TALiNT International US issue 3

US ISSUE 3

OFFENSE & DEFENSE IN TA

Q&A WITH TIARA JUDGE

TALENT POOLS

IMPROVING ACCESS TO CONTINGENT LABOR

TIARA TALENT TECH STAR AWARDS US

INTERVIEW WITH JUDGE, TIM PROHM

RE-EMERGING TALENT Focus on the aging workforce

ATTRACT - ENGAGE - HIRE - NURTURE - REENGAGE

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TALiNT International US Issue 3

LEADER

From the Editor It’s been a rollercoaster six months with the pandemic ending, Ukraine war beginning and cost of living rising. But we’re screaming round the last loop-de-loop of the ride and into the final stretch for the year and we’ve got some really exciting things happening in the coming months.

TALiNT Partners has launched the first ever TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards in the US following the huge success of the TIARA Awards program in Europe over the last two years. The winners will be announced during the much-anticipated Talent and TIARAS Conference, where the winners of the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards will also be revealed following the three-day conference.

As usual, this issue of TALiNT International is packed with insights from many leaders from across the total talent ecosystem. At a number of in-person lunches and dinners, Talent Acquisition and Talent Solutions

leaders have discussed the trends and challenges their teams are currently experiencing and we’ve carefully curated their shared solutions and insights into a number of feature articles throughout the magazine.

This issue’s cover feature is entitled Re-Emerging Talent and its focus is on the return of the aging workforce who bring with them the skills and experience they’ve accrued over decades in the working world.

Are the over 50s part of the solution to the skills shortage crisis? Read about it on page 11.

We’ve also interviewed judges from our TIARA Awards program and have a number of guest contributors who talk about DE&I and advancing HR tech.

It’s a great issue.

Happy reading.

Published by Talent Intelligence Partners Ltd Casa Court Great George Street Godalming GU71DX www.talintpartners.com About TALiNT Partners TALiNT Partners brings together a global network of leading employers and solution providers to make better talent and technology decisions by providing intelligence, insight and peer-to-peer networking that drives quality, innovation and improves inclusion across the talent ecosystem.

Editorial, news and features: debbie@talintpartners.com Advertising and sponsorship: ray@talintpartners.com andy@talintpartners.com Design: annabelle@talintpartners.com TALiNT International US Issue 3

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10

Re-emerging talent

Contents 06 08

TALiNT Scene

10 15 17

Re-Emerging Talent

20

Connection over task

23 26 29

The extended workforce

30

Make or break talent

32

TALiNT Talk

4

Contributors

Top industry trends, discussed over dinner

News analysis

Breaking news from the talent ecosystem

Wen Stenger

Jennifer O’Brien

Tim Pröhm

Rodrigo Alcaine

Monica Schnitzer

Michelle Zell

Kim Sterling

Ray Culver

Omni Inclusive

Booz Allen Hamilton

Focus on the aging workforce

Beyond the buzz words Deep diving in DE&I

Kelly

JoinedUp

Offense & defence

Q&A with Jennifer O’Brien, Principal/Director, Global Talent Attraction, Sourcing & Experience at BAH

The use of technology in staffing underpins growth, but human interaction is as important

Guidant Global

Bosch North America

HR tech stack for shift-based workers

TALiNT Partners’ three-day conference and awards event!

Access to contingent labor

Creating a useful repository for future staffing needs

Leveraging the employer brand to underpin growth

Does it really matter what your parents’ do for a living?

TALiNT International US Issue 3

Anaplan

TALiNT Partners

16 Q&A with Jennifer O’Brien

Talent & TIARAs

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TALiNT Scene TALiNT Partners traveled across country to Silicon Valley for dinner and debate! We can’t wait for more in-person and virtual events in the Fall.

TA challenges in Palo Alto

TALiNT Partners, in partnership with global workforce solutions firm AMS, hosted an in-person, roundtable discussion with Talent Acquisition and Sourcing Leaders in Palo Alto, California.

The event was held in the Vung Tau Room at Tamarine, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley. Topics discussed ranged from the importance of the employer brand to flexible working.

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TALiNT International US Issue 3

July 13

July 1

TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards

On July 1, TALiNT Partners UK celebrated the TIARA Talent Tech Star Award winners at the stunning RIBA in central London. Winning entries showed innovation, agility and commitment to growth and DE&I. Guests wore tiaras, dined on delicious food and networked into the afternoon. Entries for the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards US are now open. Enter here.

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Recession concerns up Despite the US adding 528,000 jobs in July, The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index saw a drop, showing signs of slower job gains ahead. The organization also showed concern about a possible recession.

July’s Employment Trends Index level of 117.63 dropped from June’s downwardly revised reading of 118.71.

It is thought that slower job gains are likely to bring the labour market in line with the rest of the economy, which Is already seeing a slowdown in activity.

The Conference Board, however, expects the US unemployment rate to remain below 4.5% in 2023. It was 3.5% in July.

The Employment Trends Index declined in July and has now been on a downward trend since March 2022. While the US labour market is currently still robust, the recent behavior of the index signals that slower job gains should be expected over the next several months.

