TALiNT International US issue 4

From the Editor

It’s the TALiNT Partners TIARA Awards season! We’ve celebrated and championed the industry’s finest at diamond-studded, sparkly gala dinners in Europe in the last month and we’re very excited to be hosting the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards US and TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards, in-person during a two-day conference and awards event Talent and TIARAs in Atlanta. The event promises to be a wonderful opportunity to gather insights, and network with peers and industry leaders, as well as to celebrate the winners at the awards ceremony at the end of day two.

The TIARAs, our global awards program, is the biggest of its kind and we pride ourselves in the rigor of the independent judging process and the quality of the entries. We’re delighted to share with you the finalists in this issue of the magazine. Our panel of esteemed judges had a hard time choosing the best of the entries – all

entries were a true reflection of the dedication and agility TA teams and the true innovations HR Tech firms have demonstrated over the last year – and their short list can be read on page 30.

At TALiNT International, we work hard to curate insights and trends from the industry’s top professionals to share them with our audience and support them in making more informed and calculated decisions for their businesses. We’ve interviewed Aaron Craig Mitchell, ex HR Director at Netflix and HR industry disruptor; Bryan Adams, Director and founder of PH.Creative, Employer Brand guru; and Rebecca Samarasinghe Perrault, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader at Magnit. Their Q&As are insightful and honest and definitely worth a read.

I hope you enjoy the read.

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.

Published by Talent Intelligence Partners Ltd Casa Court Great George Street Godalming GU71DX www.talintpartners.com

Editorial, news and features: debbie@talintpartners.com Advertising and sponsorship: andy@talintpartners.com Design: annabelle@talintpartners.com

Bruce

MICROSOFT, META, TWITTER AND SALESFORCE LAY OFF STAFF

Big names in Big Tech are letting go of staff at what is said to be the most dramatic cull in tech sector history. Meta has laid off more than 11,000 employees thereby reducing its headcount by around 13 percent, while Microsoft announced at the end of October that it’s laying off around 1,000, with numbers still to be confirmed. Elon Musk led the charge, however, by laying off around half of its workforce when he took control of the social media platform on October 27. This, in a bid to run a financially healthier business by taking it private and enhancing his unilateral power as CEO.

Salesforce has joined the avalanche with an announcement of 2,500 redundancies in the US, with the jury still out on whether or not the mass layoffs will reach UK shores.

Meta, the social media giant, is battling falling revenues and rising competition despite reporting profits in excess of £23 billion. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg emailed employees on Wednesday morning informing them of the redundancies.

He said: “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

Zuckerberg said revenue growth experienced during the pandemic had not been sustained, ad performance was down, and ecommerce had declined, all in an environment of economic downturn.

He added: “[These factors] caused our revenue to be much lower than I’d expected. I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.” Despite drops in share prices and apprehension around Zuckerburg’s Metaverse development, he has said that investment in Real Labs will continue.

Why? the industry is asking. Since the pandemic, the tech industry has seen an explosion of use of and investment in tech, probably since Facebook’s arrival 18 years ago. The result of rising inflation and reduced revenue seem to be the main reasons for the slew of mass redundancies, even in the face of reporting massive revenue over the last year.

Ken Brotherston, TALiNT Partners CEO said: “First of all, it’s only the most dramatic cull in tech history if you’re under 40. The dot com reverse was quicker and deeper in percentage terms but, of course, that isn’t any comfort if you are one of the people affected. What might offer some succor however is that we still have a pretty robust employment market with a lot of the skills previously valued by these big tech firms still in high demand from lots of other employers.”

TALiNT Scene

Lights! Camera! Action! TALiNT Partners stepped up and dressed up for the European TIARAs Awards at the end of the summer. The best of the total talent ecosystem were in attendance while we celebrate the most innovative and forward-thinking organizations in the industry. We may have drank some champagne and ate good food too!

TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards, Montcalm Marble Arch, London

In a glitzy and glamourous gathering of the stars of the TA space, we celebrated the winners of this year’s TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards Europe. There were too many highlights of the evening to mention, but attention must be brought to the chicken main dish – and all the brilliant winners of the night, of course!

High5 Dinner

TALiNT Partners, in partnership with global total talent solution provider High5, hosted an in-person, Talent Leaders dinner with Talent Acquisition and Sourcing Leaders in New York City, New York. The event was

held in the heart of the Big Apple, in the iconic Empire State building.

On the menu were discussions around the Employer Brand and how it can be successfully leveraged to attract and retain key talent.

TIARA Talent Solutions Awards, Sheraton Grand London Park Lane

TALiNT Partners hosted the best of the best in Talent Solutions at this year’s diamondstudded TIARA Talent Solutions Awards! We love putting on a good show and the hosts TALiNT Partners CEO Ken Brotherston and Director of Research and Insights Debra Sparshott took us through a celebration of winners and a very delicious dinner!

STARS ARE BORN

TALiNT Partners will bring together the cream of Talent Acquisition and HR Technology communities to share what we have learned from the complex and varied talent challenges of 2022 and look forward to what’s ahead in 2023.

Following on from an incredibly successful TIARA Awards program in Europe, and the resounding success of the virtual TIARA Talent Solutions Awards US earlier this year, TALiNT Partners is bringing its winning TIARA Awards program to Atlanta in the form of a two-day conference and dazzling black tie awards ceremony.

