Employers need to think laterally to win the talent competition

The competition for skills and talent has never been more intense. When recruiting staff, employers must contend with a historically tight labour market, resurgent wage inflation in response to cost-of-living increases, demands for flexible working arrangements and a range of wellbeing and other non-cash benefits. The question is, how to get the right people without entering into an unsustainable salary bidding war?

Showcasing the employer brand has become very important in these circumstances, according to Mary Connaughton, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

“It’s certainly a challenge at the moment,” she says. “CIPD research found that 91 per cent of companies have some kind of skills shortage. We are seeing greater investment in the employer brand, in showcasing the organisation, the nature of the work, the people, the culture, and bringing all that to life. It’s about helping people to understand what it’s like to work for an organisation.”

But it can’t be a snow job. “Candidates are doing their own research to find out if it is true or just a story,” Connaughton adds. “They are looking for evidence. They are looking at reviews on social media and speaking to former employees. What you say needs to match reality.”

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Employers are engaging in some quite sophisticated strategies to find the right people, says Conor McCarthy who leads KPMG’s People and Change Practice in Ireland.

“We have come across an organisation that was facing recruitment challenges but didn’t look at exit interviews or the views of the current workforce to solve it. They went out to people who seemed to be a good fit for the organisation and chose not to apply or join and asked them why not. Did they not like the brand? What turned you off? You can get very good insights from thinking laterally like that.”

Another clever strategy is to disaggregate jobs and skills, McCarthy points out. “For example, project management skills might be pretty ubiquitous in an organisation,” he says. “If a major project comes along you can easily redeploy people with those skills to work on it in the short term. By matching skills to tasks you may not have to hire new people. GenAI can help with that.”

McCarthy cites the successful application of this strategy in the healthcare sector in another jurisdiction.

“They found that lower-value tasks make up over 40 per cent of nurses’ work,” he says. “They reinvented the delivery model and opened things like dedicated inoculation centres where nurses could work a few days a week purely on clinical duties without having to do any admin and paperwork and so on. They were then able to set up a shared services centre to carry out those tasks.

“This was all enabled by the disaggregation of skills and tasks. They didn’t have to recruit additional nurses because they were able to look at what they already had in the current workforce.”

Credit Agricole Creditor Insurance (CACI) takes a holistic approach to recruitment.

“We look at the candidate’s skills, experience, and cultural add,” says chief executive Mary Ryan. “It is not about fitting in with our culture, it’s about what the candidate can add to it. We look at the candidate in totality.”

The organisation employs a number of recruitment channels, Ryan explains: “We pride ourselves on our internal strategies. We develop our own talent. That’s beneficial for the organisation and the employee. We support people’s development and growth.

“Referrals are another big part of it. Who better than our own people to recommend CACI as an employer? Campus recruitment is also important. We have established very strong relationships with universities both here and in France. We participate in fairs and exhibitions to explain our mission and values, who we are, what we do, how we do it and so on.”

The company also has an interesting graduate programme – the Volontariat International à l’Etranger (Volunteer for International Experience). The French government programme allows French companies based abroad to recruit young professionals from Europe for periods of up to two years. CACI currently has nine people recruited through the programme.

“This is another element of our recruitment strategy,” says Ryan. “We have many examples of people from the programme staying on with us in Ireland after their initial contracts have finished.”

It’s one thing finding suitable candidates but it’s quite another to actually get them to come to work for you and stay.

“Salary and benefits are important,” says Jim O’Dea, senior vice-president of global operations with Workhuman. “We are competitive but that’s just table stakes. It’s not the be all and end all. People are looking for flexibility. That means different things to different people. We are a hybrid first organisation, with people working two days in the office.”

As well as having some employees who work fully remotely, the company offers flexibility across other dimensions.

“People with young kids might want to start later so that they can drop them to school,” says O’Dea. “We can accommodate that. Other people might have elderly parents to look after and may have different needs and we can work around them as well. Flexibility is something we are very strong on. The sweet spot for us is two days in the office. That’s very important for personal connections and the culture of the organisation.”

Career progression is also important, O’Dea adds: “Around 10 to 15 per cent of our people are promoted or move to different roles each year. We support people who show hunger and eagerness to develop and progress. If they want to do an MBA, we will support as long as it is aligned to current or potential future role. We will always support people who want to upgrade their skills.”

Investing in people is key to retention as well as filling skills gaps, according to Connaughton, who points out that CIPD is the promoter of the Skillnet Ireland Sustainable HRM Skillnet business networks.

“Skillnet Ireland supports 25,000 businesses every year in meeting their skills needs. There is a lot more upskilling and reskilling happening in response to both business and individuals’ needs. This is critical to hiring strategies. People need to upgrade skills their skills all the time to stay up to date. It’s not just about experience and qualifications any more, it’s about skills.”