CHALLENGES FACING HR IN 2015

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CHALLENGES FACING HR

IN 2015

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Executive Summary

The emergence of big data and predictive analytics is changing the landscape of talent acquisition across the globe. Facing a lack of access to talent, HR must create data driven, streamlined hiring processes in order to compete.

With the ‘datafication of HR’, recruitment strategies are being irrevocably transformed. To succeed in attracting the passive talent that will help global

organisations achieve performance objectives, employers must respond to ongoing change.

This whitepaper examines the challenges faced by HR today, together with the role HR technology plays in generating a more evidence based, resilient HR strategy.

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Challenges for HR

Talent acquisition is no longer straightforward. Historically, recruitment consisted of posting a job vacancy and waiting for the

applications to arrive. The concept of the candidate experience had yet to make its presence felt; the balance of power was held firmly on the side of employers and hiring managers.

Recruitment, at least from the hiring manager’s side, was esoteric in its nature. Today, that has

changed with the extent of information available to candidates across social and online recruitment networks.

Talent acquisition is becoming more complex and the principal challenge facing recruiters is how to navigate through these new developments and retain an edge over the competition.

A war on two sides

HR professionals are facing difficulties from two directions. On the one side, HR must focus on the promotion of positive employer branding, authenticity, employee

engagement, social recruiting and appealing to a new generation of professionals.

On the other, it faces unprecedented challenges to its status and authority.

Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends 2015 report highlights a number of perceptions that HR must pay attention to, not least of which is the need to reskill to meet the

demands arising from today’s employment market.

HR’s performance is rated as ‘low’ by business leaders.

To combat this, recommendations have been made in some quarters to split HR into two distinct

divisions, namely leadership and organisation, and administration.

Whether or not this path is taken, with HR frequently perceived as lacking

imagination and creativity, it must improve on its ability to deliver talent solutions as passive candidates become harder to find.

Historically, recruitment consisted of posting a job

vacancy and waiting for the applications to arrive

HR must improve on its ability to deliver talent

solutions as passive candidates become

harder to find

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One way to save time in their existing obligations, in order to spend more time on being creative in their hiring processes, is to embrace automation made possible by sophisticated recruitment software.

Letting software take care of the tasks that do not make the best use of a recruiter’s skills, while still maintaining a high standard of candidate experience is the most sensible and simplest way to overcome this challenge and prove they can still innovate when necessary.

Failure to embrace technology

During 2014, 61% of all companies were still relying on manual methods including spreadsheets and e-mail for managing of their candidate pools¹.

This seems shocking when you consider that research and statistics continually support the claim that companies who ‘datafy’ HR

enjoy two to three times improvement in the hiring process compared to those that don’t². With the cost of a bad hire being so high, especially in business critical positions, HR departments need to reduce the margin for human error as far as is possible for each and every candidate considered.

Sophisticated HR technology equips HR with the tools

to achieve its aims, with the right investment and understanding of data provided.

When used effectively, recruitment management software effectively facilitates a streamlined, data driven hiring process which revitalises the two vital areas to success, namely talent engagement and the vital candidate experience.

Advorto’s recruitment management software is a simple way to manage the entire hiring lifecycle in one place, with easy to use software to help you hire better people faster.

1 Applicant Tracking System Software Small Business BuyerView | 2014 http://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/buyerview/ats-report-2014/

2 HR Technology : 10 Big Disruptions Ahead In 2015 – Josh Bersin

Companies who ‘datafy’

HR enjoy two to three times improvement in the

hiring process compared

to those that don’t

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Not following the latest trends

Passive talent is a very real concern with a notable majority of UK CEOs alone (84%) expressing concern over the lack of access to talent. ³.

Qualified candidates are proving to be more resistant to the more direct or even traditional approach adopted by recruiters and

employers. Deloitte emphasises that every HR and talent programme must be examined, identifying the number one concern of business leaders as culture and engagement.

