July 10, 2024

How many of us can honestly say business is running as smoothly as it could be? Between fragmented operations, over-extended budgets, underperforming sales, and missed deadlines, it's the rare unicorn who proclaims business couldn't possibly be doing better.  On the labor side, employees are responsible for producing deliverables at capacity. But on the operational side, leadership is required to fill positions with talent that can deliver efficiently and consistently. So where are we going wrong? Diligent and effective talent is the spinal cord of a well-functioning business. Many businesses are scratching their heads about how to make quarterly and annual targets, while legacy hiring practices continue to integrate less-than-ideal employees. We're here to dissect the talent acquisition audit and discuss how to identify whether your business needs one.  What is a Talent Acquisition Audit?  A talent acquisition audit takes a deep dive into all aspects of a business's talent function, examining existing processes and providing recommendations. Areas of strength are magnified, while weaker spots are fortified or overhauled. This ultimately leads to more effective hires, long-term talent solutions, and enhanced productivity. Focus areas are broken down below:  Identify Skill and Knowledge Gaps: Internal audits determine your current talent and indicate areas where your business strategy may need additional support. Enhance Employer Branding: Increasingly, how your image as an employer appeals to potential candidates is critical to attracting the right people.  Recruitment Forecasting: An audit takes a look into current and future hiring needs to accommodate growth and succession planning.  Hiring and Onboarding Processes: Are recruits receiving the support they need? Is there any way tech solutions can bolster your strategy or economize resources? An audit will identify gaps and areas for improvement.  Why Audit Your Recruitment Practices? Talent acquisition no longer falls under HR responsibilities. The recruitment landscape is evolving with greater opportunities for global hires, decreased tenure, and increased movement toward lateral, rather than linear, career trajectories. The augmented scope of talent acquisition requires a distinct skillset from specialists in the field.  By closely scrutinizing which processes produce tangible, objective results, businesses can solve gritty hiring challenges, develop high-functioning teams, and remain competitive in the market.  Consider this: It costs a business at least 33% of the employee's salary to find their replacement. That means for an employee on a salary of $75k, it's a $25k spend — and the figure creeps even higher with seniority. An internal audit performed by a specialized talent acquisition consulting team reduces the figurative and literal cost of outdated recruitment processes. The Benefits of a Talent Acquisition Audit With a humming talent acquisition strategy, you can maximize potential candidate competency within your business over the long term and align your direction with strategic objectives. Here's what you can expect:  Streamlined Recruitment Efforts Fragmented hiring processes involving too many (or the wrong) people will give way to a precise, actionable, and repeatable process that produces lasting results. A consistent cross-departmental recruitment framework helps hiring managers make unbiased decisions about the best fit for the role and elevates your business's employer brand. Discover High-Quality Candidates Find the people you actually need. Putting the right messages in front of the right candidates attracts high-level job seekers into your talent pipeline — those with the skills and experience required to excel in their role within a company. Plus, you'll quickly determine an applicant's suitability for the role based on competencies, character, and your company's current skill distribution. Maintain Compliance With Laws and Regulations Recruitment's regulatory environment is constantly shifting, with new inclusion, pay equity, and AI frameworks introduced almost daily. A talent acquisition audit examines your processes and communications from the inside out, ensuring practices are updated and legally compliant. Elevate the Candidate Experience According to Forbes, nearly 38% of employees quit in their first year on the job — and more than 40% of that group depart in the first 90 days. Does that have you on the edge of your seat? Offering a smooth, supported hiring experience sets the tone for recruits, encouraging a positive attitude and high commitment levels.  Gain Actionable Insights from Data An audit report provides valuable insight and analytics showing what's working across your recruitment efforts and what's not. With the opportunity to work through challenges and refine your approach, you can tangibly enhance your potential for success. 