LOTI Guide to Better Recruitment for Hard to Fill Roles

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Joanne Cumper

Edited by LOTI

@LOTI_LDN

www.loti.london

#LOTI

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Six steps to better hiring for hard to fill roles

The objective of this LOTI guide is to outline specific measures councils can take at each stage of the recruitment process to increase their chances of successfully hiring for hard-to-fill roles, particularly in the fields of digital, IT and data.

The guide should be read alongside your local recruitment strategy and with support from your internal HR.

Planning

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Thoroughly understand the reasons for hiring the role and define a clear plan to successfully recruit.

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Checklist:

1. Be clear and open minded about what you really need in new hires
2. Research carefully to know what the labour market is doing
3. Write JDs in plain, accessible and gender-neutral language, and include salary details
4. Remove any unnecessary requirements related to qualifications and experience
5. Ensure you have thoroughly planned your process and timelines

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Essential Planning

Hiring Managers should start by thinking clearly about the following three things:

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Job Analysis

• What’s the purpose of the role?
• What will the day-to-day activities of this role look like?
• What does the role need to deliver?
• How will the role fit with the team and wider organisation?
• How much of the role can be done remotely?

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Job Description

• What are the role objectives?
• What are the role responsibilities?

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Person Specification

• Given points 1 and 2, what are you looking for in the new hire?
• For many data, and indeed technical or digital roles, ask: “Do we really need someone who’s already worked in the public sector?” We’d advise making the role open to all backgrounds, focusing on skills rather than sector experience.

“Focus on the skills you need, not assumptions about having sector experience.”

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Detailed Planning

You will also want to consider:

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1. Labour market conditions: do your research on what’s going on in the labour market and take those findings very seriously;
2. Storytelling: plan how you will sell the role and the organisation. Why would someone want to come and work with you?
3. Process: understand what processes your organisation requires hiring managers to follow;
4. Support: consider who else can help the hiring process;
5. Context: be clear why you’re hiring and how mature your organisation is in the field you’re hiring for;
6. Tolerance: you’re unlikely to get the perfect candidate. Ask yourself: “What can I tolerate, where can I train and develop the person, what am I willing to forgo and what is essential?”

“What can I tolerate, where can I train and develop the person, what am I willing to forgo and what is essential?”

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Writing the perfect job description

Simple measures can help increase the effectiveness of your job description and the diversity of the candidates you attract:

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1. Always provide at least ballpark salary details to ensure applicants enter the process with fair expectations.
2. Write your JD in clear and accessible language. If you want to attract candidates from out of sector or recent school or university leavers, using local government or technical jargon risks being off-putting.
3. Only include experiences and skills you really need. The longer the list of requirements, the smaller your pool of potential candidates will be. Expectations to have very specific qualifications or a certain number of years’ experience should only be included if absolutely necessary.
4. Be clear on the time commitment required in the office verses remote. For hard to fill roles, you’re likely to get a much wider pool of candidates if you are flexible about physical location.
5. Run your JDs through an online tool such as Gender Decoder, The Totaljobs Gender Bias Decoder, or Applied’s Job Description Tool to help ensure you’re using gender neutral language.

“Using local government or technical jargon risks being confusing and off-putting”

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Case Study 1

Background

The Shared Technology Service (STS) between Brent, Lewisham & Southwark councils had developed a new Target Operating Model (TOM). The new TOM had passed through the consultation process and had arrived at the point of implementation. This required a significant number of new hires as well as redeployment of existing staff. This was to be implemented during one of the UK’s pandemic-triggered lockdowns.

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Solution

A programme of work that incorporated talent acquisition, community engagement, coaching and mentoring and on-boarding of new talent was initiated. The STS took a digital-first approach, deploying new methods to amplify the unit’s message across new platforms and to a wider audience. This included producing a webinar, now available on YouTube, which had over 50 sign ups for the day. Three new hires directly referenced the video as part of their pre-interview research. There were over 40 internal coaching sessions, many of which led to staff at risk of redundancy getting a new job within the unit. The campaign messaging directly addressed non-public sector applicants on what to expect when applying for a public sector role.

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Outcome

At the time of writing, the STS have completed 90% of their hiring needs, whilst maintaining a high level of positive feedback from internal and external candidates alike. They also improved the diversity of their staff.

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Sourcing

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Define what pool of potential applicants you wish to reach and how you can excite them about the role and encourage them to apply.

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Checklist:

1. Put yourself in your applicants’ shoes
2. Create persona profiles to design an effective marketing strategy that reaches a diverse pool of potential applicants
3. Advertise the many benefits of working in a local government role!
4. Use a range of digital channels and host webinars
5. Innovate and dare to be different in the way you engage potential applications.

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Effective sourcing is effective marking

Reaching a diverse pool of candidates is essentially about marketing.