It is increasingly likely that the US economy will fall into recession by year end or early 2023, with the Fed expected to continue raising interest rates rapidly over the coming months.

This economic downturn could result in reduced pressure in recruitment and retention difficulties as economic activity cools into the new year.

36% of employed Americans identify as independent workers A survey by McKinsey & Co. found that 36% of employed Americans identify themselves as independent workers, up from the company’s previous estimate of 27% in 2016. The survey also revealed the increase might be in part due to workers performing different kinds of jobs including short-

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term gigs and side hustles; digital platforms such as Airbnb, Uber and Upwork help provide a forum for this.

In addition, post-pandemic workforce shifts by companies toward independent contractors, layoffs during the pandemic and cost-of-living issues are other factors.

GDP Q2 report stats says US economy contracted less than estimated US real gross domestic product contracted at an annual rate of 0.6% in the second quarter, according to a second estimate released today by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was revised from the 0.9% pace of decline reported in the advance estimate issued in July.

Q2 was the second consecutive quarter of contraction. Real GDP decreased 1.6% in the first quarter.

CNN reported two consecutive quarters of contraction in the GDP is generally a rule-of-thumb indicator of a recession; however, many economists don’t believe the US is currently in a recession because of the strong labor market and heightened levels of consumer and business spending. An alternative measure of the economy, gross domestic

income, rose 1.4% on an annualized basis.

The National Bureau of Economic Research officially tracks recessions, and the organization can take up to a year to call a recession, according to Fox News.

The organization also relies on more than data than GDP when determining a recession.

The decline in second-quarter GDP reflected decreases in private inventory investment, residential fixed investment, federal government spending and state and local government spending that were partly offset by increases in exports and consumer spending. Additionally, imports – which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP – decreased 1.6% in the first quarter.

New Jersey senate approves equal pay regulation for temp workers The New Jersey Senate has approved bill S. 511, increasing regulations on the staffing industry. This is according to a tweet by the bill’s sponsor, State Sen. Joe Cryan, D-Union.

Amongst other aspects, the bill provides for equal pay between contingent and directly employed workers. However, some believe that the new bill could lead to increased litigation.

The bill was previously approved in June,

but the New Jersey Senate had to vote again due to a procedural issue. The bill was opposed by the New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Within the next 45 days, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy must either sign the bill, veto it or put forward a conditional veto by offering the bill with amendments back to the legislature for consideration.

The ASA’s next avenue will be to urge the governor to issue a conditional veto with various changes to the bill.

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RE-EMERGING TALENT: FOCUS ON THE AGING WORKFORCE

RE-EMERGING TALENT: FOCUS ON THE AGING WORKFORCE If you explore the subject of the aging workforce, you will quickly see an unmistakable tension between an increasing desire to leave the workforce and the commercial benefit to employers of ensuring they don’t.

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hether exacerbated by multiple COVID-19 lockdowns or not, there is dramatic increase in the population between 50 and 65 who are opting out of traditional working arrangements, at the very time that many of their skills are scarce in the market.

RISING POPULATION

In the UK and the USA, 19% of the population are aged between 50 and 64; in China this rises to 22%, in Germany it is 23% of the population (data from Populationpyramid.net). Looking at this population over a ten-year period we see that the figure for the US is consistent over that time, in fact, shrinking 0.9 percentage points between 2017 and 2022. The UK has seen a steady growth of 0.5 percentage points every five years. By contrast, in Germany this population size has grown by 10

TALiNT International US Issue 3

2.2 percentage points in 10 years to 2022 and China by 4.6 percentage points.

Whilst results vary, for the regions most affected, this pre-retirement population represents an increasing percentage of the workforce. This raises important questions on the effort made by employers to keep the skills of these more tenured workers up to date and relevant to the roles which are emerging through digitization. The younger end of this cohort still have over 10 years in the workplace across any given market before reaching statutory retirement and that is a long time in most businesses.

RETIREMENT IS BEING PUSHED BACK

Governments have long been aware of the ticking timebomb of an aging population on two fronts. First, the need to maintain

Debra Sparshott Director of Research & Insights TALiNT Partners

available skills in the employment market and secondly the increased cost burden on the state pension pot. The UK has raised retirement age to 67 for those under 40, France has raised the retirement age from 60 to 62. Brazil has proposed moving away from retirement, based years of pension contribution to a statutory retirement age of 62 for women and 65 for men; and South Korea already has a retirement age of 70 for some professions.

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n the UK, despite a current retirement age of 66, employment rates of those between 50 and 64 have fallen to the lowest levels since 2016. According to the Centre for Aging Better’s report, “Work: The State of Aging 2022” the “number who have exited the workforce entirely between 50 and 64 has risen by 228,000 in England since the start of the

pandemic and the employment rate has fallen by 1.8 percentage points. The ONS report for June 2022 supports this, stating “higher economic activity is particularly due to more older people leaving the labor force” with a peak in economic inactivity for those aged 50-64 at the beginning of 2022.

In Germany the official retirement of 65 is rising to 67 in the period to 2029, although “The Local” reported in May 2022 that in Germany workers “retired a little earlier” in 2021. In China the retirement age is 60 to 65 for men and 50 to 55 for women depending on their type of work, younger than most countries, but under ongoing review as life expectancy increases and the cost burden rises.

