In an industry that faces many challenges, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) are essential in the healthcare sector, where 64% of professionals are white, 20.6% Asian, 6% Hispanic and 5.7% African-American. A DE&I policy improves the quality of care, innovation and financial performance. Yet many organisations have yet to prioritise these initiatives, despite clear benefits such as better clinical decisions and reduced friction. Inclusive and transparent recruitment is crucial to eliminating bias and promoting a fair and high-performing working environment.
In an ever-changing legal environment, companies need to adopt effective strategies to attract and retain the best talent. Recruiting and developing the skills of legal professionals is crucial to long-term competitiveness and success. This guide outlines five essential steps to mastering these processes, enabling legal businesses not only to recruit quality talent, but also to develop and retain them, while optimising their experience as candidates and employees.
In the legal profession, where education, technical skills (hard skills), and experience are equal, what sets apart a good lawyer, paralegal, or other legal professional are their soft skills: behavioral, cognitive, and emotional competencies. A survey conducted by the legal profession community, Village de la Justice, among professionals in the sector (law firms, legal departments, recruitment agencies) revealed that soft skills are as important as hard skills. Let’s review the soft skills that are useful in the legal sector.
Soft Skills Specific to the Legal Profession
Here are the essential soft skills needed to work in the legal sector:
1. Excellent Communication Skills:
Both oral and written communication are crucial for drafting precise legal documents, explaining complex legal concepts clearly and concisely, and defending arguments convincingly.
2. Analytical and Critical Thinking:
Conducting thorough research, analyzing and breaking down information from various sources to examine, verify, and identify key points relevant to cases.
3. Problem-Solving:
Quickly identifying problems and proposing innovative and practical strategies.
4. Emotional Intelligence and Empathy:
Understanding clients' needs and feelings and providing appropriate support.
5. Ethics and Integrity:
Adhering to strict ethical standards, showing integrity in all actions, being honest, trustworthy, and fair in relationships.
6. Time Management and Organization:
Prioritizing tasks and managing a heavy workload efficiently within tight deadlines.
7. Stress Management:
Handling stress and maintaining high performance in tense situations and under pressure.
8. Teamwork and Collaboration:
Effectively collaborating with colleagues, clients, witnesses, and other stakeholders. Good interpersonal skills facilitate interactions, build relationships, and promote cooperation.
9. Adaptability and Flexibility:
Adjusting to new laws, regulations, and jurisprudence. Being flexible and adapting to different client styles in any situation.
10. Negotiation Skills:
Listening, observing, persuading, controlling emotions, speaking effectively, and being responsive during negotiations.
Examples of Cases Where Soft Skills Were Crucial
1. O.J. Simpson Trial (1995):
O.J. Simpson's defense team excelled in communication, presenting a compelling narrative and supporting it with precise facts. The lawyers used critical thinking to analyze evidence and highlight errors and inconsistencies in police methods. Creativity and flexibility were essential to overcome legal challenges, and both empathy and media pressure played significant roles.
2. Nuremberg Trials (1945-1946):
Prosecutors presented clear and convincing evidence of atrocities committed by Nazi leaders. They demonstrated critical thinking by meticulously examining documents and testimonies to build strong arguments. Innovative solutions were needed for legal and logistical challenges, and empathy towards victims was crucial.
3. Charlie Hebdo Attacks Trial (2020):
Lawyers managed intense emotions and high tensions during the trial of the alleged accomplices of the terrorists responsible for the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Flexibility and adaptability were required due to COVID-19-related interruptions, necessitating constant adjustments in judicial procedures.
Tools for Assessing Soft Skills in Legal Professionals
1. Personality Inventories:
These tools assess personality traits, including interpersonal characteristics (leadership, sociability, cooperation, empathy), emotional management (stress resistance, flexibility/adaptability), work approach (reliability, detail orientation, regulation compliance, effort/persistence, initiative), and thinking style (innovation, analytical reasoning, independence).
2. Cognitive Ability Tests:
These measure verbal, numerical, and spatial skills, as well as the ability to solve complex problems and learn easily. The WATSON-GLASER™ III is notably used by law firms to assess critical thinking, essential for verifying the truthfulness of obtained information.
Soft skills differentiate and enhance the profiles of legal professionals. Continuously evaluating and developing soft skills is necessary for predicting and encouraging performance and contributing to both professional and personal fulfillment in the legal sector.
Faced with a talent shortage crisis, effective recruitment in the manufacturing industry requires an approach structured around eight key steps. From the precise analysis of specific needs to the implementation of a personalised onboarding process, each stage aims to attract and integrate the best-qualified talent for each position.
The retail sector faces major challenges in attracting and retaining the best talent, with a staff turnover rate of 60%. This infographic outlines the main reasons why employees leave, such as lack of flexibility and insufficient remuneration, and proposes solutions, including the use of psychometric tests, to improve recruitment and retention. Find out how these tools can align employee profiles with your company's culture and reduce turnover costs.
According to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), nearly three-quarters of manufacturing executives believe that attracting and retaining a quality workforce is their main challenge. The talent shortage affects many industrial groups, with 10 million jobs vacant in the sector worldwide.
Origins and Consequences of the Talent Shortage in the Manufacturing Industry
The talent shortage can be attributed to several factors:
Aging Workforce: 51% of jobs in the manufacturing sector are held by employees aged 45 to 65 or older. Experienced workers are retiring, and few young talents are stepping in to replace them.
