is solving a fundamental problem for employers around engagement, productivity and identifying transferable skills.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

JoinedUp was crowned Optima Workforce Solution of the Year for the value and improvement it has delivered to end-hirers, agencies and workers Judges praised JoinedUp for demonstrating the value and impact of its solution across the talent acquisition eco-system.

Ian Shaw, Business Development Director of JoinedUp, accepts the award for Optima Workforce Solution of the Year

JoinedUp is a cloud-based platform allowing end-hirers, temp-staffing businesses and workers to work more effectively and transparently together in real-time. The platform breaks down data-siloes to create a single view.

It has helped agencies using its platform to win successful bids worth over £500m p.a in new billings from major corporate clients; and increased the number of temps per salaried employee by an average of 30%+ over the past 12 months.

“With JoinedUp, time spent on data entry and admin tasks like scheduling, organising payroll and resolving pay disputes has been slashed," said Jason Greaves, Operations Director at Manpower Group. "Our consultants spend more time with our candidates and clients ensuring we provide a reliable, high-quality and valuable service."

Web-based tools help automate the entire highvolume recruitment process from digital onboarding through to planning, facial-recognition T&A, complex-rate-calculations and electronic time-sheeting.

JoinedUp has also helped employers to significantly reduce hiring time and costs.

"JoinedUp has helped us manage our scheduling, engage better with our workers and ensure that our staffing costs and trends are more visible," said Alison Westwood, Head of Resourcing at Royal Mail.

It also helps contract workers to better manage their working lives. Via the JoinedUp app, workers can request holidays, set ideal working patterns, view and accept available shifts and check their gross pay in real-time.

Focusing their innovation on the growing gig economy, JoinedUp gives zero-hours contract workers a greater sense of control over their own lives and leads to materially better engagement with their agency as a result.

The Optima Workforce Solution of the Year Award Finalists First Freelance Headstart JoinedUp - Winner Rota Talisman Tech - Highly Commended ThriveMap

“By enabling employers, temps and contractors to work more transparently together in real-time, Joined Up has created an innovative, tech advanced, joined up solution to a problem that is often avoided and difficult to accurately keep track of in business.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Judges chose TribePad as winner of the FCSA Contractor Solution of the Year for its collaborative approach, delivering moere bespoke solutions in partnership with clients Tribepad is an award-winning recruitment software provider serving some of the UK’s best-known organisations including Tesco, The Church of England, KFC and Bupa. It is used by more than 21 million candidates in 15 languages worldwide.

Its contractor management solution, Tribepad Flex, connects contractors and freelancers with roles and is easily adapted to suit different sectors and problems. In media, it's used to connect high-profile presenters with work, lawyers with firms, IT professionals with projects, out of work recruiters with activelyhiring recruitment managers and, more recently, volunteers to charities helping with Covid-19.

Innovative features include its ratings functionality which gives the ability to bookers to rate work, allowing the best contractors to be chosen and bookers to group them into cohorts.

Judges commended TribePad for its collaborative approach, co-creating bespoke solutions with clients.

TribePad developed a custom documentation and automated expiry feature with a client solicitor to allow specific documentation to be attached to a role - which made compliance with their regulatory body much easier and provided an auditable trail faster with less work.

Its BBC Talent Cloud solution provided a consistent pool of talent for the broadcaster enabling 1500 bookers to more effectively share 12500 contractors between projects.

Neil Armstrong, Commercial Director of TribePad, accepts the award for FCSA Contractor Solution of the Year

The FCSA Contractor Solution of the Year Award Finalists Giant Group NumberMill Parasol - Highly Commended People Group TribePad - Winner

Its solution supported the NHS in sourcing vital contractors through the pandemic and charities in finding and managing volunteers.

“The platform we built with Tribepad gives information and control to both volunteers and charities, which was previously impossible to do on this scale," said Paul Harvey, Centre Manager, VAS. "We can see where the need is and it’s empowering people and charities to make those vital connections. Really great work.”

