Solution: Talent Advisory

Employer Brand Social Media Strategy: Tactics for Building Your Buzz

Posted on by jpatel

Candidates can see and engage with your brand at hundreds of touchpoints before ever seeing a job posting or visiting your career page. Prospective employees research companies extensively through social media, employee reviews and digital content long before they consider applying. With remote and hybrid work now standard, an organization’s digital presence has become the primary way candidates form impressions about company culture and values. While this shift may sound daunting at first, digital recruitment marketing and the rise of social media mean organizations today can spread their message and establish a strong knowledge of their employer brand with prospective candidates—often before those candidates even think about looking for a job. Regardless of the economic climate and whether we’re experiencing talent shortages or market abundance, a strong employer brand social media strategy is imperative to an employer’s recruitment mix.

Building Your Employer Brand Social Media Strategy

Regardless of the platform, simply posting job openings isn’t going to cut it. Instead, think about how you can best show prospects what it’s truly like to work for your organization—whether that means showcasing your hybrid work culture, office environment, or remote team collaboration. In addition to insightful thought leadership, share employee activities, first-person stories, and authentic content that shows candidates how they can contribute and connect to your company in ways beyond their skills.

Let’s look deeper into how you can improve your employer brand social media presence on each of the five major social media channels and how you can utilize each of their unique features to your benefit.

LinkedIn

As the largest professional network, LinkedIn remains unmatched for B2B employer branding. With more than 900 million registered users globally, nearly half of whom are active monthly, it’s the number one platform to reach both passive and active prospective candidates across all experience levels.

Reach more candidates by:

  • Posting career advice and industry insights
  • Encouraging employee advocacy and content sharing
  • Using LinkedIn’s native video and document features
  • Leveraging LinkedIn Stories and newsletters
  • Optimizing your company page with relevant keywords
  • Utilizing LinkedIn Live for virtual events and Q&As

Instagram

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram has become essential for reaching talent and showcasing company culture visually. The platform’s engagement rates consistently outperform other networks, making it ideal for building authentic connections with potential candidates through visual storytelling.

Engage employees and candidates with:

  • Instagram Stories and Reels (the platform’s fastest-growing features)
  • Story highlights for evergreen content
  • Creative feed posts and carousel content
  • Instagram Live sessions
  • IGTV for longer-form content
  • Comments, DMs and interactive stickers
  • Behind-the-scenes content and employee takeovers

TikTok

With over 1 billion monthly active users and the fastest-growing user base among social platforms, TikTok has become crucial for reaching Gen Z and millennial talent. The platform’s algorithm-driven content discovery makes it possible for employer brand content to reach massive audiences organically.

Capture attention and showcase culture with:

  • Short-form video content (15-60 seconds)
  • Trending sounds and hashtags
  • “Day in the life” employee content
  • Behind-the-scenes workplace footage
  • Company culture challenges and trends
  • Authentic, unpolished content that feels genuine
  • Employee-generated content and takeovers

X (formerly Twitter)

With approximately 450 million monthly active users worldwide, Twitter remains valuable for real-time engagement and thought leadership. The platform’s fast-paced nature makes it ideal for sharing timely insights, participating in industry conversations, and showcasing your company’s voice and values.

Utilize:

  • Industry conversations and trending topics
  • Twitter Spaces for live audio discussions
  • Thread-style content for deeper insights
  • Retweets with thoughtful commentary
  • Quick responses to showcase company personality
  • Employee advocacy through authentic sharing

Facebook

With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook offers the largest potential reach and sophisticated targeting capabilities. While younger demographics have shifted away from the platform, it remains valuable for reaching experienced professionals and building community around your employer brand.

To showcase your industry expertise as well as your company culture, take advantage of:

  • Facebook Groups for building professional communities
  • Facebook Live for virtual events and behind-the-scenes content
  • Detailed targeting options for recruitment advertising
  • Facebook Events for job fairs and company events
  • Employee advocacy through sharing and tagging
  • Facebook Insights for detailed analytics and optimization

Case Study: Employer Brand Social Media Strategy in Action

The Challenge: The UK Civil Service Fast Stream graduate program had no shortage of applicants, but faced a critical diversity problem. Research revealed that underrepresented groups perceived the Civil Service as “stuffy,” “outdated,” and only accessible to elite backgrounds—despite the organization’s goal to reflect the communities they serve.

The Employer Brand Social Media Strategy: Rather than traditional graduate recruitment advertising, PeopleScout developed an innovative influencer marketing approach specifically designed to reach diverse talent where they already engage online.