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We recommend using the common marketing technique of developing Persona Profiles, in essence, creating a number of avatars of the kinds of people that you wish to hear about the job opportunity.

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Persona Profiles can help ensure that you’re being mindful of diversity and inclusion, understand who you are trying to reach and design how best to speak to each of the target audiences, through what medium and in what way.

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If you want a great example of how to create these profiles check out how Sport England have created over 20 for their marketing segments.

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Components of Persona Profiles (1/2)

• An opening statement that is an overall description of the avatar.
• What’s their work ethic?
• What type of personality?
• What are their motivations and drivers? (Think beyond money. Who might be genuinely excited to work in your organisation? Local government offers great opportunities to have a social impact, while providing flexible hours and other benefits such as reduced cost parking, holiday buy/sell schemes, pensions etc.)
• What problem are you solving that will resonate with them?
• Where are they online now? (If you want a more gender balanced team and you are looking to attract more female applicants - there is an argument to post adverts on sites like Mumsnet, or blog on there or do an interview, or offer some free training to applicants. For early careers, organisations like Brixton Finishing School work with under-represented groups (Multicultural, Working Class, NeuroDiverse, Female) to find untapped potential. They also happened to win the Digital Leaders 2019 Inclusion Initiative of the Year.)

Dr David Chaffey offers a decent guide to persona profiling. Find more info at: www.smartinsights.com.

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Components of Persona Profiles (2/2)

• What platforms do they visit?
• What do they read?
• What jobs websites do they visit? Consider job sites like Adas List, Evenbreak, Proud Employers and UK Black Tech.
• What are they doing now? If they are in a job - what is their likely job title, what kind of company will they be working for?
• What barriers may they face? Consider what accommodations need to be made to widen the pool of candidates. How can marketing, messaging and our behaviours help to overcome them? Think about everything that you are doing - are your actions widening the potential applicant pool or reducing it?

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Case Study 2

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Background

STS wanted to attract talent from out of sector. The STS spoke to talent out of sector through which they found there were significant misconceptions about working in the public sector.

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Solution

STS ran a full digital campaign, deploying a number of tactics - website, social media, content marketing, display advertising, Search Engine Optimisation, email marketing and events. This was complemented with offline activity including direct approaches, partnering with external agencies and using the STS’s leadership team professional networks and connections on social media to amplify messaging.

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One core tactic was running a Webinar for individuals thinking of moving into the public sector. This was promoted on Eventbrite and across social media. In addition, the Persona Profile helped STS to understand why individuals from out of sector might want to join the public sector. They found that their motivations and drivers were less about money and more about impact.

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Outcome

STS was able to make significant hires from out of sector, from brands that would have been considered ‘cooler’ than a local council. STS co-produced an online webinar with four other local councils with the sole aim of demystifying local government for potential applicants. STS also had a digital marketing asset, in the form of a webinar, that can be reused as part of their standard recruitment process.

Host a webinar to introduce your organisation and the role

Hold information webinars to introduce and explain your organisation to candidates from other sectors.

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Webinars can help make your application process more personal and help raise levels of excitement and confidence in your organisation.

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This example is from the Shared Technology Service that serves the London boroughs of Brent, Lewisham and Southwark.

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Screening

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To produce a suitable list of candidates to interview for the role, who, at this stage of the process, all look potentially appointable to the role.

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Checklist:

• Prior to candidates submitting their CV and cover letter, invite applicants to have a chat with the hiring manager or recruiter.
• Check if any candidates have started but not finished their application and contact them to find out how you can help.
• After applications have been received, be a generous marker.
• Have diverse panels to assess job applications.
• Consider using blind recruitment tools.

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Effective screening

1. Prior to candidates submitting their CV and cover letter, invite applicants to have a chat with the hiring manager or recruiter leading this search. If this feels time consuming, remember that hiring the right team members is one of the most vital things you can do! It’s worth the time and effort.

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• If your recruitment system allows it, check if any candidates have started but not finished their application. It can be worth contacting those candidates to check if there are any resolvable issues that have prevented them proceeding further.

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• Involve a diverse panel to assess job applications. Ensuring diversity is simple but important way of bringing different perspectives to the role. Consider gender and ethnic diversity, and also diversity in teams of people who are senior, junior and the same level as the role being hired.

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• After applications have been received, be a generous marker. This will have a significant impact on the diversity and inclusion results, as well as introducing people who may not be a perfect fit but have the right attitude and potential to be future stars in your organisation.

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Consider blind recruitment

Traditional methods of recruitment are known to be vulnerable to bias.

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Studies show that equally qualified and experienced candidates can be treated differently based on their gender, race, ethnicity, age or background.

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Bias can also creep in based on other factors, such as the time of day an application is reviewed, and whether the recruiter has read a strong or weak application just before.