“Judges praised TribePad for its innovative & bespoke solution - which enabled the BBC to share talent amongst themselves for the first time and for its support of charities and the NHS through COVID 19.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

People Group triumphed to win Compliance Solution of the Year for reducing time to onboard candidates while increasing the accurate and efficiency of checks and references People Group offer a suite of business solutions designed to deliver the best contractor experience for a range of different industries and roles. It works with agency partners to help create efficiencies and support business growth.

It has processed over 10 million contractor payslips and has led the way on industry best practice and compliance for the past 15 years.

Judges praised People Group for improving the onboarding process, a crucial part of candidate recruitment which can be time-consuming as well as open to human error and bad practice.

Its People Compliance solution uses a bespoke mix of technology and expertise to reduce onboarding time by up to 50%, reducing a 10 day period to a 5 day period for some medical roles and 6 days to 3 days for education. It helps recruiters to quickly, accurately and costeffectively onboard and reliably background screen workers.

It replaces traditional paper-based processes with an electronic application accessible on any device. It plugs into relevant databases to validate documents in real-time and all files are reviewed by experienced compliance officers before sign-off. Every action is logged, and every application has a complete electronic audit trail.

Judges particularly commended People Compliance for its use of biometrics and facial recognition to validate identity documents. It can recognise 4,500 identity documents from over 190 countries - which helps protect against fraud, bad practice and stolen identities.

Terry Hillier, CEO of People Group, accepts the award for Compliance Solution of the Year

The Compliance Solution of the Year Award Finalists Giant Group NumberMill Parasol PayStream - Highly Commended People Group - Winner Qdos

It can also carry out a range of over 60 checks and reference requests - a big log-jam for most agencies.

Ease of use was also commended, with applicants able to manage their application completely on their phone simply and easily while recruiters can tailor the solution to the requirements of their industry and agency.

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

“Judges praised People Group for their bespoke product enabling impressive – and scalable efficiencies in the on-boarding and compliance process with fantastic use of technology.”

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Paiger won Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year for enabling better collaboration between sales and marketing to improve ROI from social media campaigns and LinkedIn Piager's innovation and impact is in enabling recruiters to act like marketers, with salespeople receiving and sharing marketing content, becoming more knowledgeable about the industry they recruit for, and delivering value beyond jobs to their social media connections.

Paiger's 'smarketing solution' is a social media marketing tool built specifically for recruiters.

Using decades of experience from its founder's time at Broadbean, Paiger gets salespeople sharing marketing content to increase leads and enables marketers to report on the impact from its dashboard.

Paiger boasts that content shared via its platform sees seven times more engagement in regards to likes and comments when compared with company efforts alone.

Alongside content, Paiger’s job socialisation increases both brand awareness and applications from social. By automatically producing branded imagery, hashtags and an engaging status, recruiters are saving time and marketers can track the impact of social job sharing as Paiger plugs into Google Analytics.

Judges particularly commended Paiger for driving D&I by checking roles for Gender Bias, with alerts if a role is advertised in a way proven to stop applicants.

Another recent innovation launched by Paiger is the ability for LinkedIn posts to be scheduled in advance while allowing colleagues to be tagged, automatically like the post and the link to be in the first comment.

"Paiger solves two major challenges; getting our sales team knowledgeable about their markets and posting about it on social," said Janine Owen, former Marketing Director of Search Consultancy. "Paiger helps recruitment businesses maximise their ROI from LinkedIn, invest in the growth of their recruiters and enables marketers to work closely with the salesfloor - bridging the gap between sales and marketing."

Paiger has quickly grown its client base to over 150 recruiters in the UK, US and Australia.

