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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.
The talent shortage can be attributed to several factors:
The talent shortage has significant repercussions for manufacturing companies:
Manufacturers can use these strategies to attract and retain skilled workers:
Here are some effective methods to develop employees' skills in the manufacturing industry:
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 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?
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.
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.
Young people are attracted to competitive salaries and benefits, but the banking and financial sectors as well as Tech & IT appear more attractive.
Young people seek a work-life balance offered by remote and hybrid work arrangements, but insurance companies do not always guarantee this flexibility.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
To better recruit talents in this sector, support their skill development, and career progression, HR professionals can use psychometric tests: personality and values inventories, intellectual aptitude tests, critical thinking assessment tests, as well as motivation and professional interest questionnaires.
They allow them to:
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.
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.
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:
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®.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
Psychometric tests for recruitment can be used to objectively measure a range of crucial skills, such as:
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
