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Leveraging talent data is crucial to transform candidate interactions into meaningful and memorable experiences — which extends beyond external candidates to include internal mobility connections that drive valuable performance. Data-driven insights provide the foundation for informed decision-making, improved business performance, and higher-quality hires. Symphony Talent’s panel of experts discussed how talent data can drive a personal approach and create a healthy talent acquisition ecosystem. WATCH THE FULL, ON-DEMAND SESSION: KEY TAKEAWAYS: Is the talent funnel still relevant? The talent funnel remains relevant but has evolved into a non-linear path. Candidates now seek a relationship with their employer, emphasizing alignment with values and ways of working. Employers must focus on elevating their employer brand messages and employee value propositions (EVP) throughout the entire recruitment process. By broadening the perspective of the talent funnel and emphasizing alignment and experiences, organizations can deliver on candidate expectations. How does data impact the talent acquisition lifecycle? Data influences the talent acquisition lifecycle across four key stages: awareness, connection, qualification, and conversion. Technology solutions, such as adtech and martech, address awareness, connection, and conversion challenges. Leveraging data to fuel awareness and connection outcomes depends on a robust EVP built on constant interaction insights. Fueling better touchpoint experiences by revisiting and fine-tuning the talent marketing strategy based on data-driven insights is crucial. What role will data privacy play in the future? Data privacy is evolving, with users demanding more control over their data. Compliance with data privacy regulations will require organizations to transition to a first-party data approach. At Symphony Talent, we use first-party cookie data, which means your campaigns won’t miss a beat. Today, individuals willingly share information with brands when doing so translates into better digital experiences. By promising responsible data handling and delivering personalized content, organizations can leverage data to build trust and enhance digital experiences. How do talent teams avoid data pitfalls? Understanding available data and what is meaningful to your organization is crucial. By evaluating the entire talent funnel, including reach, awareness, and conversion, talent teams can not only identify what’s working well, but also areas for improvement. Additionally, focusing solely on the channel for outreach can limit your organization’s ability to form meaningful connections with right-fit talent. Instead, we recommend adopting a candidate strategy that leverages data to connect employers with talent as individuals, not just another data point. This level of personalization helps employers attract and engage with candidates on a deeper, more meaningful level, which translates to stronger relationships and higher-quality hires. How does talent acquisition data build candidate relationships at scale? Data plays a significant role in humanizing recruitment marketing and building strong relationships at scale. Data helps talent teams better understand candidates and employees, enabling a more personal connection. However, authenticity cannot be manufactured. Automation and technology assist in delivering personalized messaging at critical touchpoints, but investing in a genuine employer brand is vital. Data-driven strategies grounded in humanization and authenticity differentiate organizations and drive positive results. Organizations can build better relationships and optimize their recruitment process by utilizing technology, establishing a robust EVP, respecting data privacy, and creating a healthy talent acquisition ecosystem. Ready to learn more about harnessing the power of your talent acquisition data across the talent lifecycle? Let’s talk! A well-executed recruitment process ensures the right fit between candidates and organizations, leading to long-term success. Today, many organizations are turning to automation and technology to streamline their recruitment processes and attract and retain high-quality hires to address these challenges. Symphony Talent’s Kara Polk, Program Director, Assessments, and Perry Steinberg, Chief Product Officer, delved deeper into the role data and automation play in streamlining processes, improving resource allocation, and driving greater results. WATCH THE FULL, ON-DEMAND SESSION: KEY TAKEAWAYS: 1. Understanding and taking action on evolving candidate expectations: Candidates now have higher expectations, and many of their preferences have changed in recent years. Factors like location, remote work opportunities, and a streamlined application process have become crucial considerations for job seekers. A recent study revealed that candidates are likely to drop off if an application process takes more than 15 minutes. Talent teams must minimize friction and provide transparency throughout the hiring process, enabling candidates to “see” themselves working with the organization as early in the process as possible. Building strong relationships with candidates has become even more important today than ever before, but doing so at scale, with support from purpose-built technology and smart automation, is nearly possible. 2. Focusing on strategic automation: Strategic automation plays a vital role in streamlining recruitment processes. By leveraging technology and automation, recruiters can focus on building relationships with candidates and providing a personalized experience. Automation can handle repetitive tasks like scheduling interviews, sending emails, and conducting initial screenings. It allows recruiters to more effectively gather data, make data-driven decisions, and prioritize candidate selection. 3. Activating smart automation without losing human interaction: While automation is crucial, it should not replace human interaction entirely. Striking a balance between automation and personal touch is essential for creating a relational hiring experience. Candidates value transparency and clear communication throughout the process. Incorporating talent assessments and on-demand interviews within the process, as well as leveraging a CRM to manage and engage with candidates enhances the experience for both talent professionals and the candidates they engage with, promoting even stronger relationships. 4. Gathering unbiased candidate data via talent assessments: Talent assessments offer significant value in the recruitment process. They provide an unbiased and objective way to measure a candidate's skills, aptitudes, and behaviors relevant to the job. Organizations can reduce biases, improve diversity, and make informed decisions by incorporating talent assessments into the hiring process. Assessments also help predict future job performance, contributing to better organizational performance. 