Key Tactics:

  • Partnered with Vee Kativhu, a YouTube influencer and Oxford graduate who advocates for underrepresented students, to create authentic “day in the life” content
  • Leveraged her 250,000+ YouTube subscribers plus Instagram and LinkedIn networks
  • Amplified reach through 12 diverse nano-influencers with targeted followings
  • Created genuine, behind-the-scenes content that challenged preconceptions about government work

Results That Matter:

  • 3,200+ increase in applications from diverse backgrounds
  • 18,056 views on YouTube in less than 48 hours (36,000+ total)
  • 351,304 social media impressions across the campaign
  • Significant increase in candidate diversity, including ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and those with disabilities or from lower socio-economic backgrounds
employer brand social media

Why It Worked: By meeting candidates on platforms they already trusted and using voices they could relate to, the Civil Service transformed perceptions and attracted talent that traditional job postings never could have reached. The campaign proved that innovative social media strategies can solve complex diversity challenges while staying cost-effective.

Conclusion: Employer Brand & Social Media

It’s no secret that candidates are going to research your organization prior to applying for any of your positions or even considering you as a potential employer. By balancing postings on job boards with an employer brand social media strategy and other touchpoints along the hiring process, you can create a well-respected online presence that accurately represents your employer brand and company culture. So, the next time a candidate researches your company, reads reviews or looks at what current employees are saying online, rest assured that a strong employer brand social media presence and strategic recruitment campaign will give you all you need to create a lasting impact in a candidate’s mind.

Estia Health: Recruiting Registered Nurses for Aged Care

Posted on by akessler
Estia Health: Recruiting Registered Nurses for Aged Care

Aged Care Recruitment in Australia

Estia Health: Recruiting Registered Nurses for Aged Care

Estia Health needed to source critical healthcare roles in their most hard-to-fill locations. PeopleScout’s sourcing expertise and EVP insights helped them exceed their targets in one of the tightest candidate markets in memory.

600+ + candidates screened
drop outs occured across the entire recruitment process
4 months to fill critical vacancies

Challenge

Estia Health is one of Australia’s largest aged care operators, with 72 residential aged care homes in SA, VIC, NSW and QLD. The aged care sector in Australia is suffering from a major skills shortage as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, international border closures and a large number of workers leaving the sector.

Estia turned to PeopleScout for project recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) to support the recruitment of registered nurses and support staff across a number of critical locations where they were getting little to no response to their vacancies. 

Solution

Two senior recruitment business partners supported Estia across five locations who drove passive and active recruitment for registered nurses and aged care workers. PeopleScout researched Estia’s target market to understand what motivates workers in the healthcare sector to accept a role. Following this, our team provided recommendations on the lifestyle bonuses they could offer as incentives for workers to travel to their locations. We also coached Estia on how to boost their employer brand to raise awareness of their opportunities, which has delivered a long-term impact within a challenging market.

Results

PeopleScout worked within Estia’s existing ATS system and screened over 600 candidates. We were able to speed up the process for successful candidates and in a number of locations achieved zero dropouts throughout the screening and background check process.

Over a 4-month period, our team placed 14 permanent positions across:

  • Registered Nurses
  • Personal Care Workers
  • Hospitality Support

With a large worker exodus across the sector, recruitment in the aged care sector in Australia is still an ongoing challenge. However, PeopleScout has proven our ability to make a significant impact in a short period of time for Estia Health.

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY
    Estia Health
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Talent Advisory
  • ABOUT ESTIA HEALTH
    Estia Health manages 72 residential aged care homes across Australia, supporting over 8,000 residents and their families at an important time in their lives.
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Internal Mobility: Filling Skills Gaps with Your Existing Workforce 

Posted on by akessler

With labour shortages and intensifying talent scarcity, hiring challenges are only increasing, impacting all industries. To tackle these hiring difficulties, many leaders look to external solutions like expanding their talent pool or enhancing their employer brand. However, one of the most effective and sustainable solutions is already inside your organisation. Developing existing employees through internal mobility is key to filling skills gaps now and in the future. 

Keep reading to learn more about internal mobility, why internal mobility programs are crucial for future success and how you can leverage reskilling and upskilling programs to facilitate internal mobility at your organisation.  

What is Internal Mobility? 

The goal of internal mobility is to match your existing talent to open positions through internal transfers, job rotations, secondments and promotions. An internal mobility program is a structured process that facilitates the movement of employees, both vertically to higher or lower positions as well as laterally between roles at the same level. These programs are often anchored in reskilling and upskilling initiatives focused on developing employees’ skills and capabilities to meet evolving organisational needs. 

Reskilling programs aim to provide training to help employees gain new skills that allow them to transition into different roles or business areas. For example, a finance employee can reskill to learn data analytics and move into a business intelligence role. 

