Faced with today's recruitment challenges in the public sector - be they budgetary constraints, complex administrative processes or a perceived lack of attractiveness - HR professionals need to adopt innovative strategies. Discover below some practical solutions for modernising and optimising these practices, based on five key strategic areas. By discovering these methods, HR managers will not only be able to respond more effectively to the needs of their organisation, but also attract and retain the right talent for the public service.
At a time when human skills are playing an increasingly decisive role, the importance of soft skills in public sector recruitment is becoming clear. When recruitment processes are often longer and career prospects are limited, interpersonal skills such as communication, empathy and critical thinking are becoming essential assets in guaranteeing a high-quality public service. Discover the infographic below to find out how these soft skills can transform recruitment practices and help overcome today's challenges, particularly through the use of psychometric tests.
The manufacturing industry is going through a period of transformation marked by a growing skills shortage and an urgent need to attract and retain skilled talent. The sector faces a number of challenges, including high staff turnover, under-representation of women and an ageing workforce. By optimising recruitment and skills development processes, it is possible not only to improve employee retention, but also to encourage innovation.
Public sector entities aim to benefit all by ensuring the well-being and satisfaction of the population's needs. Unlike private enterprises, they do not seek profit but prioritize the efficiency and quality of their services. As highlighted by Fiona Ryland, Government Chief People Officer (UK) '[The Civil Service's] values of honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity are the bedrock of its success - as is its commitment to always aiming higher...We must therefore go further to realize a Civil Service that is more efficient and effective in delivering vital public services, and more skilled, resilient and responsive in the face of a rapidly changing world.' Soft skills have become essential in public sector hiring processes. Complementing hard skills (technical abilities), these behavioral, interpersonal, and relational skills—often referred to as soft skills—are now highly sought after by public sector employers. These skills enhance the agility and performance of public administrations and services.
Key Soft Skills in the Public Sector
Here are the crucial soft skills needed for working in the public sector:
Communication: The ability to express oneself clearly, both verbally and in writing, actively listen, and tailor messages to different audiences.
Teamwork: Effectively collaborating toward common goals, sharing information, offering support, and avoiding conflict.
Problem-Solving: Identifying problems, analyzing their causes, and proposing solutions while adhering to procedures (regulations, laws, hierarchical levels, and necessary documentation).
Adaptability: Adjusting work methods and processes in response to new managerial practices, directives, or regulations.
Stress Management: Staying calm under pressure, managing time and emotions, and maintaining mental health.
Creativity: Demonstrating originality and inventiveness, even within a structured and regulated work environment.
Initiative: Taking the lead, assuming responsibilities, and proposing projects.
Ethics and Integrity: Upholding the rules and values of public service, acting with impartiality and transparency within the hierarchical framework typical of the sector.
Common Issues Arising from a Lack of Soft Skills in the Public Sector
The absence of soft skills in the public sector can significantly impact the quality of services offered to citizens, the efficiency of administrations, and the well-being of employees.
Impact on Public Service Quality: Poor communication, a lack of understanding of user needs, and ineffective collaboration among staff can degrade the quality of services provided, leading to frustration, dissatisfaction, and complaints.
Impact on Administrative Efficiency and Performance: Conflicts between staff, inadequate problem-solving abilities, and a lack of critical thinking can lead to poor decision-making and reduced productivity. Insufficient adaptability, creativity, and collaboration can stifle innovation, limit the administration's ability to address new challenges, and hinder their response to evolving citizen expectations.
Impact on Employee Morale and Well-being: A negative work environment, marked by conflicts, poor communication, lack of recognition, feedback, and career development prospects, can cause stress, anxiety, and burnout among employees. This leads to higher absenteeism and turnover rates, weakening the expertise and continuity of public service.
Strategies for Assessing and Developing Public Sector Employees' Soft Skills
Incorporating soft skills into the recruitment, mobility, evaluation, and skill assessment processes of public sector employees is crucial.
Using Psychometric Tests for Objective and Standardized Soft Skill Assessment:
Personality Inventories: These assess the behavioral tendencies and interpersonal characteristics of employees.
Cognitive Ability Tests: These measure verbal, numerical, and spatial skills, problem-solving abilities, critical thinking, and learning potential.
Specific Training and Workshops: Focused on the soft skills in demand within the public sector.
Coaching: To identify strengths and areas for improvement, set goals for developing lacking soft skills, and create a personalized action plan.
Mentoring: To facilitate experience-sharing and learning between seasoned and novice employees.
By valuing, assessing, and continuously developing the soft skills of its employees, the public sector can enhance its overall performance, boost public satisfaction, and contribute to a more modern, effective public service that meets the needs of the populations it serves.
The insurance sector is facing major HR challenges, compounded by an ageing workforce and a perceived outdated image. With 400,000 professionals nearing retirement, attracting and retaining new talent is essential. Yet only 4% of Millennials are considering a career in the sector, exacerbating the skills shortage. To remain competitive, companies need to modernise their image, promote innovation and diversity, and offer attractive benefits, while using tools such as psychometric testing to optimise their recruitment process.
The banking and finance sector is facing significant HR challenges due to the rapid evolution of the industry and the increasing adoption of AI. By 2024, 87% of banking executives expect major change, but more than half don't feel prepared for it. Furthermore, 65% of financial services employees believe their business will not survive a decade on its current trajectory. An HR approach focused on skills such as critical thinking and an agile organisational structure are essential to attract, recruit and retain the talent needed to adapt and grow in this changing sector.
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."