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Both the reality and the perception that such biases occur can cause quality applicants to be overlooked or to decide not to apply at all.

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To address this, consider using blind recruitment.

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One tool that does this Applied. The platform removes unconscious bias by removing personal information from candidate applications during the assessment process, such as their name, age, home address, and even education. It also avoids problems of bias based on the time or sequence of reviewing applications by breaking up candidates’ applications into chunks which team members can review in different orders. For the full overview of how Applied removes unconscious bias, see: https://www.beapplied.com/applied-sift.

Bias can creep in based on the time of day an application is reviewed, and whether the recruiter has read a strong or weak application just before.

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Case Study 3

Background

A council was looking for some engineers for their Networking Team. In coaching one out of sector applicant, they discovered his entire team was being made redundant. The council’s recruiter offered to speak to this applicant’s colleagues and see if they could help them in their job search.

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Solution

The recruiter was able to help all of this candidate’s colleagues in some way. They couldn’t hire them all, but they were able to recommend other recruiters and offer feedback on their CVs and covering letters. Where possible, they considered them for their vacancies and encouraged them to apply.

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Outcome

The council hired two engineers, not one, and left the un-hired colleagues with a very favourable view of the organisation.

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Case Study 4

Background

In reviewing their application portal, one recruiter noticed several incomplete applications. Of those incomplete applications, some looked like they had strong potential to be suitable new hires.

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Solution

The recruiter called the potential candidates to find out what was stopping them completing their application. There were several reasons, from the system not allowing them to complete the application with missing data to cache page problems.

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Outcome

The recruiter found ways around each issue, from helping them clear the problematic pages to allowing individuals to directly email their CV and covering letters. One of those incomplete applicants has since been hired. From day one this applicant has had an awesome impact on the business. Their line manager loves them. The organisation could have missed out on a real star had they not called the applicant to find out how they could help!

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Selecting

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Picking the right candidate to fill the job.

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Checklist:

• Where possible, hold initial interviews online
• Have a diverse interview panel
• Ask questions that make it easy for candidates to demonstrate their transferable skills
• Consider alternative assessment methods that reveal rather than talk about skills
• Ensure the process is fresh and energising - you’re being assessed, too!

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What makes a great interview?

Interviews are a mainstay of recruitment, but they’re not always done well. Here are four practical things you can do to improve them.

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• Where possible, conduct at least an initial interview via video call, especially for roles that will be mostly remote. You’ll retain a broader range of candidates.

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• Have a diverse panel. Just as at the application assessment stage, consider the gender and ethnic diversity of your panel, and also diversity in teams of people who are senior, junior and the same level as the role being hired.

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• Ask the question: “Is there anything you wish we’d ask you that demonstrates your talents that we haven’t yet covered?” This can be a warm and supportive way of giving candidates the chance to shine.�
• Remember that interviews are a two-way process. You and your organisation are also being assessed! Don’t allow the process to become stale and worn out as the interview panel will project their boredom onto the applicants.

Ask the question:

“Is there anything you wish we’d ask you that demonstrates your talents that we haven’t yet covered?”

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What’s the best method of assessment?

It’s natural to think that the selection process is just about holding interviews. However, interviews may not be the best or fairest ways of treating candidates.

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They may be particularly inadequate for seeing the true potential of candidates applying for hard-to-recruit roles, such as data scientist positions. As a hiring manager, ask yourself: “Will an interview be a sufficient method of assessment or is there more that can be done to help with this process?”

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Here are some other ideas to help assess the skill set of applicants:

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• Invite applicants to produce a 2-minute video on why they have applied. Better still, help them produce it! There’s no better way to learn about a new co-worker than working with them for a bit, especially on something important to them.
• Set a practical challenge or hackathon to see first-hand how an applicant thinks about and solves problems.
• Hold a problem-solving bid process like Unilever's Foundry, which crowdsources ideas to solve business problems. Unilever managers engage with a startup or an individual on a problem solving idea. The end result is that a person or business may be absorbed into the organisation.

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Case Study 5

Wishing to avoid a set of positive-only case studies, here is one where it all went wrong!

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Background

A team had gone through several rounds of recruitment and failed to hire, or hired and failed to retain their staff for very long. A recruiter with candidate-centric skills was brought in to help.

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Solution

The recruiter stepped in to help with the sourcing stage. They deployed the “everyone must have a good experience” mantra (more on this later) and got to work proactively promoting and attracting candidates to the process. They were able to generate a significantly higher number of applicants than were received previously.

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Outcome

The selection process remained unchanged and was somewhat tired and traditional. The applicants who had been interviewed offered feedback, which was telling. The applicants felt that the interviewer was just going through the motions. The organisation had several offers of employment rejected.