5. Looking beyond initial hire to internal talent mobility and career development: Internal talent mobility and career development are critical for organizations to retain and upskill their existing workforce. By leveraging AI/machine learning and a data-rich CRM, organizations can identify skill gaps, develop their employees, and align their future talent needs. Encouraging continuous learning and growth within the organization improves employee engagement and reduces turnover. Ready to dig in even deeper and explore how your organization can enhance its candidate experience, remove bias, improve diversity, and make data-driven hiring decisions? Let’s talk! Artificial intelligence (AI) may conjure up images of robots overtaking society – and while that makes for great science fiction, it’s not an accurate representation of what’s actually happening. AI has been in our lives in some capacity for decades. From AI-powered chess opponents to autonomous vehicles, speech recognition software, face recognition technology, and myriad other examples, AI has been in the background of our personal and professional lives, offering support and making our lives easier (whether we realize it or not). Today, the conversation has taken center stage for many professionals, leading to questions about the differences between and value of AI compared with Generative AI and smart automation. What are they? How are they being used in talent acquisition today? What promise do they hold for the future of HR and talent acquisition? How can my team and I leverage them to add value to the organization? WHAT IS AI? Artificial intelligence refers to a machine’s ability to perform a specific cognitive function, such as learning, reasoning, or problem solving. It is actively used within every industry, around the world. For example, in healthcare, AI can assist with diagnoses, treatment plans, and patient engagement. In retail, AI has already shown its usefulness in demand forecasting, supply chain optimization, and customer service. In talent acquisition, AI can be used to deliver customized job recommendations based on a person’s behaviors, preferences, and other key data points. It also can be used to improve talent pipeline velocity, deliver relevant content to nurture talent, engage with candidates, and more. WHAT IS GENERATIVE AI? Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence with the primary goal of producing content based on a prompt. One of the most talked about generative AI solutions today is ChatGPT. For talent teams, generative AI can generate job descriptions, candidate communications, and more. It’s an exciting prospect for many teams, offering a promise of scalability and improved efficiency. Although the opportunity is considerable with generative AI, it should be used with caution and appropriate discretion. McKinsey & Company highlighted some of the risks associated with generative AI by saying, “Generative-AI models will confidently produce inaccurate, plagiarized, or biased results, without any indication that its outputs may be problematic. That’s because the models have been trained on the internet, which is hardly a universally reliable source. Leaders should be aware of these risks before turning to generative AI as a business solution.” WHAT IS SMART AUTOMATION? Automation follows a specific set of rules to perform an action or a set of actions within a workflow. For example, a candidate submits an application, which triggers a confirmation notification to be sent to both the candidate and the talent acquisition professional. This action happened based on pre-defined if/then rules. WHY IS AI OFTEN REFERRED TO AS AUTOMATION (AND VICE VERSA)? Often, the terms automation and AI are used interchangeably, and while they have similarities in the value they bring to talent professionals, the way they operate and the level of human intervention needed is quite different. Automation will perform a task, but will not provide reasoning or other cognitive capabilities. Automation requires a person to define the parameters of the action or workflow, which the program follows without deviation. This is especially helpful for repetitive tasks. AI, including Generative AI, on the other hand, requires a person to provide prompts to deliver the desired result. A person also will need to review the output from AI to ensure accuracy and infuse human empathy and personality. Whether you’re looking at AI, Generative AI, or smart automation, human intervention, intelligence, and authentic personality is still absolutely necessary to achieve optimal results. WHAT DOES SYMPHONY TALENT USE? At Symphony Talent, we continually innovate for the future of talent acquisition, which means incorporating smart automation, AI, and robust data analytics and reporting into our full talent lifecycle solutions, from awareness to retention. As the AI industry evolves to the next generation of AI capabilities, Symphony Talent Artificial intelligence for HR helps connect the right employees to the right jobs by leveraging our data to lead the way. Data is a core tenet of a successful talent acquisition strategy, which means it’s also a core tenet of Symphony Talent solutions as well. We continue to keep an eye on the needs of our clients today (and into the future) so they always have the solutions they need to stay ahead of the competition and secure the best fit talent for their organization. To explore how we incorporate AI and smart automation into Symphony Talent’s ecosystem of solutions, simply reach out for a consultation … we’d love to show you! Time is the enemy of the personal attention it takes to create deeper, more meaningful human connections. But that's what’s required to nurture and hire the right people in today's competitive job market. The impersonal approach just doesn't work, especially with Millennials and Gen Z. Heck, even Gen Xers and Baby Boomers in the past year have cried out for something better in a job. Applicants who are receiving multiple offers want to be courted. They want to feel valued. Offering bigger salaries and better benefits are great, but most people want to feel wanted, welcomed, and treated as individuals. That takes time that HR, recruiters, and hiring managers don’t have. They have hundreds of other manual little things that are soaking up their time. And if they can't automate those tasks, then they'll continue to lose prized applicants to recruiters who have figured out how to free up most of their time to connect personally with applicants. HOW DO YOU LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY TO FREE YOU UP FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF? Artificial intelligence (AI) has made headlines in recent months within the HR and talent acquisition community. LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting 2023 report highlighted several predictions, including the role of AI in recruiting. Their research shows that among hiring professionals, 74% anticipate generative AI enabling them to automate repetitive tasks to prioritize more strategic work, 67% believe it will help them source candidates faster and easier, and 59% believe it will have a positive impact on their ability to engage with candidates. It’s clear that many HR and talent acquisition professionals are taking the time to consider the various uses for AI in their daily jobs. Many professionals have shared optimism and excitement about the prospect of AI supporting certain aspects of talent acquisition, with a healthy dose of caution. Generative AI can be a powerful resource, but it should be viewed as such – a resource to support talent acquisition, not a replacement for human empathy, consideration, and skill. The benefits of automation and AI are certainly echoed among the Symphony Talent community with one client commenting, “If we didn’t have this automation, we would be screwed. We have leveraged the technology from Symphony Talent to automate the low value administrative work that was on their plate so they can focus their time on the high-touch and human elements that are much more valuable.” And another client recently shared, “Prior to having Symphony Talent’s CRM, if I had a list of 30 people that I was trying to contact, I would have to reach out individually by phone and potentially leave messages and play phone tag. Now I can use the bulk SMS messaging in the CRM to send a personalized text message to all 30 people in 30 seconds.” THE POWER OF AI IN RECRUITMENT MARKETING Automation is rooted in AI. Simply put, AI mimics human thinking. It learns, solves problems, predicts and reasons with a high degree of autonomy. Empowering employers and employees to connect expertise with the right opportunities makes for a mutually beneficial situation. In the hiring process, HR and recruiters use it to match people with roles based on skills, abilities, job aspirations, and values. It also enables internal talent mobility, linking current employees with internal opportunities