In 1958, a New Zealand economist by the name of William Phillips produced a paper describing the inverse relationship between unemployment and wage increases. Since termed, with a marked absence of imagination, the Phillips’ Curve, the paper made the point that the fewer the jobs available in an economy, the less pressure there would be on salary hikes.
There is both a simplicity and a clarity to the Phillips’ Curve which appear sadly absent today as we consider talent intelligence and its associated economics.
On the one hand, there is every opportunity and excuse to be alarmist as we contemplate a renewed lockdown, doubts as to what follows furloughing and potentially significant increases in redundancies. Just this week, the ONS announced that the unemployment rate had risen to 4.5%, up from 4.1% in the previous quarter. The Bank of England estimate that this will top out at 7.5%.
The counterpoint to this appears to be some apparently surprising and counterintuitive perkiness in the number of vacancies in the UK economy.
According to WaveTrackR, whilst May this year saw the number of jobs posted online fall to a figure of 60% below average, September’s number is 83% above this average.
In a similar vein, the latest readings from KPMG/REC, suggest that permanent placement growth was at its strongest for two years and that temp billings grew at their quickest rate since 2018.
The most recent quarter, ending in September, witnessed 144,000 new vacancies – a quarterly record – added to the economy. The ONS, too, stated this week that UK payrolls had increased by 20,000 between August and September.
This, then, presents those professionals tasked with the ownership of an organisation’s employer branding, messaging and EVP initiatives with something of a conundrum.
Whilst there is likely to be significant internal pressure to avoid adding cost through such activities, there is likely to be opposing, often more external, pressure, to produce messaging that accurately reflects today’s employment landscape rather than a sepia tinted pre-Covid world view.
Similarly, the likelihood of the employment proposition that an organisation delivers to its employee and candidate audiences is very unlikely to have come through the past few months unchanged. Markets, competitors, products, service lines, confidence levels are all in flux. An EVP needs to demonstrate close alignment to the respective business strategy. It is hard to imagine such business strategies not having to be re-cast given the utterly unique influence of Covid. An EVP which remains unchanged risks falling out of alignment with such business strategy.
“The key here is to be open and honest. The market will be aware that things have changed, explaining how an organisation has adapted, grown or even struggled throughout this time is a truth that an audience is likely to resonate with. Whilst the messaging will change, the core values remain at the heart of an EVP”, Mark Williams, Talent Partner, Arden University.
“I’ve seen organisations over the last few months update different aspects of their employer brands, including social media content, careers websites, etc, to reflect their evolving proposition(s) and new reality. But has this been done with the research and validation of asking their own employees what their views and experiences have been? I wonder then just how robust some of these messages might prove to be”, Mike Heal, Managing Director, WDAD Communications.
Many organisations have excelled in the ways they have supported, listened to and communicated with their people. Their reputation as an employer, despite the challenging times, will have been burnished. For others, their reputational position, as a result of their Covid policies, will have suffered.
In either case, the way both employees and candidates perceive such organisations will have shifted. By not evolving their people messaging and proposition accordingly, organisations risk being viewed as tone deaf and/or unaware.
“Our sector is largely in a good position, we’ve stayed authentic to our pillars and our organisational purpose has come to the fore. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t changed the stories we’ve been posting on social media or our recruitment processes, but our pillars and EVP remain the same and remain valid – they are very much part of our business priorities”, Alison Heron, Head of Global Employer Brand, GSK.
But the challenge remains. How to make the business case for something both increasingly hard to ignore and, given the times in which we live, potentially hard to justify?
“It does depend how it is pitched. Some organisations will be hiring, some will be firing, some will be doing both, others neither. To work on highlighting this now is super important to have an impact in the future. Without key messaging being delivered at the right time, it becomes ineffective. Ensuring senior leaders are aware of the bigger picture, and can see the long-term goals is of massive value”, Mark Williams.
The metrics and indicators that employer branding professionals now have access to have evolved exponentially.
But in making the internal business case, do we, as a profession, deliver the right metrics to the right internal communities? Do we see the EVP and its outcomes purely in terms of attraction, hiring and candidate experience? Or are we able to flex metrics to suit the audience consuming them?
“Recruitment and their use of the EVP is key in all this, but I think that’s where Employer Branding and recruitment marketing activity are often thought of as interchangeable, which I don’t agree with. They both have a part to play and you can’t have one without the other”, Alison Heron.
Simply put, are such metrics likely to sway the decision making of those at the top of your organisation?
I think there are a number of ways in which to subdivide key internal audiences and stakeholders, in order to deliver a clear and relevant message. Undoubtedly some of you reading this will have come across several of these metrics previously, but please bear with me, particularly until the third category, which I feel tends to be under-exploited, despite its rich potential.
“A good EVP should be at the core of the employee experience and, as such, tested, validated and reported upon across that lifecycle. Continuous feedback across the lived working reality of your organisation is the difference between retaining or losing great talent.” Craig Morgans, Global Head of Talent Acquisition, IWG plc.