The post-pandemic, economic fever has broken and the talent ecosystem is now adjusting to the symptoms of the hiring boom and dramatic changes in the way we work. Talent Acquisition teams are faced with not only hiring scarce talent but managing them through the hiring process, from recruitment to chair and through their career progression.

Over two packed days delegates will have the opportunity to gain insights and inspiration from the powerhouse panel of keynote speakers. TALiNT Partners Editor, Debbie Walton spoke exclusively to three of the Talent and TIARAs keynote speakers.

Aaron Craig Mitchel, ex-Netflix HR Director will be opening the event on Day 1. Aaron is an LA based HR Leader, Investor, Advisor, Coach,

Changemaker, and Entrepreneur with nearly 20 years’ experience across various industries. As the former Director of HR for Netflix Animation, he led HR for one of the largest and fastest growing animation studios in history. He spoke exclusively to TALiNT International about “Hire for Potential” strategies and how TA leaders can take care of their own careers. Read the full interview on pg 14.

Bryan Adams is the CEO and founder of Ph.Creative, recognized as one of the leading employer brand agencies in the world. Ph.Creative specializes in building world-class employer brand, EVP and talent engagement strategies for companies such as Apple, American Airlines, GVC and Blizzard Entertainment. He spoke to TI about the importance of the Employer, the increase in workforce EQ post-pandemic and how SEO is going to take the recruitment industry by storm… Read more about Bryan on pg 22.

Rebecca Samarasinghe Perrault, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader at Magnit, TEDx Speaker and Forbes Contributor on DE&I and how its shifted from a ‘nice to have’

to an essential part a business’s goals and strategy. Read her candid interview on climbing DE&I mountains on pg 19.

Other industry heavy weights who will also be keynote speakers at the event over the two days are:

Liz Freedman, the Chief People Officer at Learning Technologies forms part of the keynote speaker line up at Talent and TIARAs. Liz is a Global Human Resources Leader with breadth and depth of experience in building individual, team and organizational performance across functions, cultures, and industries. Industry leaders call her bold, she’s willing to challenge status quo and take smart risks in service of people and growth. Executive leaders value her as a courageous truth teller and trusted partner. We are thrilled that Liz will be sharing her knowledge and insights with all those in attendance.

Global Head of Strategy at Allegis Global Solutions, Bruce Morton is a big name in the talent ecosystem. He’s in his 40th year in the human capital industry and is well

The Talent and TIARAs conference and Awards will be taking place between November 30 and December 1 and it promises to bring together industry leaders and experts in what will undoubtedly be the learning and networking event of the year.

known as a global workforce design and talent acquisition expert. He has designed, implemented and managed some of the largest resourcing solutions across many different parts of the globe and has been recognized as HR Thought Leader of the Year by HRO both in EMEA and here in the US and he has just published a book ‘Redesigning the Way Work Works’ so check that out on Amazon.

“As an organization, Allegis Global Solutions (AGS) helps companies rethink how work gets done to drive outcomes that move needles. Part of that effort involves partnering with industry leaders that share in our mission to push continually challenge the status quo to best unlock the potential of tomorrow’s workforce. That’s why AGS is pleased to sponsor TALiNT Partners in connecting the talent ecosystem at this year’s Talent and TIARAs event in Atlanta. It’s been wonderful to be back in-person attending events like these, where today’s brightest minds can gain and share insights, and continue to elevate and innovate to achieve true workforce transformation. Here’s to a great event and the crowning of the TIARA Talent Acquisition and Talent Tech Starts champions.” Bruce Morton, Global Head of Strategy said.

WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHEN?

Day One is designed to cover the spectrum of strategic issues facing HR and Talent Leaders, and delegates can select roundtable discussions across a range of topics, including:

• Horizon scanning: What are the key economic and market challenges affecting the talent agenda?

• Demand planning: How can organizations plan better in such an uncertain and unpredictable environment

• Executive buy-in: When corporate resources are under strain, how do you get the support from C-Suite to deliver against your targets

• Total Talent: What are the key trends in internal mobility, hiring for skills and improving DE&I

• Updating your EVP: In a post pandemic world, flexible-first world, your EVP needs a re-fresh

Day Two is designed for a deeper dive into the key operational challenges facing HR and Talent Leaders. Delegates can select roundtable discussion across a range of topics, including:

• Candidate experience and EVP: What’s compelling in the new economy

• Onboarding: Where talent acquisition meets

talent acquisition. How to get it right every time

• DE&I: Moving the dial, building buy-in, delivering measurable results

• TA Team training: Building long-term capability

• Tech trends: How to assess and build the right tech stack

• Innovation in assessment

• Identifying and engaging exec talent

• Identifying and engaging early in careers talent

For full event details and to register, click here.

This event is an amazing opportunity to learn, share, network and celebrate with an amazing range of TA and HR leaders and industry experts. It is also the perfect way to review and reflect on lessons from 2022 and be in the best possible position for whatever lies ahead in 2023.”

Ken Brotherston, Chief Executive, TALiNT Partners

THE CHANGEMAKER

TALiNT International sat down with Talent and TIARAs keynote speaker, Aaron Mitchell. We spoke about his strategy to “Hire for Potential”, new technologies and how TA leaders can take care of their own careers.