Today’s employers must both look inwards to their own data and trends provided by analytics, and

outwards to pursue the latest methods of attracting talent. Brand authenticity and engagement is becoming increasingly important in the HR market and is key for supporting social recruitment; the new “normal”⁴ in talent acquisition.

Social recruiting is dominated by social and professional sites including LinkedIn, Indeed, Facebook and Twitter. As HR searches for more innovative sources of talent pools, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook at Work are also expected to play a more prominent role.

In this respect, recruitment management software can greatly aid HR professionals to achieve the following aims via social channels:

 Support a consistent brand image and promote authenticity through simultaneous automated posting of vacancies across social and online networks.

 Consistently identify sources of talent and engage with passive candidates.

Real time data is provided by recruitment analytics through applicant tracking systems which can be used to formulate strategies for future success.

 Connecting with upcoming talent. Millennials are pushing back traditional boundaries of HR and transforming the global workforce. Generation Y seeks transparency, collaboration and corporate social responsibility from its

leadership, spurning traditional professional sites such as LinkedIn in favour of

3 PwC 18^th Annual CEO Survey

4LinkedIn Global Trends : http://talent.linkedin.com/blog/index.php/2014/11/the-global-trends-that-will-shape- recruiting-in-2015

Qualified candidates are proving to be more resistant to the more direct or even traditional

approaches

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other more instant social networks. Employers must seek out broader areas of social recruiting, identified by recruitment analytics, to attract today’s

upcoming talent.

 Collaboration with HR and external department heads through easy sharing of information. Today’s workforce is connected through mobile devices and cloud technology. World class recruitment software is imperative for

companies who are serious about recruitment.

Barriers to the Candidate Experience

The candidate experience has never been more important than it is today. HR teams need to ensure each and every candidate they deal with, whether or not they are offered a position, go away with a positive opinion of the company. Failure to do so risks far reaching consequences. .

The main challenges in this respect can be summarised in the following five barriers to the candidate experience⁵:-

Capturing candidates: 39% of jobseekers want the ability to register their contact information with an employer to enable them to apply at a later stage. This data capture is essential in the creation of talent pools, yet over half of HR professionals are failing to take advantage of the tools which will help them to achieve this.

Failure to re-engage applicants: Re-engaging with qualified candidates who were unsuccessful in their application enables the creation of talent pools for future vacancies.

Automated responses: Personalised responses reflect a more positive, transparent brand. Sophisticated HR technology offers branded personalised responses

integrated within applicant tracking software.

Access via mobile device: Less than a quarter of HR professionals believe this is important to the candidate experience, but the reality is that 65% of candidates rarely return to complete their applications on a desktop. To be truly effective, HR must embrace mobile optimisation of careers pages and applications.

Simple application process: A complex, prolonged application process will deter passive talent who hold that elusive balance of power in today’s hiring market.

5 How Candidate Experience Is Transforming HR Technology – Career Builder

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An effective and simple solution to each of these issues is to embrace recruitment management technology. One system can offer talent pool creation, automated personalised messaging, mobile friendly careers sites and applications via social media, putting the power to attract new candidates back in the hands of the recruiters. If you would like to read more about the features Advorto’s software provides, please visit our website.

Using ineffective technology

While Deloitte’s report identifies the lack of analytics as one of the greatest

weaknesses in HR, this is tempered by the fact that less than 10% of employers are

‘extremely satisfied’ with their HR systems - with over one third ‘not satisfied’. ⁶ Outdated systems hinder HR in achieving its objectives

by failing to support the strategic hiring decisions required by today’s business leaders.

Today’s recruiting software must deliver value for HR, enabling organisations to recruit better talent faster.

To be successful and drive changes in talent acquisition, HR technology must complement recruiting efforts in the promotion of a transparent

brand message and positive candidate experience. Recruitment management systems must not be seen as a substitute for authenticity.