Lack of Interest in Manufacturing Careers: The manufacturing industry suffers from a negative image associated with low-paying jobs and difficult working conditions. Only 14% of Generation Z members consider a career in the industrial sector for these reasons.
Evolving Technologies and Required Skills: Automation and the adoption of advanced technologies (Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, 3D printing, robotics) are changing the nature of work in manufacturing. Jobs are becoming more specialized, requiring advanced technical and general skills.
Inadequate Education and Training: Training and education programs in the industrial sector are not always aligned with labor market needs, leading to a gap between available skills and those required by employers.
Production Offshoring: The relocation of production to low-cost labor countries has reduced the number of manufacturing jobs in some developed countries and made the sector less attractive.
Consequences for Manufacturing Companies
The talent shortage has significant repercussions for manufacturing companies:
Decreased Productivity: With fewer skilled workers available, factories struggle to maintain their usual production levels, affecting production timelines, delivery schedules, and customer satisfaction.
Recruitment and Retention Difficulties: Manufacturers find it hard to recruit and retain qualified workers, leading to prolonged vacancies, decreased productivity, and increased costs (loss of revenue, recruitment, and training expenses).
Increased Labor Costs: To attract and retain skilled workers, wages and benefits are raised, increasing overall labor costs.
Increased Dependence on Automation: Facing employee shortages, many manufacturers invest in automation, which requires significant capital investment and skilled human resources for proper deployment.
Safety and Quality Risks: A lack of workers to perform critical tasks (equipment maintenance, quality control) increases the risk of safety incidents or product quality decline.
Strategies to Attract and Retain Talent in the Manufacturing Sector
Manufacturers can use these strategies to attract and retain skilled workers:
Offer Attractive Working Conditions: Provide fair and competitive salaries, appealing benefits, merit-based reward programs, and flexible work options.
Provide Training and Personal Development Programs: Help employees acquire new skills and advance in their careers.
Promote a Safe and Healthy Work Environment: Ensure the well-being and safety of employee.
Foster a Positive Company Culture: Value, respect, and include employees to enhance their satisfaction and engagement.
Best Practices for Developing Manufacturing Team Skills
Here are some effective methods to develop employees' skills in the manufacturing industry:
Mentorship and Apprenticeship Programs: Encourage skill transfer and create a collaborative working environment between experienced workers and new recruits.
Innovative Training: Utilize online and on-demand learning platforms, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) tools for immersive, real-world scenario training.
Certifications and Retraining Programs: Enable workers to develop new skills or specialize in manufacturing fields.
Continuous Improvement and Innovation Projects: Include identifying and solving workplace issues, proposing, and implementing new ideas and technologies.
Skills Analysis Tools: Evaluate employees' current technical and general skills, identify gaps, and develop personalized training plans to acquire necessary skills. Internationally recognized for over 60 years, the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test II (BMCT-II) is particularly recommended in the manufacturing industry to assess mechanical understanding. It evaluates the ability to understand and apply basic mechanical and physical concepts, and the key principles behind the operation, maintenance, and repair of machines. It is suitable for a wide range of professions in mechanics, production, and maintenance, helping to analyze a candidate's or employee's knowledge and logical abilities, and identify those with good spatial perception, mechanical reasoning skills, and an aptitude for learning mechanical processes and tasks.
The rapid pace of technological innovation in the manufacturing sector is widening the skills gap. More and more entry-level and intermediate jobs require technical and general skills. It is crucial to identify, evaluate, and develop these skills within the workforce to overcome the talent shortage.
The insurance industry already faces a major challenge in attracting young talent, but retaining staff is also a crucial issue for this sector, where employee commitment and satisfaction are crucial to business success. In this article, we present five effective ways of strengthening talent retention within insurance companies.
The healthcare sector faces many challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, exacerbated by labour shortages and demanding working conditions that can lead to burn out. Attracting and retaining talent is crucial to ensuring the quality of patient care and the smooth running of healthcare organisations. Here are 10 key tips for attracting and retaining talent in this vital sector.
In an increasingly competitive and constantly evolving job market, recruitment in the Tech and IT sector represents a unique challenge. To successfully attract and retain the most qualified talent, it is essential to master the subtleties of this constantly changing field. Discover the 10 essential keys to successful recruitment in this strategic sector, from accurately defining talent requirements to creating an unforgettable candidate experience.
The insurance sector holds significant weight in the financial industry. Its revenues are projected to reach $7.5 trillion globally by the end of 2025. However, it faces a major HR challenge linked to the aging workforce and the looming threat of an unprecedented labor shortage. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 50% of the current workforce in the insurance sector will retire in the coming years, leaving over 400,000 vacancies. Therefore, insurance companies must rejuvenate their workforce to remain innovative and competitive in the market. However, the sector does not appeal to the younger generation, who show little interest in pursuing a career in insurance. What strategies can insurance companies employ to attract, recruit, and retain young talent?
Obstacles to the attractiveness of youth in the insurance sector
Image problem
The insurance sector suffers from an unattractive image and reputation among Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) and Generation Z (born from 2000 onwards). It is often perceived as a conventional, conservative, and uninventive professional field.