Aaron is an LA based HR Leader, Investor, Advisor, Coach, Changemaker, and Entrepreneur with nearly 20 years experience across various industries. As the former Director of HR for Netflix Animation, he led HR for one of the largest and fastest growing animation studios in history. He is an experienced business leader with a demonstrated history of executing change, and has become globally recognized for his historic work pioneering Netflix’s 2% Cash Holdings Pledge of $100 Million into Black Owned Banks.

TI: As a coach, what advice would you give Talent Acquisition (TA) leaders in managing their own careers?

ACM: As a coach and as a former leader of TA Leaders, the advice I tend to give TA leaders is the importance of building diverse (industry, geography, profession, identity) networks in order to always be able to draw on the connectivity of that network to solve their business problems. TA is usually at the frontlines of solving a capability or capacity issue and being able to execute quickly with high quality is what differentiates good from great in my experience.

TI: How do organizations ensure that those who look after the talent are, themselves, looked after?

ACM: To state the obvious, organizations are collections of people bound by a set of common goals and acceptable behaviors. People who lean toward being caretakers often spend more time taking care of others than taking care of themselves and in many ways, this is where they draw their energy. It’s important that the leaders of these caretakers understand this dynamic as well as understanding the need to constantly check-in and those caretakers get the help they need to continue thriving. Some of this comes from rewarding the behaviors you want to see more of. Do you reward self-care or do you reward unhealthy behaviors that lead to burn out. Do you create space for open dialogue or are discussion one-way or top down? Do you promote leaders based on only their numerical results or do you develop and promote leaders who understand and are held responsible for consistently motivating and developing others. I recommend the book Multipliers on this topic.

TI: Will AI take all our jobs?

ACM: No. AI will absolutely change and enhance the work we do and is already starting to do so. I see a world where AI can help highlight blind spots in ones network, extract keywords from resumes and JDs and cut down on sourcing or even applied to the assessment process to include analyzing micro expressions. But in terms of taking our jobs, the best TA folks exercise a great deal of judgment and have to be strategic and well connected to their business leaders to solve business problems, and then be willing to pivot the moment the profile or team changes. I have had few searches that ended the way they started and some of the most successful hires came via thinking completely out of the box. As long as you are developing your network and your judgment, you will be on the side of informing the AI and not being subordinate to or replaced by it.

TI: What technologies are most useful in helping talent leaders do their jobs?

ACM: While I think there are a lot of tools available, I tend to stick to the fundamentals. I am a bit old school in that the most significant technology for me has been LinkedIn because my focus on building and managing a very large

and diverse network. I spend every day on LinkedIn either connect with people, reviewing what is trending or creating content that draws people back to my profile to make it easier to continue building my network.

After I moved out of TA into an HRBP leadership role, I was desperate to fill nine roles within a two-month period to support the rapid growth of the animation studio, tripling it’s size of my team. To accomplish this, I went to LinkedIn and decided to try something new that I called “Hiring for Potential”. I posted a job description for a role with four vacancies that included the job duties, but no qualifications. I invited anyone who was interested to answer five essay questions that I was using to determine resilience, learning agility, persistence, character and purpose, all factors that I considered important for assessing potential in the fast-paced environment. I set a limit to the first 125 respondents and spent a day reviewing every submission. I did this while also allowing the TA team that was supporting me to source and accept applications to the more traditional job description. of the 125, I moved 10 forward and added them to the pool of folks the TA team produced and in the end, all four roles were filled by the LI post. While I

was initially the hiring manager, that shifted part way through and by the time offers were made, it was a leader reporting into me who had to make the call. It’s been more than 18 months since I ran that initiative and all 4 of those hires are still thriving and growing at Netflix, and that has everything to do with using a technology platform in different ways.

TI: There is a drive towards hiring for cultural fit. Who is responsible for ensuring the culture of an organization?

ACM: Everyone. Often a CEO will set the vision and dictate the behaviors that are and are not going to contribute to getting an organization where it needs to go. Without a CEO having a clear vision and creating that accountability, it is hard to have a direction, but I think that is step one. In the book “What You Do Is Who You Are,”, Ben Horowitz discussed this role and how much it can influence to overall direction a company takes, but depending on the size, more happens outside of that leaders preview and thus everyone has to take on responsibility for understanding and building the culture that will get the organization where it needs to go. When I think about the interview process and i think about the number of touch points a candidate may have, everyone of them is either reinforcing or

diminishing what is written down on paper. If a leader is hiring for their team and the organization has identified a set of behaviors that will be rewarded or not, anything that goes against this may diminish the organizations ability to accomplish the goal. Every person for themselves can be cultural choice, and everyone involved in a process should be weeding out the folks who won’t thrive because to do the opposite is bad for everyone eventually. There is no one size fits all culture and I hesitate to call culture good or bad. It’s more about being clear and then ensuring everyone has the agency (assuming that’s part of the culture) to reinforce it.

TI: TA leaders have got a much larger voice in organizations now. How important is C-suite buy-in where TA is concerned and why?

