TALiNT International January & February 2021

Jan / Feb 2021

A new vision for change?

Where will the talent industry make real progress in 2021?

Plus...

TA trends & predictions from TIARA 2020 winners

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01 Leader

Don't waste this crisis Legacy systems and out-dated measures shouldn’t survive a pandemic which has been a catalyst for timely transformation decisions (Lockdown Leadership Lessons, p26).

By March 2021, the talent industry will have had one lockdown year to make some real progress, from adopting talent tech and adapting to new ways of working to addressing bias and improving candidate experience.

Despite innovation in AI and automation, it still isn’t the norm to give rejected candidates feedback. As Lord Holmes highlights in his recent ‘progress’ report (Holmes Review, p14), disability targets have also been missed or ignored.

Diversity still gets more attention than inclusion, with slow progress on both.

Perhaps this is because of the way the industry - and its trade bodies in particular - measure success. In its latest industry status report, the REC highlights a range of rose-tinted metrics – a million placements in 2019, 68% of clients satisfied by candidates and 71% satisfied with recruiters’ overall service (Opinion, p16).

The sector needs more meaningful data to help it improve, and its starts with better questions.

Were these candidates the best fit for the organisation’s employer brand, and most likely to thrive? What part did these recruiters play in defining their clients’ EVP? It also found that 119,000 people are employed in recruitment.

How has the attrition rate improved? Is the sector attracting more talent from other industries?

Our 2020 TIARA awards programmes for Recruiters, RPOs and Talent Tech firms showcased the providers going way beyond industry standards on client service, candidate experience, and employee engagement.

What sets them apart is their drive to find the problems they really need to solve for their clients, candidates, and colleagues. And the right measures for success.

For our first issue of TALiNT International in 2021, we asked leaders from these TIARAwinning firms to predict key TA trends and challenges for the industry (TIARA Predictions, p18). We also invited some of our PointSix members to share their tactics for leading transformation and making better strategic

Alex Evans, Executive Editor

Ashley Lawrence, founder and chairman of Trinnovo, shares insights on how he won the TIARA Best Recruitment Company to Work For (£20m to £50m) last year (ROI on D&I, p28).

As Page enters the RPO market with Page Outsourcing, Ken Brotherston talks to its new Group MD Oliver Harris about his expansion plans (Industry Profile, p36).

All of these leaders have seen the pandemic as an opportunity to transform, giving direction to disruption and galvanising people around a unifying, problem-solving purpose. They haven’t wasted this crisis and they have already emerged stronger.

The sector needs more meaningful data to help it improve, and its starts with better questions.

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.

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 News & features: dawn@talint.co.uk Advertising & Sponsorship: andy@talint.co.uk

02 TALiNT Scene TALiNT revitalised virtual events in the run-up to Christmas, with cheese & wine roundtables, discussions over afternoon tea, and champagne for breakfast at the Australia TIARAs...

11th November - Odro CEO Ryan McCabe co-hosted a PointSix virtual roundtable with Alex Evans on how to adapt to new client and candidate challenges.

Recruitment leaders from Morgan McKinley, The Curve Group, DP Connect, Ignata, Venquis, Gravitas, SGI, Cpl UK, The Hive, MBA and Fiser Group debated D&I, personal brand, recruiter / RPO collaboration and the evolving role of video technology with some very nice cheese and wine hampers.

13th November - Winners of the 2020 TIARA Recruitment Awards in Australia were revealed in a virtual ceremony attended by more than 100 leaders from the country’s top performing Recruitment companies. People Infrastructure and The Recruitment Company were both multiple Award winners, each completing the ‘double’.

New winners this year included Sullivan Consulting and Morgan McKinley, while others who defended their title included TaylorCare and Harrier. Long term sponsor of the Awards the Ayers Group was on hand to present two awards. The Ayers Group Rising Star Award went to Talenza and the Ayers Group Best Small Recruitment Company went to Entrée.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

03 18th November - The last PointSix webinar of 2020 presented some tactics on how to mitigate the risks of tech transformation, with insights from Odro CEO Ryan McCabe on finding the right problem to solve and advice from Osborne Clarke's Kevin Barrow on how to avoid legal risks related to IP, tax and regulation. TALiNT's own Debra Sparshott explained the new employer and TA challenges driving new tech solutions, and Phil Lewis, founder of Corporate Punk, shared insight on how to engage everyone in the team and successfully lead transformation projects.

19th November - The TALiNT Benchmark Summit brought together HRDs and TA leaders from the UK's top employers for mega-trend workshops from Omni, earcu and Jobteaser and break out discussions with individually delivered afternoon teas on topics including: resourcing effectiveness and hiring agility, the candidate experience and assessment for a new workplace, and re-defining your EVP for D&I and flexible working.

26th November - Supported by earcu, Jobdiva and SourceBreaker, the TALiNT Leaders North Conference presented lockdown leadership lessons, transformation tactics and employer brand priorities for 2021 from a speaker panel of agency and inhouse leaders from N Brown, Nestle, Amoria Bond and Meridian Business Support.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

04 TALiNT Scene It was a busy December for TALiNT as it hosted its virtual roundtables, conferences and even a Christmas party for inhouse, agency, RPO and talent tech leaders...

2nd December - TALiNT's Emerging Talent virtual conference for Inhouse Leaders presented an impressive line up of panel speakers from Milkround, Coop, Jaguar LandRover, Civil Service Fast Stream, Jacobs, Oleeo, and Capgemini for insights on attracting & engaging diverse future talent and creating an inclusive candidate experience.

Presentations from sponsors Jobteaser, SMRS and Milkround can be accessed from https://www.talint.co.uk/events/ emerging-talent-2020/.

3rd December - The theme for TALiNT Leaders Scotland was 'resilience, recovery & transformation', with sponsors Jobdiva and Schroders sharing insights alongside speakers including Jane Upton, TA Lead, NWH Customer Businesses at NatWest and Pamela Daley, Head of People Transformation at Atos.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

05

8th December - TALiNT partnered with Oleeo for a webinar on 'how to ensure D&I is evident in your hiring processes' for a diverse audience of over 70 inhouse leaders from organisations ranging from The Manchester Metropolitan University to John Lewis Partnership, Nando’s UK & IRE, Legal & General, Oxfordshire County Council, Companies House and the Royal Air Force.

10th December - TALiNT's last event of the year was the TIARA Winners Xmas Party to give all those who triumphed in our Talent Solutions Awards, Talent Tech Star Awards and Recruitment Awards an opportunity to pose with their trophies, enjoy a festive box of treats, and make a prediction for 2021 (find out what they said in our cover feature from page 18).

We were joined by some celebrity guests including Netflix breakout star of 2020, 'tiger queen' Carole Baskin, who told everyone to be more cat; a very convincing Donald Trump impersonator who explained how leaders should learn from failure; and Keith from The Office, who said the best thing about lockdown was no appraisals.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

06 Contents

Contributors

08 News analysis

08 Career change is key trend for 2021 09 Do rising vacancies point to UK recovery?

10 Board talent threat to FTSE 100 firms 11 Senior appointments drive global growth 12 Recruiters & workers see red on Brexit

14 Holmes Review

14 Has any progress been made on disabled candidates in public appointments?

Lord Holmes of Richmond, P14

Alison Westwood, Royal Mail, P19

16 Opinion

16 Do trade bodies measure the right things?

18 TIARA predictions

19 Foresight from our TIARA 2020 winning recruiters, RPOs & talent tech stars

26 World Leaders

Stuart Hearn, Clear Review, P21

Emily Ayre, BRUIN Financial, P22

26 Lockdown leadership lessons for 2021

30 PointSix profile

31 Trinnovo founder Ashley Lawrence

32 Global expansion

32 How to choose a new recruitment market

36 Industry profile

36 Oliver Harris, Group MD of Page Outsourcing on his RPO expansion plans

Charlotte Woodward, Guidant Global, P24

Julia Robertson, Impellam, P26

Ashley Lawrence, Trinnovo Group, P30

Thomas Leister, Osborne Clarke, P32

Oliver Harris, Page Outsourcing, P36

Faye Woodhead, MSCI, P38

38 Talent trends

38 How to navigate the new jobs market

43 TALiNT Talk

43 Announcing the TIARA TA Awards Picture credits: Shutterstock, iStockphoto and Unsplash Cover: Unsplash 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 Jan / Feb 2021

Joining the dots of the talent ecosystem...

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

08 Workforce trends

Career change is key trend for 2021 Seven out of 10 UK workers are willing to change sectors or take a pay cut for the right job, indicating 2021 will be the year of career change, new research by reed.co.uk reveals.

More than half of British workers are willing to move to a different part of the country to find the right role, and almost a third are actively looking for jobs in new sectors, according to a survey of more than 1,500 visitors to the job website in December.

Women (75%) are slightly more open to changing sector to secure a job than men (71%), as are older generations, with 45-54 year olds most likely to agree (76%). However, men (61%) are more likely than women (38%) to consider moving to a different part of the country for work, with 25-34 year olds the most willing to relocate.

The survey coincides with similar research by Adzuna which estimates that more than 2.2 million Brits are looking to change their career this year amid shifting opportunities and widespread job insecurity. Overall,

2.2m+ 44% of UK workers felt their job was under threat from Covid-19.

However, the REED study highlighted optimism amongst job seekers. More than 80% were hopeful they would find a new job in 2021, and 59% were not put off looking for work by the tough market conditions.

“We are seeing great dynamism, resilience and a willingness to adapt in the labour market," said REED Chairman James Reed. "It’s encouraging to see so many people

Estimated number of UK workers looking for a new career (Source: Adzuna) are willing to try new opportunities in other sectors and other regions.”

Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter says Covid-19 has turbocharged hiring in some sectors, while others have gone into reverse. “This major redistribution of the job market means many jobseekers will need to pivot careers to find a new role for 2021,” he says.

Leadership & digital skills top demand Coaching, onboarding and effective decision-making top the list of skills employers seek in new recruits, according to an Adzuna study.

The study analysed over 600,000 UK job ads advertised in 2020 and just under 150,000 CVs to compare skills sought by employers with skills cited by jobseekers to reveal market trends and skills gaps.

With many industries still working remotely, employers are placing greater emphasis on coaching, onboarding and decision-making compared to a year ago to hire and lead teams through the pandemic.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

Andrew Hunter, Co-founder of Adzuna, said this was borne out by job vacancy figures which showed openings for experienced staff had recovered more quickly than those for entry level positions.

Employers are also increasingly seeking candidates with digital marketing skills and GDPR knowledge as companies focus on e-commerce rather than bricks and mortar. Other skills in increasing demand include cybersecurity, AI, big data, machine learning, and Python programming.

While the chronic tech skills shortage shows no sign of abating, there are

indications that more workers are brushing up on digital knowledge: jobseekers showcasing digital skills on their CV increased year-on-year from 16.7% to 19.3%.

The research coincides with Adzuna’s launch of a new jobhunting AI tool.