Darren Westall, Founder of Paiger, accepts the award for Recruitment Solution of the Year

The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year Award Finalists Enhance Media Hollaroo Hoxo Media - Highly Commended Paiger - Winner Talisman Tech

“Judges praised Paiger for a collaborative candidate engagement solution that the recruitment market needs and clearly wants based on strong client recommendations from industry leaders.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

#talenttechstarawards

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

PredictiveHire won Candidate Experience Solution of the Year for an innovation that enables inhouse and agency recruiters to deliver meaningful feedback at scale PredictiveHire triumphed in a highly competitive category for re-imagining candidate interviews and assessment.

Through a smart chat interview of five free form questions, its AI uncovers soft skills, role specific traits, and written communication skills of every applicant, giving employers and recruiters a bias free ranked list of every applicant.

Laura Belfied, Customer Success & Product Manager at PredictiveHire, accepts the award for Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

Designed to remove unconscious bias, it doesn't capture sensitive information like gender, age and race.

Candidates have embraced the solution, with a 95% completion rate and 99% satisfaction rating. This is driven by a non-timed chat-based interview, which is fast and comfortable, and every candidate receives personalised feedback and coaching tips which they find valuable.

Feedback from recruiters and CHROs has also been extremely positive for offering end to end automation of the recruitment process and reducing cost and time to hire by 90% with truly blind screening. This is a higher priority for consumer brands where every applicant is also a customer.

Judges commended PredictiveHire for innovation in its simple chatbot conversation to measure personality at a fraction of the cost and time required for a psychometric assessment.

It was also praised for building a text to personality capability using advances in NLP and machine learning. This means it can discover multiple success profiles from feedback signals such as hiring outcomes and performance on an ongoing basis compared to traditional psychometric testing which is based on a single success profile based on norm data.

PredictiveHire has amassed an emormous amount of candidate insight to improve the experience, with a solution that addresses an area of feedback often neglected by the industry.

The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year Award Finalists Enhance Media EVA.AI Hinterview Hollaroo - Highly Commended MyKindaFuture PredictiveHire - Winner

“Judges praised PredictiveHire for a matching solution that could fundamentally change the way candidates experience recruitment, delivering valuable insight to both the employer and the candidate whether they are recruited or not.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Judges chose LearnAmp as Learning Solution of the Year for a proven platform that enables candidates to upskill and employees to take control of their professional development In a very tightly fought category for Learning Solution of the Year, Learn Amp triumphed for its successful combination of a Learning Management System (LMS) and Learning Experience Platform (LXP) which balances the need for control over compliance and directed learning with the autonomy and flexibility of employee-led L&D. Martin Hill-Wilson, CEO of Brainfood Training & Consulting explains the value he has had as an employer. “Learn Amp employs the concept of flipped learning perfectly. The learner self-serves for the majority of time, working at their own pace that fits to their schedule.

"They submit exercises or ask the expert (me) questions when they need it and I can coach them through virtually from wherever I am.

We then schedule regular events through the platform for the high touch support and social collaboration which really adds value.”

COMBINED VALUE Winner of two LXP awards in 2018 and 2019, Learn Amp designed its employee experience platform to more easily map out and deliver the best journey. It combines learning, engagement and performance management tools in one seamless platform to drive better business results and higher employee retention.

LearnAmp clients also use the solution to automate and deliver a substantially improved and consistent onboarding process - which has become an even more important part of the candidate journey through lockdown.

Joe Hill-Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer at LearnAmp, accepts the award for Learning Solution of the Year

The Learning Solution of the Year Award Finalists ClearReview CoachPro LearnAmp - Winner Learnerbly - Highly Commended Recruiting Gym Recruitment Juice

“Judges praised LearnAmp for a super smart, intuitive learning solution that enables employers to provide richer, more purposeful learning journeys for employees that they can control themselves.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Double-award winner LearnAmp won Onboarding Solution of the Year for demonstrating value as an end to end employee engagement platform Having shown its value and impact as a TIARA winning learning solution, LearnAmp also impressed judges as an onboarding platform that solves an important post-pandemic challenge for employers and recruiters.