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RE-EMERGING TALENT: FOCUS ON THE AGEING WORKFORCE

OPTING OUT OF THE TRADITIONAL WORKPLACE

“Hidden in this massive COVID-inspired turmoil is the unexpected and highly unusual early retirement of millions of aging workers” writes Paul Rupert, CEO of Rupert Organisational Design in this June edition of the US magazine, “The Hill”. The reality may be more complex than simple retirement.

Whilst there is a move away from “finish Friday, back as a contractor on Monday” transition, mainly due to less attractive changes in contractor legislation in many regions, the pandemic with its enforced downtime has shaped career changes for many of all ages, including the pre-retirement population. In some cases, this was to move away from a sector or job which feels less than secure in providing for financial requirements, in others it was from a realization that they were not where they wanted to be, enter “The Great Redistribution” perhaps rather than “The Great Resignation”. In “The Metro”, Helen Dewdney writes (July 2022) about “How the pandemic made us turn our hobbies into main jobs”. Rather than exiting the workforce, many are engaging with it in a new way.

EASY TARGET FOR REDUNDANCY

With their accumulated skills and experience in workplace transformation, the 50 to 64-year-old workforce, at roughly one fifth of the population, have shown their ability to roll with the changes going from manual, paper-based operations to sophisticated AI processing, from machine setting to robotic programming, from service with a smile to real-time activity monitoring; they have seen the most

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significant shifts in how we work since industrial revolution worked it’s way across the world, and most have coped with the increasing speed of that change.

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espite this in 2022, they are more likely to be made redundant and, once redundant are less likely to be re-employed than younger workers. In the UK the employment rate gap is now wider than two years ago, despite political ambition to extend the working life. (Centre for Aging Better).

Our aging workforce report being subject to biases, which may be simply “habit” as Paul Rupert describes it, but which limit access to new jobs, training, and re-skilling opportunities, inflates expectations of cost to employ, and frustratingly puts a brick wall around opportunities to diversify their career. It raises the question, when is it too late to train someone?

UNRETIREMENT

Things change quickly in the world of talent and as fast as we saw an exodus during and post-pandemic, we are now seeing signs that the global economy is once again shaping personal career decisions for those between 50 and 64, and older.

In the UK, research from Lottie has identified a rise in older workers returning to the workplace after retirement. The article cites a 200% increase in Google searches relating to “returning to work after retirement”. Simultaneously in the USA, “The Hill” reports on a growing trend of phased retirement; effectively creating a staged plan of working time reduction from full-time to retirement, via part-time or ad hoc working arrangements, to extend the overall tenure of employment.

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here may be more to this than financial necessity; as health into old age continues to improve, when taking the long-term view, extending the sense of purpose and connection created by meaningful employment becomes more appealing.

It is likely too that the loneliness and isolation experienced by so many during the pandemic, particularly by the over 50s, may have a part to play in wanting to re-engage with employment. In the UK the ONS data again supports this view with economic inactivity rates for this group falling steadily each month since it peaked in February 2022.

CONCLUSIONS

If the predictions of “The 100-Year Life” (Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, 2015, Bloomberg Publishing Plc) come to realisation, we and future generations

will all be living longer and working later into older age to fund an extended period of retirement.

It makes good sense then to take a more open attitude towards the working lifetime and recognise that ability to learn and change are more about mindset than age.

The lines between home and work have become blurred during the pandemic creating an opportunity to redefine the workplace across the globe, perhaps the same is true for age difference? With the current global skills crisis there is everything to gain by seeing potential and growth as something which doesn’t expire with time but remains available and ready for opportunity when it is presented. When added to acquired skills, a longer perspective and continuous exposure to change, this talent has high value in every sector, and is a vital component of passing on knowledge when they are finally ready for retirement. It is all about choice.

Resources: Agingworkforcenews.com; Office for National Statistics; The Hill (US); 401KSpecialist; Centre for Ageing better; Vietnam News; Eurostat; The Metro; Population pyramid.net; The Local Lottie; Quartz (qz.com); “The 100-Year Life, Living and Working in an Age of Longevity”, Lynda Gratton & Andrew Scott, 2016, Bloomsberg Publications Plc.

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TALiNT International US Issue 3

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

Beyond the buzz words Wen Stenger, CEO at OMNI Inclusive talks about the importance of starting with the basics when it comes to DE&I and ensuring that an organization’s culture adapts continuously to meet the needs of their employees.

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s I sit here contemplating what to say about DE&I within talent attraction and retention, the only thing that comes to mind is how to take it beyond buzz words and put it into action. I think too often we dive into the subject assuming everyone is starting from the same point of knowledge.

It’s important to make sure we are all on the same page and sometimes that means starting from the basics of what it even means. Let’s break down the words to start.

Diversity is simply the acknowledgement that we are all different. In the US workplace, this includes race, sex, gender, age, disability, culture, and more.

Equity is promoting fairness in your processes that attract talent, pay, reward, and promote talented professionals.

Inclusion is the result of the efforts you put in to retain talent and give them a sense of belonging in the workplace.