Unfamiliar occupations
According to a survey conducted by The Institutes, 8 out of 10 Millennials have limited knowledge of career opportunities in the insurance industry. Young people may not have subscribed to insurance policies yet, and they have minimal awareness and understanding of these products.
Insufficiently competitive salaries and benefits
Young people are attracted to competitive salaries and benefits, but the banking and financial sectors as well as Tech & IT appear more attractive.
Lack of flexibility
Young people seek a work-life balance offered by remote and hybrid work arrangements, but insurance companies do not always guarantee this flexibility.
Lack of investment in skills development
Another factor affecting the attractiveness of insurance companies is a gap in the understanding of skills their employees will need in the future. Young people are eager to learn and acquire new skills to remain employable in an ever-changing job market.
Strategies for insurance companies to attract, recruit, and retain young talent
Developing an attractive corporate culture
Valuing corporate culture, mission, purpose, and emphasizing collaboration, career progression, flexibility, and other benefits are important. Additionally, promoting commitment to sustainable development, which young people are highly attuned to, is a plus.
Promoting career diversity in insurance
The insurance sector offers a wide range of careers (agent, broker, claims adjuster, risk manager, data analyst, cybersecurity expert, etc.). It is important to promote these career options to young people, so they are aware of all the opportunities available.
Emphasizing technology
Insurance companies now offer most of their services through mobile applications (claim submissions, video downloads for claims assessment, inspection planning, claims process tracking, etc.) and utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to streamline their processes. Promoting the use of technology in the industry can attract tech-savvy young talent.
Recruiting via social networks
Social media is important and relevant for the younger generation. Insurance companies can benefit in promoting their job offers, internships, and compelling content about insurance careers on social networks (LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram).
Prioritizing DE&I in recruitment
Millennials and Generation Z are highly diverse populations and expect this diversity to be reflected in the workplace. Preserving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in their workforce involves eliminating unconscious biases during the recruitment process. Psychometric tests help in assessing candidates' personality traits, intellectual abilities, behavioral skills, values, motivations, and professional interests independently of their name, gender, age, race/ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, socio-economic background to better validate their potential.
Taking care of onboarding
Once recruited, it is crucial to support and mentor new hires. Having mentors who will help new recruits network and advise them on progressing in the sector is a real asset.
Investing in training and professional development
It is essential to emphasize job stability in the sector and enable young people to acquire the skills they need to perform and adapt to market changes, offering them career advancement opportunities.
Millennials and Gen Z have begun to dominate the job market. These dynamic new talents seek the energy and flexibility that many industries offer. It is important for insurance companies to consider their expectations and capitalize on this pool of talent to address their deficits in human resources and skills that threaten their business.
In the banking and finance sector, talent management plays a crucial role in maintaining competitiveness and innovation, and responding to shifts in the market. Here are 10 key points to ensure the long-term success of your talent in this field, from assessing skills (such as critical thinking, a crucial soft skill in banking) to well-being at work.
The success of a company in the retail sector depends to a large extent on the quality of its teams, especially in a field where turnover is high. Recruiting the right talent is therefore crucial to maintaining sustainable competitiveness. Here are 10 tips to recruit effectively in Retail, to optimise your recruitment process and attract the best talent to strengthen your team and boost your company's growth.
With their experience in the Tech & IT sector, working at a digital services company (ESN) and then as a partner at a digital sector-focused headhunting firm for Estelle Calestroupat, currently a Work Psychologist and Key Account Consultant at Pearson TalentLens, and 5 years at Cisco, a globally renowned IT company, for Anna Ballerand, current HR Manager of Pearson France, they have agreed to share strategies to better attract, recruit, and retain employees in this sector.
7 Strategies to Better Attract, Recruit, and Retain Employees in the Tech & IT Sector
Strategy #1 - Highlighting Company Culture: Employer branding must align with the company's values and reality on the ground. "To attract Tech-IT talents, a company must assert its difference, its added value," asserts Estelle Calestroupat, supported by Anna Ballerand, for whom it is essential that the company clearly showcases its corporate culture, its DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) policy, and its CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives. Estelle Calestroupat also emphasizes the importance of developing a managerial culture aligned with the company's values and ensuring it is deployed at all levels of management.
Strategy #2 - Anticipating Future Needs: Being visionary and proactive. The tech and IT sector is continually evolving, HR leaders need to work alongside their business counterparts to proactively plan their talent needs in order help reduce skill shortages in the future and reduce the risk of increased pressures on current staff workloads while new roles wait to be filled. Modelling future business models HR leaders can see in advance any need for training and development giving employees time and the valued investment to develop.
Strategy #3 - Building Internal and External Networks: Creating a community of former employees and a pool of candidates for potential future employees. The value of networking both internally and external to the business cannot be overestimated. Former employees who have felt valued and invested in can be brand ambassadors for your organization and provide a much-needed route for recommendations. Consider networking events from graduate fairs to community groups.
Strategy #4 - Improving Recruitment Processes: "Recruitment processes are often too lengthy and discourage many," laments Anna Ballerand. "Streamlining processes is necessary to increase efficiency and enhance the candidate experience," she recommends. The skills sought in candidates are also evolving. "It's no longer possible to recruit solely based on technical skills (hard skills)," explains Estelle Calestroupat. "Adaptability and learning ability, as well as the ability to analyze complex, multiple, or even contradictory data, having a broader perspective, as well as pedagogy, interpersonal skills, and teamwork, have become strong success criteria in Tech-IT professions. Values and commitment also play an essential role in the alignment between an employee and the company."