Supported by Nesta and the Department for Education, CareerPaths matches jobseekers to viable careers and live jobs based on experience and skills, drawing on learnings from over 30 million live and archived vacancies. Candidates input their current job title and skill set to better understand their transferable skills.

09 Employment data

Do rising vacancies point to UK jobs recovery?

New research suggests that a labour market recovery could be underway following the massive contraction in hiring induced by Covid-19.

Activity on the job platform reed.co. uk indicates an improved market.

More than 169,000 new jobs were added to the site in November – the highest figure since February. Job postings increased by 15% between September and October, and in every region except Scotland.

Data from recruitment software company Broadbean Technology reveals that the global pandemic led to a 22% drop in vacancies across the UK in 2020, with London reporting a 32% decline in jobs. Despite a surge in demand for ICT jobs at various points last year, as organisations moved more activity online, ICT jobs declined 24% when compared to 2019 figures.

However, Broadbean’s data also revealed that at a time when hiring would normally see a seasonal drop, the year-on-year weekly comparisons showed some promising signs.

169k

Vacancies for the week ending December 20 were up 4% for the whole of the UK when compared to the same period in 2019.

Broadbean Technology Managing Director Alex Fourlis said: “In the circumstances, a 22% decline overall suggests that the UK can weather this storm relatively well. The slight uptick in overall hiring when compared to the same time in 2019 certainly paints a picture of the times we are

Number of new jobs added to reed. co.uk in November – the highest since February operating in now.

“It would appear that many employers are focusing on hiring as and when needed – and feasible depending on tiered restrictions – meaning that the lull we’d normally expect in the lead up to Christmas hasn’t become a reality. However, there are sectors which we’d normally see an uptick in hiring that have been hard hit.”

Six out of 10 employers 'planning to recruit' More than one third of UK companies have increased their staff numbers since the beginning of the pandemic and 62% expect to recruit again soon, according to research by independent UK recruiter Wade Macdonald.

A third of UK companies defied pessimistic predictions by outperforming their 2019 results in 2020, as three quarters of business leaders look forward to substantial growth beyond the pandemic.

The survey canvassed 140 business leaders, from a diverse range of industries, to explore whether trading conditions had been better or

worse than they had feared since they were questioned in April 2020.

furlough scheme to prevent redundancies.

The April survey had revealed an extremely negative outlook: • 71% of businesses expected that they would have to reduce staff • Only a third of businesses felt it likely they would recruit, and • 50% predicted it would take at least two years for the economy to recover.

When surveyed in April, just one third of businesses planned to actively recruit during 2020. However, this number grew exponentially over the course of the pandemic with 73% of respondents reporting to have recruited between April and November.

While large staffing cuts were made, the numbers were not as extreme as they had anticipated. A total of 64% of leaders decreased team numbers but 36% reported they had grown headcount. Seven out of ten used the

Adapting to prosper The factors for this unexpected change vary, from outperforming financial expectations, improved candidate confidence and greater understanding and investment in remote working.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

10 Talent trends

Board talent threat to FTSE 100 firms More than two-thirds of FTSE 100 companies are finding it difficult to ensure future talent at board level, research from the New Street Consulting Group (NSCG) reveals.

Succession planning is being hampered by significant skills shortages within senior management, as almost three in 10 companies admitting to having a skills gap on their boards. Technology skills gaps are the most common issue, followed by environment, social and governance, NSCG’s analysis of board evaluations from the annual reports of all FTSE 100 companies shows.

The research follows a warning from Grant Thornton that 78% of the FTSE 350 gave little or no insight into board succession, as 82% failed to explain how they identified and developed people for senior management positions.

NSCG Director Colin Mercer warned in a report published on the CIPD’s website that failing to have a pipeline of talent left companies vulnerable.

“In today's competitive environment a business can't afford to be rudderless. Strategic or operational drift caused by a lengthy interregnum between senior appointments can be

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damaging," he says.

Agata Nowakowska, Area Vice President at education tech company Skillsoft, says Britain’s biggest employers are failing to invest time and attention in their talent pipelines.

“As the war for talent intensifies post-pandemics, employee development and talent pooling will become increasingly vital to building a modern workforce that’s adaptable and flexible,” Nowakowska says.

82%

haven't identified or developed people for senior roles

“Easing workplace role transitions will require new models and approaches that include on-the-job training and opportunities that support and signpost workers to opportunities to upgrade their skills. Similarly, investing in digital talent platforms that foster fluidity, by matching workers and their skills with new work opportunities within the enterprise, will be key."

Gender pay gap worsens in Whitehall The gender pay gap has widened in seven of the 17 main Whitehall departments, with the Treasury the worst-performing, despite the concerted equity push in the public and private sector.

Figures from Govt departments highlighted by Personnel Today revealed the median hourly wage for women at the Treasury was 16.8% lower than men’s (up from 14.6% in 2019). At the Department for Education, the pay gap was 7.9% (up from 5.3%) and at the Cabinet Office,

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

it was 14.5% (up from 8.8%).

The disparity is in stark contrast to the trend towards more diverse and inclusive workplaces, highlighted by a global surge in interest in D&I business training.

A new report by digital learning platform Skillsoft shows diversity training was one of the hottest business topics in 2020, with a 367% overall global increase in diversity content accessed by users. Between May and June, completions of a

course on ‘Understanding Unconscious Bias’ grew by 1200%.

Nicole Sahin, CEO and Founder, Globalization Partners, said the pandemic had disproportionately impacted on women, who had borne the brunt of extra childcare and greater job losses.

"It is even more important that employers prioritise equality across every aspect of the organisation, to ensure women’s progress is accelerated,” she says.

11 Industry news

Senior appointments drive global growth A raft of executive appointments at leading recruitment firms have been announced in recent weeks to guide expansion and transformation.

UK recruiter Warren Partners has appointed Ian Durant as a NonExecutive Director to the Board and Chair of their Employee Ownership Trust Board (EOT). Durant, a highly experienced Chair and NED, working with the likes of Greggs, DFS and Greene King, was named the FTSE All-Share category winner of the 2020 Non-Executive Director Awards.

Founding Partner and Executive Chair of Warren Partners, Joëlle Warren, continues in her role, working alongside Managing Partner Victoria Gee. The firm said that Durant’s appointment further supports the recent transition of the business to employee ownership, and his “customer-centric approach and significant experience, expertise and wisdom will prove a major asset.”

M&A mover & shaker London-based Twenty20 Capital, Europe’s largest specialist investment

fund in the human capital services sector, has appointed Katie FolwellDavies as Investment Partner to drive forward investment strategy and operational leadership as the company seeks to aggressively grow its portfolio and expand geographically. Folwell-Davies joins from Deloitte LLP, where she led the firm’s Human Capital Services M&A practice in London for 20 years.

Phaidon International founder Adam Buck has been appointed Chairman of

award-winning fintech recruiter Storm2, while Victoria Maloney, previously Global Operations Director for SThree PLC, joins the Board as a Non-Executive Director.

Harvey Nash has made two internal appointments to help lead the company’s three-year growth strategy within technology recruitment. Rhona Carmichael was appointed Regional MD UK North & Ireland, while Andy Heyes was appointed to Regional MD UK South.

Recruiters 'do not trust AI': new survey Almost three in five recruiters now use AI technology to help them do their jobs, but a significant percentage don’t trust robots to make the right hire, according to a survey of UK recruiters and HR professionals by RS Components.

While there has been a steady rise in

AI use, there are mixed views about how useful it can be. Just 10% of women trust a robot to help them hire compared to 27% of men, and older workers tend to be more dubious of AI-influenced decisionmaking than their younger colleagues. Almost one in five recruiters don’t think AI should be

used in recruitment at all.

Recruiters viewed AI as most effective in helping with workload management (68%), followed by improving speed of hiring (67%), sourcing of candidates (61%), and reducing recruitment costs in the long-term (60%).

Royal honour for recruiter VHR Founder (and TIARA winner) Danny Brooks has been given an MBE for services to international trade in the New Years’ Honours.

Since its inception in 2003, his

technical recruitment company has provided work to more than 12,000 people in 52 countries and achieved revenues in excess of £250 million.

Brooks has raised over £25,000 for charity in the past two years.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

12 International update

Recruiters & workers see red on Brexit While the Brexit deal created some welcome certainty for UK plc, recruiters and candidates now have more red tape to cut through.

“The compromise on equivalence which leaves the UK free to set its own standards in areas such as labour law, means we can, in a limited way, diverge from EU regulation,” says Tania Bowers, Legal Counsel and Head of Public Policy at APSCo. “The Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) is an example of one EU regulation that the professional recruitment sector sees as red tape and would like reviewed.

“The fact that there will no longer be mutual recognition of professional qualifications is likely to impact professionals wanting to work in other EU countries, as they will now have to apply to each member state to have their qualifications recognised.”

A separate ‘adequacy agreement’ will provide more detail on the flow of personal data. “If granted it means that the EU will recognise UK data protection standards as equivalent to

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its own – a major issue for the recruitment sector,” says Bowers. “We understand that the EU has agreed for the flow of personal data to continue as it does currently for a period of four months.”

Brexit will create significant challenges for organisations whose workforces include non-British nationals. “Having been accustomed to operating freely across the EU/EEA, a candidate’s nationality (providing they are an EU/ EEA citizen) didn’t need to be considered when hiring – it was all about the best person for the job,” says Kathryn Barnes, Employment

Counsel EMEA at Globalization Partners. “But things have changed as of January 1. A new points-based system...will impact not only nonBritish employees working in the UK, but also very likely British nationals working in the European Union.

“Even though employers and employees have been given a six month grace period up to June 30 to get their paperwork in order, what happens after that is not clear. It is likely that right to work checks will be carried out and EU citizens will need to satisfy the requirements – but nothing is confirmed.”

UK workers feel most trusted: five country survey UK employees are more likely to feel trusted at work than counterparts in France or Germany, but employers still need to do a lot more to foster a trusting, cohesive workplace culture.

Executive Director, Europe, Middle East & Africa, says it should concern leaders that, overall, over half of employees do not feel a sense of trust at work, particularly when this motivates them to do their best work.

That is one of the key findings of a survey of more than 1,700 full-time employees across five European countries conducted by Catalyst, a global non-profit which works to advance women into senior leadership.

The study shows that as teams become more cohesive, employees experience higher levels of trust, which, in turn, has a positive influence on innovation and engagement, and teams also become better at problem-solving.

UK workers reported the highest levels of feeling trusted often or always at work (50%), slightly ahead of workers in the Netherlands (48%)

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

and Sweden (48%). However, only 36% of French employees and 39% of German employees felt the same way.

Allyson Zimmermann, Catalyst

Other findings included that men are more likely to feel trusted than women, as do those in managerial positions compared to those working under them.

8 seconds. That’s all you’ve got. Can you attract the best?

It’s vital to make every word count when you’re hiring the talent that will be the future of your business. In those 8 seconds, you need to tell your story and inspire the most diverse, talented job seekers. To become the No 1 destination for their job applications.

The future of resourcing?

It’s all about agility.