Upskilling programs focus on building additional skills and competencies related to an employee’s current role or expanding their knowledge in their field. For example, a marketing manager can upskill their digital marketing capabilities in social media and digital advertising platforms to take on a more strategic role in the department.  

The Benefits of Internal Mobility 

A strategic focus on internal mobility provides both talent management and bottom-line benefits for an organisation, including: 

  • Improved employee retention and engagement: Providing clear paths for career development and advancement within the company increases employee satisfaction and loyalty. Employees feel valued and motivated when they see opportunity for upward or lateral mobility. 
  • Stronger talent pipeline: An internal mobility program creates a robust pipeline of qualified candidates for open roles from within. According to research from LinkedIn, organisations that leverage skills-first hiring expand their talent pool by nearly 10x on average compared to those simply looking for similar job titles or industry experience.  
  • Cost savings: It is typically more cost effective to fill a position internally rather than externally recruit, onboard and train new hires. Internal mobility is a strategic talent management approach. 
  • Improved performance: Internal candidates have organisational and cultural knowledge, so they are often able to transition and ramp up faster in new roles. Data from Spotted Zebra shows that internal movers reach competence 20% faster than external hires and are twice as likely to be rated as top performers in their role. 
  • Improved diversity: Internal mobility provides opportunities for improved representation and diversity in leadership by developing and advancing talent from within. 
  • Agility and flexibility: Having an internal bench of qualified candidates enables organisational agility to swiftly mobilise talent to meet emerging needs. 

The Lack of Investment in Internal Mobility Programs 

Despite the benefits, internal mobility is not being prioritised by most HR leaders. Given the challenges recruiting skilled talent, we expected to see internal mobility as HR leaders’ default strategy to tackle skills shortages. However, through our research report, The Skills Crisis Countdown, we found that nearly a third (30%) of HR leaders admitted they simply do not view reskilling and upskilling as a priority and only 37% of organisations have formal reskilling and upskilling programs in place. Even in areas of high priority like technology advancement, there appears to be a lack of focus on mobility and development. When we asked HR leaders about how they’re preparing their workforce for the implementation of new technologies, only a fifth (20%) said they’re investing in upskilling initiatives to enhance current employee technological skillsets.  

The lack of skills development is echoed by employees. A quarter of employees report their employer has not been offered opportunities to upskill or reskill. A third (34%) of workers have doubts about how their skills will keep pace with new technology and automation. With transformations on the horizon for many roles due to technological advancements, ensuring employees’ skills evolve along with their jobs is essential for organisations.  

The Key to Internal Mobility: Reskilling and Upskilling 

Ongoing reskilling and upskilling of employees is crucial to enabling effective internal mobility. As business needs evolve and new technologies emerge, employees’ skills and competencies must also progress to keep pace. Providing internal development opportunities allows employees to gain the updated capabilities required for critical roles, increasing their eligibility and readiness to transition into new positions. By making learning core to the culture, reskilling and upskilling initiatives ensure organisations can source top talent from within. 

Implementing Successful Upskilling 

For your upskilling programs, you need an accurate understanding of your employees’ current skills and future needs. Our research showed most HR leaders rely on subjective manager feedback rather than taking a data-driven approach. 

To get ahead of emerging skills gaps, perform a skills audit and compare that to how your existing roles will evolve in the coming years. Identify both the competencies your employees need to be effective in their roles as they develop into the future and any deficiencies they have now.  

Once you understand the lay of the land, you can develop continuous upskilling initiatives to grow your employees’ high-value skills over time in alignment with technological advancements. Proactively upskilling employees will keep your workforce on the cutting edge of skill set transformations. 

Implementing Successful Reskilling 

Reskilling programs also require an understanding of the existing capabilities of your workforce and the required competencies for emerging roles. This allows you to accurately match employees to opportunities they can transition into successfully. 

Rather than relying on subjective manager interviews, utilise skills-based assessments. This provides data-driven insights into employees’ technical aptitudes and behavioural strengths. You can then align these skill profiles with the requirements of your new roles. 

For example, PeopleScout partnered with a global financial services company to take a skills-based approach for a major digital transformation initiative. By identifying the best candidates for reskilling, we helped employees move from declining customer service roles into new tech-focused positions, saving the company $2 million in exit costs and reduced training dropouts dramatically. The company gained the critical future-focused skills it required while providing career growth opportunities to its valuable existing employees. 

Internal Mobility & RPO: Your Partner in Sustainable Workforce Planning 

Over half (56%) of HR leaders report resistance to change within their organisation when faced with the prospect of what they mistakenly believe can only be a huge, C-suite-led project that spans the entire talent lifecycle. However, as a leading RPO partner PeopleScout is perfectly positioned to provide the strategies and technology to embed and scale a skills-based approach. 