ACM: I’ve always thought about TA as more equivalent to a Sales organization than HR. I firmly believe HR should be highly aligned with the C-Suite, but this has long been a point of contention for the HR profession. For that reason and based on the nature of what TA does, I think TA is more aligned with Sales expect the product is the employee experience. If the quality of the people hired really drives the results of the company, I would presume C-Suite buy-in is a non-negotiable. Would it be

okay for a Sales organization not to have C-Suite buy-in? That would be a disaster.

TI: You talk about getting to the root of a recruitment problem. What is the most common problem you see within TA teams?

ACM: A lack of diversity. Unfortunately, almost every place I’ve been, recruitment teams seem to proliferate group think and don’t do enough to create spaces that encourage innovation which is the reason why diversity and inclusion are so critical in this field. I talk about networks a lot. LinkedIn defines the networking gap as “the advantage some individuals have over others as a result of who they know. Where you grow up, where you go to school, and where you work can give you up to a 12x advantage in gaining access to opportunity.” So if most of the people in the TA org come from the same places because the teams and leaders fail to diversify their orgs, they can only tap into a portion of the talent that is available, and that cuts across all the dimensions I mentioned before.

TI: You’re a changemaker. If you could change anything in the TA space, what would it be?

ACM: I would change how recruiters are

trained. As I said, TA feels more like sales than HR, and I think a lot of folks bristle at that, probably because sales can get a bad rap. But Sales, for the org that relies on a sales org to generate revenue, is a function so important that training every single person on the techniques and sharing intel is a nonnegotiable. As such, I have always seen TA within organizations rely a instinct or feeling as opposed to tried and true techniques that are refined over time as the objectives change. In “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”, Horowitz talks in detail about building an rebuilding sales orgs and training and development was always the most important thing he looked at his sales leaders to do because the teams live and die by quality sales.

It isn’t possible to predict human behavior, at least not in the ways that would make hiring fool proof, and we aren’t getting much closer to improving predictability of performance. We can however reduce the amount of variation, especially when it comes to things like culture and capability when TA is treated like more than a profession you can just do without any real meaningful training. I see this happen on the staffing and executive search side, but most orgs internally don’t invest and the entire organization pays the price.

TALiNT International

COMPETING PRIORITIES

TI: What is your view on how far organizations have come? And what mountains do they still need to climb?

RSP: Over the past 10 years I’ve seen a shift in emphasis put on DE&I in organizations. In the past, it was a nice to have and now it is an expectation and a C-Suite priority with experienced, passionate DE&I leaders to support the organization’s goals. Executive teams and boards are looking at the numbers and have accountability for action and change. Although we still have a long way to go, setting accountability is critical to continue the progress we need.

TI: What stops organizations reaching their DE&I goals?

RSP: There are many challenges for DE&I but two of the most significant that prevent organizations from making their goals are:

Competing priorities: Organizations are lean and are constantly making decisions on where to spend time and where to invest. Even though DE&I has been deemed important, it may seem to always fall off the priority list.

Doing DE&I work in a silo: We will never make real progress on diversity, equity and inclusion if it is done in a silo by only a specific team and leader. DE&I must be integrated into every part of an organization and be a lens for every business decision.

TI: What is the biggest stumbling block for organizations realizing their DE&I strategies?

RSP: Lack of accountability throughout the organization. I mentioned that competing priorities often stops organizations from achieving their goals, and this is where accountability comes in. If DE&I is mandated by the board of directors, built into leadership goals and integrated into everyone’s performance, it becomes a non-negotiable priority.

TI: There are so many different components, how do you prioritize them?

RSP: Data is the key to determining DE&I priorities and the foundation of any strategy. This includes quantitative data (the numbers), hiring, attrition and promotion rates and other indicators, as well as qualitative data (the story

enjoyed a candid conversation with Rebecca Samarasinghe Perrault, Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Leader at Magnit, TEDx Speaker and Forbes Contributor on DE&I and how its shifted from a ‘nice to have’ to an essential part a business’s goals and strategy.

behind the numbers), which is gathered by surveys and talking to people. Having both components is essential when it comes to creating DE&I initiatives that will have a real, tangible impact in the organization.

TI: Can you give us an example of which organizations are doing this well and why?

RSP: The companies successful in their DE&I efforts are those that not only set DE&I goals but make themselves accountable to make those changes a reality. They utilize data to diagnose both the bright spots and the opportunity areas of the business and take a multi-pronged approach to addressing them – whether through providing education, implementing bias-blocking hiring processes, establishing diverse supplier partnerships, or other methods. They then take accountability for those results, adjusting accordingly until their DE&I goals are met.

TI: How does technology underpin successful DE&I strategies?

RSP: The right DE&I technologies can provide information and power innovative tools to support an organization’s goals. For example, while having DE&I data on the contingent workforce is still relatively new, it is essential in gaining insights into the full representation of the talent contributing to the success of the organization. The ability to securely collect

self-identified data through a Vendor Management System, for example, is critical to getting those actionable analytics and informing effective DE&I strategies. AI can be another innovative tool, but it has to be employed carefully. Biases are part of being human, but we can unintentionally embed those biases in technology. With caution, there are tools that can support a skills-based, unbiased assessment of talent. When combined with DE&I commitments across the organization and a data-informed strategy, DE&I technologies can be essential tools in reaching those goals.

