At the In-house Recruitment Live event in London, recruiters, talent managers and HR teams flocked to hear the latest thinking, lessons and inspiration about all things recruitment.
Here is a summary of the fully subscribed panel session where the audience was in charge of the questions and panel members from Oodle Car Finance, Lego, Dunelm, Whitehat and Yodel gave us their view in response to the most popular questions posed.
Q: How can businesses realistically help bridge the gap with the shortage of tech talent – what are the quick wins?
A: The panel discussed whether quick wins are the answer as the problem is likely here to stay for some time. Suggestions included developing a sustainable strategy that focuses on growing talent within and having an apprentice programme to nurture and develop talent.
Q: What is the most significant element to candidate attraction?
A: When you have five different generations in the workforce it is essential to tailor your approach for each diverse audience. Moreover, this applies to attraction and retention too. Another viewpoint was that while EVP and Brand Building are buzzwords we continuously hear, it is crucial you know what works for you and not to just jump on the bandwagon with the latest tag line that means very little to your audience/workforce.
Q: What will the impact of IR35 have on the contractor workforce?
A: Suggestions from across the panel were all around the need for relevant, real-time data, dashboards and an audit trail. The impact of IR35 is still relatively unknown, but the general feeling is that there is a critical need for data and intelligence across the process.
Q: What are you doing for mental health in the workplace?
A: The panel organisations have a variety of mechanisms in place, such as a well-being phone line, yoga sessions at lunchtime, counsellor ‘hours’ for employees to use for work and non-work related issues. Flexible benefit options are also recommended, allowing employees to choose options relevant to them. Even an apprentice app was available for those new to the workplace who might feel overwhelmed with being in work for the first time.
Q: What is the best change you have made to your recruitment process this year?
A: Dunelm has introduced automated online assessments at the start of the process to drill down on behaviour attributes. Yodel have revisited their recruitment process from a candidate perspective and automated volume screening with a chatbot. Lego is making sure that they incorporate gender diversity into their job ads with the checking of gender bias in job ads to get a truly diverse audience.
Q: Biggest mistake/regret this year?
A: There were some fantastic learning points from the panel’s answers such as focusing on a couple of things at a time, to change/tweak and make improvements. Simplify your outputs and don’t become metric obsessed but focus on those that can make a difference. Even to be more agile and just do it/try it rather than over analysing and doing nothing – analysis paralysis!
I’m sure you will agree there are some great lessons here that recruitment teams can take away and make incremental changes to their teams, processes and strategy to succeed within in-house recruitment.
Here are a couple of relevant free resources you can access for further reading and practical help:
Check your job description for unconscious gender bias, length and recruitment best practice
Recruitment Marketing checklist