that align with their overarching career goals. And it does so quickly, efficiently, and accurately, freeing up HR professionals to spend time on what really matters in this tight job market — building relationships. MORE BENEFITS OF AUTOMATION AND AI IN TALENT ACQUISITION An automated HR strategy that leverages AI also can help HR leaders and practitioners retain talent within their organization. Smart automation infused with AI analytics can help employers find existing employees with skill sets they might have overlooked, reducing their need to source talent externally. Analytics deliver the insights that hone in on skill gaps or opportunities for upward talent mobility, something most employees want. And it does so without all the manual labor involved in searching and courting outside applicants. Additionally, AI optimizes the workforce. The Great Resignation morphed into the Great Reimagination, causing organizations to rethink the meaning of jobs and employees and their ways of working. With the help of AI, HR can empower them with timely strategies and tools. AI also can help talent teams more accurately predict when and where employees’ skill-sets will become antiquated or obsolete. That way, talent managers can get ahead of skills gaps, providing training and adjusting hiring as they account for what’s to come. All of this reduces time searching for external applicants, resulting in more time for personal attention. AI IN RECRUITMENT MARKETING HR and recruiters use marketing techniques to find and attract candidates to their jobs and even brand. AI and automation are the resource extensions of the talent team, helping them be more efficient at these tasks. Symphony Talent’s suite of talent acquisition solutions leverage built-in AI and automated workflows, enabling our clients to take back control of their processes across the entire talent lifecycle, from awareness to retention, while building strong candidate and employee relationships. We all know the power of data to drive smarter, faster decisions, and that’s exactly what Symphony Talent aims to do with our client partnerships. The bottom line is, technology continues to transform the workplace. Without AI in recruitment marketing, we’d be in a very different place, one that we’d argue is out-of-date and out-of-tune with today’s job seekers. Once upon a time, the search for top talent was limited by geographic boundaries. Recruiters and employers were limited to finding the best candidates within their city, state, or country. But a remarkable transformation occurred as the world faced unprecedented challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of “work from anywhere” became a reality, and even as the pandemic has come to a close, remote work and hybrid options continue to gain greater traction. This newfound freedom shattered the chains keeping candidates pinned to certain locations and opened up a world of possibilities for both job seekers and employers — one that neither side is ready to give up. Although today’s talent acquisition professionals can choose the best talent from anywhere in the world, they are now faced with a new challenge to consider: How do we attract, hire, and retain best-fit talent in a non-traditional hiring environment? Talent acquisition technology offers a solution to enhance the candidate experience, simplify scheduling challenges, and uncover deep insights to better understand talent skills, competencies, behaviors, and more: talent assessments and virtual, on-demand interviews. HOW TALENT ASSESSMENTS REVOLUTIONIZE RECRUITMENT By utilizing talent assessments, recruiters can go beyond the limitations of traditional interviews and surface a comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s potential fit within the organization. Talent assessments — conducted virtually and demanding only minutes, in most cases — provide valuable data and insights that help recruiters make more informed decisions regarding talent selection, faster and with greater confidence. 5 BENEFITS OF TALENT ASSESSMENTS FOR CANDIDATE SELECTION 1. Embracing asynchronous interviewing tools: First, to alleviate scheduling challenges, asynchronous interviewing tools such as video interviewing allow recruiters and hiring managers to evaluate candidates’ recorded responses to interview questions, effectively replicating the experience of an in-person interview. By embracing such tools, organizations can maintain connections — from anywhere in the world — and say goodbye to logistical calendar mayhem. Discover how to rethink hiring with on-demand interviews here. 2. Expressing employee value proposition and branding: Talent assessments present an excellent opportunity for organizations to express their unique employee value proposition (EVP) and branding throughout the talent journey. By showcasing their company culture, values, and mission through assessments, organizations can evaluate candidates’ ethos and understanding of company goals, advancing talent through the funnel faster. This ensures that candidates align with the organization’s vision early in the recruitment process and can contribute positively to the company’s growth as an employee, if hired. Learn more about an organization’s EVP and its connection to assessments here. 3. Expanding the talent pool: Talent assessments and on-demand interviews break down geographical barriers and enable organizations to tap into a wider talent pool. Organizations can access talent from across the globe by eliminating the need for candidates to travel for interviews or assessments. This expansion of the talent pool increases the likelihood of finding best-fit candidates with the right skills, experience, and cultural fit for the organization, regardless of their location. Learn more about ways assessments can help talent teams predict employee engagement and performance here. 4. Harnessing multiple forms of assessment data: Looking for data and talent analytics that offer insights into a candidate’s future success? Talent assessments encompass various components, such as behavioral and cognitive ability assessments, simulations, and job knowledge tests. By leveraging these different assessment methods, organizations can gain comprehensive insights into a candidate’s capabilities, enabling them to make more informed hiring decisions and reduce the risk of a poor fit. Dive into how to assess the ROI of talent assessments here. 5. Mitigating bias in hiring decisions: Bias in hiring decisions has long been a concern for organizations. Talent assessments mitigate unconscious bias by focusing on objective data and standardized assessment criteria and eliminating visual cues and personal biases often associated with face-to-face interviews. Talent assessments level the playing field and ensure a fair evaluation process based on merit and qualifications. Read more about how talent assessments remove bias here. READY TO UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF TALENT ASSESSMENTS? Talent assessments have emerged as a powerful tool for organizations seeking to adapt and thrive in today’s new world of work. While transitioning to an assessment process may be new for many, with the right focus and attention, organizations can unlock the full potential of talent assessments and secure the best-fit talent for a more successful future. Speak to an expert today! What constitutes a “good” hire? Although the question sounds simple, the answer is more complex, taking into account cognitive abilities and aptitudes, behavioral tendencies, personality attributes and job skills. According to research conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), more than half of employers use pre-employment assessments and 79% say that “scores on skills assessments are just as or more important than traditional criteria in hiring decisions.” Today’s hiring landscape remains competitive, as businesses seek to evolve their talent acquisition and retention strategies to meet the needs and expectations