The World has changed and the technology needed to find the best people has changed too.

“The Global economy has been significantly impacted over the last year and this has profound effects on how we find and hire the right people to survive and thrive in the future.” explains Andy Randall, CEO of eArcu.

It might seem that with the change in the economy, that finding people is easy. But are they the right people? Are they invested in your organisation? Will they make a difference? Or even stick around?

Andy Randall continues, “Larger numbers looking for work, smaller resourcing teams, a turbulent economy and a major shift to virtual collaboration have changed the employment market beyond all recognition. To be successful in 2021 and beyond requires a new set of tools and a fresh approach to resourcing.”

Is it time to upgrade your Resourcing Technology?

It’s clear that the winners will be those agile teams who adopt the smartest technology to engage with all kinds of candidate communities.

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14 Holmes Review

The Covid catalyst

With so little progress on recruiting more disabled people into public appointments since Lord Holmes Report in 2018, could working practices driven by the pandemic accelerate change in 2021?

On 3rd December 2020, exactly two years after his 2018 review on opening up public appointments to disabled people was published, Lord Holmes launched a progress report with the Secretary of State for DCMS, the Rt Hon Oliver Dowden MP. It found a significant number of Government diversity commitments not completed, abandoned deadlines and contradictory, confusing and incomplete data. Of the 25 commitments related to disabled people made in the Government’s Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan, just 2 have been completed and 8 deadlines scheduled throughout 2019 and 2020 have passed without any sign of action.

Latest data shows another fall in the number of new public appointees declaring a disability 5.8% this year, down from 6% in 2019. This is in contrast to the representation of women (51%) and ethnic minorities (15%) in new public appointments which have exceeded Government targets.

Riddell CBE, writes that “the main, worrying, negative is the continuing low level of appointments and reappointments to those declaring disabilities.”

Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE

The 2018 Lord Holmes Review can be viewed in full at https://www.gov. uk/government/ publications/the-lordholmes-review

In 2019, the latest figures available from the Cabinet Office show the number of public appointees in post had reduced to less than 5000 with 379 declaring a disability.

In his annual report, the Commissioner, Peter

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

"The whole public appointments process continues to be dogged by incomplete, fragmented data and the Diversity Action Plan itself, from a disabled person’s perspective, missed non-existent deadlines. It is important to note that, though targets have quite rightly been set for the number of female and BAME public appointees, no such target has yet been set for disabled people, although recommended in my review in 2018."

Lord Holmes believes the pandemic has been an accelerator for change however. "Amongst the devastation, Covid, in some essential ways, has driven change which, if continued, could positively assist disabled people and, indeed, as is always the case, could help all of us. Consider for example, the possibility of Zoom call interviews, flexible working arrangements and home working.

Balancing billions Every year, the government makes around 1,000 public appointments to the boards of over 500 public bodies which between them spend over £200 billion of public money. The 2018 Holmes Review recommended the government bring disability in line with other protected characteristics and set a target of 11.3% of all public appointees to be disabled people.

Back in 2018, just 180 out of around 6,000 public appointments were held by disabled people.

In his own two year review, Lord Holmes said: "It is discouraging that the figures for new appointments and reappointments declaring a disability have fallen each year since the publication of the review and there has been a disappointing lack of progress in terms of steps taken to deliver on commitments laid out in the Diversity Action Plan.

The Annual Report from the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, Commissioner for Public Appointments 2019-2020 can be read in full here

"Two years on from my 2018 review, disabled people are still waiting for action; action which enables, action which includes, action which has the power to transform our public bodies into representative, talent rich organisations serving society and serving us all. My hope is that this progress report will drive action across Government and when I review the landscape in twelve months’ time significant progress will have been made."

16 Opinion The recruitment industry needs more than positive spin to show how its contribution measures up to other sectors. It needs more than a voice – it needs a voice of reason.

Meaningful metrics

If you can measure it, you can improve it – but it’s about time the recruitment industry’s trade bodies started measuring the right stuff Recruitment trend updates from REC and Apsco during the pandemic were, at best, too upbeat and at worst dangerously out of touch.

According to the REC’s latest UK recruitment industry status report, the sector contributed £42.3 billion to the UK economy in 2019, accounting for 2.1% of UK Gross Value Added (GVA). The REC claimed this economic contribution is bigger than sectors including arts, entertainment, and recreation (£30.7 billion) and the insurance and pension funding industry (£28.6 billion).

This is either a poor attempt at a positive spin on a big number or ignorance of what the number really means. Using the same comparison, if recruiters manage a spend of £40 billion, fund management and insurance manage a spend of trillions.

Likewise, Apsco used data compiled by cube19 in its December Recruitment Snapshot to report that contract and perm vacancies had dropped by 6% and 3% month-on-month – claiming that the year-on-year annual percentage drop had narrowed. “The fact that our data reveals that the annual hiring gap has closed suggests that the professional recruitment sector remains resilient in the current climate,” said CEO Ann Swain.

Marginally less bad Y-O-Y vacancy numbers is no indicator of recruiter resilience through the pandemic; it neither explains the crucial role of recruiters in the recovery nor does it help recruiters to adapt or make better strategic decisions.

The key findings of the REC’s State of the

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

By Alex Evans, Executive Editor

The TALiNT International Recruitment Power List found that the combined turnover of the top 500 UK recruiters in 2019 was £40.8 billion, up from £37.1 billion.

For more insights, view the Executive Summary at https://powerlist.talint. co.uk/.

Industry Report beg similar questions. The REC found that recruiters made 1,008,000 permanent placements in 2019 and generated £4.5 billion (11% of its total economic contribution). But how good were these candidates, and what part did these recruiters play in defining their clients’ EVP? Were they the best fit for the organisation’s employer brand, and most likely to thrive?

UNSATISFYING STATS The REC found that 68% of clients were satisfied by the candidates supplied and 71% were satisfied with the recruiters’ overall service (71%). Frankly, this is not a great metric and it does nothing to help us understand what employers want from their recruitment partners, or where recruiters can deliver more value.

The REC also claims that 119,000 people are employed in recruitment, but has the industry attrition rate improved? How many senior executives are from industries outside recruitment? Loyalty, leadership and management capability enable resilience and support scale.

How diverse are these 119,000 employees and

Marginally less bad Y-O-Y vacancy numbers is no indicator of recruiter resilience through the pandemic; it neither explains the crucial role of recruiters in the recovery nor does it help recruiters to adapt or make better strategic decisions.

are these recruitment companies more inclusive? Apsco and the REC jointly launched a survey for its UK Recruitment D&I Index in December ‘to better understand the level of diversity within the UK recruitment sector’. Why don’t these trade bodies already know?

MICRO VS MACRO The REC claim that 81% of its estimated 31,000 recruitment businesses are micro-businesses, but what does this say about the sector? A record 8,456 new recruitment agencies were registered at Companies House in 2019, with a similar number in 2018, so talent that could be growing established firms are becoming competitors instead. Does this exodus of talent improve the way the sector is perceived by employers – or does it help to attract talent from other industries?

Fragmentation and high attrition are challenges that the best recruiters in the industry are addressing with investment in their talent.

Proliferating recruitment start-ups were fragmenting the sector before COVID 19 and, as redundancies are likely to drive another start-up boom, what impact will this have on the sector?

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 (Office for National Statistics). That is a meaningful and valuable contribution to UK plc, but what will encourage these scale-ups - or any employer for that matter- to use agencies and

RPOs instead of recruiting themselves?

This and related questions should drive more meaningful metrics for the sector, but our trade bodies need to ask more of the right questions.

Some of them might be awkward questions for members to answer, but they should have been asked long ago – particularly in the case of D&I. The recruitment industry needs more than positive spin to show how its contribution measures up to other sectors. It needs more than a voice – it needs a voice of reason.

TALiNT International is an independent platform for the entire talent ecosystem to learn from each other, share tactics and make better strategic decisions. In 2020, we hosted 60 events with Inhouse, Agency, RPO and Talent Tech leaders and presented some of the best insights in our Recruitment Power List Report. We profiled the sector’s best vendors from our TIARA awards campaigns to showcase the value they provide to employers. And our 2020 Benchmark Report highlighted the new priorities of TA teams and what they expect from partners.

RISE OF THE RESILIENT With the continuing growth of tech-enabled direct hiring and recruitment outsourcing, the market for staffing firms will continue to be challenging. However, as we know from our PointSix programme and our TIARA awards, it has been possible to for recruiters to grow even during Covid. The key question for every agency CEO in 2021 is ‘how?’ We’ll help you find the answers this year.

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19 Cover Feature - TIARA Predictions “In 2020, we were in the trenches trying to navigate a way through and in 2021 we’ll be trying to work out what the new norm is. It will be about pragmatism, about the efficiencies we’ve brought in, which bits have worked and what hasn’t, but it will be a tough year.”

Alison Westwood, Head of Resourcing & Recruitment, Royal Mail

Triumphant trends

For TALiNT Partner’s last event of the year, we invited our TIARA 2020 award-winning Agency, RPO and Talent Tech providers to share their industry predictions for 2021

Where else but the TIARA Xmas Party would you have Netflix 'tiger queen' Carole Baskin, former POTUS Donald Trump, and Keith from The Office offering words of 'wisdom' alongside some of the best providers in the talent industry?

A global pandemic wasn’t part of the launch plan when TALiNT Partners decided to add the Talent Solutions Awards and the Talent Tech Star Awards to its prestigious TIARA Recruitment Awards programme, but our virtual award ceremonies proved a refreshing antidote to Zoom fatigue.

While Covid 19 undoubtedly created challenges for everyone, it also helped the industry’s most resilient and innovative vendors to distinguish themselves. Each TIARA campaign attracted entries from those most confident about their performance and the value they deliver.

Over 50 TIARA judges chose 30 winners from more than 100 shortlisted Recruiters, RPOs and HR Tech firms in a range of award categories; basing their decision on evidence of excellence in innovation, client service, employee engagement, purpose and values, and how all of this contributed to improved growth and financial performance.

Who better to ask about the talent acquisition trends the industry should be focusing on in 2021 than the sector-leading vendors who won the 2020 TIARAs – except perhaps a couple of the judges?

Alison Westwood, the Royal Mail’s Head of Resourcing & Recruitment, predicted more hard work for everyone in talent acquisition. “In 2020, we were in the trenches trying to navigate a way through and in 2021 we’ll be trying to work out

what the new norm is,” she said. “It will be about pragmatism, about the efficiencies we’ve brought in, which bits have worked and what hasn’t, but it will be a tough year.”

Fellow TIARA judge Andrew Brown, Head of RPO at CornerstoneOnDemand – headline sponsor of the Talent Solutions Awards - predicted that more organisations will look to RPO and MSP services to offset risk. “We still face a challenge with skill shortages so RPOs and MSPs will need to evolve their services,” he explained. “This is happening around things like internal mobility and upskilling of talent, with learning journeys becoming more important in 2021.