For decades companies have spent countless hours developing and refining their company culture and determining whether people fit

Wen Stenger CEO OMNI Inclusive

into that culture or not. A company has no culture. Your company is not alive; it doesn’t exist. A company is a bunch of documents filed away on a shared drive somewhere in the cloud. How can something intangible have a culture? What this really means is the people who formed the company adopted their culture when building it and want their employees to fit into this idea of culture.

While well-intended, unless you set out to purposefully form a company with people from different backgrounds, the culture will not fit all because you’ve likely brought your unconscious bias into that structure.

I know the term unconscious bias is scary and can seem judgmental to some, but it doesn’t have to be. It simply means we form stereotypes about certain groups of people without thinking about it. It can come from our upbringing, our social circles, or other parts of our life. We all have them. I have them. I’ve been doing this work for years and I still have unconscious biases every day. The key is to recognize them and think about why you feel that way and how should you change your way of thinking. It doesn’t have to be a big step. You don’t have to go down the street TALiNT International US Issue 3

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confessing your biases to everyone or even post about them on social media. It’s a conversation with yourself how to be better a little at a time and making a safer space for those around you.

I talk often about starting where you can affect change and slowly expand your bubble. As people leaders, it’s the employees around you.

Instead of the company determining the culture that their people should fit into, the employees should be the ones determining the culture the company takes on. And that company should continue to adjust and evolve with the culture needs of your employees.

DE&I is not a one-time implementation project and you’re set forever. You’ll need to foster the change and grow with the needs of your

employee ecosystem. No two groups have the same needs and DE&I strategies cannot be cookie-cutter. What your LGBTQIA+ employee populations needs will be different than what your BIPOC employee population needs and so on. Remember that no employee will fit neatly into one group, and we need to be mindful of the unique experiences of individuals (their intersectionality). The voice of your employees can help you where you need to build a bridge to better support an intersectional employee culture.

This can feel like a lot to take on and many leaders don’t know where to start. Here are a few easy places to get started below. Keep in mind that many times the small changes can lead to a bigger impact.

Tips for Inclusive Talent • Review job descriptions to replace words that attract more non-diverse applicants.

• Evaluate years of experience and education requirements which often eliminate 70% of the workforce.

• Review your EEOC analytics against census data to discover your hiring gaps and build a realistic plan for inclusive hiring.

Tips for Inclusive Retention • Review your benefits plans annually and ensure you are providing coverage that supports your employee population. Benefit companies don’t often present diverse care needs like affordable prescription plans, mental health, or gender affirming care unless you ask for it.

• Make inclusion part of our new employee experience and provide resources as soon as the new start orientation.

• Include DE&I initiatives into your company goals and tie 16 International US Issue 3 themTALiNT to performance reviews for all levels of employees.

INTERVIEW: TALENT ACQUISITION

Offense, defense and special teams TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards US judge, Jennifer O’Brien, Director, Global Talent Attraction, Sourcing and Experience at Booz Allen Hamilton took time out to talk to TALiNT International about retraining, reskilling and the post-pandemic hiring boom.

TI: What do you see as the toughest

challenges employers have faced in talent acquisition in 2022?

recognize that some of the best solutions can be based on something that’s been done before but with a fresh look and feel.

JO: Since 2020 we have experienced

TI: What encouragement would you offer to

unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic and its ongoing impact. I believe the inability to use predictive trending in workforce planning and channel management is one of the toughest challenges we will continue to encounter in 2022.

TA Leaders seeking to drive change in their approach to talent acquisition?

JO: Take a risk. Our times require us all to

creatively to tackle skills shortages?

approach difficult challenges differently when a solution is not clear. Transformation through collaboration is critical – remember that games are won with offense, defense and special teams.

JO: This is a time when everyone is being

TI: For the last few years, it’s certainly been a

TI: Have you seen any employers thinking

challenged to think differently because of skill shortages. The bigger question remains: Are the actions we’re taking sustainable to support improved retention rates, including upskilling and dynamic internal mobility opportunities?

TI: What solutions are you expecting to see in this year’s TIARA Talent Acquisition Award US entries?

JO: I like to keep an open mind. I love

solutions with out-of-the-box thinking. I also

candidate-driven market. Do you think it will continue?

JO: Absolutely! With a shortage in talent

pools, it will remain a candidate-driven market until the labor shortage levels off.

TI: We’ve seen a post-pandemic hiring frenzy.

Is this sustainable?

JO: It’s not sustainable, but we must work

within the confines of our talent supplies.

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The bigger question remains: Are the actions we’re taking sustainable to support improved retention rates, including upskilling and dynamic internal mobility opportunities?

Companies will be forced to focus on retaining and reskilling their current talent to balance the resource needs.

TI: What do you feel sets the global TIARA Awards program apart from other awards programs?

JO: The reputation of the talent

professionals involved in sponsoring this recognition and breadth of the award categories offered to the participants.

TI: We are always looking ahead at

TALiNT Partners – what do you think the

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next 12 months will bring for talent acquisition leaders?

JO: There will be more challenges with

talent supply and demand. We’ll continue see the number of open jobs outpace the available talent in certain markets.