7 Signs You Need a Talent Acquisition Audit Talent acquisition audits are not always the most obvious solution in an underperforming business. However, often, they're the most necessary. Here are seven tell-tale signs you need an audit:  High turnover rates: If staff tend to leave as fast as they come, it may point to potential communication gaps at the outset. A specialist evaluates how roles are advertised to create realistic expectations and target genuinely motivated prospects. Extended time-to-fill: Positions that remain vacant for extended periods can slug operations and add pressure to employee workloads. An audit analyzes where your ideal candidates are searching for positions and targets those spaces to reduce vacancy and handover timeframes.  Difficulty attracting quality candidates: This can indicate a need to revamp or strengthen your employer brand as it relates to recruitment.  Poor candidate experience: If you're fortunate enough to receive negative feedback about the hiring experience from a new recruit, it's likely not an isolated incident. An audit helps streamline processes and support employees from the get-go.  Low-quality hires: Struggling to find the right person is bad, and hiring the wrong person is even worse. A talent acquisition consultant equips you with the tools to consistently identify the most qualified prospects from your pool of applicants according to predefined criteria. That way, you can accurately evaluate candidate compatibility before you commit. Inconsistent hiring practices: Variation between departmental recruiting practices or hiring managers leaves little space for cohesion or objectivity in decision-making. This can later manifest in misaligned or unproductive teams.  High recruitment costs: With the volume of recruitment software and technology available on the market, you shouldn't need to spend serious money attracting talent. An audit takes a look into where and how you're sourcing candidates and recommends more cost-effective alternatives.  Take Your Talent Acquisition to the Next Level With RPO A talent acquisition audit offers a single, broad-reaching, and comprehensive fix to resolve hiring challenges and create an enduring impact. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provides your business with an external team of experts that analyze your recruitment strategy and provide recommendations to resolve enduring hire challenges — without the need to recruit an in-house specialist.  Envision RPO offers solutions to optimize your hiring strategy and ensure recruits consistently meet your organizational goals. Our experts can integrate into your business to understand your culture and produce a fully aligned blueprint congruent with your long-term goals. Reach out to our team to kickstart your RPO journey today. 

June 28, 2024

The right spread of skills and competencies in your business is critical to achieving organizational benchmarks. Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a total talent solution designed to optimize your talent function and attract the right minds to your team. RPO experts analyze where a business is currently at and where they desire to be, and then chart a direct course to get there with the right people steering the ship.  In 2022, the RPO industry was valued at $7.33B and projected to grow 16.1% by 2030. North America is expected to see growth of around 15% by 2027, while Asia Pacific expansion sits slightly higher at 17% during the same period. The two primary catalysts driving these changes are a sweeping induction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in business operations and a growing attrition rate across several industries. As we learned during and post-pandemic, companies need cost-effective hiring solutions while reducing operational overheads. This is where RPO enters the picture.  Here, we're going to unpack the top RPO trends emerging in 2024, and what shifts they indicate in the recruitment landscape.  1. Recruiters Are Integrating Artificial Intelligence Technology has assisted with sourcing candidates and screening resumes for some years. While AI Is not entirely new to the sphere of RPO or recruitment in general, its capabilities have surged in recent years and it's playing an increasingly key role.  Any recruiter understands the labor-intensive, time-consuming nature of repetitive hiring tasks. AI can knock a number of these off the list, freeing up recruitment managers' time for more meaningful work, such as building candidate relationships. Generative AI can scan thousands of resumes across multiple platforms, screen or rediscover applicants, and self-schedule appointments in a fraction of the traditional timeline. Simplifying strategic workforce planning is easier than ever, with AI reducing human bias and automating diversity hires. Applicants can engage with chatbots, enhancing the candidate experience and employer brand. What's more, according to a Deloitte study from the second quarter of 2024, 45% of organizations plan to reinvest Gen AI savings into innovation. AI is making an inconceivable impact, and it's here to stay.  2. Data-Driven Decisions Will Help Lead the Way With increasing access to data analytics and insights, recruitment decision-making will be increasingly data-driven in 2024. RPO experts can leverage big data to gain insight into future forecasting and talent sourcing leading to more effective hires than the traditional intuitive, impression-based approach.  Recruitment process outsourcing trends signify that recruiters lean more on modern tech capabilities to provide actionable solutions from historical data analysis. Overall, this will result in more accurate and proficient hires.  