Alison Westwood Royal Mail

Andrew Brown CornerstoneOnDemand

Steve Leach, Alexander Mann Solutions

“My biggest prediction is that we will see more partnerships between RPOs and the kinds of agencies and HR tech firms recognized by the TIARAs this year.”

Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS) was the overall winner at the TIARA Talent Solutions Awards, also winning The CornerstoneOnDemand Best Use of Technology Award and The Hollaroo Best Early Career Initiative. Steve Leach, Group Sector MD, offered three predictions for 2021. “Firstly, digitization and automation will continue at pace, so organisations will need to rebalance the skills they have with the skills they need.

“My biggest prediction is that we will see more partnerships between RPOs and the kinds of agencies and HR tech firms recognized by the TIARAs this year.”

Andrew Brown, Head of RPO, CornerstoneOnDemand

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20 Cover Feature - TIARA Predictions “The CV19 era has acted as a test case for tech-enabled solutions and there will be a proliferation of new ideation and start-ups forming. We see HR Tech shifting toward work technology and for 2021 that means more swiss army knives and less chain saws.”

Alex Raubitschek, NED, TribePad

Coupled with geography becoming less important to organisations as everyone moved to remote working, TA practitioners will need to continue to push the boundaries on remote attraction, assessment, selection and onboarding.

“Finally, engagement models will change with individuals looking for more flexibility in the way they work for organisations. Similarly, employers want more flexibility from their resources so TA practitioners need to find ways to unlock talent dexterity in the coming years.”

Katrina Hutchinson O’Neil, CEO of Join Talent and the Talent.com Best New Talent Solution Provider, referenced two of Josh Bersin’s eight HR predictions for 2020 that were particularly relevant. The first was that the widespread use of misinformation politics could spread to the workplace and the second was that employers who embrace flexible working will retain talent.

“Our prediction is that top of funnel assessment tech will be more widely used, and we’re already seeing more companies edging into that arena,” she observed. “Data and analytics will become more important strategic TA tools. Sourcing will become an even more niche and focused area in 2021 than it has been in 2020; we’re seeing huge volumes of applicants for some roles but a dearth of candidates for others.”

RIDING THE WAVE The tsunamis of applications following record redundancies in 2020 will be a key driver of innovation over the next 12 months.

“Those who will be recruiting in 2021 will see record numbers of applicants which will put more pressure on those looking at the top of funnels,” said James Chorley, Client Relationship Director at Peoplescout, which won The Zeel Solutions Client Service Award and The Employer Brand Award. “So automated assessment tools will become more important as will EVP to

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ensure the best talent makes it through to the bottom of the funnel.”

Katrina Hutchinson O’Neil, Join Talent

James Chorley Peoplescout

The unemployment rate rose to 4.9% in the quarter to October when over 800,000 jobs were recorded as lost since the pandemic began.

Adoption was one of the biggest positives to come out of 2020, with necessity around new ways of working and transacting forcing people to embrace technology.

“The CV19 era has acted as a test case for tech-enabled solutions and there will be a proliferation of new ideation and start-ups forming – and we’re setting up an incubator to absorb that,” said Alex Raubitschek, a NED on the board of TribePad, which won the FCSA Contractor Solution of the Year. “We see HR Tech shifting toward work technology and for 2021 that means more swiss army knives and less chain saws.”

This prediction was echoed by Ian Shaw, Business Development Director of JoinedUp, which won The Optima Workforce Solution of the Year. “We’ll see further adoption of tech by agencies and end-users, especially compliance and workforce management systems, to support transformation.”

“The industry will continue to transform,” added James Louttit, CIO of Cpl UK, which won the coveted Access Group Tech Transformation Award at the TIARA Recruitment Awards. “I predict more data analytics, more automation, more augmented intelligence where people are working together with AI tools; but the most

"Sourcing will become an even more niche and focused area in 2021 than it has been in 2020; we’re seeing huge volumes of applicants for some roles but a dearth of candidates for others.”

Katrina Hutchinson O’Neil, CEO, Join Talent

successful recruitment companies will be those that don’t lose that human touch – so it’s about better use of tech to enable those strong candidate and client relationships.”

People Group won Compliance Solution of the Year at the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards for its innovation in automating high volume assessment. “A phrase I heard in 2020 that will become more relevant in 2021 is ‘client intimacy’ to better understand their needs and be more solution-focused about what they will need in the future,” said People Group Sales Director Jason Medcalf.

Clear Review won The Talent Tech Client Service Award and the Champion of Champions Award for demonstrating how it has helped with many of the new people challenges posed by Covid 19, like how to manage the performance of people when you’re not physically with them, how to keep people engaged when they’re remote, how to unlock team collaboration in a virtual environment, and how to understand wellbeing levels and what to do about it.

After winning their awards, Clear Review was acquired by Advance. “Being part of a software company that provides multiple systems to organisations presents us with a new opportunity to understand which factors are driving, or negatively impacting, high performance," said CEO Stuart Hearn.

"Combining data from our performance system with business and finance systems means we can use AI to learn what the causal relationships

are - so my prediction for 2021 is that we’ll become more predictive.”

Stuart Hearn Clear Review

Joe Hill-Wilson LearnAmp

Adam Dale SourceBreaker

Debra Sparshott TALiNT Partners

New trends in the way HR Tech is being used highlight underlying changes in work culture.

“The big trend we’re seeing is around trust and autonomy, with LearnAmp being used outside of learning management for more community use,” said Joe Hill-Wilson, Chief Commercial Officer of LearnAmp, which won both the Learning and the Onboarding Solution of the Year awards. “We predict a greater decentralization of HR and L&D because people are finding it hard to keep up with change on their own and meeting the needs of their people.”

Rec Tech specialist SourceBreaker won the Best Talent Tech Company to Work For award for enabling autonomy and investing in L&D to drive industry-leading client service. “We were very proud to win this award because it’s been such a challenging year for maintaining culture without being together,” said Commercial Director Adam Dale. “My prediction is that companies will look at culture more holistically and everything that encompasses about working for the organization.”

INCLUSION SOLUTIONS Debra Sparshott, TALiNT Partners’ Employer Benchmark Programme Director and a TIARA judge, shared her key predictions for TA teams in 2021. “We’ll see a new focus on diversity & inclusion following the whole BLM movement,” she said. “It won’t be about box ticking any more but about driving real cultural change. We’ll see a whole new attitude towards flexible working

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22 Cover Feature - TIARA Predictions “We will definitely see much more focus on ESG next year, with many forgetting that the S stands for social factors - including D&I - and there will be more and better use of data tools to drive this."

Emily Ayre, MD, BRUIN Financial

and what the changes should be as it will become more prevalent in 2021.

"And after all of the challenges related to stripping out headcount in 2020, we’ll have a really hard look at internal talent and see it bubbling to the service as a priority to retain, reskill and redeploy it.”

Raj Tulsiani Green Park

was crowned the Mishcon de Reya Recruitment Leader of the Year for demonstrating the impact of purpose on employee and client engagement.

Predicting that “IR35 will be a damp squib”, he and many other TIARA winners called on the industry to meaningfully address D&I and enhance the reputation of recruiters as talent partners.

Guidant Global won two Talent Solutions Awards for excellence in employee engagement and D&I - The 6CATS Best MSP/RPO To Work For and The Giant Group Diversity & Inclusion Award.

The vendors who kept investing in brand and marketing had the edge through lockdown, consolidating their positions as specialists and thought leaders.

“Job roles will be redefined along with how and where we collaborate with a continuing debate about the role, function and location of the office,” predicted Charlotte Woodward, Guidant’s Director of People Services.

“Businesses will focus on establishing the norms of work to foster engagement and accelerate inclusion.”

“Recruiters have generally invested in technology before marketing and I think we’ll see the reverse in 2021,” said Darren Westall, founder of Paiger, which was crowned the Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year at the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards. “There have been so many lonely marketers in recruitment and we’re starting to invest in that function more, so the number of consultants and marketers will begin to align to drive more top of funnel activity without relying on people to hit the phones all of the time.”

Another driver of D&I will come from a greater commitment to Environmental, Social, and Governance objectives, particularly as these criteria are used by more socially conscious investors when looking at new investments.

“ESG will dominate a lot of conversations for organisations globally in 2021 despite Covid 19,” predicted Nick Barton, Founder of The Barton Partnership which won The SourceBreaker Client Service Award.

“We will definitely see much more focus on ESG next year, with many forgetting that the S stands for social factors - including D&I - and there will be more and better use of data tools to drive this,” added Emily Ayre, MD of BRUIN Financial - which won the TALiNT Partners Diversity & Inclusion Award for the second year running at the TIARA Recruitment Awards.

D&I champion Raj Tulsiani, CEO of Green Park,

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Charlotte Woodward Guidant Global

Emily Ayre BRUIN Financial

BRAND VALUE Source Group International won The Marketing Campaign of the Year at the TIARA Recruitment

“Recruiters have generally invested in technology before marketing and I think we’ll see the reverse in 2021. There have been so many lonely marketers in recruitment and ... the number of consultants and marketers will begin to align to drive more top of funnel activity."

Darren Westall, Founder, Paiger

TALiNT International July / August 2020

Awards for it’s effective use of brand to create client and candidate communities. SGI Marketing Manager Rebecca Lauder-Fletcher broke down her key focus areas for 2021 into three main pillars: “Employer brand strategy to attract and retain talent; social impact, particularly around D&I, to attract the right people around the right values; and technology to streamline processes and enable AI powered hiring,” she said.

The adoption of video to enhance the candidate experience has soared through lockdown, so it’s unsurprising that Odro won the Talent Tech Innovation Award. “Video will still be involved in over 80% of recruitment processes in 2021 and long after the effects of lockdown have passed,” predicted Odro MD Ryan McCabe.

“Employer brand will attract more investment internally; storytelling will be adopted more through technology and through people; there will be a greater awareness of mental health and wellbeing; and by the end of 2021 recruiters will be better optimizing technology to do more with less.”

MARKET RECOVERY With some great success stories recognized in 2020, how bullish were our TIARA winners about the economic recovery in 2021?

David Annable, MD of Franklin Fitch - winner of The Gambit Corporate Finance Best Recruitment Company to Work for (£5m to £20m) – likened

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2020 to ‘altitude training’. “Recruiters will use the hard yards to bounce back in 2021 and that extra energy will go a long way,” he said.

Ryan McCabe Odro

Rebecca LauderFletcher, SGI

David Annable Franklin Fitch

“Ever the optimist, initially I think we’ll see some return to normality as stalled projects kick back in again,” added Steve Seddon, Client Services Director at Morson Group, which won the Parasol Temporary Recruitment Company of the Year.

“The promised infrastructure spend from Govt will feed into recruitment. MSP and RPO will be more prominent as employers want to deal with one organization – as Covid highlighted that they don’t want to deal with multiple agencies on a PSL.” Paul King, MD of Gattaca Solutions – winner of the SourceBreaker Candidate Experience Award – is also optimistic. “I think we’ll see month on month improvement, with non-permanent placement coming back a bit quicker than permanent recruitment activity based on client nervousness and willingness to commit,” he said.