By leveraging an RPO provider’s expertise and resources, organisations can maximise the return on investment in internal mobility initiatives. According to Everest Group, over half of RPO engagements include some element of internal mobility. The RPO acts as a strategic talent advisor focused on improving talent mobility with strategies like: 

  • Skills gap analysis: An RPO provider can perform a skills audit to assess current capabilities versus required future skills and identify reskilling needs to inform development programs. They can also provide market intelligence to help you understand the skills available within your talent markets as well as salary requirements so you can make informed decisions.   
  • Internal candidate sourcing: Your RPO partner can source and screen internal candidates for open roles to identify top talent for mobility opportunities. 
  • Career mapping: RPO experts can map career paths, succession plans and competency requirements for critical roles to guide internal development. 
  • Development program design: An RPO provider can help design and implement reskilling, upskilling, job rotation and mentoring programs to build enterprise talent. Plus, they can administer and manage the end-to-end internal mobility program from sourcing to placement as well as provide project management. 
  • Change management: RPOs can provide guidance on change management strategies to gain buy-in and promote a culture of internal mobility. Plus, they’ll provide data, analytics and reporting on program effectiveness and opportunities to fine-tune strategies. 
  • Technology consultation and implementation: RPOs can recommend and implement skills management platforms and talent mobility platforms to enable seamless movement and track program metrics. 

Filling your organisation’s talent gaps begins with the workforce already inside it. But this untapped talent potential can only be leveraged through strategic, skills-based internal mobility programs. Your existing workforce could provide the talent solution you’ve been searching for. By partnering with an RPO on reskilling and upskilling initiatives, you gain strategic expertise to build a future-ready, skilled workforce.  

PeopleScout Recognised with Two 2024 RAD Awards

Posted on by akessler

Awards celebrating creativity and innovation in recruitment marketing and employer branding honour PeopleScout for their work with clients

LONDON—February 19, 2024—PeopleScout was the recipient of two 2024 RAD Awards, in the Candidate Experience and Visual Craft categories, as recognition for their work with Heathrow Airport and Kent County Council. PeopleScout was also shortlisted for awards in the Employer Brand-National, Single Use of Video and Use of Technology categories for their work with Circle Health Group, Building Safety Regulator and Heathrow Airport, respectively.

In its 35th consecutive year, the RAD Awards recognise winners across 20 categories, championing the very best in recruitment marketing and employer branding. To be considered for an award, agencies in partnership with their clients, as well as in-house teams, enter their most innovative and effective solutions in talent acquisition, retention and employer branding, from the past year. All entries are judged by a panel of industry experts.

“We are thrilled by this recognition from the RAD Awards for our fresh approach to employer branding and recruitment marketing,” said David Coombs, Head of Talent Advisory for EMEA at PeopleScout. “Our teams continue to outthink the competition, drive creativity and innovation in our solutions, and we remain grateful to our clients for their willingness to embrace these progressive strategies.”

PeopleScout’s winning entries include:

Candidate Experience, Heathrow Airport

With 80 million travellers coming through Heathrow Airport each year, it must screen thousands of potential security officers in what can be a long process for the candidate. Together, the teams developed an innovative technology solution to re-engineer the process so that it was completely virtual, reducing hiring times from weeks to just days.

The judges said PeopleScout’s bespoke candidate portal showed “super strong return on investment” and was a “well thought out, clearly mapped campaign.”

Visual Craft, Kent County Council

An eye-catching, three-dimensional wooden board game brought together employees at Kent County Council, highlighting everything the council could offer them in terms of development, support and rewards.

Judges described this entry as “different and refreshing,” calling it “ambitious and visually unique.” They applauded PeopleScout for the care they took in crafting its design.

PeopleScout’s UK-based talent advisory practice provides world-class expertise in employer branding, social & digital communications, recruitment marketing, assessment, DE&I consulting, talent market insights and more. With a mission to outthink the competition through innovative solutions, their passionate team of problem solvers—from social experts and creatives to strategists and technologists—offer a depth and breadth of experience gained over 30 years of creating award-winning strategies for clients across the globe in every sector. 

See the full list of 2024 RAD Award winners here.

Press Contact
Taylor Winchell
Senior Manager, External Communications
pr@trueblue.com
+1-253-680-8291

Reskilling for Tech Roles Results in $2.5M in Savings for Global Bank

Posted on by akessler
Reskilling for Tech roles Results in $2.5M in Savings for Global Bank

TALENT CONSULTING

Reskilling for Tech roles Results in $2.5M in Savings for Global Bank

PeopleScout helped a global financial services company in their digital transformation efforts with a reskilling program to move employees from declining customer service roles to tech and digital roles.