Companies will continue to combat these deficiencies through compensation, the promise of opportunity and flexible work models. This will require us to attract and support employees differently. We’re already being called to address these changes today and searching for the best model to resolve these challenges.

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INTERVIEW: TIARA TALENT TECH STAR AWARDS US

Connection over task TALiNT International sat down with Tim Pröhm, TIARA Talent Tech Star US judge and VP at Kelly Digital Innovation Lab to talk about the Metaverse, automation and connection over technology.

TI: As VP of the KellyX Digital Innovation Lab,

you clearly have a front row seat to all the latest trends. Over the last two years, we’ve seen big and fast digital transformations to facilitate the new ways of working. Which tech advancements of the last two years have had to greatest impact on the staffing industry?

TP: It´s clearly automation solutions (RPA and

in-platform automation) that allow organizations to easily automate low-value administrative tasks to free up recruiters so they can spend more time with talent.

Automation technology has really become mainstream over the last couple of years and doesn´t require huge financial investments any more to improve efficiencies and overall productivity.

TI: Let’s talk about AI. Do you predict an

uptake in adoption? And how will that affect the talent industry?

TP: I believe that the time for AI hasn’t really

come yet and that we´re being sold a lot of “AI” solutions that aren’t actually AI. But, as organizations increase the amount of data they generate on a daily basis – data they can use to

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“train” the AI algorithms – we’ll see a significant uptick in adoption. AI allows organizations to “mimic” human decisionmaking, and I think that there are several use cases in the talent industry where applied AI can increase speed and decision quality. The importance of the “gut feel” will never go away – it’s a vital part of how we interact with each other and build relationships with stakeholders, but basic decisions can be made with AI.

TI: Following on from AI, we’ve seen several

‘new normal’ ways of working since 2020. The latest trend we’re hearing rumblings about is working in the Metaverse. Would this completely replace in-person working even though employers are promoting a return to the workplace?

TP: The Metaverse is an interesting concept.

Virtual Reality (VR) in a business context makes a lot of sense. We here at Kelly are heavily piloting solutions for VR collaboration and the experience has been incredible. The main question I have, however, as VR sees greater adoption, is “how can we make it more accessible?” The price of VR headsets will have to decrease so that more have access to

opportunities with the Metaverse. Once that happens, there are so many powerful use cases that make it attractive for organizations to implement across teams and business lines, most notably learning and development, improving the talent experience and workforce engagement, and marketing/event management. But the logistics and adoption process will have to be more seamless than it is today before opportunities in the Metaverse can really take off.

TI: The use of technology clearly underpins growth. But it can’t replace the human touch entirely. How do you feel balance is achieved?

TP: I think that there definitely needs to be a

balance and that it makes most sense to use technology for highly administrative and repetitive tasks. Humans want to interact with humans and even if you pretend that a “canned” email or text message is coming from an actual person, it´s important that you identify the key touch points where an actual human interaction is the best kind to drive an optimal experience. Take recruiting for example. Oftentimes, the offer letter stage of the job search process is when a candidate second-guesses their decision to leave their current employer. This is when a human touch is necessary. The recruiter or hiring manager can answer their questions, dispel any fears, and establish trust that the candidate will have a positive experience at their new employer. Imagine a bot doing this!

TI: You are part of the panel of judges for this year’s TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards US. What will you be looking for in a winning entry?

TP: I´ve seen a lot of cool solutions over the past years but very often young start-ups only focus on minor challenges that they are solving with their solutions (“I was an applicant once and never heard back from the recruiter – that´s why my company is solving this problem”).

So, for me, it´s going to be important to see if the winning solutions really tackle the big issues that companies are facing.

TI: What sets the TIARA awards program apart from other programs?

TP: It´s definitely the global brand and overall recognition among HR Tech professionals!

TI: Looking to the horizon, what trends do you see heading our way in the coming years?

TP: We talked about AI and automation, but I think that the actual interface between humans and technology will change. My prediction is that “Alexa-like” experiences will be the norm so that organizations must start today with rethinking how these interactions with all stakeholders will look and feel – and how the technology they currently have in place will need to change.

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Stay competitive. Stay relevant.

More businesses are using a shift-based workforce to be agile and meet their needs. If you’re an agency responsible for hiring or placing these contingent workers, it’s critical to get it right.

With JoinedUp by Beeline you can:

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> Gain visibility into your shift-based workforce

> Losing hours scheduling and planning at both pace and volume

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> Not being able to manage shifts in real-time, leading to errors > High compliance risks

> Use real-time insights to optimize your spend and become more profitable

> Unfulfilled shifts causing loss of productivity and revenue for your clients

> Manage compliance and complex rate calculations

> Lack of insightful data meaning mistakes are repeated and planning is harder

If your technology and process doesn’t help you stay competitive and relevant, then talk to us today.

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H E L L O @ J O I N E D U P. C O M | J O I N E D U P. C O M

GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: HR TECH

The extended workforce Why you should update your HR tech stack with a solution for shift-based workers.

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bout 2.7 billion workers – more than 80 percent of the global workforce – do not sit at desks to do their job. Of these, a growing number are not even company employees. They are part of an extended workforce that now comprises more than 46 percent of the average company’s total workforce.