“The good news is that means we can get some great people back to work, in our sector and for clients. I also predict a lot of holiday being taken in the second half of the year.”

NES Fircroft impressed judges with a stunning performance and won three TIARA Recruitment Awards for Specialist, Growth and International Recruitment Company of the Year. It also won a TIARA Talent Solutions Award for Best Long-Term Partnership with Alexander Mann Solutions.

“We’re hoping that with the roll out of the vaccine oil and gas will bounce back big and see a return to the growth before Covid hit,” said Head of Marketing Vicki Codd.

“For us, the other big industry that will be massive is renewables. A lot of our clients will accelerate their transformation plans that were put on hold because of Covid and scale back up their investment in low carbon initiatives to meet their net zero targets over the next decades.

Renewables will be huge, but it will be the oil and gas companies pushing it.”

It was a transformational year for NHS Professionals, which won the TIARA Innovation Award for its campaign to bring 20,000 more healthcare professionals back to the front line when the pandemic hit. There is even more scope for it to support economic recovery in 2021. “NHSP will play a crucial role in the immunization programme and we look forward to more public and private collaboration moving forward,” said Doctors Direct MD James Orr. Concluding this foresightful event, MD Ken Brotherston said 2020 had been a game-changing year for TALiNT Partners. “Despite the challenges, we have transformed into an ‘insights as a service’ business for the TA industry,” he explained. “No-one has more depth of insight into the whole of the talent eco-system, helping employers to make better strategic decisions and enabling vendors to develop the best solutions.”

Vicki Codd NES Fircroft

“Employer brand will attract more investment internally; and storytelling will be adopted more through technology and through people."

Ryan McCabe, CEO, Odro

Paul King Gattaca Solutions

“The promised infrastructure spend from Govt will feed into recruitment. MSP and RPO will be more prominent as employers want to deal with one organization – as Covid highlighted that they don’t want to deal with multiple agencies on a PSL." Steve Seddon, Client Services Director, Morson Group

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26 World Leaders in Recruitment

“We chose to transform because COVID shone a spotlight on all of the things we needed to change. This added to workloads, but it gave a clear vision and hope for the future whilst justifying the tough decisions.”

Julia Robertson, CEO, Impellam

Lockdown Leadership Lessons

With the pandemic still posing leadership challenges, we present tactics for leading transformation and navigating through a crisis from world leaders in recruitment Strong and effective leadership though lockdown is more likely to have been the exception than the norm, with three quarters of leaders failing the Covid 19 test according to new research.

ILM, part of City & Guilds Group, surveyed over 3,500 UK professionals on their experiences of management and leadership during lockdown and 73% said that some part of the company’s leadership was lacking.

HARD REALITY ON SOFT SKILLS The most common shortcomings identified were: empowering and motivating teams (36%), empathy and emotional intelligence (31%), problem solving (34%) and organisational skills (29%). If these ‘soft skills’ were lacking before lockdown, Zoom and Teams further amplified their absence.

ILM’s research also found that the most important skills for managers and leaders are considered to be: people management (68%), communication (48%), and building relationships and interpersonal skills (48%).

The shift to remote working in a sales-driven industry - where leaders want to see people making calls - represented the biggest management challenge faced by leaders in recruitment businesses in 2020.

“Never under-estimate the power of trust,” said Alex Fleming, UK President of Adecco who was shortlisted for TIARA Recruitment Leader of the Year in 2020. “We were able to pivot our business pretty quickly to working from home, and very efficiently, but this set up really relies

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

on trust from leaders and managers. Colleagues need to feel empowered to succeed.”

By Alex Evans, Executive Editor

It wasn’t such an easy transition for a lot of recruitment firms, and a range of claims arising from redundancies and poorly managed furlough will keep the lawyers busy this year – and create an unwelcome distraction for senior execs.

With ongoing social restrictions, how can recruitment leaders best manage the challenges they will face in 2021?

WORLD LEADING LEADERSHIP On 4th November, the day before the UK’s second lockdown began, our virtual World Leaders in Recruitment conference brought together senior executives from Reed, Impellam, NHS Professionals, Harvey Nash and Cpl UK with experts from NatWest, Bullhorn, SourceBreaker, HCRG and BlueSky PR to debate the new recruitment and HR Tech landscape.

NatWest Economist Neil Parker set the scene by observing that the recovery was losing steam before second lockdown, warning that it is likely to be a marathon rather than a sprint. “Expect to see more monetary loosening, with quantitative

“The recruitment industry as a whole has been extremely productive through the pandemic, but we need to accelerate automation and better optimise data.”

James Reed, Chairman & CEO, Reed

easing and negative interest rates, but probably led by the Bank of England rather than US and The number of those on Europe,” he explained. “It will take three years furlough reached 8.9m at before we get to the peak in unemployment and peak and rose to 9.6m longer for the labour market to recover”. between March and June; the total value of all CJRS claims A number of economists have since warned that made up to 31 August was £37.5 billion. negative interest rates would become a very possibility if Tier 4 restrictions last until Easter.

With fewer vacancies, and a third of the UK workforce furloughed, recruiters realised they couldn’t just sell their way out of this crisis.

“Reed and the recruitment industry as a whole have been extremely productive through the pandemic, but we need to accelerate automation and better optimise data,” said Chairman & CEO James Reed. “ “There has been an explosion in RecTech, but we need to be clear on the best model before finding a tech solution to deliver,” added Affi Khan, CEO of Cpl UK, winner of the TIARA 2020 Tech Transformation Award. “Do you need to be better at transacting or transforming the services you offer? What is the value-add driving growth and tech transformation?”

Alec Fowler, Global Account Director at Bullhorn, shared customer research which showed that, for those who used automation through the pandemic, new job requisitions added rose 4.41%, submissions went up 14.98%, and placements increased by 11.98%.

“Technology should be the enabler of the new value outcomes you want as a recruitment business, not merely helping you do the same things you've always done faster or more

Melanie Hayes Harvey Nash

Affi Khan Cpl UK

Alec Fowler Bullhorn

frequently,” he added.

A clear understanding of the problem that talent tech needs to solve is vital, but it must be communicated to everyone for buy-in, said Adam Dale, SourceBreaker’s Commercial Director.

“Senior leaders need to keep selling the dream to the team after getting the solution - their involvement doesn't end with the purchase,” he explained. “Find the super-users in your organisation who will optimise it, show the benefits and encourage others to adopt it and use it properly.”

A unifying mission can accelerate this engagement, and D&I emerged as a major driver in the wake of BLM in 2020; but purpose and process are as important as technology.

“You need to have the right HR systems in place to understand the make-up and sentiment of your team to drive D&I and manage culture,” said Melanie Hayes, Chief People Officer at Harvey Nash. Invited to share the post-pandemic problem that she wanted talent tech to solve, she added: “We need technology to support remote learning and development that also enables collaboration and innovation. I would like to see an engagement platform that supports the adoption of people strategy.”

There was clearly a paradigm shift in working culture in recruitment businesses in 2020, mainly driven by necessity, but the decision to transform had to be balanced against some major risks. Impellam had begun a major transformation and had to decide whether to

“Expect to see more monetary loosening, with quantitative easing and negative interest rates. It will take three years before we get to the peak in unemployment and longer for the labour market to recover.”

NatWest Economist Neil Parker

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

28 World Leaders in Recruitment “Competition for share of voice has intensified. Adding value and advice to communications has become the norm across all social channels, particularly with video, with a trend to giving more away for free to support businesses and the wider industry."

Vicki Collinge, Head of Practice, BlueSky PR

continue though lockdown or focus on survival “We chose to transform because COVID shone a spotlight on all of the things we needed to change,” explained CEO Julia Robertson. “This added to workloads, but it gave a clear vision and hope for the future whilst justifying the tough decisions. Our IT dept became the heroes of our response to lockdown which helped everyone to appreciate the role of back office.”

As Julia focused on how to best communicate some tough decisions “with compassion, honesty, vision and mission in mind”, she saw a positive transformation in company culture.

“COVID has democratised the organisation and made people more autonomous but also given them confidence to speak up about what they really care about - not just work life balance but D&I. My prediction and hope for 2021 is that we learn the lessons from 2020 to return to better, not normal.”

Nicola McQueen, CEO of NHS Professionals, shared a similar lesson from lockdown. “When you need to transform at speed, you have to compromise on perfection, be flexible and empower people to adapt,” she explained.

“Have a clearly communicated vision and mission that people buy into and enables quicker decisions. Show authentic and honest leadership and that you don't have all the answers as people will step up with ideas.”

A sage piece of advice that Nicola shared with fellow members of PointSix in 2020 was to take the energy from a crisis and direct it into a purpose that brings your team together.

Recruitment leaders have been more reliant on NEDs, networks, advisers and investors through the pandemic to gain a broader perspective, but don’t under-estimate the value of the view from your own team. “It's easier to make tough

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

Julia Robertson Impellam

decisions if you have a team empowered to challenge you and a network that you can get different perspectives from,” said Gary Taylor, Group CEO of Human Capital Resourcing Group, emphasising the importance of peer networks.

“Restructuring should drive stability not uncertainty, so maintain communication about what you're trying to achieve and collaborate to get buy in.”

KEEP COMMUNICATING Communication was the common thread running through each lockdown leadership lesson, to not only maintain team cohesion but client and candidate engagement as well.

James Reed REED

Nicola McQueen NHS Professionals

Gary Taylor HCRG

“Competition for share of voice has intensified,” said Vicki Collinge, Head of Practice at BlueSky PR, who observed that more consultants got involved in boosting brand and personal profile as marketing teams were furloughed. “Adding value and advice to communications has become the norm across all social channels, particularly with video, with a trend to giving more away for free to support businesses and the wider industry”.

So it’s not all about CEOs, as everyone in the organisation has a part to play in building and enhancing brand. “There is more variety of corporate faces and voices for recruitment firms as they focus on becoming a thought leader,” Vicki explained. “By giving consultants a voice to champion their personal brand as well as the company brand in social media and PR, recruitment companies have seen more loyalty from their people as they have involved them more in thought leadership.”

The lockdown lesson that every recruitment leader should take into any transformation initiative, or crisis, is to enable autonomy and set a clear vision and purpose to direct their energy and creativity.

Sometimes things aren’t always quite what they seem

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That’s why we have done the checks for you.

Every FCSA Accredited Member has already undergone the most stringent testing in the industry, at no cost to your agency.

FCSA Accredited Members: Adhere to rigorous standards.

Are assessed against a published Code of Compliance.

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Prove their compliance annually.

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Take a closer look at your PSL. Check they’re an

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0203 772 8622 | info@fcsa.org.uk | www.fcsa.org.uk TALiNT International July / August 2020

31 PointSix Profile

ROI on D&I

TIARA-winning agency Trinnovo Group attributes its success to D&I and L&D, so how has it achieved the best return on investment in people? TI asked it's founder and chairman, Ashley Lawrence Trinnovo Group was crowned ‘Best Recruitment Company to Work For’ at the TIARA 2020 Recruitment Awards for its inspirational leader, its commitment to D&I, and its impressive growth – 40% y-o-y since inception with offices in Dublin, Los Angeles and Zug, Switzerland, London and Manchester. With plans to scale to nearly 500 people across existing offices and new bases in Boston and Berlin over the next five years, we asked CEO and PointSix member Ashley Lawrence what underpins his success.

