Resource Hungry? Global Employer Branding Leader, Hassan AlHindwan is our first guest 'Hive Blogger' and all round EB genius!
- Jun 18, 2024
- 5 min read
A brilliant open letter to TA leaders and blog to gain a deeper understanding of the world of Employer Brand #innovationhive #kudos
“My recruiters cannot handle the number of requisitions we have, we are majorly under-resourced"
“Our finance director did not approve the headcount of two extra recruiters , I am sorry Mehdi … will have to make it work with what we have ... “
“ These roles in digital are taking way too long to fill and it’s really impacting our ability to deliver the transformation that is being spearheaded by the executive team… I am sure the chief digital officer will be on our neck by Monday ! “
These are just some of the realities TA leaders have to face … but we are here to solve this and help move you from an under resourced function to an adequately resourced one and a true partner to your business :)
Actually it does not require Aladdin’s genie, it’s an achievable journey … but I warn you - keep your camera by your side, as you will need to screenshot some of these tips to share with your colleagues ..
The Background Story
Imagine you are on a dating app , and someone you have never talked to sends you a message - Marry Me ! I can bet you 9/10 you will run for the nearest exit….
This is exactly how todays candidates feel when they see LinkedIn Inmails or posts from companies they have hardly connected with Join ْUs .. its cringe :)
Even more important :
In today’s social and digital first world : on average up to 75% of candidates will not click apply until they evaluate your employer brand on social media, review sites like Glassdoor and they need up to 6-8 touch points before making a decision
These touch points start way before you advertise your role …
To really crystallize this - candidates are your customers and the product is the organization you represent and the purchasing decision they are making is whether to :
Apply to you or your competitor
Interview with you or your competitor
Accept the job offer with you or your competitor
Sign the contract with you or your competitor
Of course the below steps assume you are fully aware of the talent strategy, the talent pools you need to acquire etc to support your business etc
Who is ready …. !!
Step 1 - Audit your candidate experience journey and map its evolution
Just like consumer brands that you purchase from, think about the experience at every single touchpoint, from knowing about them to actually making the purchase - it is identical to candidates:
To start the process, I highly recommend that you take the end-to-end candidate experience into account (the below infographic is fantastic to consider).
Consider the journey you need to go through to reach the desired state and include your key customers in the process - current hires, hiring managers, people and business leaders, recruiters, candidates who rejected your offers, etc.
Step 2 - Audit your model and address the capability gaps
Some important elements to consider:
A strong employer brand (if you invest in it) can result in up to a 50% reduction in cost to hire, 22% reduction in turnover, and on average a 10-15% drop in payroll costs. For huge organisations, this can mean millions of dollars saved! Do I see your CFO smiling from ear to ear?
The majority of candidates today apply through job boards and social media, which means they make decisions through a digital-first approach.
Most hires in many industries are Millennials and Gen Z - they are digital natives, and social media is their preferred communication method. So why not transfer this to recruitment?
There is a lot of data coming from multiple sources. I feel your pain - a data scientist can stitch it together and produce insights that will blow your mind!
Now it's time to review your model:
Before you go and ask for more recruiters, please analyze the model in the diagram below and accordingly structure the conversation for headcount.Example if your current team has 20 TA people from admin to recruitment managers, will more recruiters solve your challenge based on the above context ?
This is where based on experience even in global multinationals - TA leads lose opportunity to influence :(
Remember
Your finance and business leaders see us as a cost centre. Showcase your sales and marketing capabilities here to demonstrate ROI when you bring in a different breed of capabilities to help solve the business talent challenges.
To further expand on the model - recruiters in quite a number of companies are expected to do nearly everything in the funnel.
Let me clarify - it is impossible, not just because of bandwidth, but also the diversity of experience required!
Many recruiters default to starting in the middle of the funnel because that's what they have known for a while now, making us like hamsters on a wheel. It is unfair to expect a recruiter to be a 360 marketing expert. You can enhance their marketing skills, but please don’t expect them to be experts. There is a reason you need marketing teams.
When it comes to mapping the headcount and volumes of each role you need, it comes down to scale, volume, complexity, and, of course, budget at hand. This can be approached in phases.
Since this model was launched a while ago, I also recommend adding a tech specialist/lead to manage your tech stack and a data scientist to integrate the wider ecosystem you use. They can jointly work on showcasing progress on all KPIs to ensure continued support from your leaders.
It might make sense to start with a phased approach to show incremental progress and request resources as ROI builds up!
Here is an example from P&G:
Step 3 - Build your business case
Once you have your talent strategy and audited both candidate experience and model .. time to build your business case .
There is a lot of resources on building one but here are some considerations ..
It might be difficult to get all resources you need ..so some elements can be reallocating some agency budget to employer branding and tech and once ROI starts showing , you build on that..
Invest in some market data that can show your executives exactly how competitors that have deployed these principles have actually realized specific ROI and how it has impacted their ability to drive business results through TA
Hopefully - you then get your roadmap and business case approved and it is on to execution and change management and really taking your TA approach to the next level and nailing those metrics !!
I really hope you enjoyed this article and let me know in the comments what tactics were of particular interest and if you already deploy some of these and what results you actually saw as quite a number of organisations are doing great in this space .. lets keep the conversation going to elevate this noble profession !
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Absolutely LOVE this! Some really great takeaways!