3. The Talent Shortage Continues With a number of automated technologies integrated into the workplace, companies are focused on maintaining headcount as opposed to reducing it. Employees provide critical skilled and complementary support for tasks performed by automation.  Finding the right candidate just in time amidst a labor shortage is stinging business development and hindering a competitive advantage in the market. As such, companies increasingly turn to an RPO provider to expand their sourcing strategies and talent pools to find qualified candidates at short notice.  4. Candidate-Centric Recruiting Is a Must In the past, recruitment was primarily balanced as a measure of candidate performance, incentivizing a company to hire based on skills and competencies. In 2024, businesses must lift their employer branding game to attract top talent.  The concept of an employer brand is far-reaching, encompassing all aspects of the candidate experience as they step through the recruitment process. The accuracy and allure of your job descriptions matter. The hiring process must be rapid and supportive. Businesses must advertise on the right platform to attract the right talent. In fact, social media platforms are frequently engaged to deliver more creative talent acquisition.  Advanced tech such as AI and automation is forecast to strengthen candidate-centric recruiting. Leveraging these tools, an RPO service offers an accelerated application screening with fast, actionable feedback. With faster timelines and enhanced accuracy elevating the candidate experience, businesses should see peaks in organic prospect attraction over time.  5. DEI Initiatives Are Driving Necessary Changes Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are among the major trends to keep an eye on for 2024 recruitment process outsourcing. Not only are inclusive hiring practices gaining traction, but they're a regulatory requirement in many areas now.  Employers need to ensure compliance with legal and regulatory frameworks as they expand talent pools for people competing for jobs and promotions. Alongside compliance, providing opportunities feeds into a positive employer brand.  With extensive diversity hire practices and AI tools, RPO specialists will continue supporting businesses to substantially reduce — if not entirely eliminate — bias in the recruitment process to develop healthy, inclusive workplaces.  6. Hybrid And Blended Workforces Are Increasingly Normal During the global pandemic, businesses pivoted their recruitment practices to comply with social distancing requirements. This period catalyzed advanced recruiting practices, digital hiring assets, as well as workplace flexibility. In 2024, we will continue to see hybrid and blended workforce models. RPO trends highlight that diversification of workforce structures and demands will require RPO providers to develop customized solutions to accommodate. Virtual hiring and employee oversight strategies are expected to advance. 7. Flexible Work Schedules and Asynchronous Communications Flexible work schedules offer a huge opportunity in the RPO market, particularly in light of the ongoing talent shortage. Adaptability allows employees to work during their most productive hours, improving job satisfaction and retention. It also provides perks to candidates, increasing prospect attraction to open positions.  Asynchronous communication — which doesn't require real-time responses — opens the door to potential global hires, expanding the talent pool for PRO providers. This facilitates RPO services to access scalable solutions that accommodate employer needs by leveraging global talent acquisition regardless of location.  Combined, flexible schedules and communication requirements support inclusive hiring practices, allowing individuals with personal commitments to continue contributing in the workplace.  8. Companies Are Expanding Their Global Recruitment Footprint Considering diverse workforce structures, DEI requirements, and business flexibility, the global recruitment process outsourcing expansion is on the horizon. The RPO industry will tap into diverse talent pools across the globe, transcending borders, and local talent shortages to attain remote new hires. Off-shore, cross-border virtual recruitment is something we will see more of this year. RPO firms with global competencies and experience are likely to gain an edge amidst this trend.  Why Use RPO in 2024?  RPO services offer scalable solutions to meet even the most demanding business hiring needs. Managing large hiring projects and ongoing recruitment efforts, RPO firms offer a flexible advantage by significantly reducing the temporal and financial investment in talent sourcing.  By leveraging the expertise of recruitment professionals and advanced recruitment technologies, businesses can access streamlined, innovative solutions leading to more efficient hires and long-term development.  Envision RPO is a leading talent-sourcing provider with experts who can integrate into your company and devise a strategy from the inside out, leading to enhanced productivity and development. If you want to learn more about our talent acquisition solutions, get in touch today. 