150 customer service staff redeployed to tech roles in pilot program
5,000 more employees will be reskilled following the successful pilot
70% % reduction in reskilling cost-per-person achieved

Situation

A large global financial services company needed to undertake a major digital transformation program, which required new digital and tech skills. With the growth of online and digital channels, in-person transactions through bank branches and call centres have declined. The organisation needed to acquire hard-to-find tech and digital skills to grow and maintain digital banking tools while leveraging the existing company knowledge of employees in declining customer service roles by reskilling them into new high-growth roles.

Reskilling efforts focused on developing new hard skills, so finding the best candidates meant identifying those with the soft skills most aligned with the new job opportunities. Previous efforts by the financial services organisation to assess candidate suitability for reskilling were led internally and included multiple, time-consuming line manager interviews. Of even greater concern, around a quarter of those who began the reskilling
program dropped out.

Solution

As their long-term RPO partner, PeopleScout worked with the client and skills-platform provider Spotted Zebra to create a skills-based approach to reskilling, helping the organisation to assess customer service staff in bank branches and call centres to find ideal candidates for its tech skilling program.

We identified individuals who had a strong motivation to reskill, high levels of adaptability (a predictor of future potential) and a strong alignment with the behavioural skills required for success in the role. A skills profile was created for all the growth roles, and employees were assessed against them to identify which role was the best fit.

Results

  • Through an initial pilot, the company redeployed over 150 people from declining roles who would have been made redundant to tech jobs, saving around £2 million in exit costs.
  • The company is expanding the reskilling program to move over 5,000 employees into new roles with one year.
  • By identifying those individuals who are a better behavioural fit for reskilling opportunities, the number of dropouts from the training program dropped dramatically, resulting in a savings of in training and development costs.
  • The new approach is more effective, simplifying the process in a fair and consistent way. The company has saved a considerable amount of manager time and reduced the reskilling cost-per-person by 70%.
  • Crucially, the reskilling program means the organisation’s digital transformation project is on track, with reskilled individuals moving into mission-critical digital roles that would otherwise go unfilled.

AT A GLANCE

  • COMPANY
    Global financial services company
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Talent Advisory
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The Skills Crisis is Coming: Are You Ready? [Infographic]

Posted on by akessler

Skills in the workplace are evolving faster than ever thanks to advances in AI, the greening of the economy and shifting demographics. But, our latest research, The Skills Crisis Countdown, shows that HR leaders seem oblivious to the urgency of the coming change.

Nine out of 10 of HR pros surveyed said up to half of their workforce will need new skills within the next five years. Yet, only 7% are actively investing in reskilling programs right now, and 45% admit they have no plans underway to prepare their people for the shifting skills landscape.

Our data quantifies the massive disconnect between awareness of looming skills gaps and action being taken to reskill workers. Check out the infographic below to see the stats and get ahead of the curve on developing a future-ready workforce.

Check out this infographic with key findings highlighting the worsening skills crisis.

[Webinar On-Demand] The Ticking Talent Clock: Is Time Running Out to Address the Skills Crisis?

Posted on by akessler

[Webinar On-Demand] The Ticking Talent Clock: Is Time Running Out to Address the Skills Crisis?

With the rapid advancement of AI, accelerated digitalisation and the greening of the economy, businesses are grappling with the changing nature of work—how we work and the types of jobs we do. In fact, a new research report from PeopleScout and Spotted Zebra, The Skills Crisis Countdown, reveals that nine in 10 HR leaders believe that up to half of their workforce will need new skills to perform their jobs in the next five years. Yet, only less than one in 10 say they are actively investing in reskilling programs.

Are HR leaders running out of time?

Join PeopleScout’s Global Head of Talent Consulting Simon Wright and Spotted Zebra’s Chief Customer Officer Nick Shaw as they delve into the key findings from the research, lay bare the skills crisis and show why the clock is ticking for HR leaders.

In the webinar, Simon and Nick cover:

  • How organisations are addressing the mismatch in skills demand and supply
  • The current state of skills utilisation, skills-based hiring and the need to expand talent pools
  • Strategies for improving talent mobility (including case studies and success stories)
  • Practical steps you can take to transition to a skills-focused model
  • And more!

 

Countdown to Skills Crisis? What Our Latest Research Tells Us About Skills Gaps

Posted on by akessler

By Simon Wright, Global Head of Talent Advisory Consulting

The workforce skills landscape is transforming at blinding speed. Automation, AI, sustainability initiatives, demographic shifts—global forces are conspiring to make skills gaps and talent shortages more acute by the day. Don’t think it’s moving that fast? Well, the World Economic Forum predicts that a jaw-dropping 85 million jobs could sit vacant by 2030, resulting in $8.5 trillion in lost revenue.