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Hiring

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Getting a “Yes” from the candidate that all parties are happy with.

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Checklist:

• Pick up the phone and make the offer
• Call rejected candidates - they or their contacts could be suitable for future roles.
• Co-ordinate with HR to ensure that all the paperwork is completely aligned to policy and completely promptly.

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Going from offer to first day

It’s not over yet! There is still some way to go before your new hire walks into your (virtual) workplace and starts to contribute.

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This step is about navigating the tricky process of taking the candidate from interview to a verbally agreed contract and offer package.

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As a hiring manager, pick up the phone and make the offer to the candidate - it’s a lovely start to a positive working relationship. (It’s also wise to call candidates you interviewed but do not hire. Word of mouth spreads, and their positive perception of your organisation and your hiring approach may be shared with future potential candidates.)

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Coordinate with your HR team to ensure that all the paperwork is completely aligned to policy. Stay in regular contact with both HR and the new hire - daily if required - for the first two weeks after the offer is made.

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Ensure that you get the paperwork over the line efficiently. Doing this will help build trust between you and your new hire. They will see you, their future manager, as a facilitator who wants to build a positive relationship with them from the start.

Call candidates you interviewed but do not hire. Word of mouth spreads, and their positive perception of your organisation and your hiring approach may be shared with future potential candidates.

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Case Study 6

Background

One recent appointment made by an executive search consultant was on the back of an extensive search for a key hire for a public sector organisation’s Senior Leadership Team for technology. The organisation wanted a person with a blend of commercialism and public sector know-how. The consultant found someone the whole panel was delighted to hire. However, the panel and consultant ran into difficulties when doing the pre-employment checks, the declared salary and the employment payslips did not align.

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Solution

Imagine their frustration when they got to the end of the process and they were challenged at this final hurdle. They were worried about the impact on their external and internal reputations. The line manager and consultant hypothesised a myriad of reasons as to why this could have happened. They then decided to speak to the candidate.

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Outcome

The candidate was paid every 4 weeks rather than monthly. They just needed to speak to them to realise there was not, in fact, a problem.

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Case Study 7

Background

A business was changing the contract of a member of staff from an interim role to a permanent role in the business, having gone through a fair and competitive process. A catalogue of roadblocks appeared during the process, including referees refusing to respond to reference requests and the hiring process accidently starting twice.

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Solution

The recruiter communicated to the applicant that all would be well - many times a day, to reassure the applicant. The recruiter also communicated and helped the internal Human Resources directorate. These exchanges focused on whether there was outstanding work that ought to be done and what can be done to help.

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Outcome

The successful hire was made and the business avoided incurring unnecessary expenses on recruitment agency fees.

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Onboarding

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Successfully initiating the new hire into the organisation.

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Checklist:

• Mindfully design regular interaction with your new hire
• Engage them in the social as well as the professional aspects of your organisation
• Provide a clear list of contacts for answering questions and resolving issues.

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Onboarding and retaining talent

Onboarding starts during the recruitment and hiring process and can stretch over the course of an individual’s first year.

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To onboard and retain great talent, it’s essential to think about what the new hire’s first year will look like, and most importantly their first few weeks.

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Key things you can do to help a new hire settle in might include:

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• Creating a communication plan to keep in touch with your new hire during their notice period.
• Taking time to introduce them to other colleagues and teams so they can build their own network within the wider organisation.
• Spending time with them to talk through and discuss your ways of working, culture and approach.
• Inviting the new hire to any social events that you may be having - on or offline - to get them involved with your team and the business.
• Following the new hire on LinkedIn and other social media - it shows an interest in them.
• Providing them with key contacts to resolve any issues they have with IT or HR.

It’s essential to think about what the new hire’s first year will look like, and most importantly their first few weeks.

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Appendix

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About the Author

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Having worked in technology recruitment for over 20 years, Joanne Cumper has worked through Y2K impending doom; dot-com boom; e-commerce revolution; digital 4.0 economy and the current post pandemic digital / green recovery era. Specialising in technology, digital and data and recruiting for horizon scanning disrupters of their time and most recently working for local government both as a consultant and in house talent acquisition manager.

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An economics graduate with a post graduate diploma in Digital Marketing for the Institute of Digital Marketing, Joanne has blended a digital first approach to her work for over 20 years. Using the democratising power of digital to create a more equal environment, Joanne has been an activist for diversity and inclusion for many years, speaking at events with the W7, Chatham House, 10 Digital Ladies, EY Women Fast Forward, as well as private corporate events on how to attract more diverse talent to your workforce.

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Her assignments include sourcing data and insight specialists for large business information providers and consulting teams, technologists. Other work includes sourcing leaders for technology and telecom vendors, CXO hires for digital transformation consumer businesses.

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Contact information: jo@joannecumper.com

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