of today’s candidates, support the growth and engagement of existing employees and meet business goals. It’s a tall order. By leveraging targeted talent assessments, teams can gain unbiased and objective insights into their talent pool and employee base, enabling them to make smarter hiring decisions and retain more top talent … which is a big deal amid any hiring climate. WHAT’S THE BENEFIT OF SKILLS-BASED ASSESSMENTS IN HIRING DECISIONS? Skills-based assessments enable talent teams to effectively evaluate a candidate or existing employee based on the skills required to competently perform the job. They allow individuals to showcase tangible accomplishments that have been acquired over time. This is important because a candidate or employee may have acquired high-value skills while on the job, but those skills may not be appropriately reflected in their educational background or certifications. Requiring a specific degree may exclude qualified candidates from progressing through the hiring process, or lead to unnecessary turnover. Skills-based assessments focus on the needed skills, giving a more accurate picture of what the candidate or employee can bring to the organization. According to a recent analysis conducted by LinkedIn, there’s a notable shift happening in hiring today with one in five job postings in the U.S. (19%) not requiring a college degree. The report also indicates that businesses can expect their talent pool to expand by 20x when focusing on skills versus job titles or degrees. Further, a recent Deloitte study found that 66% of workers would be “more likely to be attracted to and remain at an organization that values and makes decisions based on their skills and potential rather than on jobs and degrees.” Some key benefits of skills-based hiring include: * Improved candidate and workforce diversity * Reduced turnover * Increased job performance reliability * Greater volume of qualified talent * Increased candidate access to right-fit opportunities WHAT DOES SKILLS-BASED HIRING MEAN FOR CANDIDATES? By focusing on job skills and competencies, candidates have greater access to career opportunities that align with their skill set. Talent assessments, including skills-based assessments, remove bias from the hiring process by providing talent teams with objective data that helps illuminate a candidate's ability to perform the job. In this way, talent teams and candidates become partners in the hiring processes, aligning business needs with candidate skills to find the right match. When candidates feel “seen” in the hiring process and evaluated fairly, they are more likely to view the company in a positive light, regardless of the hiring outcome. If the candidate converts to an employee, that partnership and positive experience translates into higher engagement and increased likelihood of retention. WHAT DOES SKILLS-BASED HIRING MEAN FOR TALENT TEAMS? Finding and securing right-fit talent is challenging. Teams must sift through hundreds or even thousands of potential candidates for any number of open positions. By outlining the desired skills for an open position, assessing available talent based on their skills, and then matching the two, talent teams can significantly reduce their time to fill, improve diversity, and better predict job performance and engagement. The key is leveraging targeted skills-based assessments that provide the right level of detail and objective data to support the hiring decision. Beyond initial hire, many organizations are leveraging skills-based assessments to evaluate existing skills, identify skills gaps, and re-skill or upskill their existing workforce. By investing in their existing workforce, businesses can improve team morale, performance, engagement, and retention. WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE ON SKILLS-BASED ASSESSMENTS FOR HIRING (AND RETENTION)? Skills-based assessments are an effective tool in the talent acquisition tool box. Not only do they provide critical insights into an individual’s ability to perform a specific job, they enable businesses to identify and resolve skills gaps within their workforce. These assessments provide tremendous value with little effort on either side of the table. Skills-based hiring, powered by skills-based assessments, just makes sense. To learn more about Symphony Talent’s robust library of talent assessments, including skills-based, cognitive, behavioral, and others, visit Symphony Talent Assessments. Employer marketing has evolved from help-wanted signs, static career sites, and word-of-mouth promotions into today’s more complex tactics and strategies, requiring robust audience insights, strategic proposition development, and activations from targeted programmatic job advertising to experiential interactions. Unfortunately, the momentum spurring new employer branding strategies is often reactionary to current events and economic challenges, and HR departments struggle to keep up. As a result, we often see organizations interchange their employer marketing strategies with consumer marketing. But employer marketing is not consumer marketing. EMPLOYER MARKETING VS. CONSUMER MARKETING Marketing is a multifaceted field encompassing various strategies and techniques tailored to target specific audiences. Two essential branches of marketing are employer marketing and consumer marketing. While employer and consumer marketing share common ground, their objectives, target audiences, messaging, and channels make them uniquely different. Consumer marketing drives brand awareness, loyalty and product or service sales. Employer marketing helps you attract and retain the top talent you need to achieve your consumer marketing goals. By recognizing the nuances of each, talent teams can optimize their marketing efforts and achieve greater success in both areas. Employer marketing refers to the strategies and activities undertaken by an organization to meet their talent acquisition and retention goals. It involves promoting and driving perceptions of the organization as an 'employer of choice,’ highlighting the most relevant and distinguishing characteristics the organization offers employees (often referred to as its employer value proposition or EVP) to job candidates and current employees. Consumer marketing also aims to attract people to its brand to encourage people to buy its products and/or services, not hire them. Consumer marketing focuses on highlighting the most relevant and distinguishing characteristics of their products and services to current or potential customers to buy or buy more of them. While both branches leverage marketing techniques and principles to create awareness and generate interest, it is crucial to understand that they have different goals and objectives. UNIQUE CONSIDERATIONS AND STRATEGIES AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION Employer marketing: Employer marketing focuses on attracting and engaging potential employees and engaging with current employees for retention. Employers must segment these talent audiences, and understand potential and/or current employees’ needs, aspirations, and career goals, to create tailored messaging to engage and attract the right candidates. Messaging should reflect the candidate’s career motivations and personal needs. According to the Talent Board’s 2022 North American Candidate Experience Benchmark Research Report, 29% of candidates said they wanted even more information about company culture, and 27% wanted more information on why current employees want to work for an employer. By delivering targeted, relevant content, employers can meet candidate expectations for that information and support candidate self-selection early in the process, ensuring more right-fit talent remain in the talent pool. Consumer marketing: Conversely, consumer marketing appeals to a consumer base. Like employer branding, consumer marketing audience segmentation involves segmenting based on demographic, geographic, psychographic, or behavioral