TI: Who is responsible for DE&I success? And you can’t say everyone…

RSP: The CEO. When the CEO takes a stand and makes a firm commitment to DE&I, it impacts everyone else in the organization. This will affect and touch all departments and parts of the business, and as a result, all the individuals within the company. By proxy, this also includes the board of directors, shareholders, and stakeholders. So while DE&I is technically everyone’s shared responsibility, having the CEO take ownership and make DE&I a priority is key to making substantial progress.

TI: How is the recession affecting DE&I hiring?

RSP: Recessions always impact the parts of an organization that aren’t seen as business

critical. When DE&I hiring isn’t a business priority, it will likely be cut from the agenda.

However, if the right DE&I hiring processes and relationships are already in place at an organization, hiring itself doesn’t have to require a monetary investment. If DE&I hiring is fully embedded in how a company runs the business before the onset of a recession, there shouldn’t be an impact on DE&I hiring. This is why integrating DE&I practices and policies from the beginning of the hiring cycle to the end and beyond is critical.

TI: Recent legislation regarding pay visibility, does that help or hinder DE&I?

RSP: Not only do historically marginalized groups face biases and stereotypes that often impact their compensation, but many also don’t have the resources to find out how much they should be making professionally, which translates to taking less than their counterparts. Having pay visibility helps with

ensuring pay equity across all demographic groups. Transparency and visibility help address inequities effectively, which helps to even out the playing field for everyone. Knowledge is power.

TI: We’re back here in 12 months. What will have changed?

RSP: As more companies continue to hire contingent workers to help them remain flexible in the face of an unpredictable labor market and recession, DE&I will become a big priority for the contingent workforce.

Contingent workers are becoming increasingly responsible for business-critical aspects of companies, so it is essential that they all feel welcomed and heard within the organization, no matter their background. Organizations that make DE&I for their contingent workforce a key part of their strategy will not only better attract top workers, which will be critical in the war for talent, but better retain them as well.

The companies successful in their DE&I efforts are those that not only set DE&I goals but make themselves accountable to make those changes a reality.”

LAUNCH, LAND, LIVE

A keynote speaker at this year’s Talent and TIARAs event at the end of November, Bryan is considered a prominent employer brand thought leader. He spoke to TI about the importance of the Employer, the increase in workforce EQ post-pandemic and how SEO is going to take the recruitment industry by storm…

Bryan is the CEO and founder of Ph.Creative, recognized as one of the leading employer brand agencies in the world. Ph.Creative specializes in building world-class employer brand, EVP and talent engagement strategy for companies such as Apple, American Airlines, GVC and Blizzard Entertainment.

He is a two-times best-selling author, podcaster and specialist speaker. His presentation style is energetic, passionate, thought-provoking and interactive, so get ready to contribute and engage. His creative, unconventional and even controversial methodologies are said to regularly change the way people think about employer branding and EVP.

TI: You call yourselves the Defenders of Happiness and are all about the “feel-good”. How does promoting a positive employer brand result in talent attraction and retention in such a talent scarce market?

BA: Happiness isn’t just pleasure, it’s victory! We like to win at Ph.Creative… but it speaks to the idea of having a purpose and finding meaning in our work and all aspects of our life too for that matter.

I would say promoting a clear and coherent employer brand is more important than overly worrying about being positive. We all want to be seen as compelling, but you can’t be appealing to everyone and nor should you try.

If you can find and remind talent why you can bring a sense of purpose, impact and belonging to their day / career, then you will always be able to reach talent, even in a scarce market. One big key is how you tell purpose-told stories that are designed to resonate with the people you want to reach.

TI: Is the employer brand important to job seekers across generations? If not, which generation allocates the most importance to it?

An employer brand is usually designed to be as inclusive as possible. I don’t think it’s a generational thing at all, it’s a simple question of how intentional and effective your communication to your audience is. The point of employer brand strategy is to find an authentic way to differentiate your proposition from talent competitors and make you more relevant to those you’re trying to really engage with.

TI: The EVP sits under the employer brand. What is the difference between the EVP and the Employer Brand? And can one operate without the other?

BA: Your employer brand is your reputation as an employer. It’s not something you can control, but you can heavily influence it. The biggest way to influence what people think of your organization as an employer is to set out a clear and concise ‘Give & Get’ proposition that makes it easy for someone to decide if what you’re offering is worth the effort, commitment, and sacrifice.

So, you could say your EVP is the argument you make, and your employer brand is the conclusion other people arrive at after they’ve evaluated what you and everyone else has had to say about you.

TI: The market is currently experiencing the greatest talent shortages we’ve seen. What is the most important aspect of the EVP that talent is looking for today?

BA: I don’t think this is the greatest talent shortage we’ve ever seen, it’s simply the pendulum of supply and demand swinging again, just like it has many times before with the added complexity of COVID-19 shuffling and disrupting a variety of industries more than others.

We’re seeing a ton of decline in some sectors at

the same time as incline in others – all just the ripple effects of the past 2+ years. Today more than ever, people want to know they will be valued, heard and given an opportunity to find balance, purpose, impact and belonging.

It feels like the world all woke up one day postpandemic with 50+ more EQ points and realized there’s more to life and things don’t have to be the way they were. It’s not the ‘Great Resignation’ at all, it’s the ‘Great Epiphany’.