Managing this extended workforce is difficult.

Especially the dynamic, shift-based workforce businesses need to meet the ‘just-in-time’ staffing requirements of manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, food production, medical services, education, and more. The traditional HR tech stack lacks an efficient way to recruit, schedule, or pay this highly mobile, on-demand workforce. In fact, it even lacks the ability to communicate with these workers in real-time.

As a result, companies cobble together point solutions to staff their shifts using an inefficient mix of vendor management, worker profile, onboarding and compliance, shift planning, time and attendance, payroll, and reporting applications – papered over with seemingly endless spreadsheets and manual data entry.

Rodrigo Alcaine Senior Vice President and Head of Global Sales and Operations JoinedUp

At best, it results in siloed data, difficult to retrieve and reuse. At worst, it results in scheduling chaos, unfilled shifts, and reduced productivity.

A NEW TOOL FOR YOUR TECH STACK

Fortunately, there is a new tool for your HR tech stack that addresses all the challenges of shift-based temporary staffing: • • • • • • • •

Planning and allocation Vendor management Labor ordering Worker profiles Onboarding and compliance Time and attendance Accounting and payroll Metrics and reporting

It integrates seamlessly with the other platforms and applications you use in your business. And, best of all, it meets the needs of all the key stakeholders: For hiring companies: • Full visibility and control of spend across supplier agencies with standardized TALiNT International US Issue 3

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• •

•

processes and communication.

Manage multiple vendors automatically in your program.

Optimize productivity and efficiency by pooling full-time employees with agency staff.

Add flexibility to your scheduling to increase fill rates.

For staffing agencies • Provide a stable, reliable, high-quality workforce to clients.

• Ensure workers are looked after and paid accurately, on time, every time.

• Remove labor-intensive data entry so there’s more time for building relationships and selling to clients.

For workers • Flexibility over when and where they work, with roles that match skills.

• Convenient access to shifts via smartphone.

• Accurate and timely payments.

• Responsive two-way communication with supplier agencies and hiring companies.

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VALUE OF A FIT-FORPURPOSE SOLUTION

Allocating hundreds or even thousands of shifts to the right workers each day or week is a tough challenge. Requirements change, people become unavailable, get sick, or simply don’t turn up as planned. This complexity quickly exposes the gaps in any ad hoc “Franken-stack” software solution.

T

he right solution is one designed and built by people with experience in managing shift work.

JoinedUp by Beeline is just such a solution – a workforce management solution built specifically for the dynamic world of shiftbased staffing. Its end-to-end purpose-built tool set gives the power back to people who need it most – those responsible for creating and executing the shift plan.

It was designed specifically to solve shiftbased staffing problems, so it is incredibly efficient for staffing suppliers and hiring companies. Efficiencies gained at every step of the process can deliver ROI as high as 400 percent for hiring companies and up to

35 percent gross profit for suppliers. This is why companies use JoinedUp to manage more than 90,000 workers every week and process more than $2.5 billion in transactions annually.

DELIVERING FOR THE ROYAL MAIL

Britain’s Royal Mail had struggled for years to find a solution that could cope with the complexity of Royal Mail’s large seasonally flexible workforce. They searched the market and reviewed several well-known providers of contingent workforce management solutions before they looked at JoinedUp. According to Alison Westwood, former head of resourcing and recruitment services, Royal Mail Group plc, “Working with JoinedUp has been a breath of fresh air. JoinedUp helps us manage our scheduling, engage better with our workers, and ensure that our staffing costs and trends are more visible. The solution has great functionality and is highly configurable, and most importantly the team are incredibly responsive, proactive

and have been a joy to work with.”

For Royal Mail, JoinedUp manages between 7,500 and 20,000 shifts per day, with a daily upload of all shift requirements. The software solution shares shifts with partner agencies, downloads daily rosters and sign-in sheets, and provides custom reporting for the client and suppliers.

TRANSFORMING TECH STACKS IN THE US

Acquired by Beeline in 2021, JoinedUp has been adopted by a new group of companies with shift-based needs, including America’s largest electronics retailer. These businesses recognize the value of a fit-for-purpose solution with APIs that make it easy to interface with other platforms and applications essential to business operations.

As businesses increasingly depend on contingent shift workers for flexibility and scalability to meet market challenges and opportunities, visionary adopters are putting the tools in place to support this transformation.

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TALENT & TIARAS US

TALINT PARTNERS PRESENTS: TALENT & TIARAS

2022

TALiNT Partners is proud to present this incredible opportunity to share knowledge, network and celebrate.

Our peer-led roundtables discussions will cover: • • • •

Total Talent Outsourcing Innovation Tech

• • •

DE&I Mobility Skills

Day 1 - November 30 12:30 PM 2:00 PM 2:45 PM 4:00 PM 4:45 PM 5:30 PM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM

Welcome, opening remarks & luncheon Roundtable discussion 1 Roundtable discussion 2 Roundtable discussion 3 Panel discussion and debate: To 2023 and beyond, what are the key trends that will shape next year?