Strategy #5 - Investing in Training: To address the challenge of skill development, which is even faster in this sector than in other fields, it is important for companies to invest in employee training. "It involves supporting employees both in constantly evolving technical skills to ensure a solid foundation of expertise within the company and to meet the strong technical appetite of some employees (e.g., investing in certifications), and in the development of certain behavioral skills (especially for career advancements in project management, management, or sales)," specifies Estelle Calestroupat. Anna Ballerand gives the example of Cisco, which offers several training initiatives, including renowned technical certifications in the sector. Their "Graduate Program" (recent graduate program) that she herself implemented at the European level is another example, offering several days of training abroad for new recruits.
Strategy #6 - Offering Attractive Working Conditions: The Tech-IT sector is known for offering relatively high salaries to its employees. "There is a fierce battle among digital players to attract the best profiles," testifies Estelle Calestroupat. "This power struggle is reflected in salaries and benefits (company cars, bonuses, profit-sharing, installation bonuses for remote work, proposals for company stock options, etc.). "Competition is such that differentiation between various sector players involves offering additional benefits such as greater work flexibility or a recognition program," confirms Anna Ballerand. "In the technology sector, a culture of pure onsite work makes no sense," reminds Estelle Calestroupat. Flexibility in working hours and formats (remote work, hybrid, onsite) is essential.
Strategy #7 - Encouraging Career Development: Managing professional advancement. For Estelle Calestroupat, it is important "to support mobility within the company without confining employees to predefined career paths, provide visibility on advancement opportunities, and support mechanisms in place."
Due to increased demand for care, healthcare staff face high workloads, irregular schedules, and stressful situations. This often leads to professional burnout and high staff turnover rates, compromising care quality and job satisfaction. What strategies can be implemented to preserve the mental health of medical personnel?
Healthcare: A Stressed Sector
According to the WHO, professional burnout is "a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed." Several factors contribute to this:
Staff shortage: In the medical sector, all positions must be filled to care for patients. Staff shortages result in overtime and increased workloads to manage a higher number of patients, leading to physical and mental fatigue, decreased productivity, medical errors, absenteeism, and departures.
Innovation: Besides constant advancements in medications and treatments, the medical sector increasingly relies on technology to modernize equipment and surgical techniques. Staff must adapt to these innovations while maintaining transparent and connected patient relations, adding to stress.
Exposure to risks: Staff are continually exposed to health risks (infections) from contact with sick patients in overcrowded facilities where protective equipment, safe facilities, and prevention measures may be insufficient. Psychological risks also exist due to the emotional burden of the job. Patient deaths or verbal abuse can be stressful and traumatic, influencing staff well-being.
Professional Burnout: A Problem in Healthcare
Alarming Figures
According to surveys, nursing has the highest professional burnout rate at 70%. Nurses often feel they can do more than permitted or are unable to provide adequate care due to high patient loads. Overwork triples the risk of professional burnout, leading to intentions to leave the job. About one-third of nurses (32%) consider leaving the profession, while over half of physicians and other healthcare professionals feel exhausted, stressed, and ready to quit due to factors such as staffing shortages, low salaries, mental and emotional strain, job insecurity, inflexibility, and lack of support.
Cause and Effect
Staff burnout results from both staffing deficiencies and high turnover rates, causing a cumulative effect. Burnout affects patients as medical staff struggle with emotional, mental, and physical fatigue, impairing patient relations and care.
Tips to Prevent Healthcare Staff Burnout
By actively listening to staff, considering their needs, and supporting their learning and career development, HR managers can prevent burnout:
Encourage open dialogue to assess well-being, understand needs, and listen to improvement suggestions. Tools like 360-degree surveys or motivation and satisfaction questionnaires for employees or teams are useful for empathy.
Provide recognition and rewards (praise, bonuses, promotions) for highly engaged employees.
Invest in training and professional development to keep staff up to date on industry trends, best practices, medical and technological advancements. Motivation and satisfaction measurement toolshelp tailor career development and training programs.
Reduce workload: Use advanced analytics to anticipate care demand and align resources in real-time; rethink roles and processes with new technology (digitization, automation of administrative tasks) to reduce working hours; explore reliable and efficient recruitment methods. Psychometric assessment tests (personality inventories, cognitive ability tests) can assist in this.
"Every member of the healthcare team is crucial to patient outcomes and experiences," says Dr. Lisa Rotenstein, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "It's vital to remember this as we strive to optimize both patient outcomes and our staff's experiences." Healthcare staff burnout is a significant issue facing healthcare facilities and HR professionals in this sector. It is imperative to address it to preserve employee mental health and ensure exemplary care quality.
Estelle Calestroupat, Work Psychologist and Key Account Consultant at Pearson TalentLens, and Anna Ballerand, HR Manager of Pearson France, share a common background: experience in the Tech & IT sector. They have agreed to share their experiences regarding the specific HR challenges in this field.