This means company’s need to be more empathic, understanding and accommodating to personal circumstance than ever before, just in order to remain relevant and competitive.

At the macro level, we’re seeing evidence of people reacting favorably to companies who are changing policies and procedures to favor more flexible lifestyles, work/ life balance and ‘work from x’ options. Large organizations that fail to move quickly enough are losing top talent and so agility and speed to adapt is a big opportunity for company’s looking to hire or retain top talent at the moment.

However, even with that all said, the biggest and most powerful thing a company can include in their EVP remains to be truth, honesty and balance. Gone are the days a company can attract talent by bragging about benefits. People are smarter than that, so they need to see a clear proposition that articulates what it really takes to

thrive and how people find significant personal and professional value if they can make a meaningful contribution.

TI: Who could benefit from an employer brand makeover?

BA: Any of the organizations who have fired people via SMS, Zoom or bulk-email recently. There’s plenty of horror stories out there. But the biggest beneficiaries of EVP are the millions of great companies out there who fail to tell their story well enough to resonate with the talent they need to grow.

It’s no longer good enough to be a great company to work for, you have to be great at telling a compelling, organized story too.

TI: There has been increasing noise in the industry about hiring for cultural fit. It’s a bit of a chicken or egg question. Do you create the culture before hiring? Or hire to create the culture?

BA: I believe the conversation needs to widen to ‘culture add’ and ‘culture match’, so we’re being clear that a culture can greatly benefit from diversity and inclusion.

The chicken or the egg both benefit from starting with an exercise to better understand what culture you have versus what culture you need in order to make a strategic plan that

drives a company forward. Sometimes there’s a huge overlap, sometimes there’s none at all. Understanding that is where I would always start.

It’s always easier to design and nurture the culture you want and need than to change something that’s not fit for purpose too, so I would urge business leaders to take this seriously and invest strategically as soon as time and resource allows.

TI: How do you ensure your brand remains consistent across partnerships (internally and externally)?

BA: This comes down to having a clear plan and an employer brand that has been designed with all stakeholders in mind from the start.

The only way to create a truly world class employer brand that aligns with the organization, the EVP and how it shows up is to include all leadership from right across the business from inception.

The goal is a simple, clear and cohesive brand experience right across the organization. We use a Launch, Land, Live model of activation and adoption that involves the entire leadership to buy-in and see the value in injecting the work into their communications and the experience they are managing and influencing.

TI: What technologies underpin the success of the Employer Brand?

BA: Typically, there will be some key technology behind any organized communications at scale. This varies from company to company. From an attraction perspective, the careers website is the biggest and most powerful asset to be leveraged. We built www.HappyDance.love because we think the market is under-served with a platform that can showcase an employer brand and offer a candidate experience that lives up to experience by design of an EVP without constraints.

The dashboards, measurement and metrics technology is another key technology to ensure continual improvement and iterative feedback from the talent audience, whether that’s candidates, employees or even alumni.

TI: How have Employer Brand strategies evolved or changed post-pandemic?

BA: Our strategy hasn’t changed, but the ingredients, tactics and insights we find to produce a new, relevant and differentiated EVP most certainly has.

I believe every company needs to have a few stories straight in a post-pandemic world;

• How did you protect and support your people during COVID-19?

• How has your organization changed and evolved since COVID-19?

• How do you help prevent burn-out and promote healthy work/ life balance?

• How do you ensure inclusion and belonging, especially for those people working remotely?

I could go on with more questions along a similar vein. The point is, people are much more acutely aware of what’s important to their careers and life in general these days and as company leaders we have to demonstrate a capacity to put our people forward or risk being much less relevant to your talent audience than you once were.

TI: Looking to the horizon, what big trends do you see coming our way in 2023?

BA: OK, it’s a dangerous game to predict the future, but I’ll share what I can see coming and what might happen as a result.

Employer branding will be consistently recognized as a top three business priority by corporate C-suite in 2023.

Careers websites will be recognized as the ‘hot’ talent attraction to radically improve on from a technical, user experience and ease of management perspective in 2023.

SEO will finally take the recruitment industry by storm as the world realizes that job board and review sites are ‘stealing’ your branded web traffic.

Alumni community investment will increase.

EMPLOYER BRAND: TA SECRET WEAPON

Ray Culver Strategic Advisor, North America TALiNT Partners

On the evening of Thursday, the 29th of September, TALiNT Partners, in partnership with global total talent solution provider High5, hosted an in-person, Talent Leaders dinner with Talent Acquisition and Sourcing Leaders in New York City, New York. The event was held in the heart of the Big Apple, in the iconic Empire State building.

The topic for this Talent Leaders dinner was around employer brand and how some companies make it look almost organic in how they not only build their brand, but also use it to attract and retain top talent around the globe. More and more companies today are leveraging a strong employer brand to not only identify talent for today’s hiring needs, but taking the long view of building talent pools for future hiring needs

As you can imagine, being in NYC, or as the locals call it “the center of the universe”, some of the most iconic global brands call the City home so the discussion and debate were strong. One group of acronyms that kept coming up in conversation were EVP or Employee Value Proposition and OVP or Office Value Proposition.