Closing remarks Reception, industry leader keynote speech, dinner and networking End of Day 1

Day 2 - December 1 9:15 AM 9:30 AM 10:00 AM 10:45 AM 11:15 AM 12:00 PM 12:45 PM 1:45 PM 2:30 PM 3:15 PM 3:45 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 11:00 PM

Opening comments Keynote speaker Roundtable discussion 1 Coffee and networking Roundtable discussion 2 Panel discussion 1 Networking lunch Roundtable discussion 3 Roundtable discussion 4 Networking break Best practice panel discussion and debate Closing remarks TIARA Talent Acquisition and Tech Star Awards ceremony End of Day 2

Register here

The TIARAs set the standard for excellence, innovation and achievement, enabling employers to showcase the incredible work they do in talent acquisition and resourcing Start your entries today to shine a light on the work your team has done over the past 12 months and gain the recognition you deserve. There are 8 categories to choose from: • • • • • • • •

WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award Excellence in Onboarding Award Early Careers Pioneer Award Pro Unlimited Employer Brand Award Omni Inclusive Moving The Dial In DE&I Award Best Innovation in Internal Recruitment Award JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award Best Use of Technology Award

Plus the big one – the TA Team of the Year – which is determined by the judges’ evaluation of entries in other categories.

The winners will be announced on December 1st.

START YOUR ENTRIES TODAY

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CLOSING DATE: SEPTEMBER 23

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A new way.

A better way.

Changing the way the world recruits talent

with workforce solutions that put people first.

MSP RPO SOW TTM We champion a better way; a more forward thinking way of working.

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GUEST CONTRIBUTOR: TALENT SOLUTIONS

Talent pools: Improving access to contingent labor Finding quality talent remains a challenge in today’s increasingly competitive job market. When you come across good people, it’s important to keep them top of mind, even if you don’t currently have an open position. Collecting prospective hires into a talent pool — particularly for contingent roles — creates a useful repository for future staffing needs.

TALENT POOLS, DEFINED

A talent pool is database of engaged candidates including those that have previously worked at or applied to work at your company. You can have multiple talent pools for different roles and various types of candidates. Talent pools can include: • • • • •

Former employees who were top performers that left on good terms Dependable freelancers proven to deliver projects on time and on budget Active retirees who might like to return to work on a consultancy basis Candidate referrals from your current employees and managers Previously unhired applicants with valuable skills and experience.

“Say you interview 30 qualified applicants for 10 open roles. What happens to the other 20 people —the ‘silver medalists’ that you don’t hire? The right answer is to add them to a talent pool that you can nurture for future hiring,” explains Monica Schnitzer, VP Client Solutions, Guidant Global — a Managed Services Program (MSP) provider.

IT’S ABOUT LEVERAGING RELATIONSHIPS

Talent pools utilize your employer brand to engage non-employee talent. They’re enabled by technology and curated by recruiters. Once you identify the talent and curate the database, you can automatically send career news and job alerts.

Regular communication with your talent pool is crucial to ensuring past, present, and future candidates are – and remain – engaged and excited by your opportunities.

Employers of all sizes can benefit from talent pooling. The approach is especially effective when hiring for high-volume and repeatable positions — such as call center, administrative, clerical, and warehouse operatives. Many candidates in your talent pool(s) will be partially vetted ahead of time.

Monica Schnitzer Vice President Client Services Guidant Global

You’ll know that call center candidates have the necessary bilingual skills, that warehouse workers have forklift experience, that virtual assistants have the required computer equipment, and so on.

“It’s easy to see where talent pools can reduce time to fill, while delivering a higher quality of candidate,” says Schnitzer. “You can also experience a potential cost savings of up to 10% compared with staffing company markups when talent is sourced in this way. MSP providers can help by designing, building and curating talent pools.”

BUILDING AND NURTURING TALENT POOLS

Building talent pools for in-demand candidates with specialized skill sets can be a challenge. A direct sourcing strategy might well be required to attract hard-to-find talent by using various recruitment channels.

This can mean finessing your hiring message if you’re getting too many unqualified applicants and/ or expanding your outreach to include nontraditional candidates. Actively seeking out individuals from underrepresented groups can improve the breadth, depth, and quality of your talent pools.

It’s essential to nurture your talent pools once they are built. Applicants should be left with a good feeling about joining the company, either in an immediate opening or at some point in the future.

Ongoing communications about your opportunities, culture, and employer brand can help keep people interested and engaged.

Talent pooling is a solution with many benefits. No matter the size of your company, your current processes, or how much (or how little) candidate data you have. The right MSP provider can help you grow talent pools that increase your access to the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

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TALENT ACQUISITION

Employer brand… Make or break on the talent front?

In the raging war of talent acquisition and talent retention, the employer brand is becoming increasingly important. But should employers sacrifice their employer brand when it becomes associated with talent and seeing that talent as an area for cost savings?

O

n the evening of Wednesday, July 13th, TALiNT Partners, in partnership with global workforce solutions firm AMS, hosted an in-person, roundtable discussion with Talent Acquisition and Sourcing Leaders in Palo Alto, California. The event was held in the Vung Tau Room at Tamarine, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley.