A Dynamic Sector in Full Expansion
Estelle Calestroupat and Anna Ballerand agree that the Tech & IT sector is highly dynamic and constantly evolving. While this trend isn't new, it has accelerated significantly in recent years. "Technological innovations are constant. New products, services, and solutions emerge continuously to meet the changing needs of users," notes Anna Ballerand. The attraction to this sector is undeniable. "It no longer appears reserved only for a few experts. The new generations are comfortable with technology and digital tools; it's part of their daily lives, which draws them to work in this field," adds Estelle Calestroupat.
HR Challenges in the Tech-IT Sector:
Talent shortage and volatility: The Tech-IT sector is not immune, like many other sectors, to candidate shortages. "The demand for qualified IT professionals often exceeds the available supply, making talent acquisition and retention highly competitive," says Anna Ballerand. Estelle Calestroupat agrees, confirming that "although the number of candidates is growing, recruitment needs are increasing even faster." She warns that "companies in the sector must rethink their approach to recruitment, management, and employee training. Those who succeed will have a real competitive advantage."
Skills obsolescence: The rapid evolution of new technologies requires continuous training. Anna Ballerand emphasizes that "keeping staff skills up-to-date can be a challenge for HR in terms of continuous training and professional development."
Need for diversity: The Tech-IT sector faces challenges regarding diversity and inclusion. "Companies need to implement strategies to encourage diversity in their teams and address underrepresentation of women and minorities," suggests Anna Ballerand.
The Increasing Use of Psychometric Tests to Assess Skills
The skills sought in the Tech-IT sector are varied and necessarily depend on the context, the company, and the position. "All these elements require, as with every recruitment process, an analysis of expectations," recalls Estelle Calestroupat before specifying that "generally, there will be expectations in terms of technical skills/knowledge (or at least an inclination towards new technologies), adaptability/learning ability, analytical skills, and transversal skills (such as organization, rigor, teamwork, communication, etc.)."
To assess these skills, HR professionals can rely on personality and value inventories, tests of intellectual aptitudes, and tests of critical thinking. "Psychometric tests allow either the evaluation of a candidate's strengths and areas for development in relation to the expectations of a position, as in the case of an assessment during recruitment, or to accompany an employee in becoming aware of their comfort zones and areas for improvement (self-awareness, understanding of their functioning) in a developmental logic," says Estelle Calestroupat.
Their advantages are numerous, adds Anna Ballerand:
Finer selection of candidates: Evaluating candidates' cognitive abilities, personality traits, and behavioral skills helps select individuals most suited to the position and the company's culture.
Prediction of job performance: Identifying candidates' strengths and weaknesses enables recruiters to predict their performance and make more informed hiring decisions.
Reduction in staff turnover: Matching employees' skills and personality with the job and company requirements reduces turnover rates.
Professional development: Understanding employees' development needs leads to personalized development plans that promote talent retention.
Improvement of employee engagement: Recruiting individuals whose values and personality are compatible strengthens team cohesion and fulfillment in a positive and productive work environment.
Estelle Calestroupat has worked in the IT and new technologies sector for over 10 years. Initially, she worked internally at a digital services company in project management (defining competency frameworks and building evaluation processes), training for recruiters and recruiter managers, and operational recruitment (recruitment and internal mobility) for manager, sales, and bid manager profiles. She then collaborated with a headhunting firm specializing in the digital sector, again focusing on sales, bid managers, project managers, and managers.
Anna Ballerand spent 5 years at Cisco, a globally renowned IT company, responsible for recruitment and employee and manager training support, implementing social benefits, conducting professional interviews, and promoting campaigns such as Great Place To Work®.
The retail sector has long been associated with high turnover rates. It hovers around 60%, meaning that more than half of the staff is likely to change within a year, according to McKinsey. It is imperative for companies operating in this sector to refine their HR practices to optimize employee retention because high turnover rates have significant impacts on their commercial performance. They can rely on psychometric assessments for this purpose.
Turnover Rate: A Key Performance Indicator
The turnover rate (or employee turnover) is a key performance indicator (KPI) that quantifies the rate of voluntary or involuntary departure and replacement of personnel within an organization during a specific period. It assesses the stability of its workforce and its overall health.
A high turnover rate often reflects employee dissatisfaction, inefficient recruitment or onboarding processes, and any potential organizational issues within the company.
Conversely, a low turnover rate reveals employee satisfaction, effective talent retention strategies, and a pleasant work environment.
The Proven and Hidden Costs of High Turnover Rates
Understanding and analyzing the turnover rate is a strategic imperative. It directly impacts the company's finances and indirectly affects its operational effectiveness.
Costs of Departure/Recruitment: On average, turnover costs in the retail sector represent 1.5 to 2 times an employee's annual salary, according to Built In. Each time an employee leaves the company, the recruitment, onboarding, and training process must be restarted, and human and financial resources must be allocated to ensure their replacement. The departure of an employee can also entail severance payments. Furthermore, the time it takes for vacant positions to be filled and new employees to become operational, the workload for existing employees may lead to overtime payments, directly impacting the company's financial costs.
Loss of Production: Turnover affects operational continuity, team cohesion and productivity, and company performance. Constant staff turnover can lead to dissatisfaction among existing employees, even encouraging new departures. Turnover, in this sense, can lead to decreased employee engagement, especially if it is high, and impact on the customer experience and sales due to a loss of service quality.
Negative Impact on the Company's Brand Image: Employees who work in a company with high turnover are unlikely to recommend it to others as a place to work or even to use its services or buy its products. The company loses attractiveness.