One dinner guest, a global Talent Acquisition leader from a commercial real estate organization, based there in NYC, described how they had brought all employees back to the office and their EVP/OVP was around taking

care of the community which had built them –let me explain, by coming into the office on a daily basis the employees were putting money back into the local community, the bodega owner on the corner and the local market on the other corner. Also, the same organization provides daily and weekly events for the employees to take part in, from movie nights with popcorn to football games with pizza – its all about the employee which makes them want to be there. This type of employee buy-in and belonging has helped to build a strong brand to attract and retain talent in a very tight and competitive job market.

Another dinner guest, a Talent Acquisition leader from a large PR firm shared their experience around building employer brand through enabling their employees to be brand ambassadors and evangelize the brand for them in the market. One advantage to this is the ability to create a strong employee referral program, in which the employee is empowered to introduce their network to the organization and help to build the company of the future.

SO, HOW DO YOU BUILD THAT BRAND?

As we began to wrap up our dinner, I asked our partners from High5, Ed Coleman and Paul Petersen, to share three things that make for a strong employer brand. The three things I got back were consistency, broadcast, and to train your workforce to be your brand ambassadors. Let me explain each a bit, consistency in the context of making sure that you are thoughtful and consistent with how you are representing your brand in the market – build a brand that people remember and one that has the ability to attract your next hire. Broadcast in the context of making sure you have avenues to be able to socialize and put your band into the market – this could be social media, print, television, employee word of mouth and many more.

And last, but certainly not least, turning your

employees into walking and talking brand ambassadors. If you can create an environment where your employees are walking adverts for the company culture, you have created a brand ambassador by simply being a good, solid company.

I mentioned on the top, how some companies make creating a strong employer brand look and seem organic, how do they do this? When a company takes the time to listen to their employees and begin to make decisions with employees, communities and futures in mind, I think those are the companies that don’t have to think about the brand, it takes care of itself. Where does your company fall on this? How are you leveraging your brand to not only attract talent today, but build talent pools for tomorrow? Food for thought as attracting and retaining of talent gets harder and harder…

WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS

For Today’s Uncharted Market

Building your workforce requires true recruiting experts with the solution agility, data intelligence and nonstop ingenuity to forge a bold new path to top talent.

Hunters and gatherers

Celebrating the best in TA: Finalists of the TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards

TALiNT Partners has announced the finalists for the 2022 TIARA Talent Acquisition Awards US, which set the standard for excellence, innovation and achievement, enabling employers to showcase the incredible work they do in talent acquisition and resourcing.

“The last year has seen an ever-growing range of challenges for talent acquisition and resourcing teams so it is a pleasure to be able to recognize and celebrate the amazing work being done by all of our finalists,” said Ken Brotherston, Chief Executive of TALiNT Partners.

“The TIARAs are distinguished by the rigour of its judging process and the quality of its judging panel” he added. Entries will be assessed across key areas including DE&I, innovation and organizational impact.

Shortlisted entries will now be scored by a

highly experienced, independent panel of expert judges drawn from the HR and Talent Acquisition community. The 2022 judging panel can be viewed here.

Judges will convene in a few weeks to decide who will triumph in each category, as well as to crown the overall winner – the Overall Achievement in TA Award. All winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony taking place on December 1 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, as part of our two-day Talent and Tiaras event.

Winners will be profiled in a special supplement published with TALiNT International.

The 2022 awards campaign is supported by Allegis Global Solutions, AMS, JoinedUp, Magnit, Omni Inclusive, Ph.Creative, Relode and WorkLLama.

ANAPLAN

• The Omni Inclusive Moving the Dial in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

BLUEROCK THERAPEUTICS

• The Magnit Employer Brand Award

• The WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award

ARCHER AVIATION

• The WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award

COVETRUS

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

AVNET

• The Sevenstep Excellence in Onboarding Award

• The Magnit Employer Brand Award

CREDIT KARMA

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

• The Omni Inclusive Moving the Dial in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award

BACARDI-MARTINI

• The Omni Inclusive Moving the Dial in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award

ELASTIC

•

The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

BCD TRAVEL

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

• The Ph.Creative Best Innovation Award

EQUIFAX

• The Sevenstep Excellence in Onboarding Award

• The Ph.Creative Best Innovation Award

FIELD OF TALENT

• The AMS Best Use of Technology Award

PARADOX

• The WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award

FORVIA

• The AMS Best Use of Technology Award

PROGRESS RESIDENTIAL

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

FRIESLANDCAMPINA

• The Magnit Employer Brand Award

PROMETHEUM

• The Sevenstep Excellence in Onboarding Award

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

JASON’S DELI

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

PROOFED

• The Sevenstep Excellence in Onboarding Award

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

MPHASIS CORPORATION

• The AMS Best Use of Technology Award

• The WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award

ROYAL AMBULANCE

• The Ph.Creative Best Innovation Award

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

RPA

• The Omni Inclusive Moving the Dial in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Award

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

VCA ANIMAL HOSPITALS

• The Magnit Employer Brand Award

SEVENSTEP

• The AMS Best Use of Technology Award

VMWARE

• The Ph.Creative Best Innovation Award

• The Relode Early Careers Pioneer Award

SPECTRUM

• The AMS Best Use of Technology Award

• The WorkLLama Candidate Experience Award

UST

• The JoinedUp TA Team Excellence Award

• The Ph.Creative Best Innovation Award

Titans of tech

Finalists of the TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards

TALiNT Partners is excited to announce the finalists for the 2022 TIARA Talent Tech Star Awards US, which shine a spotlight on the full spectrum of HR and Recruitment technology solutions for employers, recruiters, candidates and contractors.