We will continue our support of DEI initiatives, including Street League and FastFutures, and expand our market community platforms internationally (including our own social enterprise Ex-MilitaryCareers.com offering job transition support to US veterans).

How are you developing leadership capability?

Investing in our people is crucial to our organic growth model and we’re launching an EMI share scheme to allow key employees to become shareholders in the business.

How important is DE&I in your business?

It's absolutely central. Our mission is to build diversity, create inclusion and encourage workplace innovation. Our values as a business are closely aligned to DEI, and we lean heavily on our values in the interview/hiring process which keep continuity in our culture as we grow and internationalize.

We prioritise L&D at all levels, aiming to retain employees, develop leadership skills and promote from within. We offer future leaders and advanced leadership programmes and access to role-specific training. I completed an MBA last year (Cass Business School) and plan to embark on the Cambridge Advanced Leadership Programme next year. To reinforce what Trinnovo leadership capability looks like, we nominate and reward values champions annually, with promotion criteria weighted around team communication and support.

How are you helping employers with D&I? We partner to help them define the impact they seek as inclusion-focused organisations, provide benchmark market insights and develop bespoke measurement frameworks to suit their DEI aims that we then work with them to achieve. At the project discovery phase, we identify any issues that may hinder client diversity aims, discussing, for example, if roles offer flexible working, whether hiring managers are unconscious bias trained, offering blind CVs as standard.

We have invested in key operational roles, including HR, Marketing and Talent Acquisition, to support scale and internationalisation further.

We're already IIP Gold accredited, but in 2021 we plan to reach Investors in People Platinum.

What is your international expansion strategy?

We identify high growth regions with a clear opportunity for Trinnovo to gain market share across our three specialist brands and we always make decisions based on our people. For example, Berlin is the epicentre of growing European tech and a financial hub with clear entry routes to service the broader DACH region – expanding our presence is a natural choice.

We have developed our own online/events platforms, like Women in DevOps and Ethnicity Talks, to empower and attract underrepresented, traditionally hard-to-reach talent and have strong partnerships with academic membership bodies. Our recruitment processes are underpinned by DEI principles - from accredited non-bias training to urging all applicants to complete diversity monitoring forms.

To ensure our DEI focus remains at the forefront, we set up a company-wide committee nearly a year ago, which met remotely through lockdown. It's inspiring: employees now own the narrative and roadmap. It builds loyalty, reinforces our shared culture, and produces new ideas which are taken into conversations and practice with clients and candidates.

To find out more about PointSix and membership options, visit https://www.talint. co.uk/pointsix/ or email alex@talint.co.uk.

In 2018 we opened our first US office and relocated longstanding team members who had demonstrated more than most our values in collaboration, passion and innovation. Lauren Langdell and Hayley Killengrey have grown with the company and now they are both in leadership positions. This people-first model is how we plan to operate with any continued expansion.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

32 PointSix - International Expansion

All abroad

For those recruiters considering expansion into new geographies, which markets offer the best prospects and fewest obstacles to growth - and how can you mitigate the risks associated with a future exit?

Leister says there are five main points to consider when planning an expansion:

What should UK recruitment companies consider before expanding to other countries?

What are the best ways to enhance equity and reduce risk? Which global markets offer the best prospects now?

Those were some of the questions answered during the final session in TALiNT Partners’ M&A in a Week Series in 2020, held in partnership with Osborne Clarke.

Hosted by TALiNT programme director Alex Evans, the webinar included insights from a trio of experts with decades of international experience. Thomas Leister, partner in the German office of Osborne Clarke, shared insights on the factors that can de-rail M&A deals or mitigate future due diligence risks.

Graham Palfery-Smith, chairman of 6CATS International, offered lessons learned from international acquisitions and compliance challenges, while Tony Goodwin, founder and chairman of Antal International, championed the franchise model that has enabled him to expand successfully in some tricky markets.

COMPLIANCE, TAXES AND REGULATIONS Compliance in many countries is much more stringent than it was 20 to 30 years ago, with the potential for staggering financial and even criminal penalties for not playing by the rules.

Thomas Leister urged recruiters to ensure they are across compliance and regulatory issues right from the start to avoid problems later. He referenced Swiss firms who had been forced to pay more than £50 million for worker misclassification as a case in point. Social security non-compliance and tax risks often come up in due diligence, impacting valuation.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

1.

Dawn Gibson, Features Editor

2.

3.

4.

5.

Business model: will you set up a new company, buy an existing one, or joint venture?

Compliance: especially independent contractor compliance Tax: VAT, transfer pricing, intra-group arrangements Immigration Regulatory matters

He also pointed out that favourable markets tend to have several points in common: a strong, growing economy, a robust employment market, not too much regulation, and healthy client demand.

GROWTH THROUGH ACQUISITION Graham Palfery-Smith, chairman of 6Cats International and a judge for TALiNT’s TIARA recruitment awards, has a wealth of experience in global acquisition and compliance, having previously worked for TMP and FiveTen. “The first thing to understand is why you're doing it: is it greed, fear or ego? One of those is always the reason for acquiring or wanting to acquire,” he says. “Then, get your best team on it and keep the team strong and consistent.

Don't move people around. If you have a finance

"The absolutely critical lesson is that integration is more important than the valuation. Know what you're doing, why you’re doing it and what it is going to look like afterwards.”

Graham Palfery-Smith, chairman, 6Cats International

person, an analyst, somebody to lead it and somebody to do the talking, that's all you need.”

According to Palfery-Smith, most acquisitions fail because companies are too narrowly focused on valuation and not enough on what happened once the deal was done. “To me, the absolutely critical lesson is that integration is more important than the valuation,” he says. “Know what you're doing, why you’re doing it and what it is going to look like afterwards.”

GROWTH THROUGH PARTNERSHIP Antal International has taken a different route – growing organically through a hybrid of franchise and company-owned operations.

Founded in 1993, the executive recruiter now operates in more than 30 countries, including its key markets of Russia, India and China.

“What we got right was going into those markets where nobody else was at the time,” founder and chairman Tony Goodwin says. “We went from strength to strength, but as a generalist – and that approach was not so great post the dot. com crash in 2000, when it became more and more a specialist recruitment market.

"We are now re-engineering the business to become more specialist and putting into place a five year plan for growth in India, Russia and China. You've got to be specialist in a discipline, rather than a sector.”

Working with China’s one-party system and its massive bureaucracy initially proved a daunting challenge, until Antal brokered a deal with Chinese powerhouse Career International (CI), which opened further doors.

When Antal ventured to India in 2007, they

Key takeaways Developing a robust business model is the most important factor for success in international expansion. However, whether this model is based on buying, building or partnering will depend on a country’s compliance framework, as well as its economy, politics and culture.

Two of the biggest trends impacting global recruiters over the past decade have been a need for increasing specialism to remain competitive and stricter compliance requirements in many countries.

Points to consider from a legal perspective before entering a new market include independent contractor status, social security compliance, relevant tax regulations (for example, VAT and transfer pricing), and immigration laws.

The US, Germany, France and the Netherlands are tipped to be among the most attractive markets for UK recruiters over the next 18 to 36 months.

“You've got to be specialist in a discipline, rather than a sector.”

Tony Goodwin, founder and chairman, Antal International

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

34 PointSix - International Expansion “The US market is that big that they do not need us, but it is attractive for European specialist companies.”

Thomas Leister, Partner, Germany, Osborne Clarke

realised it would be essential to involve locals to get ahead. “We set up a partnership, a franchise arrangement, with an Indian partner who owns a significant minority stake in the holding company,” Goodwin explains. “We’ve now set up a franchise network of nearly 50 offices in India, with upwards of 250 people, and that’s working well for us.”

want to be a global business, [the model] shouldn’t need to be adapted too much,” he says. “That ability to be 360 degrees and to blend that with consultative sales, persuasive and influencing skills, and energy, is ubiquitous throughout the countries that we deal in.”

Graham Palfery-Smith 6CATS International

MOST PROMISING MARKETS The panel was invited to recommend the markets they saw as being most exciting in the next 18 to 36 months. There was agreement that the UK’s fiercely competitive and sophisticated market could prove a blueprint for other countries moving away from direct hiring to more RPO-type arrangements.

Tony Goodwin Antal International

Palfrey-Smith predicts the US will gain further strength in the next year as current economic, political and pandemic uncertainty subsided.

“The US is still the world’s biggest market and will remain so for the foreseeable future, so it’s a fantastic place to expand,” he says.

The group has also franchised in Europe, most successfully in Germany and France. “We don't have the risk of setup, but we do have the risk of intellectual property issues associated with the brand and how we operate and which clients we operate with,” he adds.

Antal recently invested almost 500,000 Euros upgrading their HR tech with a cloud-base CRM. However, while Goodwin sees having first-rate technology as vital to an international service, getting the business model right is a higher priority.

INVEST IN THE RIGHT MODEL “It's not about the people and it's not about the tech; it's actually about your business model. If you think of all the companies that are going to go bust or have gone bust this year, they may have a lot of good people working for them, but the combination of poor business model and Covid means they’re destroyed,” he says. “If you don't have a robust business model with specialisations, then you can have the best people and the best tech in the world, but it won't work.”

Palfrey-Smith agreed, pointing to the recent merger of NES and Fircroft as a prime example of recruiters with great business models combining to create something even greater. He says business model, brand, culture and identity were all extremely important.

Goodwin added that he had learned to stick to a winning formula rather than bend to suit different markets. “If you’re a global business or

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

Thomas Leister Osborne Clarke

“The US market is that big that they do not need us, but it is attractive for European specialist companies,” Leister pointed out.

In Europe, Germany, the Netherlands, and France were increasingly seen as attractive prospects due to sound economic credentials, and, in the case of France, the deregulation of strict employment law provisions.

The panellists differed on Asia. Palfrey-Smith favoured Singapore but said he would “stay away from Hong Kong and mainland China” in the next 18 months. Goodwin considered Singapore “over-brokered”, instead championing Vietnam and Mongolia, adding that South-East Asia offered plenty of opportunities, but compliance was an issue.

Palfrey-Smith described Japan as a fantastic, but extremely precise marketplace, in which specialism was vital given the size and economic clout of Japanese recruiters.

PointSix ad

TALiNT International July / August 2020

36 Industry Profile “There are three main areas where RPOs need to adapt: agility, understanding the internal talent pool better, and hiring for potential.”

Page gets serious about outsourcing As Page enters the global outsourcing market, Ken Brotherston speaks to Oliver Harris, the new Global Managing Director at Page Outsourcing about his expansion plans and top RPO trends for 2021 Oliver Harris is not one to shy away from a formidable challenge – and 2021 looks set to deliver handsomely on this front.