The very meaning of “skills” is shifting beneath our feet. Skills requirements have already changed 25% since 2015, and experts forecast 65% more change by 2030. However, companies still rely heavily on degrees and experience over skills when it comes to making hiring decisions. No wonder we’re careening towards a global skills crisis.

PeopleScout partnered with skills-based workforce management platform provider Spotted Zebra to survey over 100 senior HR and talent acquisition leaders globally, plus over 2,000 employees worldwide, to compare perspectives. Our new research report, The Skills Crisis Countdown, maps the skills landscape and diagnoses the disconnects between employers and their workforce.

Read on for some key findings from our report.

HR Leaders are Ill-Prepared for the Skills Crisis

According to a study by PwC, 40% of global CEOs believe their business will be economically unviable in 10 years unless they reinvent for the future. Our study revealed that nine out of 10 HR leaders believe that up to 50% of their workforce will require new skills to effectively perform their job in the next five years. Yet, when asked if they are currently undergoing or planning a workforce transformation initiative in the next three years, nearly half (45%) of HR leaders admit to having no plans to undertake one.

So, in other words, half of employees will soon be underprepared for the future, but most companies have no strategy in place to address the issue.

According to LinkedIn, 84% of members are in occupations that could have at least one quarter of their core skills affected by generative AI (GAI) technologies, like ChatGPT. So, how are HR leaders preparing for this digital transformation and the AI era? Shockingly, a full third (34%) say they have no preparations in place to prepare for new technologies. Those who are preparing emphasise bringing in outside talent rather than reskilling existing employees.

Industry Composition by GAI Segment
Percentage of LinkedIn Members by Industry

impact of GAI on workforce skills
(Source: LinkedIn Economic Graph Research Institute)

This is likely because they lack an understanding of the skills they have within their existing workforce. Our data revealed that 68% of organisations identify skills from manager feedback, which is highly subjective. So, it’s no surprise that 56% of employees think their skills are underutilised in their current roles, and 61% think there are other roles in their organisation where their skills could be utilised.

An unprecedented skills revolution is barrelling down the tracks, but companies are fast asleep at the switch. It’s time to wake up and get employees future-ready or risk a global skills crisis and talent scarcity for decades to come.

Digital & Tech Skills Gaps are Widening but Tech Skills are Viewed as Unimportant

Both employers and employees dangerously underestimate the importance of tech and digital skills. In our survey, both parties listed tech and digital literacy skills with low importance. With the skyrocketing demand for tech and digital talent, this does not bode well.

skills in the workplace

Mobile apps, ecommerce and digital transformation have made technology integral to every corporate strategy. However, supply isn’t keeping up with demand. McKinsey analysed 3.5 million job postings in high-tech fields and found there’s a wide divide between the demand for tech and digital skills and the qualified talent availability. The most sought-after skills have less than half as many qualified professionals per posting compared to average global figures. 

No wonder 63% of HR leaders in our survey admit they struggle to recruit the skills they need. Closing tech and digital skills gaps through recruitment alone is no longer sufficient. So, we were concerned when our research showed that 73% of the workforce haven’t been offered opportunities to reskill.

Organisations must invest in helping their employees evolve their skills via reskilling and internal mobility to cultivate digital and tech literacy across their entire workforce.

Case Study: Reskilling in Action

The Challenge:

A large global financial services company needed to undertake a major digital transformation program. The organisation needed to acquire key digital and tech skills while leveraging the existing company knowledge of employees in declining customer service roles by reskilling them.

Previous efforts by the organisation to assess employees’ suitability for reskilling were led internally and included multiple, time-consuming line manager interviews. Of even greater concern, around a quarter of those who began the reskilling program dropped out.

The Solution:

The bank worked with their long-time RPO partner, PeopleScout, and Spotted Zebra to assess customer service staff in bank branches and call centres to find ideal candidates for its tech and digital skilling program. Skills profiles were created for tech roles, which employees were assessed against to find the best fit.

The Results:

  • Redeployed 150 people, saving over $2.5M in exit costs
  • Saved over $350,000 in training and development costs
  • Reduced time investment by hiring managers
  • Reduced the reskilling cost-per-person by 70%

Employees Don’t Feel Confident in their Skills for the Future

A third (34%) of workers have doubts about how their skills will keep pace with new technology and automation. Meanwhile, just 17% of organisations are offering targeted reskilling programs for existing employees.

Where are HR Leaders Deploying Skills-Based Practices?

Skills-Based Practices
(Source: PeopleScout and Spotted Zebra)

This imbalance spells disaster. As change overwhelms existing skill sets, most workers will begin to feel unsure of their career paths or left struggling to stay relevant.