To kick off the conversation, multiple topics that are affecting the talent ecosystem were laid out with the group, to include Direct Sourcing and where it should sit within the organization – TA or Procurement; return-towork and how Silicon Valley was looking at this key workforce item; and lastly the massive talent shortages that are affecting everyone, everywhere.

One common theme that kept weaving itself throughout the evening, and seemed to come up in everyone’s comments, was employer brand and the importance of it, not only for new talent attraction but more and more for employee retention.

When thinking about Direct Sourcing and where this very important initiative should sit 30

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Ray Culver Strategic Advisor, North America TALiNT Partners

within an organization, this idea of employer brand and how it is leveraged on full-time hiring strategies creates a protective nature from the Talent Acquisition teams, all while Procurement teams think of direct sourcing as a cost-saving play for talent – the question is do you sacrifice your employer brand when it becomes associated with talent and seeing talent as an area for cost savings?

WHY WOULD EMPLOYEES WANT TO RETURN TO OFFICE? This is a similar question that Michelle Zell, Director of Human Resources at Bosch North America shared they asked internally when preparing to bring employees back to the office. At Bosch, the approach they take with most things that affect employees is to ask the question: “Why would anyone want to go anywhere” and make sure that there is a reason behind the moves. More and more companies these days are taking this approach and developing an Office Value Proposition (OVP) that take the employees’ viewpoints into account and works to understand why an employee would want to come back to the office and highlights the benefits for the employees and teams. The days of “you must

come back because we have a 20-year lease on multiple buildings” is not as compelling and, quite frankly, is not the employee’s concern. All of the investment of time and understanding to develop an OVP builds into an employer’s brand and makes companies stand out with either new talent or employee retention.

W

ith employer brand playing such a pivotal role in new talent attraction, and with the various ways employer brand is being woven into an employer’s way of thinking (or definitely should be), it’s no surprise this came up when discussing the talent shortages around the country and within certain sectors. Kim Sterling, Global Talent Acquisition Leader at Anaplan shared they have taken a “talent around location” strategy where they build out different talent identification and retention models based upon the location it will serve to support. With not all regions of the country feeling the same talent issues, this allows Anaplan to focus in on needs for the specific region and solve for them individually, addressing the unique

challenges and not trying to make a onesize-fits-all approach work for something as important as talent attraction and retention.

No matter how you look at it, an employer’s brand can make them a standout, good or bad, within the talent wars of today. Taking the time to listen and seek to understand what employees and future employees want and need is a must in today’s world, and the companies who get this will win the talent, simple as that.

Do you sacrifice your employer brand when it becomes associated with talent and seeing that talent as an area for cost savings?

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What do your parents do? Does it really matter?

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners CEO discusses why your familial lineage shouldn’t matter during the interview process.

A

nyone with a passing interest in UK politics will be aware that we are about to announce a new Prime Minister to replace Boris Johnston. It’s a process that has taken up most of the summer with a long list of candidates whittled down to two finalists who are voted for by the Conservative Party membership – generally regarded as a pretty staid and reactionary group.

Ken Brotherston Chief Executive TALiNT Partners

frequently – was the show’s host, introduced each candidate by describing what their parents did.

We had a couple of professors and physician, a pharmacist, a nurse, a teacher, a soldier and, laughably, Tom Tugendhat’s mother was simply described as ‘French’. I never knew that was a job, but there you are.

But it turns out they’re not the problem (so far). More illuminating was a debate early on in the process with the initial group of candidates taking part in a their first televised debate – effectively a group selection exercise, a process that will be familiar to many employers.

But one thing I know with utter certainty is that whatever their parents did, it gives absolutely no clue as to whether each of the candidates would be an effective Prime Minister. And in passing, it was especially surprising hearing these parental descriptions from the normally oh-so-progressive Channel 4.

This article makes no comment on the relative merits of each candidate. No, what was genuinely shocking – not a phrase I use

Whilst ‘what your parents do’ has never been such a big thing in the U.S. (apart from maybe ultra-Waspy circles), the main point I would

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draw on is this: Whilst even in the most traditional corner of England, most people would have assumed asking candidates what their parents did for a living fell out of fashion sometime around the turn of the century, the fact that people who should know better are still doing it shows there is still more to do.

Understanding candidates’ backgrounds can be useful in building better pipelines of diverse and socially disadvantaged groups. It has no place when selecting five college-educated lawmakers in their 40s applying for the most important job in the land.

But it would be a mistake to think that interviewing and selection processes over here don’t have their own inherent biases – and I’m not talking about the obvious types, more the subtle preferences that aren’t actually illegal

just well, old fashioned.

Contrast this with other, more progressive organizations, where line managers are provided with nothing more than the name of the candidate. The talent acquisition team has already determined each candidate has the capability to do the job, leaving the line manager to focus on their relevant experience and skills during the interview.

This approach may not work for every role, and for positions where you really do need the best of the best, there are a multitude of ways in which candidates can be tested and probed on the key attributes required for a role, without it turning into a Navy Seals selection exercise.

But in none of them does it matter that your father was a judge, or your mother is French.

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Connecting the talent ecosystem: We bring together a global network of leading employers and solution providers to make better talent and technology decisions.