Amid the uncertainty unleashed by Covid and Brexit, Harris became the head of Page Outsourcing in September, tasked with elevating PageGroup’s RPO and MSP operations to serious heavy-hitter status internationally.

His to-do list is appreciably daunting, even for someone who has spent 22 years honing his skills at the Robert Walters Group, including, most recently, ten years as CEO of Robert Walters’ Resource Solutions. Top of the list is tapping into PageGroup’s network across 37 countries to develop a forward-thinking team of key sales heads, able to deliver integrated outsourcing solutions across the world’s most important markets.

US, China and beyond Page Outsourcing aims to boost its profile in the US, EMEA and APAC, capitalising on the size and scale of its parent company to win contracts across the three regions. Harris is particularly interested in opportunities in China and Latin America.

“Our ambition is to be a global outsourcing player, therefore we will have to feature in all of those territories and, where we don’t currently have sales heads, we are hiring, so we will have global sales capability from day one,” he explains. “Page Outsourcing is very much run regionally at present, reporting back into the country heads. As there is a trend to multicountry solutions, I need to ensure that all parties are working a lot closer together – sharing knowledge, intelligence, case studies, big

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

capability, clients.

Ken Brotherston TALiNT Partners

Page Outsourcing has produced an RPO guide which be viewed at www. pageoutsourcing.com/rpohigh-volume-hiringplaybook

“I expect us to have those key sales heads inducted and up to speed by the end of Q1. I also expect us to have really joined up the global offering, underpinned by a relevant target operating model and a tech stack suited to our client needs.”

Why now? It seems curious timing, given the volatility of world markets, but it is precisely this uncertainty which makes the timing right, according to Harris. “What is apparent is that outsourcing benefits in really tough, challenging times, because a lot of clients are looking towards RPOs or MSPs for flexibility and cost savings,” he says.

He points out that PageGroup has a track record in the sector – Page Outsourcing began in France 10 years ago and in the UK four years ago, and before that the company had an outsourcing brand called Page Solutions – but the company is now keen to reap the benefits of interconnected global services.

“There are about 130 employees globally within Page Outsourcing, and on top of that is the

“If you think back, RPO used to be ‘Recruitment Problem Outsourcing’ – RPOs can now cover some of those more challenging countries, and that’s why the multi-country trend will continue.”

you look at how things have evolved, we need to be able to turn things on in weeks. The agility offering will clearly be a big area of growth.”

“The second is understanding the internal talent pool better. There has been so much focus on bringing in external hires to fill immediate needs, almost to the extent of overlooking current employees. If you asked most companies: ‘do you know the skillset of your current employees?’

The answer is probably ‘no’, let alone when you add in the complexities of geography and home working.” RPOs and MSPs are in a perfect position to capitalise, as they can capture important skills information while onboarding new employees.

group infrastructure and resources which we can lean on as and when we need,” he says. “That was a positive finding for me in joining the business, to find that strength and depth.

Looking at our case studies, it’s great to see the variety of sectors and geographies that are already covered.”

Key trends for 2021 “The multi-country offering will continue to evolve and roll out; RPO has proved itself and therefore clients want to enjoy those benefits over more countries, it’s as simple as that,” Harris says. “If you think back, RPO used to be ‘Recruitment Problem Outsourcing’ – RPOs can now cover some of those more challenging countries, and that’s why the multi-country trend will continue.”

Harris predicts that the converging of perm and temp recruitment services into total talent solutions will also continue to be a key trend. He says that, while these services have historically been separated along client reporting lines, they did not need to be, and increased emphasis on candidate experience means it makes more sense to merge these journeys into one.

“When it comes to some of the newer areas of focus, there are three main areas where RPOs need to adapt: agility, understanding the internal talent pool better, and hiring for potential,” he continues.

“The first is agility; RPOs have got to be able to respond more quickly to our clients’ needs. A typical RPO programme is a very long sales cycle of RFIs, RFPs, presentations, pricing discussions, preferred bidder, and implementation – that process takes a year, and then it’s a minimum of three to five years in duration, whereas, when

“Then, it’s a question of keeping track of those skills and that is going to become more important as we head towards hiring for potential, which is the third trend that I see,” Harris adds. “With the pace that digital transformation is taking place, and the incorporation of automation and artificial intelligence, there are a huge number of new needs that didn’t exist before. There is something like 30 million new job titles that have been created in the last 10 years, and that rate of change is accelerating. So, hiring for potential will be key and it will be our responsibility to identify and lead clients on that journey.”

Cautiously Optimistic When asked his overall forecast for 2021, Harris is circumspect, citing the contrasting realities facing different markets: “Japan has moved forward, and other countries – Malaysia, Canada, Taiwan, Chile, Poland – are growing well. On top of that, though, there are countries like the UK where recovery is taking longer.”

However, there has been an obvious month-onmonth improvement since the peak of the first lockdown mid-2020, which points to a significant 2021 recovery once the Covid vaccine is widely administered. “I am cautiously optimistic and think that by the end of Q1 this year will really start to motor ahead,” he concludes.

"There is something like 30 million new job titles that have been created in the last 10 years, and that rate of change is accelerating. So, hiring for potential will be key and it will be our responsibility to identify and lead clients on that journey.”

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

38 Talent trends

Networking into a new job

London Business School and TALiNT Partners hosted experts from JP Morgan, LinkedIn and MSCI to discuss key trends for the 2021 jobs market The rules of engagement for recruiters and job-seekers in all parts of the world have irreversibly changed. There are big questions over how we hire and how we are hired. In a virtual world, is traditional networking passé? Is there any point to applying for a role through an organisation’s website, especially for senior positions? What skills and abilities are the most sought after now?

Dawn Gibson, Features Editor

These were among the topics tackled during the latest State of the Job Market: Labour Market Insights webinar hosted by Paul Drew, the Executive Career Lead for London Business School’s EMBA programme, and Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners’ MD. It presented views from some of the world’s leading experts in talent acquisition and recruitment – Matt Evans, Managing Director, Recruiting at JP Morgan; Faye Woodhead, Executive Director, Human Resources at MSCI, and Phil Edwards, Global Accounts Sales Leader – Talent Solutions at LinkedIn. While the target audience was the prestigious business school’s Executive MBA students, the market insights are valuable to anyone working in recruitment or looking for a career change in 2021.

State of the Market: 2021 As 2020 drew to a close, there were positive signs that hiring activity had started to pick up in major economies around the world, including the UK, bolstered partly by the hope of a Covid-19 vaccine.

However, it was also apparent that the world of work would never be the same again, due to trends accelerated by the pandemic – namely remote working, digital transformation and a boom in demand for temporary workers.

LinkedIn data neatly highlights the extensive impact of all three trends during 2020. There was a 60% increase in remote job searches since

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

March, and remote job applications more than doubled. Year-over-year change in share of job listings by employment type data showed an increase in part-time, contract and temporary work across key markets such as the US, Germany and the UK – in the UK alone, there was a 771.4% boom in the temporary sector from July to September 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

Phil Edwards, LinkedIn’s Global Accounts Sales Leader – Talent Solutions, said further research with Microsoft had estimated that digital transformation would be responsible for 149 million new jobs by 2025 in areas such as software development, AI and machine learning.

He pointed out that there had been a boost to automation in every major recession since 1970 as organisations prioritised workers with high cognitive skills. “Organisations have seen a recession as an opportunity to automate some of the things they are doing and try to find better ways of doing things; we will see a widened skills gap as that digital transformation starts to accelerate,” he said.

149m

The number of new jobs expected to be created by digital transformation by 2025 Source: LinkedIn & Microsoft

How are organisations hiring?

It is understandable that employers are dramatically altering their approach to hiring in the circumstances. Some changes are practical – virtual hiring and onboarding, for example – and some are linked to more deep-seated shifts in company culture, such as making diversity and inclusion more than a tick box PR exercise.

“If there is ever a chance for change, I see 2020 as causing that,” said Faye Woodhead, who spent 15 years at Deutsche Bank before taking up her present position as Executive Director, Human Resources at MSCI. “We need to be far more transparent; we need to have far greater disclosure around who we are hiring and why, and it is that diversity of background and

thought that leaders are now really looking for.”

The data-focused financial services company has eliminated 1-2-1 hiring – there now always has to be more than one candidate considered for a role – which Woodhead acknowledged could make it difficult to make senior hires.

However, she was adamant that this was the way forward, even if it meant that people with close links to a company did not make the cut, a situation that happened recently at her company when a well-regarded former employee lost out to a newcomer for a senior position.

“Irrespective of how well a candidate is known to someone very senior at any organisation, they should be benchmarked against others and go through that assessment process appropriately,” she said.

MBAs in the UK Paul Drew, London Business School

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners

Is traditional networking dead?

So, does this mean that networking is now frowned upon for career advancement? Not at all, even if the coffee meeting is virtual.

“The network to me is the most fundamental part of the recruitment exercise,” said Matt Evans, who manages JP Morgan’s recruiting for the EMEA and Latin American regions along with other global responsibilities. He said the financial services giant had more than 750 in-house experienced hire recruiters globally, who were tasked with pro-actively finding talent through referrals, contacts and networks.

Even candidates seeking a switch to a new sector or a different location where they had no personal contacts could network to increase their chances of being noticed. “There is always a way to network within large organisations, either through your own network or LinkedIn, or by searching through research papers,” he said.

“If you really wanted a job at JP Morgan, I am

451,278

Number of people with an MBA in the UK

What are the fastest growing skills among this talent pool?

1. Agile methodologies 2. Customer experience 3. Analytical skills 4. Information technology 5. Data analysis 6. SQL 7. Technical support 8. SEO 9. Acting 10. Accounting What industries are employing this talent?

1. Financial Services 2. IT and Services 3. Higher Education 4. Management Consulting 5. Hospital and Health care 6. Education Management 7. Retail 8. Govt Administration 9. Non-Profit Organisation Management 10. Marketing and Advertising Source: LinkedIn and Independent Research

88,801

Number of MBA holders who have changed jobs in the past year

“The network to me is the most fundamental part of the recruitment exercise."

Matt Evans, Managing Director, Recruiting at JP Morgan

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

40 Talent trends “Prior work experience and academic qualifications at the junior level are least likely to impact your potential and performance. It’s the skillset and the capabilities that you bring and that growth mind-set.”

Faye Woodhead, Executive Director, Human Resources at MSCI convinced you can find the individuals to network through.”

However, the top recruiters agreed that candidates should also apply directly for a role via a company’s website, even for a senior position. Applicants that ignored the career portal could find themselves overlooked simply because they were not recognised by the system and had not filled out standard compliance and regulatory questions.

What employers want Before the pandemic, employers were already starting to see the value of hiring for potential rather than experience. The prospect of millions of new jobs which may not even have titles yet has further emphasised the wisdom of this approach.