Investing in reskilling makes solid business sense. We must bridge the gap between workers anxiously facing uncertainty and leaders failing to invest in their resilience. HR leaders who empower their workforce with adaptable skill sets today will drive continued success in times of swift and sweeping change.

Finding a Talent Partner to Support Your Skills Transformation

The agility to match emerging skill requirements will soon become a competitive necessity. If you haven’t started your skills-based transformation, now is the time.

In our survey, one in two HR leaders admitted to a lack of understanding of skills-based practices. If you’re struggling to understand how to take advantage of skills-based practices in your organisation, PeopleScout is here to be your guide.

As a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partner, we can help you understand the skills within your existing workforce as well as the external market supply and demand. We offer solutions across the skills agenda, from skills-based talent intelligence and market insights, building skills frameworks, and creating skills-based success profiles to redesigning recruitment processes, skills-based hiring strategies, and helping you maximise the potential of your existing workforce.  

To learn more about PeopleScout’s skills-focused talent solutions, get in touch.  

The Skills Crisis Countdown: The Clock is Ticking on Tackling Skills Gaps

Posted on by akessler

The Skills Crisis Countdown: The Clock is Ticking on Tackling Skills Gaps

Our latest research reveals, nine in 10 HR leaders believe that up to 50% of their workforce will need new skills to perform their jobs in the next 5 years. Yet, only 7% say they are actively investing in reskilling programs, and 45% admit to having no plans to undertake a workforce transformation initiative to prepare for the changing skills landscape.

PeopleScout partnered with skills-based workforce management company Spotted Zebra to survey over 100 senior Human Resources and Talent Acquisition leaders from organisations around the global and 2,000+ employees globally to compare perspectives on workforce skills. The resulting research report, The Skills Crisis Countdown: The Clock is Ticking on Tackling Skills Gaps, provides a detailed picture of the current skills landscape and the disconnects between the perspectives of employees and businesses.

Download our free report for the latest research exploring:

  • The current state of skills in the global workforce and outlook for the future
  • How HR leader are preparing for the impending skills crisis
  • How employees expect their skills will need to adapt to new technology or automation.

Plus, you’ll get a roadmap of actionable steps to help your organisation become more skills-centric.

Talent Predictions: How Talent Acquisition Will Navigate 2024

Posted on by akessler

By Simon Wright, Head of Global Talent Advisory Consulting 

We are in one of the most transformative periods in the history of work. Between technological disruptions, societal shifts and global events, the talent landscape five years from now will likely look very different than it does today. However, even in times of uncertainty, we can discern key trends that will impact the way organisations source, recruit and retain talent. 

As a leading talent solutions provider, PeopleScout has a unique vantage point to view the forces shaping the future of work. Based on our experience and industry insights, we believe there are eight core areas talent acquisition leaders should embrace in 2024 to up-level their strategic importance within the business.  

1. Talent Leaders Will Look to New Models to Ride the Economic Waves 

The power balance has now shifted back to the employer amidst a tight labour market, fewer vacancies and a cost-of-living crisis. But if you think it’s time to pause investment in your talent programs, think again.  

Talent acquisition teams shrunk during COVID-19 and then grew quickly as part of the bounce back only to shed jobs again this past year. With continued uncertainty, TA leaders must showcase the value they bring to business by minimising the impacts of economic fluctuations.  

It’s time to leave behind the boom and bust and embrace agility through a strategic approach to workforce planning and forecasting. Talent solutions like recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), including modular RPO solutions, offer responsiveness to help stabilise operational delivery amidst unpredictable economic waves.  

2. Business Transformation Will Shape the Workforce 

The specific skills and capabilities companies need are shifting rapidly, which means the jobs and roles employers need to fill are changing too. According to McKinsey research, one-third of new jobs created in the U.S. in the past 25 years were types that barely existed previously, particularly in high-demand areas like data analytics, software development and renewable energy. According to Totaljobs, despite a general slowdown in hiring, the demand for green jobs continues to go up, skyrocketing by 677% between 2019 and 2023. 

However, this business transformation is being hampered by the lack of talent and relevant skills. Economic, social and labour market changes are evolving faster than workforce training and development systems can keep pace. There simply aren’t enough workers with experience in emerging fields and new technologies.  

TA leaders must work proactively to build the reputation and influence of their employer brand with potential talent now—ahead of the hiring they need to do in the future. This means being able to recruit the best talent in the market, not just the best talent in your pipeline. Investing in candidate nurturing and employer branding strategies now will ensure organisations can hire first—and fast—when the time comes. 

3. Employees Will Continue to Reevaluate Their Relationship with Work 

TA leaders must be the eyes and ears for their organisation, tuning in to the candidate market and shaping the employer value proposition (EVP) to meet the changing needs and expectations of candidates. Today’s employees are demanding more, and the one-size-fits-all EVP approach must evolve to keep up.  