For companies who purchased recruitment management systems in 2014, increased efficiency and organisation was the number one reason behind their investment, with the following criteria identified as the top five functions required by recruiting software:-

 Automatic posting to job boards and company career pages

 Searchable database

 Reporting

 Candidate tracking

 Note-taking

In achieving the aims of employers, HR and meeting the needs of candidates, HR technology must:-

6 Viewpoint HR and HR Tech in Europe: The Critical Realities for 2015

Less than 10% of employers are ‘extremely

satisfied’ with their HR systems - with over one

third ‘not satisfied’

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 Be user friendly and offer business agility throughout the experience,

providing updates through SaaS systems⁷. Concerns over the security of cloud based systems must be addressed and outweighed with the advantages that remote systems offer for global businesses.

 Provide clear, streamlined processes, not complex, confusing interfaces.

 Enable reductions in time to hire and cost of hire.

 Deliver vital benefits which allow HR to focus on reskilling.

 Provide real time data to allow effective decisions to be taken on the hiring process.

 Provide management reporting and instant visibility of analytics and data to support effective decisions and adjustments in the hiring process.

 Offer the capability of sharing information across multiple social networks.

In responding to the changing landscape, adopting the latest in HR technology is not an option for companies who are serious about transformation.

Summary

Technology is disruptive, but it is also essential to solving the challenges businesses face today. HR must embrace sophisticated HR technology in order to identify, attract and retain the most qualified talent, promote collaboration, improve employee engagement and manage change where talent is scarce.

The onus on HR leaders is to deliver the results expected of them. High quality, sophisticated HR systems will be either critical or important to the future success and meeting performance objectives of global businesses.

HR processes must become more fluid in order to enable organisations to achieve their goals. Investment in a more robust, sophisticated, scalable recruiting software which addresses and enables HR to resolve its main concerns is vital.

HR must embrace the innate advantages of HR technology based on real time data to improve talent acquisition strategies. Engagement through social networks must convey authenticity and allow data driven

decisions at every stage of the hiring process.

In turn, these decisions will necessarily adjust the candidate experience

Data is fundamental to all decisions and none more so than in the world of HR. People analytics

7 Viewpoint HR and HR Tech in Europe : The Critical Realities for 2015

For HR to influence the boardroom it must be supported by quality HR

systems

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is identified as ‘part of a new set of critical skills for

HR, business and leadership’ by thought leaders such as Deloitte. Furthermore, it is predicted that companies which invest in building people analytics capabilities will

‘likely outperform their competitors significantly’.

To meet the challenges identified earlier in this whitepaper, HR must become more imaginative and leadership to attract the talent it needs.

Data based decision making is expected to dominate the recruitment sector as data is seen as more reliable than subjective decision. As a result predictive metrics will continue to capture the imagination of HR for the foreseeable future. Data pulled down directly from HR technology will enable HR to make the decisions and deliver the value that business leaders demand.

For HR to influence the boardroom it must be supported by quality HR systems.

Flexible technology is the key to success.

We would love to have a conversation with you about your current HR and

recruitment systems and how Advorto could save you time and money in your hiring process. If you would like to talk to us please call +44 (0) 20 7101 0330 email

[email protected] or fill in this contact form.

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References

How Candidate Experience Is Transforming HR Technology – Career Builder Global Human Capital Trends 2015 – Deloitte

Viewpoint HR and HR Tech in Europe: The Critical Realities for 2015 HR Technology: 10 Big Disruptions Ahead In 2015 – Josh Bersin

LinkedIn Global Trends: http://talent.linkedin.com/blog/index.php/2014/11/the- global-trends-that-will-shape-recruiting-in-2015

Applicant Tracking System Software Small Business BuyerView | 2014 http://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/buyerview/ats-report-2014/

About Advorto

Using Advorto’s recruitment software is the easiest way to manage your entire recruitment process. Advorto provides all the recruiter and management tools you need.

Advorto is used by some of the world's leading organisations including Lloyds Banking Group, NHS Trusts, TSB, and Virgin Trains to:

 Recruit better people faster

 Reduce time-to-hire and cost-per-hire

 Control the entire talent recruitment lifecycle

 Manage high-volume recruitment

If you have any questions or comments about this article or Advorto’s recruitment management software please contact us.

CHALLENGES FACING HR IN 2015