At Next Wave Talent, Talent Table’s first ever digital event, recruiters, business leaders and talent acquisition professionals came together to explore concepts around the future of talent acquisition.

The bottom line? While many organisations have experienced disruptions in recruitment this year, talent acquisition is, and will continue to be, a critical function in the new world of work.

Organisations still need top talent. That means talent professionals and business leaders need to understand the best ways to articulate their organisations’ employer brand and develop their talent strategy to get the best ROI.

If you’re a business leader or talent acquisition professional, recruiting in the new world of work means you must become a subject-matter expert not only in acquisition, but in talent mobility and development as well. The report states that while no one has a crystal ball to see what the future holds — there is a way for organisations to head in the right direction.

Here are the top three actions from the report you can take today.

Review and strengthen your employer brand

After so much change this year, you may need to review the employer brand messaging you’re putting into the marketplace. In particular, many organisations are offering people new benefits, including flexible working arrangements and learning opportunities. You may even be onboarding employees remotely and offering additional training to boost engagement.

What’s changed for your organisation this year? When reviewing and strengthening your employer brand, consider the following three areas in particular:

• flexible working arrangements
• health, safety and wellbeing
• learning and development.

Remote work will increase by 278% compared to pre-COVID.

 

62% of employees state they will be working remotely.

 

– FlexCareers annual Flex report

Can you incorporate any new benefits into your employer brand messaging?

Remember, getting your messaging and EVPs right is just the beginning. To make your employer brand and EVPs work to your best advantage, embed it across your entire employee life cycle – not just in attraction and recruitment.

Share authentic and transparent content on your careers site that showcases what’s happening in your organisation and how you’re positively impacting and supporting your people. Focus on employee experience and continue to nurture your talent pools by developing a proactive sourcing strategy underpinned by engaging content tailored to your ideal hire.

Check out our article about how developing a “speak up” culture can improve your employer brand. 

Develop your talent through online learning

Candidates and employees want to understand how their organisation will help their career growth and prepare them for the future of work. Career and industry changes will become more common, so keep this in mind when recruiting. Can your job ads shift focus from industry experience to transferable skills?

Promote your Learning Value Proposition (LVP) prominently on your company careers site, but don’t just embed it in the attraction phase. Use it to support retention too.

68% of people in work intend to pursue professional education independently of their employer.

– FlexCareers annual Flex report

L&D is fast becoming a major player in supporting organisations’ growth and strategic goals. A solid understanding of L&D is critical to future-proof your organisation for the new world of work.

Make diversity and inclusion a strategic priority

Another crucial aspect of your talent strategy should include diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I). Why? Because you can bring in great people, but ensuring belonging is the key to making them stay.

Many talent professionals think DE&I is out of their scope; but it’s time to reframe this belief. A strong DE&I strategy will allow your organisation to continue to attract top talent and drive results (not to mention, increase profitability).

While recruitment teams may not be 100% responsible for D&I, it is definitely something you can influence.

Here’s how PwC lives diversity and inclusion. 

“The most diverse companies are now more likely than ever to outperform less diverse peers on profitability.” – Mckinsey, “Diversity Wins” report, 2020

In developing DE&I in your organisation, develop strong relationships between talent acquisition, HR, L&D and your leadership team. In doing so, teams can work better together to promote DE&I initiatives, influence culture, hire the right people, promote the right messaging (internally and externally), add more value to your organisation and achieve success through your people.

Remember, however, diversity quotas don’t automatically instill inclusion.

Recruiting in the new world of work will require you to add some additional skills to your toolkit. Developing your employer brand, increasing learning opportunities and prioritising D&I may seem like big projects to tackle; but they’ll go a long way to ensure your success over the long term.

For more strategic recommendations, check out the complete report. 

Have you reviewed and refreshed your employer brand messaging this year? Are you offering additional learning opportunities or prioritising D&I? Share a commend below. 

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Now is the time to invest more, not less on employee engagement. One of the best ways to do this is through online learning. This will not only help you retain and engage your existing workforce, supporting them during a time of change, but fill critical skills gaps as we continue to shift to digital processes.

If you’re one of the many organisations looking to implement a new online learning solution, or improve your existing online solution, there’s a right and wrong way to go about it.

For learning to be effective, people need to be engaged. When people learn new information is an interesting, fun, attention-grabbing way, this can be the difference between them remembering or completely forgetting it an hour later! 

Gamified learning is becoming increasingly popular in workplace training because of how it engages people. Gamification is the process of applying game-design elements and principles into non-game contexts. It’s the set of activities and processes to solve problems by applying characteristics of game elements. For example, point scoring or competition. 

So, how can workplaces gamify learning? 

1. Use storytelling 

You can incorporate storytelling through online training and face-to-face workshops. 

Games are often based on a narrative. So learning can be structured in a similar way, with the learner moving through a series of scenarios to reach a desired outcome. Many of Scout Learning’s online training providers include a narrative-style and or scenario-based concepts in the delivery. For example, Via Up, Pearls of Wisdom, Vado.

People are highly attuned to storytelling, so a narrative structure helps participants stay engaged. Engaged learners are more likely to retain information and be able to apply it in the workplace. 

2. Levels and awards 

With online learning, modules can be structured in the same way as the different levels of a game. 

In order for participants to gain access to the next level of learning content, they need to complete their current stage with a certain standard. Progressing to the next level might take the form of a quiz or another demonstration of understanding. 

We can also structure awards in the same way. For example you could use bronze, silver and gold awards for customer service, or awards with levels of achievement relating to job or role progression. For example, new starter, 2IC and manager. Training or awards can be set up to track CPD (Continuing Professional Development) hours. 

3. Points, credits and badges 

Points or badges can keep learners engaged. Many apps (for both children and adults) are designed in this way, giving participants recognition for the number of times they have completed an activity or engaged with content. 

This activates the reward centre in the brain, encouraging participants to progress to the next stage to earn another reward.  

Points and credits can be used to create targets. They can also establish clear expectations for learning goals. 

Create set training targets for teams and individuals to bring a competitive element to learning. These targets can be tracked and measured with associated rewards for reaching goals. 

4. Use surveys to insights from participants 

Talk to your learning provider about setting up surveys and assessments as part of your implementation. 

While data on the LMS (Learning Management System) dashboard will tell part of the story of learner engagement, here are some tips to gain a more in-depth understanding of your users’ learning experience:

• Assess learner engagement through surveys: You can include built-in surveys (e.g. Survey Monkey) in your customised courses and/or embed a learner engagement survey link in your LMS (Learning Management System) homepage. Many of our clients love this feature!
• Ask for feedback on courses: Use built-in “discussion and feedback” features to obtain feedback and promote collaborative learning.
• Use assessment data: Your LMS dashboard is a great place to assess learner engagement. Track login and completion rates. If they’re low or high, you can identify if the content you’re providing is hitting the mark. 

Engaging learners through gamification is a sure-fire way to help your people get the most out of their training and remember key concepts over the long-term. 

Gamification is simple and easy to implement. Choose a trusted provider that will design learning that incorporates gaming elements to engage your people and improve long-term outcomes for your business.  

Exclusive offer for Recruitment Marketing Magazine readers: join me and our Executive Director in May for our webinar on Learning Management Systems during a pandemic, economic downturn and beyond – when, why and how?

Natasha Scott is an Account Manager and Learning Services Specialist for Scout Talent. She has certifications in Learning Management Systems and extensive experience supporting clients with Scout Learning. In her current role, she delivers tailored solutions, training and support for users of Scout Talent’s recruitment software products and services. With a background in business development and account management, she is passionate about building relationships, developing learning cultures and getting the best value for clients.

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