The Role of Psychometric Assessments in Employee Retention
Psychometric tests explore personality, assess abilities, identify motivations, interests, and values of an individual.
Personality Inventories: They assess personality traits, which are behavioral tendencies and interpersonal characteristics related to relationships with others (leadership, sociability, cooperation, empathy, etc.), emotional management (stress resistance, flexibility/adaptability, etc.), work approach (reliability, attention to detail, regulatory compliance aspect, success/effort, perseverance, initiative, etc.), and mode of thinking (innovation, analytical reasoning, independence, etc.).
Intellectual Aptitude Tests: They provide information on numerical, verbal, spatial, and mechanical skills as well as the ability to solve complex problems and the ease of learning. They also assess critical thinking (ability to quickly grasp key aspects that will impact any decision, distinguish assumptions from facts, evaluate arguments in favor of possible actions, and draw conclusions that will lead to objective decision-making).
Motivation and Professional Interest Questionnaires: They provide information on an individual's motivational state, sources of motivation/demotivation, professional interests, needs, and values to better support them in developing their career plan and make them feel fulfilled professionally within the company.
In recruitment, psychometric tests allow retail companies to:
Gain in-depth knowledge of a candidate's potential, beyond their resume.
Secure recruitment through concrete and reliable information provided.
Ensure the candidate's profile matches the job requirements and reduce turnover.
Enhance the candidate's experience by identifying their strengths and areas for improvement.
In development, psychometric tests allow them to:
Identify and develop the potential of their employees.
Identify their skills for better development.
Support internal mobility.
Better understand each staff member to improve their employee experience.
To reduce their turnover rates, retail companies must rethink their talent acquisition and retention strategies. The use of psychometric tests allows them to recruit individuals whose profile aligns with the company's culture and the position to be filled, ensure they have the necessary skills, and evaluate those that are useful to develop to encourage them to stay and evolve within the company for as long as possible.
Possessing critical thinking skills is sought after and highly valued in the banking sector to adapt to changes, make decisions, address issues, and propose solutions.
Banking: A Sector Undergoing Rapid Transformation
In the banking sector, customer expectations are evolving rapidly: They demand user-friendly and intuitive interfaces for their online and mobile banking transactions, as well as a smooth and transparent experience across all communication channels with their bank. They are very open to adopting new technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, and chatbots to facilitate their operations. They also expect efficient and responsive financial services tailored to their needs and preferences. Finally, they attach great importance to the protection and confidentiality of their personal data against fraud and cyber-attacks.
To meet these requirements, employees in the banking sector must master technical skills related to online banking operations, data management, cybersecurity, and the use of new technologies. Additionally, they increasingly require behavioral skills in:
Communication to effectively interact with clients and respond to their needs clearly and concisely in person, by phone, email, or chat.
Negotiation to reach agreements, resolve conflicts, and achieve favorable conditions for both the bank and clients.
Critical thinking to analyze complex situations, identify problems, and find solutions.
Attention to detail as precision and thoroughness are essential for managing financial transactions and ensuring compliance with regulations.
Adaptability and time management to quickly adapt to new technologies, processes, products, and services, and juggle multiple tasks while meeting deadlines.
The banking sector employs many people but experiences high attrition and turnover rates. To remain competitive in a market marked by uncertain economic and geopolitical conditions, increased technological disruption, fierce competition between traditional banks and new, more innovative and agile players, banks must compete to attract and retain top talent. They must evolve their talent acquisition processes to improve efficiency and speed, and focus on assessing these skills, particularly critical thinking.
Critical Thinking: A Highly Coveted Power Skill in the Banking Sector
According to a global study by PwC, while digital skills are considered important by 70%, 77% recognize that critical thinking skills, such as emotional intelligence and judgment, are crucial in banking professions. Isabelle Jenkins, Head of Financial Services at PwC UK, adds: "Being adaptable, collaborative, and demonstrating critical thinking skills is important. If we truly want to leverage technological advances, we will need the right people with the appropriate skills so that we can truly solve problems, drive productivity, and create growth. Investment in technology is essential to achieve all these goals. But it must be guided by human ingenuity, expertise, and understanding."
Carole Fortier Bidan, Senior Product Developer at Pearson TalentLens, and Christelle Cadoret, Psychologist and HR consultant, authors of the book "Embracing Change and Making Informed Decisions - Critical Thinking & Adaptability" (Pearson, Human Skills collection), define critical thinking as a mindset aimed at logically analyzing situations for a specific purpose, such as problem-solving, explaining a viewpoint, interpreting, or justifying a decision. It involves searching for facts, evidence, understanding and analyzing different perspectives, and personal qualities such as listening, humility, curiosity, open-mindedness, and taking a step back. It requires self-awareness regarding one's own biases, beliefs, stereotypes, and cognitive biases to limit their impact on decision-making and positioning. It is practiced through constructive effort that involves and promotes a collaborative spirit in the service of collective intelligence.
It is qualified as a power skill because reasoning and decision-making are the least automated tasks in the workplace.
