Talent marketing and recruiters taking on the role as brand ambassadors have accelerated in the last 6 quarters as workers re-imagined and re-skilled careers. Responding to hiring trends, progressive corporations have identified this shift and have retooled their internal and external talent sourcing and retention. Some would argue that one produces more results and cost savings than another. What’s concluded is the worker expects choice and flexibility from their employer or potential employer similar to selecting, purchasing, and delivery of their favorite home goods.
“How we behave as consumers is influencing our lives more so than how we behave as workers and we find we like the consumer experience more and more,” says John Healy, Chief Executive Whrrr.work, while speaking at the CXC Global Labour Trends Report webinar. “When we have a bad experience the access to choice has increased so much and the convenience of choice has increased so much because of digital platform work, that we just move on.”
The hiring reality recognized by society currently is workers have more choices than ever before. Whether to stay in the role, switch roles by re-skilling, switch companies, start a business and or embrace freelance work. The business climate has shifted to accept talent across multiple compliance classifications. Internally, finance innovation has provided workers a choice in how to receive benefits that are aligned with how we make consumer product choices.
“When you look at payroll and benefits, over the past year we have seen an increase in earned wage access,” says Anita Lettink, Strategic Advisor and Analyst, HR Tech Radar who joined Healy and webinar moderator Connor Heaney, Managing Director CXC Global EMEA. “Now employees want to have access to money they have earned, the moment they have earned it.”
Lettink explained that work is personal now and goes much deeper than policies and procedures. It is concluded that corporations are lifting traditional compliance veils, for example paying workers twice a month or every two weeks, and letting the workers dictate the pay cycle. While corporate treasury departments may push back running payroll as the talent requests, this strategic people culture advance goes in line with such mainstream perks as the choice to work remotely.
Invert the view to talent acquisition departments responding to hiring trends, who now have several worlds (physical and virtual) to source and retain talent. Virtual worlds such as social media, ATS databases, and talent platforms offer a culture glimpse and career overview of a candidate’s talent potential. Physical worlds such as the satellite location or the manufacturing floor can excel talent to fit an operational need through internal mobility. Either source, Talent Acquisition has to examine a wide net focused on current hiring trends, from sourcing innovation to flexible offer acceptance.
“When you think of job descriptions and the screening process, the process currently is designed to narrow the pool. It’s on an assumption that I have a wide base and set a series of criteria to thin that down to have a smaller number of people to select from,” says Healy. “We are in an inverted market where the supply side has the power in the equation because there is not enough talent. Then your process needs to be inverted and remove barriers that have been there historically.”