Simple, intuitive navigation and accessibility is vital for virtual onboarding and LearnAmp was the first to adopt a Netflix style interface, which has been adopted as the norm in its market.

LearnAmp is designed to set onboarding in context for higher performance and faster engagement. It enables content and meetings to be combined with feedback surveys, knowledge management, review and performance management tools - all in one platform.

This holistic and integrated approach was proased by judges for aligning the interests of the employee with the employer and mapping out a visible employee journey. This reduces the time to get a new joiner to full effectiveness in their role.

Commeting on the impact of the solution on her business, Maria Vavoulas, COO of recruiter The Hive said: "Learn Amp has streamlined our onboarding end to end and gives us the opportunity to engage our new employees before they start; giving them information on us as a group, our values, what to expect on your first day and what to wear (very important).”

LearnAmp CCO Joe Hill-Wilson accepts LearnAmp's second award for Onboarding Solution of the Year

The Onboarding Solution of the Year Award Finalists Giant Group - Highly Commended Hollaroo LearnAmp - Winner MyKindaFuture TeamPlayer HR

At a time when recruiters and employers are using their onboarding experience to differentiate, this is an important solution.

“Judges praised LearnAmp for successfully integrating a pre-employment learning solution with onboarding and induction to address a key challenge for employers and candidates post COVID 19.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Judges gave ODRO the Talent Tech Innovation Award for its investment in training and customer care to optimise its video solution Odro's video interviewing platform was developed specifically to help recruiters to engage more talent, reduce time to hire and win more business.

Odro's client case studies impressed judges, clearly showing how they have benefited from real time insight on their interviews and shortlists, a GDPR toolkit and a training and implementation programme that ensures they’re off to the best start from day one.

Judges praised Odro Capture - an HD video messaging feature which is accessed from a Chrome extension so videos can be sent in just 30 seconds. In the 12 months since its launch, over 1,700 users have sent over 220,000 personalised video messages using Capture, which is proven to dramatically improve response rates versus traditional email and telephone outreach.

Odro's dedicated Customer Success team was also created to differentiate from the SaaS, off-the-shelf-product model to a supplier/client partnership model.

Dougie Loan, MD of ODRO, accepts the Talent Tech Innovation Award

“With response rates of over 70%, Capture outperforms anything our recruiters have ever seen before," said Ben Strickland, Managing Director at Formulate Global. "With Odro we managed to establish ourselves quickly and effectively in a new location, with exclusive agreements signed and an abundance of candidates engaged inside the first 45 days.”

The Talent Tech Innovation Award Finalists

Natasha Neller, Head of Sales Operations at Austin Fraser said: “The addition of video interviewing has become a tangible USP which has helped us to upsell and to improve the quality of business we’re doing. The numbers speak for themselves.”

Ben Broughton, Managing Director at Premier Group Recruitment is also a fan: “Odro is an exceptional tool. We use the platform across our offices in London and New York for a variety of purposes including internal comms. It's reduced the average process by a week. Our internal recruitment department also uses Odro to screen potential new hires for our business.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

DaXtra Technologies Enhance Media EVA.AI JobTeaser - Highly Commended ODRO - Winner SourceBreaker

“Judges praised ODRO for its powerful Capture feature that enables clients and candidates to create personalised video messages which was backed up by lots of great client testimonials.”

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

Clear Review was exemplary in enabling clients to achieve continual professional development to win the Talent Tech Customer Service Award Judges praised Clear Review for transforming performance management from an annual ritual to a year-round practice based around agile goals, meaningful conversations and feedback.

Sean Ruane, Director of Customer Success at Clear Review, accepts the Talent Tech Customer Service Award

Through setting agile goals / OKRs that are directly aligned to strategic business imperatives, and supporting employees to deliver those goals through regular coaching conversations, Clear Review enables employees to achieve more and businesses to improve their productivity.