March 7, 2024

Whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence is all around us, and it’s revolutionizing nearly every industry, creating new efficiencies across the board. In the recruitment sector, AI is reshaping the talent acquisition process, enabling recruiters and HR professionals to streamline their workflow. That’s why around 85% of talent acquisition experts believe it has the power to fully automate parts of the hiring process. In today’s fast-paced digital world, AI recruitment could represent the dawn of a new era of efficiency, as computers did for paper applications. But what exactly will AI technology fix or improve, and how can talent acquisition teams navigate this new environment? How Is Artificial Intelligence Changing Recruitment? Before we dive into the benefits, use cases, and considerations for this new technology, it’s important to understand what the recruitment landscape looked like just a few years ago — prior to all the publicity of bots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.  The truth is that artificial intelligence is no newcomer to the world of talent acquisition. While its popularity has surged in recent years, AI tools have already been making strides for decades by automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Whether it’s sorting through resumes or screening candidates, these early use cases have only grown in popularity and scope. Today, AI software is often used to filter out unqualified candidates based on highly specific, customizable criteria, such as education, experience, and skills. This allows the human recruiter or HR professional to focus on the more nuanced aspects of the hiring process. These use cases play to AI’s strong suits — that is, digesting and analyzing vast amounts of data — to identify the most suitable candidate for any position. However, to effectively leverage AI solutions in the recruitment process, we must first understand the issues it aims to address. Let’s take a look at some common recruiter challenges you might be familiar with: Common Pain Points in Traditional Talent Acquisition 1. Creating an Attractive Brand Image Recruitment marketing can be a tough game. Even large, well-known companies struggle to effectively communicate their core values and culture, making it challenging to attract top talent. A strong employer brand not only differentiates your job postings in a crowded market but resonates with potential candidates on a deeper level. 2. Streamlining the Lengthy Hiring Process From writing a job description to making a hiring decision, the entire recruitment process can be a lengthy, complicated ordeal. This is often further bogged down by time-consuming manual tasks, such as resume screening, scheduling interviews, and coordinating feedback. Multiply this by the hundreds of qualified candidates who might apply to a single position, and it’s easy to see why it can take a while to find the right hire. 3. Securing Top Talent With Niche Skills In today’s competitive landscape of talent acquisition, traditional recruitment methods often fall short when it comes to identifying, attracting, and securing candidates with highly specialized skills. This is especially true for talent with high-demand knowledge or experience, such as IT, coding, or financial services.  4. Personalizing the Candidate Experience Creating a positive, engaging candidate experience is paramount for today’s talent acquisition teams, but it’s easier said than done. This engagement increasingly relies on delivering a high level of personalization to each candidate. However, teams are often limited by resource constraints and the sheer volume of candidate profiles they need to sift through.  5. Improving Employee Retention Turnover has a high price tag for companies, incurring significant financial costs while diminishing team morale and culture. Traditional approaches to building loyalty often fall short, as they don’t always address the root cause of dissatisfaction or mismatches between job roles and expectations. In the latter case, it’s often a matter of vague job postings or even an ineffective candidate screening process. The AI Advantage in Talent Acquisition Of course, AI is not a magic wand that recruiters can wave to eliminate these challenges — but it can be a useful tool. Here are a few of the major benefits AI brings to the talent acquisition table: Streamline Candidate Sourcing Finding the right talent quickly can often mean the difference between leading the market or lagging behind. By harnessing the power of machine learning and complex algorithms, AI tools can scan through thousands of candidate profiles across various platforms to identify top talent who meet precise job requirements. Not only does this reduce time spent on manual searches, but it also increases the quality of potential candidates sourced. Accelerate Resume Screening In addition to searching through candidate profiles, AI can also streamline resume screening. These algorithms are designed to sift through large volumes of applications, pinpointing those that match the job specifications with a high degree of accuracy and speed. This level of automation can accelerate the hiring timeline, which adds to the candidate experience. Plus, it gives recruiters more time to focus on getting to know the talent personally, significantly increasing candidate engagement. Collect Valuable Recruiting Data Data is everything in today’s digital world — and that still applies to recruitment. Talent acquisition teams can use AI solutions to collect, analyze, and leverage vast amounts of recruiting data like never before. From understanding candidate behaviors and preferences to recognizing trends in successful hires, these insights empower recruiters