factors. While the segmentation practice may be similar, the types of audiences and goals will differ. Consumer marketers aim to understand consumer preferences, purchase behavior, and motivations to develop effective marketing campaigns that drive product or service sales, not employment. PRO TIP: From the first moment you interact with talent, the experience should be positive, affirming, and relevant. That engagement then needs to become increasingly relevant based on the stage and behavior of the prospect for conversion to occur. Once it does, you must hold their interest and maintain a relationship to keep them warm to your brand. Learn more on how to build and maintain your talent pipeline. OBJECTIVES AND CONVERSION METRICS Employer marketing: The core objective of employer marketing is to build and enhance an organization’s employer brand to attract, recruit, and retain top talent. Success is measured through metrics such as the number of qualified applicants, employee retention rates, and overall employer reputation. Conversion in employer marketing refers to candidates accepting job offers and becoming valuable employees. High recruitment marketing ROI that results in high-quality employees hired and retained within the company positively contributes to the company’s bottom line. Finding, connecting, qualifying, and hiring the right talent for your organization — and filling those open positions effectively — has numerous benefits, including: * Less productivity downtime through vacancy * Greater resource allocation * Improved team engagement Measuring these key data points allows you to gain insight into the holistic recruitment process, from the candidate’s first impression to the hiring stage and beyond. Consumer marketing: Consumer marketing seeks to drive consumer engagement, increase brand awareness, and boost product or service sales. Conversion metrics in consumer marketing often revolve around sales figures, conversion rates, customer acquisition, loyalty, and brand affinity. PRO TIP: HR analytics can be a game-changer when adequately employed, lending visibility to your efforts by tracking and measuring meaningful HR initiatives and goals. The tracking of KPIs can include everything from turnover rates to employee retention and the cost of benefits versus the utilization of benefits. Learn more about HR analytics. MESSAGING AND VALUE PROPOSITION Employer marketing: Effective employer marketing involves communicating their unique employer value proposition (EVP). The EVP showcases what you have to offer an employee and, just as important, what you expect in return. It will highlight factors such as: * Company culture * Career growth opportunities * Employee benefits * Work-life balance Messaging should appeal to a prospective employee's emptions, expectations, needs, and career aspirations. Unfortunately, according to the 2023 HR Trends Report, only 22% of organizations report they have an EVP, with 24% saying they are currently working on one. This indicates a significant area for growth among organizations as they compete for top talent. Consumer Marketing: Consumer marketing messages revolve around a product or service’s benefits, features, and unique selling points. Marketers aim to highlight how their offering solves a consumer problem, fulfills a desire, or enhances their lives. The messaging is crafted to resonate with the consumer’s emotions, needs, and aspirations. PRO TIP: Every touchpoint impacts your employer brand, whether good, bad or indifferent. Defining your EVP is the framework used to create and manage experiences from the first interaction a candidate has to when that person converts to a valued employee throughout their whole time working for you to when they’re an alumnus. Learn more about EVP and your employer brand. CHANNELS AND PLATFORMS Employer marketing: Employer marketing utilizes channels that reach potential candidates actively seeking employment. These may include online job boards, professional networking platforms like LinkedIn, career fairs, campus recruitment, and targeted advertising on industry-specific websites. It also leverages employer branding efforts on social media platforms and showcases the organization’s workplace culture through employer review platforms like Glassdoor. Consumer marketing: Consumer marketing leverages channels and platforms where the target audience spends their time. This can include television, radio, print media, social media platforms, search engine marketing, influencer collaborations, email marketing, and more. The objective is to meet consumers where they are and engage with them effectively. PRO TIP: Candidates expect employers to try to reach them where they are, meaning employers must leverage the right channels to communicate with prospective employees. From social media and online job boards to in-person hiring events and other avenues, finding the right talent has become a two-way street. Learn more about shifting candidate expectations and the tactics to attract them today. EMPLOYER MARKETING TO ATTRACT, HIRE, AND RETAIN TOP TALENT It’s no secret that marketing helps companies build awareness and drive conversions. Still, the audience they are targeting and the methods they use to convert that audience differs depending on the overarching goal. Talent teams must embrace employer marketing to attract, hire, and retain top talent. With the right blend of EVP, employer branding, targeted messaging and content through relevant channels, and other strategies. Employers can strike the right note and expand their talent network of right-fit candidates. Do you need help figuring out where to start, or do you need a partner with expertise in this area to help? We’d love to support you! Grab some time with one of our experts to get the conversation started. Encouraging internal talent mobility is becoming more of a priority for companies than ever before, and talent teams are finding assessments — now used throughout the talent funnel — are key when advancing candidates … even post-hire. If a recruiter fills a job opening, and it’s open again in three months, is that really filling it? That’s the question Symphony Talent’s Kara Polk, Program Director, Assessments, asked in a recent Symphony Talent fireside chat on how talent teams can employ assessments with a company’s employee value proposition to better compete for job candidates. She quickly followed it with another question: “And, are we thinking about this in a way that is driving the bottom line, as an organization?” These are core questions facing talent acquisition teams today. Recruitment of external candidates will always be an important part of talent acquisition. However, as Polk implies, retention can and should have a much greater focus within comprehensive talent recruitment strategies — especially in today’s competitive labor market. CONNECTION BETWEEN INTERNAL MOBILITY AND ASSESSMENTS Retention goes hand in hand with internal mobility, the practice of moving current employees to different roles in the same company. Successful companies deeply value their talent and prioritize retention and internal talent mobility to drive growth rather than depending on recruiting alone. At Symphony Talent, we are seeing organizations that demonstrate successful recruitment marketing right now are not relying on hiring alone to acquire in-demand skills. After they’ve gained an accurate understanding of the skills they have in-house and the skills they will soon need, they prioritize ways to acquire those skills for the long run — mainly through retention and upskilling, with the help of targeted assessments. “Employees want to know how organizations are investing in them,” Polk says. “And, employees want that investment, they want to be developed.” Study after study, she says, shows candidates-turned-employees are looking for genuine internal opportunities for career growth. “They are asking, ‘Where am I at today, and where do I need to be to get to the next