Clear Review's solution is championing continuous personal development by enabling feedback to be given in real-time as events occur, so employees are recognised in-the moment for achievements and given constructive feedback to improve.

Its ‘always on’ engagement and wellbeing monitor also enables organisations to understand and improve it.

Since its launch in 2016, Clear Review has grown its customer base to over 275 clients across the UK, USA, Europe and APAC with a 98% retention rate and an NPS score of 67 (excellent).

An Area Manager at Virgin Money commented that Clear Review is: “A fantastic system that is transforming performance discussions! A really positive step forward. Check-ins have all gone really well in my area and I'm delighted to see the level of colleague advocacy for the new performance system. I feel colleagues are really taking ownership of their own performance and driving it themselves.”

A Senior Complaints Manager at Clydesdale Bank said: "It has changed our approach in my operation. Probably the best I have seen in my career. Team goals are landing well and people are motivated to help each other.”

The Talent Tech Customer Service Award Finalists ClearReview - Winner Hinterview - Highly Commended ODRO Rota SourceBreaker Suits Me Card

“Judges praised Clear Review for proving they are people focused and purpose driven, with impressive NPS scores and customer retention demonstrating sustainable value.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

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Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Winner

A client-focused culture of learning, diversity and autonomy set SourceBreaker apart as the Best Talent Tech Company to Work For Four years ago, SourceBreaker launched its candidate sourcing platform to revolutionise the recruitment industry. It has since developed SourceBreaker 2.0 - a lead-sourcing product to match the candidates to - and a new automation feature called the SourceBot.

SourceBreaker CEO Steve Beckitt accepts the award for Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

The company attributes its successful innovation to a diverse, autonomous team with a common mindset that drives a high performance culture.

“I have loved being able to come in and put forward ideas, implement processes and have autonomy in my role to make it a success," said Account Manager Pardeep Puaar. "Everyone is knowledgeable in their own way and we all work very well together”.

Recently featured in the Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For results, SourceBreaker was the only business to have 100% of employees confirm that they “believe [they] can make a valuable contribution to the success of this organisation”. It had a 93.4 engagement score across employees, with over 80 described as "extremely engaged".

SourceBreaker fosters innovation, one of its core values, by investing in L&D and future leaders programmes, using OKRs, MBRs and mentoring from senior management. This is designed around regular interaction with clients to understand new needs and new areas of improvement - which has put SourceBreaker in the 99th percentile of 'sticky' products that have a higher client retention rate.

“SourceBreaker has revolutionised the way we search and already paid for the first five years’ cost,” said Nick Barker, Co-Founder of Hamilton Barnes and one over 50 global clients.

Having grown from 2 to 67 people, brought its development team in-house, and trained sophisticated sales, marketing, customer success and account management teams, SourceBreaker has built the foundations for scale.

“SourceBreaker is the fastest growing marketplace partner that we’ve ever seen," said Shaun Weise, MD of Bullhorn.

The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For Award Finalists Hinterview Rota SourceBreaker - Winner Suits Me Card - Highly Commended TribePad

“Judges praised SourceBreaker for investing in its technology and talent, building a diverse team with a common mindset, and real evidence that they are aligned to a clear purpose.”

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

Talent Tech Star Awards 2020 Champion of Champions

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Clear Review was crowned overall winner in a hotly contested debate amongst a judging panel of 20 industry advisers, buyers and investors Each of the ten winners of this year’s Talent Tech Star Awards are championing transformation and innovation in different parts of the talent ecosystem - from candidate experience, compliance and marketing to learning, onboarding and professional development.

flexible, employers are faced with the growing challenge of remote management. Employees with fewer opportunities to learn from colleagues in a live setting need a solution that supports continual learning and feedback.

"Clear Review proved its transformation of professional development with an exemplary solution that can improve UK productivity when it needs it most to restore economic prosperity," said Alex Evans, Programme Director of TALiNT Partners. "Congratulations to a worthy Champion of Champions."

