Hire to Inspire Talent Event: Our Key Takeaways
Last week, the JasperRose team held our ‘Hire to Inspire’ event for Talent professionals in our network, hosted by one of our Recruitment Associates Vikesh Babajee, who manages our Part-Qualified finance vacancies within the Luxury, FMCG and Hospitality industries, and co-hosted by Bea Edwards, HR Manager at Zodiac Maritime. The aim of our event was to discuss key pain points within the world of Talent Acquisition, and to discuss the best ways to attract the best talent to your company in today’s market.
Following the end of our discussion, we were also treated to an incredible scent experience by our event venue hosts, Molton Brown!
The key takeaways from the event, that will be discussed in this article are:
- Top trending employee benefits
- Tips on how to navigate a candidate short market
- How to maintain a great candidate experience while hiring
- The expectation of the role talent partners play during a recruitment process
- The benefits of data driven recruitment
Top Trending Employee Benefits
The benefits package a company offers can be seen as a reflection of the company’s ethos and reputation. A company that offers a comprehensive benefits package will stand out in the market, and will seem more desirable to a candidate looking for a new role.
Earlier this year, we carried out a salary survey for finance and talent professionals at all levels. Unsurprisingly, the top 3 benefits found were hybrid working, bonus schemes, and flexible hours. It is however important to note that having these standard benefits shouldn’t be the only thing you offer to potential employees- a key takeaway of our event was that companies with more ‘unique’ benefits stand out a lot more clearly than companies with the more common benefits. Examples of this given last week were days off during the summer to enjoy the sunshine, an extra day off separate to your holiday allowance for any reason you want, and even a free 7 day holiday to a destination of your choice!
While some companies will be limited to what benefits they can offer, based on things like financial constraints, it’s important that, if you want to not only attract the best talent, but also retain it, you need a competitive benefits package that reflects the needs of your employees, and also reflects current societal standards.
How to navigate a candidate short market
In 2024, it’s become clear that recent influences have swayed the market in a way that means job security is more important than ever. Issues such as the current economic climate, and even the current political climate have meant candidates are more reluctant to leave their company, unless they absolutely have to.
A really easy way to navigate past this issue is to look within your team for promotions and opportunities to upskill. If you have a role in your company that a current employee would be suited for, promoting from within will help generate a great culture within your business, increase staff retention as there will be clear opportunities for advancement, and could also potentially free up a position that is easier (or cheaper) to fill.
Another great way to find the right candidate for you in today’s market is to make use of the more niche avenues to find candidates. While some companies will use the more well known job boards to find talent such as Linkedin and Reed, using avenues such as specialist job boards can mean you find candidates who either have specific experience for those more niche roles, or who may be more passive, and will only move for the perfect role. In this instance, the use of a specialist recruiter can also be really helpful, as they will have access to a much wider range of candidates in their network, and will also be able to advise on things such as salary benchmarking to make the role as attractive as possible.
How to maintain a positive candidate experience
Following on from our previous point, a candidate short market now means that candidates are in much higher demand, so are therefore more likely to be in multiple processes. Because of this, the risk of them accepting another offer is much higher, and they will be much more particular about what each role offers them.
The best way to navigate past this issue is to ensure that their experience through each hiring process is as positive as possible- communication is key. At the beginning of the process, sending out rejection emails means a candidate isn’t left in the dark about the outcome of the role, and will see your company in a much more positive light. Throughout the process, it’s also really important to communicate if there are any delays, such as rescheduling interviews.
A really great example of this was shared at our event, where we heard about a candidate who, during their recruitment process with a company, was told there was a number of unforeseen delays to his interview date. The talent professional in that company then called this candidate and personally apologised for the delay, and provided a detailed explanation- because of this, that specific candidate now actively looks for roles at that company, because they are so bought in to their employer reputation.
Expectations of the role talent partners play during the recruitment process
This point was a particularly contentious one, as each company has a completely different way of recruiting. Some companies only use their talent team, and hiring managers actually play a very small part, other companies exclusively work with agencies and don’t have an in-house talent team, and some companies manage to find a hybrid between the two.
One of the key roles talent play in a company is managing the relationship with any recruitment partners they may use. When using an agency to fill a role, it’s so important to ensure that discussions around fees, and all compliance checks are carried out before any candidate is offered the role, as this ensures there will be no delays, and no confusion for both parties. Talent professionals are unique in this aspect due to the insight they will have into their company. Most will have previous experience with agencies, so will know what fee they are able to agree based on company budget and expectation, and they will also be the most knowledgeable on what compliance checks need to be carried out against both the agency, and the candidates put forward. Larger, publicly owned companies may require higher levels of compliance rather than privately owned businesses, or depending on if the role is permanent or contract, there may be different laws companies need to follow to employ someone. Your companies talent team will be the best people to determine this, so therefore play a really key role in any recruitment process.
Talent teams are also in the best decision to determine if a candidate is the right fit for the culture your company is building. Whether you have two separate teams for HR and Talent, or your team is amalgamated into one, a talent team will have the experience and knowledge necessary to assess each candidate culturally. This is why a large number of companies will have a candidate meet their talent team as a first stage interview, before moving onto the more skill specific stages.
The benefits of data driven recruitment
The final topic discussed in our event was how the use of data can help you during a recruitment process. Some of the things discussed were the rise of AI, and how this can be used, and the use of tests in roles that may require more specific skills or qualifications.
The key thing we heard from our attendees last week was how the use of tests have actually improved the quality of hires, and has increased their staff retention rate- the reason for this is companies have been able to hire better quality candidates due to them completing a test before they progress to interview stage, which then means they’re more likely to pass their probation after being hired. A few issues we have identified using tests however, is that it can sometimes be difficult to get candidates bought into the idea of carving out time to complete tests. Where most candidates are working alongside looking for a role, a testing stage can sometimes deter a candidate from choosing to progress to the next stage.
Data can also be used in a much more analytical sense, such as anticipating future hiring needs and trends by analysing current workforce data. This allows companies to be more proactive and strategic when setting their hiring strategy, and allows them to build talent pipelines in line with current market trends.
Key Takeaways
So, the key takeaways we found from this event are that the market of 2024 has drastically changed from that of last year. Candidates are more reluctant to leave their current roles, which has then led to companies having to change their hiring strategies to attract the best talent. The best ways you can do this are having a really comprehensive benefits package, ensuring you’re making the best use of your current workforce for potential roles, having set processes in place to make the most of your talent team, and ensuring that you’re using different forms of data in a way that is beneficial to you, the company, but it also useful for the candidate you are interviewing.
A huge thank you to all of our attendees, we hope you found the event insightful, and we look forward to welcoming you to future events. We’d also like to say a massive thank you to Bea Edwards, and our very own Vikesh Babajee for their expertise, and for leading such a wonderful event.
If you’d like to receive any further insights from our event, or if you’d like advice on any of the points previously discussed, please get in touch, and a member of the team will be happy to help.