Dividing out some key organisational influencers, I have tried to segment the key metrics that should be of most relevance to each. None of these lists is exhaustive and you may well have your own favourite metrics.
For your talent acquisition community –
- 83% of employers felt their EVP had a significant influence on their ability to hire (LinkedIn);
- Organisations with an actively managed EVP increase hiring pools by 50% (CLC);
- 53% of UK workers felt that no amount of money would make them consider a role with an organisation with a poor employer brand (LinkedIn);
- Poor EVP and employer branding adds 10% to the cost of external hiring (LinkedIn);
For your human resources community –
- A well-executed EVP can improve new hire commitment by up to 29% (CLC);
- And increase the likelihood of employees acting as advocates from 24% to 47% (CLC);
- Organisations investing in an employer branding experience reduce staff turnover by 28% (LinkedIn);
- Whilst employers that effectively deliver on their EVP can reduce departures by 69% (Gartner);
- Organisations with highly effective employee communications have 20% less labour turnover (Towers Watson);
- Becoming an employer of choice delivers 18% higher productivity (David MacLeod);
For your leadership community –
- 48% of consumers consider how an organisation treats its employees when determining whether or not they are ethical (Edelman Trust);
- 62% of consumers have stopped buying from an organisation which treats its employees poorly (CareerArc);
- Becoming an employer of choice delivers up to 12% better customer advocacy (David MacLeod);
- Organisations with highly effective employee communications deliver 47% higher shareholder returns and a 29.5% increase in market value (Towers Watson);
- Organisations achieving a 1-star increase in Glassdoor ratings produce a 1% higher return on company assets (University of East Anglia Business School);
- And organisations with a highly engaged workforce produce 16% higher stock market returns (University of East Anglia Business School);
- 90% of consumers want organisations to apply their best efforts into safeguarding the health and financial security of their employees (Edelman Trust);
Let’s just pause at this point.
To what extent do you feel your C-suite has current clarity around a tool that can help improve customer advocacy and propensity to buy, raise stock market returns, enhance market value and sharpen your ethical reputation? That tool is your EVP and everything it can facilitate. From attraction and talent pipelines, through to productivity, labour turnover and, crucially, better consumer relationships and a more valuable organisation.
“The CEO has to be invested in the employer brand strategy, as they would be with customer advocacy. The only way to achieve this is to demonstrate impact on the bottom line. Simon Sinek’s quote may be over-used but there’s a reason for that. ‘Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first’. Demonstrating the commercial gains of your EVP investment will win you support”, Adele Swift, National Recruitment Manager, Handepay.
“An on-going and always-on commitment to building employer reputation should be very important to the C-suite. The only measure I would add is a social listening tool, the Employer Brand Index, it’s really insightful in terms of how we measure up against some key organisational attributes”, Alison Heron.
“What I’d add is that metrics are organic and on-going. You should measure attraction, induction, progression, through to exit. One of my favourite areas to measure is the extent to which the organisation measured up to its original promise throughout an individual’s time with you”, Craig Morgans.
As an industry, we seem clearer on the first few metrics, but that clarity appears to mist over in the case of the latter ones.
Is this a case that’s being made within your organisation and at the appropriate levels?
As we limp towards the end of this unloved and unlamented year, the talent acquisition profession faces a number of potentially contradictory challenges.
Some organisations will be hanging on grimly, and often unsuccessfully, to existence. Others will be flourishing. Still more will be pivoting and potentially changing what they do and how they, and their people, do it.
In some workplaces, the idea of recruitment and talent acquisition today may seem fanciful and belonging to a different era.
However, with both vacancies and unemployment increasing, organisations have to be nuanced and sensitive about their people messaging, whilst, at the same time, demonstrating confidence, purpose and direction.
And just as the talent acquisition community has to be selective about which messages they deliver to which employee and candidate audiences, then they have to be equally thoughtful about how they construct a business case for different internal audiences and stakeholders.
Because it will be only too easy for senior leaders to take one look at lengthening unemployment lines and draw the conclusion that recruitment has never had it so easy.
“Whilst more people may be looking for jobs, there is still a desire to work for employers that are doing the right thing. From the recent white paper “Understanding Candidate Motivations in the Face of Covid-19”, 93% of respondents suggested they would rather work for an organisation which was struggling, but that had treated its people well. If the market doesn’t know how you are treating people, and can’t easily access that information, your opportunities are likely to get overlooked, and even in a buoyant candidate market, the best talent won’t come knocking at your door”, Mark Williams.
Being armed with metrics which open doors, minds and corporate wallets is key to having a people messaging framework that unifies, inspires and guides today’s talent communities through today’s employment landscape, aligning with today’s organisational strategies.
I can’t say clearer than that, as I hope Mr Phillips would agree.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 