Organisations that refresh their EVP with a more human-centric approach that recognises employees as people, not just workers, will go beyond traditional offerings to provide exceptional life experiences that match employee needs. Delivering a positive emotional connection will be crucial for improving retention, overcoming the productivity vacuum and attracting quality talent in 2024.  

4. Data Will Be the Key to Overcoming Talent Scarcity  

The labour market has shrunk due to the retirement of Baby Boomers, and companies face an enormous brain drain of institutional expertise. Not only is the upcoming population smaller and not replacing the Boomers who are leaving the workforce, but they lack the some of the soft skills of the departing generation. With this double depletion at play, organisations will need to work hard to attract and train Gen Z in order to keep their workforce development on track for the future. 

Additionally, long-term illness, including lingering complications from COVID-19, has sidelined many working-age adults. The latest ONS data shows that the number of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness is now over 2.5 million in the UK alone. 

The key to reducing the impact of talent scarcity in 2024 is data. It’s time for TA leaders to treat talent intelligence as business intelligence, bringing it to the C-suite to drive decision making and inform strategy. Organisations must leverage data to understand both internal and external talent pools, maximising ROI on talent attraction and retention efforts. 

Talent Acquisition Predictions

5. Skills-Based Practices Will Take Centre Stage 

In order to keep pace with changing roles and dwindling talent pools, leading organisations are taking a proactive and holistic approach to adapting their workforces. They are investing in upskilling and reskilling programs while also leveraging RPO partners to find professionals with the most in-demand and future-proof skills. 

More organisations will look to expand candidate pools and tap into diverse skill sets through skills-based recruitment. To do this, organisations must evolve their candidate assessment practices to focus on skills rather than credentials or pedigree. We’ll see more organisations follow the likes of Google and drop their university degree requirements. This will have the added benefit of promoting greater diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace.  

6. Internal Mobility Will Receive Big Investment 

More than a third (36%) of HR professionals surveyed identified employee retention as a priority in 2024. Internal mobility will become the key to retention as well as filling open roles and skills gaps. Focus will shift from building external talent pools to internal talent pools, putting methods in place to identify transferable skills that can be boosted to support business transformation.  

We saw an uptick in labour hoarding in 2023 talent trends. In 2024, organisations must invest in transforming the skills of the workers they’ve kept on board in order to ensure they’re ready for what’s on the horizon. 

In 2024, career moves won’t take a linear path but will weave across departments and disciplines, providing workers with variety and rewarding work. Organisations must train hiring managers to look at candidates, not just for their fit for a specific role, but for the value they can bring to the organisation.  

7. Long Overdue Tech Upgrades Will Happen for HR 

The Josh Bersin Company estimates the HR technology is a $250 billion market. 2024 will be the year of recruitment tech stack upgrade.  

Organisations will look to capitalise on AI-powered features to do the heavy lifting so their teams can focus on more valuable recruiting activities. TA leaders should look to technology to augment human touches throughout the candidate experience, to identify opportunities for streamlining through automation, and to help them better interrogate data for a more agile resourcing model.  

This is also an opportunity for TA leaders to demonstrate they can deliver digital transformation and deliver ROI from these investments. This has been a criticism of talent acquisition and HR in the past, and it’s time to dispel that narrative.  

8. AI Fever Will Hit an All-Time High 

And finally, it wouldn’t be a 2024 talent acquisition forecast without a mention of AI. Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) tools, like ChatGPT, were on the tip of our tongues in 2023. As organisations grapple with the ethics of AI, most will succumb to the transformative potential and begin to test and experiment with how AI can benefit their workforce and operations in 2024.  

The role of technology will keep evolving within talent acquisition, but it’s primed to have a pivotal role in streamlining recruitment tasks and improving efficiency in everything from screening to assessments to interview scheduling.  

Organizations should take a principled approach to leveraging AI and automation to augment recruiting, while ensuring human oversight and care for people remains central. Starting with a small project or two will clear the mist so you can see clearly where AI will add value to your recruitment tech stack and candidate experience. 

The Importance of the Right Talent Partner to Help You Ride the Waves 

The future of work holds exciting potential, but also some uncertainty. However, while individual trends are difficult to predict, TA leaders that embrace agility, skills practices and tech innovation will find themselves in a strong position to prove their value in driving business performance. As your talent partner, PeopleScout will be ready to support, challenge and inspire you for whatever lies ahead. 

By staying on top of key shifts like these and working with an expert talent solutions provider like PeopleScout, companies can build workforces with the skills, mindsets and diversity of experiences to thrive in the next era of business.