level within my company?’” Assessments, often underused post-hire, can be a great tool to help answer those questions, Polk says. “You can give employees assessments, go over the results with them, and then the next step in their professional growth. That sets them on a path to grow and also empowers their managers to provide responsible and effective coaching to get employees to the next level.” HR research shows that it is not only more cost effective overall to develop internal talent to fill new roles, but internal mobility also: * Promotes greater employee loyalty and engagement * Nurtures diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) * Supports a company’s organizational health Just as critical, a company that is willing to identify skill gaps and then develop and reposition people into emerging roles will become a much stronger talent magnet when it is necessary to hire from the outside. INTERNAL MOBILITY'S ROLE IN EMPLOYEE RETENTION Although it seems counterintuitive, companies that are the most successful at attracting and retaining talent know the value of giving internal candidates priority for job openings. That’s because job mobility is at an all-time high. Employees are more empowered than ever. This has forced talent teams to identify the journeys and experiences that make employees happy. Recent research from McKinsey & Company shows that 60% of those who have recently reentered the workforce following the Great Resignation would leave if there were a lack of career opportunities within their company. “We learned from the pandemic that we can move people around inside the company pretty quickly, and they adapt pretty fast,” HR analyst Josh Bersin has said in a podcast when talking about top trends in the industry. “The workforce is a lot more resilient than we maybe ever thought.” Understanding this, Bersin says, “really turns companies into internal talent marketplaces. And in a talent marketplace, you as a recruiter are recruiting inside as well as outside.” Internal talent mobility may be a buzzword right now, but rarely is it discussed alongside the use of assessments. “My feeling is that recruitment marketing never really connected with assessments, even though, to me, they are very connected,” Polk says. “Connecting them has always been Symphony Talent’s vision.” Because of today’s challenging market conditions and the cost to fill skilled jobs, companies are beginning to view their employees and the skills they bring — both known skills and unknown skills unveiled during assessments — in a different light. INTERNAL MOBILITY CAREER SITES Loren Nelson, Vice President, Solutions Engineer, for Symphony Talent, has seen clients recently “light up” with interest about creating internal mobility career sites, but he still thinks the movement to promote internal mobility within the industry lags. Symphony Talent clients that have focused on internal mobility sites, and have done an exceptional job with them, he says, include Edward Jones, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Moody’s. “I often say to clients who have beautiful, wonderful career sites for external candidates, ‘Why wouldn't you want to give your own employees the same great experience that you're giving to outside people?’ More clients are really thinking about that,” he says. Most organizations, of course, do have internal job databases, fed by their applicant tracking systems, and they make use of intranet sites. But often those sites are meager, stark, less attended to and, in general, less than encouraging. It’s estimated that only one out of three companies actively encourages internal promotion and cross-departmental movement among workers, which means a vast majority are losing out on many of the undisputed benefits that come from promoting within. Talent mobility has been proven to have a positive impact on company culture and the fulfillment of career goals — two of the top factors that cause employees to leave. “We have some clients that have always thought about internal mobility and have made it a part of their brand,” Polk says. “Molson Coors is that way — they really want to promote from within. Union Pacific is that way, too. But I think other companies are slow to promote from within, even though the benefits are well-known.” SUPPORTING DEI INITIATIVES A focus on internal mobility not only saves companies thousands of dollars when replacing employees who leave for other opportunities, but it also greatly supports DEI efforts — a major culture focus of more and more organizations. Candidates from under-represented backgrounds, for example, have much to gain in a company encouraging internal mobility and using assessments to aid in career growth. Historically, Polk says, those in marginalized groups might be slower to raise their hands, thinking they are not ready for that internal move. “But if they are able to go through an assessment and see they did well, they might think, ‘Maybe I am ready. I don’t know why I thought I wasn’t!’” Sometimes the most-skilled or best-fit candidate for an emerging role is already working at your company. And assessments — in a matter of minutes — help companies find them. TIPS TO INSTITUTE A CULTURE OF INTERNAL MOBILITY, AIDED BY ASSESSMENTS Here are some tips for instituting a culture of internal mobility, aided by assessments, within your organization: * Communicate your policy on internal mobility throughout the company, encouraging lateral moves and cross-department projects. * Give internal applicants the same, if not more, credence as external candidates. * Make sure your internal career website is attractive and accessible. A high-quality internal mobility site demonstrates your commitment to employees and their growth. * Map the skills of your current employee base for future reference. * Use assessments to ensure right-fit for growth post-hire and as a guide to track career growth. * Ensure people leaders are having regular career development conversations with their direct reports. Above all, if you want your internal mobility programs to thrive, your company has to be transparent and upfront about promoting it. As challenging as it is to find the right talent, it’s even more important to retain and develop them once they’re on the job. Symphony Talent offers a complete internal mobility solution that extends your recruiting strategy and efforts to your internal talent pool. With all the tools you use to recruit external talent at your fingertips, we can help make your internal mobility strategy come to life quickly and easily. Check out Symphony Talent’s assessments, powered by SkillCheck, and be sure to reach out to an expert for an even deeper dive. Predicting employee engagement and performance is the holy grail of talent acquisition. Getting it right means talent teams have done their due diligence and properly vetted candidates using multivariate analysis that includes talent assessments, interviews, resume reviews, reference checks, and other touch points. Today, talent assessments have risen as the “hidden gem” of talent acquisition, offering an unbiased and objective assessment of a candidate’s skills, behaviors, cognitive aptitudes, and more. We all know that selecting right-fit candidates is essential to business success, especially in a volatile or uncertain economy and job market where competition is high and resources are tight. But therein lies the challenge. Talent acquisition professionals must utilize the right blend of technology, talent assessments, employer branding and value propositions, and a structured process to screen candidates and select the individuals who show the most potential for high performance and engagement. According to Talent Board’s 2022 North American Candidate Experience Benchmark Research Report, “in 2022, 45% of organizations said they used pre-employment assessment and selection tests prior to the interview, and only 19% did so post-interview.” Among those who employed talent assessments, 54% did so