Providing the Means to Assess Critical Thinking
Laure Bogeat, current Director of HR Development and former Head of Recruitment, Career, and Employment Services at BPCE Infogérance et Technologies, the IT GIE of the BPCE group, the second largest French banking group, testifies to the importance of critical thinking in the banking sector: "Our environment is complex, systemic, and evolving rapidly. In the context of recruitment challenges, it is a tight market at the heart of new technologies and the digital transformation of the group, we wanted in our recruitment processes to ensure a level of analysis, an understanding of our challenges, and intellectual flexibility allowing our new recruits to thrive in our structure.The Watson-Glaser™ III Critical Thinking Assessment naturally emerged. It informs us of the intellectual approach of the candidate to solve a problem and make a decision, but also on the understanding of their environment, their interpretation of factual data, and synthesis capacity, all relevant elements in our selection criteria."
Critical thinking skills are crucial within the banking sector and the ability of HR professionals to assess this ability can make a difference to the long-term talent acquisition process. Helping to identify and develop new candidates into roles and spot potential high-performers for training and leadership roles in the future.
Overall, exercising critical thinking ability has a crucial role in the banking sector for making informed decisions, identifying and evaluating potential risks in financial operations, proposing creative and innovative solutions to clients, in compliance with established regulations and standards, and with a focus on confidentiality and data protection. It is an essential skill to assess and develop in candidates and existing employees.
Future-proofing recruitment strategies with psychometric insights.
There’s no avoiding the pace at which jobs are evolving, and along with them the skills required to succeed. Recently, LinkedIn highlighted the top 25 fastest-growing job titles from Data Science Manager to Machine Learning Engineer. Many roles didn’t exist ten years ago, others have developed as technology has advanced.
Add to this mix - the development of AI and digital technology, changes in the economic and global climate, new generations taking up positions in the workplace and shifts in work-life priorities - and we have a talent market that is continually being shaped and moulded by these factors into something new.
Organizations are looking for ways to navigate this evolving talent market and identify candidates who have the right skill sets, abilities and shared values for their business. Research indicates that “just over half (52%) of talent leaders in the UK are using analytics or technology to support their hiring and workforce planning decisions,” making psychometric assessments an ideal way to help recruitment/hiring managers, select top talent, develop current employees and evolve employees into future roles.
What is Psychometric Testing?
Psychometric tests for recruitment are the key to matching the very best candidates to the most suitable positions. They are used to measure a range of crucial skills which can aid the recruitment process, such as:
Numerical skills
Verbal skills
Abstract skills
Critical thinking
Logical reasoning
Personality traits and values
Ability testing
How Can it Assist?
Interviews assess a candidate’s suitability for a role up to a certain point, but psychometric tests can assist in determining other crucial factors. These include how well that individual will fit into the existing team, their development within a certain role and their specific preferences and personality traits. Psychometric testing supports the recruitment process by offering specific information about an individual’s fit for a certain role.
The Benefits of Using Psychometric Tests
There are numerous reasons why psychometric testing can be of benefit to the recruitment industry, including:
Reduce hiring costs and increase candidate pool - Adaptive testing means that you can use just one test to assess a diverse pool of individuals with differing abilities along the performance spectrum. On average, a 'bad hire' costs companies 30% of each hire's annual salary. Tools including the new RAVEN'S Adaptive can help you strengthen your decision-making process.
Quickly sift out unsuitable candidates - with Talent Match you can reach a wide range of candidates who fit your requirements. Skills-based hiring can ensure you’re not ruling out candidates too early, which helps to improve your efficiency and supports candidates’ quality up to the final stage of recruitment.
Predict performance - Tools such as the Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test is seen as a successful tool for predicting job success. Research shows that organisations can predict over 70% of performance by using the right tools. Results can help you identify and select good team members and possible future leaders.
Full picture of a candidate - Combining tests into one assessment package enables you to get a full picture of a candidate from skill sets and personality to their ability and values. Helping you to identify the likelihood of a candidate fitting into a team, role or environment.
Reduces unconscious bias - Taking into account variations in personality, values, learning styles, for example, is a very important “though often a ‘hidden’ and so overlooked, form of diversity” Angus McDonald. Including psychometric tests in your recruitment process can help to reduce bias because they are standardised and objective unlike other methods such as interviews.
“We need to look at people as individuals…individuals bring diversity into the workplace.” Angus McDonald
Harnessing Technology in Psychometric Testing
Types of Tools Available
Watson Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal- This test measures critical thinking ability. It assesses the ability to look at a situation, understand it from multiple perspectives and effectively separate facts from opinions and assumptions. This appraisal is particularly suited to graduates and managers and looks at comprehension, analysis and evaluation.
SOSIE™- This tool measures personal and interpersonal values and personality traits. It can be used to create an even broader picture of a candidate when combined with ability tests within the recruitment process. This test will also offer an insight into the personality and motivations of the candidate, as well as their fit with a role or organisation and, ultimately, their performance.
Numerical Data Interpretation Test™ (NDIT)- This test is designed to assess an individual’s ability to interpret and manipulate data. This skill is crucial for numerous roles and offers an additional insight alongside academic grades, which do not necessarily predict how well a person will perform when interpreting data in the workplace.
RAVEN'S™ Adaptive/Advanced Progressive Matrices- These tests are widely used within recruitment for graduates, as well as for IT and engineering. They measure inductive (abstract) reasoning and identify advanced observation and clear-thinking skills.
Ability and Personality
When it comes to hiring, it is crucial to achieve a good balance between sufficient ability and the type of personality that is best suited to and compatible with an organisation.