to make data-driven decisions that improve hiring performance and the overall experience. Fine-Tune Your Employer Brand This doesn’t mean using DALL-E to design your next logo iteration. Instead, companies can leverage AI to analyze data from social media, job review sites, and their own internal analytics to better understand how their brand is perceived by potential candidates, and how to shape that perception. Insights like these can enable targeted employer branding strategies, ensuring messaging that resonates with the desired talent pool. Elevate the Candidate Experience AI doesn’t just have the power to attract candidates — it can also help recruiters deliver an elevated candidate experience. The goal is to transform the recruitment journey into a seamless, engaging process with personalized communication and timely updates. AI-driven chatbots are pivotal here, providing immediate responses to queries while machine learning algorithms ensure job recommendations are tailored to each candidate’s skills and preferences. Minimize Hiring Biases It’s an unfortunate truth that biases can creep into hiring decisions without us even realizing it. Even when well-intentioned, a recruiter might inadvertently favor a certain group or person over others due to unconscious biases. AI offers the potential for a more objective approach to candidate evaluation, analyzing qualifications without regard to gender, ethnicity, age, or other characteristics. However, the AI algorithm must be trained on data that’s free of these biases as well. Reduce Recruiting Costs Last but not least, AI has the potential to drive significant cost reductions. By automating routine tasks, these tools can dramatically decrease the time and resources traditionally required for these processes. This enables companies to optimize their HR resource allocation. Moreover, the precision of AI software can reduce the likelihood of costly hiring mistakes and turnover. Addressing the Challenges and Limitations of AI Tools Despite all of these benefits, some people might still be skeptical about this emerging technology. To address the risks and start developing thoughtful solutions, it’s important to understand some of these common reservations. AI algorithms risk missing top talent: This is especially true if exceptional candidates don’t fit the traditional molds. Continuous refinement and human oversight are essential to ensure these tools capture the full spectrum of talent as they evolve. Resume screening can make mistakes: AI-driven resume screening is incredibly efficient, but not infallible. Misinterpretations can occur, especially with non-standard resumes. It takes a balance between AI and human judgment to avoid mistakes. AI tools are often a black box: The complexity of AI algorithms means the decisions they make are often opaque. Demystifying these processes through transparent AI practices and technologies will be vital for maintaining trust and accountability in recruitment decisions. They require additional employee training: Any AI integration will require staff to learn how to use these new solutions effectively. Companies might be hesitant to make this upfront investment in time and resources, but these tools will ultimately enhance rather than complicate the recruitment process. AI can introduce biases from training data: AI reflects the data it’s trained on, so if that data contains biases, these tools could perpetuate those prejudices. It will be critical to continue monitoring and updating AI systems with diverse data sets that promote greater equity in hiring practices. Big data could infringe on candidate privacy: Collecting vast amounts of data with the use of AI often raises concerns about data privacy. Organizations will need to establish robust data protection measures to ensure compliance with regulations and safeguard the personal information of candidates and employees alike. As we look toward the future, these considerations will be critical for developing and integrating AI in a responsible manner that drives innovation and improvement while minimizing current challenges and pain points in recruitment. What Does the Future Hold For AI in Talent Acquisition? Right now, we stand at a pivotal point in time with AI rapidly transforming nearly every industry. As technology advances, we anticipate AI will have much more to offer recruiters and candidates alike — and we’re not the only ones. Between 35% and 45% of companies are considering adopting AI tools this year to aid their talent acquisition efforts If AI continues advancing at its current pace, there’s no doubt that we can anticipate deeper insights into candidate capabilities, preferences, and potential for success within their specific roles. At the same time, the tools themselves will become more intuitive, with algorithms refining their ability to match candidates based on skills, experience, and nuanced factors like cultural fit and long-term aspirations. As AI becomes commonplace in recruitment, solving some of the concerns outlined above will be all the more paramount. Just as we must reflect on our own biases throughout the hiring process, we will also need to work proactively to eliminate these prejudices from our AI.  It’s clear that AI is reshaping talent acquisition, as it is in countless other industries. Recruiters are already grappling with these ethical considerations and exploring the innovative possibilities of these tools. The key will be to approach AI with a sense of cautious curiosity and creativity that deepens capabilities and enhances existing practices. AI and Envision Curious how Envision can help you leverage AI in recruitment process outsourcing?Talk to our experts today to learn more about how AI is impacting talent acquisition.