with the goal of making better candidate selections, 33% aimed to improve new hire performance, and 27% sought to increase early retention. These goals reflect an increased need to not only fill open positions and resolve staffing or skills gaps, but to do so in a way that better predicts performance and engagement. After all, when an employee is engaged and valued, their performance improves and they are more likely to stay and grow within the organization. Looking specifically at talent assessments, here are four ways talent teams can leverage assessments to better predict job performance and employee engagement. #1: TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT A CANDIDATE’S UNIQUE BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS, TENDENCIES, AND TEMPERAMENT WITH BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENTS Behavioral and personality assessments provide insight into a person’s unique tendencies and temperament. For example, they can shine light on a person’s openness to experience, leadership styles, organizational abilities, interpersonal skills, and more. These qualitative data points can help talent teams better gauge employee engagement and productivity, which are key components of high job performance. Studies show that 89% of hiring failures can be attributed to attitude and behavior, and only 11% to technical skills. This emphasizes the importance of behavioral and personality assessments in the hiring process to gain greater visibility into and understanding of a potential candidate and how they will assimilate into the organization. #2: MEASURE YOUR CANDIDATE’S ABILITY TO LEARN, PROCESS INFORMATION, AND PERFORM NECESSARY FUNCTIONS WITH COGNITIVE ASSESSMENTS Talent acquisition isn’t just about finding the right person for the job, at that specific moment. It’s about finding the right person who can not only perform the job they were hired for, but who also exhibits cognitive capabilities and aptitudes for growth within the company. With the help of cognitive assessments, talent teams can evaluate skills such as reasoning, perception, memory, and problem-solving. Increased cognitive function has been linked to greater job satisfaction, lower stress levels, and improved interpersonal relationships. According to a 2022 study published in Personality and Individual Differences, “higher cognitive ability is associated with lower psychological distress (i.e., symptoms of depression and anxiety) as well as with higher psychological well-being (i.e., positive affect and life satisfaction).” #3 DETERMINE WHETHER A CANDIDATE IS A GOOD FIT FOR THE COMPANY CULTURE WITH CULTURE-FIT ASSESSMENTS Knowledge and skills are only part of the equation when determining company fit. Alignment with the company’s core values and ways of working are equally important. Culture-fit assessments can shed light on the seemingly unmeasurable qualities that signal a candidate will fit in well with the team. When employees are aligned with the company culture and core values, they are naturally more engaged and productive, which leads to greater retention. According to new research published in Organization Science, culture fit can be viewed from two perspectives: value congruence and perceptual congruence. Value congruence “refers to the match between an employee’s values and those of an organization.” Perceptual congruence, on the other hand, refers to “the degree to which employees are able to accurately perceive an organization’s culture and adjust their behavior to fit in.” They are two sides of the same coin, and can be qualitatively measured through the use of targeted culture-fit and behavioral assessments. #4 VERIFY CANDIDATES ARE COMPETENT IN THE SKILLS REQUIRED TO EFFECTIVELY PERFORM THE JOB WITH SKILLS-BASED ASSESSMENTS Skills-based assessments are a clear indicator of competency. Can the individual competently perform the tasks needed for the position? It’s a simple question, but one that carries a great deal of weight when every hire counts. Role-based skills assessments, such as hourly, administrative, customer care, sales, or management, can help employers further refine their selection process. According to McKinsey & Company, “Through a skills-based approach, companies can boost the number and quality of applicants who apply to open positions and can assist workers to find more opportunities to advance internally, which can help employers improve retention.” ADOPTING TALENT ASSESSMENTS ACROSS THE FULL TALENT JOURNEY Talent acquisition is a critical component of an organization’s success. Hiring right-fit talent requires a multi-pronged approach, with talent assessments riding in the sidecar along the way. From initial vetting and hiring to employee engagement and retention, talent assessments hold the keys to better understanding the health of your organization and addressing skills or staffing gaps proactively. Curious to see how talent assessments can maximize your talent pipeline and drive better hires who remain with your organization? Check out Symphony Talent’s assessments, powered by SkillCheck, and be sure to reach out to an expert for an even deeper dive. As threats of a recession loom and the talent landscape remain in flux, many organizations are taking a closer look at their existing talent acquisition and employee retention strategies with a keen eye toward opportunities for optimization. Those who adopt an agile recruitment approach will garner increased resilience amid economic turbulence, employee turnover, candidate expectation shifts, or other influencing factors. Agile hiring strategies are based on proven Lean methodologies used for years in the manufacturing and software industries. The approach is simple: the recruitment process is broken down into sprints with clearly defined goals. Each sprint is typically one to two weeks in duration and includes daily check-in meetings (commonly referred to as standups) and a collaborative task board to visually move specific tasks through to completion. This approach aims to increase the recruitment process's speed, improve collaboration, and deliver better results. THE TALENT ACQUISITION AGILE FRAMEWORK The agile framework can be broken down into three main components: process, team, and technology. Looking at this framework from a recruitment standpoint: * Process: The recruitment process includes several distinct phases, from prepping the job description, marketing the open position, and sourcing candidates to screening, interviews, and final selection. If you consider an open position as a project, the various stages and tasks associated therein can be used to create sprints. For example, an initial sprint may be focused on preparation and include tasks such as identifying responsibilities and qualifications for the role, researching salary ranges, creating the job description, and more. * Team: The recruitment team may involve several stakeholders, but typically the core team always includes the hiring manager or HR professional who represents the needs of the team/company and a recruitment manager who takes ownership of the process and helps to ensure everyone stays on track. The recruitment manager is essentially the scrum master in agile terms. * Technology: This may include an applicant tracking system, candidate relationship management platform, video-conferencing solutions, and more. Beyond the agile framework, teams should cultivate contingent hires, improve employee retention, optimize the candidate journey, implement technology, and leverage market insights. STRATEGY 1: CULTIVATE CONTINGENT OR CONTRACT HIRES Contingent workers (also known as “gig” workers) are expected to grow by more than 10% over the next several years, as businesses seek to scale up or down their workforce to meet market needs. In fact, some estimates suggest the number of contingent or contract workers in the U.S. could reach 90.1 million by 2028. According to McKinsey & Company, 36% of the workforce in 2022 self-identified as independent