Psychometric testing offers a deep insight into the personality, behaviours, motivations and aspirations of an individual, enabling the recruiter to see if these factors are as closely aligned with the environment, company and role as the candidate’s ability and CV. Psychometric tests enable recruiters to gain a fully rounded insight into a candidate, offering an effective evaluation and thorough understanding of skills, ability and personality.
Valuable Insights
Insights into aptitude, skills, personality, and motivation are essential to select the very best candidates and to develop and guide your workforce throughout their career at your organisation. Reliable and scientifically proven, our solutions support you in your daily work to get the clearest possible picture of a person’s current and future potential.
Recruit talented employees & eliminate the cost of hiring the wrong candidates.
According to research conducted by CareerBuilder in 2016, the average cost of hiring the wrong employee amounts to $17,000. However, based on a study from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2021, this figure can escalate to as high as $240,000, depending on the company and role.
On average, the total costs to lay-off an unsuccessful hire and recruit a new hire is 30% of the annual salary. Consequently, making the correct hiring decision becomes imperative. But how can HR and hiring managers ensure they select the right candidates? Below are strategies to avoid making poor recruitment choices and avoid the financial ramifications of an unsuccessful hire.
Preventing Unsuccessful Hires
Traditional recruitment processes often involve a straight forward formula where people apply on a vague or generic job description. Afterwards, several applicants are chosen for interviews, and one candidate is selected soon after. However, what may have initially appeared to be a suitable fit can swiftly turn into a hiring mistake. It can turn out that the new employee doesn’t possess critical skills that he or she claimed to possess. Or their personality, values and behaviour turned out not to match with that of their colleagues.
The primary challenge in a recruitment process is subjectivity. Quite often, HR and hiring managers ask questions like 'What are your main weak points?' and receive responses such as 'I work too much’ or ‘I’m a perfectionist’. This reveals nothing about the actual skills required for the job." If you realise that nearly 60% of unsuccessful hires fail due to an employee's inability to meet the expected level of performance, it becomes crucial to have a clear understanding of the required skills right from the start to avoid hiring disasters. To tackle this, you can consider the following:
1. Clearly define prerequisite and trainable skills
Prerequisite skills are essential for the role which candidates should demonstrate during the interview as they won't be trained after hiring. They can range from general qualifications like prior experience in a specific field to specific expertise in a particular software program. On the other hand, trainable skills are those that employees will learn on the job, requiring some level of proficiency but not necessarily prior experience.
2. Avoid open-ended interview questions that provide little insight
Ask questions that will make candidates showcase their prerequisite skills instead of open-ended questions that provide little insight. For example, a question like “What experience do you have with working with this CRM software?” will provide you more valuable insights than “What do you do when you have a conflict with a colleague?”. Once the skills have been demonstrated, you can delve into other questions if necessary. However, there is no point in asking them with candidates who cannot prove their ability to perform the required work.
3. Transform subjective 'soft skills' into objective criteria.
When it comes to qualities like "cultural fit" and being a "team player," the interpretation typically vary across companies. To make these soft skills more objective, you can break them down into specific components. So clearly define the qualities you seek in a team player or cultural fit and assess whether your candidates possess these concrete traits. Structure interview questions that allow you to evaluate these components in your candidates as well.
Numerical skills: the ability to carry out arithmetic computation and reason with numerical data.
Verbal skills: the ability to reason with concepts framed in written and spoken words.
Abstract skills: the ability to solve unfamiliar problems and learn new things quickly.
Critical thinking: the ability to separate facts from assumptions, to evaluate these and to draw the right conclusions.
Personality traits and values: measures whether personality traits (such as dominance, responsibility and recognition) and values (such as achievement, orderliness and goal orientation) of a candidate will likely match with the values and culture of the company. Personality tests that are very useful for recruiting.
Psychometric testing enables the HR and hiring manager to see if ability and personality are closely aligned with the environment, company, and role. Insights into aptitude, skills, personality, and motivation are essential to select the very best candidates and to develop and guide your workforce throughout their career at your organisation.
5. Review candidate’s digital credentials
Digital credentials – often in the shape of a digital badge – provide proof of someone’s learning achievement. These are issued by an educational organisation following a learning experience, such as the completion of a (digital) course or the successful passing of an exam. Such credentials are valuable as they can support or question the skills a candidate claims to possess.
6. Don’t rush!
Approach the hiring process gradually instead of hastily filling an open position. Although your team may be stretched thin with one or more employees short, remember that an unsuccessful hire won't solve the problem. Opting for a quick hire might provide temporary relief but will ultimately bring you back to square one. It's crucial to prioritize quality over speed, so take the necessary time to find the right candidate and sidestep the expenses associated with a poor hiring decision.
7. Withhold subjectivity until the end
Despite the various ways to make an objective hiring decision, you may have two candidates possessing pretty much the same skills, values, and personality traits. In such situations it can be inevitable to make a final decision that is based on subjective grounds like representation, DE&I or shared personal interests. It is important that such decisions are made only at the end of a recruitment process, so it is certain that the selected candidate possess the required skills and has the desired personality and values.
Unlock the Power of Psychometrics with Pearson TalentLens
Learn how Pearson TalentLens can help empower your talent acquisition and learning and development teams so you can start building a future-proof workforce today. Learn more about our talent assessment library or get in touch with us today to find out.