“We are thrilled to have attracted such highquality finalists to our US Talent Tech Star Awards.

They represent a fantastic range of the sector’s highest potential start-ups, fastest growing scale-ups and top performing talent tech giants – collectively employing thousands of talented people and generating billions of dollars in sales” Ken Brotherston, Chief Executive, TALiNT Partners.

Shortlisted entries have now been scored by a highly experienced, independent panel of expert judges who convened a few weeks to decide who will triumph in each category, as well as to crown the overall Champion of Champions.

All winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony taking place on December 1 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, as part of our two-day Talent and Tiaras event, which brings together the talent ecosystem for 2 days of conferences, roundtables, dinners and culminating in our prestigious TIARA Ceremony.

Winners will be profiled in a special supplement published with TALiNT International.

CRELATE

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

• The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

HIGH5

•

The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

CROSSCHQ

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

HIREEZ

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

DIVERSELY

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

HIREQUOTIENT

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

EIGHTFOLD.AI

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

HIREVUE

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

ERIN

• The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

ICIMS

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

JOONKO

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

MERCURY

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

MYBASEPAY

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

• The Contractor Solution of the Year

LEVER

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

LIVEHIRE

• The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

• The Contractor Solution of the Year

NETONE RECRUITER

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

MAGNIT

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

PANDOLOGIC

• The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

PARADOX

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

PIVOTCX

• The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

PLUM

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

PGC GROUP

• The Contractor Solution of the Year

REEJIG

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

PH.CREATIVE

• The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

RELODE

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

HAPPYDANCE, A PH.CREATIVE COMPANY

• The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

TALROO

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

TATIO

• The Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Solution of the Year

• The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

THE TALENT GAMES

• The Candidate Experience Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (1-74 Employees)

WORKLLAMA

• The Workforce Solution of the Year

• The Recruitment Marketing Solution of the Year

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

• The Contractor Solution of the Year

XREF

• The Talent Tech Innovation Award (75+ Employees)

• The Best Talent Tech Company to Work For

Synthetic Cohort Analysis or generati clichés, which do you prefer?

As someone who posts and comments quite a lot on LinkedIn, I’m o�en curious about what gets most engagement. O�en it’s simply a post with a picture of a funky private dining room where we are hosting a dinner but, sometimes it will be a remark on a meatier topic. This month I commented on a post from Steven Bartlett ’s Diary of a CEO and his interview with Simon Sinek Inc. and it clearly touched a nerve with an awful lot of people.

Ithink some of Simon Sinek’s commentary is engaging and insightful but, I also must confess that I find some of it cliched and a bit ‘click-baity’. And I have a particularly hot button for generational generalisations!

And although I may have been slightly harsh in calling his comments ‘lazy and uninformed’, I still think his observations about the ‘flightyness’ of a lot of young people were in the ‘more harm than good’ category.

The thing is, however, there are generational differences in today’s workplaces – but then again, there always have been – and for

anyone looking to truly better understand them I would point you to ‘Generations’ by Bobby Duff y. It’s a rich and relatively un-dense examination of a complex topic and I highly recommend it. One of the most important observations he makes is that generational differences fall into three main areas:

Period effects: Something that happens that affects every generation at the same time. For example, people of all ages got very interested in terrorism after 9/11. In today’s workplaces, everyone is interested in flexibility and different ways of working, not just younger people.

generational

Lifecycle effects: These are the things that happen to every generation. Young people generally aren’t interested in pensions, old people don’t go to nightclubs (by and large!). Likewise, young people have always tended to change jobs more frequently than older people as they work out what they want to do longer term and generally they then settle down.

And finally, Cohort effects: This is where it gets interesting as these are the different attitudes that occur because generations have been socialised differently. Whilst a lot of commentators would call out the increased ‘flighty-ness’ of younger people, it is important to ask how they have been socialised differently to behave in the way they do. Again, this is not a simple answer, but undoubtedly an important component is the drive by employers for increased flexibility and agility in their workforces. Employees of every generation can interpret this as lack of commitment, engagement and loyalty and will respond in kind. Those employees at an earlier point in their career life cycle will likely respond in greater numbers by leaving.

CEO at TALiNT Partners

I would add one other very important distinction when considering trend analysis of younger peoples’ behaviours and attitudes: Is the research referring to rich young people or poor young people? For example, much is made of young people ranking a sense of purpose as the most important thing in a job. Purpose doesn’t pay the rent (it never has) and research often seems to assume that all young people are faced with the choice of picking between Goldman Sachs or McKinsey. In reality, it’s more likely to be a choice between working on a building site or a warehouse or between a care home and a shop.

In summary, as with so many aspects of workforce and talent trends, there are no simple answers. When thinking about generational trends Bobby Duffy recommends ‘synthetic cohort analysis’ or, more simply, considering the three different components of Period, Lifecycle and Cohort effects before making generational assumptions. It’s not as headline grabbing as ‘young people are flighty’ but at least you won’t sound like your parents!

Ken Brotherston

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