“Prior work experience and academic qualifications at the junior level are least likely to impact your potential and performance,” Woodhead agreed. “It’s the skillset and the capabilities that you bring and that growth mind-set, rather than what you studied and what you spent your first five years doing.”

Woodhead said resiliency had become hugely sought after. “I see that resiliency as the ability to stay steady and to maintain perspective even when standing in the eye of the storm,” she said.

“It is that resiliency, it is that ability to change, that organisations are looking for.

“All of our recruitment is based on future potential rather than past experience. You could have been a user of our tools, products and research, but not necessarily have the ability to sell it and develop it and so on. So, our hiring managers are looking for entrepreneurs and the ability to develop products, they are looking for the ability to connect with clients.”

JP Morgan also sees adaptability as a top priority. “It is all about the ability to work

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

What are leading organisations looking for now?

• • • • • •

Potential over experience Adaptability Resilience Diverse thinking A growth mind set Entrepreneurial ability

digitally, to be able to react to the different types of challenges and to have the ability to pivot on the competencies that are required for the workplace,” Evans added.

Faye Woodhead, MSCI

Matt Evans, JP Morgan

Phil Edwards, LinkedIn

Working digitally has given candidates greater opportunity to expand and use their networks than ever before. While LinkedIn’s global reach makes it an obvious tool for digital networking, many job seekers wonder how to best use it, especially if they are looking to switch careers.

LinkedIn’s Phil Edwards and TALiNT’s Ken Brotherston both advised candidates to demonstrate their thought leadership by publishing original articles on the platform. “You completely control the agenda – you can write about something that clearly allows you to demonstrate your transferable attributes and your interest in a sector, and you can tag people who are in companies or the industry you are looking to get into,” said Brotherston. “It’s unlikely to happen with one article, but if you do it over time – say, once a month – you can build up that network pretty quickly.”

Adapting to change Changing expectations will lead to flatter hierarchies and greater visibility for different skill sets and profiles, Woodhead said. “The results aren’t in yet, but I know that people have worked harder than ever before in 2020, but I do think that productivity and engagement are trending upwards so that leads to opportunity.

"My predictions for this time next year: flatter organisations, more dispersed working, the same if not more intensified focus on access to talent and access to diverse and inclusive talent.”

“It’s hugely exciting and it’s going to be a fascinating time,” Evans added. “We were able to stand up a global recruiting function virtually within a matter of days, and to be able to do that means nothing is impossible now.”

Outplacement for a changing world Don’t just tick a box with your Outplacement service. Offer something that gives your employees the best chance of securing a role, whilst protecting your brand.

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talenttransition@omnirms.com

omni-rms

TALiNT International July / August 2020

TA is evolving - take Advantage

I opened a fortune cookie, the message read, “You can’t go back, go forward”. It has stuck with me as being universally applicable. The world of work will never look the same again.

If there are any positives from 2020, one is the movement of the “People Agenda” to the centre ground. Talent, both existing and required, are the subject of boardroom agendas; employee well-being and mental health have become strategic priorities. Decisions on job losses and furloughed roles have put people and their value to the organisation under the microscope. This was not about cutting headcount so much as an examination of which roles are essential to meet business goals and client demands.

need. There is an urgent need for agile and scalable help.

Debra Sparshott, Employer Programme Director, TALiNT Partners

This provides the backdrop to a fundamental re-purposing of Talent Acquisition resources.

Many are still recruiting externally, but elsewhere the focus has shifted from hiring to retaining. Organisations, having made decisions about which talent is critical, are now looking to TA leaders to ensure the remaining workforce stays and evolves with business changes.

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

Introducing TALiNT Advantage TALiNT Partners are launching a new subscription service exclusively for TA and HR Leaders, offering: • Access to industry peers at networking events, roundtable discussions, facilitated by experts, providing an ideal platform to share challenges, ideas and experiences with people who understand them • Support for team skill gaps with insight and hosted workshops by subject matter experts on a broad range of TA topics • Tailored insight and an expert-on-demand, concierge-style service to support informed decision making and unexpected project needs.

Membership of this exclusive programme is now open, with subscription options offering great value to every organisation.

Sounds straightforward? In fact, it is a complex and demanding challenge requiring a deep understanding of the strength of your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) against the external market, as well as visibility of what people strengths you have, where they are and how they align with future strategic direction. We should remember too that these employees also have their own needs and wants.

This is an exciting opportunity for talent teams to extend their scope but with it comes challenges in both capacity and capability. TA and HR teams have felt the impact of job cuts and furlough for team members. The reality is that many are trying to deliver much more, without the resources to meet the business

TA Leaders have told us they are looking for support, which will extend team capability and capacity through access to market intelligence, peer discussion and expert guidance.

We have a great schedule of insight and networking events lined up for 2021. Our roundtable on Employment Flexibility in January is already fully booked but in February we are talking Brand Attraction and the Candidate Experience. Places are limited but priority booking is part of your subscription.

I can’t wait to talk about how TALiNT Advantage can help you, so please get in touch with me at debra@talint.co.uk.

We’re incredibly excited about TALiNT Advantage and confident that our suite of services will help TA Leaders in all market sectors to deliver an outstanding, extended service to their organisation with clear market insight and a well-prepared team.

43 Reed Talent Solutions

IR35 Contractor Payroll Solutions

A low cost, high touch and compliant solution for your directly sourced contractors that removes the employment liability and the additional payroll and HR burden resulting from any newly 'inside' workers IR35 in the private sector is coming into force in April 2021 - and this time, after two close calls, it's (almost) certain to happen. But this isn’t another article about the impact of IR35.

With all the false starts over the last few years, most private sector businesses are already pretty clued up about how the IR35 reforms will work; you’ve almost certainly been on one of the many IR35 webinars (after all - you had to have some way of filling your time in lockdown). You’ve possibly had a go on the CEST test, and you may have already determined which of your current crop of contractors and consultants are now “inside” (about 80% of them if you’re anything like the average business).

However, what many businesses haven’t yet considered is the best way to pay and engage all these contractors who are currently engaged directly by your business? Right now, they are likely operating via Personal Service Companies (PSCs) on an outside basis, but from April 2021 will need to be engaged via either a PAYE temporary contract, an Umbrella provider or (less likely) through a “Deemed” Payroll.

It’s not uncommon for anywhere up to 60% of all contingent workers and consultants to be sourced directly by your business (i.e. they are known to your business or have been referred to you, so have not been sourced by one of your agency partners).

When these workers transition to an inside IR35 engagement, it could mean additional challenges for your business if you continue to engage them directly: • Tax will need to be deducted at source, along with managing legislative requirements such as working time regulations (holiday pay), National Insurance and auto-enrolment pension contributions • For PAYE workers, your business would be responsible for the employment relationships and HR burdens these bring

In addition, it is not uncommon for contractors or consultants providing services directly for you to have no compliance checks in place.

Therefore, this may also be a consideration moving forwards – especially if operating in a high compliance or regulated environment.

If you would like to talk to Reed Talent Solutions about how our Payroll and Workforce Management Solution may work for your business, please get in touch with Daniel Youds, Solutions Director, on Daniel.

Youds@reed.com or 07712 881 119

In addition, via our dedicated Consultancy+ team, we can provide a wide range of IR35 consultancy solutions including Readiness Workshops and Outsourced IR35 Determinations as well as delivering SOW Consultancy solutions, and Services Procurement get in touch with James Bridgland, Consulting and Solutions Director, on James.

Bridgland@reed.com or 07949 975 424.

What to do?

To mitigate these new risks, we recommend engaging a specialist Contingent Worker Payroll and Workforce Management Provider.

Reed Talent Solutions has been providing these services for many years – both as an added value service to strategic MSP clients and more recently in direct response to the challenges presented by the IR35 reforms.

As a Payroll and Workforce Management provider, Reed Talent Solutions: • Provide a low cost, high compliance, payroll and engagement solution for contingent worker populations of any size (whether you engage 10 or 100+ contractors) • Have a Talent Engagement team dedicated specifically to providing a high touch “concierge” on-boarding and payroll service to client referred contingent workers • Employ all PAYE workers on contracts of employment, protecting you from any HR or co-employment risk • Have an in-house team that manages weekly payroll for over 65,000 temporary workers, processing over 1.25m timesheets each year, and managing all legislative costs and tax deductions • Manage an approved list of FCSA accredited Umbrella Companies • Manage, track and report on Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) • Manage all compliance requirements via our dedicated vetting provider, Reed Screening • Provide detailed MI and reporting, a single online platform for timesheets and approvals, and consolidated invoicing for all workers

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

Celebrating the TA 'A' Teams

It’s time to recognise the pioneers of the pandemic – it’s the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards!

THE TIARA awards have become the byword for excellence and innovation in service delivery for staffing firms, RPOs and Talent Tech providers.

The Talent Acquisition TIARAs will do the same for the UK’s best employers.

We ended 2020 in the hope that 2021 would herald the light at the end of the tunnel. Alas, the new year has started more like the quote 'it's always darkest before it goes pitch black' – which, by the way, is a saying that has been attributed to an interesting range of people, including Chairman Mao, the US politician John McCain and Hannibal from the A Team.

time to evolve our established TIARA awards programme to recognise and celebrate those in-house teams who have truly shone.

Ken Brotherston TALiNT Partners

Credibility & prestige We have a cracking line up of high-profile industry judges, with an incredible breadth of experience, chaired by Tony Cooke, HR Director at adidas.

However, when it comes to TA teams (yes, the cheesiest link ever), we’ve decided that it’s time to emerge from the darkness and shine a big bright spotlight on the very best of them.

For those of us who remember, the A Team were famous for their ingenuity in adversity and the world of in-house recruiting and talent acquisition has ample opportunity to demonstrate those same qualities. For some, there have been exciting opportunities to have a greater impact than ever before. For others, the last year has been an existential threat and they have been forced to adapt and transform.

Personally, I have always been a great believer that people and teams do their best work when they are faced with their biggest challenges. At TALiNT Partners, we decided it was the perfect

TALiNT International Jan / Feb 2021

So we have been busy designing an awards campaign that will not only achieve this but will give meaningful feedback, not just to the winners but to all finalists. Introducing ‘The TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards.

Our Awards categories offer recognition of excellence across all areas of talent acquisition and with a focus on critical resourcing activities that have driven transformation and organisational effectiveness.

To find out more about judges, award categories and how to enter, visit the website at https://ta.tiara. talint.co.uk

It’s very easy and straightforward to submit your entry. We will capture some of the best and most innovative work you have been doing and shout about in a dedicated winners supplement within TALiNT Intentional. And we are very confident that we will be celebrating in-person on the rather nice terrace of the IET in London on the 29th June.

To quote Hannibal from the A Team again, I love it when a plan comes together. We’d love you to get involved and showcase your achievements.

INTRODUCING THE

TIARA TALENT ACQUISITION AWARDS SETTING THE STANDARD FOR RECOGNISING INNOVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT Enabling employers to showcase the incredible work they do in talent acquisition and resourcing. https://ta.tiara.talint.co.uk

ENTER NOW

www.talint.co.uk