How does an organization’s expertise acquisition operate tie in with expertise administration? And might expertise acquisition (TA) transfer the needle on remodeling a corporation’s general expertise technique?
That’s the remit Ben Handyside, Director of Expertise Administration for EMEA, was offered with when he joined Colliers in 2020. The corporate had already carried out SmartRecruiters two years earlier than, however its hiring practices have been nonetheless inconsistent throughout its 119 places of work and 42 nations within the area. “Everybody bought excited within the first part of SmartRecruiters implementation, however within the second 12 months, utilization dropped off,” Ben stated.
In a quest to rent higher folks, enhance retention, and assist workers develop their careers in Colliers’ decentralized expertise framework, the corporate launched into a holistic effort to remodel expertise administration. “Expertise acquisition was one pillar of a broader group that was put in place to drive better ranges of consistency and maturity in expertise administration general,” Ben defined.
After digging into the information, Ben and his staff noticed gaps within the firm’s adoption of SmartRecruiters. As soon as he related together with his SmartRecruiters consultant, the lightbulbs began to go off. “I shortly realized that the facility of the system is its simplicity,” he stated. “It’s straightforward to make use of. However if you mix that with the connection and the flexibility to debate and analyze the information, it enabled me to grasp the place we wanted to go strategically.”
SmartRecruiters coated the extra tactical items of the expertise acquisition transformation in our success story, How Colliers Lowered Company Spending with SmartRecruiters. That doc tells the story of how constant hiring practices mixed with recruitment advertising, a CRM, and the corporate’s employer branding efforts resulted in a large enchancment within the firm’s capacity to make direct hires. However behind the scenes, the story is extra nuanced – and profound. Sure, you need your organization to economize, however you additionally wish to make higher hires as a result of these are the individuals who will probably be driving income for the enterprise sooner or later.
Placing all of the items collectively that contribute to creating higher hires requires a shift in considering amongst executives, hiring managers, and recruiters throughout the group. Right here’s how the partnership with SmartRecruiters helped the Colliers EMEA expertise acquisition staff obtain an organizational mindset shift.
A Imaginative and prescient for Expertise Acquisition
The obvious hole was a necessity for consciousness and schooling – however the want went deeper than that. “There was a necessity for consistency in method, but additionally alignment to imaginative and prescient and an appreciation of what expertise acquisition can ship.”
With the imaginative and prescient in place, it grew to become Ben’s mission to place expertise acquisition as a strategic enabler for the enterprise. “Expertise acquisition itself can impression the underside and prime line,” Ben stated. “Individuals don’t assume like that in lots of companies. They only sort of assume ‘why can’t you rent me somebody? Why is it taking so lengthy?’”
When expertise acquisition is positioned on the heart of a corporation, hiring managers turn out to be extra concerned in making considerate hiring choices. “Recruitment is an enterprise sport,” Ben stated. To make true change occur, although, Ben’s staff needed to educate not simply the HR neighborhood, but additionally the senior management staff. Knowledge proved to be the important thing to the success of the transformation.
Enhancing Knowledge Literacy
Knowledge has the facility to coach, however folks want to grasp what the information means and the best way to ask extra questions of it. Stakeholders could also be specialists in a single kind of information, however knowledge literacy for expertise acquisition is an acquired talent set that evolves over time. Stakeholders wanted time to stand up to hurry and perceive the impression of changes to hiring practices, and Ben needed to decelerate his expectations that change may occur in a single day.
Conclusions which may be apparent to an skilled take time to land in others, particularly if the information signifies a necessity to regulate previous methods of considering and behaving. After a sequence of month-to-month stakeholder conferences, Ben stated, “The questions began to alter and shift, which meant they have been getting comfy of their understanding.”
If recruitment is an enterprise sport, the work of a complete expertise transformation is one other kind of staff sport — one which’s supported with compelling reviews. “Knowledge proved to be foundational in driving consciousness and understanding the place our gaps have been,” Ben stated. “Whenever you speak to folks and ask a whole lot of questions, you begin to get fascinating solutions. You additionally begin to see the large image.”
Knowledge Facilitates Accountability
Supporting the brand new imaginative and prescient of expertise acquisition for Colliers requires that everybody utilizing SmartRecruiters makes use of the system correctly. “The philosophy of ‘do the fundamentals properly’ drives a special stage of efficiency,” Ben stated. As soon as utilization began enhancing, Colliers may see price financial savings by way of lowered company spending.
When individuals are held accountable, they’re extra more likely to undertake new processes. The fast availability of information in SmartRecruiters, plus the often scheduled reporting conferences helped Colliers’ hiring groups see that their every day actions may add as much as a huge impact. “What fascinates me about SmartRecruiters is which you can go to the day, the hour, the second of an intervention,” Ben stated. “It provides us the flexibility to grasp the traits in our recruitment enterprise, diagnose how properly issues are working, and establish the place the alternatives sit. It’s additionally actually intuitive, so you may’t get it improper.”
Expertise Acquisition Strikes the Needle on Whole Expertise Transformation
Hiring folks at a decrease price was just the start of the TA transformation at Colliers. Enhancements in high quality of rent and retention are the place the actual transformation lies. Colliers had already famous that its employer branding and recruitment advertising helped entice a special caliber of individuals to the enterprise. The true end result confirmed up downstream: Colliers noticed a 25% year-over-year enhance in retention for first-year hires.
Beginning with expertise acquisition, Colliers achieved a complete expertise win: they attracted higher folks, stored candidates engaged to the purpose of rent, and efficiently engaged them as workers.
Individuals + Expertise = Hiring Success
We requested Colliers the best way to summarize the components that contribute to the achievement of hiring success. Ben’s first take was, “Make sure the product is straightforward to make use of as a result of then folks will use it.” But it surely wasn’t simply the system that facilitated a serious change in the way in which Colliers attracts and manages expertise. He defined, “the actual worth lies within the mixture of individuals and expertise.”
Mentioning his SmartRecruiters buyer success supervisor, Ben continued, “As your relationship evolves, you begin to speak much more about what actually issues to your online business and start to formulate a workable technique.” Generally you don’t know what’s attainable till somebody reveals you — and typically, that you must know the boundaries of the system to make your efforts profitable.
“SmartRecruiters is the very best system I’ve used,” Ben stated. “It’s a best-in-class system, and it’s backed up by help. That human, interpersonal relationship is absolutely vital.”
Classes from Colliers
The place your organization begins and the place it must go could differ from Colliers, however these classes apply to anybody seeking to save on recruiting prices, enhance rent high quality, and enhance retention of recent hires.
- Align expertise acquisition with the general expertise technique
- Create a imaginative and prescient for what TA can obtain
- Enlist a best-in-class expertise acquisition platform
- Accomplice along with your expertise supplier to get essentially the most out of the system
- Maintain stakeholders accountable with metrics to make sure system adoption
- Again up outcomes with common reporting to stakeholders
- Be affected person as stakeholders achieve knowledge literacy
- Join TA and HR metrics to measure the downstream impression
A full-scale expertise acquisition transformation is an evolution – and we’d like to accomplice with you to get began.