contractors, and researchers from MIT and Deloitte recently found that “In some cases, we see upwards of 30%-50% of an organization composed of contingent workers, and organizations increasingly relying on third parties to deliver some of their most essential services.” Diversifying your staff with a mix of full-time and contract workers will enable your team to more easily scale up or down as needed. Contract workers may support specific projects on a short-term basis, bringing in the necessary skills to get a job done without the hefty overhead expenses. Or, contract workers may serve a specific function over a longer-term arrangement. In either scenario, the employer and individual have increased flexibility. The needs of an organization can ebb and flow, so it's critical that employers build long-term relationships with these "temporary" or contract-only individuals. But what do contingent or contract workers want and need to stay engaged? Above all, they seek flexibility, competitive compensation, and opportunities. Organizations can attract and retain the right talent by making these central to the contingent worker experience. Teams also should consider emphasizing: * Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts * Personalization in the candidate experience, courtesy of deep-learning AI * Company culture * Opportunities for growth * Professional stability STRATEGY 2: IMPROVE EMPLOYEE RETENTION Nurturing your existing talent is foundational to a strong hiring strategy. Just as new talent wants to be wooed, your internal team needs to feel valued, cared for, and engaged. Your career site should clearly articulate your brand story, company values, DEI initiatives, and what makes your company and team special. Consider it an opportunity to lean into your work culture in an authentic and aspirational way. At the core of employee retention lies satisfaction. Employees are more likely to remain with the organization when they are happy, engaged, and challenged. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), five key ways to improve employee satisfaction include: 1. Respectful treatment of all employees at all levels. 2. Compensation/pay. 3. Trust between employees and senior management. 4. Job security. 5. Opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work. Another opportunity to foster greater employee satisfaction is through promoting team accomplishments and opportunities, both internally and externally. Be sure to highlight your Employee Community Groups, presenting them as a resource for your internal team as they continue down their career paths. Consider featuring day-in-the-life videos and thoughtful testimonials from fellow colleagues, letting them present your company values, goals and objectives in a way that resonates with their colleagues and potential candidates. When employees are happy, they are more likely to refer their friends and professional network to your company. STRATEGY 3: OPTIMIZE THE CANDIDATE JOURNEY The talent acquisition landscape has transformed. Candidates today expect seamless interactions supported by technology. They want better visibility into the process and enhanced communication with potential employer organizations. Employers need to up their game to attract the right talent for their open positions. Optimizing the all-important job description is a perfect place to start. While often overlooked by busy functional managers who are deep in the weeds of day-to-day responsibilities, talent acquisition leaders must partner with respective hiring managers to develop a clear and accurate job description. Getting this step right is essential to the success and speed of recruitment. Poor job descriptions too often get in the way of a successful recruitment process, especially if they are unclear about a role's responsibilities and expectations. Successful job descriptions are not only clear and concise, they are aligned with your hiring strategy and overarching company goals. Good job descriptions are: * Clear, concise, and free from non-role-related qualifications * Focused on a specific role versus a catch-all position * Free of bias, whether intentional or not Moreover, successful job posts leverage data to target advertisements to the right people. As they say, you can have the best job description and opportunity at your company, but if no one sees it, it won't matter. Once you've attracted talent to your doorstep, the next step is to employ skills-based assessments to ensure you're hiring the right-fit talent with the required skills and expertise. This is a win-win benefit for both employers and candidates as it confirms a good match between the two. When there's a good match, satisfaction and retention are more likely. STRATEGY 4: IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY According to our 2023 research study, while satisfaction with current talent/employee acquisition efforts is generally high (75%), organizations lack skilled candidates, old processes, and ineffective technologies that hinder recruitment. Data also suggests an inability to create meaningful connections with candidates, demonstrating a shift in the talent acquisition landscape and candidate experience. Other cited challenges included: * Difficulty communicating with candidates * Candidates ghosting/losing interest during the process * Sorting/parsing through a high volume of candidates Unfortunately, many recruiting technologies still lack the ability to integrate smoothly into an organization's tech stack, which means hiring teams are forced to continue using manual processes and workarounds to get their jobs done. That leaves little time for the relationship-building crucial to successful hiring and retention. Teams must embrace advanced recruiting technologies, with a special emphasis on integrated technology and automation. Not only can these solutions improve efficiencies within the recruiting team, but they also provide much-needed visibility and connection with prospective candidates. Common technology solutions such as applicant tracking systems (ATS) and candidate relationship management (CRM) systems may be siloed, causing communication and collaboration challenges across the recruiting team and slowing down the overall process. The good news is teams can optimize their workflow with standard integrations that: * Enable recruiters to source search, pipeline, folder and campaign materials from a single source * Eliminate the need to send candidates away from the ATS to apply * Allow candidates to view where they are in the application process * Provide an accurate view of analytics across the apply flow * Ensure compliance * Inform business decisions * Control conversion tracking for ATS vendors The world of recruitment marketing and talent acquisition is filled with critical nuances and expertise that not all software partners can offer. Functionality, expertise, and strong integrations should always trump disparate technology interfaces. The business cost of maintaining various recruitment technology interfaces compared with the business value always ends up more costly in terms of time and results. Another challenge many organizations face? Not harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) in their recruitment efforts. Incorporating AI into your tech stack enables your team to: * Attract talent through employer branding * Source and engage right-fit candidates * Manage the entire recruitment process from marketing and assessments to interviews, candidate screening, and job offers * Onboard talent, making forms, tasks, and socialization into the culture a cinch Creating an agile hiring strategy starts with a clearly defined framework and ends with smart hiring practices that improve the candidate and recruiter experience. Talent acquisition today may have transformed, but there are some tried-and-true principles that can help organizations build resilience and encourage growth. 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