When the judging panel debated who should win overall, they were deciding which talent challenge should be recognised as a priority for the industry.

"This year’s Champion of Champions shines a spotlight on an important talent challenge that is being solved with innovation and great client service," said Chair of Judges Martin McCourt.

"As a champion of continual professional development, Clear Review is enabling employers to improve productivity and engagement with regular, real time, and meaningful feedback."

As the post-pandemic workforce becomes more

“Judges praised Clear Review for successfully applying performance data to enable continual professional development whilst improving wellbeing. This is solving a fundamental problem for employers around engagement, productivity and identifying transferable skills.”

Stuart Hearn, CEO of Clear Review accepts the Talent Tech Champion of Champions Award

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

68 TALiNT Talk - D&I

Unconscious incompetence

In the wake of the A level results scandal and failed algorithms, TALiNT Partners MD Ken Brotherston explains why unconscious bias training is flawed Last month, our team gathered at Talent Towers to spend a socially distanced day planning for two big events this month – our Talent Tech Star Awards celebrating some amazingly innovate HR tech firms and our Talent Solutions Awards which recognise the best providers in the RPO and MSP sector.

We take the judging and results process for these incredibly seriously so inevitably our chat turned to how an algorithm designed to ensure objectivity in A Level results could fail so badly and in particular fail for those young people who need it most - those in improving schools and often from underprivileged parts of the country.

And this led us onto a discussion about unconscious bias and particularly unconscious bias training. Now let me say this very clearly.

Unconscious bias training doesn’t work.

FAKE VIEWS Not only does it not work but it gives a facade of taking action which means that it actually gets in the way of doing something meaningful.

If you google unconscious bias training you will still find a disturbingly long list of providers and a lot of evidence disputing its efficacy. Not least, a report from the Equality & Human Rights Commission which found little evidence that it alters behaviour. One academic who co-created the test on which the training is based spoke out years ago against its use as a test for bias.

But the worrying conclusion this leads us to is: if a basic algorithm like the one behind the unconscious bias test can be so obviously wrong yet adopted so widely, how can we be sure more sophisticated algorithms to improve diversity through objective candidate assessment are doing the job they’re supposed to?

The Education Secretary was asked on Radio 4 if

TALiNT International Sept / Oct 2020

he had checked the A Level results algorithm? Of course he hadn’t - he had asked the experts, Ofqual, and they had assured him all was good.

So as a TA professional how do you ensure you don’t end up in a comparable position?

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners

TALiNT Partners has produced a white paper on the business case for D&I. Download it at https://www.talint.co. uk/wp-content/ uploads/2020/06/ TALiNT-Partners-DIReport-.pdf

INTELLIGENCE BEHIND THE ALGORITHM Clearly AI-led assessment techniques have an important part to play in hiring processes designed to engage candidates from diverse groups. But they are still not perfect so they need to also be supported by efforts to raise the level of cultural intelligence within your organisation.

This means ensuring that inclusive leadership is both a core competency and a measurable part of a leader’s performance and is supported by reviewing all core employee processes such as hiring, succession planning, promotion and reward frameworks for bias based behaviours.

It also means ensuring a diversity and inclusion strategy is part of the engagement with potential employees from the outset.

In recruiting, as in life, we all have biases but that doesn’t mean they automatically drive our decision making – this was one of the misguided assumptions in the unconscious bias theory.

Visit https://www. talint.co.uk/ benchmark/ to find out more how to improve D&I in your business

Having a warm feeling towards someone from the same town or school is normal but being aware of that and making a conscious decision to be objective is also not that hard. And a lot cheaper than training that doesn’t work.

TALiNT Partners Benchmark Programme has a Diversity and Inclusion assessment category as one of the 11 key areas of the resourcing process. It is incredibly helpful in enabling HR and resourcing teams to discuss and agree D&I priorities as well as helping you understand how you compare to similar organisations.

www.talint.co.uk